Giuliana Sgrena, a journalist with the Italian Communist daily Il Manifesto, was kidnapped in February in Iraq

* Giuliana Sgrena, a journalist with the Italian Communist daily Il Manifesto, was kidnapped in February in Iraq. Evidently the Italian government made a secret payment to spring her, and did not tip the American army. As Sgrena's car sped toward a military checkpoint, the soldiers fired a barrage of warning shots, then shots, injuring Sgrena and killing Nicola Calipari, the intelligence officer who was accompanying her.

Sgrena, taking a leaf from Eason Jordan, has charged that the Yanks tried to kill her. Preposterous: Wickedness would be far more efficient. The deadly incident is bad enough. Abrave Italian has died, and an American ally and its politically courageous leader, Silvio Berlusconi, have come under heavy pressure. War is hell, and friendly fire is one of its most painful features.

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