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In an interview with Breitbart News on Wednesday, Dr. Ali Akram Albayati of the Iraqi High Commission on Human Rights discussed the origins of the protests in Iraq, endorsed the right of the people to be heard, and mourned the loss of life during clashes between protesters and security forces.

Dr. Ali described the protests as an “explosion of public anger due to unemployment and lack of basic services” mixed with the negative reaction to several specific incidents, including the ouster of popular counter-terrorism commander Gen. Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi, the aggressive security response to academic demonstrations in September, and the “harsh dealing of local governments with the issue of slums in Iraq.”

Ali said Gen. Saadi “has a good and special reputation in the hearts of Iraqis,” so their growing disillusionment with the central government erupted when they saw him being treated shabbily after doing so much to combat terrorism in Iraq.

“It was an explosion of an accumulated pressure over the last 16 years, due to lack of the main basic services, corruption, and absence of employment opportunities,” he said.

“In general, over the short age of the new political system in Iraq, there was no attention from the political groups to build trust between them and the community which, of course, needs provision of at least the basic infrastructures and services,” he elaborated.

At the same time, Ali said Iraqis could see very well “how the political figures and their families were getting more wealthy and living in the world’s most beautiful capitals.”

Ali poignantly described the frustration of Iraqis watching their political elite enjoy the rewards of the oil industry while the people “only drink its dangerous waste products in the water, like in Basra.” The city of Basra has been suffering from an acute water quality crisis that has hospitalized over 100,000 people.

These popular frustrations were made even worse by the widespread perception of Iraq’s hard-won democracy failing, or at least performing little differently from the old tyranny, as far as the common man was concerned. 

Ali spoke of a terrible sense of disappointment pervading the country as the new system was seen as “only empowering and financing some families on a sectarian or ethnic basis” and making them “powerful enough to guide all institutions in Iraq according to their will or interest, not the public’s interests.”

Responding to comments by Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi that corruption in Iraq is an intractable problem because those corrupt interests are too powerful to defeat, Ali advised revising the national constitution and moving from a parliamentary system to a presidential model like the one employed by the United States. He said reforms would be more easily implemented through one top official “coming through direct election from all Iraqis for four years and to be monitored by the parliament.”

Ali decried the dozens killed and thousands injured during the past week of protests, finding them sadly unsurprising given the large number of weapons in Iraq and the number of outside forces prone to interfering in Iraqi politics. He pointed out that at least eight deaths and 1,200 injuries among security forces must be added to the total casualties. He said investigations into the use of force against protesters, including the use of snipers by the police, are underway.

Ali said it was important to remember that most of the security units established in Iraq after 2003 were tasked with fighting terrorism and experienced at dealing with “the most brutal groups of terrorists,” not practicing humane crowd control with strict rules of engagement when huge numbers of citizens took to the streets.

Iraq, like most other countries, is also dealing with generational transitions and the effect of the Internet on public discourse. Ali noted that “the youth now represent 60 percent of the Iraqi population and, of course, they are in daily and direct contact with all the world through social media and open communications.”

Asked if the Iraqi demonstrators are aware of, and influenced by, other high-profile protest movements like the one in Hong Kong, he observed that “any movement in any part of the world now has an influence on any community in any other part of the world, including the Iraqi people.” 

He noted ruefully that Iraq’s volatile younger generation combines a higher level of online connectivity with extremely high unemployment rates and a growing drug abuse problem.

Wednesday brought some hopeful signs of calm, perhaps aided by Prime Minister Abdul-Mahdi declaring three days of mourning for those killed in the protests. Ali worried that permanent solutions to the problems that motivated the protests could remain elusive.

“It is a complex equation to balance between the right to expression and demonstration by an angry people due to accumulated problems and sufferings, and keeping the government or the situation stable,” he reflected, observing that Iraqis are well aware of how unstable the region is and they know their country, located at the crossroads of every conflict, will always find itself “in the heart of fire.”

Russia’s state communications regulator announced on Tuesday that China and Russia will sign an agreement to cooperate in further censoring internet access for their citizens.

The regulator, “Roskomnadzor,” said it would formally sign the international treaty with their Chinese counterpart, the “Cyberspace Administration of China,” on October 20. That date is the first day of China’s three-day “World Internet Conference,” to be held this year in the city of Wuzhen, in eastern Zhejiang province.

China has approximately three times the number of online citizens as the United States, according to a South China Morning Post report, but their experience of the global network is vastly different behind what Wired magazine first called “The Great Firewall of China” in 1997. CNN calls the communist dictatorship’s ongoing efforts to block unwanted information “the world’s most sophisticated top-down censorship apparatus.”

Russia has been taking notes. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s administration has been using a similar strategy for years and continues to aggressively pursue complete control over his people’s access to information not approved by the Kremlin.

In March, Putin signed two bills into law that level fines against anyone who publishes what the government deems “fake news,” or shows “clear disrespect for society, the state, the official state symbols of the Russian Federation, the Constitution of the Russian Federation, and bodies exercising state power.”

Now the two superpowers are officially joining forces to reinforce their control. This is just the latest example of what Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov characterized as a “special relationship” between the nations sharing a 4,300KM border.

Socialism, including greenie socialism, is always about blaming Those Greedy Capitalists for whatever hideous policies the government cooks up, which inevitably prompts an unintended consequence.

California’s Gov. Gavin Newsom is right there with the best of them, blaming the wreckers and hoarders for California’s massive power outages, taking northern California back to a state of nature, and in the full greenie spirit, telling us it’s needed, necessary, all for our own good.

Get a load of it, from the Sacramento Bee, emphasis mine:

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday he’s “outraged” over Pacific Gas and Electric Co shut-offs, blaming decades of mismanagement at the utility.

He made the comments Wednesday morning, several hours after millions of Californians woke up without power amid massive blackouts that have stranded huge swaths of the state without electricity.

Given the potential danger posed by the utility’s power lines, Newsom said the blackouts are needed to keep people safe as powerful winds sweep through the state.

There’s more detail here, from CBS’s San Francisco affiliated, KPIX5:

But Newsom, who spoke to reporters after he signed a rent cap measure at the West Oakland Senior Center, said the power shutoff “was anticipated many months ago and this is the (utility) industry’s best practice.”

Newsom said, “The determination of whether or not to do this is based on a number of factors,” including intense winds, low humidity and the areas that are near to windy areas. 

He said that determination is up to PG&E based on “their determination of what’s in the best interest of their customers in partnership and consultation with the Office of Emergency Services, CalFire and experts in this field.”

Newsom said, “This is all about public safety and saving lives.  This is part of something we all knew was likely and would occur many months ago when PG&E finally woke up to their responsibility to keep people safe.”

However, the governor said the power shutoff “is not how things should work in the (utility) industry.”

He said, “None of us are happy about this.”

Ah, the best interests…and PG&E, not his policies, is the one that did it. 

Actually, it’s PG&E’s best interests, given the leftist lawsuit lunacy that prevails in California, sufficient to drive PG&E into bankruptcy last January, now that any wildfire is the basis for a lawsuit against it. In the past, homeowners used to deal with wildfire damage through fire insurance, but with costs being what they are, some can’t afford and others conclude they can skip it: who needs fire insurance when lawsuit payouts are even better? The electrical monopoly ought to be immune from such lawsuits, given its role in supplying power to the population, but it’s not – it’s now vulnerable to big lawsuits all over the place any time there’s a fire. Can the law be fixed? Not a chance of that under Newsom California’s one-party blue regime – blaming the utility is much easier.

So, too bad about the hospitals and the cell phones and the refrigerators now that the electrical supplier is focused on legal liability based on weather conditions and Newsom assures us it’s needed.

Instead of telling Californians it’s for their own good, Newsom should be blasting this legal situation and moving to change the law.

That’s not the only Castroite Cuban master in the woodwork that Newsom’s taking orders from as it commands the state’s Venezuela-like power failure here, either.

The real root of the problem, prompting the PG&E reaction is the state’s greenie laws, which, as AT contributor Tom Trinko notes, prevents the clearing of brush to prevent power equipment from catching fire and spreading wildfires. (This one, by J.R. Dunn, is good, too.)  Apparently, no greenie law can be criticized in Newsom’s purview, any more than Nicolas Maduro’s laws against wreckers and hoarders can be blamed for Venezuela’s currency collapse or structural shortages.

Newsom just claims that PG&E has “finally woke up to their responsibility”on wildfire blame (of course they did – they’re liable for billions for past wildfires and bankrupt to boot) so nothing needs to be changed on the greenie laws. Hence, the ‘need’ to shut off power and return the state to greenie nature.

Quite a blame game he’s got going on as he makes nominal claims about not liking it and being concerned about his rich man’s plaything winery harvest even as refrigerators go bad with spoiled food, looting and car crashes commence, and hospitals go dark.

It’s green regulations behind this, and those also include the lunatic ones from the Jerry Brown era, which Newsom supports, demanding crazy greenie fuel mandates from solar and wind sources, which require – are you ready — more power lines to transmit it. The cost of that less-efficient and unreliable boutique fuel is like the cost of Hugo Chavez’s socialist handouts – the investment capital needed by P&GE and all the state’s electrical companies to maintain upkeep and the best equipment in wildfire zones, is going instead to expensive and unsustainable greenie projects.

It’s the same pattern as Venezuela, except that instead of Cubans commanding things from the inside and Chavista social spending spending all the seed corn, it’s greenie mandates, which drive capitalists to protect themselves from ruinous lawsuits and drain their investment capital dry. That’s Newsom’s real Cuban master. And like Nicolas Maduro, Newsom, in that same socialist tradition blames people downwind of the policies, everyone but himself, as he tries to explain it out for the cameras.

Here’s another one: Notice his Facebook page: He’s got all kinds of stuff up there about all his supposed great achievements and it’s updated every few hours. Anything to say about the man-caused disaster of California’s blackouts? He’s mysteriously silent. 

Blackouts look exactly the same in Caracas or California, and what’s most obvious here, as Newsom tells us we need these blackouts is that socialism is at the root of all of it. He’s getting more and more like Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro by the day.  

Socialism, including greenie socialism, is always about blaming Those Greedy Capitalists for whatever hideous policies the government cooks up, which inevitably prompts an unintended consequence.

California’s Gov. Gavin Newsom is right there with the best of them, blaming the wreckers and hoarders for California’s massive power outages, taking northern California back to a state of nature, and in the full greenie spirit, telling us it’s needed, necessary, all for our own good.

Get a load of it, from the Sacramento Bee, emphasis mine:

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday he’s “outraged” over Pacific Gas and Electric Co shut-offs, blaming decades of mismanagement at the utility.

He made the comments Wednesday morning, several hours after millions of Californians woke up without power amid massive blackouts that have stranded huge swaths of the state without electricity.

Given the potential danger posed by the utility’s power lines, Newsom said the blackouts are needed to keep people safe as powerful winds sweep through the state.

There’s more detail here, from CBS’s San Francisco affiliated, KPIX5:

But Newsom, who spoke to reporters after he signed a rent cap measure at the West Oakland Senior Center, said the power shutoff “was anticipated many months ago and this is the (utility) industry’s best practice.”

Newsom said, “The determination of whether or not to do this is based on a number of factors,” including intense winds, low humidity and the areas that are near to windy areas. 

He said that determination is up to PG&E based on “their determination of what’s in the best interest of their customers in partnership and consultation with the Office of Emergency Services, CalFire and experts in this field.”

Newsom said, “This is all about public safety and saving lives.  This is part of something we all knew was likely and would occur many months ago when PG&E finally woke up to their responsibility to keep people safe.”

However, the governor said the power shutoff “is not how things should work in the (utility) industry.”

He said, “None of us are happy about this.”

Ah, the best interests…and PG&E, not his policies, is the one that did it. 

Actually, it’s PG&E’s best interests, given the leftist lawsuit lunacy that prevails in California, sufficient to drive PG&E into bankruptcy last January, now that any wildfire is the basis for a lawsuit against it. In the past, homeowners used to deal with wildfire damage through fire insurance, but with costs being what they are, some can’t afford and others conclude they can skip it: who needs fire insurance when lawsuit payouts are even better? The electrical monopoly ought to be immune from such lawsuits, given its role in supplying power to the population, but it’s not – it’s now vulnerable to big lawsuits all over the place any time there’s a fire. Can the law be fixed? Not a chance of that under Newsom California’s one-party blue regime – blaming the utility is much easier.

So, too bad about the hospitals and the cell phones and the refrigerators now that the electrical supplier is focused on legal liability based on weather conditions and Newsom assures us it’s needed.

Instead of telling Californians it’s for their own good, Newsom should be blasting this legal situation and moving to change the law.

That’s not the only Castroite Cuban master in the woodwork that Newsom’s taking orders from as it commands the state’s Venezuela-like power failure here, either.

The real root of the problem, prompting the PG&E reaction is the state’s greenie laws, which, as AT contributor Tom Trinko notes, prevents the clearing of brush to prevent power equipment from catching fire and spreading wildfires. (This one, by J.R. Dunn, is good, too.)  Apparently, no greenie law can be criticized in Newsom’s purview, any more than Nicolas Maduro’s laws against wreckers and hoarders can be blamed for Venezuela’s currency collapse or structural shortages.

Newsom just claims that PG&E has “finally woke up to their responsibility”on wildfire blame (of course they did – they’re liable for billions for past wildfires and bankrupt to boot) so nothing needs to be changed on the greenie laws. Hence, the ‘need’ to shut off power and return the state to greenie nature.

Quite a blame game he’s got going on as he makes nominal claims about not liking it and being concerned about his rich man’s plaything winery harvest even as refrigerators go bad with spoiled food, looting and car crashes commence, and hospitals go dark.

It’s green regulations behind this, and those also include the lunatic ones from the Jerry Brown era, which Newsom supports, demanding crazy greenie fuel mandates from solar and wind sources, which require – are you ready — more power lines to transmit it. The cost of that less-efficient and unreliable boutique fuel is like the cost of Hugo Chavez’s socialist handouts – the investment capital needed by P&GE and all the state’s electrical companies to maintain upkeep and the best equipment in wildfire zones, is going instead to expensive and unsustainable greenie projects.

It’s the same pattern as Venezuela, except that instead of Cubans commanding things from the inside and Chavista social spending spending all the seed corn, it’s greenie mandates, which drive capitalists to protect themselves from ruinous lawsuits and drain their investment capital dry. That’s Newsom’s real Cuban master. And like Nicolas Maduro, Newsom, in that same socialist tradition blames people downwind of the policies, everyone but himself, as he tries to explain it out for the cameras.

Here’s another one: Notice his Facebook page: He’s got all kinds of stuff up there about all his supposed great achievements and it’s updated every few hours. Anything to say about the man-caused disaster of California’s blackouts? He’s mysteriously silent. 

Blackouts look exactly the same in Caracas or California, and what’s most obvious here, as Newsom tells us we need these blackouts is that socialism is at the root of all of it. He’s getting more and more like Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro by the day.  

Authorities discovered additional remains of aborted babies in the trunk of a car belonging to deceased abortionist Ulrich Klopfer.

Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill said his office is investigating the remains that were found in the trunk of a car, while still working on the investigation of the 2,246 aborted remains found by family members of Klopfer at his home in Illinois after he died.

According to WSBT22, Klopfer’s family found the additional remains on Wednesday morning while searching through several of the abortionist’s cars that were stored at a business property in Dolton, Illinois.

#NEW: AG Hill says additional remains were found this morning by Will County Sheriff’s office. The remains were found in a trunk at a business property in Dolton, Illinois. Investigators found five plastic bags and one box containing the fetal remains.

— Max Lewis (@MaxLewisTV) October 9, 2019

“Based on that, the family members contacted authorities in Cook County,” said Hill. “Cook County contacted Will County authorities primarily because Will County had experience, vast experience in establishing protocols from the last discovery.”

Arriving on the scene, investigators discovered five plastic bags and one box containing the remains of the aborted babies, stored in the trunk of an older Mercedes Benz.

Klopfer performed abortions in South Bend, Gary and Fort Wayne, Indiana.

In 2015, his medical license was suspended after he allegedly failed to report an abortion performed on a 13-year-old girl.

“It’s a shock for everyone,” Hill said, adding his office is attempting to help Klopfer’s former patients to determine if any of the remains discovered belong to them.

“Our objective, ultimately, is to resolve this with respect and dignity for the remains and it would anticipate that we would add any additional new remains to the mix,” said Hill, according to the report.

The priority, he continued, is giving the remains a “proper burial” and ensuring something like this doesn’t happen again.

“We don’t want to see fetal remains discarded like so much trash by the side of the road,” said Hill. “Imagine, if you will, if we discovered 2,246 remains of adults who were deceased in some type of preservation fluid. Everyone would be freaking out.”

In a comment sent to Breitbart News, Susan B. Anthony List’s State Policy Director Sue Swayze Liebel, an Indiana native, said the additional discovery is “a stark reminder that the abortion industry profits from the destruction of unborn children and exploitation of vulnerable women on a similar scale every day.”

“We grieve for the little ones denied their very humanity and with the mothers forced to relive the trauma endured at Klopfer’s hands, wondering if their child is among his collection of bodies,” she added. “All of Klopfer’s victims deserved so much better.”

Vice President Mike Pence, former Indiana governor, has called for a full investigation into the remains found at Klopfer’s home. Several weeks ago, a group of Republican senators introduced legislation that would ensure dignified burials for aborted babies.

 

As if ballot-harvesting by illegal immigrants were not enough, California has come up with a new way to rig elections to ensure one-party permanant Democratic Party rule.

According to the Los Angeles Times:

SACRAMENTO — Californians will be able to register to vote on election day at local polling places and voting centers under legislation signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday, a potentially significant step toward boosting turnout in key contests next year.The new law provides for a significant expansion of so-called conditional voter registration, which allows a new voter to cast a ballot that is counted after eligibility is determined during the 30-day vote-counting period after an election. That process began in last year’s statewide election,

but registration was available only in county elections offices. Starting next year, voters can register on election day anywhere ballots are cast.

“This simply enfranchises more people to vote,” said state Sen. Tom Umberg (D-Santa Ana), the author of the new law. “The presidential race is one thing, but this is going to make an even bigger difference in turnout for local races.”

 

Suffice to say, this is a recipe for disaster. As voting tallies roll out in real time on election day, Democratic operatives, illegally here or not, will be right onto the matter, with lists of unregistered potential voters, going to their homes and signing them up to make the tally go their way. The political muscle used is going to be amazing.

 

With California already not checking who’s legally allowed to vote, and often, through the Department of Motor Vehicles’ automatic voter registration system, you can bet a lot of those newly registered voters are not going to be here legally. The sanctuary state, after all, does not check.

 

Now that they’ve got a register-or-else system of political muscling for registrations in elections going the Republican way, you can bet they will muscle illegals to register – with a warning that they’ll be reported to authorities as illegal if they don’t. 

 

They’ll be additionally shielded from scrutiny based on the fact that the state has refused to cooperate with federal investigators about who’s registered legally, so it’s a perfect game for them.

 

What’s stunning is why they did it at all. After all, haven’t they already gotten the solid blue state they’ve wanted, based on their past rigging? They’ve even gotten deep red Orange County in their column, which has a whiff of fraud. They’ve enacted drivers licenses for illegal immigrations and now automatic motor voter registration which can only be halted on the honor system, if someone says they are not allowed to vote due to being a non-citizen. Plenty of ‘errors’ have already happened.

 

They’ve also enacted automatic mail-in ballots, even if people do not ask for them, putting physical paper ballots on every kitchen table in the state if not in the mailboxes of people who have moved away. Based on that, they’ve enacted ballot-harvesting, where Democratic operatives break the chain of custody in first counting votes coming in and once they see a result they don’t like, fanning out and goking to people’s houses who still have not voted – and ‘collecting’ those votes, once they’ve ‘helped’ these indifferent or unwilling voters to fill them out. You can see how easy it would be to coerce an illegal immigrant in such conditions. Worse still, the fate of the ballot of someone who voted the ‘wrong’ way is anyone’s guess, no one knows if they turn all the ballots in.

 

 

With this kind of rigging, it’s no wonder California, which still has a sizable conservative contingent has nearly zero representation in any public office, state or national. 

 

Yet the left still can’t trust the good thing it’s got and still doesn’t trust those unreliable voters. This measure to stack the total with same-day registrations is just ther latest scheme to ensure permanent power. It stinks to high heaven. 

 

 

 

As if ballot-harvesting by illegal immigrants were not enough, California has come up with a new way to rig elections to ensure one-party permanant Democratic Party rule.

According to the Los Angeles Times:

SACRAMENTO — Californians will be able to register to vote on election day at local polling places and voting centers under legislation signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday, a potentially significant step toward boosting turnout in key contests next year.The new law provides for a significant expansion of so-called conditional voter registration, which allows a new voter to cast a ballot that is counted after eligibility is determined during the 30-day vote-counting period after an election. That process began in last year’s statewide election,

but registration was available only in county elections offices. Starting next year, voters can register on election day anywhere ballots are cast.

“This simply enfranchises more people to vote,” said state Sen. Tom Umberg (D-Santa Ana), the author of the new law. “The presidential race is one thing, but this is going to make an even bigger difference in turnout for local races.”

 

Suffice to say, this is a recipe for disaster. As voting tallies roll out in real time on election day, Democratic operatives, illegally here or not, will be right onto the matter, with lists of unregistered potential voters, going to their homes and signing them up to make the tally go their way. The political muscle used is going to be amazing.

 

With California already not checking who’s legally allowed to vote, and often, through the Department of Motor Vehicles’ automatic voter registration system, you can bet a lot of those newly registered voters are not going to be here legally. The sanctuary state, after all, does not check.

 

Now that they’ve got a register-or-else system of political muscling for registrations in elections going the Republican way, you can bet they will muscle illegals to register – with a warning that they’ll be reported to authorities as illegal if they don’t. 

 

They’ll be additionally shielded from scrutiny based on the fact that the state has refused to cooperate with federal investigators about who’s registered legally, so it’s a perfect game for them.

 

What’s stunning is why they did it at all. After all, haven’t they already gotten the solid blue state they’ve wanted, based on their past rigging? They’ve even gotten deep red Orange County in their column, which has a whiff of fraud. They’ve enacted drivers licenses for illegal immigrations and now automatic motor voter registration which can only be halted on the honor system, if someone says they are not allowed to vote due to being a non-citizen. Plenty of ‘errors’ have already happened.

 

They’ve also enacted automatic mail-in ballots, even if people do not ask for them, putting physical paper ballots on every kitchen table in the state if not in the mailboxes of people who have moved away. Based on that, they’ve enacted ballot-harvesting, where Democratic operatives break the chain of custody in first counting votes coming in and once they see a result they don’t like, fanning out and goking to people’s houses who still have not voted – and ‘collecting’ those votes, once they’ve ‘helped’ these indifferent or unwilling voters to fill them out. You can see how easy it would be to coerce an illegal immigrant in such conditions. Worse still, the fate of the ballot of someone who voted the ‘wrong’ way is anyone’s guess, no one knows if they turn all the ballots in.

 

 

With this kind of rigging, it’s no wonder California, which still has a sizable conservative contingent has nearly zero representation in any public office, state or national. 

 

Yet the left still can’t trust the good thing it’s got and still doesn’t trust those unreliable voters. This measure to stack the total with same-day registrations is just ther latest scheme to ensure permanent power. It stinks to high heaven. 

 

 

 

ROME — The Vatican issued a statement Wednesday refuting claims Pope Francis had denied the divinity of Jesus Christ, saying the words attributed to the pontiff were a “free interpretation” of what he actually said.

On Wednesday, journalist Eugenio Scalfari published an essay in the Italian daily La Repubblica declaring, among other things, that the pope told him that he believes that Jesus of Nazareth was an exceptional man, but not God incarnate.

“As has already been stated on other occasions, the words that Dr. Eugenio Scalfari attributes in quotation marks to the Holy Father during talks with him cannot be considered a faithful account of what was actually said, but represent rather a personal and free interpretation of what he heard, as is quite evident from what was written today about the divinity of Jesus Christ,” reads the statement by papal spokesman Matteo Bruni.

According to Scalfari, founder of La Repubblica, “Pope Francis conceives the Christ as Jesus of Nazareth, a man, not God incarnate. Once he took flesh, Jesus ceased to be a God and became a man until his death on the cross.”

Scalfari goes on to say that the pope told him that Jesus’ words from the cross “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” testify to Christ’s merely human nature.

“Pope Francis told me: ‘There are the proof that Jesus of Nazareth, once he became a man, even a man of exceptional virtue, was in no way a God,’” Scalfari wrote.

The divinity of Jesus Christ is a central tenet of Christianity. The Nicene Creed, a summary of Christian belief, reads (in part): “I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father.”

This is not the first time the Vatican has been obliged to issue a clarification following papal interviews with Mr. Scalfari, which has led many to suspect that the pope continues to grant him interviews because he desires the confusion and ambiguity that Scalfari’s articles sow.

Pope Francis has repeatedly downplayed the importance of doctrine, the official teaching of the Church on matters of faith and morals. Being a Christian does not mean primarily “adhering to a certain doctrine,” Francis has said, but rather in binding one’s life to the person of Jesus. He has moreover often criticized whose who insist on right doctrine as being “rigid,” “pharisaical,” and “legalistic.”

Over the years of his pontificate, the pope has granted Mr. Scalfari numerous informal interviews and it has been generally understood that he uses this vehicle to get his ideas out, especially more controversial ones, while always maintaining a certain degree of plausible deniability if something Scalfari relates causes problems.

After one such papal interview with Scalfari in 2013, veteran Vatican analyst John L. Allen offered advice as to how these conversations should be read. He noted that though the words may not always be precise, the content is generally trustworthy.

“Look, Italian journalism has many strengths, but a passion for factual accuracy is not among them. It is what it is,” Allen said.

“The takeaway is, the big picture is accurate,” he said. “I don’t think, in any fundamental way, he misrepresented the pope’s thought. But I also think it’s impossible to know where Francis ends and Scalfari begins, at the level of detail. I would just be very careful. I, myself, will not take any direct quotes out of that interview and present them as coming from the pope.”

Pope Francis himself has never denied anything that Scalfari has written about him and seems content to continue granting him interviews.

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