Prison Abuse Said Bigger to U.S. Than 9/11 [Get A Grip!]

AP ^ | May 12, 2004

[Alouette]

ROME - The scandal of prisoner abuses by U.S. soldiers in Iraq has dealt a bigger blow to the United States than the Sept. 11 attacks, the Vatican foreign minister told an Italian newspaper.

In an interview published Wednesday in the Rome daily La Repubblica, Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo described the abuses as "a tragic episode in the relationship with Islam" and said the scandal would fuel hatred for the West and for Christianity.

"The torture? A more serious blow to the United States than Sept. 11. Except that the blow was not inflicted by terrorists but by Americans against themselves," Lajolo was quoted as saying in La Repubblica.

Lajolo said that "intelligent people in Arab countries understand that in a democracy such episodes are not hidden and are punished ... Still the vast mass of people — under the influence of Arab media — cannot but feel aversion and hate for the West growing inside themselves."

And, he added, "the West is often identified with Christianity."

The remarks were not the first by Lajolo on the abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. In the wake of the scandal, he had said that a democracy should punish those responsible and their direct superiors.

The Vatican paper, L'Osservatore Romano, has also run some harsh comments in the past days. On Monday, it criticized what it called a Pentagon cover-up and took sharp aim at the photograph of a soldier holding a prisoner by a leash.

In Wednesday's interview, Lajolo said the coalition's priority should be "putting as soon as possible at the head of the Iraqi executive an Iraqi leader who speaks to the Iraqis in Arabic and not in English."

President Bush is scheduled to hold talks with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican on June 4.

[Alouette]

Words fail me.

[cyborg]

Well with the Berg situation, they know they can't milk this story anymore. They're desperate.

[Numbers Guy]

Note: I'm a Mass-attending Catholic

If the naughty pantie pictures from the Iraqi prison are worse than 9/11, then what does the church sex abuse scandal compare to? World War II?

[Sister_T]

Get a grip, INDEED!!!

[Jaded]

I don't think the Moslems need much of a reason to hate anyone. It's ingrained in their very being.

[cripplecreek]

Looks like I need an e-mail addy to set somebody straight.

[joltinjoe]

I hope some of these vatican holy men did not enjoy those pictures a little bit to much...all those men piled up....

Whatever happened to the warrior Catholics like the Knights of the Templar?

[Sister_T]

Note: I'm a Mass-attending Catholic

If the naughty pantie pictures from the Iraqi prison are worse than 9/11, then what does the church sex abuse scandal compare to? World War II?

Oh my!!! Good point!

[Conspiracy Guy]

Bigger blow? Was 9/11 just a video clip?

Is it just me or has the Vatican become totally irrelevent. I have a lot of Chatholic friends and almost all of them are very conservative.

Is the church out of touch with the people. If that is the case why do the people stay?

I am not starting a flame war I just want to understand.

[cyborg]

I don't know about the purient interest in the pictures, but I wish President Bush would issue a clear and ringing condemnation of this. I hate all that peacenik stuff. The Pope's job is peacemaking so he's not going to talk about slaughtering people.

[Steve_Seattle]

All over the world, Islamic thugs are killing Christians and burning their churches, yet if you dangle some ladies' panties in front of an Islamic prisoner, it outweighs everything else. The world has gone nuts.

[Cooter]

[cake_crumb]

What a hideous thing to say. The pope has to reign in these screwballs.

[Helms]

The Vatican and Official Christianity are so weak as to be a borderline joke. Have they broken up the Pedophile Rings in other countries?

Doubtful.

[AngieGOP]

"Whatever happened to the warrior Catholics like the Knights of the Templar?"

Here is the states they joined the Democratic Party.

[cake_crumb]

"If the naughty pantie pictures from the Iraqi prison are worse than 9/11, then what does the church sex abuse scandal compare to? World War II?"

RIM SHOT!!

[Maceman]

The scandal of prisoner abuses by U.S. soldiers in Iraq has dealt a bigger blow to the United States than the Sept. 11 attacks, the Vatican foreign minister told an Italian newspaper.

Well, if anyone has thier finger on the pulse of American public opinion, it's the folks at the Vatican.

[Steve_Seattle]

Modern Catholics do not pay nearly as much attention to the Pope as Protestants imagine. Oh, they will (sometimes) defend him if he's unfairly attacked, but his pronouncements are widely ignored by both liberals and conservatives. He is seen as a symbolic figurehead of the church, not as someone whose pronouncements on politics have binding force. There are some Catholics who are deeply attached to the papacy in general and JPII in particular, but they are a minority. (I say all this without any strong feelings one way or the other about the papacy or JPII - it's just how it seems to me.)

[Mr. Mojo]

Complete lunatics over there -- insulated, Arabist, hypocritical lunatics.

[Billthedrill]

Is this wishful thinking or simply stupidity? Somebody in Rome really, really doesn't get it.