Word: pretext
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...someone can set in motion the terrible mechanism of general destruction"). He prayed that "every kind of concentration camp any where on earth may once and for all be done away with" and condemned "the various kinds of torture and oppression, either physical or moral, carried out ... under the pretext of internal 'security' or the need to preserve an apparent peace...
John Paul showed the same touch with lay audiences. At his Mass on Logan Circle, he deplored sexual "laxity" but put his remarks in a context of freedom, which he said must not "be seen as a pretext for moral anarchy" but can be truly enjoyed only by those who have "respect for the truth." The Philadelphia crowds were as fervent as any in the U.S. and, as everywhere, included many non-Catholics, who found the Pontiff far more than a touring curiosity. Lois Kukcinovich, a pianist at the New Generation of Disciples of Christ Church in Philadelphia, slept Wednesday...
More than anything else, Sadat is anxious to carry out the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty without delay. This would enable him to retrieve the Sinai and its oil wells from the Israelis. He does not wish to get embroiled in any new controversies that might offer the Israelis a pretext to balk on the timetable, which now calls for the return of the areas containing the oil wells by next November. Explained an Egyptian member of the autonomy committee: "If we can establish the sense of permanence and stability we have today in the bilateral relations between Egypt and Israel...
...Egyptian President called the plan "stupid." Sadat wanted nothing to slow the Camp David timetable calling for Egypt in January to regain two-thirds of the Sinai, including valuable oilfields. He feared that a U.S. proposal on the Palestinians would so outrage the Israelis that they might find some pretext to delay in fulfilling their Camp David conditions or to walk out of the current autonomy talks aimed at granting some self-rule to West Bank and Gaza Palestinians...
Unfortunately, the director never does get around to telling the story of either character's personal apocalypse. Instead, he uses part of Willard's river journey as a pretext to unveil a series of large-scale, self-contained set pieces-an impersonal tour of the war front. Though these sequences do not add up to a movie, they are feverishly imagined and brilliantly shot (by Bertolucci's favorite cinematographer, Vittorio Storaro). Indeed, the first of these war scenes may be the most spectacular battle ever created for a film. With a megalomaniacal officer (Robert Duvall) leading...