Known Unknowns – Moon of Alabama

March 7, 2005

Known Unknowns

"I think it’s absurd to make any such suggestion that our men and women in uniform deliberately targeted innocent civilians. That’s just absurd," said spokesman Scott McClellan.
Reuters:
Italy Honors Agent; U.S. Denies Deliberate Killing

"Sir,

The incident is under investigation. As additional details are
available, they will be released.

SSG Dees"
Answer from the U.S. Army to a detailed request for information by the newsweekly ‘Die Zeit’ (Sgrena does write for ‘Die Zeit’)

[Sgrena] later told Italian state TV RAI that "when they let me go, it was a difficult moment for me because they told me, ‘The Americans don’t want you to return alive to Italy.’" She didn’t elaborate.
WaPo: White House: Italian Journalist’s Comments ‘Absurd’

Posted by b on March 7, 2005 at 23:26 UTC | Permalink

Comments

I can well imagine that none of this is of the least moment to most Americans, but then Americans don’t count for much of anything in this affair. This is a moment for Europeans to shine. When Bush turned his Iraq initiative into an anti-European vendetta, sparing only the “coalition of the willing” and their willing functionaries, did supporting him look like a really good bet? What do Italy and the U.K. have to show for their pains? Their people, right, left and center, can begin by telling Berlusconi and Blair that it’s costing too much–something that Berlusconi, for one, surely has to recognize. He was on the phone with Calipari, after all, when the Americans ambushed that car, and then he got that phone-call from Bush, apologizing….

Posted by: alabama | Mar 8 2005 0:16 utc | 1

@alabama
Think Spain and Poland (no visas?) and Ukraine (soldier shoot by US troops yesterday). Italy will leave the “coalition” as soon as someone finds a face saving method. Britain is the 51st state according to New Model Army. That may still take a moment.

Posted by: b | Mar 8 2005 0:22 utc | 2

The GOP has more funded scumbag groups that are shill groups than any party around. And the Dems just sit back and let it happen. This is the problem with the Dem party. if they went back to their base of US labor, they could get those donations. But laboe got screwed by the Dems with nafta and gatt, so labor and all affiliated with it twist in the wind, voting rethug when scared and getting screwed by Clinton a supposed allie.

Posted by: jdp | Mar 8 2005 0:30 utc | 3

Sorry, my post should have been below.

Posted by: jdp | Mar 8 2005 0:31 utc | 4

Signiicant new tactics:

The 7:30 a.m. attack began when about eight cars stopped at the army checkpoint in the village of Muradiya, at the southern entrance to Baqubah. At least 50 men, most in ski masks, leapt from the cars and opened fire at the soldiers manning the post, according to Faisal Kadhim, a soldier who was injured in the clash, said while being treated at a local hospital.
After the attackers made good their escape, officials said, police and emergency personnel were transporting the injured to hospitals when, about two miles north of the checkpoint, a car exploded as they were passing. They said the explosion, which might have been triggered by a suicide bomber, apparently was a secondary strike timed to hit rescue workers and those injured in the first attack.

Insurgents Kill at Least 15 North of Baghdad
This is significant. 50 attackers coordinated – a year ago there were small teams, 5 people maybe doing something. Then there were platoon size groops 10-20 people. Now there are multiple platoons coordinated. These are pieces of an army forming right now.
The public does not get it (and maybe the U.S. military doesn´t either) but it is growing at an incredibile speed. This is not linear growth, this is exponentional.
The Iraqi “army” will be devastated in a few weeks. then the real attacks on U.S. troops will start.

Posted by: b | Mar 8 2005 0:32 utc | 5

b, the lead article in today’s NYTimes tells us that the insurgents’ IED’s are becoming more and more powerful. The insurgents not only have the ingredients, they have a developing command of the technology….

Posted by: alabama | Mar 8 2005 0:39 utc | 6

“He was on the phone with Calipari, after all, when the Americans ambushed that car, and then he got that phone-call from Bush, apologizing….”
I don’t see this being swept under the carpet as easily as others do. This is a profound personal embarrassment for Berlusconi & I’m sure he’s furious. It’s not just to warm things up for the Pope that Italy is putting on a State Funeral broadcast live on TV. That’s the state siding w/& fueling the disgust & growing fury of the masses. After all, doesn’t Berlusconi even own much of the media.
An anonymous commenter on RigorousIntuition Blog noted that w/Agent being killed by shot to the head – it was a sniper shot & the 3-400 other rounds were to camouflage that. Interesting thought…perhaps he knows from where he speaks.

Posted by: jj | Mar 8 2005 4:33 utc | 7

any possibility berlusconi was in on this? would be a ballsy cover story to mask his tracks, while providing easy opp for pinpointing the exact location of the targets.
are there any pictures of the vehicle? i read that it was an armored vehicle, but evidently not bulletproof? and has Sgrena publicly commented on the identity/association of her kidnappers yet? sorry if these issues were addressed in a link i haven’t come across yet.

Posted by: b real | Mar 8 2005 4:54 utc | 8

@b real — the Yanks say that they have “lost” the vehicle. oops.
further comment would be superfluous.

Posted by: DeAnander | Mar 8 2005 5:31 utc | 9

DeAnander, I just read at La Stampa that the Americans have filed a report to the Italian investigators (“in record time”) and that the car itself has been flown to Italy for inspection. The Americans can clearly carry the point about a patrol that was shooting from the hip. Not so clear is whether they can absolve the patrol, or it’s commanding officers, from a criminal prosecution of some kind. It comes down to due diligence on either side–whether Calipari was in constant contact with the Americans (or more exactly with the CIA, the counterpart to SISMI), and whether the Americans were in constant contact with themselves (if not, then someone in the American military command may be open to a charge of criminal negligence, though the jurisdiction remains a puzzle).

Posted by: alabama | Mar 8 2005 6:21 utc | 10

I believe, for what it’s worth, that if Bush tries to frustrate the legal proceedings of this thing, he’ll lose the support of Italy in Iraq.
According to Il Messagero, Calipari’s funeral was a love-feast between pacifists and war-mongers, men of the left and men of the right, the rich and the poor, church and state, the military and the police….but not, of course, between the USA and Italy. We know only that Ambassador Mel Sembler (and what an appropriate name he has!) was present at the ceremonies.

Posted by: alabama | Mar 8 2005 6:22 utc | 11

Alabama, I read somewhere that the Italian team had been in close contact with US authorities, who even provided a badge allowing them to bear arms. (Hardly required in Iraq, methinks.) The rescue should happen in the morning but got delayed. The Americans were also aware that Sgrena was supposed to be flown out the same night. So it’s either criminal negligence or ambush. Sgrena herself believes the latter – according to her, because the Americans strongly oppose negotiating with kidnappers and didn’t want the operation to succeed. Well, they made their point, I guess.
As to “unfortunate accidents”: this guy was out hunting rabbits when he came upon a tiger. He tried to shoot it but his rifle backfired. He ran and climbed a tree, but his branch broke and he fell onto a river, whereupon a large crocodile came after him. He swam furiously, not noticing he was heading to a waterfall. He plunged and was almost drowning when somebody saw him, jumped into the water and saved him.
When they arrived at the margin, his rescuer said, “Thank God I saw you and was able to get you out in time.” The hunter, bleeding and broken, replied. “Don’t thank Him. The bastard was clearly out to get me.”
One must draw the line at some point, right?

Posted by: pedro | Mar 8 2005 8:05 utc | 12

ROME (Reuters) – Italy’s foreign minister said on Tuesday the killing of an Italian intelligence agent in Iraq by U.S. forces had been a tragic accident, but added that Rome did not believe the U.S. military’s version of events.

Posted by: Nugget | Mar 8 2005 10:14 utc | 13

Mission not accomplished after all: Pentagon – ‘We are still at war in Iraq’

Posted by: Nugget | Mar 8 2005 12:19 utc | 14

Simona Pari and Simona Torretta were also saved by Callipari (and the billions of lira in ransom – 6 million dollars paid for Sgrena, I have read..), though Berlusconi gave credit elsewhere. Callipari was allegedly devastated about the murder of Enzo Baldoni, another Italian journalist.
Baldoni’s blog, in Italian, last entry:
“La terra, il tepore, la morte.”
Bloghad
No state funeral for him.

Posted by: Blackie | Mar 8 2005 20:58 utc | 15

Huge Beirut protest backs Syria.
The crowd dwarfed previous opposition protests urging Syrian troops to leave.
Thousands answer Hezbollah call in Beirut

Posted by: Freedom is on the march | Mar 8 2005 21:22 utc | 16

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