At least Marion Barry returned to office.

Sadly, I doubt the Italians will return.

Damn, I'm really hate that bitch.

Score another Euroscalp for the terrorists. . .

No cheers at all,
Dave at Garfield Ridge

Have I mentioned before how much respect I have for Australia? Not to mention Poland and Japan?

Of course, I'm immensely thankful for England, but unfortunately I fear that they may be moving towards Europe. I hope I'm wrong, though; wouldn't be the first time.

Well, it would have been much worse if the Italians had pulled out six months ago. And Berlusconi is still PM, one of our best friends in Europe. But this is lousy news, no getting around it.

About all we can do is pressure the MSM to stay on top of Sgrena's story and the DoD's investigation; the closer they look, the harder it will be to ignore the fact that Sgrena is a mailcious liar.

Sad to see that a large segment of opinion in Italy is so eager to dishonor the memory of Fabrizio Quattrochi.

I hate the fact that the Euros are bailing, the Netherlands, Poland and the Ukraine included, but things are looking really good for us over there. We are now in the endgame.

It's funny, usually you jump ON the bandwagon as the victor emerges, not OFF!

It goes to show how absolutely nuts the left has become.

We don't really need those troops and if it helps Belusconi get re-elected I think we should cut him some slack. My $.02 :)

Ace, I'm not sure if this is appropriate or not, so please delete if so, but I wrote about our endgame at my site today here:

http://www.tenfingers6strings.com/archives/000360.html

As regretable as the Italian pullout is, in the end I see it as a net postive. The Italian government's
policy of paying hostage takers allows the insurgents to arm themselves. This give the hostage takers cash flow to buy arms, bombs, vehicles to distribute arms, etc. The withdrawl of Italy will cut off
this cash flow.

Yeah, that's kinduv how I feel about the Phillipines, too. If they weren't willing to actually fight in this war (which means not giving money to the enemy!!!), then they shouldn't have sent troops in the first place. They wanted the best of both worlds, and instead got the worst.

If only Kerry had unveiled his secret plan before the election, like any good American would have done, this never would have happened.

His secret plan had to have contained a blueprint for how Bush or any President could have avoided this. But alas, the little bastard didn't reveal his plan. Now look where we are.

If we'd have elected Kerry, the Italians would have doubled their troop numbers, and the French would have sent twice that many.

Now, on a more serious note,

I say, stick with our friends, throw some line to our friends in trouble (like Berlusconi ), and to hell with the fair weather fans.

If Berlusconi did this to save his neck, then we should be thankful that their honorable military men and women served. And if Berlusconi gets re-elected, then we all prosper, because he's one of the few in Old Europe that supports us.

Let's just hope that Italy doesn't go the way of Spain.

Coalition of the willing is the perfect name for this effort, and it just goes to show you how much forethought this administration put into this effort. While the media likes to shred this concept, and cry "no exit plan," "no battle strategy," and "the Arab street hates us," the Bush administration came up with the perfect term to blunt these whiners.

It shows pretty good long-view thinking, in my opinion.

I know this sounds naive, but I'm still mildly shocked whenever I hear that this woman writes for a Communist rag. My reaction is: "Come again? Communist did you say?" I was under the impression (I said I was naive) that Communism had been sort of, um, discredited. But I guess some people never give up. No surprise there. But the Italians -- the general public, I mean -- should fucking know better. The woman's a liar. She's a Communist fer chrisssakes. She might as well write for the Pinocchio Times. Suckers.

I really don't expect everyone to stay forever. It's not that bad. Thank you to Italy for all your support. Again, I just don't expect these countries to stay for that long. We will be the only ones there in a couple years and that's okay. Coalitions don't last forever. The biggest part of the job is done.

Get it right. Its "Bitch set me up" not "The bitch set me up"

This pull-out is unfortunately timed but I don't believe it is in response to the commie bitch. Things ARE going well in Iraq and the Iraqis are taking over more and more of their defense and the Italians realize that they aren't needed as much as they were a year or so ago. (Hopefully the US will be pulling out within a year or so also) So I say: "Thank you Italy for staying through the rough stuff."

He's just using the accident as an excuse to do what fair weather friends always do. The chicken feathers in Berlusconi's bicycle helmet give it away.

Many thanks to the Italians for supporting us. To Hell with Sgrena (the lying witch).

At least the Communists in Italy don't try to hide their political bent by calling themselves by some other name, like Democrat.

New York Times
March 16, 2005

Iraqis Say Italians Aren't Cooperating In Kidnapping Investigation

By James Glanz

BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 15 - Iraqi investigators who are trying to find the kidnappers of the Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena say their work has been stymied by a lack of cooperation from the Italian intelligence services that won her release exactly a month after she was abducted on Feb. 4.

The Iraqi investigators say they conducted as many as half a dozen raids in a northwest Baghdad neighborhood where they think Ms. Sgrena, 56, a reporter for the far-left Rome daily Il Manifesto, was being held. But the kidnappers slipped through their fingers, and she was released after the abductors negotiated with Italian intelligence agents. One of those agents was killed when American troops fired on the car taking Ms. Sgrena to freedom.

Even after her release, Italian officials have refused to share information with the Iraqis, said Col. Jabbar Anwar, chief of the major crimes unit in the sector of Baghdad that includes Gazalea, the neighborhood where she was thought to be held.

The ring that committed the kidnapping was a profit-making organization that is likely to repeat the crime, he said. "They made a big mistake when they let the criminals go, especially if they gave them money," Colonel Jabbar said, referring to reports in the Italian news media and denied by the Italian government that a ransom as large as $8 million was paid. Erminio Amelio, one of the Rome public magistrates leading the investigating into Ms. Sgrena's abduction, said there had been no intent to deprive the Iraqi police of information. "I don't know what type of relationships our people have with the Iraqis in Baghdad," Mr. Amelio said. "Our people have a strong relationship with the Americans, and the Americans deal more with the Iraqis."

"We haven't received any request for information," he said. "Maybe they have approached some Italians there in Iraq, I don't know, but we haven't been asked officially."

Colonel Jabbar and a second officer in the crimes unit said the investigation suggested that the kidnappers were tipped off to Ms. Sgrena's itinerary on the day she was seized. On Feb. 4, Ms. Sgrena went to a district near the University of Baghdad to conduct interviews at a Sunni mosque where refugees from Falluja had been staying. An Italian photographer who helped arrange Ms. Sgrena's visit to the mosque, Franco Pagetti, saw her in the building's courtyard by about 12:45, he said in an e-mail message.

Security guards at the mosque gate were acting suspiciously, Mr. Pagetti said. "They were asking us how many weapons we have," he said, "how many foreigners and if we had a second car."

Mr. Pagetti left, but not before taking a picture of Ms. Sgrena with his digital camera; the picture had a time stamp of 1:37 p.m. Around 1:40, her cellphone had been turned on, and it briefly transmitted the sounds of the kidnapping: gunfire and the sounds of footsteps slogging across wet pavement on a rainy day.

The Iraqi investigators say eight kidnappers brandishing pistols and Kalashnikovs, their faces hidden by head cloths, had arrived in a gray Opel and a black Kia. Witnesses heard Ms. Sgrena scream as the kidnapping unfolded.

Her frightened driver neglected to inform a nearby university guard. The driver was later detained by the police and is still being held, according to the second officer in the crimes unit.

The guard finally saw what was happening and opened fire, but took cover as the heavily armed men drove away with Ms. Sgrena, leaving the driver and her interpreter behind. The investigators say they believe that she was taken to a series of safe houses in Gazalea.

The Iraqi investigators said they had obtained highly specific tips from two informants about where Ms. Sgrena was taken in Gazalea. But as they raided houses in the area, she slipped through their fingers, probably because the kidnappers moved her from house to house.

The only arrest so far occurred when a resident of one of the houses, a major in the Iraqi police force, was found to have an array of phony identification cards, including one for the American Embassy. The other three suspects, who are believed to be originally from Falluja, are still at large.

"We were 100 percent positive that she was in Gazalea," the second officer said. "When we received information that they were there, we hit the house. And they were gone. The neighbors said, 'We saw them.' "

Twelve days after Ms. Sgrena was abducted, she was seen on a videotape pleading for her life and asking all foreigners, in particular Italian troops, to leave Iraq immediately. But Iraqi investigators believe that the display was essentially a bargaining ploy in ransom negotiations.

Information from the Italians, Colonel Jabbar asserted, could have made the difference in cracking the case and bringing the kidnappers to justice. Instead, he said, his investigators saw the lines of communication shut down once the Italians began negotiating with the kidnappers.

Jason Horowitz contributed reporting from Rome for this article.