Troops mistakenly kill interpreter

[Maple]

Thu, September 18, 2003
Troops mistakenly kill interpreter
By ALEKSANDAR VASOVIC - Associated Press

"ROME (AP) -- American soldiers in northern Iraq mistakenly fired on a car carrying the Italian official heading up U.S. efforts to recover Iraq's looted antiquities, killing the man's Iraqi interpreter, an official said Friday in Rome. The Italian, Pietro Cordone, was unhurt.

Cordone, who is the senior adviser for cultural affairs of the U.S. provisional authority and the top Italian diplomat in the country, was traveling between Mosul and Tikrit on Thursday when his car was fired on at a U.S. roadblock, said a Foreign Ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The official said American troops fired at the car, and that Cordone's Iraqi interpreter was killed."

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2003/09/18/196192-ap.html

[OrdinaryTa]

1. Cheney Apologizes to Italian Ambassador

No, he didn't. Actually, it's more like of course he didn't. Cheney doesn't care if the innocent are killed. Hey, shit happens.

[pippin]

2. More ways to win friends

More ways to win friends and influence the Iraqis.

Note the following:

"The official said it appeared the car's driver did not understand signals from the American troops, and that the Americans didn't understand what the car was trying to do. "

So why have an interpreter?

[Maple]

3. I assumed

the interpreter was for Italian/Iraqi, and didn't necessarily speak English.