Italian Journalist Giuliana Sgrena: Attempted Assassination?

ROME, Italy (CNN) -- Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena has challenged the U.S. account of a shooting incident that left her wounded and an Italian intelligence officer dead shortly after her release by Iraqi insurgents.

U.S.-led multi-national forces said the car carrying Sgrena was speeding and that soldiers fired warning shots in an attempt to stop it, before opening fire.

But in an article for Sunday's edition of her newspaper, Il Manifesto, Sgrena, being treated for a shoulder injury, in a Rome hospital, said the car was not speeding and "there was no bright light and no signal."

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/03/06/italy.iraq/index.html

Somebody should ask that question. Someone isn't telling the truth should we assume it is the victim?

Sorry.

"Somebody should ask that question. Someone isn't telling the truth should we assume it is the victim?"

What do you think? Why would anyone ever assume the victim is the one not telling the truth in a crime?

she was taken out. She was with Intel officers. Did they know something? Look, it could have just been an accident but the way it happened and the fact that the parties involved don't agree on the basic facts of what happened is damn strange.

why is she still alive? Who saved her? Why didn't they finish the job?

the 300 - 400 bullets fired into the back of the car were enough. She probably looked dead with that Italian fellow who was also dead on top of her.

...so I would imagine she was covered with the gore from that. Her wound could've sent her into shock, so they might've initially concluded she was dead.

until she got to the morgue? Who took her out of the car and provided medical attention? I'm sorry, it just doesn't add up.

I don't think the troops on the highway were in on any death plot. (At least, not most of them.)

Having said that, there may very well have been either a deliberate or accidental failure of communication that led to the incident.

By that time, it's possible other military personnel arrived, so the initial group couldn't finish the job (too many witnesses, you see).

And you probably thought the bombing of the Baghdad Al Jazeera office was an "unfortunate mistake" as well?:shrug:

http://foi.missouri.edu/federalfoia/cpjdisturbed.html

CPJ disturbed by lack of investigation into attack on Al-Jazeera's Baghdad bureau

Report
Commitee to Protect Journalists
October 10, 2003.

Six months after the U.S. shelled the Palestine Hotel in Iraq's capital, Baghdad, and an air strike hit the Baghdad bureau of the Qatar-based satellite broadcaster Al-Jazeera, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) filed three new Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests related to the incidents with the U.S. Defense Department.

In addition, CPJ reiterated its recommendations, including urging U.S. Central Command (Centcom) to ensure that U.S. forces take all necessary precautions to avoid harming members of the media.

The FOIA requests seek information regarding the two April 8 attacks, as well as the August 17 killing of Reuters cameraman Mazen Dana by a machine-gunner near the Abu Ghraib Prison, outside Baghdad, and the March 22 death of British ITV News reporter Terry Lloyd, whose two colleagues remain missing. The requests seek information including but not limited to military investigations that have been conducted into these incidents, the details of which U.S. officials have not made public.

CPJ was disturbed to discover this week that no investigation into the attack on Al-Jazeera's Baghdad bureau has been launched. CPJ calls on the U.S. Defense Department and Centcom to ensure that a thorough and public investigation is started immediately.

José Couso, a cameraman with Spanish television station Telecinco, and Reuters cameraman Taras Protsyuk were killed on April 8 when a U.S. tank fired on the Palestine Hotel, where the majority of the international press corps in Iraq was headquartered during the U.S.-led war. Al-Jazeera correspondent Tareq Ayyoub was killed earlier that morning when U.S. aircraft bombed the Baghdad bureau's generator.

In addition to Ayyoub, Couso, Dana, and Protsyuk, recent information indicates that U.S. and Iraqi forces may also be responsible for the death of ITV News's Lloyd.
</snip>

So that theory is more plausible, at least. Everything hinges on the timing, and we're (as usual) getting next to nothing out of the military. It's also frustrating to get her side of the story in dribs and drabs. We need a full investigation, and might never get it.

And I also am deeply "disturbed by lack of investigation into attack on Al-Jazeera's Baghdad bureau." Please don't assume anything other than healthy skepticism from my post. We need to question and cross-check *everything" that comes out of Iraq, from all sources.

War zones are chaotic places, and things happen quickly, and they aren't always planned. Dozens, and maybe hundreds, of people are still dying every day there. It is inevitable that some of them will be journalists. But given the obvious self-interest of our military, I have no doubt that there are individuals in the chain of command who are more than capable of murdering journalists, which is why we need to investigate every single incident to the fullest extent possible.

>>>Sgrena returned to Rome on Saturday morning, looking haggard and with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. She walked unsteadily and was hooked up to an intravenous drip following surgery to remove shrapnel from her shoulder.

She was taken to a Rome military hospital, where she later met with Calipari's wife, the Italian news agency Apcom said.

In her article, Sgrena wrote that her captors warned her as she was about to be released not to signal her presence to anyone, because "the Americans might intervene."

It was the happiest and also the most dangerous moment," Sgrena wrote. "If we had run into someone, meaning American troops, there would have been an exchange of fire, and my captors were ready and they would have responded.">>>



http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/ITALY_IRAQ_HOSTAGE?SITE=MAFIT&SECTION=HOME

habitually spins things their way, and an Italian reporter who doesn't seem to like us very much.

After the spin, and pure lies, of the Jessica Lynch "rescue," I'll tend to believe Giuliana before the "official report" of some lieutenant over there.

Still tough to believe they deliberately took her out, though. Sounds more like a major fuckup than a conspiracy.

Bottom line, though, is that no matter how pissed the Italians, and the rest of the world, get, most people over here just won't give a shit unless it gets pounded into them.