Her heroic rescuer, Nicola Calipari took Sgrena to a car and a second Italian agent was to drive. They quickly began the ride to the airport. Meanwhile, back in Roma, there were cameras in the newsroom as her peers began a celebration at her newspaper Sgrena's paper. Her boss, Gabriele Polo, was called to Prime Minister Berlusconi's office, where he and Sgrena's husband Pier were closely following her rescue.
Unfortunately, less than 2500 feet from the airport tragedy struck ...and very hard. The sound of gunfire and the THWACK of bullets piercing the vehicle were sickening. "Seven hundred meters more, and we are in the airport, and we will be safe and we will be in the airport. And in the same moment, started the shooting."
Sgrena says that as the vehicle car rounded a turn, driving under 30 miles an hour, several rounds of ammunition and a spotlight hit it. Calipari and Giuliana were sitting in the back seat when the firing began. "He [Calipari] pushed me down and with this, the body, covered me," Sgrena said. "He pushed me down in the car. In addition, I was asking, 'Why?' Nicola doesn't say, he doesn't speak it, doesn't say nothing."
Then she heard Calipari's last breath: "I realized that Nicola was dead, without saying anything, nothing, no word, nothing at all," His last act of heroism was to give his life, "No greater love than this hath no man, than that he give his life for a friend." Jesus said that and Nicola Calipari did that.
The question is begging to be asked, WHY? Well, the three Italians had come across a checkpoint of the 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry Regiment of the New York National Guard. The guardsmen had been in Iraq for eight long months, and they had specialized in securing roadblocks. This evening however, it was a raining night and to complicate matters worse, a bomb nearby a few days before killed two battalion soldiers. Bad luck for Nicola Calipari, bad luck for Italy. However, Nicola Calipari had completed his mission with extreme honor and bravery. He was, a man on a mission and he carried it out to perfection, giving his life willingly, in the process. The fly in the ointment is that it was American soldiers, which killed him. American soldiers had liberated Italy with the joy and gratitude of the Italian people-they threw flowers and kisses as our boys entered city after city. Our relatives over there wrote fearful early in the years before the war, that we might soon, be killing each other. The Italians never wanted to fight Americans, they had many relatives over here, and they quickly and willingly surrendered at the first chance in many places in Italy. It was something they had planned. That was what Bush was hoping would happen in Iraq-it did not.
There is one sadder footnote to this "war." It has cost the lives of more than 200 journalists thus far and the cost keeps rising, with 5 killed in one day last month. In comparison, there were only two journalists killed throughout WW I, and 68 in WW II, and 77 in Viet Nam.
Professor Bagnolo is a Renaissance man: Cultural Anthropologist, Architectural designer, painter, writer, novelist, theologian. As a child prodigy, abed with polio for almost two years, with an off the charts IQ, reading at the graduate level by 5th grade, offered an opportunity to skip three grades at age 8. Later He was a recipient of an Art Institute scholarship at age 11, a Ford Foundation Fellowship in Anthropology and in Painting and a merit scholarship in art, and was appointed a Graduate Research Assistant position in college. He holds a triple bachelor's degree in Painting and Drawing, Anthropology, Architectural Design Advertising. MA's in Cultural Anthro, Painting and more. After being tenured he taught; architecture, anthropology, Theology, advertising, painting and drawing, entrepreneuring and Creative Profit Making. He produced a star-studded Music festival, had a radio talk show in Chicago, and cable TV show. Now, retired from Teaching, he paints, writes, and pursues other ventures.
The above bio harvested from the comments of Deans, colleagues, students, clients and collector's.
Pete Do you think, in light of her being a communist journalist and writing against the war, and that the Italians gave notice to the US Military of the upcoming rescue, and given Calipari's heroics on past missions, that they were singled out for a HIT by politico's?
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Agatha Payne (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 50 comments)
on Tuesday, November 20, 2007 at 11:32:31 AM
I don't think that The Guardsmen would do such a thing, but it did cross my mind that maybe higherups ordered the "hit" without telling the Guardsmen who, what, how or why. They may have tightened restrictions, but the sudden onslaught with no warning, is to me a sign that someone was gunning for Giuliana Sgerna and maybe Calipari and if so, they almost succeeded in killing both.
I think an investigation of the shooting needs be done, but there is so damned much that needs investigation, it is doubtful unless The Italian Prime Minsiter gets off his duff and demands one, that anything will be done about it. What we do need is an end to the Bushites rule of murder and corrution and we need to demand of all contractors in Iraq to return all profits above 5% and if they do not, sue them and if that doesn't work declare Martial Law on the Contractors in Iraq and those that established foreign offices elsewhere in the Middle East and have the US Military surround their offices putting them under siege until they return the No-Bid contract costs less 5% of the gross.
by
Professor Emeritus Peter Bagnolo (144 articles, 1 quicklinks, 95 diaries, 1312 comments)
on Tuesday, November 20, 2007 at 11:47:28 AM
