Michelle Malkin: True scandal in hostage tragedy was terrorist payoff

INTERNATIONAL furor over Giuliana Sgrena, an Italian Communist writer who claims American troops in Iraq may have deliberately shot at her car after she was released by kidnappers, misses the bigger scandal.

The scandal is not that an anti-war propagandist has accused the U.S. of targeting journalists. That’s par for the course. (Yes, hello again, Eason Jordan.)

The scandal is not that mainstream media sympathizers are blaming our military and dredging up every last shooting accident along the treacherous routes to Baghdad Airport. Again, no surprise here.

The scandal is that Italy — our reputed ally in the global War on Terror — negotiated with Sgrena’s Islamist kidnappers and may have forked over a massive ransom to cutthroats for Sgrena’s release.

Iraqi politician Younadem Kana told Belgian state TV that he had “non-official” information that Italy paid the terrorists $1 million in tribute. The Washington Times, citing the Italian newspaper La Stampa, pinned the ransom figure at $6 million. Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported that the Italian government forked over between $10 million and $13.4 million to free Sgrena.

Whatever the final tally, it’s a whopping bounty that will undoubtedly come in handy for cash-hungry killers in need of spiffy new rocket-propelled grenade launchers, AK-47s, mortars, landmines, components for vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices, and recruitment fees. (To put this windfall in perspective, bear in mind that the 9/11 plot was a half-million dollar drop in the bucket for Osama bin Laden.)

Or maybe Italian advocates of this terrorist get-rich-quick scheme think the thugs will spend their money on Prada handbags and Versace couture.

Both the Italian government and members of the Iraq Islamic Army who abducted Sgrena vehemently deny that money was exchanged. Yet, even as his government officially rebuffed reports of a ransom arrangement in the Sgrena affair, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was quoted by the newspaper Il Messaggero conceding: “We have to rethink our strategy in dealing with kidnappings.”

According to the New York Post, Lucia Annunziata, former president of Italian state television RAI, said government sources estimate Italy has paid kidnappers nearly $15 million for hostages in the past year alone. Indeed, last September, Gustavo Selva, chairman of parliament’s foreign affairs committee, confirmed that two Italian aid workers — who praised their kidnappers as “resisters” — were freed after the government paid at least $1 million in cash to their Iraqi captors.

The admission came after heated denials by top government officials. Selva, auditioning Italy for a spot in the Axis of Weasels pantheon, mused at the time: “In principle, we shouldn’t give in to blackmail, but this time we had to, although it’s a dangerous path to take because, obviously, it could encourage others to take hostages, either for political reasons or for criminal reasons.”

To be fair to Italy, which continues to maintain a 3,000-troop presence in Iraq despite enormous anti-war pressure, its reported payoffs to terrorists are dwarfed by the mollycoddlers in Manila and Malaysia, who have fed Abu Sayyaf’s head-chopping kidnappers tens of millions in tribute over the past several years — one that is now reportedly being channeled to worldwide al-Qaida operations.

Still, you would expect a country that once embraced the defiant spirit of Fabrizio Quattrochi — the murdered Italian security guard taken hostage in Iraq last year who stoically told his assassins, “I’m going to show you how an Italian dies” — to resist the Quisling impulse with every fiber of its collective being.

The consequences of capitulation are bloody obvious. When you allow your people to be used as terrorist collection plates, the thugs will keep coming back for more. Might as well hang a sign around the neck of every Italian citizen left in Iraq: Buon appetito.

That is a big if on the "idealogy of the insurgents".

There may be no honor among these thieves.

I like your tag line.:0)

Mind if I use it over Easter dinner with the left wing of the family?

Wow! Thank you for "Italy: Who is Manuevering Ransom for Hostages?" What we didn't know about this...! I recommend that everyone have a look at that very important background information (with links to evidence).

But on Berlusconi, there is one thing we need to follow-up. We'll find out whether it's a dead end or takes us further.

See the following comment by elli1.

"According the John Gibson (FoxNews): '...The Washington Times is reporting Monday that the $6 million ransom was not Italian government money, but personal funds of the media mogul Silvio Berlusconi — who just happens to be the prime minister.'"

Alright, here's the result of the first step in the search on whether or not Berlusconi (rich media mogul) pooled the money. ..."pooled," because IMO, if (if) he really did, he did so by collaborating with all parties that he has been able to get his fingers into. Oh, there's so much more I could tell you, and some that I have, in the past... Here's John Gibson's Fox News story.

Here's one Washington Times piece about that, but it refers to the "two simonas" thing and says that Berlusconi paid that ransom. ...might be another Wash. Times piece and maybe more. We'll see.

A thought or two from experience but aside from the facts (and lack of) so far:

Let me tell you, the Mob does get itself popular through media, and it does give a lot to community charities, raising its hands to the applause. You might even remember something about a saddening revelation on the left coast not so long ago--a teeny, weeny look at the dark side of all that. But I contend that that was nada. It gets a lot worse than that.

And a large portion (not all, as some are very anti-) in the cultures of Italy and Greece are the Mob and where one particular operations style of legitimizing crime into government came from.

"Yet, even as his government officially rebuffed reports of a ransom arrangement in the Sgrena affair, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was quoted by the newspaper Il Messaggero conceding: 'We have to rethink our strategy in dealing with kidnappings.'"

Ah, and see that above.

And while we're at it, let's take a look at a teeny bit of Calipari's history. Yes...more of my guesses from observations in Spooky DeVille. Calipari "fought organized crime." So do the bosses (city councilmen, commissioners, chairmen of the boards, businessmen--even mayors) of many who fight organized crime. After their families get into "legit" business, they don't stop competing with competing gangs. They keep one or two illegit accomplices in the shadows at time, for dirty work. They have all others arrested then hold their hands in the air for the community applause, just like they do in the neighborhoods in the USA. They give to the poor and go to parties.

Berlusconi's Casa delle Libertà (House of Freedoms) includes Forza Italia ("Go On Italy" or "Come On Italy") and the Alleanza Nazionale (National Alliance). Only the Lega Nord (Northern League) broke off from the Casa delle Libertà.

I'll get you some references in a little while. ...need to do a couple of other things first.

Pay particular attention to the last sentence and where the broadcast came from. ...same characteristic ambiguity--same kind of denial and admission.

http://www.agi.it/english/news.pl?doc=200503081218-1055-RT1-CRO-0-NF11&page=0&id=agionline-eng.oggitalia
Today in Italy
Special service by AGI on behalf of the Italian Prime Minister's office

SGRENA: BIANCO, WAITING FOR ANSWERS ON POSSIBLE RANSOM
(AGI) - Rome, March 8 - The parliamentary committee controlling secret services and security services "has not yet received answers" by the government on the possible payment of a ransom for the liberation of Giuliana Sgrena, stated Enzo Bianco, committee president, at the microphones of "Radio anch'io". "The fact that Italy could have paid a ransom is a very delicate topic, talked and written about by media, but we are not sure that this really happened. Certainly in Italy the choice not to pay ransoms was a winning choice against the phenomenon of kidnapping for the purpose of extortion, particularly serious during the 70ies, but Baghdad is a completely different reality, Italy is united in undertaking any possible step to free possible hostages".

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