Italy Summons US envoy in wake of shooting journalist and killing secret

security agent.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/B0C6B4E5-26EA-4EBE-AA58-CF570B736837.htm

Has any media reported this yet?

U.S. Forces Wound Freed Hostage in Iraq
U.S. Forces Fire on Car Carrying Freed Italian Hostage in Iraq, Wounding Her and Killing Officer
By PATRICK QUINN
The Associated Press
Mar. 5, 2005 - American troops fired on a car rushing Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena to freedom on Friday after a month in captivity, killing the Italian intelligence officer who helped negotiate her release and wounding the reporter in another friendly-fire tragedy at a U.S. checkpoint.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, an ally of the United States who has kept Italian troops in Iraq despite public opposition at home, demanded an explanation "for such a serious incident, for which someone must take the responsibility."

President Bush expressed regret and promised to investigate, the White House said.

The U.S. military said the car was speeding as it approached a coalition checkpoint in western Baghdad at 8:55 p.m. It said soldiers shot into the engine block only after trying to warn the driver to stop by "hand and arm signals, flashing white lights, and firing warning shots."

The Americans said two people were wounded, but Berlusconi said there were three Sgrena and two intelligence officers. One of the officers was in serious condition with an apparent lung injury, according to the Apcom news agency in Italy. The U.S. military said Army medics treated a wounded man but that "he refused medical evacuation for further assistance."

The intelligence agent was killed when he threw himself over Sgrena to protect her from U.S. fire, Apcom quoted Gabriele Polo, the editor of the leftist Italian newspaper Il Manifesto, as saying. Sgrena works for Il Manifesto.

Berlusconi identified the dead intelligence officer as Nicola Calipari and said he had been at the forefront of negotiations with the kidnappers. The prime minister said Calipari had been involved in the release of other Italian hostages in Iraq in the past.

U.S. troops took Sgrena to an American military hospital, where shrapnel was removed from her left shoulder. Apcom said Sgrena was fit to travel and would return to Rome on Saturday.

Sgrena, 56, was abducted Feb. 4 by gunmen who blocked her car outside Baghdad University. Last month, she was shown in a video pleading for her life and demanding that all foreign troops including Italian forces leave Iraq.

more...


http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=553050

Can the US under Schimpanski do ANYTHING right?

Or is this Reagan's "trickle-down theory of incompetence" being played out again?

Just soldiers following orders...but they were supposed to kill the journalist not the Intelligence officer.

:SIGH:

start a cider factory.

But when I was there, I didn't observe the kind of behavior that would lead to this kind of mistake -- all the soldiers I met were sharp and proud (although, of course, many of them thought it was a Really Bad Idea to have invaded in the first place). And they handled the checkpoints with grace and patience.

But when I was there (May-Dec 2003) the insurgency was a tenth of what it is now and Bush's hamburger bill was sitting at about 450.

It's gotten lots nastier since then.

However -- and this is for me a critical point -- Schimpanski's administration and all its minions (including the generals) have told so many lies that they can't tell what's true anymore. Not only can they not handle the truth, they can't even REMEMBER it.

Do I think that trained security personnel would charge a US checkpoint with probably a Bradley parked there, in addition to the weapons the soldiers were carrying? No f*ckin' way.

Do I believe that our soldiers are so jittery that they'd just blow someone away because it looked like the car that blew up their buddy last week? Yeah, I do.

Do I believe that the chain of command would lie its ass off to avoid acknowledging that our soldiers are overstretched to the point of being a constant danger to the Iraqis and each other? Hell yes.

But do I believe that there was advantage in trying to off this journalist? Naahh. Can't buy that one.