Posted on 12/27/2003 8:09:14 AM PST by dpa5923
Leader: Terrorists Planned To Attack Vatican On Christmas Security Tightened Around Vatican In Recent Weeks
POSTED: 10:05 AM EST December 27, 2003 UPDATED: 10:28 AM EST December 27, 2003
ROME -- Terrorists planned to attack the Vatican with a hijacked plane on Christmas Day, Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi said in a newspaper interview published Saturday.
Berlusconi told Milan's Libero newspaper of a "precise and verified news of an attack on Rome on Christmas Day."
"A hijacked plane into the Vatican," Berlusconi is quoted as saying. "An attack from the sky, is that clear? The threat of terrorism is very high in this instant. I passed Christmas Eve in Rome to deal with the situation. Now I feel calm. It will pass."
He added, "It isn't fatalism, but the knowledge of having our guard up. If they organized this, they will not pull it off."
Berlusconi gave no further details in the interview about who the intended hijackers were, where the information came from and how the attack was thwarted.
Security has been tightened around the Vatican in recent weeks amid reports that churches could become terrorist targets. During Christmas celebrations, Italian police guarded the perimeter of the vast St. Peter's Square and pilgrims entering the basilica passed through metal detectors.
The Vatican refused Saturday to respond to questions about a possible Christmas threat.
Papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said in a statement, "As in every case of suspected or valid information regarding security themes, I have no comment to make."
Berlusconi's office issued its own statement Saturday, saying the premier's remarks did not amount to official declarations.
"Premier Silvio Berlusconi gave no interview. One cannot confuse a quick exchange of Christmas greetings with political declarations," it said.
The premier also was quoted by Libero as saying he received information in November of another planned attack, on the subways of Milan and Rome.
"There were those who insisted that the stations be closed," Berlusconi is quoted as saying. "I took on myself the responsibility for avoiding certain measures. They would had the same effect on the minds of people as an attack, they would have killed us inside, with dramatic social and economic consequences.
"Terrorism wants to make us close up. I preferred to double up the safety checks."
Berlusconi denies Vatican attack quotes
Sat 27 December, 2003 16:26
ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has denied quotes attributed to him in a newspaper report that said he had received information about a plan to attack the Vatican on Christmas Day.
The article published on Saturday in the Milan newspaper Libero quoted Berlusconi as saying he had received "precise and verified news of an attack on Rome on Christmas Day... A hijacked plane above the Vatican... An attack from the sky."
Berlusconi issued a one-sentence statement a few hours after the article appeared in which he implied that the journalist who wrote the article, Renato Farina, had made up quotes. A spokeswoman for his office confirmed that this was his meaning.
Farina told Reuters: "I did not invent anything." He described himself as a friend of Berlusconi.
Libero is a right-leaning newspaper that is sympathetic to Berlusconi and has published several lengthy interviews with him in the past.
Earlier, the same spokeswoman at Berlusconi's office said Berlusconi and Farina had had "a private conversation" on Christmas Eve -- the conversation on which the article was based -- but the prime minister had not granted Libero an interview.
The prime minister's statement was a play on words, punning on Farina, which means flour in Italian, and the colloquial expression "not flour from your sack", which means "not your own work".
"The quotes in the Libero article are flour from Farina's sack," Berlusconi wrote -- implying that they were of Farina's own invention.
Christmas celebrations at the Vatican led by Pope John Paul passed without incident and there were no reports of any foiled attack.
The Vatican's chief spokesman said he did not comment on security matters.
Italian police boosted security at the Vatican and around churches before Christmas, though the Interior Ministry said on December 18 it had received no specific threats.
The Conciliazione, a broad avenue running from the river Tiber to St Peter's Square, has been closed to traffic from midnight until 7 a.m. since December 15, an unprecedented measure.
Italy has been on heightened alert for terror attacks since a suicide bomber killed 19 Italians last month in a strike against a military police headquarters in the southern Iraqi city of Nassiriya.
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