- WASHINGTON (AFP) -- Prominent
US televangelist Pat Robertson on Sunday accused Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez of giving Osama bin Laden 1.2 million dollars in cash after the
September 11 attacks and of trying to obtain nuclear material from Iran.
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- Robertson caused an uproar in August when he called during
his televised religious program for the US government to assassinate Chavez.
He later was forced to to apologize to the leftist leader.
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- But the conservative preacher issued a new denunciation
of Chavez Sunday.
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- "The truth is, this man is setting up a Marxist-type
dictatorship in Venezuela, he's trying to spread Marxism throughout South
America, he's negotiating with the Iranians to get nuclear material and
he also sent 1.2 million dollars in cash to Osama bin Laden right after
9/11," Robertson told
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- "I apologized and I said I will be praying for him,
but one day we will be staring nuclear weapons and it won't be (Hurricane)
Katrina facing New Orleans, it's going to be a Venezuelan nuke," Robertson
said.
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- "So, my suggestion was, isn't it a lot cheaper sometimes
to deal with these problems before you have to have a big war," he
added.
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- Asked how he had obtained information on Chavez giving
money to bin Laden, Robertson said: "Sources that came to me. That's
what I was told."
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- "And I know he sent a warm congratulatory letter
to Carlos the Jackal, he's a friend of (Libyan leader) Moamer Kadhafi,"
he said. "He's made common cause with these people that are considered
terrorists."
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