U.S. prelate at Vatican wonders why no one heeded warnings of torture

Published: 2004-05-21

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- More than a year ago, U.S. Cardinal J. Francis Stafford warned that the "war on terrorism" was leading to implicit acceptance of torture by the United States. Today, in the wake of Iraqi prisoner abuse, Cardinal Stafford wonders why others did not see it coming. "All of this outcry by the Democrats in Congress, the Republicans in the White House and by the press is deceitful in light of the silence that took place when torture was being talked about in 2001, 2002, 2003," Cardinal Stafford said in an interview with the Catholic magazine, Inside the Vatican. In a February 2003 statement reported by Catholic News Service, Cardinal Stafford said, "The government of the United States has compromised its own basic principles by implicitly endorsing the use of torture since Sept. 11, 2001." At that time, the cardinal was concerned that political leaders of both major parties, as well as some leading legal experts, supported the torture of terrorist suspects and that media reports of their statements had produced no outcry. "What's incredible is that nobody at that time made any comments about these articles," he said in his latest interview, published on the magazine's Web site in mid-May.

Copyright (c) 2004 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .