9-07-05, 9:03 am
My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers. --Jesus, Matthew 21:16
Well I see him on the TV Preachin’ ‘bout the promised land He tells me to believe in Jesus And steals the money from my hand. --Poison, 'Give Me Something to Believe In'
In a distasteful show of insensitivity and partisanship, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has called for cash donations be paid to Operation Blessing, a charity front for Pat Robertson’s right-wing Christian fundamentalist TV operation, The 700 Club, and his other corporate schemes.
In a press release published on its website on August 29th, FEMA urged those who wish to donate funds to give cash to the Robertson organization and provided a link and a 1-800 telephone number.
Robertson (listed as M.G. Robertson on Operation Blessing’s web page, Marion Gordon is Pat’s real name) is well-known for his ultra right views about reproductive rights, his hatred of homosexuals, his wild claims that liberals are the cause of America’s 'decline,' his love of war, his distaste for women’s equality, and his opposition to civil rights.
In fact, in September 2001, Robertson blamed immorality for the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The terrorist attacks were God’s punishment for everything from abortion to homosexuality and witchcraft, Robertson boldly pronounced.
Robertson is notable for founding the explicitly political Christian Coalition to advance his views in the Republican Party and in the halls of government power. Its stated purpose is to create a theocratic government.
While the Christian Coalition has been credited with helping to propel the far right to dominance in the Republican Party, the organization has fallen on hard times recently due to financial scandals, investigations surrounding its violation of campaign laws, and the drifting political loyalties of its former adherents. Currently a bill collector is suing the organization for approximately $13,000 for failing to pay a bill for a fundraiser mailing.
Most recently, Robertson disgusted many with a call for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, then denying that he made the comment, and then apologizing for making the comment. Robertson called the democratically elected leader of oil-rich Venezuela a 'dictator' that the US government should 'take out.'
What Robertson didn’t disclose was that his oil-related investments are really what fuel his animosity for Chávez.
Robertson’s business interests are less well known than his big mouth. His investments and business schemes have been mostly funded through Operation Blessing and his other 'charities,' his television show, The 700 Club, and his TV 'network' the Christian Broadcasting Network.
From donations provided by viewers, Robertson bought the Family Channel, sold part of its stock at a personal profit of $90 million, and then sold the rest to right-wing media mogul and FOX owner Rupert Murdoch for $1.82 billion.
In two swift financial deals, Robertson and his family took in tens of millions of dollars in pure profits on the backs of desperate, deluded faith-filled viewers. No money was disbursed to the viewers who made Robertson's millions from these deals possible.
Interestingly, Robertson’s diamond venture shows that he really doesn’t have a problem with dictators per se – as long as he can make some money from them. To win diamond mining rights, Robertson developed a close and friendly relationship with dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, most notorious for his collaboration with the CIA in the assassination of Congolese national liberation movement leader Patrice Lumumba in 1961.
According to a 1996 interview with a former pilot for Operation Blessing, of 40 flights to Zaire in the mid-1990s, only one or two were really related to the humanitarian work that Operation Blessing claimed to its donors would be its main work. The rest, the pilot admitted, were related to developing the blood diamond business.
When that business didn’t pan out due to changing political fortunes in Zaire and Sese Sekos’ overthrow in 1997, Robertson turned to oil speculation. In 1998 he became a main investor in the CENCO Refining Company in California and sought to invest in oil refining in Santa Fe Springs (near Huntington Beach, the site of a major oil spill in 1990).
Environmental activist and local community members who feared that Robertson’s company would pollute the water and air near their homes blocked his speculative venture. In a notorious legal battle, Robertson fought environmental laws and almost the whole state of California before backing out of those operations.
CENCO’s former lawyers sued him for his failure to pay them.
That same year, Robertson used the donations of his flock to set up an offshore mining company in the Cayman Islands called Freedom Gold Limited. The purpose of setting the company offshore, of course, was to avoid taxes and to make its connections to Robertson more difficult to trace.
According to a 2001 Washington Post story, in 1999, Robertson’s Freedom Gold signed a business deal with notoriously corrupt and brutal dictator Charles Taylor of Liberia allowing Robertson’s company to explore and receive gold mining rights in that country.
The deal gave Taylor 10 percent ownership of the company, which was founded with donations by Robertson’s faithful following in exchange for a five-year exploration concession and a 20-year mining claim.
Unfortunately the deal fell apart when President Bush withdrew US support for Taylor in 2003 and forced the embattled dictator to resign in the middle of a violent civil war.
In 2002, after complaining about the legitimacy of President Bush’s subsidies to Christian churches through a so-called faith-based initiatives, Robertson’s Operation Blessing accepted millions in taxpayer money from the administration.
Subsequent investigations of Robertson’s charity, however, reveal that it doesn’t actually distribute charitable giving to those in need, but rather serves as a 'middle-man' siphoning off part of the donations for its 'overhead' and then handing the money over to real charities.
Robertson and his businesses has gotten into trouble for failing to pay his creditors, for trying to avoid paying state, local and federal taxes, for breaking campaign finance rules and bending other laws. In other words, he believes that it is God’s will that he cheat, steal, make deals with tyrants, and bribe and scheme his way into greater riches – all lovingly financed by his cult following.
The question is why is FEMA promoting Operation Blessing? Can you trust Robertson with your donations? Obviously not. His record shows that he will pocket part of the donations to finance some hair-brained scheme that probably involves slave labor, environmental racism, and some brutal tyrannical government.
If you can give, give directly to Katrina's victims through the AFL-CIO’s Union Community Fund or the NAACP. And call ([202] 566-1600) or e-mail FEMA at
--Contact Joel Wendland at jwendland@politicalaffairs.net.
