‘That’s me, a marine, a murderer of civilians’

by Jon Glackin - Street Seen Sun Mar 13, 2005 12:38 streetseen at hotmail dot co dot uk

'Street Seen' will be publishing Giuliana Sgrena account of her kidnapping and subsequent release... Not surprisingly mainstream media appear to be ignoring her statements. We have posted it up on our webspace too.

by redjade Sun Mar 13, 2005 14:15

→ not just ordinary GI's as was said previously by the Pentagon. hmmmm...

-- --
Iraq Shooting Tied to Envoy's Visit
- Negroponte Security Detail Fired at Italian Reporter's Car
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A23128-2005Mar10?language=printer

The U.S. Army personnel who fired at the car carrying an Italian journalist to the Baghdad airport last Friday night were part of extra security provided for U.S. Ambassador John D. Negroponte, who was expected to travel that same road, according to a U.S. Embassy official in Baghdad.

by redjade Sun Mar 13, 2005 14:44

Monday, March 7th, 2005
Il Manifesto Founder on Sgrena Shooting: This Was an Attack on Unembedded Journalism

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/07/1449232

AMY GOODMAN: We're talking to Luciana Castellina about the death of the military intelligence chief who saved the life of Giuliana Sgrena by throwing his body on top of hers in a car as U.S. troops opened fire. You had said that you don't think that she was targeted, but Giuliana Sgrena herself has raised serious questions about this in interviews and in her writing. You have spoken to Giuliana?

LUCIANA CASTELLINA [ one the founder of Giuliana Sgrena's newspaper - Il Manifesto ]: Yes, of course, I have spoken with Giuliana, of course. Giuliana herself she says, I don't know. She only -- I mean, what is important of what Giuliana said, that they were not at the checkpoint, that they were not going fast, that they were already within the area of the airport, and that then there is another agent of the secret services which was with Giuliana in the same car and who said the same thing, and he confirmed that the American authorities had been perfectly informed. By the way, it would have been impossible otherwise. So, again, I come back, it doesn't mean that it was deliberate, but it means that it was -- that there are shootings against human beings made like that without thinking twice. You see? This is a terrible thing. We know now about Giuliana, because she was Italian, because we had an important man of the secret services which had been killed. But how many others have been killed in the same conditions? How many? Hundreds or thousands, perhaps. That is what comes out from this, what happened.

by redjade Sun Mar 13, 2005 15:02

''Negroponte usually traveled to the airport by helicopter but a hailstorm forced him to go by motorcade.

"The ambassador traveled past the checkpoint at about 7:30 that night and I believe the shooting took place later," he said.''

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=571544

→ But....

''....the checkpoint was a temporary one and may have been difficult to see at night. The shooting took place about 8:55 p.m....''

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A23128-2005Mar10?language=printer

----

So, if the checkpoint was temporary and created for Negroponte and Negroponte had already passed through, why was the checkpoint still there?

Chaotic and stupid things happen in war, but there still questions that need answers.

by righteous pragmatist Mon Mar 14, 2005 10:48

The soldiers at the checkpoint doubtlessly believed that the car approaching them was driven by a suicide bomber and that's why they opened fire.
There was obviously a communication failure between the Italians and the Americans.
If the American commanders had been told by the Italians of what they were doing (spinelessly paying ransoms to terrorists) then this thing would never have happened.
For the journalist to claim that this was a deliberate attempt to kill her is just bullshit.
She went to Iraq to do a hatchet job on the U.S. in the first place.

by Ali H. Mon Mar 14, 2005 11:41

Perhaps you've forgotten the Iran Contra affair and the activities of Cl. Oliver North?

Weapons were given to the Mullahs in Iran in exchange for the release of US hostages held in Iran and the proceeds were used to fund a bloody CIA-backed insurgancy against the Sandinistas. It all happened just in time for Ronald Reagan to claim the credit ...

Obviously it only suits the right to have journalism which suits their agenda. So much for a free press.

by righteous pragmatist Mon Mar 14, 2005 19:38

Every Islamic terrorist since then thought the US were a soft touch.. Clinton should have gone to war in 1993 when the WTC was bombed the first time, then in Somalia he that Al-Qeada had trained African gunmen to shoot down Black Hawks and he ordered a pull out, the Khobar towers are blown up in Saudi Arabia killing American troops, then the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Africa, then the USS Cole..then 9/11.
Everytime you hold off fighting these terrorists the bigger the next attack.
Look at the Spaniards the terrorists bomb their trains in Madrid, Zapatero pulls the troops and then we find the terrorists had plans to kill their top judges.
The Italians pay off hostage takers and suprise superise more hostages are taken.
The British public gets a lump in their throat over Ken Bigley and then Margaret Hassan is captured.
Sun Tzu or whatever his name was said something about striking the enemy where he is weakest?

by Ali H. Tue Mar 15, 2005 09:55

"So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and to strike at what is weak."

Obviously you and Americas generals know very little of Sun Tzu, whereas Americas enemies demonstrate a perfect understanding of his works. If they did perhaps they would have had more success.

"The peak efficiency of knowledge and strategy is to make conflict unnecessary."

As for striking at the enemy where he is weak, Al Quaeda know where America is weak, whereas the Americans don't even know where Bin Laden is after four years of war!

"There has never been a protracted war from which a country has benefited."

by jeff Tue Mar 15, 2005 15:13

Why do I never ead you condemning Abu Ghraib? You probably believe it was ´just a few bad apples´, just like what the Neo Cons would like you to believe.

The current amount of proof showing torture is now US policy will probably be negated by yourself as well,´either as ´necessary and brilliant re-evaluation of so called international law which doesn´ñt exist any longer because that is what George Bush told me think , unless it has to do with bombing to smithereens countries who have wmds but then don´t but should aprreciate all the liberation we have done despite killing, sorry , collateral damage which is unfortunate but everything will be alright because your economy and thereafter your social policy will be decided by succesful Harvard Business school graduates because everything that once belonged to Iraq now has been sold to humane, Western private enterprise corporations...´Wheew!

Get yourself a job in the Sindo, you write a bit better than BOC, and that Supersized sack of garbage gets paid loads to do feck all ( write pompous articles about defending the west and cooking snacks on a Sunday...)

by jeff Tue Mar 15, 2005 17:58

...U.S Torture is completly untrue, especially as the press is run by liberal,leftist, armchgair generals...

yawn.

by jeff Tue Mar 15, 2005 18:06

Did the report not seem to indicate( language is something that is carefully constructedm just ask poet laurete Donald Rumsfeld) that the Bush adminstartion ignored the threat from al Qaida, that previous intelligence people under Clinton had tried to bring it to Bush's attention, but to no avail?

And, in 1993, was it al Qaida that attempted to bomb rthe world trade centre? Was it not independent operators namely Ramzi Yousef, who is now incarcerated in the U.S?

Your poster boy George and sexy poet Rummy are not the infallible pop stars you would have us believe they are. Get out more, meet a loose woman/man/whatver at a bar, as long as it's adult and consensual.

Go to Amsterdam and 'expand' your mind. Give yourself a break. Having such a closed, doctrinaire mind will cause your appendix to burst...

by Rooster Tue Mar 15, 2005 20:54

then she deserved to get slotted.

by jeff Tue Mar 15, 2005 21:25

explain why if she said (unspecified) she deserved to get 'slotted'-what, like, shot?

Explain yourself.

by Rooster Wed Mar 16, 2005 00:54

If thats what her sort are writing about the troops then you can't be surprised when they show her little or no mercy.

by jeff Wed Mar 16, 2005 17:17

She claims that this is what a marine told her, as do many Marines, G.Is, etc serving in Iraq. Indymedia has run a story showing how an ex US Seargant has written to the Taoiseach condemning this war.

Your heros in the Bush admin claim to defend free speech, etc. I am glad you said 'she deserved to get slotted', because you have revealed the true feelings of pro war psychopaths like yourself. Freedom of speech, just watch what you say.

Except all she was doing was reporting what one Marine told her, and for that, according to you, she 'deserved to get slotted.'

Thank you, Rooster, you are a prime example of how sick, perverse and evil people like you are. You claim to support democracy, but only on your terms. You are a shallow hypocrite, and your words and deeds will curse you.

You have upset no one here with your flippancy, you have condemned your own self to a life a falsehood, because bad words betray a bad mind, and a bad mind will trap you in your own hell.

:0)

by jeff Wed Mar 16, 2005 17:52

Rooster is just a troll, if there was an argument here against rapists, he'd probably say, no they are alright, hooray for rape.

I love trolls, they make tthe opposition look stupid.

by Rooster Thu Mar 17, 2005 05:12

Th paragraph below shows the type of stuff published by this paper, hardly balanced is it???
There is a war on terror on here and the propaganda war is just as important as the one on the front line.





The titles of Sgrena’s recent articles for Il Manifesto, including “Ten thousand Iraqis in US and British prisons” (Dec. 29, 2004); “Two thousand victims in Fallujah” (Nov. 26, 2004); “Napalm raid on Fallujah?” (Nov. 23, 2004); “The death throes of Fallujah” (Nov. 13, 2004); “Stop the massacre” (Nov. 12, 2004); and “Interview with Iraqi Women tortured at Abu Graib,” show that neither she nor the paper pulls any punches when it comes to criticism of U.S. policy and conduct.

by jeff Sat Mar 19, 2005 14:24

She deserves to be shot for it, then? That's your logic, you cancerous little man...

As usual, you glibly ignore the fact that you claim to be supportive of a war that is supposed to defend freedom, but you sound just klike an Islamofascist. Hey, you cannot even justify why you think it is alright for a reporter to be shot for working for a communist newspaper. Instead, you resort to calling me by my full name, a tactic used by clasmates of mines when I was in school( I have been slagged for my name, given the 'British' sound of it.)

You are a truly patehtic and worthless human chicken.

by redjade Fri Mar 25, 2005 16:01

The U.S. military command in Iraq has blocked two Italian policemen from examining the car in which an Italian intelligence agent was shot to death in Baghdad, a newspaper said Wednesday.

Corriere della Sera said that the policemen were about to leave when the Italian Embassy in Baghdad received an order from the U.S. command on Monday to abort the mission for security concerns.

The embassy in Baghdad reportedly alerted Rome authorities, who called off the trip.

The car, a Toyota Corolla, is reportedly still in American hands, at Baghdad airport where it was originally rented.

http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-740304.php

by kintama Fri Mar 25, 2005 19:16

that will teach them not to pull their troops out of the 'coalition' of the 'willing'.you just dont f*"k with the Great Satan. It does make you wonder how they treat the enemy if this is how ex friends are treated.
Bit surprised that the rednecks were not more careful after the vicious couple of weeks sentence handed out to one of their brave comrades for forcing a young Iraqi into a river at gunpoint where he subsequently drowned.
Bit surprised also, now that as I understood it democracy has been brought to Iraq ,that it is an occupying force who make decisions on what should be part of an investigation by local authorities.