ROME,
March 8, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Italy
expressed Tuesday, March 8, skepticism over a US version on the
shooting by US troops of its top intelligence agent in Iraq as he
tried to shield a freed journalist from a hail of bullets.
“The
reconstruction of the event (by Italy) does not coincide fully with
what the American authorities have told us,” Foreign Minister
Gianfranco Fini told the Italian parliament.
In
his account of the shooting to parliament, which has sparked a
diplomatic row with Rome's US allies, Fini said the
“reconstruction” by Washington of the events which led to
Calipari's death differed notably from Italy's.
In
an initial report into the killing, the US military said the convoy
carrying Calipari and released hostage Giuliana Sgrena was traveling
at excessive speed.
However,
Fini said the car was traveling at “not more than 40 kilometres an
hour (25 mph) and its interior was lit up to facilitate checks and
allow people to make phone calls.”
“Calipari
phoned (Italy's intelligence minister Gianni) Letta and (military
intelligence chief Nicolo) Pollari to tell them of the journalist's
release and to the American authorities to inform them he would soon
be entering the airport,” said Fini.
In
the darkness of the afternoon, they were stopped by a strong light
shone on their car from the side of the road, Fini said, adding that
the shooting began immediately after the vehicle had halted.
This
is again at odds with the American military account, that warning
shots had been fired.
“The
volley of shots, which included tracer bullets, came from several
automatic weapons and lasted 10-15 seconds,” Fini added.
Another
Italian agent was pulled from the vehicle, “forced to his knees 10
meters from the car and succeeded with difficulty to identify himself
and Calipari, who was by that time dead, as belonging to the Italian
diplomatic delegation.”
Sgrena,
who was wounded in the shooting spree, said US occupation forces in
Iraq deliberately tried to kill her because Washington opposed
negotiations with her kidnappers.
Details
about the checkpoint provided to CNN by a senior US official were
disputed by Sgrena in an interview with the television news service.
“It
was not a checkpoint. It was not a checkpoint, because a tank was not
on the road,” she told a CNN reporter through an interpreter in an
interview.
“It
was parked on the side of the road. There was no indication that it
was a checkpoint.”
Contact
Made
 |
|
Italian
President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi greets released hostage Sgrena in
her hospital room. (Reuters)
|
Fini
dismissed Washington's view that a lack of communication was
responsible for the death of Nicola Calipari, and demanded that the
United States “identify and punish” those responsible for the
shooting.
An
experienced operator in Iraq, Calipari had made “all the necessary
contacts” with US authorities in Baghdad, the foreign minister said.
“It
seems to me necessary that full light be shed on the areas which have
remained in the dark, to determine those responsible, and if anyone is
found to be responsible, to ask and obtain that those guilty are
punished.”
“We
ask for truth and justice,” Fini said.
Anti-US
Sentiment
The
foreign minister, however, warned against creeping anti-Americanism in
the country over the incident.
“We
hope that this is not an opportunity to whip up political campaigns
and to sow anti-American sentiment in public opinion, which certainly
have no reason to exist.”
During
Calipari’s state funeral Monday, hundreds of Italians protested
against Washington and demanded the immediate withdrawal of Italian
troops from Iraq.
US
President George W. Bush has promised a full investigation into the
incident, which has fanned anti-American sentiment in Italy and
rekindled opposition to the US-led war in Iraq and calls for a
withdrawal of Italy's 3,000-strong military contingent from the
country.
Agent
Calipari has been hailed as a hero in Italy with thousands of Italians
taking to the streets in a silent protest at his killing.
