The Sgrena Gambit (UPDATED and CORRECTED)

This morning, I woke up to the news that Giuliana Sgrena was disputing the US military’s version of the events that lead to the death of Italian intelligence officer Nicola Calipari.

ROME — The Italian journalist wounded by American troops in Iraq after her release by insurgents rejected the U.S. military's account of the shooting and declined Sunday to rule out the possibility she was deliberately targeted

Meanwhile, an autopsy performed on the agent who died trying to save Giuliana Sgrena (search) reportedly showed he was struck in the temple by a single round and died instantly as the car carrying Sgrena sped to the Baghdad airport.

God rest Mr. Calipari. Too bad he had to give his life to save such a one as this.

From Reuters:

Speaking from her hospital bed where she is being treated, Sgrena told Sky Italia TV it was possible the soldiers had targeted her because Washington opposes Italy's dealings with kidnappers that may include ransom payments.

"The United States doesn't approve of this (ransom) policy and so they try to stop it in any way possible."

(Boy, I’m glad I went to church before I read that steaming pile.)

Don’t you love the “logic” and the narcissism? The soldiers allegedly got the word from on high to kill her all-important self after the ransom was paid because Washington is opposed to ransom payments. And killing her would somehow stop Italy and other Coalition Partners from paying ransom for hostages taken by terrorists.

But if the Americans knew that it was her in the car and were trying to kill her, one would think that every one in the car would be dead, since,

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 [ed. note probably more like a floodlight] 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.

So Ms. Sgrena, wounded though she was with a dead man lying across her, just *knew* no assistance was called. She got to the *American* hospital somehow, just by a turn of luck. And, the soldiers just *knew* there were Italians in the car—and her all-important, targeted-for-assassination self specifically—so, of course, weapons and cell phones are totally innocuous items, even in a war zone in which bombs are constantly activated by cell phones.

BTW, does this look like a car that received three to four hundred .50 caliber rounds to you?

Poor Mr. Calipari and his family. I won’t go so far as to say that his death is on Ms. Sgrena’s head, though some have their doubts. I will say that she is using his dead body to twist the incident in favor of her preconceived ideology: that the Americans and their troops are evil.

The question still remains, however: did the Italians let the Americans know that this car was on its way to Baghdad? We shall see.

(Thanks to Noble Eagle)

UPDATE (Correction) : Michael King discovers that the above photo is not the car in question.

An Iraqi driver stands near his damaged vehicle at the site of the kidnapping of an Italian journalist outside al-Nahrain University in central Baghdad, February 4, 2005. Giuliana Sgrena was snatched from the street as she conducted interviews near the university, police sources and diplomats said. Gunmen pulled up alongside her vehicle, forced her driver and an Iraqi journalist with her out of the vehicle at gunpoint and then drove off with Sgrena, the sources said. The driver said that the gunmen hit his car as they were rushing away from the scene following the kidnapping. (Akram Saleh/Reuters)

I'd sure like to see a photo of the real one. All other comments stand, however.

UPDATE: Someone at Roger's had this question: what was the caliber of the round that killed Mr. Calipari? Surely it couldn't have been a whole .50 caliber round, because if it were--not to be too graphic--it would have probably taken out Ms. Sgrena as well. Maybe it was a *piece* of a round.