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Jewish World Review March 10, 2005 / 29 Adar I 5765
Dan Abrams
Italian journalist's hypothesis is absurd
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com |
The White House was right to call it "absurd" The suggestion from the Italian journalist and former hostage that the U.S. military intentionally tried to kill her as her car was speeding towards the Baghdad airport.
It's almost unworthy of a response, except that since she was a hostage, she is now using that position and platform to spout out anti-American views.
Giuliana Sgrena, a reporter for a communist newspaper in Italy, was taken hostage in Baghdad on February 4. She was released last Friday into the custody of three Italian security officers after the Italian government apparently paid a multimillion-dollar ransom (at least according to the Italian press). All four were in a car on their way to the Baghdad airport when according to Sgrena, the car suddenly came under attack out of nowhere.
One of the officers in her convoy covered her with his body so she wouldn't get hurt. That officer was killed and the other two were wounded. The car was traveling on a road known as one of the most dangerous in Iraq.
The military says that when the car didn't slow down after troops made numerous attempts to alert the passengers. There was a check point ahead, and the military had no choice but to open fire.
So first and foremost, what possible benefit could the United States get out of shooting at a high profile Italian hostage who has just been released and is on her way out of the country? Her theory is just preposterous: Sgrena has told the press that her Iraqi captors warned her that the U.S. might intervene in her release and she suggested the military may have targeted her car specifically because the U.S. opposes any negotiations with kidnappers in Iraq.
Oh, so someone ordered she would be assassinated because a ransom was paid? The money had already been paid to the kidnappers, but the U.S. wanted to teach Italians a lesson by killing her?
Look, she has a right to be angry: Her car was shot at, she was injured, and a man who was instrumental in her release was killed. She deserves some answers.
Unfortunately, she's probably not going to be satisfied with the most likely answer there was no communication between the two countries. Italy wanted to keep the U.S. in the dark about the ransom payment because the Italians knew we'd disapprove. So when her car sped toward the airport, it's likely U.S. forces even realized the Italians were on their way to Baghdad airport.
If it's really answers she wants rather than just a soapbox, then she's only hurting the effort because now her credibility is at issue.
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