Robertson

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson cited communications with God in predicting Tuesday that horrific terrorism aimed at the United States will result in "mass killing" during the second half of 2007.

"The Lord didn't say nuclear, but I do believe it'll be something like that — that'll be a mass killing, possibly millions of people, major cities injured," Robertson said.

"There will be some very serious terrorist attacks," he added. "The evil people will come after this country, and there's a possibility — not a possibility, a definite certainty — that chaos is going to rule." Robertson did not say where the terrorism would occur.

Robertson made his predictions during "The 700 Club" television show that he hosts from the Christian Broadcasting Network's studio in Virginia Beach.

Predicting events for the coming year is an annual tradition for Robertson.

The prayer retreats yield "what I feel, or I feel the Lord is saying, is going to happen," he said Tuesday. "I put these things out with humility."

According to Robertson, "God said he's going to restrain the evil, but he isn't necessarily going to restrain it in the beginning. A lot of these things can be reversed; we just need to do a lot of praying."

Robertson said the actions of Israel's government also weighed heavily on God's heart, and his.

"The word was that the Olmert policies were toxic, toxic for the nation of Israel," said Robertson, referring to Israel's prime minister, Ehud Olmert.

Robertson also said that the United States was "feigning friendship" toward Israel while espousing policies that were "pushing them toward national suicide."

Robertson drew heavy criticism last January when he suggested in a broadcast that God punished then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon with a stroke for ceding Israeli-controlled land to the Palestinians.

His accuracy in past predictions has been mixed, though Robertson on Tuesday claimed a "relatively good track record."

Robertson said last May that, "If I heard the Lord right about 2006, the coasts of America will be lashed" by "devastating" storms and "vicious hurricanes." He also predicted that "there well may be something as bad as a tsunami in the Pacific Northwest."

Heavy rains over New England caused serious flooding last spring. But no hurricanes hit the U.S. coast in 2006 and only two tropical storms made landfall on the U.S. mainland.

No tsunami struck the Pacific Northwest, although various parts of Washington state saw record-setting rains, floods or drought during 2006, said Josiah Mault, the assistant Washington state climatologist.

In January 2004, Robertson predicted that President Bush would easily win re-election. "I really believe I'm hearing from the Lord it's going to be like a blowout election," he said.

Bush won 51 percent of the vote in the election that fall, beating Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.

In 2005, Robertson predicted that "Bush is now positioned to have victory after victory and that his second term is going to be one of triumph." Robertson said the president's Social Security reform proposals would be approved and "he'll have conservative judges on the courts."

Lawmakers confirmed Bush's 2005 nominations of John G. Roberts Jr. and Samuel Alito Jr. to the Supreme Court, making it more conservative, in the view of many observers.

But the president's Social Security initiative was stalled by widespread opposition, and voters' deep unhappiness with Bush's Iraq policy was a reason Republicans lost control of Congress in the latest election.