{"id":5190,"date":"2005-09-07T12:22:18","date_gmt":"2005-09-07T16:22:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/5190.html"},"modified":"2005-09-07T12:22:18","modified_gmt":"2005-09-07T16:22:18","slug":"operation-hiding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/operation-hiding\/","title":{"rendered":"Operation Hiding"},"content":{"rendered":"

As noted here<\/a> over the weekend, FEMA gave TV preacher Pat Robertson’s Operation Blessing a top slot on a list of approved charities that are helping the victims of Hurricane Katrina. It was, to be sure, an odd choice. Now, I’m pleased to report, FEMA has not only pulled Robertson’s charity from the list, they’ve effectively hidden any association to the outfit.<\/p>\n

The oddity of Operation Blessing’s presence on the list was not just the fact that it is Robertson’s creation, but rather, that it was investigated for fraud — Robertson used Operation Blessing planes that were supposed to transport doctors and medicine to Africa to actually to transport equipment for a Robertson-owned diamond-mining operation in Zaire — and might have faced criminal penalties were it not for Robertson’s political allies in Virginia’s state government in the late 1990s.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, this FEMA page<\/a>, instructing people on how to donate to victims on the Gulf Coast, no longer mentions Operation Blessing at all. What’s more, this page<\/a>, with more general information on Katrina-related resources, used to mention Robertson’s outfit, but not anymore.<\/p>\n

In general, it might be tempting to suggest FEMA is trying to “cover up” its promotion of a Pat Robertson charity, but under the circumstances, I can’t say I blame the agency for deleting all references to the group. In fact, I’m glad FEMA did it.<\/p>\n

I do wonder, however, how Operation Blessing was endorsed by the agency in the first place.<\/p>\n

Update<\/em>: My friend Eugene Oregon writes in to suggest that while FEMA was directing donors to Operation Blessing, Robertson’s group may have had intentions that went beyond<\/a> food and clothing.<\/p>\n

The World Bible Translation Centre is sending a shipment of 100,000 Bibles to survivors of Hurricane Katrina in a bid to aid their spiritual recovery, reports Mission Network News.<\/p>\n

Gary Bishop of the WBTC explained that, given the need in developing countries, the organisation rarely needed to distribute Bibles in its home country. He said: \u201cOnly something like a widespread natural disaster would cause us really to spring into action here in the United States. […]<\/p>\n

The WTBC started assembling a response to survivors\u2019 spiritual needs after requests for Bibles came streaming in. A request for 80,000 Bibles has already come in from Operation Blessing<\/strong> and Campus Crusade for Christ. The WTBC expects to distribute around 100,000 Bibles to hurricane survivors through such partners. (emphasis added)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Second Update<\/em>: From comments<\/a>, FEMA has only dropped Operation Blessing from the English-language page. The Spanish version<\/a> is exactly as it was, with Operation Blessing among the top three groups to which Americans should donate cash.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As noted here over the weekend, FEMA gave TV preacher Pat Robertson’s Operation Blessing a top slot on a list of approved charities that are helping the victims of Hurricane Katrina. It was, to be sure, an odd choice. Now, I’m pleased to report, FEMA has not only pulled Robertson’s charity from the list, they’ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5190\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}