Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, April 28, 2005; Page A17
ROME, April 27 -- Dissatisfied with the results of a joint investigation with the United States, Italy on Wednesday began its own probe into the March 4 killing of one of its intelligence agents by U.S. troops in Baghdad.
Italian officials said Rome prosecutors were looking for evidence of homicide in the case of Nicola Calipari, who was transporting a rescued Italian hostage to the Baghdad airport when U.S. soldiers opened fire on their car. The bullet-scarred Toyota Corolla was brought to Rome on Tuesday.
The prosecutors have demanded the names of the soldiers who were involved, but the Pentagon has denied the request, Italian officials said.
The Italian move follows the release this week of partial findings from the joint American-Italian investigation. The Americans concluded that their soldiers were not at fault and had observed the proper rules of engagement for firing at a suspicious vehicle, according to unnamed Pentagon officials. Two Italian investigators who took part in the probe have so far refused to sign on to the findings.
The controversy represents an unusual break between the Bush administration and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, whose chief aide, Gianni Letta, met with U.S. Ambassador Mel Sembler twice on Tuesday. Berlusconi has been one of Bush's most staunch European allies in Iraq, where Italy maintains about 3,000 troops.
The killing of Calipari, who had aided in the release of journalist Giuliana Sgrena from kidnappers, shocked Italians. According to an account from Sgrena, who was wounded in the shooting, Calipari threw his body over hers to protect her from the hail of bullets.
U.S. officials have said, however, that Calipari was partly at fault because he was traveling on a dangerous road at night and, they say, had not properly notified American officials of his plans.
The dispute has put at stake the reputation of a man viewed here as a gallant hero. "The government of Italy does not want a fight with the U.S.A., but it can't commit suicide by putting full blame on a national hero," commentator Alessandro Politi wrote in Il Messaggero, a newspaper in Rome.
The first findings from Italian investigators on Wednesday absolved Calipari of any "errors," an Italian official said.
Italian investigators who are examining the car are trying to ascertain how many bullets struck it and from which direction. "The important thing is not what Calipari did but what the people who shot him did," the official said.
Berlusconi had asked the United States for an admission of error but did not receive one. U.S. officials have contended from the beginning that, at most, the shooting was a tragic accident.
The Italian government has avoided detailing just how Sgrena's release came about. Stories of a ransom payment abounded in the Italian press at the time, and some commentators have questioned the wisdom of rushing Sgrena to the airport. "In almost two months from that tragic night, we have not grasped an ounce of truth or fact," Giuseppe d'Avanzo wrote in La Repubblica, a newspaper that has been highly critical of Berlusconi.
"It looks as if the love affair is over between Bush and Berlusconi," an Italian Foreign Ministry official said. "Berlusconi needed help, and the administration did not supply it. The Americans were not going to sacrifice the morale of their soldiers for Berlusconi." Shortly after the shooting, Berlusconi announced that he would begin to withdraw Italy's troops from Iraq in September.
Berlusconi's popularity has plummeted in recent months, largely because of inflation and stagnation in the national economy. The Baghdad shooting took place about six weeks before regional government elections in which Berlusconi's coalition fared poorly.
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In an escalating controversy that has contributed to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's political problems and created a national uproar in Italy, Italian prosecutors began their own independent probe on Wednesday of the death of Nicola Calipari. The premier has put his government's prestige on the line with assurances to the nation that full light would be shed on the shooting.

Calipari, one of the top intelligence agents in Italy, had negotiated a settlement with hostage takers in Baghdad and was rescuing journalist Giuliana Sgrena from them when American soldiers fired on the car they were in. Calipari became a national hero for Italians after he bravely threw his own body across hers as the firing continued, killing him and seriously injuring Sgrena with a few bullets in her back. She is still recovering.

Meanwhile, Americans released a document, now described as incomplete, which says the U.S. Army, in a joint inquiry with Italian officials, cleared its own soldiers of any responsibility in the tragic events of March 4.
=== Demands for troops to leave Iraq from former president ===
The Prime Minister has put his reputation on the line says Francesco Cossiga, an ex president of Italy. He was quoted by the Italian news agency ANSA, saying he thinks Berlusconi would have no choice but to withdraw Italy’s 3000 troops from Iraq if the U.S. soldiers are cleared without further investigation, called by the U.S. a “friendly fire” incident. Cossiga is demanding the U.S. release them to Italian officials for trial or make the commitment to put them before an American court martial.

Berlusconi said that Italy would "never endorse" a report on the shooting by US soldiers of an Italian intelligence agent if it was unconvincing.

"If there are differences, they will emerge. But certainly, we will never endorse things that do not convince us," Mr. Berlusconi told reporters.

An international group of journalists, “Reporters without borders” (Reporters sans frontières), said they were “very surprised” at Tuesday’s report released by the U.S. Army.

“We are not convinced that everything possible has been done to establish what happened in this tragedy or to determine the responsibility of all those involved, and we reiterate our appeal for an independent international enquiry by US and Italian authorities," the press freedom organization said.

They had asked for a United Nations investigation immediately after the shooting. They also commented on the fact that the two Italian investigators disagreed with the findings of the U.S. Army and refused to sign the finished reports.

"We will see then what official reaction comes from the Italian government, which has a right to demand sanctions," it said.

=== Former hostage and attack survivor Giuliana Sgrena very critical of report ===
Ms. Sgrena again today described the Army’s announcement as a "slap in the face for the Italian government." U.S. investigators were satisfied, according to the report, that "the procedures were followed to the letter" by the soldiers involved. Ms. Sgrena repeated her statement that the car in which she, Calipari and another agent, the driver, were travelling had “no warning signal…no warning shot” and "the searchlight was turned on after the shots were fired."

The position of the U.S. high command, that soldiers had followed procedures, has remained unchanged since they first asserted this shortly after the incident occurred.

U.S. Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld said of the report and its investigators, "My latest information is that they the Americans and Italians have not come to a final agreement on a joint report...It's an investigation, it was done together, intimately, and I think that we'll just have to wait and see what they come out with."

=== Related news ===
* Kidnapped Italian journalist refutes American government claims ''Wikinews'' March 25, 2005