Inexperience of Troops Responsible for Sgrena Shooting

In a blatant example of a "cover their a$$" conclusion, the Italian investigators blame the shooting of Giuliana Sgrena on green troops. An unsubstantiated and generalized assertion that is virtually impossible to convincingly refute. It's a vacuous contention lacking both substance and support.

The inexperience of U.S. troops and a lack of signals at a makeshift roadblock in Baghdad contributed to the shooting death of an Italian intelligence agent in Iraq, a report by Italian military and diplomatic officials said.

The officials, who helped investigate the March 4 shooting of Nicola Calipari, disputed U.S. findings that the car in which he was riding was traveling at 100 kilometers an hour and failed to heed warning shots and a spotlight on the car. Calipari, 51, was headed to the Baghdad airport with freed hostage Giuliana Sgrena, an Italian journalist wounded in the shooting.

The level of stress and inexperience may have led these soldiers to react in an instinctive way with little control,'' said the report posted on the Web site of Italy's intelligence agency.

The Italian report said it is possible the American command didn't know the exact movements of Calipari's car before the shooting, though it knew he was on a mission to try to free a hostage and was due to return to the airport that night.

They dispute the findings of the US government concering the speed of the car but apparently offer no supporting evidence whatsover. The word of a communist pacifist hell bent on muddying up the Yanks is sufficient evidence in their minds. As weak as it may be, a lack of warning signals identifying the roadblock is really their only legitimate point. The rest is rank speculation, tortured logic and specious cowpie.

Note the highlighted sentence, they are begrudgingly admitting that they failed to adequately coordinate their "operation" with American authorities.

If this is what they have...they have nothing.