[Rictor]

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
Giuliana Sgrena
Ex-hostage

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4323361.stm

Apparently, she's saying there is the possibility that she might have been intentionally targeted. And Italy is of course mighty pissed off that one of their secret service agents is now dead.

[Stealth]

"When the driver didn't stop, the soldiers shot into the engine block, which stopped the vehicle, killing one and wounding two others."

what did they fire at the engine block is what i want to know... a damn bazooka?  because it penetrated into the cab too obviously.

[pyro-manic]

I suspect they actually just sprayed the car with bullets until it stopped...

[Deepblue]

Has anyone else noticed the fact that the journalist is a writer for Il Manifesto? The whole intentionally target thing is stupid.

(how is someone supposed to shoot the tires out from a car coming directly at them anyway?)

[vyper]

I love the easy way you disregard the possibility just because she's on the opposite end of the political spectrum from you.

[Grug]

She comes across as fairly calm after such an incident.
If it were me, I'd be extremely aggrovated.

Where she says her captors warned her about some americans not wanting her to come back, that raises a few questions.

[Rictor]

Originally posted by Deepblue
Has anyone else noticed the fact that the journalist is a writer for Il Manifesto? The whole intentionally target thing is stupid.

(how is someone supposed to shoot the tires out from a car coming directly at them anyway?)

I don't know, you would have to ask the military, since they claim its standard operating procedure and the way they handle every all incoming cars that fail to stop. Now personally, I think its bull****, but if they're claiming that that's what they do, then surely they know a way.

[aldo_14]

Maybe they had a bet on to see if they could make the car blow up like in the movies?  (yee haw.... and soforth)

[Grug]

Originally posted by aldo_14
Maybe they had a bet on to see if they could make the car blow up like in the movies?  (yee haw.... and soforth)

Hehe, maybe. Maybe...

[Janos]

Originally posted by aldo_14


I believe the standard hostage retrieval process is to take the hostage and run like hell; don't stop at roadblocks, becuase it might be an ambush.  From what I understand, it was fired at before it reached the roadblock, so it's unclear if it had the chance to stop anyways.......

Regardless, someone really ****ed up on the organisation here.

Plus that adding to fact that some US troops are somewhat trigger-happy, plus a car speeding towards you while you guard a roadblock (which might not be very visible, stupid accidents have happened before) is not a pretty sight in Iraq.

Two mistakes, both understandable = bodies

Edit: apparently American checkpoints also suck gigantic balls. http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0307/p01s04-woiq.html

[Knight Templar]

It's a sad accident, but as said, if you're an American checkpoint in the middle of Iraq and a car comes speeding at you without stopping or signaling, it would be logical to stop the car. It's the difference between an article about a carbomb killing 5 soldiers and wounding 10 or at a checkpoint or whatever and one Italian Secret Service agent dying. Both sad, but you can't exactly blame them for being "trigger-happy" in the middle of a warzone where the enemy crashes exploding cars into you.

[Grug]

She mentioned somewhere along the line that there was no checkpoint that they could see, they were driving along at a normal speed, turn a corner and then a tank starts opening up with the machine turret.

If that's true then it was just trigger happy fools.

[KARMA]

I think that it's pretty confusing.
Of course, newspapers here in Italy talk only about that incident, but I've read so many different versions.
Us army say they advised before opening fire, and that the car was driving too fast, but both the kidnapped and the italian officers  say that the car wasn't proceeding fast, that they had been stopped by other checkpoints before, that the us army was advised of their presence, and that they got no advise before the fire.
The most crazy thing, btw, is that they were talking with the government using the mobile phones at the moment of the fire, so Berlusconi, his collaborators and the husband of the kidnapped journalist heard everything.
They also say that after the attack the targets were immediatly recognized as western people but althought that it took a lot for the soldiers to come in aid to the injured and the first thing they did was to close the phones.
Anyway, whatever happened, the tragedy is that a man died and it happened at only 700 mt from the airport.....

[Grug]

Very suss indeed...

I wonder if Italy will consider pulling out of Iraq now.