The Sgrena Hit : How They Did It, and Why
[Click any photo to enlarge]
The Sgrena Hit:How They Did It, and Why
Evidence of a Precision Ambush
by Fintan Dunne, Editor
BreakForNews.com March 9th, 2005
By combining photo evidence and eyewitness accounts of the Baghdad airport shooting in which Giuliana Sgrena was wounded and Nicola Calipari killed, a compelling picture of a precision ambush emerges.
This analysis is sharpened by also considering the operational constraints upon any planned assassination of the troublesome Italian reporter. Such a killing would have to be palusibly deniable as a "mishap" and would have to avoid the slaughter of three intelligence agents in the vehicle.
That partly explains why Sgrena is still alive. A full-on salvo for a heavy calibre weapon would have left nobody alive in the vehicle. But, while slaying a political journalist is one thing -murdering three intelligence officers of a friendly nation in the process was never going to be an option.
[Click photo to enlarge]But, the alternative was eminently feasible. It would be possible to selectively target Sgrena inside the vehicle, because the planners would know exactly where she would be seated. Assuming any half-competency in intelligence gathering, it was known the occupants would be an Iraqi driver, three intelligence agents and the target: Giuliana Sgrena.
Unfortunately for them, their seating arrangements inside the car were entirely predictable. Operational protocol dictated that one agent would be in the front with the driver, and Sgrena would be seated in the center of the rear -between the two other agents. In the hostile zone of Baghdad this seating was a virtual certainty.
[Click photo to enlarge]An account of events by Peter Popham in the UK Independent shows American authorities at Baghdad airport knew that the Italian intelligence team would likely be returning late Friday with Sgrena. They surely knew the model and number of the car Calipari had hired at the airport just before 4pm on Friday.
The optimum kill zone was the immediate area of the airport -under direct US control. That's a given. The optimum location is where road speed is minimized: just before or after a turn. No surprise then, that it was just after the car rounded a 90 degree turn in a single lane road at the airport, that the occupants came opon a US armoured vehicle:
"They passed two American checkpoints along the airport road without incident and were 700 metres or so from the airport building. The road narrowed to a single, one-way lane and took a 90-degree turn. The car was going slowly now... They found their progress baulked by an American tank." [source]A moving target shot is out of the question, so a way was found to bring the vehicle to a halt --and ensure it kept stationary in the kill zone. Blocking the road with another vehicle, then shooting out the front tyres the moment the car slows are the tried and trusted means of halting and holding a car.
If the driver is known to be Iraqi, then there is little downside to using the other aspect of full immobilization procedure: take out the driver as well.
That's three marksmen at a minimum. One in front to take care of the driver and possibly have sight of the target in the rear. Two more marksmen, positioned one either side of the car just slightly ahead. They could take care of the tyres and then switch to the interior for the target shot.
Was three marksmen enough? Even though the interior light was reported to have been on, target aquisition inside a vehicle must take at least three seconds plus one second to shift aim from the tyres. But after four seconds, the rear occupants may be already moving --so the head shot on Sgrena was likely intercepted by Calipari's cranium.
The marksman must have known at that moment there was a 50-50 chance he had taken out the team leader in the back seat. Who knows how he responded. But in any event Calipari had slumped against Sgrena and rendered further clear shots unlikely.
The assassination bid was already a disaster.
As to those manning the patrol and the armored vehicle, they just did as they were instructed. "Block the road on receipt of the signal. Begin firing as soon as the car slows [essential audible camoflage for sniper shots]. Fire high at all times. Do NOT fire at the vehicle. [Remember, pissing off the entire italian intelligence service is NOT the idea here.] After fifteen seconds approach the vehicle and mop up."
And that's how it may well have gone down.
[Click photo to enlarge]The photos of the car taken from Italian television confirm the foregoing analysis. We have one photo taken from the front and a number from one side.
The driver's side tyre has clearly been shot out from the side. It has been pierced in the sidewall by a single shot. Nervous GI's in Iraq do not fire single shots at tyres. They fire fusilades.
The same observation can be made about the overall lack of bullet damage to the car bodywork.
[Click photo to enlarge]Instead of a general peppering, we see a few precise individual shots. Two bullet holes in the front windscreen are low down and ahead of the driver. A third bullet hole is visible in the driver's side rear passenger window -high up. This was one of the head shots.The other side of the car probably has an interesting tale to tell also, as any unfettered Italian forensics examination will in due course show.
This damage to the car is consistent with a precision ambush. It is inconsistent with a typical US military attack on a vehicle perceived to be a threat - no matter how many rounds were fired.
Read Part II: 'Fall of the Icons' : A Wartime PsyOp
Stay tuned to Wagnews.blogspot.com and to BreakForNews.com for more...
See our related investigations:
- Right-Wing Bloggers' Fake Sgrena Car Photo
- Americans Knew in Advance to Arrange Ambush
- Giuliana Sgrena : Means, Motive and Murder
- US attack on Sgrena was deliberate says companion
- Reporter survives likely assassination bid by US Special Forces
posted by FintanDunne
at 9:43 pm
39 Comments:
Wow! Though I'm not surprised. Iraq is the perfect place for their dirty deeds; all they have to do is blame it on the current weather of bullets and shrapnel.
Sweet, sweet justice--glad to see the wrong-wing bloggers fake pictures debunked.
I agree it was an ambush, but there is something that it isn't clear.
Sgrena told the BBC that 'Our car was destroyed.'
Before yesterday she also told italian TV RAI 3 that 'there were only 2 other people in the car, the intelligence agents'.
How to explain this?
Is this the real car? I'm getting confused here, because the US said the car could not be found, then right wing bloggers showed pics of a different car form a different incident, in order to prove that the journalist was lying about 400 rounds being fired. Now this car turns up on a blog, that exposed the other blog, and this car has even less damage.
this does not look like it came under a hial of fire either. and if the US had fired 400 rounds into the vehicle, All the occupants probably would be killed.
I don't know what to believe now. which is exactly how the US would want me to think If she was deliberately targetted for elimination.
Initial reports stated that one agent was in a critical condition in hospital in Baghdad, one was uninjured, Calipari dead, Sgrena wounded, and I seem to recall that the driver was also injured. This makes 5 occupants of the car.
Italian press is now stating that the only occupants of the car were Sgrena, Calipari, and the driver. The "fourth man" apparently wasn't in the car at all, but stayed in the airport to help conclude the operation, and as for the fifth man, there never was one...
Also, initial reports stated that the driver was Iraqi, later it turns out that he was Italian.
If the other, critically-wounded, SISMI agent died, wouldn't the death of TWO ally-country intelligence officers be a little embarassing, and worth not mentioning?
The plane scheduled to bring the car back to Italy today has been called back to base, and the transport of the car postponed...
I'm confused, i totally believe that the megalomaniac Americans would and did commit this ambush/murder but i haven't heard anything of the damning evidence which Sgrena was supposed to have had about the Americans which is why they tried to kill her in the first place. What has happened to that evidence. Will it be published soon or never?
It is the only piece missing from the nearly completed puzzle. So far - Sgrena is kidnapped by the Republican Gaurd and didn't have her head cut off like all the other 'supposedly' Republican Gaurd Kidnappings but instead is treated well (by her own accounts) and released unharmed but armed with apparent damning evidence about the Americans and then notifies the Italian Prime Ministers Office and Italian Secret Service that she is travelling toward the Airport where an Italian Helicopter awaits, they travel openly in a soft skinned vehicle along a notoriously violent and deadly stretch of road between the "Green Zone" safety area and the heavily gaurded Airport, upon which access is denied even to American armoured vehicles because of the dangers, then travelling through many American Checkpoints along the way and finally reaching the Airport, they go through the Airport perimeter safety zone and travel approximately 220 - 270 Yards towards the Terminal and have just rounded a 90 Degree corner (which any body who drives will know is absolutely impossible to do at any kind of speed) when this high profile and highly publicised, recently released Kidnappee along with 2-3 Italian Intelligence Officers are brutally attacked by the American Army who say that they mis-took them for insurgents who were likely suicide bobmers that refused to slow down when ordered and as such they fired an X amount of rounds at the car and only managing to kill one person in the BACK SEAT who was apparently shot in the back of the head even though the shot entered the car through the SIDE WINDOW which was on the same side as the DRIVER and yet not a scratch on the clearly EQUALLY VISABLE driver nor bullet holes in his side window. Now where's the Damning Evidence?
Please excuse me if i've missed something or got my facts wrong as i'm open to correction.
Regards - Craig (England)
Oh please charles said it was the car the AP said and he was unsure. Charles is hardly a on the ground source.
Toolhahahahaha
The most logical analysis of the killing so far. Thank you very much!
As others, I keep wondering how many bombings of the shiites officially commited by the sunnis are indeed commited by US hit men, or some of their iraqi puppets. How many kidnapped and dead people were the victims of secret US commandos?
Since Negroponte is there, you can be sure this war will get even dirtier.
Negroponte who should be in jail for his past crimes is now the big boss in Iraq.
A cross between a nazi, a mafioso and a serial killer now rules over "democratic" Iraq. Now noone has any reason to believe the official lies coming from the US kommandantur anymore.
Back and to the right.
Back and to the right.
Back and to the right.
Back and to the right.
Back and to the right.
Back and to the right.
Back and to the right.
Haha... this article is hillarious.
You moonbats are freakin' HILARIOUS!
Please tell me this is a parody.
Tin foil hats all around!
Merely calling something a conspiracy doesn't make it go away; to paraphrase shakespeare you "jest[s] at scars that never felt a wound."
Moonbats is such a lame insult. I wonder why you neo-con automatons come to progressive blogs, if it pains you so. Perhaps the fragment of independence left in your addled minds yearns desperately to examine issues and news events, instead of accepting whatever is programmed into you by the bush regime.
instead of accepting whatever is programmed into you by the bush regime.
Accusing those who disagree with you of being "programmed... by the bush regime" is equally lame.
Frankly, some of these left-wing conspiracy theories thrown around these days are so ridiculous they are not worthy of point by point rebuttal. The only logical response sometimes is a dismissive snort of "moonbat!"
Anything more involved is a waste of time.
That's just the way it is.
(And, no, I'm not "programmed... by the Bush regime". I'm a Democrat)
I wonder if any left-wingers these days see the irony in the fact that they've become mirror images of the right-wing nutjobs during the Clinton years... always talking of an "illegitimate presidency", Arkancide, Mena drug-running, black helicopters, "who killed Vince Foster"...
The right-wing conspiracy theorists were nutty then and the left-wing conspiracy theorists are just as nutty now.
Two sides of the same wacky coin.
Instead of joining a debate about what happened to Sgrena, the naysayers begin immediately with ad hominem attacks to skirt the issue of the facts. If the evidence presented is too difficult to spin any other way, they take the intellectually dishonest tack devoid of any substance, pretending moral and intellectual superiority by their claims alone.
They could find nothing to rebut in the evidence gathered that would contradict the Official Spin. Whether Democrat or Republican, it makes no difference since those parties simply represent sham political opposition that distracts from the New World Order agenda as seen in words and deeds around the world.
Oh, no!!!! Not the "New World Order"!!!
Run away!! Run Away!!!
Apparently, anonymous (how brave!), you didn't see that I wrote "examine issues and news events"; I'm pretty certain "examine" does not equate "unequivocal credulity". You readily dismiss everything as a conspiracy, without appraisal, consideration, or inner debate. And your tone is mean-spirited and contrary to the tone of this blog, and of "Break for News". Why do you come here to pick a fight? I'm willing to humor that you are a democrate, yet I'm pretty sure "moonbat" is an epithet I've only ever encountered on right-wing blogs.
"democrAT"! Blasted typos!
I undestand that these theories may hurt somebody in their nation proud feelings but Secret services kill people when they believe it's a matter of national security. Especially in a war situation single civilians can be executed when they hold information that may damage war strategies and cause more troops to be killed.
It's a reality that must be accepted.
But in this case I don't see what this information might be. Moreover, if they had wanted Sgrena dead, now they would be dead. She was taken into an hospital, where many things can go wrong.
So I don't believe this was a premeditated attempt at killing Mrs Sgrena.
Moreover the same thing has been happening over and over to ordinary Iraqis for the past two years.
'if they had wanted Sgrena dead, now they would be dead. She was taken into an hospital, where many things can go wrong.'
Sgrena is in an Italian hospital, not an American military hospital. If she was, perhaps she would be dead.
Sgrena is in an Italian hospital, not an American military hospital. If she was, perhaps she would be dead.She was taken to an American military hospital first, idiot.
Next time... engage brain before typing.
'She was taken to an American military hospital first, idiot.'
Just overnight, apparently - and doubtless attended by a few too many Italians for the Yanks to pull any dirty tricks.
I rather doubt that one night gave Negroponte's team sufficient time to come up with a plausibly deniable scenario for her death. Since she wasn't wounded very badly, it would take an extremely ingenious scenario to explain her sudden death to an incredulous international public.
I certainly don't think the public - or the Italian government - would have believed it for a minute if we had been told that she had 'accidentally been given an overdose of her medication' or that she committed suicide by 'suddenly throwing herself out a window' while staying in an American military hospital. A hasty sequel of this kind would have only exacerbated what was for the hit team an already disastrous result.
Uh, huh. You sure convinced me. It all fits now!! See how everything fits if you just try hard enough?
(Any sane person reading what you just wrote would agree it's time to up your medications)
Whoever is calling being "idiot" on this blog really needs to go somewhere else, where personal attacks are welcome, like Yahoo message boards.
lisa, do you believe that a liberal is "anti-American" if they question and criticize the bush administration, or republicans (or democrats)? I'm pretty certain that questioning those in power is "essentially American", and does not constitute a national security risk, as many on the right are asserting, and using as a propaganda to smear progressives. A true national security risk might be ignoring intelligence reports and FAA warnings about potential al Qaeda attacks; beefing up airport security may have prevented 911.
calling PEOPLE "idiot"! once again, late night typos getting the better of me.
I would think that if this were truly a conspiracy, they would have halted the car and teken them somewhere and cut their heads off. I mean if they're going to murder them, why do it in such a way that makes you look bad. Better to be able to say to the Italians "look what you did. The ransom did nothing but put more weapons in the hands of terrorists." This was a terrible mistake, nothing more.
interseting analysis Fintan
it should be noted that Berlusconi has an election due next year
if we consider the
problem reaction solution paradigm
it could be argued that this is
a way to get the
population -ONSIDE
note- the huge state funeral of the agent killed
psyops to create patriotism [a la princess Diana]
also compare with the Madrid bombings
aftermath
huge gathering of well intentioned
people - with politicians shamelessly using the
spectacle
Berlusconi was apparently the first statesman to contact
Aznar
Berlusconi has announced he will pull out the troops
from Iraq
but this will happen IN SEPTEMBER
now i wonder what will happen between
now and septemebr and the elections
to justify the
Italians staying?
Iran-Syria/N Korea????
another terrorist atrocity?
love to you and yours
captain wardrobe
http://www.warcrimes.org.uk/captain/murder_inc/
lisa, "Simply peruse sites such as this one (and many others) and that is clear to any fair-minded person" a straw man of yours to keep mine company? "fair-minded person" sounds like either the "popularity" logical fallacy, or a mild "ad hominem" (as in, any person who doesn't see this site as anti-American isn't fair-minded). why do you visit this site, then? If this site is anti-American, then I'd feel uncomfortable here, as I'm an American. Who made you the arbiter of what is "American"?
Consider yourself refuted.
This kills me. Iraq, a sovereign statem has been bombed, invaded, massacred and ransacked by a country it never attacked. This is the same move many criminal nation states have pulled throughout history.
There is no honor in this kind of attack and murder. There is NO LEGITIMACY.
Taken in the context that we are witnessing a massive crime of the highest order, to bicker about the particulars of a relatively small, small crime within a disgusting, grossly overwhelming crime...what is accomplished by this?
I don't know what the real story is on this but a reasonable person certainly wouldn't be inclined to believe the apparatus that has unconscionably murdered well over a hundred thousand people for no good reason.
As for the theories...again, what's accomplished by this? The larger crime is so heinous and sad, why distract from that with arguments about particulars of yet another crime within the larger one?
Everyone with any humanity left should be standing against this murder campaign and not arguing over this type stuff. And this isn't to say the daily happenings don't matter. They do and should be reported as accurately as possible. But we shouldn't become overly distracted by the daily. Whose interests are served by our arguing over smaller details when many people are still dying?????
Iraq, a sovereign statem has been bombed, invaded, massacred and ransacked by a country it never attacked.
Oh, please stop it with this old canard. The facts are, under the many years of control by Saddam Husse, Iraq routinely attacked other nations, including the United States. Whether it be attacks on American diplomats or firing on military aircraft in violating UNSCR 678, UNSCR 688 and other resolutions, the idea that Iraq had not attacked the United States is one made out of whole cloth.
The rest of your sad and pathetic argument is as equally weak. There's no proof that 100,000 Iraqi's have died -- it's only an estimate from one organization and it's an estimate that is greatly disputed.
What the real story is is that even after successful Afghani elections and Iraqi elections, conspiracy minded people still cannot let go of their wild claims of conspiracy.
It's always the Americans who refuse to accept what is staring them in the face when it comes to matters such as this. If you don't agree with them they just resort to childish name calling and dismiss the rest of the world as being conspiracy theorists. They are so pig headed and that is why they ignored the United Nations when they told the Americans that invading Iraq was illegal, that's why they ignored the fact that there were never any weapons of mass destruction......accept the ones that the Americans took with them and why they cannot seem to accept that three passenger planes could not possibly have gone without radio contact at the same time for over 40 minutes without the military airforce bases scattered all over America scrambling their fighter jets with-in minutes and tracked all of the planes with ten minutes, without there being an inside job.....by the way, that's exactly what happened to Payne Stewarts plane when he died in the Aircrash a few years back and let's not forget that one of these passenger planes on 9/11 had to fly with-in 50 miles of one of these military airbases on that day. That is why the Americans cannot seem to realise that the Bush regime seem to have given up on catching the man/men APPARENTLY responsible for those terrible events on 9/11....Osama Bin Laden.....and have instead turned their attention to invading as many Middle Eastern Oil Rich countries as they can...illegally.....and in order to do so conspired to create a "modern day pearl harbour event" to get the gullible American public on side.
My disdain for the American people doesn't run throughout the entire nation because there are a great number who also believe this to be the case.
It's always the Americans who refuse to accept what is staring them in the face when it comes to matters such as this. If you don't agree with them they just resort to childish name calling and dismiss the rest of the world as being conspiracy theorists. They are so pig headed and that is why they ignored the United Nations when they told the Americans that invading Iraq was illegal, that's why they ignored the fact that there were never any weapons of mass destruction......accept the ones that the Americans took with them and why they cannot seem to accept that three passenger planes could not possibly have gone without radio contact at the same time for over 40 minutes without the military airforce bases scattered all over America scrambling their fighter jets with-in minutes and tracked all of the planes with ten minutes, without there being an inside job.....by the way, that's exactly what happened to Payne Stewarts plane when he died in the Aircrash a few years back and let's not forget that one of these passenger planes on 9/11 had to fly with-in 50 miles of one of these military airbases on that day. That is why the Americans cannot seem to realise that the Bush regime seem to have given up on catching the man/men APPARENTLY responsible for those terrible events on 9/11....Osama Bin Laden.....and have instead turned their attention to invading as many Middle Eastern Oil Rich countries as they can...illegally.....and in order to do so conspired to create a "modern day pearl harbour event" to get the gullible American public on side.
My disdain for the American people doesn't run throughout the entire nation because there are a great number who also believe this to be the case.
It's always the Americans who refuse to accept what is staring them in the face when it comes to matters such as this. If you don't agree with them they just resort to childish name calling and dismiss the rest of the world as being conspiracy theorists. They are so pig headed and that is why they ignored the United Nations when they told the Americans that invading Iraq was illegal, that's why they ignored the fact that there were never any weapons of mass destruction......accept the ones that the Americans took with them and why they cannot seem to accept that three passenger planes could not possibly have gone without radio contact at the same time for over 40 minutes without the military airforce bases scattered all over America scrambling their fighter jets with-in minutes and tracked all of the planes with ten minutes, without there being an inside job.....by the way, that's exactly what happened to Payne Stewarts plane when he died in the Aircrash a few years back and let's not forget that one of these passenger planes on 9/11 had to fly with-in 50 miles of one of these military airbases on that day. That is why the Americans cannot seem to realise that the Bush regime seem to have given up on catching the man/men APPARENTLY responsible for those terrible events on 9/11....Osama Bin Laden.....and have instead turned their attention to invading as many Middle Eastern Oil Rich countries as they can...illegally.....and in order to do so conspired to create a "modern day pearl harbour event" to get the gullible American public on side.
My disdain for the American people doesn't run throughout the entire nation because there are a great number who also believe this to be the case.
Oops!! Sorry everyone, i must have hit the publish button 3 times.
Apologies - Craig
I think that Mr. Dunne has done a great job in expounding his "Evidence of a Precision Ambush". From his account it's quite clear that the operation was perfectly planned and carried out by top professionals. Under such circumstances it could not but succeed. If we accept this fact we must acknowledge the conclusion that the objective was not Ms Sgrena but the top ranking Italian official.
In my opinion this was a message to the Italian authorities to stop handling on their own with the "insurgents". The Mafia-like setting that was chosen, was only to insure that the recipients (the Italian government) fully understood and stopped for good their fumblings.
I don't think it was 'perfectly planned'. It was well planned. And the best laid plans "of mice and men gang aft agley." Meaning: "Shit happens"
Even with well planned operations.
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