Robertson Back-Pedals

Pat Robertson denies he said the US should assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, even though a transcript of his show contradicts this assertion (video). According to FOX news, televangelist Pat Robertson did not call for the murder of the democratically-elected Chavez:

I didn't say "assassination" ... I said our special forces should go "take him out," and "take him out" could be a number of things, including kidnapping.... I was misinterpreted by the AP, but that happens all the time.

"Take out" is both a synonym and slang (vernacular) for "assassinate."

In stark contrast to this assertion, the transcript shows that Robertson did call for assassination in his broadcast:

You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he 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, and I don't think any oil shipments will stop.

Would someone please show the Reverend where the 10 commandments appear in the Bible, paying special attention to number six? Note a similar commandment in the Qur'an.

Perhaps it was the release of the transcript that led Robertson to apologize, according to Reuters (filed only a half-hour after the FOX piece, according to google) :

Is it right to call for assassination? No, and I apologize for that statement. I spoke in frustration that we should accommodate the man who thinks the U.S. is out to kill him.

Venezuela -- the world's fifth-largest oil exporting country -- has accused the US of backing a failed 2002 coup against Chavez. In a prepared statement, the goverment of Venezuela said:

This public call to assassinate a head of state, considered a crime by all modern legislation, is prosecutable by its very nature. That is what the civilized world is expecting of U.S. authorities.

For a view of this embarrassment from the foreign press, see our allies in England and Australia here and here:

When a foreign religious leader calls for the death of another country's democratically elected head of state, it usually raises the spectre of international terrorism.

Tags: Politics, Robertson