Mullah Robertson issues another fatwa

Pat Robertson has called upon our government to assassinate Hugo Chavez. Here is the AP Story:

Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson has called on-air for American operatives to assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, saying it would be “cheaper than starting a war ... and I don't think any oil shipments will stop.”

“We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability,” Mr. Robertson said Monday on the Christian Broadcast Network's The 700 Club.

“We don't need another $200-billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator,” he said of the democratically elected Mr. Chavez, who is a frequent critic of U.S. foreign policy.

“It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with.”

Interestingly, this is Mullah Robertson's second fatwa. The first was directed at Muqtada al-Sadr a year ago.

Al-Sadr is a rebel whose breaking the law. He's a murderer, there's a warrant out for his arrest. He should be killed, it's just that simple. They should execute him and they should take care of those people. He's holding up the most powerful army on Earth and he's thumbing his nose at the authority of the new government, and it's time the forces took action against him and stop the play. I hope this news says they're going after him.The news yesterday said, well. he'd agreed to some kind of a deal, but he's a liar, he's not going to do a deal and it's time we move in and do it swiftly and get this sore out of the way.
Pat Robertson, 8/19/04 on the 700 Club

The Reverend Robertson had a different tune to sing when the United States was trying to get the brutal Liberian dictator Charles Taylor to leave office. Robertson said this about our government's urging Taylor to abdicate:

And how dare the president of the United States say to the duly elected president of another country, 'You've got to step down.'

The difference seems to be that Taylor was a Baptist, like Robertson.

Update:
A little bit of Googling finds a little more about Robertson and Charles Taylor. Robertson was, and probably still is, head of Freedom Gold Ltd., a for-profit company chartered in the Cayman Islands. Taylor granted Freedom Gold Ltd exploration and mining rights in an area of southeastern Liberia thought to have a lot of gold deposits. Robertson is the company's president and director. A one-man company. The Liberian government, i.e., Taylor, was guaranteed 10 percent of the profits of the company.

So. Is Robertson a religious fanatic? Or a thuggish businessman? Or both? I'd vote for both. I wonder what it would take for the Republican Party to disavow this guy.