I posted this story to the PEJ.org site, and we hit a big link with googlenews.ca. As the edit function on this site is still wonked, check pej.org for active links. -ape
http://www.pej.org/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2030&mode=thread&order=1&thold=0
Italy Outraged: Charge Freed Journo Shooting Deliberate
The United States military has pursued shoot to kill policies on independent journalists at least since the opening days of the Iraq war. Dozens have been killed- all regrettable "accidents of war." As Bush Himself says: "It's a dangerous place." Now, they've been outed by a survivor. - {lex}
US Soldiers Try To Murder Another Journalist
Posted by Lew Rockwell at 01:57 PM
Despite the universal reprinting of Pentagon press releases by the US media--the Italian car carrying the hostage and her rescuers was speeding towards the checkpoint and refused to stop despite warning shots--the foreign press reports the truth. When the USG soldiers opened fire, the car was 700 yards from the airport and had passed all checkpoints. Giuliana Sgrena had helped expose Abu Graib and other US military crimes, including massacres in Fallujah, and she has much more to say. She is hated for not being embedded and FOXified, so they opened fire. One can never rule out a snafu--this is the government, after all--but the rest of the world sees it as an attempted hit. Thanks for the link to Kevin Thomson and the link and translation to Christopher Manion.
US attack against Italians in Baghdad was deliberate: companion
3/5/2005
Latest wire from AFP Latest world news at 01h02 3/6/2005
US under pressure to explain Italian convoy shooting in Iraq
Pressure has increased on the United States to explain its troops firing on a convoy carrying freed Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena, that wounded her and left one of her rescuers dead.
More from AFP wire
ROME - The companion of freed Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena on Saturday leveled serious accusations at US troops who fired at her convoy as it was nearing Baghdad airport, saying the shooting had been deliberate.
"The Americans and Italians knew about (her) car coming," Pier Scolari said on leaving Rome's Celio military hospital where Sgrena is to undergo surgery following her return home.
"They were 700 meters (yards) from the airport, which means that they had passed all checkpoints."
The shooting late Friday was witnessed by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's office which was on the phone with one of the secret service agents, said Scolari. "Then the US military silenced the cellphones," he charged.
"Giuliana had information, and the US military did not want her to survive," he added.
When Sgrena was kidnapped on February 4 she was writing an article on refugees from Fallujah seeking shelter at a Baghdad mosque after US forces bombed the former Sunni rebel stronghold.
Sgrena told RaiNews24 television Saturday a "hail of bullets" rained down on the car taking her to safety at Baghdad airport, along with three secret service agents, killing one of them.
"I was speaking to (agent) Nicola Calipari (...) when he leant on me, probably to protect me, and then collapsed and I realized he was dead," said Sgrena, who was being questioned on Saturday by two Italian magistrates.
"They continued shooting and the driver couldn't even explain that we were Italians. It was really horrible," she added.
Sgrena, who was hospitalized with serious wounds to her left shoulder and lung after arriving back in Rome Saturday before noon, said she was "exhausted because of what happened above all in the last 24 hours".
"After all the risks I have been running I can say that I'm fine," she said.
"I thought that after I was handed over to the Italians danger was over, but then this shooting broke out and we were hit by a hail of bullets."
The chief editor of Sgrena's left-wing newspaper Il Manifesto Gabriele Polo meanwhile branded Calipari's death a "murder".
"He was hit in the head," he said.
Calipari will be given a state funeral Monday.
03/05/2005 13:43 GMT
AFP and Turkish Press
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