Obama denounces pastor's comments on September 11 attacks

Washington: Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Friday denounced inflammatory remarks from his pastor, who has railed against the United States and accused its leaders of bringing on the September 11 attacks by spreading terrorism.

As a video of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright has widely aired on television and the internet, Obama responded by posting a blog about his relationship with Wright and his church, Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ, on the Huffington Post.

Obama wrote that he looked to Wright for spiritual advice, not political guidance, and he's been pained and angered to learn of some of his pastor's comments for which he had not been present. A campaign spokesman said later that Wright was no longer on Obama's African American Religious Leadership Committee, without elaborating.

Obama said, "I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies."

He added, "I also believe that words that degrade individuals have no place in our public dialogue, whether it's on the campaign stump or in the pulpit. In sum, I reject outright the statements by Reverend Wright that are at issue."

In a sermon on the Sunday after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, Wright suggested the United States brought on the attacks.

He said, "We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye."

Wright added, "We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to
roost."

In a 2003 sermon, Wright said blacks should condemn the United States, and he also gave a sermon in December comparing Obama to Jesus.

Obama wrote on the Huffington Post that he never heard Wright say any of the statements that are "so contrary to my own life and beliefs," but they have raised legitimate questions about the nature of his relationship with the pastor and the church.