When you get to Italy, see if you can calm things down. They are calling Bush a liar and we know that's just not true.
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Italian Opposition Slams U.S. Report on Iraq Killing
Tue Apr 26, 2005 12:30 PM ET
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By Paul Holmes
ROME (Reuters) - An angry opposition branded a report that clears U.S. soldiers of blame for killing an Italian agent in Iraq an insult to Italy Tuesday and demanded Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi address the matter in parliament.
The demand followed leaks from Washington about the joint probe into the death of military intelligence officer Nicola Calipari during a hostage rescue mission.
Calipari died in a hail of bullets at a U.S. checkpoint late on March 4 as he was driving to Baghdad airport with journalist Giuliana Sgrena after winning her release from insurgents.
A U.S. Army official, briefing reporters in Washington on the preliminary results of the investigation, said Monday that the soldiers had followed their rules of engagement and should therefore face no charges of dereliction of duty.
The official said Italy, a close U.S. ally in Iraq, had balked at endorsing the report. Rome disagreed with its findings on the car's speed and whether the Italians kept U.S. troops informed.
"A unilateral conclusion absolving anyone of blame that the Italian side does not accept is an insult to the truth and to the memory of Nicola Calipari and a serious act of arrogance toward Italy," one opposition lawmaker, Giuseppe Fioroni of the center-left Margherita party, said in a statement.
Sgrena, a veteran war correspondent for the communist newspaper Il Manifesto who was wounded in the shooting, called the findings "a slap in the face" and said the report sought to "lay all the blame on the Italians."
The Italian government had no comment on the report, which the Foreign Ministry said was not yet official.
A U.S. diplomatic source, however, said ambassador Mel Sembler had been called to the prime minister's office for talks with chief Berlusconi aide Gianni Letta.
The report comes at an awkward time for Berlusconi, who faces confidence votes in the Chamber of Deputies Wednesday and the Senate Thursday on a new cabinet.
He was forced to reshuffle his team last week, avoiding a snap election, after a coalition mutiny over a heavy regional election defeat in early April. Continued ...
reuters.com |
