Post by Moses on Apr 14, 2005 10:58:13 GMT -5
GIULIANA FINALLY GOES PRIME TIME
It took a few weeks, but finally an American news organization decided to look into the killing of Italian agent Nicola Calipari and the shooting of journalist Giuliana Sgrena. Well after the original story shocked the world and various follow-ups, especially among rightist bloggers, picked away at the journalist's claims, CBS News interviewed her. Her position immediately after the shooting was that the U.S. military was lying, that its story was false. She's repeated that account on CBS, which followed it with an interview with a U.S. soldier on how tough it is to man checkpoints in Iraq. Oddly, that was hardly "balance," because Giuliana insists there was no check point, there was no order to stop, there were no flashing white lights.
Here's what she said on CBS:
"Sgrena says she was less than a half-mile from the airport, when the shooting began: 'Seven hundred meters more, and we are in the airport, and we will be safe and we will be in the airport. And in the same moment, started the shooting.'
"Sgrena says that as the car rounded a turn, driving no faster than 30 miles an hour, it was hit by gunfire and at the same time, a bright light. She and Calipari were in the back seat. 'He [Calipari] pushed me down and with this, the body, covered me,' says Sgrena. 'He pushed me down in the car. And I was asking, "Why?" Nicola doesn't say, he doesn't speak it, doesn?t say nothing.'
"She says she heard Calipari's last breath: 'I realized that Nicola was dead, without saying anything, nothing, no word, nothing at all.'
"What did happen? It appears the Italians had come across a checkpoint set up by the 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry Regiment of the New York National Guard. The guardsmen had been in Iraq eight months, and one of their specialties was roadblock security. But it was a rainy night and two battalion soldiers had been killed by a bomb in the same area two days before.
"The Italian government says the Americans should've been prepared for Sgrena's approach, because they say U.S. commanders were informed about the rescue mission in advance. Sgrena told 60 Minutes Wednesday that at one point, her driver was on the phone updating their progress to Italian and American officers at the airport."
www.cbsnews.com
Italian and U.S. investigators are supposed to make their report in the next few days. The Italians were denied access to the car Sgena and Calipari had been in. President Bush reportedly apologized to Italian President Berlusconi when he was in Rome for the Pope's funeral. For the killing of Calipari, but not for the wounding of Giuliana.
mediachannel@democracyinaction.org
It took a few weeks, but finally an American news organization decided to look into the killing of Italian agent Nicola Calipari and the shooting of journalist Giuliana Sgrena. Well after the original story shocked the world and various follow-ups, especially among rightist bloggers, picked away at the journalist's claims, CBS News interviewed her. Her position immediately after the shooting was that the U.S. military was lying, that its story was false. She's repeated that account on CBS, which followed it with an interview with a U.S. soldier on how tough it is to man checkpoints in Iraq. Oddly, that was hardly "balance," because Giuliana insists there was no check point, there was no order to stop, there were no flashing white lights.
Here's what she said on CBS:
"Sgrena says she was less than a half-mile from the airport, when the shooting began: 'Seven hundred meters more, and we are in the airport, and we will be safe and we will be in the airport. And in the same moment, started the shooting.'
"Sgrena says that as the car rounded a turn, driving no faster than 30 miles an hour, it was hit by gunfire and at the same time, a bright light. She and Calipari were in the back seat. 'He [Calipari] pushed me down and with this, the body, covered me,' says Sgrena. 'He pushed me down in the car. And I was asking, "Why?" Nicola doesn't say, he doesn't speak it, doesn?t say nothing.'
"She says she heard Calipari's last breath: 'I realized that Nicola was dead, without saying anything, nothing, no word, nothing at all.'
"What did happen? It appears the Italians had come across a checkpoint set up by the 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry Regiment of the New York National Guard. The guardsmen had been in Iraq eight months, and one of their specialties was roadblock security. But it was a rainy night and two battalion soldiers had been killed by a bomb in the same area two days before.
"The Italian government says the Americans should've been prepared for Sgrena's approach, because they say U.S. commanders were informed about the rescue mission in advance. Sgrena told 60 Minutes Wednesday that at one point, her driver was on the phone updating their progress to Italian and American officers at the airport."
www.cbsnews.com
Italian and U.S. investigators are supposed to make their report in the next few days. The Italians were denied access to the car Sgena and Calipari had been in. President Bush reportedly apologized to Italian President Berlusconi when he was in Rome for the Pope's funeral. For the killing of Calipari, but not for the wounding of Giuliana.
mediachannel@democracyinaction.org