Cracks in the coalition

Secret agent Nicola Calipari's body being borne into the Saint Mary of the Angels Basilica in Rome by Italian soldiers. - PATRICK HERTZOG/AFP

The killing of an Italian secret agent by the U.S. troops in Iraq forces the Berlusconi government to heed public demand for the withdrawal of troops from the trouble-torn country.

ITALIAN Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's announcement on March 15, that his country was withdrawing troops from Iraq, could not have come at a worse time for the Bush administration. Italy, along with Britain, is supposed to be the closest ally of the United States and constituted the main political prop for the so-called "coalition of the willing" currently occupying Iraq. The Ukrainian and Dutch troops have also started packing up in Iraq. Italy's surprise decision to withdraw its 3,000 troops was no doubt connected to the revulsion for American policies that has gripped its people, following the recent killing of a top Italian intelligence officer by United States soldiers in Iraq.

The officer, Nicola Calipari, was heading for the Baghdad international airport with a freed Italian hostage, Giuliana Sgrena, a top journalist working for the left wing newspaper Il Manifesto. The U.S. military had been given advance warning about the movement of the two, but that did not stop the American soldiers manning a checkpoint near the airport from emptying their bullets into the car carrying the Italians. Calipari sacrificed his life by throwing himself on the hostage. Sgrena, who escaped with a fracture and minor injuries, suggested that she was the intended target.

The article she wrote for her paper in the first week of March graphically describes her ordeal. She writes that her captors had warned her to be careful while travelling to the airport. "The Americans don't want you to go back," they told her as they set her free. Calipari sat next to her in the car. According to Sgrena, the 50-year-old agent was laughing and joking with her during the drive to the airport. He was trying to liven up the tense atmosphere after her month-long ordeal. Less than a kilometre from the airport a fusillade of bullets hit them despite the driver yelling out "We're Italians, we're Italians!"

"Nicola Calipari threw himself on me to protect me and immediately, I repeat, immediately, I heard his last breath as he was dying on me," Sgrena wrote. Calipari was given an emotional funeral in Rome, attended by more than 20,000 Italians, including the Prime Minister.

The demand for an immediate withdrawal of Italian troops from Iraq became louder. An overwhelming majority had been against the war in Iraq and the participation of their troops in the war. Italian troops were targeted by suicide bombers in Najaf. Two Italian women were taken hostage last year and released after months in captivity. It was rumoured that a hefty ransom was paid. It is an open secret that almost all the hostages taken by the insurgent groups in Iraq were released in exchange for large sums of money. According to reliable sources, the Indian hostages last year were released after their employer, a Kuwaiti company, paid a ransom.

The U.S. authorities have made it clear that they are against the practice of buying freedom for hostages with ransom money. Italy has said that the journalist's release was not bought with money, though some newspapers reported that $9 million was paid as ransom. West European media speculate that the killing of Calipari, who incidentally was also involved in the release of the two Italian hostages last year, could be related to the payment of ransom money. It could also be a strong signal to independent journalists that they are not welcome to see the reality of the American occupation of Iraq. "I had risked everything, challenging the Italian government, which did not want journalists to reach Iraq, and the Americans, who don't want our work to be witnesses of what really became of that country with the war and notwithstanding that which they call elections," Sgrena wrote.

The domestic outcry forced Berlusconi to demand an explanation from the Bush administration. Initially, the U.S. military tried to pass off the shooting as a "horrific accident". The first report put out by the Americans was that the Italians' car was being driven too fast, and in a suspicious way. The driver, also an Italian intelligence agent, and the freed hostage have said they were travelling at around 40 km an hour. The Americans revealed after a few days that security along that road had been reinforced because the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq was scheduled to take a flight out of Baghdad that day.

In the second week of March, Berlusconi told the Italian Parliament that the U.S. military was kept informed of the movements of the Italian secret agent and the freed hostage as they proceeded to the airport. Calipari, he said, had "warned the American military officers of their immediate arrival at the airport zone". Berlusconi said in Parliament that only a "frank and reciprocal recognition of final responsibility will assuage Italian anguish over the shooting which was so irrational to us". No apology has come from the U.S. President, with whom Berlusconi reportedly shares a strong personal rapport. President George W. Bush did, however, send a letter to him, describing the incident as a "terrible tragedy" and restating his promise for a quick investigation.

THIS is not the first time that journalists covering recent wars waged by the U.S. have been targeted. Journalists for the Al Jazeera television network have been targeted since the 2002 war in Afghanistan. Their office in Kabul came under American missile attack. The pictures of civilian casualties and suffering caused by random American carpet bombing, beamed by the channel to the Arab and Muslim world, was evidently not to the liking of the U.S. military establishment. The network, along with two other Arabic language networks, Al Arabiya and Abu Dhabi TV, were targeted after the American troops entered Iraq.

When the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists raised questions about the attack on the Al Jazeera office in Kabul, General Tommy Franks, who was commander of the U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said the Al Jazeera compound "had repeatedly been the location of significant Al Qaeda activity". No evidence was offered.

Eason Jordan, who until recently was in charge of the CNN news section, reportedly said at a panel discussion at the Davos meet in February, that he knew of 12 journalists who had been targeted and killed by U.S. troops in Iraq. Within days, he was forced to resign. On April 8, 2003, an American tank crew opened fire on Baghdad's Palestine Hotel, killing two journalists. No military personnel were disciplined and no evidence was gathered from journalists present at the hotel.

American soldiers shot Mazen Dana, a Palestinian, who had gained international repute for courageous journalism, on August 17, while he was at work outside the notorious Abu Ghraib prison.

Nick Gowing, the veteran BBC anchor, in a talk to the London School of Economics in May 2004, said the "trouble is that a lot of the military - particularly the American and the Israeli military" do not want journalists around. Gowing said that this sometimes led to security forces feeling that it is "legitimate to target journalists with deadly force and impunity".