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shawa
CNO
Joined: 03 Sep 2004
Posts: 2004
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 Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 4:31 pm Post subject: |
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Something else keeps niggling in my brain.
From her account in Il Manifesto, she is describing her journey with her
'captors' to be turned over to the Italian rescuers:
| Quote: | ......I changed my clothes. They came back: "We'll take you and don't give any signals of your presence with us otherwise the Americans could intervene." It was confirmation that I didn't want to hear; it was altogether the most happy and most dangerous moment. If we bumped into someone, meaning American military, there would have been an exchange of fire. My captors were ready and would have answered. My eyes had to be covered. I was already getting used to momentary blindness. What was happening outside? I only knew that it had rained in Baghdad. The car was proceeding securely in a mud zone. There was a driver plus the two captors. I immediately heard something I didn't want to hear. A helicopter was hovering at low altitude right in the area that we had stopped. "Be calm, they will come and look for you...in 10 minutes they will come looking for." They spoke in Arabic the whole time, a little bit of French, and a lot in bad English. Even this time they were speaking that way.
Then they got out of the car. I remained in the condition of immobility and blindness. My eyes were padded with cotton, and I had sunglasses on. I was sitting still. I thought what should I do. I start counting the seconds that go by between now and the next condition, that of liberty? I had just started mentally counting when a friendly voice came to my ears "Giuliana, Giuliana. I am Nicola, don't worry I spoke to Gabriele Polo (editor in chief of Il Manifesto). Stay calm. You are free." They made me take my cotton bandage off, and the dark glasses. I felt relieved, not for what was happening and I couldn't understand but for the words of this "Nicola." He kept on talking and talking, you couldn't contain him, an avalanche of friendly phrases and jokes. I finally felt an almost physical consolation, warmth that I had forgotten for some time.
The car kept on the road, going under an underpass full of puddles and...... |
Helicopter????
Whose helicopter???
The car is stopped, the 'captors' get out and then the rescuers are there
and take over the driving to the airport.
Did the rescuers come in the helicopter? Do the Italian forces in Iraq have
a helicopter? Were the 'captors' whisked away in the helicopter?
Or, possibly Sgrena is lying about the helicopter.
_________________
“I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.” (Thomas Paine, 1776) |
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Rdtf
CNO
Joined: 13 May 2004
Posts: 2209
Location: BUSHville
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| Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 5:36 pm Post subject: |
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| Seems they would have taken her to the airport in the helicopter... |
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shawa
CNO
Joined: 03 Sep 2004
Posts: 2004
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| Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 5:43 pm Post subject: Italy didn't plan safe escape for hostage |
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http://www.washtimes.com/national/20050308-121240-1847r.htm
A PICKUP TRUCK??? Sgrena didn't say she changed cars when her rescuers arrived.
| Quote: | Italy didn't plan safe escape for hostage
By Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Italian security forces failed to make arrangements for safe passage out of Iraq for a freed Italian reporter, whose car was fired on by U.S. troops, killing intelligence agent Nicola Calipari who brokered the reporter's release, according to an internal Pentagon memo.
The memo says checkpoint soldiers are trained to deal with erratic speeding vehicles whose drivers ignored warnings -- a profile that matches the Army's version of events in Friday night's shooting.
The memo says more than 500 American troops have been killed on the streets and at checkpoints in Iraq. Mistaken shootings of civilians resulted in "few deadly incidents" since the U.S. started checkpoints in March 2003, according to the memo.
Meanwhile, the White House dismissed as "absurd" the stated suspicion of the reporter, Giuliana Sgrena, who said the United States tried to kill her because it opposes negotiations with terrorists to free hostages. Miss Sgrena, a reporter for the Italian communist newspaper Il Manifesto, provided no evidence.
"It's absurd to make any such suggestion that our men and women in uniform would deliberately target innocent civilians," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan adding: "We regret this incident. We are going to fully investigate what exactly occurred."
Maj. Gen. William G. Webster Jr., who heads the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, yesterday completed the "commander's preliminary inquiry." He has decided to conduct a more extensive inquiry, called a 15-6 for the regulation that authorizes it. Gen. Webster will name one officer to head the probe.
A U.S. official said that of all the cars that passed through the checkpoint that night, the reporter's vehicle was the only one fired upon.
"Something that car did caused the soldiers to fire," said the official, who asked not to be named.
The shooting occurred at night at a checkpoint on a notoriously dangerous road that links Baghdad to the international airport.
The incident has put a spotlight on "friendly fire" episodes that occur with some regularity in Iraq when motorists fail to heed warnings to stop at roadside checkpoints and are fired on by American troops who fear that the vehicle might be a weapon. Cars and trucks are a common weapon in suicide bombings and drive-by shootings.
The soldiers did not know that Miss Sgrena and Italian agents were headed in their direction on the way to the airport for a flight back to Italy.
An internal Pentagon information memo states, "This is war. About 500 American service members have been killed by hostile fire while operating on Iraqi streets and highways. The journalist was driving in pitch-dark and at a high speed and failed, according to the first reports, to respond to numerous warnings. Besides, there is no indication that the Italian security forces made prior arrangements to facilitate the transition to the airport."
The left-leaning Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported yesterday that Mr. Calipari decided not to use available escort protection from the elite commandos who protect Italy's Baghdad embassy.
Instead, he rented an inconspicuous pickup truck to recover Miss Sgrena, wrote La Repubblica's top investigative reporter, Giuseppe D'Avanzo.
"In Iraq, the United States makes the rules and the Italian ally also must respect them. If it wants to break them, it must do so with a double game and some crafty tricks," Mr. D'Avanzo wrote.
Italian magistrates have opened an inquiry into the killing and are arranging for the truck to be flown to Italy for examination by ballistic experts, judicial sources said. The magistrates also have obtained from the U.S. military the cellular phone that Mr. Calipari was carrying when he was shot.
Analysis of calls logged on the cellular phone might allow investigators to determine the speed at which the vehicle was traveling when U.S. troops opened fire on it, the sources say.
Mel Sembler, U.S. ambassador to Italy, reiterated Washington's position in a 45-minute meeting with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi last night, diplomatic sources said.
Robert Maginnis, a retired Army officer and military analyst, said Rome should have done a better job coordinating Miss Sgrena's exit once the Italians negotiated her release.
"It seems to me that the Italian secret service considers this a James Bond movie in Baghdad," Mr. Maginnis said. "They're driving around at night picking up a journalist who has been kidnapped and pretending they can get through a phalanx of checkpoints along the deadliest road in all of Iraq without being detected, much less shot up."
The Army's 3rd Infantry Division, which last week resumed command of Baghdad operations after participating in the 2003 invasion, said the soldiers had warned the approaching car repeatedly before opening fire.
According to the division, the patrol attempted to warn the driver to stop by hand and arm signals, flashing white lights, and firing warning shots in front of the car."
•John Phillips contributed to this report in Rome. |
_________________
“I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.” (Thomas Paine, 1776) |
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kate
Admin
Joined: 14 May 2004
Posts: 1891
Location: Upstate, New York
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| Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 12:06 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | Instead, he rented an inconspicuous pickup truck to recover Miss Sgrena, wrote La Repubblica's top investigative reporter |
?? what about the pics of the car that Rdtf posted on the previous page? Sgrena, le foto dell'auto, from the same newspaper that mentions the truck
gessh their story changes every day!
yet they still demand apologies from the US.
Berlusconi et all have the blood of our soldiers and Iraqis on their hands, with their blood money to terrorists now & in the past.
All this bloviating is to take the focus off themselves.
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shawa
CNO
Joined: 03 Sep 2004
Posts: 2004
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| Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 3:00 pm Post subject: |
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http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=618446
| Quote: | Berlusconi signals shift in 'hostages' policy
By Peter Popham in Rome
10 March 2005
Any Italians rash enough to go walkabout in Iraq are now on their own, prime minister Silvio Berlusconi told the Senate yesterday, in his first official pronouncement on the killing of Nicola Calipari last Friday.
"The Italian government is in a position to guarantee the security only of those...who operate in close co-operation and under the protection of our military contingent," he said. "It is not possible to do so for those who venture, even for the most noble and sincere reasons, in other regions of Iraq where the presence of terrorists is still high and where the risk of attacks and abductions is greater."
It was a guarded statement, but it signalled a clear change of policy. Since the abduction of four Italian security guards last year, one of whom was murdered but three of whom were later released unharmed, Italy has pursued the bold and lonely strategy of negotiating with hostages and paying them huge ransoms.
A policy conducted personally by Berlusconi and his close adviser Gianni Letta working directly with military intelligence, it has paid dividends in terms of personal popularity for the prime minister.
Its finest moment came last September when two voluntary workers in Baghdad, Simona Torretta and Simona Pari, were brought home after three weeks in captivity, to a tumultuous welcome. But the killing by American fire of chief negotiator Nicola Calipari has brought home to the Italians the hazards and political costs of the policy.
Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini admitted to Parliament on Tuesday that the Italians had not informed the Americans at Camp Victory in Baghdad Airport that they were bringing the freed hostage Giuliana Sgrena out of captivity.
Italy avoided sharing sensitive information about its hostage negotiations with the Americans lest the latter decided to intervene. Likewise the need for discretion meant that Calipari and his secret service colleague were obliged to move around Baghdad in an unprotected car with Iraqi number plates, and without an armed escort.
As confirmed by Berlusconi yesterday, the inquiry into Mr Calipari's killing by the US will be completed within four weeks. And in what the prime minister called an "unprecedented" concession, the US has invited high-level participation from the Italian armed forces and diplomatic service.
Mr Berlusconi told the Senate, "Italy has never submitted to political blackmail by the hostage-takers" - in other words it had refused the frequent demand that Italy withdraw its troops. Italy's success in freeing hostages, he said, was because "the government activated all channels, political, diplomatic and intelligence."
He was unable to admit that Italy has been paying huge ransoms - up to $8 million, it is claimed, for the freedom last week of Giuliana Sgrena - because as his justice minister pointed out on Tuesday, paying ransom is a criminal offence in Italy.
He insisted that America must identify who was to blame for the killing of Mr Calipari. "Only a frank and reciprocal recognition of eventual responsibility is the condition for closure of the incident...that caused so much sorrow," he said. |
_________________
“I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.” (Thomas Paine, 1776) |
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Beatrice1000
Resource Specialist
Joined: 10 Aug 2004
Posts: 1179
Location: Minneapolis, MN
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| Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2005 11:49 pm Post subject: |
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Captain’s Quarters -- March 11, 2005
“Italian Story Continues to Fall Apart”
| Quote: | The AP reports that the Italian story of Giuliana Sgrena's release and later wounding at an American checkpoint, which also resulted in the death of intelligence agent Nicola Calipari, continues to fall apart. Two Italian newspapers now say that the general in charge of the Sgrena operation did not inform the US that Calipari's mission was to free Sgrena, and one of them reports that General Mario Maroli didn't even know it himself:
………
Sgrena also changed her story, subtly but significantly today:
In a statement released after the shooting, the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division, which controls Baghdad, said the vehicle was speeding and refused to stop. The statement also said a U.S. patrol tried to warn a driver with hand and arm signals, by flashing white lights and firing shots in front of the car into the engine block.
In interviews published Friday, Sgrena said that no light was flashed at the vehicle and that the shots were not fired in front of the car. "It's not true that they shot into the engine," she told Corriere della Sera, adding that the shooting came "from the right and from behind."
That qualification changes the entire tenor of the story. Either one would have to believe that the checkpoint soldiers stopped the car and then shot it out -- from behind! -- or that the car never stopped at the checkpoint and traveled so fast that the soldiers could only catch up to it as it passed through. Think about the options for a moment. CONTINUED |
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Sailor in the Desert
Ensign
Joined: 11 Mar 2005
Posts: 57
Location: Fabulous Las Vegas
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| Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2005 7:00 am Post subject: |
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Since Italy seems determined to pay off terrorists, perhaps they should hang a sign around the neck of every Italian in Iraq that says: Will pay for release.
What much of the MSM is missing here is the fact that Italy has given these terrorists a windfall. Remember, according to some investigators, it only cost osama 500k to commit the 9/11 murders.
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People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.
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Navy_Navy_Navy
Admin
Joined: 07 May 2004
Posts: 5777
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| Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2005 7:25 am Post subject: |
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This "reporter" is one disgusting piece of slime.
She is an affront to all Italians, especially the memory of one Fabrizio Quattrocchi who, when confronted with imminent death at the hands of murderers, shouted to have his mask removed so that his executioners would have to look him in the eye and shouted, "Ora, vedrete come muore un'italiano!" (Now, you will see how an Italian dies!)
This piece of trash, Sgrena, is a coward and a liar and a disgrace to her country and countrymen. Let's hope that she will now disappear into the ignominy and anonymity which she has so clearly earned.
And what an ill wind blows from Rome - Berlusconi has now put Italians in Iraq into far greater danger than even they were in, before.
I'm already grieving for my adopted countrymen who will suffer needlessly because of this foolish policy.
Whatever happened to, "Not one cent for tribute!?"
_________________
~ Echo Juliet ~
Altering course to starboard - On Fire, Keep Clear
Navy woman, Navy wife, Navy mother |
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Sailor in the Desert
Ensign
Joined: 11 Mar 2005
Posts: 57
Location: Fabulous Las Vegas
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| Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2005 8:31 am Post subject: |
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| Navy_Navy_Navy wrote: | This "reporter" is one disgusting piece of slime.
She is an affront to all Italians, especially the memory of one Fabrizio Quattrocchi who, when confronted with imminent death at the hands of murderers, shouted to have his mask removed so that his executioners would have to look him in the eye and shouted, "Ora, vedrete come muore un'italiano!" (Now, you will see how an Italian dies!)
This piece of trash, Sgrena, is a coward and a liar and a disgrace to her country and countrymen. Let's hope that she will now disappear into the ignominy and anonymity which she has so clearly earned.
And what an ill wind blows from Rome - Berlusconi has now put Italians in Iraq into far greater danger than even they were in, before.
I'm already grieving for my adopted countrymen who will suffer needlessly because of this foolish policy.
Whatever happened to, "Not one cent for tribute!?" |
"not a penny for tribute" is an Americanism, which, I fear, has been lost in the land of my ancestors.
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People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.
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kate
Admin
Joined: 14 May 2004
Posts: 1891
Location: Upstate, New York
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| Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2005 7:08 pm Post subject: |
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http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=38522
emphasis mine
US deliberately kept in dark about fatal Italian hostage-freeing: general
Published: 3/12/2005
| Quote: | ROME - US authorities in Iraq were kept in the dark about an Italian operation to free a kidnapped journalist which ended in debacle with an intelligence officer killed by GIs, an Italian general was quoted Saturday as saying.
Italian agent Nicola Calipari died in gunfire near a US checkpoint and journalist Giuliana Sgrena was wounded as their car drove to Baghdad airport on March 4, just after her release.
Mario Marioli, a deputy commander of the US-led coalition troops in Iraq, was quoted by the Italian newspaper La Repubblica as saying: "I asked Calipari if I should inform our American allies of the hostage-freeing operation, but his reply was that under no circumstances was the ally to be informed."
US authorities say the vehicle had failed to respond to signals to stop.
The incident has fanned anti-US sentiment in Italy where a large majority of the public was opposed to the US-led invasion of Iraq two years ago.
La Repubblica quoted statements by Marioli to Italian investigating magistrates probing the incident. He said he had twice been warned by Calipari not to disclose the operation to the Americans.
On the second occasion, with the hostage already free but the operation not yet complete, the general had asked whether he should warn the Americans that the Italians were driving to the airport with Sgrena.
"I was told no, although I warned that this might mean a quarter of an hour's wait at the checkpoint at the airport entrance," Marioli was quoted as saying.
The Italian government accepts the killing was an accident, but Italian and US versions differ.
Washington maintains Sgrena's car was speeding and failed to slow down or stop after soldiers flashed lights and fired warning shots.
Italian ministers say it was not speeding and there were no warning indications. Sgrena has suggested the US troops may have deliberately opened fire.
There had previously been suggestions that US forces may have been only partially informed about Calipari's mission, indicating troops on the ground may not have known who was in the car on a stretch of road notorious for insurgent attacks.
On Friday La Repubbica quoted statements by Marioli to magistrates that he had provided documents for the agent and an aide, but did not know details of their operation.
"The US chain of command had only bits of information...." the daily quoted the report as saying.
Meanwhile Italian Justice Minister Roberto Castelli on Friday accused Sgrena of causing problems.
"She expresses herself imprudently and she has acted imprudently," he said on Italy's Sky TG24 television news channel.
"She has caused enormous problems to the government and also mourning that could have been avoided," said the minister, a member of the right-wing Northern League, a junior coalition partner in Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government.
He was responding to Sgrena's remarks that she had no confidence in the joint Italian-Americam enquiry.
Speaking on television she said: "I feel accused over having been kidnapped and for having been released....I feel like a victim of cannibalism."
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Sooo ... the Italians' own General, in Iraq, admits the US was in the dark
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Rdtf
CNO
Joined: 13 May 2004
Posts: 2209
Location: BUSHville
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SBD
Admiral
Joined: 19 Aug 2004
Posts: 1022
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| Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2005 9:58 pm Post subject: |
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ITALIAN MORAL STUPIDITY IN IRAQ
Guest Author
Jack Kelly
Friday, March 11, 2005
Printed from To The Point - http://www.tothepointnews.com
Giuliana Sgrena does not lack a sense of self importance. The 56-year-old journalist for the Italian communist newspaper Il Manifesto thinks she knows so many deep dark secrets the U.S. military tried to shut her up permanently.
Sgrena went to Iraq to report on the heroic resistance to the American imperialists. Dutch journalist Harald Doornbos rode in the airplane to Baghdad with her. "Be careful not to get kidnapped," Doornbos warned Sgrena.
"You don't understand the situation," she responded, according to Doornbos' account in the Nederlands Dagblatt. "The Iraqis only kidnap American sympathizers. The enemies of the Americans have nothing to fear."
Sgrena left her hotel the morning of Feb. 4th to interview refugees from Fallujah, the resistance stronghold captured by U.S. Marines in November. The interviews didn't go well. "The refugees...would not listen to me," she said. "I had in front of me the accurate confirmation of the analysis of what the Iraqi society had become as a result of the war and they would throw their truth in my face."
Sgrena's feelings were hurt that the refugees could be so curt to: "I who had risked everything, challenging the Italian government who didn't want journalists to reach Iraq and the Americans who don't want our work to be witnessed of what really became of that country with the war and notwithstanding that which they call elections." (Maybe it reads better in Italian, or maybe she just can't write worth a damn.)
She got nabbed on her way back to her hotel. Sgrena told her captors she was on their side, and suggested they kidnap an American soldier instead. But the U.S. government doesn't pay ransoms.
The Italian government did pay a ransom estimated by various sources at between $1 million and $10 million, and Sgrena was released into the custody of Italian intelligence officers. On the night of March 4, their vehicle approached a checkpoint near Baghdad International Airport. The car did not stop. U.S. troops opened fire. Nicola Calipari was killed, Sgrena was slightly wounded.
Sgrena said the soldiers deliberately tried to kill her, but didn't hazard a guess as to how the soldiers knew she was in that vehicle. According to the U.S. embassy and the Third Infantry Division, the Italians did not inform the Americans she'd been released. And Calipari had rented a nondescript sedan to pick up Sgrena, rather than utilize one of the Italian embassy's armored SUVs, which the soldiers might have recognized.
Sgrena and the driver said they approached the checkpoint slowly. But "slowly" seems to be a relative term for Italian drivers, and for communists. An Army officer told ABC news the car may have been going 100 mph when it was fired upon.
Sgrena claims the Americans shot without warning. "A tank started to shoot at us without any sign or any light," she told reporters March 7th. The soldiers say they used lights, and hand signals, and fired warning shots before shooting into the engine block to stop the vehicle. The car's driver said the soldiers did shine a spotlight, but opened up almost immediately afterwards.
Sgrena said "the tank" fired 300-400 shots at her car. But photographs of it published March 8th by the Italian newspaper La Repubblica indicate the vehicle suffered remarkably little damage for such a fusillade. There is a single bullet hole in the windshield, but the window glass and the fenders are otherwise intact, as is the hood.
Perhaps the soldiers were remarkably lousy shots. But if they were trying
to kill Sgrena, why did they take her to the hospital instead of finishing her off?
There are questions that need answers. The Italians say they notified the Americans of Sgrena's release, but the Americans deny it. Was the car going "slowly," as the Italians claim, or was it trying to run through the checkpoint, as the Americans say?
But there is no doubt about the credibility of Giuliana Sgrena. She entitled her story "My Truth," perhaps to distinguish it from the bourgeois concept of truth that depends on adherence to fact. Many on the Left in America embraced Sgrena's "truth," while refusing to give their countrymen the benefit of the doubt.
But hey, liberals support our troops. They say so all the time.
Jack Kelly is a former Marine and Green Beret and a former deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration. He is national security writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
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kate
Admin
Joined: 14 May 2004
Posts: 1891
Location: Upstate, New York
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| Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2005 1:50 am Post subject: |
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what others are saying - this from the Germans
Italy's credilbilty has taken a nose-dive, not just in the US
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,345897,00.html
Der Spiegel, Spiegel Online ^
GERMAN PAPERS
March 11, 2005
~~snip
| Quote: | The freeing of Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena from her Iraqi kidnappers one week ago continues to provide German commentators with ammunition on Friday. Yet instead of remaining squarely focused on the death of Italian secret service agent Nicola Calipari in a hail of US bullets on the road to the Baghdad airport, it is the dissembling of the Italian government on the question of whether it paid ransom money for Sgrena's freedom that is now coming under the microscope. Despite somewhat half-hearted attempts by members of the Italian government to deny that the journalist was bought free, most consider it fact that Italy handed over between €6 and €8 million to her abductors.
The daily Die Tageszeitung focuses on the Italian government's difficult-to-believe denials of paying ransom money for the series of Italian hostages that the country's involvement in Iraq has produced -- including the case of the "two Simonas" in Sept. 2004. The paper interprets recent statements condemning the paying of ransom to terrorists made by the government as a bone thrown to the United States as part of the deal made by the two nations: "The US commits to investigating the circumstances that led to Calipari's death, and Italy rethinks its permissive dealings with hostage takers." But, the paper points out, "this line will be difficult to follow. In Italy -- in contrast to the United States -- people have an emotional stake in each individual kidnapping case."
The center-left Sueddeutsche Zeitung likewise sees the question of ransom payments as crucial, and argues that there are two major taboos being breached by the Sgrena case. And they are competing for attention. The first is US-Italy relations, which Calipari's death placed under immense pressure. The second is Italy's habit of paying ransom to terrorists, which the US looks down on and which the Italians have bumblingly denied. The paper argues that the US and Italy are competing over which issue gets the most attention. "(Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco) Fini and (Italian Prime Minister Silvio) Berlusconi have to demonstrate accountability. Otherwise, they will not have the moral authority to demand a rigorous investigation into the incident." The Americans have recognized this weak spot. "Which means the investigation could become buried under the ransom question." |
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Beatrice1000
Resource Specialist
Joined: 10 Aug 2004
Posts: 1179
Location: Minneapolis, MN
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| Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2005 4:29 am Post subject: |
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ITALY PROMISES: NO MORE RANSOM
BY MICHELLE MALKIN - MARCH 12, 2005 09:21 PM
March 13, 2005
Italy to stop paying ransoms
John Follain, Rome
THE Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, has promised President George W Bush that he will not pay more ransoms to free hostages in Iraq.
The Italian government has denied newspaper reports that $6m (£3.1m) was paid for the release of Giuliana Sgrena, who worked for the Communist daily Il Manifesto. But senior officials and intelligence sources have confirmed that money did change hands.
The affair ended when American soldiers opened fire on the car carrying Sgrena and killed the intelligence officer who had freed her.
Last year Italy paid a reported $5m (£2.6m) for the freedom of two aid workers, Simona Pari and Simona Torretta. Hours after Sgrena was seized, Berlusconi announced that “negotiations” had begun.
The reports of ransom payments have infuriated American officials, who say they fund violence and encourage more kidnappings. Mel Sembler, the American ambassador in Rome, told Berlusconi last week that the money bankrolled “the war being waged by Sunnis in Iraq”.
In response, Berlusconi has agreed to a change in policy. When a speaker during a debate in parliament urged an end to ransom payments, he nodded and said: “Certainly, certainly.”
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PhantomSgt
Vice Admiral
Joined: 10 Sep 2004
Posts: 972
Location: GUAM, USA
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| Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2005 6:28 am Post subject: |
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Now will President Bush give the Cold Shoulder to Italy like he did the Philippines after they paid ransom? It cost the PI one third of their foriegn aid from the US government. What price will Italy pay for their support of internation terrorists?
With friends like this who needs enemies?
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Retired AF E-8
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