[According to Sgrena's partner, the Sgrena convoy was on a satellite phone with Berlusconi's office at the time of the US attack on her convoy, and the US jammed the telephone connection. The utter incompetence of this failed assassination attempt is the most surprising thing about it.-NY Transfer]
Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com US Tries to Avoid Charges by Italian Journalist Washington, Mar 7 (Prensa Latina) In an effort to circumvent charges by Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena, survivor of the deliberate US military attack on the vehicle driving her and Italian agent Nicola Calpari to Baghdad airport, US government spokesman Scott McClellan called the accusations "absurd". Sgrena was wounded last Friday en route to the Baghdad airport after her release from resistance kidnappers, when her vehicle was repeatedly shot by a US patrol 700 meters from the air termninal. Italian secret agent Nicola Calipari, who negotiated her release, died in the shootout. According to Qatari Al Jazeera, 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 Sgrena's partner, Pier Scolari, who had flown to Baghdad in order to accompany her back home. "Then the US military silenced the cell phones," he charges. "Giuliana had information, and the US military did not want her to survive," he added on leaving Rome's Celio military hospital where Sgrena was to undergo surgery. The entire event once more pokes controversy over the strategies implemented in occupied Iraq as Sgrena denounced that she became target due to the Pentagon refusal to negotiate with her kidnappers. Even the Washington Post denounced as recurrent such "errors" as a White House attempt to justify the incident. Police agents, women and children have been victims of similar errors while approaching checkpoints through out Baghdad for the past 18 months and attest to the procedure and impunity the US troops may enjoy should the victims sue the perpetrators, adds the Post. A Pentagon report indicates that the 3rd Infantry Division, guilty of this attack, has been blamed for past attacks on Iraqi civilians, and the NGO Human Rights Watch detailed 11 such incidents involving the death of Iraqi civilians at checkpoints controlled by US soldiers. ef/emw/lb Serbian News Network - SNN news@antic.org http://www.antic.org/
