PatRobertson.com

The Honorable Colin L. Powell
Secretary of State
United States Department of State
2201 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20520

Dear Mr. Secretary:

I have recently received a report dated April 24, 2002 prepared by the International Crisis Group (ICG) dealing with the situation in Liberia. The distinguished members of the ICG include among others Stephen Solarz, Morton Abramowitz, Kenneth Adelman, Richard Allen, Jacques Delors, Fidel Ramos, and Gen. Wesley Clark.

This report contains an extraordinarily detailed account of the crisis in Liberia and verifies the shocking fact that the new Liberian rebel group "LURD" (Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy) is being openly and directly supported by the Government of Guinea.

The report continues that the United States and Britain "support their war-at least in principle" and that LURD has had contact with "mid-level US and British military officers in Freetown and Conkary and more senior US officials in the State Department and Pentagon who have sent encouraging signals."

The report also indicates that the United States "gives significant non-lethal military assistance" to Guinea and has scheduled a $3 million program to train and equip an 800-man rapid reaction force of the Guinean Army. This despite further word in the report that the leader of Guinea has a worse human rights record than Charles Taylor of Liberia, has "no democratic legitimacy…having rigged presidential elections in 1993 and 1998," whose "security forces have gunned down" gatherings by the opposition, and who has jailed its leaders, including his last electoral opponent. Guinea's "public institutions," police force, and judiciary are described by ICG as being riddled with corruption.

May I respectfully inquire as a taxpayer of the United States and one with significant financial investment in Liberia why the State Department of the United States of America is determined to bring down the President of Liberia who was elected in 1997 as president in elections which the ICG reports that the United Nations, President Jimmy Carter, and all other neutral observers determined were substantially free and fair?

I doubt seriously that the United States Congress has authorized either the State Department or the Department of Defense to fund a disorganized militia backed by a corrupt dictator in an attempt to overthrow the president of a former client state of the United States.

I know that your attention is occupied with the situation in the Middle East, India versus Pakistan, Iraq, and the larger war on terror; however, while these pressing issues are before us all, I do not wish to see the United States State Department cause the same chaos in Liberia that it caused indirectly several years ago in the nation of Zaire and surrounding Central African nations with the resulting loss of life of an estimated 2,500,000 people.

I thank you for your consideration of this letter, and with warm personal regards, I am…

Cordially yours,

Pat Robertson
Chairman of the Board and
Chief Executive Officer