Sgrena was not alone when she was "kidnapped"...wonder what her terrorist buddies did with her Iraqi interpreter?
Bruce U.S. Opens New Shooting Inquiry, as Italian Findings Are Presented The New York Times March 8, 2005 By EDWARD WONG BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 8 - The American military said today that it was opening a high-level investigation into an episode last Friday in which American soldiers fired on a car carrying an Italian hostage who had just been freed. The hostage was wounded, and an Italian intelligence agent who had negotiated her release was killed. The American announcement came as the Italian foreign minister, Gianfranco Fini, went before Parliament in Rome to say that be believed the event had been "an accident caused by a series of circumstances and coincidences." But he also demanded that the United States conduct a full investigation, especially considering that portions of the American version of the episode differed from Italian accounts. "It was certainly an accident," Mr. Fini said. "This does not prevent, in fact it makes it a duty for, the government to demand that light be shed on the murky issues, that responsibilities be pinpointed and, where found, the culprits be punished." "The reconstruction we have made from the direct testimony of another agent doesn't coincide completely with what the U.S. authorities have said," Mr. Fini said. "We demand that there be truth and justice." The freed hostage, Giuliana Sgrena, 56, a journalist for the leftist Italian newspaper Manifesto, has said the soldiers may have deliberately opened fire on her car because Washington opposes efforts to negotiate with kidnappers in Iraq - a scenario the White House dismissed on Monday as "absurd." Mr. Fini also said today that there was no evidence to support such suspicion. The American military said that it had assembled a team led by Brig. Gen. Peter Vangjel to follow up the investigation already conducted at the division level. The new investigation will take three to four weeks, the military said. "The command is working closely with the U.S. Embassy, and Italian officials have been invited to participate," it said in a written statement. The American military also said that officials of the First Corps Support Command were investigating last Friday's shooting of a Bulgarian soldier, Jr. Sgt. Gardi Gardev. The Bulgarian defense minister, Nikolai Svinarov, said on Monday that the soldier appeared to have been killed in southern Iraq by gunfire that came from the direction of American troops. The two shootings under investigation have raised questions about the rules of engagement under which American soldiers operate in Iraq, especially at checkpoints and in convoys in areas frequented by civilians. Many innocent Iraqis have been wounded or killed by soldiers opening fire on cars they felt were approaching too close or too fast. The proliferation of suicide car bombs has set soldiers on edge, and commanders say soldiers are generally instructed to warn approaching vehicles with hand signals or shots into the air before opening fire on the vehicle itself. Violence continued to ripple through Iraq today, as insurgents carried out two assassinations in the heart of the capital. At 7:30 a.m., gunmen killed Maj. Gen. Muhammad Issa Ahmed Al-Khafaji, who was in charge of naturalization, as he was heading to work from his home in western Baghdad, Interior Ministry officials said. The assassins pulled up in a car and opened fire on the General Khafaji's vehicle, hitting him in the head and chest and killing him immediately, the officials said. Two hours later, gunmen killed Dr. Adel Abdul Kareem Ahmad, the director general of Al Furat Hospital. Dr. Ahmad was also driving to work, from his home in southern Baghdad, when the assassins pulled up to his sedan and opened fire before speeding off, Interior Ministry officials said. Ambushes and bombings, especially those aimed at Iraqi security forces, have begun to erode the confidence and optimism that infused many Iraqis after the Jan. 30 elections. With such a volatile security situation, many are asking why the new Constitutional Assembly has not yet managed to install a government. The assembly is to meet on Sunday, though it is unclear how long it will take for the parties to agree on a coalition government to replace the interim government essentially put in place by the Americans. The most heated negotiations are taking place between an alliance of Shiite parties and the two major Kurdish parties. Azad Jundiani, a spokesman for Jalal Talabani, the Kurdish nominee for president, said in an interview that the Kurds and Shiites had agreed in principle on all the major issues. That includes having Mr. Talabani as president and the Shiite nominee, Ibrahim al-Jafari, as prime minister, and accepting Kurdish demands related to the Kurdish militia, federal powers and administration of the northern oil city of Kirkuk. But details have yet to be worked out, and it is in the details that the Kurds and Shiites are butting heads. The Kurds are also insistent that Islam be cited in the new constitution as only one source of legislation, not the sole source, as religious Shiite politicians would like, Mr. Jundiani said. The shooting involving Ms. Sgrena took place at 8:55 p.m. last Friday, as a car carrying her and a small group of Italian intelligence agents headed toward the main Baghdad airport and Camp Victory, the headquarters of the American command here. Ms. Sgrena had been delivered by her captors to the Italian agents just 35 minutes earlier. The lead negotiator, Nicola Calipari, threw himself across Ms. Sgrena to protect her as the American troops opened fire, and was mortally wounded, Italian officials said. Hours after the shooting, the Third Infantry Division, which is charged with securing Baghdad, issued a statement saying that soldiers at a checkpoint had first tried "to warn the driver to stop by hand-and-arm signals, flashing white lights, and firing warning shots in front of the car." Today, Mr. Fini, citing an Italian agent who was driving the car, said that the American military command had authorized the Calipari-Sgrena party to travel to the airport, and that until it was fired on, Mr. Calipari's car had not encountered any American-run checkpoints on the road. The car, he said, was traveling about 25 miles per hour with its interior lights on to allow people to make phone calls. As the vehicle rounded a curve, Mr. Fini continued in his recounting of the Italian investigation, a bright light shined on it and more than one automatic weapon opened fire for about 15 seconds. The intelligence officer who survived the attack was forced to kneel in the road until the soldiers realized who he was, Mr. Fini said. "Two young Americans approached our officer and, demoralized, they repeatedly apologized for what had happened," Mr. Fini said. Discussing conflicting reports about how many people had been in the car, Mr. Fina said, "There was not a fourth person," explaining that in addition to Ms. Sgrena, "there were two agents of the Italian secret service, Doctor Calipari and another agent." "There wasn't a fourth agent unless it was someone at the airport," he said. Ms. Sgrena has said she does not believe there was an actual checkpoint because she saw no military vehicles in the road. But a senior Defense Department official said on Monday that two Humvees had been parked off to the side and that two barriers of an indeterminate size had been erected on the road. Mr. Calipari, the dead Italian agent, was given a state funeral on Monday. The Italian government has not made any mention of drawing down its 3,000 troops here in Iraq. The shooting has, however, underscored the unpopularity of the war among most Italians and highlighted the political perils for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in his support of President Bush's policy in Iraq. Jason Horowitz contributed reporting from Rome for this article, and Warzer Jaff contributed reporting from Baghdad. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/08/international/middleeast/08cnd-iraq.html?p agewanted=all ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> DonorsChoose. A simple way to provide underprivileged children resources often lacking in public schools. 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