http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A7124-2001Sep21Saturday, September 22, 2001; Page A29
Last week's terrorist attacks brought out the worst in televangelists Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell. Three days after hijacked jetliners slammed into the Pentagon, the World Trade Center and the Pennsylvania countryside, Robertson posted a statement on his Christian Broadcast Network (CBN) Web site announcing that pornography, rampant secularism, the occult, abortion, the absence of prayer in schools and insults of God "at the highest level of our government" had sent the Almighty over the edge. America was attacked, Robertson asserted, "because God Almighty is lifting His protection from us."
Appearing on CBN's "700 Club" the day before Robertson's blast, Falwell had also cut loose.
Falwell (who you may recall feared that Tinky Winky the Teletubby was gay and out to damage the moral lives of children) singled out homosexuals, supporters of abortion rights, pagans, the American Civil Liberties Union and People for the American Way as groups to blame for the Tuesday massacres. But a day later and facing a firestorm of criticism, Falwell backtracked. Labeling his own comments "insensitive, uncalled for at the time, and unnecessary as part of the comment on this destruction," Falwell said he blamed no one but the hijackers and terrorists for what happened.
Robertson, who had joined Falwell's blame game during the show, ("Jerry, that's my feeling") cut and ran when it hit the fan. "Severe and harsh in tone" was how Robertson characterized pal Falwell's remarks in a later press release. "Totally inappropriate," he later said during a Fox News appearance.
Well, the Rev. Falwell has advanced to the rear, so let's let him be for the moment. Robertson, however, is another matter. He still thinks God removed His protection from the nation, thus allowing our enemies to give us what we deserve.
What's more, to hear Robertson tell it, one of the abominations prompting God to hide his face from America is this country's self-indulgence, pursuit of financial gain and focus on wealth.
Which is the subject of today's column, and the basis for this humble question: What, pray tell, does the Good Lord make of Pat Robertson's gold-mining venture in Liberia with Charles Taylor, international pariah and one of the most ruthless, greedy and terror-producing heads of state in all of sub-Saharan Africa?
What? He didn't know?
Well it probably slipped Robertson's mind, busy as he is in getting people to send in those checks, money orders and love offerings to support his cause. How the reverend found time to hook up with Taylor, I'll never know.
But in May 1999, Robertson, through Freedom Gold Limited, an offshore company registered in the Cayman Islands but based at CBN headquarters in Virginia Beach, signed an agreement with Taylor and key cabinet members allowing the for-profit Freedom Gold to explore and receive mining rights in southeastern Liberia, where gold is believed to be in the ground.
It's a great deal for Liberia, which is now an economic basket case thanks to the long civil war and Taylor's corruption. It's also good for Freedom Gold, which was formed by Robertson in 1998. Liberia -- and for all practical purposes we're talking Taylor -- gains 10 percent ownership of Freedom Gold.
As The Post's Douglas Farah reported in January, huge amounts of the country's funds have been siphoned off by a small group of Taylor's associates and relatives. Taylor "has his hand in everything and gets a cut of everything," a businessman told The Post. Other Liberians, probably Taylor's gang, are entitled to buy at least 15 percent of Freedom Gold's shares after the exploration period.
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