Berlusconi Denies Vatican Attack Comments

[radwriter0555]

ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Saturday denied quotes attributed to him in a newspaper report that said he had received information about a plan to attack the Vatican (news - web sites) on Christmas Day.

1 hour, 20 minutes ago


Using an Italian play on words that cannot be accurately translated, Berlusconi said in a one-sentence statement that the journalist who wrote the article for the Libero newspaper had made up quotes. A spokeswoman for his office confirmed that this was his meaning.


No one at Libero was immediately reachable for comment, a telephone receptionist said.


One of the quotes attributed to Berlusconi in the article had him saying that he had received "precise and verified news of an attack on Rome on Christmas Day... A hijacked plane above the Vatican... An attack from the sky."


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=574&ncid=721&e=5&u=/nm/20031227/wl_nm/security_italy_berlusconi_dc

[Rebel_with_a_cause]

1. How does one lose an attack on the Vatican in the translation

from Italian to Italian?

I thought Berlusconi owned the Italian media on top of that.

[KC21304]

2. Doesn't he have to be the biggest idiot, leading a country ?

Next to our Presidunce, of course.

[gauguin57]

3. bogus headlines

I saw a local (right-leaning) newspaper today that stated in the headline that a Vatican terrorist plot had been foiled ... no "reportedly foiled," no "according to Italian prime minister" ... just printed as fact. Even if Berlusconi DID say it ... everyone knows he's a loon. And yet, there it is, in black and white, in my local newspaper. A plot was foiled.

Cripes.