Hey babe, thanks for the linkage:
The Terrorist and The Televangelist
July 15, 2003
Going for the Gold
Jul 15 2003
Here is a mineral rich country that has been led by a brutal dictator for many years. As a sponsor of terrorism in its region, the dictator and his regime have faced United Nations economic sanctions and investigation for war crimes. A U.N.-backed tribunal has indicted the dictator for supporting rebel insurgents in neighboring countries where rape, torture and the mutilation of civilians are routine weapons of war. The President of the United States has adopted a policy of regime change and is contemplating sending American troops to the country to assure that the dictator and his supporters are removed from power.
Some of those who back such action point to signs of a link between the dictator and the terrorist cells of El Quaeda.
Sound familiar? Perhaps so, but we're not talking about Iraq, rather Liberia, and the dictator is not Saddam Hussein, but Charles Taylor. Further, some critics of the administration are now charging that the US has no right to intervene and that doing so would only increase the suffering of the people. For Liberians have enjoyed some measure of security during the dictator's rule, and it may well be that chaos and more violence would follow his departure.
The story is still sounding quite familiar, is it not? Now the plot thickens, for this time the criticisms of the Bush administration are coming not from the left, but from the religious right. And perhaps most surprisingly, the strongest critic of the President is televangelist Pat Roberston, who has been lecturing his national television audience regularly about how wrong headed it would be for the US to intervene in Liberia. Indeed, Robertson has been critical of US policy toward Liberia for several years. "We're undermining a Christian, Baptist president to bring in Muslim rebels to take over the country," Robertson told his 700 Club audience recently. "And how dare the president of the United States say to the duly elected president of another country, 'You've got to step down."
Robertson argues that is has been US policy in Liberia for several years to bring about Taylor's downfall. This has been happening for "the last four, five, six years. The State Department has tried as hard as it can to destabilize Liberia and to bring about the very outcome we're seeing now. They had no endgame, they have no plan of what to do, they only wanted to destroy the sitting president and his government, and as a result, the place is being plunged into chaos. And it breaks my heart."
It is Pat Robertson's heart that might be broken by the fall of Charles Taylor, or his piggy bank? It turns out that in 1998 Robertson negotiated a business partnership with the Taylor regime giving him the rights to gold mining interests in Liberia in exchange for a 10% kick back to the Taylor government. To move on this opportunity Robertson created a for-profit company -- Freedom Gold -- in which he was listed as President as well as Chairman of Board; Robertson being the Board's only member. The company was chartered within the tax evading borders of the Cayman Islands. Clearly Robertson is a preacher who is not limiting his activities to the pulpit, or even the television studio. In fact, it appears, he will travel anywhere, anytime to turn a profit. Come to think of it, profit, politics and piety appear to be the trinity of motives that govern Robertson's "ministry." And in exactly that order of priority.
For more on the mixture of faith, money, and politics in the life and work of Pat Robertson, see prior editorials:
Are Your Tax Dollars Supporting Pat Robertson? and
Faith Based Fraud in the Name of God
| ~ Charles Henderson |