The case of the Italian Journalists

Roger L. Simon puts an interesting spinon the recent shooting of the Italian Journalists by US forces. First he gives the basic story:

As most news junkies know, Italian journalist Guiliana Sgrena was wounded by American troops after release by her Islamist kidnappers in Iraq. Now what facts do we have to examine in this case as of now? Not many, although more may be forthcoming. On the face of it, it would seem unlikely that the Americans would target this woman. What possible use would there be in that? The anti-American propaganda value, especially in her native Italy, would be obvious. And we are seeing it now. Moreover, were this unlikely scenario actually true, why would the Americans have done such a lousy job, allowing her to survive? None of this makes sense.

Mr. Simon is a mystery writer and puts his brain to work. He opens with a quote from Ms. Sgrena in an Associated Press article

Suddenly, she said, she remembered her captors' words, when they warned her "to be careful because the Americans don't want you to return."
Really? Why? Just because she might say something favorable about the "insurgents"? This would hardly be amazing from a reporter for the communist Il Manifesto where scarcely a good word has been said about America since the fall of Mussolini. It would barely be news.

But how about this? Suppose it was the "insurgents" themselves, through a cut-out obviously, who alerted the Americans to Sgrena and her protectors, describing their car as something other than it was -- a suicide bomber, perhaps, or some other possible terrorist-related vehicle. Of course, their motivation would have been to make the Americans look bad, no matter what resulted. Sgrena and the others would just have been collateral damage. And that, indeed, is what has happened.

Emphasis mine. The military will obviously be reviewing the events leading up to the shooting and will publish their account of what happened. Unfortunately, this cannot happen overnight so until that info is released, the spin-masters will have a field day plying conjecture and innuendo. When the war first started and all sorts of stories were flying out, there developed a 48-hour rule. Give a story 48 hours before believing it. A lot of the more spectacular stories faded away in a day.

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This page contains a single entry by DaveH published on March 6, 2005 11:25 AM.

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