Blood money
Mary Madigan
Italy held a state funeral for Nicola Calipari, who was allegedly shot by U.S. forces while riding past a checkpoint with recently freed journalist Giuliana Sgrena.
It sounds like our soldiers may have screwed up at the checkpoint. Hopefully, a full investigation will tell us what happened.
Of course, there is a difference between an accident and a deliberate act. From The Australian:
Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported yesterday that the Italian Government had paid a ransom of between E6-8million ($10-13.4million) to buy Sgrena's freedom.According to the Guardian:
The Italian government has virtually admitted a ransom was paid, with the agriculture minister in Silvio Berlusconi's rightwing government, Giovanni Alemanno, saying it was "very likely".If true, then the Italian government is deliberately financing terrorism.He added it was "generally preferable to pay a financial price than the price of a human life or a political price consisting of [submitting to] blackmail by pulling out troops".
These terrorist/'insurgent' organizations have been responsible for the murders of hundreds of innocent Iraqis. They slaughtered 11 Iraqis today, all civilians, mostly students.
If ransom was paid, then Giuliana and the Italian government are responsible for more of this.
I wonder why Giuliana is trying to distract the world’s attention with unsubstantiated allegations?
Related Posts (on one page):
Mary, if it is true that the soldiers waved their arm, shouted and flashed lights and the car didn't stop, then "our soldiers did not screw up." Period.
It is sad that it happened, but they had no other choice. A car speeding towards a checkpoint and not responding to hails is going to (and should) be shot at and stopped by what ever means it takes.
This whole story - a Communist reporter being abducted, her pleas for Italian troop withdrawal that agree with her own politics, the convenient death of an Italian secret service agent, the operatic manner in which this whole charade played out...
It stinks on ice. We are not getting the whole truth.
I don't believe Sgrena was kidnapped, and I am coming to believe that Calipari was murdered before the race to the checkpoint after he learned the truth.
- The caliber/type of bullet that killed Calipari
- Calipari's time of death
- whether this really was a kidnapping.
In the meantime, there seems to be proof that the Italian government gave millions of dollars to an "insurgent" group. I assume financial support of terrorism is against the law in Iraq. If the Italian government doesn't want to discuss the matter with us, we should let them (and Giuliana) talk to the Iraqi government and to the families that have been victimized by terrorism.
And just to stir in some fun, Sgrena's own words (emphasis added)
Now, I know Italians are supposed to be bad drivers, but how can you "almost [lose] control" unless you are driving too fast?
Not to mention this woman has already been quoted that she believes she was "target" (that word again!) by the US military; and yes I know she toned the accusation down later. Still, she said it. Thanks, Mr. Jordan!
And -while I'm thinking about it- what about her quote that the car faced a hail of "300 to 400 bullets." Now, speaking to those who know nothing about the US military, they don't cut loose with fully automatic fire at the drop of a hat. In fact, the opposite is true: they're trained to use carefully-aimed, single-shot fire; and they're damned good at it. They didn't (and wouldn't) need such a fulisade to stop the car. Or to assassinate Ms. Sgrena, if that's what they really wanted.
I have to call "bullshit" on this one. It's just another attempt to spread the "gun-happy" US soldier myth around.
A closing aside: several blogs (LGF and Captians Quarters, for example) have put up a photo of a damaged (but very NON-bullet-ridden) car which was allegedly the vehicle in question. It turns out this was a stock photo, and the blogs in question made a point of updating, and correcting their blog posts.
As usual, the bloggers work harder at accuracy than the "professionals." But I have to ask: where are the photos of the real car? Hmmm....
In a not suprising, but still annoying, feat of logic the BBC is reporting the Italian Communist's version of events as unquestioned truth, without any shread of proof. All the while slyly (at least for the BBC) showing it's anti-US bias.
CNN has more on Calipari, and some back-story in general. Don't miss the quote of the day, that totally blows what little credibility this idiot had away:
How any human on the planet, especially one that makes a habit of using US soldier's supposed agression as a basis for their bias, can report they were 'intentionally targeted' but lived is beyond me. But, I guess in the realms of lala land one doesn't have to make sense. Grasping at straws seems to be this woman's strong suit, pity they don't all break and bury her.
Sorry, nothing personal.
Or should they continue to make the same mistake? At present,the US government has a policy of not sponsoring and paying for terrorism.
The Iraqi government, and the Iraqi people also prohibit the support of terrorism (see Dean's post above)
The Italian government has just paid for an awful lot of terrorism. The attention paid to the Sgrena incident is an obvious attempt to distract us from that fact. There should be a thorough investigation into both the Sgrena incident AND the Italian financial support of terror.
The Italians better rethink this and make a very loud announcement when they change their policy. Otherwise, those terrorists will catch on that Italians pay big money.