The biggest story of the weekend, which continues to spill all over today’s headlines, is the Giuliana Sgrena debacle in Iraq. LGF , OTB, and the Jawa Report, among many others, have done great jobs covering the twists and turns.

So, how much was the ransom allegedly paid by the Italian government to Sgrena’s still-unidentified terrorist kidnappers? The Australian publication The Age reports:

Iraqi politician Younadem Kana told Belgian state TV Saturday evening that he had “non-official” information that a $US1 million ($A1.27 million) ransom was paid for Sgrena’s release, the Apcom news agency reported from Brussels. The report could not be confirmed.

Another estimate pegs the price of Sgrena’s freedom at between $10 and $13.4 million. The Washington Times, citing the Italian newspaper La Stampa, puts the ransom figure at a reported $6 million.

The National Ledger comments:

Six million dollars?

That will purchase a lot of explosives for the Islamofascists and it shows the clear reason not to bargain with terrorists. When kidnapping becomes a profitable economic venture, the law of supply and demand kicks in–even for the terrorists. If they have indeed been paid six million dollars, they are going to want more and they understand the way to get it[:] Kidnap another six-million dollar journalist.

Yup.

Meanwhile, the Times and La Stampa reported:

Italian agents likely withheld information from U.S. counterparts about a cash-for-freedom deal with gunmen holding an Italian hostage for fear that Americans might block the trade, Italian news reports said yesterday.

The decision by operatives of Italy’s SISMI military intelligence service to keep the CIA in the dark about the deal for the release of reporter Giuliana Sgrena, might have “short-circuited” communications with U.S. forces controlling the road from Baghdad to the city’s airport, the newspaper La Stampa said.

That would help explain why American troops opened fire on a car whisking the released hostage to a waiting airplane, wounding Miss Sgrena and killing the Italian intelligence operative who had just negotiated her release.

The Washington Post has differing details:

The military has responded that in a time of widespread suicide bombings, precautions that troops take to protect themselves are fully justified.
But the circumstances of Friday’s shooting of Italian military intelligence officer Nicola Calipari made it particularly vulnerable to calamity, a military source said as he divulged new details of how the car in which Calipari and a newly freed hostage, Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena, came to be attacked.

The automobile was traversing onto a route — the road to the airport — where soldiers have been killed in shootings and by roadside bombs. U.S. soldiers had established an impromptu evening checkpoint at the entrance to the road about 90 minutes earlier and had stopped other vehicles. They knew a high-level embassy official would be moving to the airport on that road, and their aim was to support this movement.

But no specific coordination occurred between those involved in Sgrena’s rescue and the military unit responsible for the checkpoint, according to the source, who said he cannot be named because the military’s investigation into the incident is continuing.

Some conspiracy-mongers, including Sgrena’s husband, are sticking to their blame-American-troops script. Sgrena’s own latest version is here.
Sgrena’s sympathizers include the World Socialist Web Site and the pro-Saddam propagandists at uruknet.info.

As these antiwar armchair generals second-guess the troops, it’s worth keeping the Sgrena incident in its proper context. From an AP article published last fall on car bombs–”the insurgents’ weapon of choice:”

“You consider every car a potential bomb,” says Staff Sgt. Darrell Theurer, a veteran of some 400 missions. “We’ve had everything from a piece of junk to a Mercedes to that donkey cart - with the donkey still attached.”

Countrywide, and especially in Baghdad, the U.S. military says the VBIED - for “vehicle-borne improvised explosive device” - has become the insurgents’ weapon of choice, mostly wielded against Iraqi security personnel and American troops but often soaking the blast area with the blood of bystanders…

…Some checkpoints have X-ray machines to scan vehicles and a video-equipped robot can be called up to peer into a suspicious car. But out on the road, the best defense against VBIEDs is largely experience, eyesight and instinct, he said.

The patrols are on the lookout for certain aging car models, vehicles with low riding back ends, cars that try to get close to vehicles as they pass a military convoy or just a driver’s darting, shifty look.

“Often it’s one soldier’s decision - a 19-year-old sitting behind a .50-caliber machine gun in a Humvee in 110-degree weather making a decision in five seconds,” said [Capt. Ronald] Talarico.

In one incident, he recalled, a remotely detonated car bomb went off at a traffic circle near Baqouba two months ago. As U.S. troops moved in to cordon the area, a young soldier spotted a nervous-looking driver trying to get a stalled, decrepit car moving. Within moments the soldier fired, turning the car and suicide bomber into a cauldron of flames and flying metal.

More recently, numerous car bomb attacks along the airport route traveled by Sgrena’s vehicle have resulted in injuries to American and allied troops. See here
and here.

Here’s one soldier’s blunt account of patrolling the same area, written in December:

This is a combat zone, there are people who want to kill us and there have been many attempts to do it. The reporters don’t include all of the other details that lead up to the shooting. When “Ali Iraqi ” ignores everything and keeps on coming, he leaves a soldier no choice. Regardless of what you read, there is no indiscriminate shooting. US soldiers are real professionals. They follow the rules. These locals ignore our directives.

RT Irish is the name of the road we travel everyday when we go out. It is the main road between the International Zone (IZ) and Baghdad International Airport (BIAP). It is IED /VBIED Alley. It is considered the most dangerous section of highway in Iraq. The US State Department just announced that no US Dept Of State personnel are allowed to use RT Irish. Of course we still have the privilege of using it everyday. I guess we aren’t as valuable as a DOS employee.

Finally, here’s a sobering firsthand account of another soldier’s experience in the aftermath of multiple VBIED attacks.

This is war, not a game of “Mother May I?”

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Related: Jim Hoft has a useful summary of Sgrena’s work for her communist publication, Il Manifesto.

Update: The brilliant Cox and Forkum sums things up in today’s cartoon. And a hat tip to C&F for pointing us to an excellent review of events at Small Wars Journal.

John Hawkins weighs in: Sgrena and Occam’s Razor.

Update II: See CNN: Lost in Translation?

Update III: The Jawa Report digs deeper and reveals Giuliana Sgrena’s Blood Libel Against the US.

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