Using NewsHour Extra Feature Stories

Overview: NewsHour Extra feature stories can help students identify and interpret key issues in current events. This activity anticipates one class period, but the follow-up essay might be assigned as homework or in another period.

Warm Up: Use initiating questions to introduce the topic and find out how much your students know.

Main Activity: Have students read NewsHour Extra's feature story and answer the questions on the reading comprehension handout.

Discussion: Use discussion questions to encourage students to think about how the issues outlined in the story affect their lives and express and debate different opinions.

Follow-up: Students can write a 500-word editorial on the topic expressing their views and send it to NewsHour Extra [extra@newshour.org] for possible publication.

Evaluation: Students are graded on their answers to reading comprehension questions and/or their editorial.

Story: Italian Checkpoint Death Stirs Safety Debate, 03/09/05
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/jan-june05/checkpoints_3-09.html

Initiating Questions:

1. What is a checkpoint?

2. Why might they be necessary in a place like Iraq?

Reading Comprehension Questions: (click here for printout)

1. What incident created diplomatic tensions between the United States and Italy?

Nicola Calipari, an Italian intelligence officer, was killed last week by U.S. soldiers at a checkpoint while driving to the Baghdad airport with a hostage he'd just freed. The highly publicized death raised questions about checkpoint safety and damaged U.S. relations with Italy, which has 3,000 troops in Iraq.

2. Who is Giuliana Sgrena and what was her reaction to the incident?

Giuliana Sgrena, a popular journalist who was held hostage for a month in Iraq before Calipari masterminded her release, said the U.S. troops purposefully targeted her because the military opposes Rome's practice of negotiating with kidnappers. Italian newspapers have reported that between $6 million to $8 million was handed over to the hostage takers. The Italian government has neither denied nor confirmed any ransom.

"Let's understand what's an ambush: when you're driving on a road and there are people who are supposed to be aware of the fact that you are coming and you find a tank in front of you shooting hundreds of bullets against you without any warning, as they should always do in any case. I saw my seat in the car full of bullets," Sgrena said in a television interview.

3. How did White House officials explain the incident?

White House officials called that claim "absurd," and said that soldiers fired on the Italians' car after it approached a checkpoint at high speeds and failed to heed signals to slow down. The Army general commanding forces in Iraq said he had no indication that U.S. officials had been advised of the rescue mission beforehand.

4. How has the Italian government reacted to the incident?

But the Italian foreign minister insists the Italians were driving slowly and had made "all necessary contacts" with U.S. authorities to facilitate entry to the airport.

The Italian government said that while the incident was most likely a deadly mistake, a full investigation was necessary to learn what happened, punish those responsible and make sure that steps are taken to prevent similar occurrences.

5. What are military checkpoints and why are they dangerous?

Military checkpoints -- roadblocks where vehicles are screened for Iraqi insurgents and wanted criminals -- have been dangerous places throughout the U.S. occupation. Many U.S. soldiers have been killed by suicide bombers in approaching cars. An independent group, iraqbodycount.org, reports that more than 170 innocent Iraqi civilians also have been killed at checkpoints -- by bombers and by U.S. soldiers.

"We're hearing about this case today because the victims were Italians. But Iraqis face this type of violence on an almost -- I can't say daily but on a frequent basis," said Fred Abrahams of Human Rights Watch.

6. According to Fred Abrahams of Human Rights Watch, why are so many people killed at checkpoints?

Abrahams says there is also a problem with not holding soldiers accountable for civilian deaths.
"I'm afraid that we could say there is a kind of climate of impunity in which soldiers feel like they can use lethal force without coming under review. That puts civilians at risk," he said.

7. How does a former platoon commander counter Abrahams' argument?

Paul Rieckhoff, a platoon commander who left the Army and now runs Operation Truth, a nonprofit group that advocates on behalf of U.S. soldiers, disagrees.

He says scandals like the prison abuse at Abu Ghraib have heightened the level of accountability in practice and also in the minds of every soldier.

"These are young kids who are in tremendously difficult areas. Many of them are probably retrained in the last few months to do these jobs. So you've probably got a young guy who is 19 years old on that checkpoint who may have been a truck driver a few months ago," he said. "And the last thing he wants to do is shoot some civilians."

Discussion Activity (more research might be needed):

1. After reading the article, why do you think checkpoints are so violent? What, if anything, can be done to improve their safety?

2. How might checkpoints damage relations with Iraqis? What can be done to repair relations?

3. Giuliana Sgrena said the U.S. troops purposefully targeted her because the military opposes Rome's practice of negotiating with kidnappers. Should governments negotiate with kidnappers? Should they pay ransoms? What are the implications of your answer? Explain.

Write a 300-500 word essay on either of these topics providing clear examples. Send your completed editorial to NewsHour Extra (extra@newshour.org). Exceptional essays might be published on our Web site.