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Democrats on the Brink: Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair; Innocent Lads, Depraved Killers and Predatory Priests by JoAnn Wypijewski; Torture Air, Inc.: the Road to Rendition: by Jeffrey St. Clair. Remember these stories are available exclusively in the print edition of CounterPunch. CounterPunch Online is read by millions of viewers each month! But remember, we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else, or by making a donation for the online edition. Remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! or write CounterPunch, PO BOX 228, Petrolia, CA 95558 |
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Other Lands Have Dreams: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison by KATHY KELLY  Today's Stories March 12 / 13, 2005 David H. Price
March 11, 2005 Jerry Fresia Ron Jacobs Dave Lindorff William James
Martin Muqtedar Khan Kathryn Ledebur Mike Whitney Dave Zirin Website of the Day
March 10, 2005 Paul Craig
Roberts John Marc Leas, Colleen McLaughlin
and Ashley Smith Larry Birns Michael Donnelly Luis Gomez Jackie Corr Uri Avnery Website of the Day
March 9, 2005 Jeffrey St.
Clair Ward Churchill Robert Fisk Bernice Powell Jackson Mickey Z. Dave Zirin Michael Donnelly James Reiss Vijay Prashad
March 8, 2005 Paul Craig
Roberts Robert Fisk Kurt Nimmo Suzan Mazur Evelyn Pringle Giuliana Sgrena Elaine Cassel
March 7, 2005 Dave Zirin Brian Cloughley John Chuckman Mike Whitney Mark Weisbrot Fred Gardner Richard Neville Uri Avnery
March 5 / 6, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Gary Leupp Ron Jacobs Tom Reeves Jenna Orkin Tom Barry Joshua Frank Moshe Adler Jane Stillwater Omar Barghouti / Jacqueline
Sfeir Christopher
Brauchli John Pilger Raúl
Zibechi David Krieger Three Takes on Nepal Surendra R. Devkota Bhishma Karki Joseph Pietri Ben Tripp Poets' Basement Website of
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/ Farrah Hassen Mike Roselle M. Junaid Alam Suzan Mazur Jackson Thoreau Michael Donnelly Jeffrey St.
Clair Website of the Day
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Lyons David Lindorff Patrick Cockburn
/ David Enders Ron Jacobs Tanya Garcia Joseph Pietri Kona Lowell Paul Craig
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Jimenez Emma Perez Diana Johnstone Website of the Day
February 26 / 27, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Noam Chomsky Rev. William E. Alberts Fred Gardner Gary Leupp Saul Landau Robin Philpot Yitkhak Laor Ben Tripp Justin Taylor Jack Random Rafael Renteria Jim B. Seth DeLong John Chuckman Alison Weir Richard Oxman Dr. Susan Block Poets' Basement
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Diane Christian Website of
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February 23, 2005 Werther W. John Green James Petras Conn Hallinan Joe Pietri Louis Proyect Alexander Cockburn Website of
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Cook Paul Craig Roberts Ken Krayeske Dave Zirin Kirkpatrick
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February 21, 2005 Hunter S. Thompson John Ross Ward Churchill Dr. Teresa
Whitehurst David Swanson Dave Lindorff Stew Albert Michael Neumann
February 19 / 20, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Kathleen Christison Ted Honderich Gary Leupp Don Santina Jennifer Roesch Scott Richard
Lyons Chris Clarke George Beres Harry Browne Manuel Garc'a,
Jr. Mark Scaramella Michael Donnelly John Pilger Norman Madarasz Surendra Devkota Deborah Rich Fred Gardner CounterPunch
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February 17, 2005 Joshua Frank Paul Craig
Roberts Robert Fisk Christopher
Brauchli Dr. Teresa
Whitehurst Alison Weir Ahrar Ahmad Saul Landau Website of the Day
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February 5 / 6, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Kurt Nimmo Joshua Frank P. Sainath Patrick Cockburn Laura Carlsen Dave Lindorff Pamela Olson Behzad Yaghmaian Saul Landau / Farrah Hassen Roger Burbach Robert Fisk David Swanson Justin E.H. Smith Cacie Hart Ron Jacobs Mickey Z. Ben Tripp Ben Sonnenberg Poets' Basement Website of
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Weekend Edition Head ShotLifting the Veil on the Sgrena / Calipari IncidentBy MICHAEL LEONARDI Rome, Italy. Over the past several days I have tried to digest the media spectacle surrounding the assassination of Italian secret intelligence agent Nicola Calipari. He was killed under a barrage of American bullets, shortly after the negotiated release of Giuliana Sgrena, the journalist from the Communist Italian daily, Il Manifesto, held captive for the previous month in Iraq. I am left feeling bloated with questions I am confident will never be answered by the criminal governments of both nations, Italy and the United States, where I am entitled, by birth, to citizenship. An illegal war, fought under false premises, where countless civilians have been massacred and journalists threatened, targeted and even killed, either intentionally by American forces, or out of what Reporters Without Borders calls "criminal negligence" on the part of the American command, leaves much room for a cynical eye toward the recent acts played out on the Petrolarch's imperial stage. Who were Giuliana Sgrena's captors? Why would they say that they did not want witnesses of the blood bath in Fallujah? How is it that these captors would have the same threatening attitude toward journalists as the occupying forces? What were the circumstances of her release? Why was her trip home abruptly halted by American gunfire? If the attack was deliberate, why was her life spared? Could it be that it was the
murdered secret service agent, Nicola Calipari, that was wanted
dead? And, if so, by whom? Might it be just more trigger happy,
gung-ho American soldiers shooting to kill as opposed to hinder,
out of bloodlust, inexperience and fear? Was it a failure in
communication between the Italian and American authorities? Or
as the leader of the Italian Green Party, Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio,
put it, is it "just another victim of an absurd war"?
Ultimately, these questions will be answered by half-truths and
misinformation, but I would like to provide a framework as to
why they are important in the these pages, which I am happy share
with my eloquent friend and colleague Valentina Nicoli. In Sgrena's personal account, "My Truth," published in Il Manifesto on the 6th of March she describes the animosity of her captors toward her work: 'We don't want any outsiders here anymore,' my kidnappers would tell me. But I wanted to tell about the bloodbath in Fallujah from the words of the refugees. And the morning of my capture the refugees or some of there leaders would not listen to me. I had in front of me the accurate confirmation of the analysis of what the Iraqi society had become as a result of the war and they would throw their truth in my face: 'We don't want any outsiders here, why didn't you stay in your home? What can this interview do for us?' Sgrena's account of her captors' behaviour describes an odd group. She talks of her confrontational attitude toward them during the early days of her captivity. She would ask "But why did you kidnap me, I am against the war?" To which her captors would respond, "Yes, because you go out and speak to the people. We would never kidnap a journalist that remains closed in a hotel and because you say you're against the war, you could be a spy." Sgrena describes her captors as seeming "quite a religious group, in continuous prayer over the Koran." But she then tells of the captor that seemed most religious congratulating her on the day of her release by shaking her hand, "a behaviour quite unusual for an Islamic fundamentalist." She goes onto detail how one of her captors came to her surprised and excited on the day of her release because the T.V. was showing European cities with large photos of Sgrena and also of Totti (the captain of the Rome soccer team). "He declared he was a fan of the Rome soccer team and was shocked that his favourite player went to play with "Liberate Giuliana" on his T-shirt. Funny that after holding a Roman hostage for over a month, he never mentioned he was a fan prior to the day of her release. Giuliana Sgrena has said that
she will not go back to Iraq. She, like many others have been
dissuaded by the threat of kidnapping and by the American and
coalition occupying forces and governments. Maybe it is out
of frustration that her captors asked "What will this interview
do for us?" because interviews and reports such as these
have done nothing thus far to ease the suffering of the Iraqi
people. The Petrolarchs continue their death march forward unencumbered
by reports of torture, bloodbaths, the destruction of an entire
city and countless deaths of civilians. Now with the Fallujah
model set to be used to destroy other cities where the insurgency
is strong, reports of the atrocities will be more difficult,
if not impossible, to come by. So, while we will never know
who Sgrena's captors were, they are helping to implement one
of the Americans' goals from the beginning of the war, which
was to have only embedded journalists reporting the onslaught.
The report concludes that US officials at first lied about what happened and then, in an official statement four months later, exonerated the US Army from any mistake or error of judgement. Reporters Without Borders has called for the reopening of the enquiry into who was really responsible for the US Army's "criminal negligence" in shooting at the Palestine Hotel. It is inconceivable that the massive presence of journalists at the hotel for three weeks prior to the shelling, which was known by any T.V. viewer and by the Pentagon itself, could have passed unnoticed. Yet this presence was never mentioned to the troops in the field or marked on the maps used by artillery support soldiers. The question is whether this information was withheld deliberately, out of contempt or through negligence. (Reporters Without Borders, 15 January 2004) Reporters Without Borders and the Iraqi Journalists Union have condemned the attack on the car carrying Giuliana Sgrena and Nicola Calipari. Reporters Without Borders, having plenty of experience with American deception and arrogance concerning their rules of engagement, has called for the United Nations to conduct an independent investigation into the tragedy. It is a well known fact that the United States does not condone and claims, not to engage in negotiations with any group they choose to brandish as "terrorists." It is for this reason that Giuliana Sgrena has not ruled out, as no one should, the possibility that the Italians were intentionally ambushed by the Americans. During Condaleeza Rice's recent visit to Rome, she and Gianfranco Fini announced that they were doing all that was possible to secure Sgrena's release, apart from negotiating with terrorists. However, the Italian government, as a reflection of a society that generally holds human life as more sacred than that of its bloodthirsty American "friend", actively engages in negotiations and exchanges with hostage takers to secure their nationals release. While the incongruence between the Italian and American versions of Nicola Calipari's murder, as outlined by my colleague, is striking in and of itself, the imperial arrogance and past actions of the American forces leave it well with in the realm of possibility that Nicola Calipari was intentionally targeted for assassination. Nicola Calipari had a stellar career as a secret intelligence agent working for Sismi, the Italian equivalent of the CIA, and was considered the most skilled Italian negotiater in the Middle East. The Italians are considered to have, quite possibly, the most skilled negotiating team in the region and the world. After refusing, as Miss Nicoli has detailed, a rescue attempt by U.S. special forces, calling this "too dangerous", the Italians, led by Mr. Calipari, chose to go the negotiation and ransom route. The Italian's strategy, due to the skilled work of Calipari, came to what seemed a successful conclusion with the negotiated release of Giuliana Sgrena. Giuliana Sgrena wasn't the first Italian hostage to be liberated by the praised work of Nicola Calipari. As described by my colleague, he had also negotiated the freedom of Simona Torretta and Simona Pari, who, after their return to Italy, denounced the U.S. military as a brutal occupying force, called for the return of the 3,000 Italian troops stationed in Nassariya in southern Iraq, and heaped praise and words of support upon the Iraqi resistance fighters. It seems the last thing the Americans would want is an Italian negotiator working, against their wishes, to release journalists and human rights workers effectively exposing the atrocities of their illegal war. More insidiously, it seems that the Americans might view these actions by a junior partner in the Terror War as a punishable affront, using the murder of Calipari as a lesson to those wishing to play a small role on America's imperial stage. While the car carrying Nicola Calipari was, according to the most recent reports, hit by between 8 and 10 rounds, he was killed by a direct shot in the temple. He was not the driver of the car, or sitting anywhere near the engine bloc, but was in fact sitting in the back seat next to Giuliana Sgrena. This might suggest a deliberate assassination. There have been numerous reports of trigger-happy American soldiers massacring countless Iraqi civilians with their brutal check point rules of engagement. They have the attitude that this is their world and nobody has the right to disturb their unwanted presence on Iraqi soil. This time it was coalition partners that were refusing to play by the Empire's rules and it seems that there is something more sinister to blame for this "tragic incident." Michael Leonardi is a U.S. national from Toledo, Ohio
with dual Italian/American citizenship living and working in
Rome. He can be reached at: mikeleonardi@hotmail.com |
