In Memory of Nicola Calipari - killed by US forces 03/04/05

[DoYouEverWonder]

Nicola Calipari

Calipari was killed when U.S. troops fired at their vehicle Friday as they headed to the airport shortly after Giuliana Sgrena's release. Sgrena, a journalist who was abducted Feb. 4 in Baghdad, was recovering in a Rome hospital from a shrapnel wound to the shoulder and was not expected to attend the funeral.





Mourners applaud as Nicola Calipari's coffin is borne into the Saint Mary of the Angels basilica. Rome came to a standstill as Italy bade a solemn farewell with a state funeral for the Italian secret service agent slain by US gunfire as he rescued a hostage in Iraq.




Italy's secret service chief General Nicolo' Pollari walks with Maria Rosa, wife of slain Italian intelligence officer Nicola Calipari, at the end of her husband's state funeral in Rome's Saint Maria degli Angeli church.




Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi embraces an unidentified relative of Italian intelligence officer Nicola Calipari, at the end of a state funeral in Rome's Saint Maria degli Angeli church.

[Jacobin]

1. If you look down a bit at that last picture

you can see Berlusconi lifting that guy's wallet. Just scroll down a tad, although with the expression on his face you can tell what's going on anyway.

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. Italy mourns the 'extraordinary' Calipari

06 March 2005

Veteran Italian secret service agent Nicola Calipari was a practised negotiator who had already helped arrange the safe return of two hostages kidnapped in Iraq.

On Friday he succeeded once more when journalist Giuliana Sgrena was handed over to Italian officials following a month of captivity in the hands of Iraqi insurgents. But what should have been a triumphant return was shattered when the car taking Ms Sgrena, Mr Calipari and other agents to the Baghdad airport was fired upon by US troops and Mr Calipari was killed as he threw his body across Ms Sgrena.

His death has aroused a wave of reaction nationwide . At football matches and other sporting events across the country, spectators were observing a minute's silence, while in his home town of Reggio Calabria, in the south, the team were turning out wearing black armbands in tribute. There has also been a flood of requests to rename streets and piazzas after the agent.

"He was an extraordinary man," said Ms Sgrena's boyfriend Pier Scolari, whilenews of his death brought grief to other former hostages and their relatives. "Nicola Calipari was a beautiful person, a simple person. He was the person who freed me," said Simona Torretta on Friday as she left his home having gone to pay her respects to his family.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=617245