Editor of Daily News-Record Praises Pat Robertson's Operation Blessing...
But no mention of organizations questionable past dealings...
Yesterday, the editor of the DNR praised Pat Robertson's Operation Blessing for the organizations recent actions after the earthquake in Indonesia. Yes, it does appear that Operation Blessing is indeed helping the victims of the Indonesian quake. This is a good thing too, and yes they do deserve to be recognized for their actions!
Never the less, let's not forget the "checkered" and sometimes questionable past dealings of Operation Blessing. One of my very first "exposes" as a new blogger almost a year ago was to examine some of Robertson's activities (via Operaton Blessing) in West Africa. You might recall, that Robertson - through Operation Blessing - jointly owned a diamond mine with deposed Liberain President Charles Taylor.
Recently Taylor was charged with war crimes by the Special Court of Sierra Leon. Former President Taylor is alleged to be the primary instigator of some extremely heinous war crimes in the West African region. Call me crazy, but I find it odd that a Evangelical Preacher from Virginia Beach and a warlord from West Africa would have an open association, but money makes people do odd things...
Once again, kudos for Operation Blessing for helping the people of Indonesia. But do remember, be catious of folks who do good works, and then proceed to let everyone know about these good works (AKA: a "loud giver")....
Related Articles:
http://www.ww4report.com/node/1050
http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/view/1802/1/119
http://www.msmagazine.com/sept03/sizemore.asp
http://peacecorpsonline.org/messages/messages/467/2013161.html
posted by Will Vaught @ 9:36 AM
4 Comments:
At 6/02/2006 6:55 AM,
Anonymous said…
The editor of the DNR, Cort Kirkwood, is a well-known conservative activitiest. For those of us who know him personally, I can tell you his private views are even more conservative than what he pontificates on the DNR's editorial page. Basically Cort is what you might refer to as a "christian nationalist". He loves to fuse religion and politics, and has a great deal of contempt for all things democratic or that could be preceived as being liberal.
This editorial is a good case and point. I'm sure he knows about OB dubious past, but that doesn't matter, Cort saw an opportunity to prop up Virginia's premier radical cleric, so he took the opportunity. You might even notice that he even tried to lump Al Gore in with Mr. Robertson...Yea, nice try.
This guy is truely a Valley treasure...
At 6/02/2006 10:44 AM,
Anonymous said…
This is interesting tidbit from Wikipedia:
"According to a June 2, 1999 article in The Virginian-Pilot,[12] Taylor had extensive business dealings with televangelist Pat Robertson. According to the article, Taylor gave Robertson (who also had business dealings with Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire) the rights to mine for diamonds in Liberia's mineral-rich countryside. According to two airplane pilots who reported this incident to the state of Virginia for investigation in 1994, Robertson used his Operation Blessing planes to haul diamond-mining equipment to Robertson's mines in Liberia, despite the fact that Robertson was telling his 700 Club viewers that the planes were sending relief supplies to the victims of the genocide in Rwanda. The subsequent investigation by the state of Virginia concluded that Robertson diverted his ministry's donations to the Liberian diamond-mining operation, but Attorney General of Virginia Mark Earley blocked any potential prosecution against Robertson."
At 6/03/2006 4:04 PM,
Anonymous said…
Who is to say that diamond mining equipment is not relief supplies? Have you ever tried digging diamonds by hand?! God Bless.
At 6/04/2006 4:51 PM,
Anonymous said…
Had Enough?
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