Today’s revelations, courtesy the indefatigable Ms Sgrena (translated):
The car kept on the road, going under an underpass full of puddles and almost losing control to avoid them. We all incredibly laughed. It was liberating. Losing control of the car in a street full of water in Baghdad and maybe wind up in a bad car accident after all I had been through would really be a tale I would not be able to tell. Nicola Calipari sat next to me. The driver twice called the embassy and in Italy that we were heading towards the airport that I knew was heavily patrolled by U.S. troops. They told me that we were less than a kilometer away…when…I only remember fire. At that point, a rain of fire and bullets hit us, shutting up forever the cheerful voices of a few minutes earlier.
In her previous (rather rambling and dubious) accounts of the ordeal, Ms Sgrena, you’ll recall, painted a picture of escape in a carefully-piloted automobile—a casual nighttime drive with her Italian rescuers through an area long-plagued by insurgent activity, now heavily patrolled by U.S. troops; and yet in this latest installment, in a moment of purple-prosed poetic abandon, Sgrena the communist truth teller allows that the car was going so fast that it nearly lost control trying to avoid puddles and potholes, and that the driver—rather than concentrating on maintaining a moderate rate of speed and not drawing attention to the convoy—was, when he wasn’t swerving away from water (and laughing “incredibly” from the “liberating” feeling of recklessness), talking on the phone.
Once again, I wasn’t there, so I can’t know for certain what happened. But shouldn’t we be paying closer attention to the inconsistencies in Ms Sgrena’s rather indulgent tale—as well as to the potential life-and-death consequences of her captivity and release?
And further, does anyone else not find it ironic that a card-carrying communist “reporter” who is a self-avowed anti-war, anti-American propagandist is being lauded by the European press—and many on the left here in the US—as an unimpeachable source? Whereas some of these same true believers treated Jeff Gannon’s conservatism—though he claims not to be tied to the administration, and is instead simply asking the questions one would expect a conservative reporter to ask a Republican administration—as if it were definitive proof that his entire journalistic output can be dismissed out of hand?
Perhaps it’s time to pull out the big guns then, eh? I HEREBY CALL ON CITIZEN JOURNALISTS EVERYWHERE TO SCOUR THE INTERNET IN SEARCH OF INCRIMINATING PICTURES OF MS. GIULIANA SGRENA’S BIG RED COMMIE COCK OF TRUTH!
That commie flopper is out there, people, and somewhere within its spongy length is the REAL STORY of what happened on that Baghdad road.
CHARGE!
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More: The Washington Times; Mickey Kaus; The Moderate Voice; Roger Simon, Michelle Malkin, Wizbang, Baldilocks, Captain’s Quarters, Diggers Realm, Cold Fury, Andrea Harris, small dead animals, Joust the Facts, Crooks and Liars, Dean Esmay, Say Anything, In the Bullpen, Political Teen, Jawa Report, Pirate’s Cove, INCITE, Secure Liberty, Confederate Yankee, and Andrew Olmstead.
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update: another potential inconsistency?
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update 2: Excellent post from the brilliant Anthony Perez-Miller, who posits that Sgrena’s true aim, in propogating here fantastic tale, is to damage Berlusconi and the Italian right:
It all comes down to electoral politics. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is despised as a reactionary right-wing zealot by the broader European left, and vilified as well for his support of Coalition efforts in Iraq. If the Italian Leftâ€â€supported in spirit, if not in action, by the political class within the European Unionâ€â€can use the Sgrena incident to damage Berlusconi’s prospects in next month’s elections, then perhaps next year they just might succeed in bringing down his government.
Read the whole thing.
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update 3: one CITIZEN JOURNALIST digs and finds…er…something…
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update 4: John Hawkins expands on the Sgrena meets Occam’s razor trope I mentioned here.
I think we should listen to what her kidnappers had to say- I mean, they warned her that the Americans weren’t happy she was being released.
Maybe the Americans wanted to kidnap her, but the real kidnappers kidnapped her first, thus forcing the Americans to resort to plan B, which was to shoot up her car, even though they had no idea she was in it.
Makes sense to me.
I lifted the above from Michelle Malkin.. It’s a piece written by a US Soldier in December. It kind of puts Sgrena’s story in context regarding the area she was shot in.. RT Irish. The main road out to Bush International Airport.
Spamkiller: leaders
As in: American political leaders are apologetic about the Sgrena shooting, but that’s life..
Exactly right…the soldiers did what they were trained to do.
To do less could have led to the deaths of their fellow servicemembers (if the car had been a suicide bomber rather than being filled with joy-riding Italians). If they hadn’t done what they did, they likely could have been subject to courts martial for dereliction of duty.
BTW, there’s no way that 3 of the 4 people in that car would have survived if the soldiers had simply indiscriminately opened fire. The soldiers fired in such a way as to stop the car with minimal injuries. Frankly, I’m impressed that there was only one fatality. If I were one of the 3 surviving Italians, I’d be thanking the US soldiers for their professionalism…without it, all four of them would have died.
I know someone that until recently was an operator working in Baghdad. I ask him for a first hand description of RT Irish.. and I thought you all might be interested in his reponse.
Sgrena claimed that they were within a klick of the airport and were just flying along when they were fired on without warning.. I dont smell conspiracy.. I smell stupidity on the Italian’s part…
BPiS
Turing Word: business
As in: Business as usual.
Has she had anything to say about her kidnappers other than “very religious”? I find this odd. Cuz personally, I’d be pissed if someone teased me so bad they made me cry like a baby. On tape. If. IF that’s what they did to me.
If our military wanted her dead, she’s be dead. End of Story.
”…spongy length,” Jeff? Maybe you should reconnect a little with wifey. I think maybe you’ve been swimming in Lake Cock too long. Come back to shore, Shane, come back.
Woof ! Jeff has fallen in Lake Cock.
Use the hetronormative Force padewan. Let it clear your mind.
Grrrrrrrrrrreat balls of fire! Jeff has been sucked into the culture of the Porn Cock. and is drowning… Here, grab my tail and I’ll pull you out !
GRRR ! I SAID MY TAIL! MY TAIL DAMMIT !!!
Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip! Yo quiero Porn Cock tambien !
Rorn Rock ? Reff is rowning in rake Rorn Rock!!
Relp! Relp, Raggie!!
Hmmm, let’s see. Whether it was 12 or 400 bullets fired, the fact is the only person to die was in the BACK SEAT! And that of a single head shot. Is there anyone who is actually sober and sane who believes that’s anything more than a ricochet off the engine block or hood?
Passcode = foreign, as in “Oliver Willis finally admitted that dieting was a foreign concept to him.”
The more I read about this incident, the more I wish that little lying commie twat had been taken out. One less piece of human trash stealing oxygen.
Hail of bullets? Wasn’t Giuliana Sgrena on the forefront of diatribes against depleted uranium munitions?