Italian Journalist Shooting Update II

This is better than a Soap Opera, and the Blogosphere is on top of this smelly fish.

Charles was updating us on this ever-changing story several times on Sunday.

A believable theory was put forth by Roger Simon:

The only clue I see so far is this warning from her captors, reported by Sgrena herself in this article by the Associated Press:

Suddenly, she said, she remembered her captors' words, when they warned her "to be careful because the Americans don't want you to return."

Really? Why? Just because she might say something favorable about the "insurgents"? This would hardly be amazing from a reporter for the communist Il Manifesto where scarcely a good word has been said about America since the fall of Mussolini. It would barely be news.

But how about this? Suppose it was the "insurgents" themselves, through a cut-out obviously, who alerted the Americans to Sgrena and her protectors, describing their car as something other than it was -- a suicide bomber, perhaps, or some other possible terrorist-related vehicle. Of course, their motivation would have been to make the Americans look bad, no matter what resulted. Sgrena and the others would just have been collateral damage. And that, indeed, is what has happened.

Of course, this is just a plot by a mystery writer. And not even a particularly good one.

I'd buy the book.