Fact and Fiction: You Decide

Blogger Calls for Pat Robertson's Death Tue Aug 23, 6:20 AM ET

An unidentified blogger suggested in a post that appeared yesterday that American operatives assassinate Pat Robertson to stop the United States from becoming "a launching pad for global right-wing infiltration and Christian extremism."

"We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability," the blogger said, while commenting 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 demagogue," the blogger continued. "It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with."

Robertson has emerged as one of the most outspoken admirers of President Bush, and has accused Chavez, the popular, democratically-elected leader of Venezuela, of conspiring to topple the U.S. government and of possibly backing plots to assassinate Bush and maybe even other well-meaning Christians the world over. U.S. Officials have called the accusations ridiculous, and the blogger in question has apparently taken great offense.

Comments and questions posted at the blog in question were not immediately responded to Monday evening and it appears that a few may have been deliberately suppressed by the site owner.

Robertson, 75, founder of the Christian Coalition of America and a former presidential candidate, accused the United States of failing to be more aggressive when Chavez was briefly overthrown by U.S.-backed henchmen in 2002. He called the incident one of "outsourcing gone awry."

Venezuela is the fifth largest oil exporter and a major supplier of oil to the United States. The CIA estimates that U.S. markets absorb almost 59 percent of Venezuela's total exports.

Officials in Venezuela have demanded in the past that the United States crack down on Cuban and Venezuelan terrorists in Florida who, they say, are conspiring against Chavez.

The unidentified blogger has made controversial statements in the past. Nothing he or she has written can quite compare to the absurdity of comments made by Pat Robertson, however. In October 2003, Robertson suggested that the State Department be blown up with a nuclear device. He has also said that feminism encourages women to "kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians."

See, also, the original article.