Harry Belafonte Calls President Bush “The Greatest Terrorist in the World”

January 9th, 2006 10:09 PM

The Associated Press reported that American singer Harry Belafonte, as part of a delegation visiting Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez that included actor Danny Glover and Princeton University scholar Cornel West, publicly stated that President Bush is “the greatest terrorist in the world.”

“‘No matter what the greatest tyrant in the world, the greatest terrorist in the world, George W. Bush says, we're here to tell you: Not hundreds, not thousands, but millions of the American people … support your revolution,’ Belafonte told Chavez during the broadcast.”

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The article continued: “Belafonte accused U.S. news media of falsely painting Chavez as a ‘dictator,’ when in fact, he said, there is democracy and citizens are ‘optimistic about their future.’"

Subsequent to these remarks, UNICEF – for which Belafonte is a “goodwill ambassador” – made a statement trying to distance itself from this incident. As reported by AP: “The U.N. children's agency said singer Harry Belafonte was speaking as a private citizen, not a UNICEF goodwill ambassador, when he called President Bush ‘the greatest terrorist in the world.’"