Douglas Coe: "The people that are involved in this association of people around the world are the worst and the best, some are total despots. Some are totally religious. You can find what you want to find.", "We never make any commitment, ever, to arrange special meetings with the president, vice president or secretary of State", Coe said. "We would never do it".
From the L.A Times:
2002
The Fellowship was a behind-the-scenes player at the Camp David Middle East accords in 1978, working with President Jimmy Carter to issue a worldwide call to prayer with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. During the Cold War, it helped finance an anti-communism propaganda film endorsed by the CIA and used by the Pentagon overseas.
No, they would never make any arrangements for them to meet with the president, vice president, or secretary of state, never, don't be silly.
During the Reagan era, prayer breakfast organizers made sure the president met the international leaders who were there.
Among those who met with President Reagan were a controversial faith healer and spiritual advisor to the president of Zambia, a presidential candidate from El Salvador who was not favored by the U.S. administration, and the king of Tonga.
At Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearings for incoming State Department officials last year, Sen. Bill Nelson (D- Fla.), whose wife, Grace, is on the board of the Fellowship, complained that the State Department blocked President Bush from meeting privately at the 2001 prayer breakfast with heads of state from Rwanda, Macedonia, Congo and Slovakia.
ABC News:
Prosecutors at the human rights trial of former Liberian warlord Charles Taylor alleged Thursday that Christian televangelist Pat Robertson had lobbied the White House on Taylor's behalf in return for a gold mining contract.
The controversial pastor and former Republican presidential contender met with then-President George W. Bush on Taylor's behalf, prosecutors charged during cross-examination of Taylor in a Dutch courtroom, allegedly in return for a contract to mine gold in southeast Liberia -- a contract they say that Taylor had no legal right to grant.
Lead Prosecutor Brenda Hollis questioned Taylor about how he may have skirted the Liberian legislature in order to get Robertson his gold mining contracts.
"Mr. Taylor, even the legislature in place in 1999 actually refused to ratify this agreement you had with Pat Robertson. Isn't that correct?" asked Hollis.
Taylor answered: "There was contention about different issues, yes."
And so you just went around the legislature. Isn't that right, Mr. Taylor?
"I don't know if we went around them. I would disagree with you," replied Taylor.
Robertson made widely publicized public statements in support of Charles Taylor in 2003. However, Chris Roslan, a spokesman for Robertson, denied to ABC News that Robertson ever discussed Taylor with Bush.
But on the stand, Taylor answered, "That is correct," when asked if he had previously indicated that Robertson had met with Bush, and when asked if Robertson had volunteered to speak with high administration officials on his behalf.
Taylor is being tried in the Netherlands by the Special Court for Sierra Leone, an independent judicial body under the auspices of the United Nations that receives a third of its funding from the U.S.
The gold deal went through in June 1999, with Robertson allegedly pumping $15 million dollars into the project.
Hollis asserted that much of the money went straight into Taylor's pockets, which Taylor denied.
Robertson's company, of which he was president and sole director, was called Freedom Gold, Ltd. The agreement gave the Liberian government 10 percent equity interest in the company and Liberians could purchase at least 15 percent of the shares after the exploration period.
Roslan, Robertson's spokesman, said Freedom Gold's arrangement was similar to many American companies doing business in Africa at the time.
"This concession was granted by the Liberian government to promote economic activity and alleviate the suffering of the people of Liberia following a terrible civil war," said Roslan, who denied any quid pro quo for granting the concession, and said that Robertson saw this as a way to help the suffering people of Liberia.
Freedom Gold is not currently operating and has never commercially produced any gold, according to Roslan.
Robertson has criticized President Bush's call for Taylor to step down, has praised Taylor as a "fellow Baptist," and has accused the State Department of being the real cause of Liberia's problems. To quote Robertson's own words:
Austin Cline:
Pat Robertson's reaction to criticism of Charles Taylor by President Bush:
So we're undermining a Christian, Baptist president to bring in Muslim rebels to take over the country. And how dare the president of the United States say to the duly elected president of another country, 'You've got to step down.'
So why is Pat Robertson such a big fan of Liberia's President Charles Taylor? What you won't hear much about on Robertson's shows is the fact that he has a huge financial interest in Liberia. Under Taylor's regime in 1999, Robertson negotiated an $8 million investment in a gold mining venture. A new government may or may not honor Robertson's claims - if they don't, he'll be out an awful lot of cash.
____________
In addition, Robertson has repeatedly framed the civil unrest in Liberia as that between Christians like Taylor on the one side and Muslim rebels on the other. Thus, any efforts to get Taylor to step down are portrayed as a means of "handing over" Liberia to Islam. This is what Robertson accuses the State Department of doing and why he believes that they are to blame for much of the violence. This is also the sort of thing that leads to the (justified) accusations made by Muslim leaders that many conservative and evangelical Christians are trying to influence American government policy against Islam.
http://www.charlestaylortrial.org/2010/02/08/charles-taylor-trial-adjourned-for-one-week/
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