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| Iraq-Jordan | |
| US not fully informed about spy's reasons for being in Iraq: Italy | |
| 2005-03-09 | |
ROME - The Italian intelligence officer killed by US troops in a friendly fire incident last week had not told US authorities why he was in Iraq, Italy's Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini said Wednesday. Fini's comment is the first admission from the Italian government there might have been communication gaps between the Italians and their US allies on the ground prior to the shooting the claimed the life of Nicola Calipari last Friday.
"Calipari duly advised (the US authorities) that he was in Baghdad, and he didn't advise what he had gone to Iraq to do, because we are a sovereign country," Fini told RAI state television during a programme dedicated to the shooting. Fini explained that Italy, in its dealings with its American allies in Iraq, had "a relationship of absolute loyalty but not of subservience". Fini has previously dismissed Washington's view that a lack of communication was responsible for the death of Calipari, Rome's top intelligence officer in Iraq, and demanded that the United States "identify and punish" those responsible for the shooting. Calipari died in a hail of gunfire from US troops as he escorted a freed Italian hostage, journalist Giuliana Sgrena, to Baghdad airport on Friday. Sgrena, released unharmed by her kidnappers, was wounded in the shoulder. An internal Pentagon memo published by US media on Tuesday said the Italians had failed to make arrangements for their safe passage to the airport, were travelling at high speed and failed to respond to "numerous warnings". The United States and Italy, its staunchest European ally, are to hold a joint inquiry into the incident, which is to report its findings within a month. The incident has fanned anti-American sentiment in Italy and prompted renewed calls for a withdrawal of Italy's 3,000-strong military contingent from Iraq. | |
| Posted by:Steve |