Italian died a hero

[Rolo]

Fabrizio Quattrocchi, one of four Italian security guards abducted earlier this week, was shot dead on Wednesday after Italy refused to bow to the kidnappers' demands that it withdraw its troops from Iraq.

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said a video recording of the killing showed that Quattrocchi was hooded when his kidnappers put a gun to his head.

"When the murderers were pointing a pistol at him, this man tried to take off his hood and shouted: 'Now I'm going to show you how an Italian dies'. And they killed him," Frattini said on Thursday.

"He died a hero," he added.
...


http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticl...59&section=news (http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=493859&section=news)

[Rolo]

I have been wondering about how fast a "PR" hostage situation can turn against the hostage takers or those who share their beliefs.

The hostages taken in Iraq have mostly been civilians, and hostage takers have told that either foreign goverments pull out of Iraq or they will kill the hostages. Clearly their goal has been to put pressure on goverments in their home countries, and stop foreigners comming to their country... until now this has worked for the hostage takers - by showing videos of hostage to the media, which again repeatedly shows them to the public - filling the public with fear... the hostage takers have the "control".

Now as the hostage takers kill their hostages, then they losse that "control" they had before. Now its up to the media how it will be presented, and mostly western media want to show the indepth story - making the hostage into a person, and not just a face on a video. The fear the public had - turns into anger - they want to blame someone for the killing of the hostage... and here is where it can turn against the hostage takers or people who share the hostage takers belief.

Once Europe was seen as "safehaven" for islamic fundamentalists, however that is changing, and with the killing of european hostages, then I´m starting to wonder, if europeans will choose to blame their goverments, or the hostage takers... and since hostage takers are sitting in a small desert city in Iraq, would that lead europeans to take out their frustrations on the islamic fundamentalists living in Europe?



Last edited by Rolo at Apr 16 2004, 12:53 AM

[Mike AI]

Yeah chances are this could piss off the Italian public, they may still have some machismo left in them.

[Rolo]

Looks like it have unified Italians:


Country united by outrage

Surprisingly, in a country where two-thirds of the people are opposed to the war and the opposition has been highly critical of the government’s support of U.S. policy, political reaction was remarkably unified.

From right to left Italian leaders concurred that despite the tragedy of the dead hostage, and the horror hanging over the three living ones, Italian policy can not be dictated by terrorists. Kidnapping citizens, they agreed, must not be allowed to hijack the will of the entire nation.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4749058/

[Mike AI]

This is good news, hope the Italians remain resolute!

[Winetalk.com]

for some reason I find Italians from Brooklyn more resolute than Italians from Italy...even though the guy who DID die like a hero,
is an exception from the rule.

[dig420]

that was a beautiful man