There’s the rub; there doesn’t seem to be anything here that would warrant a high level cover-up. Of course, anything is possible, but at worst, this seems to be an accidental shooting.

It seems to me that this most likely is an issue that revolves around “co-operation,” but not in the sense that you have it as.

The WAPO article alludes to the fact that the Italian people will not tolerate anything but a complete vindication of Calipari, in keeping with his hero status.

Suppose he did screw up, and the car was shot up because the soldiers were acting within the authority of their rules of engagement. In order to ” co-operate,” with Berlusconi, and help him out politically, the Bush administration would be compelled to sell its soldiers down the river and prosecute them. If this is the case, kudos to the administration for doing the right thing and not taking the easy way out.

After all, if the soldiers did act improperly, it’s easier for Bush to let them take the fall, while at the same time appeasing a staunch ally.

I mean, what else is there? Is there some suggestion that this was a deliberate homicide? If one didn’t know the background on this, it wouldn’t be difficult to come to this assumption, given some of the coverage in both blogs and the media.

I don’t really know what else, if anything, there is Mike - one would think that if there was nothing untoward going on, if everything was in fact above board, and if there was full and open co-operation during the joint investigation we wouldn’t be seeing the Italian government taking this stance…. as you say, they have been fairly staunch allies in this.

The camera angle intrigues me, call it my inherent distrust in the lot of them based on the way this whole thing has rolled out if you want but I’d still like to see shots of the entire vehicle - maybe we’ll get the opportunity for that now that the Italians have it.

If this is just another one of those unfortunate friendly fire incidents then they should fess up - it’s gonna cause them grief but it will be less grief than any sort of white wash would result in.

There exists the possibility that the investigation showed that the soldiers acted properly and it was a screw up on the part of the Italian group/agents and the US is ‘being nice about that’ by not bringing it to light - but that, in the end, could still cause them grief.

Your idea of wandering down the tin foil hat conspiracy road looking for the meaning of life in crop circles found along the way — which is where you seem to be going with the infrared bullseye (wouldn’t lasers have been cooler?) and CIA bodywork — doesn’t do you justice balbulican. I’m not painting conspiracies, I’m asking questions :-)

I have to say after following this story and reading the article that Sgrena wrote it would appear what happened is what’s been happening the whole time the US army has been in Iraq, people getting shot that arent’s supposed to. I don’t really think there’s any conspiracy, I don’t believe the U.S. soldiers actually target civilians, alot of the time they just can’t tell the difference, or get too nervous to wait an find out. I think if the soldiers that shot up the vehicle knew who was inside it, they wouldn’t have fired. But they didn’t know, opened fire, and killed someone, it’s happening everyday there.

The soldiers will not be prosecuted because of the perceived effects it could have on the other troops. Military brass would be afraid it might hurt recruitment and make soldiers in the field hesitate if soldiers getting charged for doing the wrong thing is all over the press. Of course, if they kill their own people, it’s a different story altogether. (and I realise this guy did in fact kill people on purpose but it’s still an interesting contrast)

Here’s the link, it didn’t take:

Italy announced yesterday that it would release a public statement today concerning their investigation to date. Here’s an AP story reporting some details.

I have no way of knowing how comprehensive the AP account is. What is very conspicuous by its absence however, is any mention of the previous refrain from the Italians that the vehicle was going slowly as it approached the checkpoint.

If you’re driving in excess of 60 mph at an Amereican checkpoint in Baghdad, after dark, I’d say you’re asking to get shot. If you were the Italian driving the car, and you knew speed was a huge aggravating circumstance in this tragedy, would you admit to driving too fast?

I doubt it, and it’s looking more and more like he realized this from the get-go.

I need a StageLeft tutorial on linking here. Anyway, that last post of mine, just click on the blue ” Mike ” and you’ll get the article.

I do try……

Stageleft:

I think that’s the way I was formatting the link (as I do elsewhere,) but for whatever reason, I haven’t been successful. Anyway, thanks for the help. You may live to regret it, since I may decide to stay a while…..

:-)

Yes IRC, I think you may have it right.

Here’s the latest Reuters reporting.

Funny, yesterday, the Italians were coining this a ” murder ” probe, today they’re saying they’ve ruled out any possibility the killing was intentional.

And once again, no reiteration of the claim from the Italians that the vehicle was travelling slowly. Seems Reuters and AP have been too polite over the past couple of days to ask the Italian government about this apparent change in position.