Giuliana Sgrena - Report clears U.S.

NBC is reporting "Now, NBC News has learned that a preliminary report from a joint U.S.-Italian investigation has cleared the American soldiers of any wrongdoing and provides new details into the shooting."

The report also notes this:

Italian negotiator failed to coordinate rescue with U.S. military

And the report contradicts Sgrena's version of events.

The investigation found the car was about 130 yards from the checkpoint when the soldiers flashed their lights as a warning to stop. But the car kept coming and, at 90 yards, warning shots were fired. At 65 yards, when the car failed to stop, the soldiers used lethal force — a machine gun burst that killed Calipari and wounded Sgrena and the driver.

Sgrena says lights were not flashed and that there were no warning shots.

The report also says:

The investigation failed, however, to resolve one critical dispute: The Americans claim the car was racing toward the checkpoint at about 50 miles per hour, the Italians say it was traveling at a much slower speed.

Sgrena said they almost lost control of the car as the raced towards the airport avoiding potholes. Since she lied about the lights and warning shots I guess they didn't believe her about speeding.

Sgrena also lied about the amount of bullets fired. She claimed there were over 400 hundred shots fired and the seat was littered with bullets. Photographs of the car show no such damage. The report says "a machine gun burst" was fired which killed one and wounded two.

There are still many unanswered questions such as, why would the US want to kill a reporter from a communist newspaper, why would the US risk anger from one of its closest allies and if the US wanted to kill her why did they not finish the job?

If the "Italian negotiator failed to coordinate rescue with U.S." how could the US possibly know it was Sgrena in the car?

The answer to all this is the US version of the story is true and Sgrena is lying.

Which brings us to the real questions. Why did the driver ignore the lights and warning shots? Since this was a temporary checkpoint did the driver think it was a trap? The report, at least as reported by NBC, does not say.
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