U.S. Fires on Freed Journalist Giuliana Sgrena
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James Joyner | Friday, March 4, 2005 |
U.S. Fires on Freed Journalist (Fox News - AP)
A freed Italian hostage was injured and an Italian secret service agent killed Friday after a U.S. armored vehicle fired on a car in which they were riding in Iraq, two Italian news agencies reported. The Apcom and ANSA news agencies said that Giuliana Sgrena, a reporter for the communist daily Il Manifesto, was in a hospital in Iraq with a shoulder injury. The shooting occurred at a roadblock while the car was heading to the airport, the reports said.
Talk about your bad luck.
Rusty Shackleford has the background for those who didn’t realize she’d been captured in the first place.
Update: Rusty and Michelle Malkin point out a minor omission from the AP report than The fact that the car in question was speeding toward an American checkpoint. MSNBC adds:
The U.S. military said the car was speeding as it approached a coalition checkpoint in western Baghdad at 8:55 p.m. It said soldiers shot into the engine block only after trying to warn the driver to stop by âhand and arm signals, flashing white lights and firing warning shots.â
Talk about your stupid.
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia.
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Damn Fox News for running an AP story. The "Iraqi Hospital" is a US Army hospital. All these reports are being channelled through the Italian Communist Daily Il Manifesto which spins the story in such a way as to blame the US and not the idiot driver who was trying to run through a US checkpoint outside the Baghdad airport.
Eason Jordan, eat your hear out......
The US forces have done what it does best--shoot at anything that moves.No surprises here.
More like "shoot at anything that refuses to stop when so ordered at a military checkpoint." But I suppose that may be too nuanced for some people.
The U.S. military said the car was speeding as it approached a coalition checkpoint in western Baghdad at 8:55 p.m. It said soldiers shot into the engine block only after trying to warn the driver to stop by âhand and arm signals, flashing white lights and firing warning shots.â
That sounds just like just another day on the Autobahn.
The NPR report at 5 p.m. with Sylvia Pulgioli had the full account, complete with the fact that it may have been coalition forces, not U.S. forces, that fired the fatal shot.
Still, the fact that they were speeding near a checkpoint was pretty dumb.
Pulgioli said it might be considered a "diplomatic incident," which I found somewhat funny.
Not one headline will read:
Car Speeding Toward Checkpoint Fired Upon By Troops...
Well of course if the US military "said" it happened that way we have no reason to believe that an experienced journalist would "speed" recklessly towards a Military check point.
The addendum that the car was âspeedingâ towards the checkpoint, mindlessly ignoring armed troops waving hands, using light signals, and firing warning shots is simply too convenient to be taken at face value.
Iâm not suggesting that the US troops were maliciously âtargetingâ the journalist or offering any tin-foil hat conspiracies other then to suggest that there is something that doesnât sound right about the explanation of the troops. I am not inclined to believe either side of this story frankly.
Im not suggesting that the US troops were maliciously targeting the journalist or offering any tin-foil hat conspiracies other then to suggest that there is something that doesnt sound right about the explanation of the troops. I am not inclined to believe either side of this story frankly.
Ah, the Eason Jordan crawfish defense.
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