Report on Death of Italian Agent To Clear Troops

From The Independent comes a report that the US military investigation into the death of an Italian intelligence officer shot in Baghdad is expected to conclude that the American soldiers generally followed instructions as they fired on the agent's approaching car. A US military officail, speaking anonymously, has told reporters that the probe will likely raise questions about US rules of engagement at checkpoints, however.

Meanwhile, the Italian press is full of as yet unconfirmed rumours that the two Italian members of the probe team, a diplomat and military official, will refuse to sign of on the findings citing deep disagreement with the report's conclusions.

UPDATE 30thApril

A CBS report on Thursday said that a US spy satellite caught the whole thing and that:

the soldiers manning the checkpoint first spotted the Italian car when it was 137 yards (meters) away. By the time they opened fire and brought the car to a halt, it was 46 yards (meters) away. CBS said that happened in less than three seconds, which meant the car had to be going over 60 miles an hour.

Italian members of the panel are arguing among other things that the checkpoint was not properly marked and therefore the US soldiers weren't justified in shooting so quickly. Cartainly three seconds and about 400 feet away seems to be awfully late to spot a speeding car if a checkpoint was well sited. It's also not a long time to do all the "hand signals, flashing bright lights and warning shots" that the Pentagon says was done.

It's a pity the Pentagon hasn't released the camera footage, so we and CBS have to rely on the Pentagon's version. My capacity to trust what anyone working under Rummie has to say, just coz they say it, has been bigtime undermined of late, since all the proof of torture that documents released by the ACLU lawsuit show came out.

Personally, I think both sides in the incident fouled up in some part and neither want to admit it.