Left I on the News

The checkpoint story crumbles

[First posted 3/5, 1:11 p.m.; updated and bumped]

Since shooting Italian journalist (and just-released hostage) Giuliana Sgrena yesterday, the U.S. military has been sticking with the "car approaching a checkpoint at high speed, warning shots were fired" story. But Ms. Sgrena says otherwise:

"It wasn't a checkpoint, but a patrol that started shooting after pointing some lights in our direction. We hadn't previously encountered any checkpoint and we didn't understand where the shots came from."

Sgrena also denies they were going particularly fast:

"We weren't going particularly fast given that type of situation."

Back to the U.S. story, there's this assertion:

"The convoy carrying Sgrena and Calipari was approaching the checkpoint at a 'high rate of speed' about 8:55 p.m. yesterday, said Marine Sergeant Salju Thomas by telephone from Baghdad. 'It's an extremely threatening act,' Thomas said. 'That's the exact same thing that car bombers do.'

Now I concede that a car bomber trying to ram their way into the "Green Zone" might approach the barriers surrounding the zone at a high rate of speed in an attempt to penetrate the barrier. But a random checkpoint on the street? If you were a car bomber approaching a checkpoint on the street that you wanted to blow up, wouldn't you drive along slowly, acting as ordinary as possible, so you could get right up to the checkpoint before pressing the detonator? Even conceding that American soldiers in Iraq are trigger-happy and follow a shoot-first, ask questions later policy, is it really likely the soldiers who shot this car thought it was a car bomber? I don't believe it, no matter what they're going to say now to cover their (and George Bush's) asses.

Update: More details emerge:

"Sgrena told colleagues the vehicle was not travelling fast and had already passed several checkpoints on its way to the airport. The Americans shone a flashlight at the car and then fired between 300 and 400 bullets at if from an armoured vehicle. Rather than calling immediately for assistance for the wounded Italians, the soldiers' first move was to confiscate their weapons and mobile phones and they were prevented from resuming contact with Rome for more than an hour."