"ALL CAPS IN DEFENSE OF LIBERTY IS NO VICE."

Thursday, October 25, 2007

U.S. SOLDIER TRIAL IN ROME THROWN OUT

Another lesson, probably not to be learned by our leftie friends, that too often American soldiers are acccused of all manner of vile behavior which, once vetted by the judicial system, turns out to not be not what it may have initially appeared at all:
ROME (AP) -- A court on Thursday threw out the case against a U.S. soldier charged in the 2005 shooting of an Italian intelligence agent in Iraq, a killing that infuriated Italians and soured relations with Washington.
The court agreed with the defense argument that Italy had no jurisdiction in the case of Spc. Mario Lozano, a member of the New York-based 69th Infantry Regiment on trial in absentia on charges of murder and attempted murder for the shooting of Nicola Calipari, hailed as a hero by Italians for his role in the rescue of a kidnapped Italian journalist.
Calipari was shot on March 4, 2005 at a checkpoint near Baghdad airport shortly after securing the release of reporter Giuliana Sgrena. Sgrena, a reporter for the newspaper Il Manifesto, was seized by gunmen in Baghdad in February 2005. She has said Calipari died trying to shield her body from the bullets. Sgrena and another agent, who was driving the car, were wounded. Lozano has always denied wrongdoing, saying he had no choice but to fire. He has told U.S. media that he flashed a warning light signaling the vehicle to stop and that he shot first at the ground, and then at the car's engine.
'It's the end of a nightmare for him,'' said lawyer Alberto Biffani. ''There were a lot of reasons for this case to be decided as it was.'

U.S. authorities have said the vehicle carrying Sgrena was traveling fast, alarming soldiers who feared an insurgent attack. Italian officials said the car was traveling at normal speed and accused the U.S. military of failing to signal there was a checkpoint.Haditha, Guantanamo, the John Kerry "atrocities" stories, renditions, when will the left find the smoking gun?

Maybe, once they put down the smoking pipe they've been sucking on, they will find that the smoking gun about the U.S. Military is that is a genuinely, and generally trustworthy organization of men committed to defending their freedoms.

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