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?