And let's not forget her recollection that the driver of the car had been placing cell phone calls while heading towards the airport. At night. In the rain. Hydroplaning.

She claims she didn't see any lights, or any checkpoint. But she's in the back seat, chatting away with Mr. Capilari about "events in Italy since my capture."

So, to sum it up, Berlusconi decides that she's gonna pay the ransom for Sgrena. Who was making video-taped pleas for the insurgents that were identical to the stuff she was writing anyway. So Capilari, who was Berlusconi's bag-man for the "rescue" of the two ladies named Simone, who were similarly sympathetic to the insurgents before, during and after their capture, goes to UAE and hands over a sum of money. I've seen reports ranging from 1 to 10 million dollars.

Omar over at Iraq the Model has been watching Iraqi TV. They have reality TV over there, too, only their reality is the war. They've been broadcasting the interrogations and confessions of captured insurgents. In this entry Omar remarks on the fact that the insurgents who attack Iraqi civillians are paid surprisingly small sums of money, in this particular case, around $200 dollars per attack. How many attacks will $1 million dollars buy?

So, resuming our narrative, Berlusconi's bag-man returns to Baghdad. He can't admit to the Americans what he's done, just that he's going to go out with a few of his friends and he'll be back shortly, and, oh, yes, there's a special plane coming to take us all out of here as soon as we get back. In short, Capilari launches and uncoordinated cowboy mission in the American Area of Operations.

So, instead of having an American back up, he has nothing. A reasonable amount of American support for this mission might include

1) One high-altitude low-observable UAV for overhead surveillance,
2) section of two gunships orbiting 15 kilometers away from the car, for immediate back up
3) a company-strength rapid reaction force on the ground.

If UAV telemetry indicates that the mission has gone sour, say, and insurgent ambush, then the gunships are called in to buy time while the reaction force is en route

If the UAV teletry indicates a successful pick-up, the reaction force will meet the car at a pre-designated point along the exfiltration route. The reaction force will then escort the car to the airport. Go to the airport. Go directly to the airport. Do not pass Go. Do not collect 200 dollars.

Instead, Capileri went in with NO PLAN. What if the insurgents had decided they wanted more money? Bingo! Three more hostages! And the Americans don't know where they are.

Fortunately, that wasn't the case. They got out with thier woman.

Unfortunately, they got careless after the mission was "over". A common enough mistake in a combat situation. Many a light bomber crew has relaxed after the bombs were dropped, only to get bounced by a fighter on the return leg.

Because the driver throught he was out of danger, he did not pay sufficient attention to his surroundings. As a professional intelligence agent in-country, the driver ought to have been aware of the conditions in Baghdad, and the <a href=http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0307/p01s04-woiq.html">often-problematic checkpoints. The American troops at the temporary checkpoint, quite possibly deployed to support this very mission, opened fire:

According to the military source, who said he spoke on condition of anonymity because the incident is under investigation, U.S. soldiers had established an impromptu evening checkpoint at the entrance to the road to the airport about 90 minutes earlier and had stopped other vehicles. They knew a high-level U.S. Embassy official would be moving to the airport on that road, and their aim was to support that movement, he said.

But no specific coordination occurred between those involved in Sgrena's rescue and the military unit responsible for the checkpoint, according to the source.

The absence of advance communication between the Italians and the U.S. soldiers at the checkpoint appears to have put the occupants of the car in grave jeopardy, given what many U.S. officials describe as the military's standard practice of firing at onrushing cars from their checkpoints in Iraq.

"In my view, the main contributing factor was a lack of prior coordination with the ground unit," the source said. "If requested, we would have resourced and supported this mission very differently."

Emphasis added.

There was no escort, no passive surveillance, no signals between Capilari and US forces, no description of the vehicle provided to the check point.

It was a botched operation. Little wonder Joe opened fire.

I'm sorry the man's dead. And I'm also sorry for the tens or hundreds of Iraqis who will die from the money Capileri handed over.