Friday, March 11, 2005

U.S. Forces Maybe Knew a Little

FOXNews.com - U.S. Forces Partially Knew of Italian Hostage Mission
More news out of Italy -- guess what it is conflicting; however, it does have an Italian admitting the US was not fully informed.
ROME — U.S. forces in Iraq were only partially informed about last week's Italian intelligence mission to release a hostage, which ended with a shooting on the road to Baghdad airport and the death of secret service agent Nicola Calipari, Italian newspapers said Friday.

While U.S. authorities were informed of the presence of Calipari and a colleague, they did not know that the mission was aimed at freeing journalist Giuliana Sgrena, Italian dailies La Repubblica and Corriere della Sera reported. Sgrena hade been kidnapped in Baghdad on Feb. 4.
[...]
Both newspapers cited a report by Maj. Gen. Mario Marioli, an Italian who is the coalition forces' second-in-command. The report has been given to Rome prosecutors investigating the killing.

According to the newspapers, Marioli informed U.S. officials that Calipari and the other Italian officer were there, but not that the mission was aimed at releasing Sgrena. The lack of full information was possibly due to known U.S. opposition to Italy's policy of negotiating with kidnappers, Italian media have suggested.

However, the papers had conflicting versions over how much Marioli knew: Corriere said he knew that Calipari was working to have the hostage released, La Repubblica said he didn't.

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