The Rotten Carcass, not the
Maggots
By H. Boima Fahnbulleh, Jr.
Editor's Note: In view of recent barrage of assaults launched on The Perspective and its partners by Taylor's verbal mercenaries at the Ministry of Information, it became appropriate to revisit the sagacious words of Dr. H. Boima Fahnbulleh in which he ably addressed the necessity of dealing with the hired pens at the ministry. He advised that valuable time should not be wasted on the surrogates (maggots) but rather we concentrate on the principal figure (the rotten carcass) which is President Taylor. Below is the text of Dr. Fahnbulleh's article:
The grovelling agents of the tyranny have finally awakened from their indifference and have started to work for the crumbs thrown their way by their gangster-boss. These maggots, pitiful cannon fodder in a scheme of plunder, thievery and banditry are the flotsam oozing out of the rotten carcass that pollutes the seat of power at the Executive Mansion. It is sad that we have to waste time on maggots rather than getting directly to the rotten carcass; but at times it is necessary to clear away the pus before treating the putrid sore.
The likes of James Sellie, Reginald Goodridge, Sayma Cephas and other mercenaries of the pen who gate-crashed onto the murderous bandwagon of the NPFL very late in the orgy of bloodletting only know what Taylor tells them. They have forgotten the aphorism that for a man who murders and steals, lying is child's play. The question is whether they believe these lies or are blinded by greed and cannot see through the deviousness of Taylor! They were not present at the creation of the NPFL neither were they au-courant with its gory modus operandi before the NPFL and the Burkinabe soldiers of fortune reached Buchanan. They do not know the lies told to the Libyans by the fugitive from American justice. They do not have the foggiest notion of the torture and mutilation of brothers in Burkina Faso who had expressed disagreement with the antics of the Brooklyn hoodlum - Charles Taylor. They have no idea of the monstrous crimes committed against innocent and decent Liberians throughout West Africa in order for the little bogus patriot to reach the Executive Mansion.
If only these pathetic imbeciles knew the many courageous Liberians who were murdered for no reason other than that they had the decency and courage to demand explanation of certain occurrences from the chief armed robber who thinks leadership is donning ten thousand dollar suits and spewing verbiage while the people stagnate in abject poverty. If only these vermin knew the depth of international derision for the con artist they defend, they would be looking for a way out of that cesspool of traffickers in everything from guns, drugs and women to men, logs and machinery.
Tyrants are fools and that is why they invariably end up at the feet of enraged masses. In his desperation to polish a battered image, the political dwarf at the Executive Mansion who wants to play the role of a giant on the West African stage, allows his servile surrogates to reply to articles and interviews which most people in Liberia have not read. By this act of folly, he inadvertently spreads the analyses from the articles and interviews and allows the people to search for the truth. What annoys an oppressed and exploited people is the attempt to explain away the reality which they know only too well with patent lies and deliberate falsehoods. What the Liberian people know is a thousand times more relevant to the development of their consciousness than any article or interview by a Liberian living abroad. What they see in these articles and interviews from abroad - which are given prominence by LINA - is a reflection of their daily experiences. This can only serve to embolden them as the awareness is created that they are not alone! And so we will continue to write and expose the tyranny, knowing that through its frantic reaction to the truth, it will disseminate the lofty ideas of justice, decency and dignity which we so boldly espouse in our articles, interviews and commentaries from afar.
The maggots, in their rejoinder to my article "The Nation is Dying," which was published at the end of last year in The Perspective magazine, claimed that I was reacting to their editorial entitled "Liberians in the Americas: organize yourself into peace corps." This editorial I learned was published in March this year and so I could not have been reacting to it. I have never seen that editorial. The fact of the matter is that I do not waste my time reading childish propaganda from Charles Taylor and his flunkies. What information I get on Liberia comes from various international news agencies. I would like to inform these dullards that my article was a response to the Seminar held by the Center for Democratic Empowerment. This should have been obvious from the comment: "If we did not hold seminars and symposia to rectify the social, economic and political horrors of the Doe tyranny, we cannot do so now and expect to exonerate ourselves from the charges of sectarianism, cowardice and opportunism. There is a simple lesson from all tyrannies: tyrants have no friends. They kill unconscionably because for them all human beings are expendable cannon fodder." Those hopeless high school degenerates and college dropouts at LINA really believe serious people read the rubbish they put out! Only when they cast aspersion on the integrity and courage of revolutionaries before whom their fathers trembled, do we react to expose their stupidity!!
These echo-chambers of Taylor averred that "during the 1979 elections in Liberia, Boima Fahnbulleh told the world that if he did not win the presidency of Liberia, he would have no other option but to go and reside in the 'mountains' and wage war." What Boima Fahnbulleh said in response to a question of what he would do if Charles Taylor won the elections was that he would go to the mountains. The next day, all the propaganda organs of the NPFL came out with their interpretation that Fahnbulleh would go into the mountains to wage war. Why bother about where I go? Your gangster-boss claims to have the support of 80% of the Liberian people, so what does it matter whether I go to the mountains, under the sea or in the urban ghettos? This pathological fear of where I am has exposed your Mafia don to ridicule. On his security list I am among the five most dangerous enemies of the state and yet you clowns claim to know that I live in America. Some security! I do not live in the United States although I visit from time to time as I am not wanted by the Boston Police. If this is your idea of security then it is obvious that the NPFL is wasting money on those Ghanaian exiles like Major Sule-mama and Captain Djan who are supposed to be security advisors.
The little rascals serving the gangster argued that because I lost the elections in 1997, I see "nothing good and decent in Liberia." This is not true. I have always regarded the Liberian people as decent, charming and hospitable. I love and admire them and that is why I have fought with them for justice and the end to exploitation throughout my adult life. I could turn my back on Liberia as I do not need to live there to survive. I am quite happy doing what I am engaged in at present - writing, consulting and attending seminars around Africa. I do not need a government job to be relevant. I am a Pan-Africanist and an internationalist and the world is my home. I am comfortable living anywhere. When I get to the age of retirement, I can find a university in Africa to sit and do research. I am content with little and do not need to engage in murder and armed robbery in order to live in luxury. You are wrong to think that because I am a Liberian, I only fight on the home front. Africa is my terrain and I am happy giving my service to the African people on the continent, in Europe or in the Americas. But I would like to ask your boss a question: where can you go? A fugitive, a petty thief, a conman who has swindle everybody you have interacted with, where in the world can you be saved without those thugs around you? Listen! You are going to self-destruct on this swindling spree!! Look at what you did to the South African company which provided materials for your campaign. It is not the exiled opposition which is exposing your greed and trickery. The foreign businessmen you dupe are your worst enemies.
To argue that Fahnbulleh cites the names of your "compatriots who die[sic] during the civil war," and that "he roundly blamed the leadership of Liberia's current government for the death of our heroes and heroines" is to display a cynical contempt for those who perished because of the bestiality, treachery and bloodthirstiness of Taylor. Who are these "compatriots, heroes and heroines" who you now mention with feigned admiration? Elmer Johnson, who was slaughtered on Taylor's orders because the poor chap called his wife in the United States from Buchanan and jokingly told her to get ready to become first lady of Liberia as he was on his way to capture the Executive Mansion? Moses Duopu, who was executed on Taylor's orders because he mentioned the question of leadership of the NPFL? Jackson Doe, who was assassinated on Taylor's instructions because the poor Gio and Mano peasants welcomed him as Mr. President when he appeared behind the lines of the NPFL? Cooper Miller, who was tortured and had his fingernails extracted with pliers in Burkina Faso because he was suspected of being suspicious of Taylor? Cooper Teah, who was executed on Taylor's orders because he was considered ambitious?
Who are these "compatriots" you now write about with mock affection? Poor Debon, whose throat was slit and his body dumped by the side of Dokie's house because he asked about the diamonds given to Taylor as many of the fighters were in rags? Do you know where his Russian wife and the kids are? Who are your "heroes?" Sam Dokie, who believed that Taylor was sincere about reconciliation after the phoney elections and trusted this savage? Tell me, who are your "heroes and heroines?" The little boys and girls who were drugged and pushed into battle against ECOMOG? Thousands of them died as you know. Where is the memorial to their martyrdom? You purchase expensive cars and jeeps but do not have the human decency to honour those who gave their lives for you to sit like a medieval pirate upon a chair of state! Tell me, who have you honour for heroism except yourself? Honorary doctorate from the Taiwanese Military Academy; Chief Zoe of the destroyed shrines and temples of the indigenous masses; Visitor to the wreckage of the university; head of a wasteland where foreign hustlers cut down every tree and destroy the ecological balance; first citizen of a city where garbage pile up and faeces overflow from the sewage; keeper of the fortress of money laundering and drug pushing; chief worshipper in the Baptist Church and key importer of Jujumen from Mali and Bukina Faso; don of dons and millionaire racketeer; leader of the NPFL and seducer of the wives of those who die; etc. etc.!!!
Where are the sisters who sacrificed so much in the civil conflict? Where is Quiwonkpa's niece? The one you used to get yourself the job at GSA but abandoned with two children after the death of the martyred General? And Agnes, who stood by you through all the difficult times in the United States, Ghana, Bukina Faso, La Cote d' Ivoire and in rural Liberia? After using her, you did not think she was fit to be your first lady! What about the wife of that little Nigerian rogue Cyril Allen? After using her as a courier in Rome for your "stuff," you have thrown her to the dogs. And what about Calista Abijaoudi who was your contact with Defence Minister, General Sani Abacha that led to the sabotage of the efforts of ECOMOG from 1990 to 1993? And Monica Cooper, who was sent to Tom Ikimi to get him to undermine the efforts of the then Chairman of ECOWAS, President Jerry Rawlings? This was the very Ikimi you advised General Abdulsalami Abubakar to dismiss as untrustworthy when you visited Abuja after the death of General Sani Abacha because the man had seen through your many lies. You are an unconscionable buccaneer and an ingrate who uses unsuspecting people as these little writers at LINA will come to experience!
Where are the brothers who gave all they had to the NPFL? I am not talking about these "Johnny-come-lately" carpetbaggers. Where is Tonie King who sold almost everything to sustain the fighters in La Cote d' Ivoire? Why is he not with you? The answer is because he knows you better than all those fools around you. What about John Toussaint Richardson, who out of devotion to his martyred friend Robert Philips joined you? He has been cast into the wilderness because he saw through your venality. Unlike you, whose father was a nobody in Liberia, Richardson comes from a background of nationalism and was bound to question your abuse of the leadership of the country. And what about poor Lavala Supuwood who was hounded throughout the years of the Doe tyranny and joined you in Gbarnga? You butchered his friend Dokie and signalled to him that his days were numbered. The chap lives in penury, a pitiful exile, far from his people. Who are you to question the commitment of patriots when all you understand is how to make money under the table?
Your little squeaking sycophants, nibbling at the crumbs you throw them intermittently, have said that I did not protest "when 13 Liberian officials were cruelly executed on the beach at BTC...." Did you tell them that you were there at the BTC fighting for the job at GSA when this episode occurred? Did you tell them that to prove your loyalty to the PRC in order for the job at GSA to be secure, you drove to Robertsfield and blockaded the runway to stop a phantom invasion force led by Bennie Warner from landing? Now you claim to be the defender of this same people who yesterday you helped to despoil and some of them are naive enough to trust you. Do you remember the USAID land case and what some of the wives and relatives of the executed men told you at the foreign ministry? You do remember and that is why you pretend to love them so much in order to wipe the shame from your face.
What is sad about the tirades from these little creatures you have hired is that they spew gibberish like wenches going through uncontrollable erotism. Imagine the assertion that "Fahnbulleh later sold the Liberians he helped to train," and that they "were jailed and killed in the notorious Panama[sic]Road Prison in Sierra Leone." So it was Fahnbulleh who massacred the displaced people in Carter Camp and the innocent Liberians on Dupu Road? Those who have bloodstained hands expose themselves by more killings. In Shakespeare's "Macbeth," we hear this lament from the chief murderer: "For mine own good, all causes shall give way: I am in blood stepp'd in so far, that, should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o'er." And so the killings continue: Samuel Saye Dokie, Mannah Zekay, Nowai Flomo, John Fokpa, etc. etc. etc.
In Sierra Leone in 1990, 950 Liberians were arrested in three major towns: Bo, Kenema and Freetown. The Sierra Leone security forces under orders from the second in command of the Sierra Leone Army, Brigadier Thoronka, arrested all Liberians who were known to have anti-NPFL sympathies. These Liberians, including some of the militants of our Movement - the Popular Democratic Front - were imprisoned at the Pademba Road Prison in Freetown. They were deliberately staved on orders from Brigadier Thoronka. Of the 950 arrested, 933 died from maltreatment, starvation and brutality. Thirty-two of our militants perished in this orchestrated massacre. Reports that surfaced in Freetown after the APC government was overthrown by the National Provisional Ruling Council(NPRC) and Brigadier Thoronka had fled confirmed what we already knew: that there was a treacherous scheme to eliminate all opposition to the NPFL in Sierra Leone. Brigadier Thoronka was bribed by Taylor to arrest and eliminate his opponents. Thoronka later claimed that the Liberians were arrested because they posed threat to the security of Sierra Leone. But then why were NPFL sympathisers like Clemenceau Urey, Joe Tate, H.Q. Taylor and others who were living in Freetown not apprehended? If Liberians posed security risk, then why did Brigadier Thoronka allowed Enoch Dogolieh and Sam Dokie to slip in and out of Freetown unmolested on several occasions when they were known allies of the forces (RUF)which had attacked the borders of Sierra Leone? I, who have now been accused by these faggots of "selling Liberians" was ordered arrested by Brigadier Thoronka and this scheme would have gone through had President Momoh and his vice president Dr. Abdulai Conteh not stood up that time and told Thoronka that he could arrest any Liberian but not Fahnbulleh who had affiliation with Sierra Leone going back thirty years. This did not stop the surveillance on me by the Special Branch and Military Intelligence of Sierra Leone in my endeavours to free the 950 compatriots - 912 of whom were simple refugees fleeing the banditry of the NPFL. How callous and sadistic this vampire is who now spins a web of lies to conceal his murderous adventures which started from the time he exposed the entry of Podier and his colleagues into Liberia to the Doe regime through Amos Gray because Podier refused to accept him into his movement based in La Cote d' Ivoire. What a perfidious fiend who feels he can murder our compatriots with impunity! What a mockery of human decency for this brutal clown to try and assume the moral high grounds! He does not have the integrity, decency or character to be a shop keeper less more the leader of a nation!!
Taylor and his cronies assume that because they are thieves, others must be in that category in order to know them. Their deals are as transparent as crystal. They claimed the Chinese bribed me with $30,000. In 1991, they made the claim that it was $3,000,000 (Three Million Dollars), but now they have removed two zeroes and brought it down to thirty thousand. Why would the government of the People's Republic of China give the interim government a meagre thirty thousand dollars? For a government which had to deal with the thousands of traumatised victims of NPFL thuggery who had fled to Monrovia, what was $30,000? Can anyone in his right mind believe that the interim government was so desperate that it would ask for thirty thousand dollars from Beijing at a time when the Taiwanese were bankrolling the activities of the NPFL with rice and funds in the amount of hundreds of thousands of dollars? Are we to deduce from this stupid allegation that the Taiwanese, unable to provide the half a billion dollars they promised Taylor before the elections, are helping to spin lies that Beijing got recognition for only thirty thousand dollars and therefore they have been extremely generous with the paltry five million dollars they have given so far?
The NPFL must know that if we wanted money from a major player like China for our personal use, we would not ask for pocket money of thirty thousand dollars. Our recommendation to the interim government for the resumption of ties with Beijing was based on our knowledge of the geopolitical realities of the new world order. In today's world, China is the second most powerful country after the United States and any attempt to ignore this reality because of a few million dollars can only lead to the isolation of a nation in some key areas of the international system. The ridiculous posture of Liberia on the China question is a testimony to the diplomatic bankruptcy of a regime which chooses its friends based on personal and not national interests. A nation's diplomacy can never be based on short term gains - except the one conducted by Captan (that hybrid who dresses in bright colour suits like a ghetto pimp at international fora) and his venal boss, for whom state to state relations revolve around making "quick money."
This brings me to the issue of Libya. My departure from Libya must have been misunderstood by Taylor and now he tells his little poltroons that I was expelled "from a Libyan training base," because of my "disregard for law and order." Such nonsense would have been ignored but there are gullible people out there and it is our duty to inform them about the congenital liar who now masquerades as their leader. I was asked to leave because I refused to join forces with Taylor. I have always regarded this rascal as a conman without any political agenda. I saw the garbage produced for him by the Ghanaian exile called Dr. Yeboah and this confirmed my belief that Taylor was nothing but a shallow braggart who accepted the document without understanding its nuances. I tried to warn the Libyans at the Mathaba that a fraud was being perpetrated on them, but Taylor had impressed a few of them with his elaborate lies. When I could not get them to understand that they were supporting an adventurer, I demanded to see their Leader, Colonel Gaddafi; but they refused and gave me the choice of accepting the bandit Taylor or leaving the country. I chose the latter. There was no way I could join an individual who openly expressed his contempt for the masses and said his ideology was getting rich quick.
The Libyans are in Liberia and now understand what I was talking about. All the promises Taylor made to them have come to nought. He was going to give the Libyan ambassador the residence in which the US ambassador lives in order to pique the Americans, but this has not happened. He was going to transform Liberia into a popular revolutionary state but has turned it instead into a "criminal enclave." Funds given to him by the Libyan leadership after the elections disappeared into his private bank account in France. No wonder Colonel Gaddafi had to be begged to see this rogue during the last visit to Tripoli. The Libyan leadership has now realised the mistake of the Mathaba in dealing with this con artist and has decided that help will be given to the Liberian people directly to reconstruct buildings and Mosques but not a cent will be given to the imp. We have said again and again that it is not too late for the Libyans to redeem the name of their country in the eyes of the Liberian people by distancing themselves from this small time conman who calls himself leader of Liberia. Libya, with its revolutionary credentials can not be seen hobnobbing with criminal types in Africa. I hope very soon the Brother Leader of the Socialist Arab People's Republic of Libya will extricate his country from the miasma of the filth which has been created in Liberia.
At no time during the civil war did we see ourselves contesting elections with Taylor as alleged by his whining poodles. We were convinced that this embodiment of evil would have been dispensed with by the time the people were given the opportunity to choose their representatives. We dealt with the Nigerians and warned them about Taylor's ruse of giving mulatto wenches to some Generals. It was the greed and carnality of some of these people that led to the shameful betrayal of the Liberian people. We realised after the meeting in Kano, Northern Nigeria in 1996 between General Sani Abacha and the Libyan leader that Taylor would be imposed on the Liberian people through political skulduggery in order to annoy the Americans who had shown their contempt for Abacha's bid to turn himself into a civilian president. This was why during the meeting of presidential candidates with General Abacha in his capacity as ECOWAS Chairman, I told him that great nations are built by men with great ideas and noble objectives. He did not understand what I was alluding to but his aides did and they congratulated me afterwards.
General Abacha, like the Libyans, did not understand our concern at the beginning but later on he saw through the sordid scheme of Taylor when the Nigerian casualties from the conflict in Sierra Leone started mounting and reports from military intelligence detailed the involvement of the Liberian rascal. After the elections, Abacha gave the Liberian government an oil contract to help with the economic situation. What he did not know was that Taylor turned the contract over to an Italian firm called Transfigura. Oil was lifted from Nigeria by this firm for Liberia but was sold on the spot market and the proceeds deposited into a bank account in Florida to which Taylor, Benenoi Urey and Gerald Cooper had access. After the Sierra Leone revelation, General Abacha cancelled the contract. This action left Transfigura in the red as the firm had advanced some funds to the three rogues.
Nobody who understands Taylor's motivation will ever believe he can transform the economy of Liberia. He is in this business for personal wealth and that is all. Has he told the Liberian people what he did with the $5,000,000 (Five Million Dollars) given to him by the Malaysian businessman who is depleting the forests of Liberia? Has he explained about the blood money from Sierra Leone diamonds which he has been depositing in Abidjan, France and Switzerland and using a percentage to purchase arms for the RUF in Sierra Leone? Has he told the Liberian people the real reason why his Maritime Officer, Gerald Cooper, was deported by the British? Gerald Cooper was the kingpin for arms shipment from Eastern Europe to Liberia for the RUF. He foolishly exposed himself when on a visit to the United States he purchased two bullet-proof jeeps for shipment to Liberia. Western intelligence sources placed him under surveillance and they discovered various shady transactions in arms. Taylor was asked to lift Cooper's immunity for him to be questioned but he refused as it was obvious that Cooper was acting on his instructions. With this refusal, the British deported Cooper. This information is public knowledge in African diplomatic quarters in London but Taylor continues to deceive the Liberian people about Cooper's activities.
His childish lies have extended even to the United States which has all the sophisticated equipment needed to tract his involvement in the civil crisis in Sierra Leone. In his letter to President Bill Clinton of January 5, 1999, the mendacious ghoul at the Executive Mansion wrote: "Well, our candid assessment of the Sierra Leoneon conflict and our recommendation for a negotiated settlement have led many, including some members of your Administration to accuse my Government of supporting the rebels. These accusations were made by your Envoy to Liberia, Ambassador Howard Jeter, at the meeting of the ECOWAS Committee of Five on Sierra Leone held in Abidjan, La Cote d' Ivoire on 28 December 1988. These accusations were made without the disclosure of any evidence, and at a time when Liberia was prepared to take the initiative of establishing dialogue. Our credibility as a facilitator of dialogue was greatly undermined by the unverified allegations made by your Envoy, Ambassador Jeter. My Government has called for an international investigation into these malicious allegations. Haven't you been accused by extremist Palestinians and Israelis for being objective and pragmatic?" With the volume of evidence in the possession of various intelligence agencies on Taylor's arms and diamond trafficking in Sierra Leone, this bare-faced lie to President Clinton has shown the rascal for what he is: a cunning and shameless pilferer. Thus Liberia is seen as a country presided over by an untrustworthy character. No wonder serious governments are waiting and watching developments in the country!
With Taylor's loot stacked away in France, La Cote d' Ivoire (where he has a hotel and real estate), Burkina Faso (real estate) and Switzerland, these poor flunkies who write trash for him will awake one day to find that he has fled and left them with only the shirts on their scorched backs. We pity them because we understand why they write the pile of garbage: they have to eat. This is the sad fate of men and women who must sell their consciences and souls in order to survive in a country of mass poverty and hopelessness. And this is why we do not want to attack the maggots but the rotten carcass which breeds them!