Amid rising public anger, the Italian Government buried Nicola Calipari today, a victim of what the US calls "friendly fire," but which many think was another attck on journalists. Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena believes she may have been deliberately targeted, and her account of the incident contradicts the official US version that the Italian government car was speeding up to a checkpoint.
Al of this takes place in an atmosphere of growing doubt about US intentions toward international journalists and "uncontrolled information." There has been something a bit more than suspicion about the number of journalists killed in Iraq, and Eason Jordan recently stepped down as CNN'c news chief following blogged reports of off-the-record remarks he made about possible US journalistic targets in Iraq (please read them--let's not remain IN THE DARK about information of such potential significance). Many in the right-wing blogosphere refuse to accept even the possibility that the Bush administration imperative to control information might go so far as to try to intimidate journalists. If violence is not a means to that end, calumny certainly might be. As one right-wing wag put it today,
"Giuliana Sgrena is a propagandist for the Communist daily rag Il Manifesto. Her writings do not reveal a bias, they reveal that Sgrena is an enemy of the United States of America and responsible for supporting terrorists and the murder of American soldiers and civilians. "The point is this: neither to believe Sgrena's account nor the US account on face value. The American people deserve a full and unbiased investigation into this incident, as well as the other incidents in which journalists have been killed. And the point is this, too: I doubt the American people are going to get it.
Meanwhile, US forces further angered American allies by killing a Bulgarian soldier today in another case of "friendly fire."
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