Robertson: Bush Favors Muslims Over Baptist

newsday.com ^ | July 11, 2003 | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

[Destro]

Robertson: Bush Favors Muslims Over Baptist

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

July 11, 2003

Norfolk, Va. - Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson has accused President George W. Bush of "undermining a Christian, Baptist president to bring in Muslim rebels" by asking Liberian President Charles Taylor, recently indicted for war crimes, to step down.

"How dare the president of the United States say to the duly elected president of another country, 'You've got to step down'?" Robertson said Monday on "The 700 Club," broadcast from his Christian Broadcasting Network.

Robertson, a Bush supporter who has financial interests in Liberia, said he believes the State Department has "mismanaged the situation in nation after nation after nation" in Africa.

"So we're undermining a Christian, Baptist president to bring in Muslim rebels to take over the country," he said in the broadcast.

[Destro]

Amen!

No wonder Muslim ruled Nigeria offered Taylor asylum-it would bring fellow Muslims to power.

[dogbyte12]

Pat Robertson is an evil SOB. There are lots of blood dripping from those diamonds he got through Charles Taylor.
Robertson needs to shut his damned pie hole. President Bush is acting prudently here.

[Normal4me]

Didn't Liberia ask us for assistance? I though Taylor agreed to step down once civil order was restored. Sounds like Robertson is worried about his "interests" in the region.

[kms61]

Good thing ol' Pat didn't get elected President if Charles Taylor is the leadership role model he looks up to.

[dogbyte12]

Jesse Jackson and Pat Robertson have both sucked at the Charles Taylor trough. Nice company there. This guy is a butcher. Calling him a christian or a baptist is an outrage. Robertson just wants his money to keep flowing out of the gold and diamond mines no matter how many butchered kids and women it takes. Pat Robertson is a world class jerk. It's all about the money.

[marajade]

Maybe he's doing it because thousands of innocent people are being killed. Maybe it doesn't have anything to do with religion at all.

[Sparta]

We shouldn't be going to Liberia, but Pat is just trying to defend his own financial interests in Liberia. Charles Taylor is as much of a good Christian as Adolf Hitler.

[PianoMan]

I think Bush is only doing it to try and silence the liberals who claim that Bush 'only invades countries with oil'.

Ludicrous.

[Robe]

Are the Rebels muslims?

[ex-Texan]

Robertson has actually toned down his criticism of GWB. As a Bush supporter, he actually is biting his tongue. When Taylor leaves and Liberia has been handed over to the Muslims there may be a blood bath. Religion of Peace. Many in Robertson's camp believe -- with good reason -- that bodies of Christians will be piled in the streets by this time next year.

Liberia will become the real quagmire for Bush unless he greatly limits our operations and restricts our troop commitments. Guess who suggested that we go in with troops? Koffee @nus, the U.N., radical Dems on the hill, the State Dept. and the Axis of Weasels.

Note to GWB: Quick in and out then turn the mess over to the U.N. and the Axis of Weasels.

[ppaul]

Diamonds are Robertson's best friend

By Ju-lan Kim

Thirty-five years ago, Pat Robertson founded the Christian
Broadcasting Network (CBN), which laid the foundation
for his financial empire. Using CBN resources, Robertson
launched numerous other business ventures, including:
the Family Channel, designed to
distribute "The 700 Club," which became International
Family Entertainment in 1990; Northstar Entertainment;
Broadcast Equities; CBN Travel; American Sales Corporation;
International Charter Jet; Kalo-Vita; and the Founders
Inn and Conference Center.

Under International Family Entertainment, a for-profit
organization, Chairman Robertson and his son, Tim,
received over $1.1 million in salaries and bonuses
in 1993 alone. According to Robertson, his close relationship
with God has given him the insider's
scoop on successfully using what he calls "God's marvelous
system of money management". With so many projects
to run, Robertson seems to have his hands full (with
cash, that is).

Although the financial success of CBN is well-known,
one of Robertson's lesser known organizations is his
African Development Company (ADC). ADC is a private
venture that invests in various land-based operations
in Africa, such as mining and agriculture,
with the stated goal of redirecting profits toward
humanitarian projects. In Zaire, the ADC operates a
diamond-mining project in the center of Zaire's prime
diamond mines and forestry concessions.

Zaire is a country with a population of approximately
43 million, most of whom live in poverty. At the same
time, Zaire's head of government, Mobutu Sese Seko,
a dictator who has plundered the wealth of his nation
for over thirty years, is able to live lu
xuriously surrounded by the comforts of vacation homes,
yachts, and champagne. Corruption, health concerns,
and human rights abuses in Zaire have long been an
international concern, causing many countries, including
the U.S., to turn a diplomatic cold sho
ulder toward Mobutu.

U.S. intelligence agencies have reported that billions
of dollars in aid given to Zaire during the Cold War
now find a comfortable home in Mobutu's personal bank
accounts. Human rights groups around the world have
campaigned against the numerous atrocitie
s committed against the Zairians during his thirty-year
reign, including the deaths of tens of thousands of
citizens. Mobutu has refused to implement any democratic
reform that would lessen his power.

President Mobutu continuously campaigns to distance
himself from his appalling human-rights record, which
has earned him more foes than friends. However, despite
the innumerable strikes against him, it seems that
Mobutu has attained a new trading partner,
Pat Robertson. Mobutu's partnership with Robertson
is another of Mobutu's attempts to build ties between
his illegitimate regime and the U.S., as a way of gaining
international acceptance.

Robertson, the former U.S. presidential candidate,
has shown that he is not the least bit uneasy with
utilizing Mobutu's personal fleet of planes and yachts,
which were purchased off the backs of Zaire's oppressed
citizens. Dr. Makau Mutua, projects direc
tor of the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School,
in the February 27, 1995 issue of TIME magazine observed
that "Robertson is Mobutu's biggest American catch."


When presented with more of the facts surrounding ADC,
one is forced question the nature of Robertson's relationship
with such a dictator. Should a "good Christian" profit
from diamonds and lumber mined by the functional equivalent
of slave labor? While o
ther Christian relief programs donate aid to Zaire
via private organizations to avoid any connection with
Mobutu's corrupt government, Robertson rushes forth
with open arms towards Mobutu.

On February 16, 1992, Zairian Protestants and Catholics
held a demonstration asking for reform. Mobutu's troops
opened fire on the demonstrators. Despite the bloody
massacre that followed, coupled with criticism by the
U.S. State Department, Pat Robertson
was among the first in line to wine and dine with
Mobutu in Zaire.

Perhaps Robertson's financial gains are enough for
him to ignore any humanitarian pleas for reform in
Zaire. Not only does Robertson profit handsomely off
of his tidy diamond-mining operation, but Mobutu also
makes his own, more than satisfactory income,
through his country's $300 million-a-year mineral trade.
Although Robertson has supported a number of dubious
causes, his relationship with a character like Mobutu
is one that may lead to more questions than Robertson
is willing to answer. The love (of mo
ney) relationship between Robertson and Mobutu may
leave Robertson's associates feeling a bit more than
uncomfortable.

_Ju-lan_Kim,_an_IFAS_intern,_is_a_student_at_Simon's_
Rock_College_of_Bard._

_
Anonymous. "Zaire Trip Criticized." _The_Christian_
Century_, April 15, 1992, 394.
Lipez, Dick. "Friends of Pat." _Freedom_Writer_, September
1995, 9.
Lippman, Thomas W. "A Dictator With Friends in High
Places." _Washington_Post_ national weekly edition,
August 14-20, 1995, 20.
Purvis, Andrew. "Jewels for Jesus." TIME, February
27, 1995, 30.

[ppaul]

Pat Robertson Hammered for Stance Toward Liberia
By David Fein
CNSNews.com Correspondent
July 10, 2003

(CNSNews.com) - At odds with President Bush over the political situation in Liberia, Christian evangelist Pat Robertson is also under attack from the Left. Americans United for Separation of Church and State has accused Robertson of failing to disclose all of his business interests in civil-war torn Liberia at the same time he was blaming the U.S. State Department for trying to "destabilize" that African country.

During a stop in Senegal Tuesday as part of a five-day, five-country African trip, Bush affirmed his desire for Liberian President Charles Taylor to quickly relinquish power. He echoed those sentiments Wednesday while speaking with South African President Thabo Mbeki.

However, Robertson has used his nationally broadcast television program, The 700 Club , to criticize the Bush administration's handling of the Liberian crisis. Robertson is founder of the Christian Coalition and CEO of the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), one of the world's largest television ministries. In 1999, a Robertson-owned company, Freedom Gold, reportedly entered into an arrangement with Taylor's government to look for gold in southern Liberia.

Citing transcripts from the June 26, 2003 edition of The 700 Club, Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU) alleges that Robertson defended Taylor's government without disclosing his own personal stake in the gold venture.

"This country [Liberia] has had a close relationship with the Untied States over the years, but of late, the last, oh, four, five, six years, the United States State Department has tried as hard as it can to destabilize Liberia and to bring about the very outcome we're seeing now," Robertson said, according to the transcript of the June 26 broadcast, obtained by AU.

According to Americans United, Robertson spoke about Liberia in subsequent broadcasts, the transcripts of which AU obtained.

On July 1, according to AU, Robertson informed his audience about a cautionary letter he had written a year earlier to the undersecretary of state for African affairs. The letter, Robertson told viewers of The 700 Club , warned that, "if we continued to undermine the regime of the sitting president of Liberia, that there was going to be chaos."

The transcript from the July 7 broadcast had Robertson chiding Bush for his warning "to the duly elected president of another country, 'you've got to step down,'" AU stated in a press release.

Robertson's business dealings in Liberia had also been the subject of news coverage in the Washington Post , which triggered a letter of response from Robertson to the Post on Nov. 30, 2001.

"Currently Freedom Gold is an exploratory company that has no cash flow, and, therefore, there are no profits to its shareholders and none to anyone else," Robertson wrote in the letter to the Post. "According to its mining concession, Freedom Gold will make available to the government of Liberia sometime in 2004 to 2006 shares which will be illiquid until such time as the company is taken public. No cash flow is forecast for the company until at least the year 2004 or beyond."

Robertson also emphasized in the letter that his venture in Liberia had led to the hiring of 130 Liberians over a three-year period.

"During that time, Freedom Gold has assisted the people of Liberia to gain a better life. It has found freedom of religion, freedom of movement, freedom of expression, and what appears to be a judiciary dedicated to the rule of law," Robertson declared in the letter.

However, Barry W. Lynn, executive director of AU, noted that, "Taylor is one of the most brutal dictators in Africa," and "Robertson would have his viewers believe that [Robertson's] interest in Liberia is purely humanitarian."

"In fact, he's become partners with a dictator in the hopes of making money, and now he needs to prop that man up no matter what," added Lynn.

United Nations sanctions against Liberia, including a ban on trade in rough diamonds and air travel restrictions on senior government officials, were first imposed in 2001 to stop the country from supporting the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in neighboring Sierra Leone. The sanctions were expanded this week with a ban imposed on Liberian timber exports, a key revenue earner for Taylor's government.

A spokesman for the Christian Broadcasting Network said Robertson was unavailable this week for comment. Robertson resigned his position as president of the Christian Coalition as well as from the group's board of directors in December of 2001.

E-mail a news tip to David Fein.

Send a Letter to the Editor about this article.

[alloysteel]

It would be one thing, if Charles Taylor was really defending the Christian faith against Muslim interlopers, but what the regime in Monrovia is doing, is nothing short of gang warfare. This is a fight that the US really has no dog they want to support. If Bush is not prepared to go in to build a nation where now only ruins lie, the best option is to stay out. Unfortunately, there is already a vacuum, and the Muslim presence (nobody seems to know if they have a very large presence or not) is poised to take up slave trading again.

[billbears]

President Bush is acting prudently here.

You know, I keep looking for that part of the Constitution that states 'Invade nations with no actual cause that pertains to the defense of these United States but it's a just cause so that makes it Aokay and a Republican is in control it so that makes it even better' but for some reason I can't seem to find it. Bush is neither acting prudently or acting conservatively. But I'm sure you'll be able to post some trumped up charge of the evils going on in Liberia supporting terrorists so we can feel all safe and secure.....

Elsewhere, our 'ally' (Saudi Arabia) continues to support terrrorism and has refused to condemn Hamas. But that's okay too, right?

[Destro]

The rebels we will install into power are Muslims.

[Destro]

If Robertson has blood on his hands--what about American oil companies (Bush family) and the Saudis?

[xm177e2]

Is it diamonds, gold, or both? I thought it was gold, but he might have more than one business over there.

For those of you who don't know, Pat Robertson is Charles Taylor's business partner. And Charles Taylor is an evil murderer.