Giuliana Sgrena's version of events leading up to the death of Italian secret service agent Nicola Calipari are inconsistent and just don't add up when compared with the physical evidence. But Sgrena's crimes are far worse than the minor infraction of being a propagandist with a political axe to grind against the US. Giuliana Sgrena is a traitor to the Italian people. While Italian troops were in a shooting war with Iraqi insurgents, Sgrena worked to bolster the spirits of those attempting to kill her fellow citizens. An Italian Tokyo Rose, Sgena used the tools of her trade to undermine the morale of Italian soldiers and bolster the spirits of the terrorist forces they were fighting.

Was Giuliana Sgrena a neutral observer reporting both sides of the conflict or was she actively working to undermine Italian efforts in Iraq?

Here is Sgrena in her own words on the plane taking her to Iraq courtesy of a translation by Zacht EI:

Be careful not to get kidnapped,' I told the female Italian journalist sitting next to me in the small plane that was headed for Baghdad. 'Oh no,' she said. 'That won't happen. We are siding with the oppressed Iraqi people. No Iraqi would kidnap us....

'The Americans are the biggest enemies of mankind,' the three women behind me had told me, for Sgrena travelled to Iraq with two Italian colleagues who hated the Americans as well...

'You don't understand the situation. We are anti-imperialists, anti-capitalists, communists,' they said. The Iraqis only kidnap American sympathizers, the enemies of the Americans have nothing to fear.

Wouldn't it have been treasonous for an American to work for the German conquest of Russia during WWII? Would such a traitor be able to claim, "Hey, I'm not against America's war with Germany. I just hope Germany defeats Russia." Further, Sgrena accuses her countries allied nation of war-crimes. If you read the insurgents version of why they fight against us it is because they believe the kind of propaganda produced by Sgrena and her left-wing media allies. The insurgents believe the coalition is intentionally killing civilians, raping Muslim women, torturing children, using napalm, and even nuclear weapons.

If these things were true, then the people of Iraq would have a moral obligation to fight. Of course, bad things to happen in war--but nothing like what is described by Sgrena and her jihadi allies comes close to the reality of Iraq on the ground.

Here is Sgrena describing the US assault on Fallujah:

The massacre in Falluja continues .

Here is an image taken by US Marines as part of a slide-show documenting war-crimes in Fallujah.

Sgrena continues to repeat her allegations about war-crimes in Fallujah here:

«We buried them, but we could not identify them because they were charred from the napalm bombs used by the Americans». People from Saqlawiya village, near Falluja, told al Jazeera television, based in Qatar, that they helped bury 73 bodies of women and children completely charred, all in the same grave. The sad story of common graves, which started at Saddam’s times, is not yet finished. Nobody could confirm if napalm bombs have been used in Falluja, but other bodies found last year after the fierce battle at Baghdad airport were also completely charred and some thought of nuclear bombs.

This type of propaganda is exactly the type that Goebbels would produce to rouse the German people to war. Czech 'attrocities' against Germans in the Sudetenland or Polish 'massacres' against Deutchvolk in Danzig.

The nature of her journalism is such that those fighting her Italian compatriots must have been pleased. In fact, they were. From al Jazeera:

"She has very good contacts in Baghdad, including with the ulamas" [meaning the clerical leaders of the resistance]

Fallujah is dying under the criminally indifferent gaze not only of the United States, but also of the Iraqi government, or at least the interim Prime Minister Allawi...

In this paragraph Sgrena portrays those fighting in Fallujah as simple resistance fighters. It is the US that is portrayed as a terrorist force. More than that, the so-called resistance is cast in a romantically heroic light:

A fire rain crashed over Falluja as soon as the curfew entered into force, at 6 p.m., sunset, after the Iftar breaks the Ramadan fast. At the same time, from the minaret of the mosque, the voice of the Imam tried to rise over the noise of the bombs to incite the mujahidin to the battle, which for Falluja will surely be the hardest since the beginning of the invasion....

The excuse of terrorists [meaning the US Marines] is the pretext to destroy the symbol of resistance [meaning Fallujah].

USA Today:

Iraqi troops have found "hostage slaughterhouses" in Fallujah where foreign captives were held and killed, the commander of Iraqi forces in the city said Wednesday.

Troops found CDs and documents of people taken captive in houses in the northern part of Fallujah, Maj. Gen. Abdul Qader Mohammed Jassem Mohan told reporters.

US troops have found three Iraqi hostages in the basement of houses in Falluja, handcuffed and starving, a marine officer said.

"We have found Iraqi hostages in basements, handcuffed by their hands and ankles, starving, thirsty and tortured," said marine Major P.J. Batty, adding that three hostages in total had been found.

Hadid, an electrician who lived with his mother....Of the two, Hadid, thought to be in his early 30s, appears to have been the more influential, even though al-Janabi, in his 50s, headed the Mujahedeen Shura Council, which set up Islamic courts that meted out Islamic punishments, executed suspected spies and enforced a strict Islamic lifestyle.

And from the San Jose Mercury News, another leader of Sgrena's resistance fighters in Fallujah:

Sheik Zafir al-Ubaidi. A prominent Fallujah cleric, he provided religious guidance to the insurgents' council and issued religious edicts that were enforced with public floggings and, some Fallujah residents said, executions without trial.

What may be most disgusting about her propaganda is the fact that her stories helped bolster the claims of the jihadis that large numbers of women were being held in Iraqi prisons and abused by the Coalition. It was on these claims that fellow Italian peace-nicks Simona Pari and Simona Torretta were held and that Briton Margaret Hassan was murdered by her terrorist captors.

You will recall that one of their central demands was that "all women prisoners in Iraq be freed". Abu Musab al Zarqawi issued the same demand for the release of Kenneth Bigley and Jack Hensley. Hassan was first dressed up to resemble a prisoner in Abu Ghraib and then shot in the head. For Bigley and Hensley, the same garb was put on them before they were beheaded. The symbolism of their murder was clear.

Here is Sgrena's interview with a woman alleging Coalition abuse:

Once the Americans were in the apartment, they began to ransack the place, and then they arrested me....

On the way there they pointed out to me a man in a jellaba with a bag over his head, tied to a tree. It was my son. I recognised him by his trousers. They dragged him over to where I was and took the bag off his head. He had been horribly tortured, with deep cuts to his head. Then they said to him, 'Say goodbye to your mother.' After that, they put the bag back on his head and tied to him to a post again....

Then they turned up with the photos of my children. When I saw them, I began to weep, but they just yelled at me, "where's all that strength that Saddam gave you?" Then, throwing the photos on the ground, they shouted, "Say goodbye to your children. You'll not be seeing them for thirty years."....

Then they loaded me into a van, spread me out on the floor so nobody would see me, and drove me to the airport. There I was led into a big room where there was a doctor who wanted me to undress. I refused, saying that I was a Muslim and therefore couldn't do what he asked. Then he threatened to cut the clothes off me. I asked him if I could at least keep my underwear on and he agreed to that. In the end, however, he only checked my wrists....

There were times when they didn't give me any water or food at all. Then, from the neighbouring cells I could hear the screams of the men who were being tortured, sounds of weeping and screaming that were recorded and played back all night long full-blast...

[Sgrena asks] Did you know of cases of rape?

[Answer] 'Yes, but I'm not going to go into that. In our society, it's something you don't talk about.'

[Sgrena asks] And what about children, how were they treated?

[Answer] 'We heard them screaming. [The chiltren] were tortured too. Mostly dogs were set on them.'

Of course the anser is obvious. You join the mujahadin to kill the Coalition forces. But not just Americans--Italians, Poles, Britons. They are all the men responsible for using nuclear weapons, dropping napalm on civilians, torturing children, and humiliating Muslim women.

Giuliana Sgrena is responsible for her part of the lies which directly led to the deaths of coalition forces, Iraqi civilians, and western hostages.

Her propaganda and treason should make us pause in believing the lies she continues to spout against the United States. The inconsistencies of her testimony regarding the tragic death of Nicola Calipari and how they just don't add up from what is known is documented here.

As she today accuses the US of attempted assassination, we should remember that this is not the first time she has made such ludicrious statements. From an article she wrote for Die Ziet during the initial liberation of Baghdad:

What we believed was impossible has happened. The Americans have not spared even the mythic Hotel Al-Rashid [where reporters were staying]. It was only scratched. Was that a mistake? Or was it supposed to be a message?

Like the Nazi propagandist Goebbels before her who believed that behind all of mankinds ills stood a Jew, Sgrena believes that the world is threatened by a vast American conspiracy aimed at oppressing the world. Like Goebbels, Sgrena is not just a 'journalist', she is a propagandist for the enemy. Unlike Goebbels, though, who took his own life before facing the justice of Nuremburg, Sgrena returns to the land she betrayed a martyr and a hero. Let us hope the world community realizes the depths of her character before it is too late.

Posted by: Rusty at 01:01 PM | Comments (54) | Add Comment
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