- Guess what would happen if an 'average' American made
such a threat.-ed
-
- WASHINGTON (AFP) -- The US
State Department has lodged a vehement complaint with prominent conservative
televangelist Pat Robertson for comments suggesting that its Foggy Bottom
headquarters should be destroyed with nuclear weapons, officials said Thursday.
-
- Spokesman Richard Boucher called the remarks -- which
Robertson made last week on his nationally televised "700 Club"
program -- "despicable" and a senior department official said
a protest had been made "at the highest level."
-
- "I lack sufficient capabilities to express my disdain,"
Boucher told reporters when asked about Robertson's comments. "I think
the very idea, though, is despicable."
-
- The senior official said Robertson had been made aware
of Secretary of State Colin Powell's extreme outrage at the tone and content
of the remarks.
-
- "That's not the way one expresses an opinion in
Washington," the official said, adding that Robertson's conduct had
been "outrageous."
-
- Robertson, who has been a frequent critic of the State
Department, made the offending comments during an interview with a like-minded
critic of US diplomacy, columnist Joel Mowbray, who has written a book
entitled "Dangerous Diplomacy: How the State Department Threatens
American Security."
-
- "I read your book," Robertson said, according
to a transcript of the interview posted on his Christian Broadcasting Network's
website (www.cbn.com).
-
- "When you get through, you say, 'If I could just
get a nuclear device inside Foggy Bottom, I think that's the answer',"
he said.
-
- "I mean, you get through this, and you say, 'We've
got to blow that thing up.' I mean, is it as bad as you say?" Robertson
asked.
-
- Mowbray responded: "It is."
-
- Mowbray's book accuses the State Department of endangering
the security of the United States by allegedly cavorting with sponsors
of terrorism, negligence or incompetence in the visa issuance process and
ignoring the travails of US citizens abroad.
|
