Sgrena ...let's work to get to the truth
I need help on this one...anyone read German? Yo hablo solomente espanol. This is the only reference to ransom I have been able to find so far, so any help out there is greatly appreciated.
http://www.tagesschau.de/aktuell/meldungen/0,1185,OID4125868_REF1,00.html
My take here is CNN gave her a full ride on the following piece, and let her write her own story. The $1M is important, because if it turns out that a ransom was paid for her, and she fails to admit that in the story of her "dramatic release," it will have been ommitted to cover that fact that the insurgents have now received money to continue their fight with dollars paid for her realease. Oh, I guess anyone could have forgotten to mention that...particularly a communist reporter, from another courntry, who said to her captors ...
"In the first days of my kidnapping I did not shed a tear. I was simply furious. I would say in the face of my captors: "But why do you kidnap me, I'm against the war."
Check out the CNN story here... http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/03/06/il.manifesto/index.html
So, I am sure that her comments show no bias towards the US , its policies, and in the end, with her direct accusations, our military. C'mon. And CNN puts this out as if it were the Rosetta stone.
Let's say that the insurgents were in the market for a few spare parts, and the the sellers knew thay had the insurgents over a barrel, geez, the insurgents might actually have to pay up to, maybe $200 to make a bomb. Sgrena could be DIRECTLY responsible for upwards of 50,000 more IEDs. Any chance she will reflect on this at any point in the remainder of her life? I doubt it. Of the next 50,000 IEDs that go off...let's see how many casualties our forces take. Does she bear any cuplability?
The translation above will tell, and in time, I think we'll find that the Italians were willing to trade $1M for the life of a journalist, the death of an agent, and the potential death of dozens (if not more) American soldiers. And we're apologizing? And people wonder why we don't think real highly of journalists...get the CLUE.
Don't buy into it...push back...this one is way over the top. Mobilize. This topic needs to be swarmed.
http://www.mudvillegazette.com/archives/002306.html Not sure what I am doing here, but trying to trackback to Mudville to get more help on this one.
12 comments:
I am going to publish the email I received, which gives an initial translation fo the German article I asked for assistance on. Thanks TOYTOAROX2000 for the the inputs...I apologize to our free Iraqi allies for leaving them out of the morbid equation. So, the equation now looks something like this...
$1M = J + 1dAgent + xUS Soldiers + yI citizens
Someone please refine my math for me...I am just a History major.
TOYOTAROX2000'S Email...
"I do NOT understand why any rational person would pay
ANY kind of ransom. You only encourage the behavior;
any parent can tell you that. If you simply use a
carot method with a child, if you give them rewards in
exchange for agreeing to stop behaving badly, you only
encourage the bad behavior so the child can up the
price for good behavior. It's simple psychology.
I hate to sound cold, but the math you did in your
latest post is right on. 1 life versus the potential
for hundreds of U.S. soldierss and Iraqi citizens'
deaths. Somehow, though, I doubt the thought of dead
U.S. soldiers troubles her much.
Oh, Ich spreche ein kleines Deutsch, so I'll give that
article a try. Although, the AP article on Yahoo
makes reference to ransom being paid:
"Asked whether ransom was paid, Agriculture Minister
Giovanni Alemanno said it was "very probable." An
Iraqi politician, Younadem Kana, said he had
"nonofficial" information that $1 million was paid,
Italy's Apcom news agency reported, although that
could not be confirmed."
url:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=1&u=/ap/20050306/ap_on_re_eu/italy_iraq_hostage_5
-Mike
Thanks again Toy2000...good stuff
I am going to publish the email I received, which gives an initial translation fo the German article I asked for assistance on. Thanks TOYTOAROX2000 for the the inputs...I apologize to our free Iraqi allies for leaving them out of the morbid equation. So, the equation now looks something like this...
$1M = J + 1dAgent + xUS Soldiers + yI citizens
Someone please refine my math for me...I am just a History major.
TOYOTAROX2000'S Email...
"I do NOT understand why any rational person would pay
ANY kind of ransom. You only encourage the behavior;
any parent can tell you that. If you simply use a
carot method with a child, if you give them rewards in
exchange for agreeing to stop behaving badly, you only
encourage the bad behavior so the child can up the
price for good behavior. It's simple psychology.
I hate to sound cold, but the math you did in your
latest post is right on. 1 life versus the potential
for hundreds of U.S. soldierss and Iraqi citizens'
deaths. Somehow, though, I doubt the thought of dead
U.S. soldiers troubles her much.
Oh, Ich spreche ein kleines Deutsch, so I'll give that
article a try. Although, the AP article on Yahoo
makes reference to ransom being paid:
"Asked whether ransom was paid, Agriculture Minister
Giovanni Alemanno said it was "very probable." An
Iraqi politician, Younadem Kana, said he had
"nonofficial" information that $1 million was paid,
Italy's Apcom news agency reported, although that
could not be confirmed."
url:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=1&u=/ap/20050306/ap_on_re_eu/italy_iraq_hostage_5
-Mike
Thanks again Toy2000...good stuff
Here's a rough summary of the German article you posted:
The first paragraph is just talking about how 10,000 people came to pay their respects to the government agent killed in the incident. The second paragraph retells what happened and then repeats the charges that Ms. Communist Reporter made about being intentionally targeted. The third and fourth paragraphs repeat the charges by the Iraqi official that $1 million were paid; it also says that another source maintains an amount of 6 to 8 million Euros was paid. The fifth and sixth paragraphs talk about the domestic difficulties Berlusconi is facing because of the incident.
So, really, nothing too new.
I don't see her to be smart enough to carry this out. Follow the money. It's been proven money to kidnappers helps finance the terrorists. She is a disgrace to her country; I will never forget the Italian soldier who ripped off his head cover and shouted they will see how an Italian dies!
I for one would like to see proof that she was even really kidnapped. It's very convenient when an ally (or at least political sympathizer) of the terrorists is kidnapped, and a ransom paid. Perhaps it was just a PR stunt / shakedown for money for the terrorists.
Tom Ballachino
I will repeat my previous post in a more direct manner. It you read the latest, it smells like a set up gone bad.
"I changed my clothes. They came back:"
As an aside to Tom's question of the validity of the kidnapping, did anyone else notice the above statement written in the CNN Int'l news article?
Who prepares for a kidnapping by taking along extra clothes??? What kind of kidnappers provide changes of clothing for their 'hostages'?
An earlier commenter mentioned the Italian soldier who said, 'you will see how an Italian dies' to his terrorist kidnappers. His name was Fabrizio Quattrocchi, and he had honor. I mention him to try to get rid of the bad taste left in my mouth by Sgrena.
Retread
Major Mike:
According to the Washington Times, this isn't the first payoff the Italians have made in exchange for hostages:
"Mr. Berlusconi won plaudits last year when Mr. Calipari obtained the release of two young volunteers kidnapped in Iraq known as the two Simonas, also through payment of a multimillion dollar ransom."
How many IEDs have the Italians already bought and paid for?
By the way, thanks for the kind words about my site.
I just had a thought regarding your equation. Playing devil's advocate here, has anyone stopped to consider what could drive Berlusconi to pay a ransom? I'm not an expert on Italian politics, but it seems to me that the country is another Spain in the making: an event that is extremely polarizing, like a famous, female hostage being killed, could raise a strong enough outcry against the war could very well force the country from Iraq. So maybe you should add "Italy's support in the War" to what the $1 million bought.
For the record, I am in no way condoning the decision to pay off terrorists. Negotiating with terrorists is never anything but a losing situation for you and a winning situation for them. All I'm trying to do is to provide some insight into Berlusconi's possible motivations for making this decision.
I am posting this for AS of Texas...thanks, glad to seeTX can honor its American heroes. MM
Major Mike
My whole take on the matter is this - if she was a commmunist shill,
it would have been fitting if she had been the one struck accidentally
by the rounds fired.
As it is, she is indicative of the European penchant for assuming that
the rules made by us boorish peasant Americans only apply to us and
those little brown people there in Iraq. I haven't yet formed an
opinion as to whether she materially aided the terrorists. I do know
that from what I've read, she claimed that she didn't see why she
should have to stop for a checkpoint, given that she (nominally) isn't
a terrorist.
I don't know to what source I should attribute that stupidity - her
femininity, her nationality, or her ideology. Perhaps all of them.
Why couldn't we have been the ones to rescue her, so that we could
accidentally slap her around a little bit in the process?
Also, with regards to your comment of a few days ago expressing your
dismay at a dearth of stories in the national and local print &
broadcast media about military personnel receiving combat decorations,
I am proud to say that this doesn't hold true where I am. I live
about 20 miles from Ft Hood, TX, which is alleged to be the largest
military base in the free world. Just today, there was a story about
a 1st Cav soldier (1st Cav division is based at Ft Hood) receiving his
Silver Star in a ceremony in Bagdhad a couple of days ago, from his
father who happens to be an Army veteran and a civvie contractor in
Bagdhad.
I would post in the comments section, but I refuse to get a Blogger
ID. I have already got too many login data to remember.
Ah, forgive the typos in my last comment...I was hungry when I wrote it. (Not sure if that qualifies as an excuse.)
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