Daily Mirror

AMERICA ORDERS 100,000 BODY BAGS

Feb 10 2003

By Stephen White and Paul Gilfeather

UP to 100,000 body bags and 6,000 coffins have been secretly delivered to a US base in
Italy, a Catholic archbishop claimed yesterday.
Archbishop Renato Martino, president of the Pope's Council of Peace and Justice, said
the consignment had arrived at the Sigonella base near Catania on the island of Sicily 10
days ago.
He said: "Americans are expecting a high number of casualties. That is why so many
body bags and coffins have been sent to the base.
"I am very apprehensive about this. War brings only destruction, misery and hate. It
doesn't resolve anything and is always like this.
"A true preventative action would be to try and avoid war. The consequences of this war
will make themselves all too obvious on the American people when they start to see
coffins with loved ones in returning home."
Archbishop Martino added that he would be willing to travel to Washington and meet
President Bush if the Pope asked him to be his special envoy.
The naval air station at Sigonella has been an American "hub" command centre since
1959. More than 3,000 US marines and Navy personnel are stationed there.
BRITAIN risks being dragged into another Vietnam, ex-Chancellor Ken Clarke warned
yesterday. He said Tony Blair would pay heavily at the polls if he launched an invasion of
Iraq without public backing.
Mr Clarke, a former Tory leadership contender, said on BBC Radio 4: "If you go to war
in modern times you need the broad bulk of the public behind you - you are putting the
forces at risk, you are engaging the country in military conflict in the short term, perhaps
more terrorism in the long term.
"It is a broad analogy to draw between America and Vietnam but what destroyed America
in Vietnam was the bulk of the American public were never really persuaded of the case
for fighting in Vietnam at all."

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