ROME -- An Italian intelligence officer slain by U.S. troops in Iraq after he rescued a kidnapped journalist was buried Monday with full ceremonial honors as angry questions over the shooting threatened to do political harm to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, a fervent ally of the Bush administration.
Thousands of Italians, some weeping and others applauding, lined the streets of the capital to watch as the flag-draped coffin of Nicola Calipari was borne to St. Mary of Angels and Martyrs church in Rome's Piazza della Repubblica. "Bravo, Nicola!" people in the crowd called, hailing him as a hero.
Inside the 16th-century basilica, Calipari's wife and children were accompanied by senior religious and political leaders, including Berlusconi and U.S. Ambassador Mel Sembler.
"This is a time for unity, without controversy," eulogized an emotional Gianni Letta, a senior aide to Berlusconi who worked with Calipari in negotiating hostage releases. "Let's leave the polemics to one side."
Berlusconi's party faces tough regional elections in four weeks, and the shooting has put the prime minister in a sensitive position. While he is loath to damage his relationship with Washington, his credibility at home rests on holding the U.S. military accountable for the shooting.
Calipari, 50, was killed by a single bullet to the head when he used his body to shield the newly freed hostage, journalist Giuliana Sgrena. Their car came under U.S. army fire Friday night along the notoriously dangerous road to the Baghdad airport.
The U.S. military said the Italians were speeding toward a checkpoint and ignored warnings to stop.
Since her return to Rome on Saturday, however, Sgrena has consistently disputed the U.S. version of events from her hospital bed. She said their car was not speeding, her group was not near a checkpoint and they did not see warning signals.
Recovering from shrapnel wounds to her shoulder, Sgrena was unable to attend yesterday's funeral.
Sgrena, 56, has worked for the Communist newspaper Il Manifesto for 17 years. She raised a few eyebrows when she suggested that she might have been targeted deliberately because of U.S. disapproval of Italy's willingness to negotiate with kidnappers.
"Everyone knows the Americans are dead set against any negotiations for the release of hostages and that they will do anything to stop those who are trying to save the lives of hostages," Sgrena told an Italian TV interviewer Sunday.
Yesterday, she told the leading Corriere della Sera newspaper: "I believe, but it's only a hypothesis, that the happy ending to the negotiations must have been irksome. The Americans are against this type of operation. For them, war is war, human life doesn't count for much."
The White House yesterday said the idea that Sgrena was intentionally targeted was "absurd."
Italy is rumored to have paid huge ransoms for Sgrena and other Italians seized in Iraq. The government has denied such payments in the past, but Agriculture Minister Gianni Alemanno was quoted in Corriere as saying that a ransom was "very probably" paid.
Calipari was an experienced negotiator who was tasked on his missions directly by Berlusconi's office. Italy has demanded a full accounting from U.S. authorities in Rome and in Washington.
