A different angle:
Italy, some sources say, has as a consequence of that incident changed its never publicly stated policy in Iraq. Up to now they have paid in the case of abductions of Italians in Iraq. Several million dollars of Italian money have been transferred this way to those people who abduct, bomb, and shoot daily in Iraq. This handling is said to have been stopped now by Berlusconi.

Giuseppe d'Avanzo (in Repubblica) speaks of "collective (Italian) hypocrisy", gives Italy a part of the guilt for the death and writes: We have paid to get Agliani, Cupertino and Stefio back. We have paid to save the two Simones. We have paid to be able to give a burial to (murdered) Fabrizio Quattrocchi. The Italians pay. This maxim is a catastrophe in a country in which the security of all Western people is in jeopardy.

One Civil servant is quoted by the 'Corriere della Sera': It is now no more possible that the guerilla in Iraq shops rockets in Dubai with Italian money.

Wolfgang