Do you remember the Italian intelligence agent who rescued an Italian jounalist held hostage in Bagdad in early 2005? Remember how on the trip to the airport he was gunned down by US forces at a military checkpoint? And do you remember how Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, on May 5 of 2005, vowed to the Italian Parliament that he would continue to support the ongoing investigation into his murder?
Well, now we know the truth.
It was an especially heart-breaking and tragic event of the Iraq War. Communist journalist Giuliana Sgrena had been kidnapped in Bagdad in February 2005. She was released two months later, thanks to an Italian military intelligence officer in the SISMI, Nicola Calipari. But shortly after being rescued, as both were en route to the airport, they passed through a checkpoint, where US military shot and killed Calipari, who, according to Ms. Sgrena, threw his body onto hers to protect her from the bullets.
The reaction in Italy was especially strong. As his Wikipedia page notes [all bolds in this diary are mine]:
The SISMI has had a dark story of subversion in Italy, and its reputation was never good among left-wing circles. Because of this, sorrow for Calipari's death united the nation, [since] a member of a "suspicious" police force had given his life protecting the declared communist Giuliana Sgrena.
Tens of thousands of Italian citizens paid their respects to Calipari, who had become a national hero, at the state funeral on March 8, 2005, at Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri in Rome.
He was posthumously awarded the Gold Medal of Military Valor by President of the Italian Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi on March 22, 2005
This evening, however, El País is reporting that Berlusconi wished to avoid an investigation of Calipari's death.
The US had investigated the incident and had written up a report. Before releasing their own report, Berlusconi officials met with the US Embassy in Rome. There they told the Americans not to worry, all is fine. From 05ROME1506:
The Italians stressed that the GOI [Government of Italy] wanted to put the incident behind us, that it would not damage our strong friendship and alliance, and that it would not affect the Italian commitment in Iraq.
As to the report itself, the Italians generally described it as supporting the "tragic accident" thesis, and highlighted the following:
-- The report says it is impossible to attribute individual responsibility for the killing.
-- It also says Italian investigators found no evidence that killing was intentional.
-- This last point was designed specifically to discourage further investigation by the prosecuting magistrates, since under Italian law they apparently can investigate cases of intentional homicide against Italian citizens outside of Italy, but not cases of unintentional homicide.
In the same cable and in 05ROME1593, the Embassy advises Washington not to criticize the Italian report, just keep it mum:
As much as possible, we should allow our report to speak for itself on our view of the incident. This will hasten the fading of the case from the political radar screen.
As El País notes, however, though both governments argee on a "tragic accident" theory, 05ROME1593 realizes that there is still a big question out there:
In particular, the determination to avoid any criticism of Calipari's own role led the Italian government and investigators to ignore a question that seemed obvious to the US investigation: out of the 30 cars that came to the blocking position, why was this the only car fired upon that night?
Italian prosecuters went ahead anyway and charged National Guardsman Mario Lozano with murder. Per the Wikipedia article linked to above, however:
On October 25, 2007, an Italian court dismissed the charges against Lozano after determining that multinational forces in Iraq were under the exclusive jurisdiction of the country that sent them.
But, apparently, tonight, someone has asked for a re-opening of the case: the rescued journalist Giuliana Sgrena herself.