Pentagon weighs call to try to dissuade pastor from burning Korans
The Pentagon’s top spokesman suggested Thursday that a senior official from the Defense Department might call the Florida pastor who has threatened to burn Korans this Saturday and strongly urge him to abandon his plans.
In recent days, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Gen. David H. Petraeus have spoken out forcefully to say that the Koran burning would put the lives of U.S. troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan at risk. A personal call from the Obama administration to the obscure pastor demonstrates how quickly a marginal figure can vault himself to international promience.
Terry Jones, the pastor, told reporters that he might drop plans to burn the Korans if someone from the Pentagon, State Department or Obama administration called him personally to urge him to change course. The fact that senior administration officials are even considering a personal call to Jones shows how deeply concerned they are by the actions of the pastor, who oversees a church of only 50 people.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/checkpoint-washington/2010/09/pentagon_weighs_call_to_try_to.html
More pressure than he was used to, I guess. And maybe death threats.