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US SECRET SERVICES allegedly eavesdropped on cardinals before the conclave in March to elect a new pope, Italian weekly magazine Panorama claimed today.
“The National Security Agency wiretapped the pope,” the magazine said, accusing the US of listening in to telephone calls to and from the Vatican, including the accommodation housing cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio before he was elected Pope Francis.
The allegations follow a report on surveillance website Cryptome which said the United States intercepted 46 million telephone calls in Italy in December 2012 and early January 2013.
Among those, “there are apparently also calls from and to the Vatican,” Panorama said.
“It is feared that the great American ear continued to tap prelates’ conversations up to the eve of the conclave,” it said, adding that there were “suspicions that the conversations of the future pope may have been monitored”.
Bergoglio “had been a person of interest to the American secret services since 2005, according to Wikileaks,” it said.
The bugged conversations were divided into four categories: “leadership intentions”, “threats to financial systems”, “foreign policy objectives” and “human rights,” it claimed.
Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said “we have heard nothing of this and are not worried about it.”
If true, the US spying would be an embarrassing blow to an institution famous for its secrecy.
The goings-on of the conclave are particularly clock-and-dagger, with a system installed in the Sistine chapel where the cardinals meet in order to scramble any mobile phone communications and excommunication for those who spill the beans.
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One thing we can all be certain about is that in all matters that may embarrass the State or end up costing the State money the bottom line will be a meaningless apology, delivered by a politician who just needs to get past the awkward moment. We are very far from the Republican ideal that people gave their lives for unfortunately.
As a member of the JustuceStardust48, we also got a “apology” from the Sate, a very hollow one from the safety of Parliament. These apologies mean nothing if the Sate does not support the victims and their families in their quest for justice.
Expect more of the same meaningless bull from mehole. Sorry but.. more of the same bull we got of Leo the leak.. more sorry but.. Can we trust Tulsa with the paperwork? Will anyone ever be sacked for the leak? Will the victims get quick justice and compensation this year or in 10years ? Can we trust any of our 3 great leaders to man up and finely do something right. Now the victims will have to listen to the bumbling empty words of mehole later today Watched on by the empty face of lieHole and the jollyGreen goon.
I’m still searching for my aunts baby after 15 years,no hope now.They have locked us out.
FAKE APOLOGY FROM A UNELECTED LEADER
@Pauline Fedigan: we don’t elect a leader. We elect someone who elects on our behalf.
I think the Irish independent always gets a exclusive story before every taxpayer funded investigation is published. With no convictions possible both church and state bodies still have one question to answer. Where are these children buried?
Irish people living among us know the answer. Maybe someone will come forward after this investigation is published. Maybe the Gardaí could ‘double check’ that files weren’t hidden to protect institutions from victims. A couple of raids on council offices and church orders wouldn’t hurt.
Can we live with ourselves knowing the unmarked children’s graves are all around us. That housing estates may have being built on them. We can’t close this chapter in our history until we bury these children with simple Christian burial.
These government ministers are heartless with no feelings they think saying sorry is enough its not for the women who were treated so cruel
When you are apologising to those families that were destroyed by the laws of the land created by tds please berate the Catholic Church plus all the the tds who created the laws
have your say