CNN Breaking (1/17) Catholic Archbishop kidnapped in Mosul

[Charlie Brown]

http://www.cnn.com

[TroglodyteScholar]

1. Hoboy.......

"Catholic archbishop kidnapped in Mosul, Iraq, according to Vatican. Details soon."

[htuttle]

17. Kidnapped by whom?

Have they checked Abu Ghraib?

[Barrett808]

2. Boom. n/t

[MissB]

3. I predict this won't end well

Understatement of the day, that.

[Straight Shooter]

4. It now hits the fan in a major way. And what will our anointed one say?

Sacrifice, blah blah blah, sacrifice, blah blah blah. We pray for him, blah blah blah.

:nuke:

[CBHagman]

7. The impotent one will just blather.

We'll get an earful about coldblooded killers and the like, but NOTHING will be done, except dispatching a few more people to their deaths.

How much more incompetence and ignorance and impotence must we face?

On edit: This won't stop a single exclusive reception for GOP donors on Thursday. Disgusting.

[Sparkly]

14. They only have two statements they go back and forth between

1. "Freedom's on the march," making progress, spreading democracy, election, etc.

OR

2. "This is what we're fighting," they hate freedom, better there than here, etc.

So this will be a #2.

[4_Legs_Good]

19. "better there than here..." Actually, if it had to happen I would have

prefered that it happen in Colorado Springs.

david
(a practicing Catholic)

[Barrett808]

5. Could this be why they moved Saddam to Qatar?

Are they afraid the insurgency will bust him out?

[alcuno]

6. What was an archbishop doing in Mosul? I hope that they let him go.

The Catholic Church and many Catholics vocally opposed this war.

I tried the link but didn't see a story.

[alcuno]

11. How many Catholics are there in Iraq?

[QC]

15. There are native Catholics in Iraq.

The Christian community in the Middle East is the oldest one in the world. In fact, it was in Damascus that Christ's followers were first called Christians.

[northzax]

27. and since Saddam Hussein

was just about the only leader in the middle east in which Catholics had the same civil rights (ok, not many civil rights, but the same as everyone else) there are more in Iraq than say, Kuwait or Saudi arabia, where they are criminals.

[PA Democrat]

30. You're right QC. Tariq Aziz was in fact a practicing Christian n/t

[Tweed]

22. There are Catholics in Iraq

Catholicism spread all across the Middle East as well as Europe. It was never as popular in the Middle East as it is in Europe and many Catholics converted to Islam, but some Catholics remain.

[Pirate Smile]

23. He is the archbishop for that area. It says he got kidnapped in front of

his church.

[da_chimperor]

8. Damn, I hope nothing happens to him.

:(

[rockedthevoteinMA]

9. more

ATICAN CITY (AP) — A Roman Catholic archbishop in Mosul, Iraq, has been kidnapped, the Vatican said Monday.

It identified the kidnapped man as Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa, 66, of the Syrian Catholic Church, one of the branches of the Roman Catholic Church.

"The Holy See deplores in the firmest way such a terrorist act," a Vatican statement said, demanding that he be freed immediately.

According to reports from Baghdad, Casmoussa was walking in front of his church in Mosul's eastern neighborhood of Muhandeseen when he was abducted.
more
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2005-01-17-priest-kidnapped_x.htm

[jazzjunkysue]

34. As if they didn't know tha this would happen, occupying a country

Duh. Let's all act indignant....How could they do that.....It's an outrage.....Never asking how many of their religous leaders we killed.

[captainslack]

10. Not good!!!

Not good at all!!!! Can't wait to see The Vatican's statement....

[alcuno]

12. That's who announced it. The Vatican.

[PCIntern]

13. This is Progress.

They could be kidnapping our clergy here. Instead, they're kidnapping them over there. That's much better.

Isn't it?

[Solly Mack]

16. well, damn

[UL_Approved]

18. Link to Yahoo!

Here it is:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=2&u=/ap/20050117/ap_on_re_mi_ea/vatican_iraq_kidnapping

This is sad. Now the world will have another line of anti-Muslim sentiment to worry about. This wasn't really smart on the part of organizations over there. Of course, we still don't know who did this. Boy, FOX and the FR are going to eat this alive...

[genieroze]

21. I thought freepers don't like Catholics, they say the Pope is the

antichrist. I always thought * was the antichrist.

[Gman]

26. Freepers hate Catholics

that is, unless, the Catholics support their agenda (i.e. seizing the control of women's reproductive destiny).

[semillama]

20. Looks like the "Salvador Option" is up and running

Nuns? Child's Play! Now watch this drive!

[tlcandie]

31. Interesting point that ... seems kinda like it's taking the same turn, no?

n/t

[frictionlessO]

40. a most excellent point you made there! good on ya! nt

[Barrett808]

42. This could also be a simple money-making operation for the insurgency

The hostage-taking franchise in Iraq has developed into a well-organized market-based industry. An archbishop could be ransomed for millions of dollars. If this is the work of the jihadi branch of the insurgency, then the group that executed this plan will also increase its standing and funding from the international jihadists.

Several high-value targets have been "appropriated" recently by the hostage industry, including two Turkish millionaires. These operations are relatively low risk and promise very high payoffs.

[Taxloss]

24. BBC Link, light on details:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4182629.stm

[The_Casual_Observer]

25. Why would this surprise anybody?

The "insurgency" is at the boiling point. One of these days we will wake up to the news that we have been driven out.

[Igel]

32. Except that the "we" here are native-born Iraqi

Xians and their leaders. And this has gone on for a while. Sometimes they just go after Xians because they sell alcohol, or because their women lasciviously walk around without a hijab. Sometimes they bomb churches ... who knows what their reasons are. Nobody asks them.

Their reasons could be just as spurious as those attacking Muslims here in the US. As for what a valid justification would be, well, I'm at a loss.

Nobody's suggested that the Catholic church there as a whole was working with the Americans, as far as I know (although I suspect that's the usual assumption in some quarters where everything is starkly black and white, whether redeemed vs. pagan or dar ul-harb vs. dar al-islam).

So is this a personal grudge (somebody's pissed off at the guy for some personal reason), communalism (get the Xians ... Americans are "Crusaders", and all Xians work together), annoyed that Xians weren't toeing the Shari'a line or were too powerful under Saddam, or just plain banditry (damn, the Catholics must have something ... let's kidnap and demand ransom)? I guess it could be a combination of two or more. And I don't suppose we'll ever hear.

[kiraboo]

28. No problem. Send out the Christian soldiers.

The U.S. is full of them. Just another reason to kill more middle-easterners in the name of the LORD!

YES!

[Name removed]

29. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[DownNotOut]

33. Holy crap... So to speak...

"Tell them we really only need to get back the head. Good riddance to him."

That is as inflammatory a comment Ive ever read here. Congratulations.


DownNotOut

[clem_c_rock]

35. And if this comes down to a beheading

It will probably be one of those strange beheadings where there's no sign of struggle when the head's getting sawed off and there's very little blood.

And still, noone will be suspicious, and everyone will be screaming bloody murder at those Big Bad Arabs.

[wildwww2]

36. Was this crap happening before the appointed chimp invaded for no reason?

I mean, it just seemed like a good question to ask. Is all this loss of life and civil war that we started with our stupidness. Really worth it? Some people have got to see a pot of gold at the end of the tunnel. Because I just do not see any logical reason to start this murderous mess. Besides pure greed. Saddam was a bad man. So what. He was contained. And this civil war crime we started did not exist. So sad.
Peace
Wildman
Al Gore is My President

[kerrygoddess]

37. I just read recently

I just read the other day that Pope & Bush had patched up their differences over Iraq. News from Iraq today may change that:

They Just Patched Up Their Differences, Will Today’s News from Iraq Change That?

In a recent web exclusive from Newsweek (Jan. 15), it was reported that “Pope Paul II and George W. Bush have patched up their differences over the Iraq war.”

However, given today’s news from Iraq, one can wonder how kindly the Vatican and Pope Paul II will be feeling towards the Bush administration. Today marks another day of increased violence in Iraq and the Vatican has reported the kidnapping of an archbishop in Mosul.

Gunmen kidnapped a Catholic archbishop and targeted security forces in a series of brazen assaults Monday that killed more than 20 people. A suicide bomber attacked U.S. Marines in Ramadi, where two Shiite Muslims were beheaded and their bodies left on a sidewalk.

http://www.lightupthedarkness.org/blog/default.asp?view=plink&id=239

[KerryReallyWon]

39. Newsweek is full of it!!!

The BBC reported after the election that the Pope thought chimp was the anitchrist, and he wished he was not so old and frail so he could fight him.

So the Pope and the devil came to an understanding???

I doubt it.

[kerrygoddess]

41. Well I doubt it as well...

I can't imagine the Vatican taking this well however and it will add a further strain on the Bush administration's relationship with the vatican, which is good for us.

What ever happened to the good ole days when we had priests like Daniel Beregan protesting the war!

[NNN0LHI]

38. Boy! Negroponte's Nicaragua type death squads don't waste no time n/t

[pacifictiger]

43. what's a Catholic

archbishop doing in Mosul anyway?

[DemBones DemBones]

45. Minding his own business, being the local archbishop. nt

[CBHagman]

44. I just hate this.

Nothing but more of the same. Where will it all end? May the archbishop be returned safe and alive.

[DemBones DemBones]

46. EWTN says he is 66 year-old Syrian Catholic Archbishop

Basile Georges Casmoussa. An eyewitness says gunmen forced Archbishop Casmoussa into a car when he was walking in front of the Al-bishara Church in the eastern part of Mosul. Casmoussa is the head of Mosul's Catholic Christian community. No word on who kidnapped him or their motive.

[Inland]

47. ARCHIBISHOP FREED Tuesday morning

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/01/18/iraq/index.html