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Nicola Calipari ( June 23 1953 , Reggio Calabria - March 4 2005 , Iraq ) was an Italian SISMI ( Military Intelligence ) officer (with the rank of Major General ). Calipari was killed while escorting a recently released Italian Hostage , Journalist Giuliana Sgrena , to Baghdad International Airport . CAREER Calipari, who was married and had two children, spent most of his career with the Italian Police , rising to prominent positions, before joining the Italian military Security and Intelligence Service ( SISMI ) two years before his death. In 1994 , he organized a free help line for Gay and Lesbian victims of violence and discrimination in Rome . During the nineties he was involved in many rescues of persons kidnapped by 'Ndrangheta and other criminal organizations. RESCUE OF GIULIANA SGRENA See Also: Rescue of Giuliana Sgrena Nicola Calipari, along with a colleague from SISMI, liberated in undisclosed circumstances (some allege a multi-million- Dollar Ransom had been paid) Giuliana Sgrena from her captors. On the way back to Baghdad International Airport , the Toyota Corolla they were travelling in came under fire, in disputed conditions, by US soldiers that had set up a blocking position to protect the convoy transporting the US Ambassador , John Negroponte . Calipari was shot and killed by New York State National Guardsman Mario Lozano , a member of the 1st Battalion of the 69th Infantry Regiment (of the Third Infantry Division). It was later determined that a bullet had struck him in his Temple . REACTIONS IN ITALY .]] The SISMI has had a dark story of Subversion in Italy, and its reputation was never good among Left-wing circles. Because of this, sorrow for Calipari's death united the nation, as a member of a "suspicious" police force had given his life protecting a declared Communist . Tens of thousands of Italian citizens paid their respects to Calipari, who had become a National Hero , at the State Funeral on March 8 , 2005, at Santa Maria Degli Angeli E Dei Martiri in Rome. He was Posthumous ly awarded the Gold Medal of Military Valor by President Of The Italian Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi on March 22 , 2005 {Link without Title} . |
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