President Obama is allegedly closing the the US Embassy at the Vatican in retaliation for Catholic objections to parts of Obamacare. This stupidity is the latest lie-fest circulating through the blogs and conspiracy sites that Teahadists, Republicants and the rest of the lunatic fringe regard as actual "news." Except he's not. Duh. Here are samples:
That should be enough to give you the general idea. The majority of the quotes in the articles are the same, most coming from former Vatican ambassadors who left the office as far back as 20 years ago.
So here's a few facts (sorry for the profanity, Teahadists) about the embassy and its
move. First, this whole thing started during the talking chimp Bush administration, when they
purchased the property in the compound into which the Vatican embassy will be moving.
Second, location. The new embassy will be slightly closer to the Vatican than the existing location. The current embassy is not in Vatican City, in fact there are zero embassies from any country within Vatican City itself, there is no room. All of them are in the city of Rome.
The new location will not be a part of the other two embassies in the compound, it will be in its own building within the compound. It will have its own separate entrance from a street different than the streets which provide entrance to the other two embassy facilities within the compound. It is a free- standing separate entity.
Third, personnel. The official residence of the Ambassador is not changing and there is no planned decrease of diplomatic staff associated with the move. The US diplomatic presence accredited to the Vatican will remain one of the largest in existence.
Fourth, perceived diminished respect for Vatican. The fake "outrage" is spurred in part by the notion that co-locating the embassy with our other embassies somehow diminishes the stature of our mission to the Vatican. This ignores the facts that the move is simply a move, not a downsizing and not a closure. The Vatican itself has downplayed the fictional "controversy" through Rev. Thomas Rosica, a Canadian priest who works with the Vatican's press office. You can read his comments here.
Then there's the cost savings. The move is expected to save approximately $1.4 million per year in lease and operations costs. Of course this is a terrible thing because spending reductions are so last week, or was that the week before? Republicants only want what they want until they get it.
Now we get to the big one, security. The current embassy location is a converted residential property lacking in characteristics conducive to maintaining adequate physical security. There is no setback from the street so control of pedestrian access to the building is practically nonexistant. The current building doesn't have access to the level of US Marine security guards available at the new location. The move will dramatically increase the security of the embassy and the safety of its personnel. Hmmmm, wasn't embassy security all the rage amongst Republicants after Benghazi? Oh wait, that was last month, or three weeks ago, or whenever it wasn't being given to them. My bad.
This whole thing is nothing more than another intentionally fabricated story comprised of lies and conjecture contrived for the sole purpose of keeping the terminally ignorant angry at the president. In other words, business as usual in the Republicant lunatic fringe. It's their standard "We've done nothing to validate our side so let's do what we can to keep people pissed off at the other side" plan. It's really all they've got so they have no choice but to stick with it.
You can view what is likely just a partial transcript of a conference call between members of the press and a senior State Department official here.
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