Italy blames ‘inexperience’ for agent’s death

updated 6:49 p.m. ET May 2, 2005

ROME - Italian investigators blamed U.S. military authorities for failing to signal there was a checkpoint ahead on the Baghdad road where American soldiers killed an Italian agent, and concluded that stress, inexperience and fatigue played a role in the shooting, according to a report released Monday.

The probe found no evidence that the March 4 killing of intelligence agent Nicola Calipari was deliberate.

The Italians challenged the American contentions that the car was traveling more than 50 mph, saying it was going half that speed. But, despite their refusal to sign off on the U.S. report that the soldiers bore no blame for the death, the Italian investigators didn’t object to many of the American findings of fact.

Calipari was killed just after he secured the release of Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena from Iraqi militants who held her hostage for a month. U.S. soldiers fired on the Italians’ vehicle as it approached the checkpoint near Baghdad’s airport. Sgrena and another Italian agent were wounded.

'Inexperience and stress'
“It is likely that the state of tension stemming from the conditions of time, circumstances and place, as well as possibly some degree of inexperience and stress might have led some soldiers to instinctive and little-controlled reactions,” said Italy’s report.

U.S. investigators, in their report made public Saturday, said the American soldiers gave adequate warning, beaming a light and firing warning shots, as the car traveled toward Baghdad’s airport. They cleared the U.S. soldiers of any wrongdoing, sparking outrage in Italy, where Calipari had been hailed as a hero.

The Italian report, written by two experts who had participated in the joint probe, said no measures were taken by U.S. officials to preserve the scene of the shooting. It said the car carrying Sgrena and the agents was removed before its position was marked, for example. The soldiers’ vehicles also were moved.

“That made it impossible to technically reconstruct the event, to determine the exact position of the vehicles and measure the distances, and to obtain precise data defining the precise trajectory of the bullets, the speed of the car and the stopping distance,” the report said.

Public differences
Italy and the United States have publicly differed over crucial points about the incident since the first hours after the shooting.

When several days of negotiations failed to yield a common report, both sides went their own way.

Italy is a main partner in the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq. The approximately 3,000 Italian soldiers sent to Iraq for reconstruction constitute one of the coalition’s largest contingents.

But Premier Silvio Berlusconi, a staunch American ally, has faced political fallout over the case, including calls to bring home Italy’s troops from Iraq.

There was no immediate comment from the Italian government on the report.

Berlusconi is scheduled to address both houses of parliament on the case Thursday.

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