A former police chaplain accused of involvement in torture, kidnapping and murder during Argentina's "dirty war" declined to testify on Thursday as he went on trial in the first case linking a clergyman to rights abuses.Hum...
Roman Catholic priest Christian Von Wernich tended to the notorious Buenos Aires provincial police force at a time when leftist dissidents of the 1976-1983 military dictatorship were routinely abducted, maimed and killed.
...
"The case of Von Wernich is an extreme. There is a point at which it's impossible to distinguish the priest from a cop," said rights activist and journalist Horacio Verbitsky, who recently wrote a book about the Catholic Church's role during the dictatorship.
Church officials declined to comment on the trial. It is the first to probe dirty war-era crimes since a former Buenos Aires provincial police commissioner was sentenced to life in prison last September.
That trial was marred by the disappearance of a key witness, Jorge Julio Lopez, who has not been seen since.
[ cf Argentina tries ex-chaplain on "dirty war" crimes ]
Should we be worried that this is not news in America?
Hum....
Are we suppose to feel safer saying that in america, well, we will not actually try to disappear people, except if we have to render them, you know, because, there are need to see if there are, well, you know Terrorists, and Only some overseas Jack Bauer will be able to save us from the Mushroom Cloud....
Or are the christianists going to whine about persecuting a holy warrior who was slaying and slaughtering while takeing the Land as the Bible Mandates, in a biblically literal way...
Or are they going to play the various word games about how they are biblically literal, but only about the parts that are, well, literally literal, except of course when that becomes no longer politically acceptable.... You know, like openly getting caught involved in actually torturing and disappearing folks....