Pat Robertson is a Horrid, Horrid Person

If you think that Pat Robertson is merely a crackpot who blames 9/11 on sodomites and members of the ACLU; who thinks that the Haitian earthquake was the devil's retribution for reneging on a pact to expel French colonizers; who recommends that the American government assassinate Hugo Chavez; who sees wisdom in the works of Nesta Webster; and who gets all sorts of bum information from God, Foreign Policy provides a few new details of the televangelist's business arrangements with former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor:

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor, testifying in his own war crimes trial today, said that the American conservative evangelist Pat Robertson was awarded a Liberian gold-mining concession in 1999 and subsequently offered to lobby the Bush administration to support his government….

Under cross-examination, Taylor said that Robertson had volunteered to make Liberia's case before U.S. administration officials, and had spoken directly to President Bush about Taylor. He also confirmed that Robertson's company, Freedom Gold Limited, signed an agreement to exploit gold in southeastern Liberia, but that it never generated any profit.

"Mr. Taylor, indeed at one point you said that you can count on Pat Robertson to get Washington on your side," he was asked by the lead prosecution counsel, Col. Brenda Hollis, a former U.S. Air Force officer. Taylor replied: "I don't recall the exact words, but something to that effect."

This isn't really a new story, though Robertson's attempted lobbying the Bush administration (which didn't seem to produce any positive results for Taylor) was unknown. The Virginia-Pilot investigated Robertson's ties to Taylor back in the late 1990s and Time detailed his connections with Mobuto Sese Seko in 2001.