Rev. Jesse Jackson Condemns Pat Robertson’s Calls to Kill Venezuela President

Chicago, Aug. 23, 2005 (VenezuelAnalysis.com).- U.S. civil rights leader Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr., condemned calls by conservative Christian Coalition leader Pat Robertson’s to assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

“These comments are morally reprehensible and dangerously suggestive. The international community repudiates Robertson’s remarks, and calls upon him to retract his remarks,” Jackson said in a press release.

“Calling for the assassination of world leaders is inciteful and wildly provocative. It is just the latest of Robertson’s outrageous and intemperate declarations; President Bush and Secretary of State Rice should immediately rebuke and disassociate the administration from Robertson’s comments,” Jackson continued.

Robertson said in his Monday television show that “if he [Chavez] thinks we’re trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it… It’s a whole lot cheaper than starting a war…We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability. We don’t need another $200 billion war to get rid of one strong-arm dictator. It’s a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with."

Reverend Jackson reminded that Presidents Ford and Reagan previously issued executive orders banning political assassinations. “In October, the White House was forced to deny Robertson’s claim that the president told him there would be no casualties in the Iraq invasion. Earlier this year, Robertson was harshly critical of judges and Supreme Court rulings that he disagreed with, noting that judicial activists represented a greater threat than terrorists,” he added.

“During a State Department hearing Robertson declared, ‘Maybe we need a very small nuke thrown off on Foggy Bottom (the State Department’s headquarters) to shake things up.’ He has also made inflammatory remarks about Muslims and the Islamic religion, saying, ‘It’s clear from the teachings of the Quran and also from the history of Islam that it’s anything but peaceful.’ Yet, Robertson never raised his voice against racial segregation in the South. He did not join the chorus of witnesses to free Mandela. He instead became a mining trading partner with the tyrant Mobutu in the Congo,” Jackson continued.

Jackson called the Bush Administration, Christian conservatives, and the international community to condemn this “history of despicable remarks from Christian Coalition leader Robertson.”

“His rhetoric, especially if taken to their conclusion, only undermines international diplomacy and dialogue, and has no place in today’s world,” the Reverend concluded.