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Italian aid workers, Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, were held hostage for three weeks in September 2004
The Italian Red Cross treated four Iraqi insurgents to secure the release of two Italian women held hostage last year, a Red Cross official has said.
Maurizio Scelli, the outgoing head of the Italian Red Cross, said the deal had been kept secret from the US.
Mr Scelli – who first revealed the story to the Italian daily La Stampa – said Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s right-man man, Gianni Letta, was aware of the deal. “He acknowledged it and – albeit with a thousand recommendations – he told me to go ahead with it.”
Mr Scelli said Mr Calipari had been consulted about the deal to free Ms Torretta and Ms Pari.
Agent’s advice
Mr Scelli said he did not know the identities of the insurgents his agency had treated. “We collected them in the place we had been told and then took them to hospital with a series of precautions for them to be admitted into hospital as quickly as possible and without any hindrance.”
Mr Scelli added that US checkpoints were among the hindrances he was referring to.
Italy ‘did deal to free hostages’ ◊ by Fran @ EuroTrib
Does this story tie into Nicola Calipari assassination, by providing motive?
The Calipari shooting below the fold »»
The two investigations on Calipari shooting – US and Italian– are not reconcilable and contain false statements, elements of white-wash and contradictions. There were reports that the shooting was intentional and targeted the journalist Giuliana Sgrena from Il Manifesto. “They don’t shoot journalists, do they?”
Yasser Salihee * Reporter Murdered :: Story He Died For
My personal view has been, the US assassin squad of Negroponte in Iraq does not miss their target. I couldn’t determine a motive, this story which seems credible, does provide the motive. Do not fuc* with the US in Iraq, similar to the attack on the convoy to freedom and the Syrian border, when two French journalists Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot, were traveling with their abductors.
My personal take: Nicola Calipari shooting was an assassination, a single shot to the head, sending a message to the Italian government and all western intelligence forces operating in Iraq.
That is why the Brits – Margaret Hassan and Ken Bigley – and Japan do not undertake rescue missions of hostage nationals with exclusion of the US occupational authorities in the Green Zone of Baghdad.
Does this explain also the hard handed approach of US forces in November, 2004 attack on Fallujah, clearing out all hospitals and Red Crescent aid workers.
After Calipari killing, all love lost between US and Italian intelligence!
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Related diaries and further reading on topic —
with No Consequences ◊ by Oui @BooMan
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“In March, U.S. troops in Iraq shot to death Nicola Calipari, the Italian intelligence agent that rescued the kidnapped journalist Giuliana Sgrena. U.S. commission on the incident produced a report which public version was censored for more than one third. Now Italian press is reporting that all confidential information in the report is available to the public, just by copying “hidden” text from the PDF and pasting it in a word processor (Italian). The uncensored report can now be directly downloaded
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