Hold on to your shorts! Something has happened at Al Jazeera… I posted below some things that I ws surprisedto find on Al Jazeera’s website, but this next opinion piece I found is mind boggling…
After Italian intelligence operatives had secured her release from Iraqi insurgents, journalist Giuliana Sgrena was admittedly elated, celebrating her new lease on life after a month-long hostage ordeal.
That was before US soldiers opened fire on the vehicle which carried Sgrena and her rescuers towards the Baghdad airport…
… There can be little doubt that the US authorities and the interim Iraqi government would be displeased over the fact that Sgrena’s release was secured through a reported ransom payment of $6-8 million.
However, it is unfathomable to think that the Pentagon would have ordered a deliberate assassination of a Western reporter under such high-profile circumstances.
While the idea of the Italian government funding the insurgency and further supporting the new cottage industry of kidnapping runs counter to US policy in Iraq, in this instance the money had apparently already been paid.
**My bad, I was sadly mistaken**
The opinion piece continues in typical Al Jazeera fashion…
In anticipation of such a damaging blow, the US neo-cons have gone into full attack mode in a desperate attempt to discredit Sgrena’s version of events.
The fact that Il Manifesto is a “communist” newspaper is reported by these Republican Party cheerleaders as though this automatically discredits the source and implies something far more sinister…
…As there are very few foreigners operating outside US protected Green Zones in Iraq and even fewer travelling on the roads at night, international reports of incidents such as the Sgrena shooting have been rare.
However, for local Iraqi citizens, being gunned down by jumpy Americans has become all too common an occurrence.
Did US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld specifically target a journalist in this instance? Absolutely not. He didn’t have to, as his policies have already turned all of Iraq into a deadly free-fire zone.
Oh well, you can’t be too upset with the arab news organization, they sound no worse than the New York Times!