[Peace-discuss] Pat Roberson near top of FEMA list of charities -and what he does with $$

[Susan Parenti]

>
>
> Disaster used as political payoff
>
> New York Daily News
> September 6, 2005
>
> http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/story/343712p-293471c.html
>
> The Federal Emergency Management Agency has done it
> again.
>
> Already under fire for its woeful response to Hurricane
> Katrina, the federal disaster agency appears to have
> turned hurricane relief donations into a political
> payoff - until it was challenged.
>
> All last week, FEMA bureaucrats gave prominent placement
> on the agency's Web site to Operation Blessing, the
> Virginia-based charity run by controversial right-wing
> evangelist and Christian Coalition founder Pat
> Robertson.
>
> For anyone wishing to donate only cash, the agency's
> site listed the names and phone numbers of three groups:
> the Red Cross, Operation Blessing and America's Second
> Harvest, a national coalition of food banks.
>
> That first list was followed by a second, longer list of
> several dozen religious and nonsectarian charities. This
> second list was for anyone who wanted to give either
> cash or noncash gifts.
>
> Just as in an ordinary election, however, top ballot
> position makes it far more likely you'll get noticed and
> chosen.
>
> The same FEMA list was then disseminated by state and
> local governments throughout the country. Both Gov.
> Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg, for example, placed the same
> top three FEMA charities on their Hurricane Katrina
> press releases and Web sites last week.
>
> Those familiar with Robertson and his charity were
> flabbergasted.
>
> Operation Blessing, with a budget of $190 million, is an
> integral part of the Robertson empire. Not only is he
> the chairman of the board, his wife is listed on its
> latest financial report as its vice president, and one
> of his sons is on the board of directors.
>
> Back in 1994, during the infamous Rwandan genocide,
> Robertson used his 700 Club's daily cable operation to
> appeal to the American public for donations to fly
> humanitarian supplies into Zaire to save the Rwandan
> refugees.
>
> The planes purchased by Operation Blessing did a lot
> more than ferry relief supplies.
>
> An investigation conducted by the Virginia attorney
> general's office concluded in 1999 that the planes were
> mostly used to transport mining equipment for a diamond
> operation run by a for-profit company called African
> Development Corp.
>
> And who do you think was the principal executive and
> sole shareholder of the mining company?
>
> You guessed it, Pat Robertson himself.
>
> Robertson had landed the mining concession from his
> longtime friend Mobutu Sese Seko, then the dictator of
> Zaire.
>
> Investigators concluded that Operation Blessing
> "willfully induced contributions from the public through
> the use of misleading statements ..."
>
> After the investigation began, Robertson placated state
> regulators by personally reimbursing his own charity
> $400,000 and by agreeing to tighten its bookkeeping
> methods.
>
> Separating Operation Blessing from Robertson's many
> politically oriented endeavors is not that easy,
> however.
>
> The biggest single U.S. recipient of the charity's
> largess, according to its latest financial report, was
> Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network. It received
> $885,000 in the fiscal year ended March 2004.
>
> Robertson uses that Christian network for some markedly
> unchristian purposes.
>
> A few years back, he repeatedly defended Charles Taylor,
> the former brutal dictator of Liberia who is under
> indictment by a UN tribunal for war crimes.
>
> As with Mobutu in the Congo, Robertson had a personal
> stake in the matter: He had millions invested in a
> Liberian gold mine, thanks to Taylor, according to press
> reports.
>
> Recently, Robertson called for the assassination of
> Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Those who know
> Robertson's record raised such an uproar that on Sunday
> FEMA suddenly rearranged its entire Web site for
> hurricane donations.
>
> Gone was Operation Blessing's name and choice location.
> Replacing it was an alphabetical list of nearly 50
> national relief organizations.
>
> At FEMA, they take a while to get things right.
>
> Originally published on September 6, 2005
> _______________________________________________________
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