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| Europe |
| Al-Qaeda fax threatens the Vatican |
| 2005-08-24 |
| I'm really not understanding the point of these, except maybe to piss Catholics off ... Spanish police are investigating a fax signed by al-Qaeda and containing veiled threats against the Vatican that was sent to TVE state television on Monday and to the daily newspaper ABC on Tuesday. The three-page Arabic missive accuses the Vatican of having supported the Nazis and the Iraq war. It justifies the March 2004 Madrid train bombings in Spain and those in London on 7 July as "acts of self-defence against terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan." "In the war in Iraq, the Vatican has supported capitalist countries who are just interested in Iraq's oil. The people in charge will pay for what they have done. Hitler, who was hand in hand with the Vatican, murdered 44 million people in order to steal their wealth," the fax states. ABC quotes Spanish police as saying they are "exhaustively" analysing the fax, which they believe was authored by an al-Qaeda sympathiser rather than than a cell member, according to ABC. The text is a "generic threat" that does not mention the names of any potential targets, ABC said, quoting police sources. Islamist terror experts believe they have "quite reliable indications" of who could be behind the fax, based on the place it was sent from - a state office in Catalonia, in northeastern Spain, ABC reported. The fax appears to contain few similarities to the one signed by 'Serhane the Tunisian' and sent to ABC on 3 April 2004 after the coordinated train bombings in Madrid on 11 March that killed 191 people and injured 1,460. This was much more resolute in tone and contained much more of a concrete threat against Spain. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #2 In the war in Iraq, the Vatican has supported capitalist countries who are just interested in Iraq's oil. Sounds more Democrat or Marxist than Islamist. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2005-08-24 21:39 |
| #1 I am confused by this too, Dan. There are, afterall, more than a few Catholics out there. Some of which lean appeasement. I suspect they may harden a bit over such threats. |
| Posted by: Captain America 2005-08-24 18:07 |