March 7, 2005

Duplicity Begets Death

With the revelation that Italian authorities paid a hefty ransom to secure her freedom, the Giuliana Sgrena story has turned from a tragedy to something of a farce. The death of Italian agent Nicola Calipari is awful, as any decent person would willingly admit. But the road to Baghdad International Airport is known to be one of the most dangerous areas of Iraq, and American soldiers manning barricades there have every reason to use lethal force if they believe their lives to be in danger. Michelle Malkin has a comprehensive round-up of this story, as does LGF, which has followed it closely for days.

All of this reminds me of the November incident in which an American Marine killed a wounded Iraqi soldier in a Fallujah mosque. In that case, many member of the media and other opponents of the war used the events to condemn the U.S. military and the administration that sent them to Iraq. This round, the principal sources of hand-wringing are coming from some of the same sources.

The key to this story is that Italian authorities seem to have kept Americans in the dark about their contacts with the terrorists who kidnapped Sgrena. The Washington Times spells this out most directly; the Washington Post doesn't mention the deal, but does confirm that the Americans manning the checkpoint couldn't have known about the deal or the passengers in the oncoming car carrying Sgrena and Calipari.

The automobile was traversing onto a route -- the road to the airport -- where soldiers have been killed in shootings and by roadside bombs. U.S. soldiers had established an impromptu evening checkpoint at the entrance to the road about 90 minutes earlier and had stopped other vehicles. They knew a high-level embassy official would be moving to the airport on that road, and their aim was to support this movement.

But no specific coordination occurred between those involved in Sgrena's rescue and the military unit responsible for the checkpoint, according to the source, who said he cannot be named because the military's investigation into the incident is continuing.

Soldiers at the checkpoint have told U.S. military officers that they flashed lights, used hand signals and fired warning shots in an effort to stop the car, which they believed was traveling at more than 50 mph, a typical speed for that road. But Sgrena, who had just been released by Iraqi captors, recalled later that the car was not traveling very fast and that soldiers started firing "right after lighting" a spotlight -- a decision she said was not justified. Sgrena was wounded by shrapnel in the U.S. barrage.

The absence of advance communication between the Italians and the U.S. soldiers at the checkpoint appears to have put the occupants of the car in grave jeopardy, given what many U.S. officials describe as the military's standard practice of firing at onrushing cars from their checkpoints in Iraq.

"In my view, the main contributing factor was a lack of prior coordination with the ground unit," the source said. "If requested, we would have resourced and supported this mission very differently."

Of course, Sgrena, who writes for the communist newspaper Il Manifesto, has raised the possibility that American troops targeted her on purpose:

The Italian reporter wounded when U.S. troops opened fire on the car carrying her and Italian secret service officers to the Baghdad airport just hours after her release from kidnappers rejected the U.S. version of the incident Sunday and refused to rule out that she had been shot at intentionally.

"The fact that the Americans don't want negotiations to free the hostages is known," the ex-hostage, Giuliana Sgrena, said in a telephone interview with Sky TG24 television. "The fact that they do everything to prevent the adoption of this practice to save the lives of people held hostages, everybody knows that. So I don't see why I should rule out that I could have been the target [emphasis added]."

She must have been reading Eason Jordan's comments these past few months.

Via LGF, CNN has translated Sgrena's March 6 article from Il Manifesto. In it, Sgrena speaks of her kidnappers' demands that she not give any sign that she's with them as they free her, lest "the Americans could intervene." Why worry about this absent the secrecy of the mission -- secrete, that is, from Americans.

I changed my clothes. They came back: "We'll take you and don't give any signals of your presence with us otherwise the Americans could intervene." It was confirmation that I didn't want to hear; it was altogether the most happy and most dangerous moment. If we bumped into someone, meaning American military, there would have been an exchange of fire. My captors were ready and would have answered.

After she was placed into the car, she writes:

I had just started mentally counting when a friendly voice came to my ears "Giuliana, Giuliana. I am Nicola, don't worry I spoke to Gabriele Polo (editor in chief of Il Manifesto). Stay calm. You are free." They made me take my cotton bandage off, and the dark glasses. I felt relieved, not for what was happening and I couldn't understand but for the words of this "Nicola." He kept on talking and talking, you couldn't contain him, an avalanche of friendly phrases and jokes. I finally felt an almost physical consolation, warmth that I had forgotten for some time.

So her editors were involved in her release, even though the American military was kept in the dark! Remarkable.

The following account demonstrates that her car was driving too fast even before it reached the checkpoint:

The car kept on the road, going under an underpass full of puddles and almost losing control to avoid them. We all incredibly laughed. It was liberating. Losing control of the car in a street full of water in Baghdad and maybe wind up in a bad car accident after all I had been through would really be a tale I would not be able to tell. Nicola Calipari sat next to me. The driver twice called the embassy and in Italy that we were heading towards the airport that I knew was heavily patrolled by U.S. troops. They told me that we were less than a kilometer away...when...I only remember fire. At that point, a rain of fire and bullets hit us, shutting up forever the cheerful voices of a few minutes earlier.

This story hasn't been told in full, and it'll be interesting to see how Sgrena reacts to these and other revelations.

Update: Some Italians are questioning Sgrena's story, as they well should after a news cycle over here.

To us, at least, these look like reasonable questions. It seems to us equally reasonable to wonder in conclusion that if Washington had been determined that the Italian journalist should die, why - for her and our good fortune - did she survive? What caused the plot to abort? And why were two Italians actually left alive to bear witness to the attack? Let it be clear that it is quite possible that each of these questions has a satisfactory answer. But if that is the case, we hope that today, when heads are cooler, politicians and commentators from all parties will devote their attention to finding those answers. Because if we want to engage in a trial of strength with the U.S., we certainly can, but in the knowledge that it will not be won for us by emotions and strong words.

— Winfield Myers

| Mar. 7, 2005 | 10:13 AM