"There was no checkpoint........."

[raysr]

"Giuliana Sgrena Sets The Record Straight
by Jeremy Scahill


Giuliana Sgrena would probably be the first to say that to focus on her case would be to miss the point on the extent of the daily, horrific violence Iraqis face at the hands of US soldiers. Sgrena is the Italian war correspondent that was shot by US forces as she was en route to the Baghdad airport after being freed from a month of being held hostage by an Iraqi resistance group. She knows better than most that if she and the senior Italian intelligence official killed by US troops as he tried to save her were merely Iraqi civilians, this would be even more of a non-story than it already is in the US press.

With Terri Schiavo and Michael Jackson to cover, it is pretty difficult for most media outlets to find the time to report on any of the more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians killed since the beginning of the invasion 2 years ago. That¹s why cases like Sgrena¹s become so important‹because they represent a chance to show the world that part of the reality Iraqis face every day of their lives: They are kidnapped in alarming numbers; they are shot by trigger-happy US soldiers; their deaths are justified--if they are even acknowledged--by US officials floating flimsy cover stories that would never stand up in any US court (except perhaps a military court).
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0328-33.htm

[Dharma_Bum]

1. I agree but...

First I must say that I AGREE with this article in its entirety but
I'd like to add a few tid-bits to broaden people's views:

I was an Infantryman in Iraq (sent via the Army's stop-loss policy) and am more than experienced when dealing with Checkpoints and 'snap' traffic control points.

It's such a hard position to try to put one's self into ...
The U.S. soldiers are indeed 'trigger happy' ... I've seen this in action ... but I think that fear is the MAIN factor. Not to be an excuse but I have never been so frightened in my life than running checkpoints at night, that is, never quite knowing if the next vehicle is going to be a Vehicle Born IED or what.

The intel. between these two countries failed ...
The media shook it off for the Shaivo case ...

But as the article points out ... this is just ONE person killed because of failure to disseminate information properly...

...THERE ARE SOOOO MANY MORE CIVILIANS AND UNREPORTED PERSONS!
----------------------------------------------------------

[ebayfool]

2. More accurately, what the article points out is they were not on a ...

regular road w/a checkpoint, they were on a secured road that runs from the Green Zone straight to the airport - not self-defense, no checkpoint, NOT a failure to disseminate information properly. Did you read the article?

snip/
According to Klein, when Calipari was killed and Sgrena wounded, they were on a secured road that can only be accessed through the heavily-fortified Green Zone and is reserved exclusively for top foreign embassy and US officials. 'It's a completely separate road, actually a Saddam-era road, it would seem, that allowed his vehicles to pass directly from the airport to his palace,' says Klein. 'And now that is the secured route between the U.S. military base at the airport and the U.S. controlled Green Zone and the U.S. embassy.'

'It was a VIP road, for embassy people, not for normal people,' Sgrena told Klein. 'I was only able to be on that road because I was with people from the Italian embassy.'

So when Calipari, the Italian security intelligence officer, picked up Sgrena from the abandoned vehicle where her captors left her, they drove directly to that road via Green Zone.

[malmapus]

3. Can agree with you there bud

Not an Iraq vet but ran checkpoints in Haiti '94 and was same shit different mud, instead of IEDs though we had the "secret police" of the guy we just deposed still running around. Sadly enough we lost one of our own when one of their trucks went through a check point and open fired.

But yeah, fear is a big factor.


Welcome home and to the DU

[Swamp Rat]

4. I'm glad you are safe at home, and I hope you are being treated well.

My cousin was sent back again! :mad: He says it is HELL over there and many of his fellow soldiers do not believe in this war at all and want to come home.

I believe it was an assassination attempt on Giuliana Sgrena because she was reporting war crimes. The COs KNEW who she was, and they knew she and her Italian rescuers were headed to the airport. I believe that the soldiers who actually fired on the vehicle were not informed (on purpose), therefore giving the people who ordered it (Negroponte? Rumsfeld?) plausible deniability.

They will blame the soldiers, who are also victims in this illegal war. :grr:

http://www.ilmanifesto.it/pag/sgrena/en/

[oblivious]

6. This journalist was just arrested for having photos of Fallugha.

I guess they regard anyone showing what happened there as the enemy.

Al-Arabia correspondent detained with Falluja films

BAGHDAD, March 28 (KUNA) -- Iraqi police have arrested a correspondent of Al-Arabia television network with film tapes shot in the town of Falluja in his possession at Baghdad International Airport. Wael Issam was detained at the airport, Network workers said, but failed to clarify if he was leaving the country or coming in.

"Al-Arabia bureau in Baghdad has no information of Issam's movements in Iraq. He might be working on his own," a station worker, who preferred anonymity. said without elaboration.

http://www.kuna.net.kw/Home/Story.aspx?Language=en&DSNO=717698

[Judi Lynn]

7. The truth about Fallujah is going to have to come out someday.

I pray it's during _{George W. Bush's} lifetime. It would be a calamity, a total infamy if it worked out otherwise. He should not be able to blow off all those murders.

[Higans]

5. If Bush had secured the Explosives at Al Kaka......

Then maby the troops wouldn't have to worry about car bombs as much.

[newyawker99]

9. Hi Dharma_Bum!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Harlequin]

8. this sucks...