20,000 in farewell to Italian 'martyr'

[NNN0LHI]

http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=253302005

THE Italian intelligence officer killed by United States forces after helping to free a hostage in Iraq was given a full state funeral yesterday with tens of thousands turning out on the streets of Rome to pay tribute.

Nicola Calipari has been hailed a hero and a martyr after he died while shielding the journalist Giuliana Sgrena from US gunfire outside Baghdad airport following her release.

Among the mourners at his funeral were the Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, who sent Mr Calipari on the fatal mission to Baghdad and is trying to reconcile his pro-US policies with growing demands for an explanation from Washington over the shooting.

As many as 20,000 people lined the streets of Rome as Mr Calipari’s body was driven to the basilica of St Mary of the Angels and Martyrs for the funeral, which was televised. snip

Romano Prodi, Mr Berlusconi’s opposition candidate, said: "Today we can say nothing, but tomorrow we shall be looking for answers."

more

[DoYouEverWonder]

1. And not a single US Official

in sight.

[Tsiyu]

2. Go figure

they can't mess up their "beautiful minds" mourning with any of their Vast Coalition....

[Jacobin]

5. I suspect U.S. officials were uninvited

[LisaM]

3. And reported this morning on the news (NPR) as "hundreds"

Honestly. I knew it had to be more than hundreds, but this number is significantly more.

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

4. Frickin' LYING, DECEPTIVE MEDIA BASTARDS!!

Hundreds? HUNDREDS???? Gd Damn Unbelievable the U.S. media.

[Jacobin]

6. I heard that too, but I was afraid to post it because I thought

maybe I had heard it wrong.

NPR, becoming more useless by the day

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

7. This Is My Media

I have barely turned on the news since 11/4, when I came to the realization that it's all a pack of lies. Not an ounce of truth out there, even in public radio from the sound of things. And still, they're about the best we've got. Ah, what a world, what a world.

[murielm99]

10. Mine, too, OCDemocrat!

I have watched Rather a few times, but that will soon be over.

[Warren Stupidity]

9. not just npr

The whole msm was in lockstep diminishing the italian scandal.

This is really starting to get to me. The level of misinformation coming out of our corporate version of pravda, where we get a choice of 27 varieties of the same bullshit, is truly frightful. I know that the internet remains mostly uncontrolled, that the 'blogosphere' as corporate pravda calls it, is a multitude of beacons of many versions of the truth, including versions that would do a paranoid schizophrenic justice, but really, seriously, too many people are existing on a diet of pure unadulterated fascist crap.

This is not good.

I was listening to AAR on the way home from work and I swear that whomever it was (and the local AM outlet is hard to hear and has a wierd schedule) was dismissing all claims of non-accident over the shooting of Mr. Calipari. "Just a mistake". "No motive no crime." This was AAR, it is supposed to be the progressive alternative. At least admit that there are questions that need to be answered! Damn. I was not happy.

[0007]

8. I bet the White House cringe every time they hear that Nicola Calipari

died while shielding Giuliana Sgrena.

junior will be saying Calipari died for "a dirty rotten commie" what a stupid man.

[daleo]

11. Real heroism like this is unimaginable to the likes of Bush.

He considers strutting across the deck of a aircraft carrier to be the epitome of shining heroism. To give one's life shielding a peace activist/journalist - why it is unimaginable to a "Christian" like Bush, although Jesus Christ would have well understood the action.