cross-posted at Daily Kos and New European Times
The joint US/Italian commision investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of Nicola Calipari, the SISMI agent awared a Gold Medal by the Italian governement for saving the life of journalist Giuiliana Sgrena, has concluded with the complete absolution of US troops and a shifting of the responsibility for the incident onto Nicola Calipari himself.
Guiliana Sgrena’s reaction is sharp and unambiguous:
According to l’Unità, Sgrena also observed:
According to the report, the soldiers at the check-point who fired “are not guilty” because “they applied the rules” given to them.
No doubt they did follow the rules. But what exactly were these rules and how many other human lives have been annihilited because of them?
Also according to l’Unità:
According to La Repubblica, the formalization of the Italian government’s dissenting opinion from the joint commision’s conlusio wil take place tommorow bewteen Ambassor Mel Sembler and a representative of the Italian Foreign Ministry.
The commison’s final report will represent one of the first serious challenges for the newly-installed Berlusconi government to confront after the recent parliamantery crisis and the collapse of the center-right coalition in the regional elections. Popular opinion and the media will almost certainly demanding an independent investigation conducted under the auspices of Italian magistrates in Rome. To what extent such an investigation can be carried out meaningfully without the cooperation of Washington remains to be seen.
Menanwhile, one of Berlusca’s first proposals (actually someone in the newly reorganized goverment suggested it anyway) to improve things in the South is to sell off to sell the beaches!!
Caligula wanted to conquer the ocean because it contained riches. Berlu wants to sell the
ocean….never mind…
I mean … it is comical. Here are his two staunchest European allies fighting for dear life to hang on to their positions as Prime Ministers and the Bushies with one fell swoop pulls the rug out from underneath them.
Berlosconi is good… but when even Sgena is outraged at the way the US is treating the Italian Gov’t yunno that same gov’t she has made her living critizing then you no things are bad.
This will not play well in the UK for Tony. Just this week he is getting hit by bith barrels from the Lib Dems and Tories over his role in the War… and now the Bushies give Berlesconi the finger.
I guess they think, since they have the Pope in their pocket that they don’t need no stinkin Prime Ministers from Old Europe…
The center left in Europe owes Bush a debt of gratitude. Spain , Portugal have kicked out the conservatives now in a single blow Italy and UK…kudos!!!
You might be a little premature in your celebration. Berlusoni will defininetly go eventually, but he might be able to last out the legislature (another year).
WRT Blair, that’s a whole different situation. He is being attacked with both barrels by left and right. But one of the alternative parties is much worse than he is on miost issues. The other just doens’t have large enouhg base to win the general elections. So my British friends inform me…
Only the US could have performed the investigation with such rapidity and conclusiveness. The Italians would probably still be quibbling about the necessity of seeing the car.
And it doesn’t sound like Sgrena is planning to go back to Iraq any time soon and write more stories about rape and napalm.
So all in all, the operation was a rousing success.
Yes indeed!!! The military investigated itself, played the parts of prosecutor, defense and judge and it was only natural to expect such a fair and impartial outcome
as a result.
The Italians still want to see the car and collect evidence, etc.. But wthout the possibility of prosecuting
US soldiers (which is prohibited under some legal provision or other, as I recall) overseas, it will at best be a symbolic gesture of dissent and disgruntlement. Even that would be useful in sending a powerful message to the Bush admin. from Italian judges. But will Berlcisni have the coglioni to treat his master in such an impertenent manner? I doubt it..
So are they going to turn over the car and the names of the troops at the check-point or what?
According to La Repubblica, Us authorities have promised (again!!) to turn over the car and the magistartes in Rome alerady have the names of the troops involved.
Sgrens is demanding a mobiliaztion of public opionion, but to what scope I’m not exctaly sure.
And US authorities have most graciously shared the results of the investigation with its Italian assets and the general public.
There was no indication of any departure from or faulty implementation of US policiies. The US has been very candid on this subject. It has decreed some time hence that it will exterminate any person in any place for any reason, and by the method of its choosing.
Truly, now that you mention it, the magnaninity of the US government in actually deciding to “feel our pain” and even carry on a joint investigation wiht 2 members…not just one but TWO Italian members is very humbling and shines forth as an stellar example of moral uprightness for all more backward nations to follow.
Has the report been released? Last links I find are from two weeks ago.
As of this morning, 11:00 a.m GMT+1, the report is still being negotiated.
According to Il Manifesto:
Also:
In other words, they’re all trying to ecsape from this thing without attributing the blame to anyone. It was all provoked by the horrible circumstamces of a war with a brutal and terrifyingly deadly insurrection in which the policy of “shoot first and ask questions later” is not only appropriate but necessary.
“Such incidents are par for the course in Iraq, please don’t ask us to punish anyone. We’d have to
punish so many soldiers and their comnaders that there woudn’t be an army left to fight this hidoues war.”
How about ending the hideous war you started without any moral or legal justifiction?
“What? It’s the march toward oil…I mean freedom in the middle East.”
Vieni qui, italia? Same ol’ shit. Given a more left-leaning government they’d just release their version. Lovely sight to set before the king.
Intersting artcile I read in today’s same Manifesto: several Italian senators are tryint to contact Democratic Senators to seek their cooperation in try to get at the truth of this thing in a probable indepedent investigation.
Also, as I think I mentioned, the car is now in Rome and Giuliana Sgrena’s lawyer has announce that the real investigation begins now with ballistics tests on the vehicle to determine trajectoris, numbers of shots, calibers of the bullets,etc..
The second rogatory (to obtain the names of the 9 NY national guard memebers at the scene) is still being pushed forward.
And the center-left, which is much stonger now after the overewhlming victory in the reagional elctions is demanding a Paliamenatry-level investigation. So Berlunsi might not be able to weasel out of this so easily with face-saving compromise.
I would like to see the US clearly state which road the Italians used. The US press pointed to the “Irish road” with all its dangers, while Giuliana Sgrena claims they were on a secured road, built for Saddam to travel from the airport into Baghdad. (It makes more sense that Negroponte would be traveling on a secured road to reach the airport, instead of using the Irish road.)
I read an article some time ago in Il Manifesto in which the author claimed that there are fixed aerial cameras, attached to (balloons?), that record activities within a certain distances of the airport, and Camp Liberty. It would be interesting to see if anything was recorded.
I can’t see provoking the Italians in this way – absolving a shooting with assertions that contradict the testimony from an intelligence agent and a general that is second in command of the coalition forces. Military enlistment is down, and they would rather risk the withdrawal of 3,000 troops than admit a mistake (if it was a mistake, and not an intentional withholding of information from the patrol).
There was no compunction in letting the little guys take the blame with torture in Abu Ghraib, but they will protect this patrol that shot and killed a highly-placed Italian intelligence agent?
as if they are going to try to “sqaure the circle”. That is, they will porbably come out with a long and convoluted note in which they will reiterate the thesis that the whole things was tragic fatality due to the horrendous and brutal nature of the insurrengecny and the consequent need for a “shoot first ask questions later” policy with regard to the rules of engagement.
There wil paobably be a very short, if any, section chronciling the facts of what happened. The opinion section will be divided into two parts: the US version and the Italian version and the recommendations will be
so full of unintelligable and meaningless beaurocratise that the net result will be “stay the course”.
The reason they’re so deperate to protect this patrol is that there have been, and continue to be, so many incidents of a similar or worse nature that prosecuting
these particualr troops wouldlead down a slippery slope
toward discredting the conduct of the war in general.
Remember, also, it’s the commanders who created the ridiculous rules of engagement, therefore they woud have to take at least partial responsibiity for what happened.
As I wrote in my diary:
very likely the troops did follow the rules, but that anout those f+++ing rules and the people who formulaetd them. Why isn’t that examined in more profound detail?
The answer to that should be obvious.
Ah yes, unintelligable and meaningless bureaucratese. I am an expert on that. I hate it.
I write intelligible, intelligent and meaningful bureaucratese every day. I also write things that assist my Minister to say something while saying nothing. That are intended to answer a question while saying nothing about the subject. That avoid telling the truth while not being dishonest. I could go on…
I can only agree with you, gilgamesh, that the US has been magnanimous in even agreeing to a joint investigation. Perhaps influenced by not wanting to increase signore Berlusconi’s recent level of discomfort.
But Ductape is also correct: there is nothing to investigate. There was no indication of any departure from or faulty implementation of US policies. What happened is something that happens.
The Italian version of the report will be filled with effusive words about the cooperation they have received from the US authorities. They will disagree on some points like the speed of the car. They will acknowledge the difficulty of making split-second decisions in an environment where anyone could be a suicide bomber. They will not challenge the basic US right to shoot first and ask questions later.
You’re comment just reminded what’s so great about blogging .I sometimes get extraordinarily frustrated with the overattention on sensationalism and exaggeration that go on. But it’s an incredible things to exhange thouhgts and ideas (sometimes even useful info that doens’t come out of the press) with people in different walks of life from all parts of the world.
I’ve got to go to bed. i’ll try to answer any comments or question for me tommorow.
Since the US is not at war with Italy, there are no rules of engagement.
“No wrongdoing” the Pentagon claims. There’s nothing wrong with shooting unarmed Italians in the Green Zone? Nothing wrong! The US investigation is an outrage!
Shoot first, shoot anything that moves, Iraq is HELL.
Yes, but “rules of engagement” apply not only to enemy combatants but to “perceived, possible” enemy combattants. If it weren’t so, military forces wouldn’t even need to try to justify there shooting of civilians at all by invoking “potential enemy”. They could just run rampant with no rules.
What they’e claiming, obviously, is that they perceived a danger that the Italian group were potential suicide bombers.
of torture charges. We’re truly living in the very country we was taught to fear during the cold war.
Yikes, and I’m an editor! I first wrote “I was taught to fear…” and, well, you can see that I didn’t complete my editing.
nothing wrong with a bit of hep-cat street language on this blog, I hope? (-;
OK. I’m going to pretend that was just really some of my hep-cat street language, cuz I’m such a hep cat.
Amy Goodman has a long, live interview with Sgrena this morning. You can watch or listen here. The transcript should be up soon.
She said the car is arriving in Italy tonight, but they don’t know in what condition the car will be found…. I only got to listen to a smidgen of the interview, so I hope you will.
It may merit a new diary by you. THANK YOU for staying on top of this.
ooopps, didn’t see that. thanks Susan!!
Please consider a new diary, or add to this one …
the transcript is up now, but I hope you’ll listen as you read because their transcribers are volunteers and sometimes miss things.
That’s a good point. I’ll listen to it. But I’m not convinced a new diary is apporpiate right now. If I find soemthing different in the interview maybe…
From Mediaset(!):
The Pentagon says it has compromising interceptions (of communications). The CIA and DIA monitor all communications in Iraq, including those of their allies. The US admits to having learned of the negotiation to free Giuliana Sgrena but not that she was in the Toyota traveling to the airport. (It would have been alright to kill Calipari if Giuliana were not in the car???) According to leaks, supposedly Calipari wanted to bring back Sgrena during the Festival di San Remo to have a big media event. (If true, Calipari would have wanted this, or Berlusconi??)
http://www.tgcom.it/mondo/articoli/articolo254547.shtml
Green Deputy Mauro Bulgarelli has requested a parliamentary investigation on whether private contractors from the US security company, Blackwater, were involved in the shooting that killed Calipari. (A Washington radio station, WTOP made the claim that the soldiers/mercenaries in the patrol protecting Negroponte were from Blackwater.)
I haven’t read the articles in Polizia e Democrazia – and I only skimmed the one to find the reference to Blackwater. One anomaly was that the author writes that Negroponte passed by the mobile checkpoint after the shooting – I have read that he passed before the shooting.
http://www.arabmonitor.info/news/dettaglio.php?idnews=9625&lang=it
http://www.audionews.it/notizia.asp?id=112264
http://www.poliziaedemocrazia.it/live/index.php?domain=archivio&action=articolo&idArticolo=8
50
courtesy of La Repubblica
Sure looks clean. Any reports on what Italians thought of its condition?
Other views of the auto as it arrives in Italy:
http://www.repubblica.it/2003/e/gallerie/esteri/toiota/toiota.html
L’Unita’ (and others) report seven bullet holes in body of the car. (Previous descriptions say that the rear window was shattered. Photos previously released have shown front and left views [with shots being fired from right and behind]).
L’Unita’ also reports that the carabinieri and the polizia di Stato have filmed and photographed every detail of the car. The first reports are the number of bullets that hit the body of the car – seven – mostly in the front. It will take several days before the experts can establish the trajectory of the bullets, the number of arms shot, and the speed of the vehicle when it was shot. RAI News doesn’t exclude the possibility that the evidence was compromised by the previous examinations made in Baghdad by the US experts.
http://www.unita.it/index.asp?SEZIONE_COD=HP&TOPIC_TIPO=&TOPIC_ID=42315
http://www.rai.it/news/articolornews24/0,9219,4147252,00.html
From Corriere della Sera:
The decision to place the patrol at the end of a curve, and hidden by vegetation does not conform to the rules of engagement as the check points must be visible.
http://www.corriere.it/Primo_Piano/Cronache/2005/04_Aprile/28/pattuglia.html
From La Repubblica:
Berlusconi confirmed that there are strong divisions in the US government: the Department of State is concerned with maintaining good relations with Italy and more agreeable to mediation; and the Pentagon wants to defend the soldiers involved in the shooting. The administration would like the position of the Pentagon to be more flexible. Italy is negotiating with [Ambassador] Sembler who represents the US administration that must deal with the Pentagon.
http://www.repubblica.it/2005/d/sezioni/esteri/niccal2/berlcalip/berlcalip.html
I don’t know whether or not to take Berlusconi’s statement with the usual grain of salt.
La Repubblica:
The CIA, DIA and SISMI are “at war,” using leaks as warning shots. US intelligence supposedly intercepted the communications between Calipari and the kidnappers as well as between Calipari and Rome, and knows who captured the journalist and who were the contacts for her release. To which anonymous sources say that the interceptions prove that the US knew of the operation for the release of Giuliana, and asking what did the American surveillance satellites see?
Blackwater Security was not involved in the patrol nor in the shooting as rumored in the last few days; they supposedly were in the convoy that traveled with Negroponte.
http://www.repubblica.it/2005/d/sezioni/esteri/niccal2/guersis/guersis.html
Photo of the Toyota in Baghdad previously published by La Repubblica :
Remember the sham trial of the marine pilot who killed all those tourists in Italy with his stupid daredevil stunt? It is the American military mentality that above all, they protect their own. If that means covering up a crime, then they will break the law to do it.
It was one of the reasons why I only served one term in the Army. I couldn’t stand the attitude of fraternal ties trumping the rule of law.
I would not be surprised to find out that some of the panels on the Toyota have been swapped out to reduce the number of bullet holes…
I think you’re referring to Cermis, if I’m not mistaken.
I don’t know of any incident at Cavalese, but I’ve only been living here for four years so I could easily be wrong.
Let me know!!
My bad, as Cavalese was the town closest to the incident. I almost wrote Aviano, but that was the base where they were stationed, not where it happened. Perhaps if I had stuck to “Italian Alps” it might have been less confusing…
ok, thanks for clearing that up. I might have wasted hours trying to find out the details of some non-existent incident referred to specifically as “Cavalese.”