Of Checkpoints and Dominoes

If this is true:

"The Americans and Italians knew about (her) car coming," Pier Scolari said on leaving Rome's Celio military hospital where Sgrena is to undergo surgery following her return home.

"They were 700 meters (yards) from the airport, which means that they had passed all checkpoints."

Then this may be true, too:

The shooting late Friday was witnessed by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's office which was on the phone with one of the secret service agents, said Scolari. "Then the US military silenced the cellphones," he charged.

"Giuliana had information, and the US military did not want her to survive," he added.

Are these things right, or wrong? The damning thing will be the location of the shooting: was it approaching a checkpoint, or the airport, having passed all checkpoints?

Look for these kinds of questions to get lost in a fog of excuses, such as "the fog of war" and "the dangerous situation," or the "speeding car" (blaming the victim is a favorite excuse of those who abuse their authority) or the latest variation on "support the troops," "Don't blame the soldiers."

Well, we'll see.

And in other news, we are working the domino theory in reverse. It seems the latest saber-rattling against Syria (can anyone seriously doubt this is what Condi Rice has been doing, in all her comments in Europe?) is to try to establish a nexus between Syria and the insurgency in Iraq. But, as this article points out, it ain't necessarily so.

But, then, some said that about Iraq and WMD, too. Simply refuting it, unfortunately, doesn't stop the momentum.