Pat Robertson - Terrorist Mastermind?

[richlevy]

According to multiple reports, Pat Robertson has publicly called for the assassination of Venezuela president Hugo Chavez.

"If he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it Mr. Robertson said on his program, "The 700 Club" on Monday. "It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war. And I don't think any oil shipments will stop."

Some of Mr. Robertson's conservative Christian allies distanced themselves from his comments. Rev. Rob Schenck, president of the National Clergy Council in Washington, released a statement calling on Mr. Robertson to "immediately apologize, retract his statement and clarify what the Bible and Christianity teaches about the permissibility of taking human life outside of law."

The Rev. Richard Cizik of the National Association of Evangelicals said in an interview that he and "most evangelical leaders" would disassociate themselves from such "unfortunate and particularly irresponsible" comments.

"It complicates circumstances for foreign missionaries and Christian aid workers overseas who are already perceived, wrongly, especially by leftists and other leaders, as collaborators with U.S. intelligence agencies," he added.

Too right there. The 700 Club has about 1 million viewers and Robertson can't be dismissed as some lone wingnut with a bible.

But other conservative Christian organizations remained silent, with leaders at the Traditional Values Coalition, the Family Research Council and the Christian Coalition saying through spokesmen that they were too busy to comment.

Pussies.

I could have posted this in Understanding Terrorism thread or one of the religion threads, but I think it deserved it's own thread.

What is the proper response to this? Chavez is not running a terrorist state. At best we can say that the U.S. and Venezuela are political rivals, so even in our current interventionist phase noone could justify an assassination. What would the U.S. demand if an influential mullah in Saudi Arabia made the same remarks about President Bush?

The First Amendment does not protect the making of terrorist threats. Has Robertson broken the law?

[lookout123]

let's just shoot Robertson and be done with it. and while we are at it can we get rid of all televangelists since all they really do is give christians a bad rep?

[smoothmoniker]

Robertson is a moron.

[russotto]

You included too much context to successfully paint him as a terrorist. The First Amendment protects vicious wisecracks like lookout's... or like Robertson's. The article you referred to was a bit sneakier-- they removed the first sentence from the quote at the top of the article, including it only later where it might get cut.

[richlevy]

Originally Posted by russotto

You included too much context to successfully paint him as a terrorist. The First Amendment protects vicious wisecracks like lookout's... or like Robertson's. The article you referred to was a bit sneakier-- they removed the first sentence from the quote at the top of the article, including it only later where it might get cut.

Actually, if you watch the
video, you will see that while his first set of comments can be taken as a wisecrack, later he makes a very deliberate and unambiguous statement.

We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability. We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator. It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with.

That is not a "Well if he thinks so maybe we should do it" wisecrack.