Not Likely to Make Headlines in the MSM…

… a reporter for the Communist daily Il Manifesto … charged yesterday that U.S. forces might have deliberately targeted her because Washington opposes Italy's policy of dealing with kidnappers.

Instead, it turns out, suggests the Washington Times's John Phillips, that American troops targeted the car (not reporter Giuliana Sgrena) simply because it was driving in a threatening way, in ways that have let to loss of life for the coalition troops in the past. Insofar as this happened "because" Washington opposes Italy's policy of dealing with kidnappers, it seems to have happened not because the Americans wanted to teach the Italians a lesson (as is implied) but because the Americans were kept in the dark…

Italian agents likely withheld information from U.S. counterparts about a cash-for-freedom deal with gunmen holding an Italian hostage for fear that Americans might block the trade, Italian news reports said yesterday.

…La Stampa also quoted diplomatic sources saying vital information was withheld from the Americans.

"Italian intelligence decided to free Sgrena paying a sum to the kidnappers without informing American colleagues in Iraq who, if they had known about this, would have had to oppose it, to have impeded the operation," sources said.

"If this was the case, it could explain why American intelligence had not informed the American military commands about the operation and thus the patrol did not expect the car with the Italians."

And before we get inundated with charges that the Yankee bogeyman is arrogant "because" it interferes in Italian policy, let us remember that the money handed over was paid to those terrrorists — sorry, those insurgents — who daily try to murder American soldiers and Iraqi civilians (not to speak of Italian soldati)…

Now Sgrena and her boyfriend are saying the incident was a US ambush and that the US soldiers didn´t want Sgrena to get out alive

writes Ray.

OK...so why didn´t they kill her then? The US troops fired dozens of rounds into the vehicle to stop it, certainly it would have been easy to take out all of the passengers and completely destroy the vehicle had that been the American´s intent...And if the US wanted her dead, why didn´t they kill her in the US military hospital where she was treated after the shooting or at the airport? The sad part of this all...the [European] media is uncritically reporting this incredible, lunatic, conspiracy-theory nonsense. …

Ray adds the following (read the whole post, also to see how Il Manifesto conveniently waters down its inflammatory Italian title for American (and English-speaking) readers):

George Bush should never have apologized to the angry Euro crowd who will now rush to demonstrate against the liberation of 25 million human beings. They could care less that millions of Iraqis now have enough to eat and a democratic future minus a mass murdering tyranny. No apology would ever be enough for them. President Bush could have gotten down on hands and knees and it would not have been enough for the enraged Left. They have a simple goal: To attain political power through the demonization of the United States and the destruction of transatlantic relations. They want to see the United States humiliated and defeated no matter what the cost in human life and freedom and no matter what the facts. Deep down most of them could care less about the life and tragic death of the heroic Italian security agent Nicola Calipari.