INQUISITION NEWS: Vatican Envoy Slanders NATO

Vatican Envoy Slanders NATO

by L. S. Carbonell

Coat of Arms of Vatican City

If a public official is going to issue a statement that includes the words “I haven’t seen any of that personally, but….” he should stop and take a deep breath.

Bishop Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli, the Vatican’s Envoy to Libya (that’s the equivalent to an ambassador) has issued a statement claiming that 40 civilians in Tripoli have been killed by the coalition air strikes, but he hasn’t seen any of the casualties or civilian damages himself. He’s relying on the word of his “contacts.” He claims that the forty died in the neighborhood of Tajoura and he’s unclear how many died in a collapsed house in Buslim. These neighborhoods are both within sight of the Rixos Hotel where about half of the foreign press are being housed. Had anyone been dropping bombs near Fox News’ Steve Harrigan, he would have been booking it out of town even if he had to swim. Neither CNN’s Nic Robertson nor MSNBC’s Jim Maceda have reported any bombs near their locations. All the NATO bombing has been confined to the Bab al-Azizi military base on the southern outskirts of the city.

Both Robertson and Maceda have reported being taken to mass “funerals” (Harrigan doesn’t leave the Rixos) that were more political rally than actual funeral. A couple of dozen coffins are brought in, less than half actually go into the ground and the rest are removed, all while crowds of people hold up pictures of Col. Qaddafi and chant anti-everybody slogans. They have reported that those journalists who get close enough to the coffins reported smells of advanced decay.

Bishop Martinelli has been snookered by his trusted “contacts.” They are feeding him Qaddafi propaganda and he’s too isolated to have any first-hand information. His public statements on the bombing of Tripoli serve no purpose but to spread Qaddafi’s lies. Qaddafi has been unsuccessful in his use of human shields to protect his compound, so he’s manufacturing civilian casualties to try to stop the attacks.

In the real world, Canadian Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard, commander of NATO’s Libyan operation, has assured the world that NATO will investigate every complaint about civilian casualties being caused by NATO’s actions. “We are very careful in the prosecution of any of the possible targets that we have. We have strict rules of engagement provided to us and we are operating within the legal mandate of our United Nations mission.”