The U.S. military command in Iraq has blocked two Italian policemen from examining the car in which an Italian intelligence agent was shot to death in Baghdad, a newspaper said Wednesday.
Corriere della Sera said that the policemen were about to leave when the Italian Embassy in Baghdad received an order from the U.S. command on Monday to abort the mission for security concerns.
The embassy in Baghdad reportedly alerted Rome authorities, who called off the trip.
The car, a Toyota Corolla, is reportedly still in American hands, at Baghdad airport where it was originally rented.
The Foreign Ministry in Rome declined comment on the report, while officials at the Italian Embassy in Baghdad could not immediately be reached. The U.S. military in Baghdad had no immediate comment.
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Giuliana Sgrena is an Italian journalist whose work in Iraq included publishing articles critical of implementation of US policies regarding Iraqi women seized by American gunmen and population reduction techniques that brought eternal freedom to so many in Fallujah.
She was apprehended and held for a time by parties unknown. Immediately upon her release, she was shot by gunmen in the service of John Negroponte. The Italian secret service agent who arranged her release and was with her in the car was killed. Sgrena was taken to an Italian military hospital, where I believe she still is.
Originally the US said it did not know where the car was. Then some pictures appeared on an Italian website but it is not clear that that is the exact car that was shot up in the attack. It may have been a car that the US offered to substitute for the actual car, which they have now acknowledged will not be available for the investigation
Some more background links
List of Journalists and Media Assistants Killed in Iraq Since March 2003
“As for the rest, I can’t talk about it yet”
Nicola said, ‘You are free. Come with me.’ Then they shot
Italian minister rebukes hostage shot by US troops
