Uproar in Italy after attack on journalist
By
John Catalinotto
Published Mar 9, 2005 3:59 PM
Will the Pentagon get away with murder
again? Or will the U.S. gunfire that killed a top Italian intelligence agent and
nearly killed journalist Giuliana Sgrena arouse a mass movement in Italy that
forces the government to pull its troops out of Iraq?
That would be the
most important outcome of these criminal acts by the U.S. military in what has
been a criminal war and a criminal occupation. A look at the background will
help in following the events as they develop.
Sgrena, a journalist for the
progressive Italian daily, Il Manifesto, had been writing articles from Iraq
until early February. Her articles reported U.S. occupation atrocities inflicted
on the Iraqis. She wrote of the horrible treatment of Iraqi prisoners, what
appeared to be the U.S. use of napalm in Falluja, and the deaths of many obvious
non-combatants there.
On Feb. 4 she was kidnapped by a resistance group
named "Mujahedin without Borders." Sgrena's own report was that her kidnappers
believed she was a spy, as she was asking everyone questions. In the course of
the month they held her captive, Sgrena appeared on a video pleading for her
release and asking the Italian government to withdraw its troops from
Iraq.
A movement grew up in Italy to demand her release, along with that
of French journalist Florence Aubenas and an Iraqi driver, Hussein Hanoun. The
movement that made these demands on the Iraqi resistance forces was also against
the war. Millions of Italians identified with Sgrena both on human terms, as
happens when someone in danger is reported on daily, and because she was a
courageous anti-war journalist.
On Feb. 19, some half-million people
demonstrated in Rome demanding the release of Sgrena and the withdrawal of
Italian troops from Iraq.
Role of the Italian government
The
right-wing government headed by media magnate Silvio Berlusconi has aligned
Italy's foreign policy with that of the U.S. and the Bush administration. He has
kept 3,000 Italian troops in Iraq--mostly away from the combat zone--despite the
overwhelming opposition of the Italian population to the U.S. war there. His
government is vulnerable on the war issue as well as economic issues, but so far
he has managed to stay in office since he won the 2001 elections.
Had he
succeeded in using the Italian state power to bring Sgrena back to Italy
unharmed, Berlusconi would have emerged in as good a political position as
possible under the circumstances. He would have shown mercy for a political
enemy and independence from his U.S. allies regarding Italian affairs. Italy's
foreign intelligence service, SISMI, was given the responsibility of arranging
the turn over of Sgrena.
SISMI has a history of working hand-in-hand with
the CIA against socialist countries or against rebellious countries in the
"Third World." In this case, the SISMI agent in charge of the operation, Nicola
Calipari, was the one to make arrangements for Sgrena's release with the Iraqi
resistance, something Washington looks unkindly upon. Calipari wound up killed
by U.S. troops within a mile of the Baghdad airport and the plane back to
Rome.
U.S. forces and journalists
In Iraq, the U.S. military
has tolerated journalists as long as they were "embedded," that is, as long as
what they saw was controlled by the U.S. generals. Others have faced more than
the usual dangers.
On April 8, 2003, U.S. tank fire killed Reuters
cameraman Taras Protsyuk and a Spanish television network Telecinco cameraman,
Jose Couso, in the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad. The same day, Al-Jazeera
television reporter Tariq Ayoub was killed on the other side of the Tigris River
by a rocket fired from a plane.
Since then at least 63 journalists have
died in Iraq. CNN chief news executive Eason Jordan said at the Davos meeting on
Jan. 27 in Switzerland that perhaps a dozen weren't just collateral damage but
were killed on purpose by U.S. fire. That remark cost him his job.
U.S.
military authorities have even blamed media coverage for the Army's failure to
recruit new volunteers. According to the New York Times of March 4, "Top
Pentagon officials acknowledged that the graphic images of casualties from Iraq
and the obvious danger of serving there had caused many parents to advise their
children to avoid joining the military now."
In Sgrena's case, the
Pentagon considered her a communist reporter, causing trouble for them in Iraq.
Sgrena herself has given two reasons why U.S. forces might have deliberately
targeted her. First, because she had information for a story that they would not
want to see published. Second, to punish the Italian government for negotiating
with the Iraqi resistance over possible ransom payments.
Sgrena's captors
had warned her that the U.S. forces didn't want her to return safely to Italy:
"They declared that they were committed to the fullest to freeing me, but I had
to be careful--'the Amer icans don't want you to go back.'"
What
happened on the road?
After the shooting on the airport road, the
Pentagon claimed that the car had been speeding toward a checkpoint, that U.S.
troops had flashed lights warning the car to stop, that the driver ignored their
signals and that they only then peppered the car with hundreds of rounds. The
story sounded as unlikely as the one told by the New York City undercover cops
who killed Amadou Diallo. They claimed he pulled a wallet that looked like a
weapon before they fired 41 shots.
"I only remember fire," Sgrena wrote.
"At that point, a rain of fire and bullets hit us, shutting up forever the
cheerful voices of a few minutes earlier. The driver started yelling that we
were Italians. 'We are Italians, we are Italians.' Nicola Calipari threw himself
on me to protect me and immediately, I repeat, immediately I heard his last
breath as he was dying on me."
No checkpoint, no lights, no warning.
Another SISMI agent, who had been driving the car, backed up her story. Even the
Italian government agreed and demanded an investigation and an explanation from
the U.S. The Italian foreign minister, Gian franco Fini, the head of a
neo-fascist party, refuses to allow that the U.S. might have ambushed the
Italians, but even he demands something more than the utter contempt Washington
has offered its Italian ally.
Sgrena's partner, Pierre Scolari, suggested
the incident was intentional. "I hope the Italian government does something
because either this was an ambush, as I think, or we are dealing with imbeciles
or terrorized kids who shoot at anyone," he said.
It's true that hundreds
if not thousands of Iraqis have been killed by troops at roadblocks who were
frightened that the next car bomb might get them, and whose orders of engagement
allow the murder of civilians. But it's also true that the U.S., which was in
control of the airport and the only road to it, knew that Sgrena had been
released and that a special plane was waiting to take off for Italy within
minutes. More damning information is expected to come out.
Italians are
honoring Sgrena on International Women's Day, March 8, and there have been
vigils and sit-ins at the U.S. Embassy in Rome and consulates in other cities. A
mass demonstration is set for March 19 in Rome against the occupation and war.
It is these actions that will determine if Berlusconi follows the Spanish
ex-Prime Minister José María Aznar into the dustbin of history for
his support of U.S. aggressive wars.
To read Sgrena's articles in
English, see www.ilmanifesto.it/pag/sgrena/en/.
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
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