US clears troops over Italy death
US military investigators have cleared American soldiers of any wrongdoing over the killing of an Italian agent at a Baghdad checkpoint, an official says. Nicola Calipari was killed by US forces as he travelled in a car near Baghdad airport after securing the release of Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena. Ms Sgrena, who had been held by Iraqi kidnappers, was hurt in the incident. The US soldiers were "not culpable" according to the US military report, which Italy has refused to endorse.
Read the rest of the article for why the Italian government won?t endorse the findings. The short version is that we can?t get the stories to come out the same. The troops say the car was speeding toward a checkpoint, the Italians say their car had passed a parked military vehicle on the road and were far ahead of it when it fired on them. Underground sources indicate that the U.S. was unhappy with Ms. Sgrena?s propensity for telling reporters how many Iraqi civilians have been killed since the start our occupation.
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US closes book on Iraq WMD hunt
The US chief weapons inspector, Charles Duelfer, has said inquiries into weapons of mass destruction in Iraq have "gone as far as feasible". Mr Duelfer also said an official transfer of WMDs to Syria ahead of the Iraq war was not likely. The CIA adviser reported last year that neither expected stockpiles of chemical or biological weapons, nor evidence of recent production had been found.
Please note, if you have not already done so, this guy is the US weapons inspector, not the UN. This is our guy ? a CIA ADVISOR ? going in there and saying, ?Dude, can?t find shit.?
Really makes me feel like the whole Iraq war-thing was worth it, huh?
And, damn, you know what I love? That our guys, the marines and the national guard and all our people over there STILL don?t have enough body armor, STILL have to be brought back as wounded at night so that no one will see them, Bush STILL hasn?t attended a funeral for any of the fallen soldiers, we STILL have an insurgent problem, there STILL isn?t a plan for getting out of there, the Iraqi people STILL see us as occupiers (and let?s face it, who?s surprised by this?) and Bush STILL can?t say that they were wrong about the WMDs and that maybe, just maybe it wasn?t that great of an idea to go into Iraq.