Hostage Fears U.S. Troops Targeted Her

Hostage fears troops targeted her

Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena has suggested US troops deliberately tried to kill her moments after she was released by her kidnappers in Baghdad.

Ms Sgrena, writing in her left-wing newspaper Il Manifesto, described how her car came "under a rain of fire". At that moment, she said she recalled her captors' words that some Americans "don't want you to go back".

The US military, who said troops fired on the speeding car after it failed to stop, has opened a full investigation.

A top Italian secret service agent, Nicola Calipari, died in the incident as he shielded Ms Sgrena from the gunshots.

He had led the efforts to negotiate the release of the correspondent, held captive in Iraq for more than a month.

The body of Mr Calipari, who is being treated as a national hero, is lying in state in an imposing monument in the centre of Rome before a state funeral on Monday.

The incident in Baghdad threatens to have continuing political fallout in Rome, says our correspondent there David Willey.

Pressure will grow on Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, a staunch ally of US President George W Bush, to reconsider the wisdom of keeping on Italian peacekeepers in Iraq, our correspondent says.

Already, the Italian foreign ministry has warned all Italian nationals to avoid travel to Iraq.

Sgrena's account

Details remain unclear about exactly what happened as the car carrying the Italian journalist, Calipari and two other agents made its journey towards Baghdad's airport late on Friday.

The US military says that the car was speeding as it approached a checkpoint and that soldiers used hand signals, flashed lights, and fired warning shots in an attempt to stop it, before opening fire.

In her account for Il Manifesto, Ms Sgrena said the kidnappers had released her willingly.

When she got in the car, Calipari took off her blindfold and was "an avalanche of friendly phrases, jokes".

"Nicola Calipari was seated at my side. The driver had spoken twice to the embassy and to Italy that we were on our way to the airport that I knew was saturated with American troops. We were less than a kilometre they told me... when... I remember there was shooting.

"The driver began screaming that we were Italian, 'We're Italian! We're Italian!'"

Ms Sgrena has said the car was not going particularly fast.

Upon her release, she said, "They [the kidnappers] said they were committed to releasing me, but that I had to be careful 'because there are Americans who don't want you to go back'."

In another interview with Sky Italia TV, she said it was possible the soldiers had targeted her because Washington opposed the policy of negotiating with kidnappers.

"Everyone knows that the Americans do not like negotiations to free hostages, and because of this I don't see why I should exclude the possibility of me having been the target," she said.

She said she did not know if a ransom was paid for her release - a policy the US does not approve either.

Ms Sgrena was abducted on 4 February, and later appeared in a video begging for help and urging foreign troops to leave Iraq.

Much of the country was opposed to the US-led war in Iraq and the government's decision to send 3,000 Italian troops to Iraq.


<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4323361.stm>

 

why did they actualy kidnap her then ?...that's what i ask myself.

Not the best welcome home ... These kidnappers say this kind of thing too most of the hostages (if not all) ... Did they take this particular hostage for some other agenda than money ? . Did they know who she was ?. Who in the broader sense is she anyway, some italian reporter i thought..nothing terrifically
special ...

What crazy logic she spouts...

I can't think of many countries that openly pay for hostages, does not mean this did not happen..

I realy can't understand the actual point of this story .. i was going too say the lady has gone through hell, but she seems to have a case of 'stockholm syndrome' going on... She may need a few days rest, sounds like her prejudices have been exploited by the hostages .
Unfair maybe, but apart from money why are people getting kidnaped, feeding her crap like the americans don't want her back ? when she is italian is a little strange (are the americans taking responsibility for every one now ?)..If america was not routinely used as the big bad wolf.. by all it seems, america should not even have been mentioned in the story...but then their would be no story.


R.I.P Mr Calipari...

 

FRIENDLY FIRE

 

I don't know. If I got shot I would be pretty pissed off and I wouldn't care who it was.

 

i keep hearing bits and peivces of this on the news.

 

There is something about a zealot anti-american, a former leftist militant who is currently a journalist for a communist newspaper, who goes to Iraq, gets kidnapped by insurgents, is ordered to read scripts for them on video, is eventually freed by ransom, and comes out telling us about how they "warned her" about the Americans. I think she had Stockholm syndrome before she even got to Baghdad.

If the illuminati/bildenburg/zionist/neocons aka the US Army wanted her killed, why is she alive? Its not like the car made a speedy getaway, they blew up the engine and it came to a stop. Anyway as usual its what people want to believe.

 

I don't think that all this was any way intentional and planned, but I can sure see how she may feel that way.

 

oh please let's just all say FUCK U to ur dear president Bush and all of his army bullshits... i grow weary of all of this..
but u know.. what would have happened if the roles were inverted..if the man killed was an american and the killers the italian army.. eh?? can u tell me??????????
FUCK OFF PRESIDENT BUSH.. UR FUCKING MAKING FOOLS OF ALL THE ITALIANS!

AND FUCK OFF TO ALL THE ITALIANS TOO.. WE ALREADY GOT FOOLED IN WW1 AND WW2 ... DID WE NEED ALSO THIS?
LET'S JUST FUCKING GET NEUTRALS AS THE SWISS..
GESùCRISTOMADONNASANT'ANTONIO!!!

 

they shouldnt take any other responsability for anyone.... they just need to take THEIR OWN!!!


[/QUOTE]R.I.P Mr Calipari...[/QUOTE]
Hahahah.. nice one man... haha..
oh please...

 

Ms Sgrena was out in iraq like many reporters to simply report what was going on.
They do their jobs and they get implicated in causes, often very humanist! Sadly they often get kidnapped.
Nobody really knows what the kidnappers want. Money? I don't think so. Not everything revolves around money, and for ppl in iraq who take ostages, well their main interest isn't money. It's their ideology. Taking ostages must be a way to pressure governments.
That's probably why Ms Sgrena got kidnapped, and the italian government started discussions with the raptors, in the sole purpose of freeing ms Sgrena. At some point they all agrred and the raptors freed the journalist. Mr Calipari was there to escort her and all was ready, they HAD talked to the ambassys, and the american troops had been warned.
What happened then no one can say for sure, the americans started to shoot on the car, mr Calipari protected ms Sgrena, the car surely stopped and the americans must have realised what they've done.

Anyways, if it was simply because the car was going too fast, there's no excuse on shooting on the car. Geez when on the highway policemen don't SHOOT on cars when they go too fast! And they knew that a certain car would pass with important passengers!

Italy and the U.S.A are allies, and the U.S has many times before treated Italy as well, shit.
And now that one of their top secret agent was killed by the allie when he was escorting a newly free reporter after a month of diplomatie, well, I wan understand the italians feel mad.

The american troops and army must take their responsability, because, they are responsible for mr Calipari's death, whatever they say.

 

It was part of a point i was trying to make..it seems badly.

why is saying RIP to a person who got killed saving a ungrateful persons life , so wrong ?.

 

I don't think it was intentional, I just think the soldiers are young and shellshocked, almost every day a car speeds towards a checkpoint and explodes, often killing several soldiers.

I just don't see why they would do this intentionally knowing how bad this was going to look.

 

that was exactly what i meant!
couldn't put it better gal!