http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/042108a.html

What About the War, Benedict?

By Ray McGovern
April 21, 2008

Pope Benedict XVI arrived in the United States last week against a macabre backdrop featuring reports of torture, execution and war. He chose not to notice.

Torture: Fresh reporting by ABC from inside sources depicted George W. Bush’s most senior aides (Cheney, Powell, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft, Rice and Tenet) meeting dozens of times in the White House during 2002/03 to sort out the most efficient mix of torture techniques for captured “terrorists.”

When initially ABC attempted to insulate the president from this sordid activity, Bush abruptly bragged that he knew all about it and approved. That comment and the action memorandum Bush signed on Feb. 7, 2002, dispelled any lingering doubt regarding his personal responsibility for authorizing torture.

Execution: Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court, with a majority of judges calling themselves Catholic, was openly deliberating on whether one gram, or two, or perhaps three of this or that chemical would be the preferred way to execute people.

I wish I could get there.....please please please make the 9/11 movement visible for this....

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VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict will pray for the conversion to love "of those whose hearts and minds are consumed with hatred" when he visits New York's Ground Zero, the site of the World Trade towers destroyed on September 11, 2001.

A prayer he will read also commemorates those who died or were injured in the other September 11 attack at the Pentagon and on United Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers fought off hijackers.

Nearly 3,000 people died in the September 11 attacks, including the 19 hijackers.

The pope will visit Ground Zero in lower Manhattan on April 20, the last day of his six-day visit to Washington and New York.

Last month, al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden accused Benedict of being part of a "new crusade" against Islam. The Vatican rejected the accusation.

The visit to Ground Zero, now a gaping crater where new buildings and a memorial will be built, is expected to be the emotional high point of the trip.

The prayer, as released by the Vatican on Thursday, reads in full:

Pope will pray for terrorists at Ground Zero

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/12/wpope112.xml

By Malcolm Moore in Rome
Last Updated: 1:42am BST 12/04/2008

The Pope will pray for the redemption of Islamic terrorists when he visits the site of the September 11 attacks in New York next week.

The pontiff will call for terrorists to convert to Christianity, saying: "Turn to Your way of love those whose hearts and minds are consumed with hatred.

"God of understanding, overwhelmed by the magnitude of this tragedy, we seek your light and guidance".

The prayer is likely to further incense the Muslim world, which has already attacked the Pope for publicly converting Magdi Allam, a journalist and one of Italy's most high-profile Muslims, at Easter.

Osama bin Laden accused the Pope of trying to provoke "a new crusade" against Islam.