Giuliana Sgrena. ModBlog gone forever?

This video from the USA is called Giuliana Sgrena Italian Journalist press conference in Judson Church New York.

It seems ModBlog is gone forever (though one never knows for sure).

Thousands of bloggers used to blog there, including me with over 1,000 entries, seen hundreds of thousands times by Internauts.

A small company was bought by a big corporation that did not care about the bloggers, and after a limbo period, and without warning any blogger, pulled the plug, destroying all these bloggers’ work.

I could not recover the big majority of it (UPDATE 25 December 2006: Google cache enabled me to recover some of it later).

At least some of it deserves some preservation.

Like the story of Italian journalist Ms Giuliana Sgrena, whose Italian secret service bodyguard was killed by US troops in Iraq who also severely injured Ms Sgrena.

I linked this to this article in The Guardian on the unit who shot Ms Sgrena being investigated from within the US army itself on raping Iraqi women.

I connected this with an article from Women’s enews (not this later one; I cannot find the early 2005 article again) from before Ms Sgrena made international media headlines: saying in an interview she was investigating sexual abuse of Iraqi women by US troops.

I wrote on 3/8/05:

And Giuliana Sgrena is not just any journalist. She is not a specialist on American football, or on gardening; but on Arab women.

She is a seasoned investigative reporter, committed feminist, speaking Arabic well, investigating sex assaults against Iraqi women … what exactly might be the connection here?

The question whether any person in the 3rd Infantry Brigade ever referred to Ms Sgrena in terms like “that woman who might get us into military jail for rape” is one of many questions here waiting for a thorough independent investigation based on sound facts. Independent meaning certainly also independent from the Bush administration (usually under US law, a man suspected of beating or killing his wife is supposed not to have power over the investigation of the suspected crime).

Possibly, some people might not want a scandal, similar to the Abu Ghraib and other torture scandals, to come into the open (with Abu Ghraib it took months before it did). Ms Sgrena was well placed to bring things into the open.

To find out what exactly those people thought and did, and whether they were or included, or were not and did not include, privates, lieutenants, Secretaries of Defence, Vice Presidents, etc. should be the subject of an investigation which leaves no stone unturned. We all owe this to the Iraqi women, to the mourning families of the Italian security agent Nicola Calipari and of so many others.

Daily Kos thread on this here.

An Iraqi woman blogger’s [Riverbend’s] reaction here.

Read Ms Sgrena’s own paper on her.

Naomi Klein interview on Ms Sgrena: here.

Latest, according to Dutch press agency ANP: the Italian Foreign Secretary has confirmed Ms Sgrena’s friends’ story that there WAS a deal with the US army on the car with Ms Sgrena and her Secret Service companions to go safely to Baghdad airport.

He also demanded that the US government should punish the perpetrators. See also here, in English.

Right-Wing Bloggers’ Fake Sgrena Car Photo; AP Linked to Disinfo on Shooting: see here.

Comments
Posted by: Marisacat
Date: 03/08/05 at 1:19 PM (1y6M ago)
Followed your link from your diary at Daily Kos. Thanks for linking and following the Sgrena story.

Very interesting, very good looking blog too….;)

Posted by:
dearkitty

Date: 03/08/05 at 1:22 PM (1y6M ago)
Thanks Marisacat!

Posted by: jukeboxgrad
Date: 03/08/05 at 3:43 PM (1y6M ago)
I think the Guardian article is on the right track, but I think there are important errors. For details, see my post here: http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/3/8/61954/68302/57#57

Posted by:
dearkitty

Date: 03/08/05 at 3:52 PM (1y6M ago)
Thanks for reacting. More investigation is necessary. It is also important to note Ms Sgrena’s specialism in women’s issues, including rape of Iraqi women; as pointed out in the Women’s e news article, first written before her release.

Posted by: RNinNC
Date: 03/08/05 at 5:21 PM (1y6M ago)
The MSM will have her completely villified before her story is composed here in the US. I actually lurked over at FreeRep (shudder) and they are already well underway in painting her as a Commie leftist. Thanks SO MUCH for helping me understand more of the background of this story, which as always will never show up outside of the blogosphere.

Posted by:
dearkitty

Date: 03/08/05 at 5:33 PM (1y6M ago)
Thanks RNinNC. Have you read Ms Sgrena’s own story (translated) on this log? Maybe distributing it more widely helps.
I also saw some nutty conspiracy theory on a very Right site that supposedly it was a fake abduction staged by the victim herself, blah blah blah … As far as I read it did not bring in green shape shifting lizards from Mars, but others of that ilk probably do.

Posted by:
zarafa
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Idle: 5M2w
ModBlogs
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Date: 03/08/05 at 7:31 PM (1y6M ago)
Good post! It explains a lot of stuff that’s been bugging me. I shall read Ms Sgrena’s story at leisure.

‘Nothing is ever forgotten.’

Posted by:
dearkitty

Date: 03/08/05 at 7:37 PM (1y6M ago)
Thanks zarafa!

Posted by:
dearkitty

Date: 03/09/05 at 12:56 AM (1y6M ago)
The News Line : Editorial
Editorial: Wednesday March 9 2005
‘This is war’ – Pentagon justifies Calipari slaying

PENTAGON officials have said America is still at war in Iraq, almost two years after President George Bush declared in May 2003 that the war was over.

The Pentagon statement was made to justify the slaying of Italian intelligence agent Nicola Calipari, who, a US officer said, was behaving as if he was James Bond.

Meanwhile, the freed Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena, whose life was saved by Calipari, maintains that the US planned to kill her.

She said that her Iraqi captors told her to be wary of the Americans as they were about to release her. They explained that the Americans would try to kill her since they opposed the freeing of all hostages. Sgrena said that she took the warning lightly as the expression of an ‘ideological position’ and just ‘anti-American propaganda’.

However, when US troops poured fire into her car near to Baghdad airport, the words of her Iraqi captors, who had looked after her safety, flooded back into her mind.

The internal Pentagon memo leaked to the US media, justifying the slaying, states: ‘This is war. About 500 American service members have been killed by hostile fire while operating on Iraqi streets and highways.

‘The journalist was driving in pitch-dark and at a high speed and failed, according to the first reports, to respond to numerous warnings.

‘Besides, there is no indication that the Italian security forces made prior arrangements to facilitate the transition to the airport.’

The US military has said its forces gave ample warning to the driver of Sgrena’s car, which they said was approaching fast when they opened fire.

A US officer said Calipari acted like a James Bond character: ‘They’re driving around at night picking up a journalist who has been kidnapped and pretending they can get through a phalanx of checkpoints along the deadliest road in all of Iraq without being detected, much less shot up.’

Friday’s murder of Italy’s top intelligence officer in Iraq, Calipari, has strained relations between the United States and Italy to breaking point.

Italy’s foreign minister, Fini, has demanded that the US ‘identify and punish’ those responsible for the death of Calipari. This the US has not the slightest intention of doing.

Fini said the US and Italy had different versions of what happened to Nicola Calipari, who was killed protecting Sgrena with his body.

The US says shots were fired because the vehicle was speeding and did not heed troops’ warnings for it to stop.

But Fini said the car was travelling at no more than 40km per hour.

Calipari had also made ‘all the necessary contacts’ with US and Italian officials about the hostage’s release and the journey to the airport, he added.

Fini continued that the vehicle carrying the released hostage and agents was well-lit to facilitate checks, and that it had stopped after a powerful light was shone on it from the roadside and the shooting began immediately, without warning.

Berlusconi and Fini are the US’ best friends in Italy, having dragged that country into the war on Iraq very much against its will.

The latest demonstration of the murderous nature of imperialist war has angered the entire Italian working class. The description of the dead Italian security agent as a James Bond character who brought his death on himself will raise their anger to a fury against US imperialism and its Italian helpers.

Now is the time for the Italian trade unions to call a general strike and to march on Rome to bring down the Berlusconi regime and to withdraw all Italian troops from Iraq.

This is the only constructive way to remember the hundreds of thousands who have been murdered in Iraq by imperialism, including Nicola Calipari.

Posted by:
dearkitty

Date: 03/10/05 at 11:34 PM (1y6M ago)
See also http://www.google.nl/search?hl=nl&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Anl%3Aofficial&hs=2BE&q=+site%3Awww.pww.org+sgrena&btnG=Zoeken&meta=

Posted by:
dearkitty

Date: 03/14/05 at 9:43 PM (1y6M ago)
Sgrena case in perspective, by Belgian Doctor Van Moorter (was often in Iraq):
http://www.google.nl/search?hl=nl&lr=&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:nl:official&hs=RsY&q=+site:www.indymedia.nl++www.indymedia.nl+sgrena
(and other Indymedia articles; in Dutch, use translation software)

Posted by:
dearkitty

Date: 03/15/05 at 11:41 AM (1y6M ago)
See also http://www.google.nl/search?hl=nl&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Anl%3Aofficial&hs=LDE&q=+site%3Awsws.org+sgrena&btnG=Zoeken&meta=

RE: Sgrena: US soldiers accused of sex assaults
Posted by:
dearkitty

Date: 04/05/05 at 12:07 PM (1y6M ago)
IRAQ: US soldiers get away with rape?

US Army documents released in early May have revealed that a US military “investigation” into the alleged rape of two Iraqi women by US soldiers was shut down for lack of evidence — without contacting the alleged victims. It is alleged that the women were attacked by four soldiers guarding a mall. One of the soldiers interviewed by “investigators” said, “I know the women were Iraqi. I however don’t know if they were raped, or were prostitutes, or were just looking for sex.” Suzanne Gold[en]berg, the journalist who broke the story for the British Guardian, explained that the investigation record consisted entirely of “not very rigorous” interviews with soldiers.

From Green Left Weekly, April 6, 2005

RE: US soldiers and Iraqi women
Posted by:
dearkitty

Date: 06/02/05 at 8:49 PM (1y4M ago)
See also http://www.google.nl/search?hl=nl&lr=&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:nl:official&q=+site:www.globalresearch.ca+globalresearch+sgrena

Iraqi journalist investigating death squads killed: here.

Also from the Google cache:

5/3/05 at 12:15AM

Remember US troops in Baghdad, Iraq, wounding Italian jounalist Giuliana Sgrena, and killing secret agent Nicola Calipari, US authorities being aware who was in the car nearing Baghdad airport?

Today, an Italian government report on this came out.

Remember: a report by the Rightist Berlusconi government, about as close allies as George W. Bush has anywhere in Europe.

Still, the report basically says the Bush administration lied on the killing.

Reuters reports:

Italy disputes [US] version of agent’s death in Iraq
Mon May 2, 2005

By Crispian Balmer

ROME (Reuters) – Italy said on Monday nervous, inexperienced U.S. troops manning a haphazard checkpoint killed an Italian agent in Iraq and criticized the U.S. military for failing to establish clear rules for such road blocks.

From the Google cache, 3/25/05:

From Peek: The Blog Of Blogs:

Military would prefer not to investigate

Danny Schechter remarks on the US military’s refusal to allow Italian policemen to inspect the car ushering Giuliana Sgrena to safety:

“Recall the promises of a joint Italian US investigation into the killing of that Italian intelligence agent and the wounding of Giuliana, the Italian journalist.

Remember all the emails I had saying that the bulletholes in the car exculpated the US soldiers.

A few weeks later, AP reports…” (News Dissector)

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