March 13, 2005
EVER WONDER WHY SHE THOUGHT WE WERE SHOOTING AT HER? (via Jim Yates):
The hubris of Giuliana Sgrena: A naive Italian communist journalist got herself into big trouble in Baghdad (Jack Kelly, March 13, 2005, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
Giuliana Sgrena does not lack a sense of self-importance. The 56-year-old journalist for the Italian communist newspaper Il Manifesto thinks she knows so many deep dark secrets the U.S. military tried to shut her up permanently.
Sgrena went to Iraq to report on the heroic resistance to the American imperialists. Dutch journalist Harald Doornbos rode in the airplane to Baghdad with her."Be careful not to get kidnapped," Doornbos warned Sgrena.
"You don't understand the situation," she responded, according to Doornbos' account last week in Nederlands Dagblad. (Excerpts were translated into English and posted on a Dutch writer's Web blog.) "The Iraqis only kidnap American sympathizers. The enemies of the Americans have nothing to fear."
Despite the initially hysterical reaction to the incident, you just knew this story was going to turn on her. Posted by Orrin Judd at March 13, 2005 4:19 PM
It's looking more and more like a "Ransom of Red Chief" situation.
Posted by: Jed Roberts at March 13, 2005 5:29 PMHer story about picking up handsful of bullets inside the car was a pretty good tip-off. She has become such a national embarrassment that Italian government officials are publicly telling her to shut up. And Italians are not particularly prone to embarrassment.
Posted by: ghostcat at March 13, 2005 5:51 PM"The refugees ... would not listen to me," she said. "I had in front of me the accurate confirmation of the analysis of what the Iraqi society had become as a result of the war and they would throw their truth in my face." [ellipsis in original]
And here we have encapsulated the entire Leftist mindset— How dare reality intrude on my preconceived notions! Reality has to be wrong. Don't you know who I am?
And the next paragraph confirms it—
Sgrena's feelings were hurt that the refugees could be so curt to her: "I who had risked everything, challenging the Italian government who didn't want journalists to reach Iraq and the Americans who don't want our work to be witnessed of what really became of that country with the war and notwithstanding that which they call elections." (Maybe it reads better in Italian, or maybe she just can't write worth a damn.)
Posted by: Raoul Ortega at March 13, 2005 6:27 PMA lying liar and what she's lied about. The whole escapade. She's still living in the 1930's. I hope her wound hurts as small reward for the lives she's jeopardized.
Posted by: Genecis at March 13, 2005 7:32 PMWhen did Italy start mattering again? Not long ago, I watched a program which claimed that the Italian Naval Academy spends more time on teaching its cadets the social graces, like ballroom dancing and proper dress, than it does seamanship or engineering or strategy and tactics.
Posted by: Bart at March 13, 2005 8:39 PMWhy does the new Italian Navy have ships with glass bottoms?
So they can see the old Italian Navy.