Satellite records Italian Check point event.

[DinoDoc]

We already knew the reporter was lieing, LoA.

[Ted Striker]

Thanks for posting the article Whoha

[Lawrence of Arabia]

i didnt, i had the feeling she did, but until now, no confirmation.

[MarkG]

It said the soldiers manning the checkpoint first spotted the Italian car when it was 137 yards (meters) away. By the time they opened fire and brought the car to a halt, it was 46 yards (meters) away. CBS said that happened in less than three seconds, which meant the car had to be going over 60 miles an hour.

and it also means that there were no warning shots. probably the US soldiers were sleeping, noticed the car too late and just started firing at it...

[Mrs. Tuberski]

hmmm seems to me sombody dropped the ball here. with all the bs going on with this person just rescued and and, racing to get out im gonna,I doubt oh yeah we was cruising at 30 mph

[VetLegion]

Do satellites have real time coverage then? I always wondered about their resolution and framerate. I guess they record at 1 frame per second? Or are they faster?

[Urban Ranger]

The Italians refuse to sign on the final investigation report, indicating something's amiss, at least from their POV.

[Dinner]

From the link.

US satellite recorded checkpoint shooting, shows speed of Italian car: CBS

Fri Apr 29,12:28 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A US satellite reportedly recorded a checkpoint shooting in
Iraq last month, enabling investigators to reconstruct how fast a car carrying a top Italian intelligence official and a freed hostage was traveling when US troops opened fire.
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The report, which aired Thursday on CBS News, said US investigators concluded from the recording that the car was traveling at a speed of more than 60 miles (96 km) per hour.

Giuliana Sgrena has said the car was traveling at a normal speed of about 30 miles an hour when the soldiers opened fired, wounding her and killing Nicola Calipari, the Italian agent who had just secured her release from a month's captivity.

US soldiers said at the time of the March 4 incident that the car approached at a high rate of speed and that they fired only after it failed to respond to hand signals, flashing bright lights and warning shots.

The conflicting accounts were among a number of differences that have prevented US and Italian authorities from reaching agreement on what happened.

CBS, citing
Pentagon officials, said the satellite recording enabled investigators to reconstruct the event without having to rely on the eyewitness accounts.

It said the soldiers manning the checkpoint first spotted the Italian car when it was 137 yards (meters) away. By the time they opened fire and brought the car to a halt, it was 46 yards (meters) away. CBS said that happened in less than three seconds, which meant the car had to be going over 60 miles an hour.

CBS said Italian investigators refused to accept that the Americans were justified in shooting so quickly, arguing among other things that the checkpoint was not properly marked.

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Italian military carry the coffin of secret service agent Nicola Calipari his funeral in Rome, in March 2005. A US satellite reportedly recorded the checkpoint shooting in Iraq, enabling investigators to reconstruct how fast the car carrying Calipari and freed hostage Giuliana Sgrena was traveling when US troops opened fire.(AFP/File/Marco Longari)

[Urban Ranger]

It said the soldiers manning the checkpoint first spotted the Italian car when it was 137 yards (meters) away. By the time they opened fire and brought the car to a halt, it was 46 yards (meters) away. CBS said that happened in less than three seconds, which meant the car had to be going over 60 miles an hour.

I, for one, have doubts regarding these numbers. How did they come up with them, given all the cars going through the check point at the time?

[VetLegion]

They took the satellite photos, measured the distance between car and checkpoint in two pictures, and then adjusted for scale and time elapsed.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by VetLegion
They took the satellite photos, measured the distance between car and checkpoint in two pictures, and then adjusted for scale and time elapsed.

The passage I quoted referred to the soldiers, not persons handling the sat photos later.

[kittenOFchaos]

It was as I said over at civfanatics at the time to howls of derision that there was no-way that an Italian would be driving sanely

[Locutus]

So have these satellite images been released to the public so independent experts can confirm this information? 'Cause we all know how objective American government is when it comes to analysing satellite images...

[Dinner]

CBS said that happened in less than three seconds, which meant the car had to be going over 60 miles an hour.

That is what the satellite photos prove and it is exactly what the US soldiers said. The Italian version was totally different:

Giuliana Sgrena has said the car was traveling at a normal speed of about 30 miles an hour when the soldiers opened fired

So it seems the Italians were completely wrong. Does anyone believe that the Italian politicians who worked themselves into a nationalist frenzy will now say they are sorry about falsely accussing the US soldiers? Will that female communist reporter (who was held hostage) now admit that she either lied or didn't have any clue about what happened?

[chequita guevara]

Communist reporter?