Letter to Hillary Clinton

I belong to the group of those Italians who hoped in a change in the American administration and welcomed President Barack Obama”s election with joy. The end of the Bush age was refreshing for us all, above all for those among us who were accused of being anti-American only because we opposed the political line of one President. The allegation of being anti-American resurfaced in these last few days, not towards single people but towards the Italian judiciary, for the case of Amanda Knox. I know for personal experience that verdicts are not always just and in any case the guilty verdict of a young lady is always a tragedy, but I do not believe that discrediting the Italian justice system in its entirety is a good strategy especially in view of the forecoming Appeal proceeding. However, I am not writing to you for this matter. You were ready available to listen to Senator Maria Cantwell on the Knox case, while I tried, to no avail, to be heard by an American authority (and those who questioned me did not pay any consideration to this matter), for a case I was personally involved in while in Iraq: the shooting by American soldiers which resulted in the death of Nicola Calipari, agent of the Italian secret services. Nobody ever wanted to hear us out because Calipari”s death and the wounds inferred to myself and to another agent were considered normal in a war-theatre like Iraq. Now the United States are about to withdraw from that country, the policy towards Iraq has been reviewed and some mistakes have been acknowledged. It might be too late to unrevel the truth about what happened during the night of March 4th, 2005, but the possibility to be heard by a person such as yourself would be, if anything, an important form of compensation for moral damages, not so much for myself, but at least for Calipari”s family. ‘