Sgrena's story just doesn't add up

Several inconsistencies remain in the case of alleged kidnap victim and terrorist sympathizer Giuliana Sgrena. First of all -- did the military signal the car?

From the UK Guardian:

Italian reconstruction of the incident is significantly different. Sgrena told colleagues the vehicle was not travelling fast and had already passed several checkpoints on its way to the airport. The Americans shone a flashlight at the car and then fired between 300 and 400 bullets at if from an armoured vehicle. Rather than calling immediately for assistance for the wounded Italians, the soldiers' first move was to confiscate their weapons and mobile phones and they were prevented from resuming contact with Rome for more than an hour.

Here Sgrena claims the Americans shone a flashlight at them...but the BBC reports:

"There was no bright light, no signal," she told Italian La 7 TV in response to a US military account.

The BBC also reports:

Mr Fini said the vehicle carrying the released hostage and agents was well-lit to facilitate checks.

However, it stopped after a powerful light was shone on it from the roadside and the shooting began immediately, without warning, he said.

Sgrena is now making even more absurd accusations.

Now Giuliana Sgrena, who writes for the anti-American newspaper Il Manifesto, insists that U.S. forces used a tank to gun her and her entourage down.

"A tank started to shoot at us without any sign or any light," Sgrena maintained to reporters on Monday. "It was not a checkpoint, so I can't explain it."

Three to four hundred rounds from a tank -- and she hints that they might have been trying to kill her. Does any rational person believe that if a US marine shot 300 to 400 rounds from any weapon, let alone a tank, at a car, trying to kill the people inside, that anyone in that car would live to whine about it?

In her Communist rag, Il Manifesto, Sgrena gives her version of the event.

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.

They were going fast enough that they almost lost control, yet she and her apologists claim the car was not going too fast.

Another problem is the absence of the other occupants of the car. Not only do we not know their names, we don't know what happened to them, nor their relationship to Sgrena. I find it very suspect that she claims Calipari's first words to her when he found her were:

“Giuliana, Giuliana. I am Nicola, don't worry I spoke to Gabriele Polo. Stay calm. You are free.”

Gabriele Polo is the editor in chief of Il Manifesto. Why would a representative of the Italian government make such a remark as he greets her?

CNN reports:

An autopsy found Calipari, an experienced negotiator who had previously secured the release of other Italian hostages in Baghdad, was killed by a single shot to the head and died instantly.

Was the bullet analyzed to see if actually came from the Americans? Could Calipari have been set up, and murdered by Sgrena's own people in order to stage a scene that would embarrass America? The other two occupants of the car might have information -- but where are they? Remember, there is still quite a bit of speculation about whether she was even kidnapped in the first place.

Coverage: Michelle Malkin (also here), Hyscience, Wizbang, The Jawa Report, InTheBullpen,

Posted by Jack Lewis at March 8, 2005 10:39 AM