April 18, 2003 - Data Lounge: Returned Volunteer Robert Hinkle says Pat Robertson's "Operation Blessing" is a Front for Mining Interests

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Congo - Kinshasa (Zaire): Peace Corps Congo Kinshasa : The Peace Corps in Congo - Kinshasa: April 18, 2003 - Data Lounge: Returned Volunteer Robert Hinkle says Pat Robertson's "Operation Blessing" is a Front for Mining Interests

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Returned Volunteer Robert Hinkle says Pat Robertson's "Operation Blessing" is a Front for Mining Interests



Returned Volunteer Robert Hinkle says Pat Robertson's "Operation Blessing" is a Front for Mining Interests

Robertson's "Operation Blessing" Front for Mining Interests, Say Pilots
Monday, 20 May 1996

NORFOLK, Va. -- Airplanes sent to Zaire ostensibly to support televangelist Pat Robertson's tax-free humanitarian organization, "Operation Blessing," were used almost exclusively for Robertson's private diamond-mining operations, the Associated Baptist Press reports.

The Norfolk-based Virginia-Pilot newspaper spoke with two pilots who were hired by Operation Blessing to fly humanitarian missions in Zaire. One of them, Chief pilot Robert Hinkle, said that in the six months he was in Zaire during 1994, only one or two of the flights he piloted were humanitarian. The rest, more than 40 in all, ferreted mining equipment.

"My first impression when I took the job was that we'd be called Operation Blessing and we'd be doing humanitarian work," Hinkle, a former Peace Corps volunteer told the Virginia-Pilot. "We got over there and 'Operation Blessing' was painted on the tails of the airplanes, but we were doing no humanitarian relief at all. We were just supplying the miners and flying the dredges from Kinshasa out to Tshikapa."'

A spokesman for Robertson first denied the accounts of Hinkle and his English co-pilot, Tahir Brohi, but called the newspaper back to "clarify" his denial. He later said the airplanes were "unsuitable for medical relief."

A written statement from the same spokesperson some time later admitted Robertson's mining company used Operation Blessing planes "from time to time," but that most that air missions in Zaire were for humanitarian or training purposes. "For example, medicine was transported to some 17 clinics in Zaire," the spokesman told the paper.

Hinkle said the statement was "a clear-cut lie."

Throughout the summer and fall of 1994, Robertson's religious news and talk show, "The 700 Club," carried frequent reports of Operation Blessing's activities in Rwandan refugee camps on Zaire's border. During one broadcast in particular Robertson told viewers a 3,000 foot airstrip had been carved out to assist the refugees. The ABP reports viewers were never told it was built to accommodate deliveries of mining equipment.

-- C. Barillas, Editor




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Story Source: Data Lounge

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Congo Kinshasa; Evangelists

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