March 6, 2005
BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG LIES:
Italian journalist recalls her ordeal (ASSOCIATED PRESS, March 6, 2005)
The freed Italian hostage wounded by American troops at a checkpoint in Baghdad shortly after her release said in an article Sunday that her Iraqi captors had warned her U.S. forces "might intervene." [...]The U.S. military said the Americans used hand and arm signals, flashing white lights and fired warning shots to get the car to stop. But in an interview Saturday with Italian La 7 TV, Sgrena said "there was no bright light, no signal." She said the car was traveling at "regular speed."
NPR reported that the stretch of road they were driving on is called the Highway of Death precisely because it is so dangerous. No one thinks the Italians terribly competent at much of anything that occurs in a warzone, but the assertion that they were driving at regular speed is so obviously a lie that it seems fair to disregard everything else this communist activist says, even if she might be considered a legitimate target. Posted by Orrin Judd at March 6, 2005 12:43 PM
From my experience driving in Italia bella, regular speed could be 75 MPH ... or higher on a highway. I can't imagine their dawdling on the "highway of death!" It simply defies credulity.
Posted by: Genecis at March 6, 2005 1:02 PM"Regular speed" for Italians, as anyone who has ever been to Italy knows, is around twice the local speed limit and well above whatever is prudent. As in this case, it seems.
Posted by: JK at March 6, 2005 1:07 PMYeah, what's "regular speed" on the Highway of Death?
Posted by: David Hill, The Bronx at March 6, 2005 1:39 PMI read on another website that she was quoted in the Italian newspapers that there was a bright ligt shone on them shortly before the shooting took place. The newspaper also quoted that Italian officer killed was shot once through the temple. Doesn't sound right to me. Also if the US wanted her so dead, then she would be dead. They not only had a chance at the checkpoint but she was also operated on in an American hospital. The whole mess smells very very fishy to me.
I think we are seeing the LLL Abu Ghraib of the post-election MSM reporting starting here. I would bet that she and her cohorts play this for all it is worth and then some - and not to get at the truth. In Abu Ghraib Sy Hersh and his followers did not mention that the military was already putting together the courts martial for the personnel involved and the officers had been removed from the offices who were involved. They still haven't mentioned that this went on before the articles and reports came out. That is what I think will happen with this story and our MSM will fall right in line in support of it.
Posted by: dick at March 6, 2005 2:20 PMI couldn't agree more. Here's an excerpt of Ms. Sgrena's twisted logic from the NYT:
"The fact that the Americans don't want negotiations to free the hostages is known," Ms. Sgrena said in a telephone interview with Sky TG24 television. "The fact that they do everything to prevent the adoption of this practice to save the lives of people held hostages, everybody knows that. So I don't see why I should rule out that I could have been the target."
As a previous poster noted, if the Americans wanted her dead, she would be dead right now. However you look at it, she's just preaching to the converted anyway.
Posted by: at March 6, 2005 3:48 PMLet's keep the light shining on her.
Posted by: David Hill, The Bronx at March 6, 2005 4:27 PM"No! No! Don't race towards the light!"
Posted by: ratbert at March 7, 2005 8:52 AM