"By Their Fruits, We Shall Know Them"

It is certainly true that once a person becomes dishonest, he or she will forever be a dishonest person. And each passing hour confirms that indeed this is exponentially true of the current regime in Liberia. Charles Taylor and his gang of unscrupulous supporters have once again gone on a lying binge to try to divert the attention of the world away from the endless suffering, despair and terror they have brought on the Liberian masses. At first the totalitarian Taylor regime told the Liberian people and the international community that rebel forces of Liberians United for Democracy and Reconciliation (LURD) had mounted an offensive attack in the Klay area, about 25 miles north west of Monrovia. Then an article was posted on the allaboutliberia.com web page on February 15, 2002 by Taylor’s faceless lying regime, through its paid propagandists, masquerading as journalists, which stated that the rebels who attacked in the Klay area were “Islamic Terrorists” who are out to impose Islamic laws in Liberia. Under the title “Islamic Terrorists Threaten Democracy In Liberia”, Charles Taylor’s hired writers made some of the most laughable, nonsensical and ridiculous allegations I have read or heard in a very long time. Take a look at the leading sentence in that article:

“An Islamic terrorist group has expressed its readiness and determination to convert Liberia into a Muslim state.”

The article goes further to state that the Islamic organization, operating under the name “Islamic Jihad Movement”, circulated an “official statement” within Monrovia and its environs stating that it was out to wage a “holy war against the infidels of Charles Taylor Government”. As if we did not know that a man who forcefully drafted children as young as 9 years old into his rebel army, drugged them and gave them guns to go out and kill their own parents and siblings is a KING OF INFIDELS. For a while I thought I was twenty or twenty-five years back in time reading a news article in Pravda, TASS or Izvestia (or listening to Radio Moscow International) warning communist comrades of the “Soviet Revolution” against a possible US and Western European invasion that was designed to destroy the “advancements and achievements the people had made” under communism. But then after a moment of cynical and peevish laughter at the foolishness and utter nonsense, I was quickly reminded of the fact that we have a modern day tyrant, despot and authoritarian in Liberia who is employing the same sickening and see-through propaganda tactics that the communists and other despotic regimes used to advance their decadent socioeconomic and political ideologies and to conceal the evil and horrors they were meting out on their own people. Those tactics did not work then and there and will certainly never work for Taylor and his gang of thieves and murderers, even as they struggle in vain to hang on to power so as to continue to brutalize the Liberian people and sink the country into a deeper hellish hole.

That Taylor’s hired propagandists would put out such rubbish without taking into account their boss’ own recent history speaks a heap about the extent to which they are intellectually, scholastically, and morally destitute. If those who are waging war today to end Taylor’s barbaric rule in Liberia and his evil adventurism within the West African sub-region are terrorists, then wasn’t Charles Taylor himself once (and even now) a terrorist who waged a savage civil war in Liberia, first against the government of Samuel Kanyon Doe and then subsequently against the citizens of that country? Hundreds of thousands of Liberians have become internally displaced persons (IDP) within their on country and thousands more live as refugees (sometimes under dehumanizing conditions) in other countries around the world, as a direct result of Taylor’s policy of ethnic cleansing and political witch-hunt. Countless numbers of Liberian men, women and children go to bed each night hungry and sick and deprived of some of the most basic amenities necessary for human sustenance, thanks to the devastation and destruction Taylor and his gang have brought to bear on the country and its economy. His murderous ATU (properly referred to by Liberians as Another Terrorist Unit) and other paramilitary forces routinely loot and burn down entire villages and towns and systematically gang-rape young boys, women and little girls as young as 7 years old. Taylor’s war for personal wealth and political power has caused more than 200,000 Liberians and others their lives. And we are not even done counting, as more people continue to lose their lives under Taylor’s brutal rule even to this day. If these horrendous acts of cruelty do not qualify as acts of terrorism committed against the peace-loving people of Liberia and the West African sub-region by Taylor and his cohorts, then we must look for a new definition for the word TERRORISM.

Does any human being, whose head is not screwed to his/her neck like Taylor’s bootlicking mouthpieces, believe that “Islamic terrorists” are out to wage a “holy war against the infidels of Charles Taylor Government”? Isn’t it amazing that “Islamic terrorism” was never one of Taylor’s problems until after the mind-boggling and abominable terrorist attacks on the US on September 11, 2001? Is Taylor trying to hide his association with international terrorism and his links to Al Qaeda by dreaming up these phony notions of “Islamic terrorism”? Indeed, there is no better proof that Charles Taylor and his associates know no shame than this. By the way, has Col. Muammar al-Qadhafi reacted to this “news”: that the “Islamic Jihad Movement” is out to overthrow his point man of destabilization in the West African sub-region and impose fundamentalist Islamic laws in Liberia? Perhaps we should not be surprised if we soon hear Taylor’s paid liars tell the world that in fact the Libyan dictator is financing and supporting the “Islamic Jihad” rebels in Liberia. Has Charles Taylor fallen out of favor with his chief benefactor? After all, Taylor along with other notorious personalities such as Blaise Campaore (Burkina Faso), Foday Sankor (co-founder of the barbaric RUF of Sierra Leone) and Ibrahim Bah (well-known terrorist and Al Qaeda diamond dealer), received their training in Libya through the benevolence of Muammar Qadhafi.

By the way, didn’t the Taylor regime recently tell the world that certain Liberians living in the United States of America are providing financial backing for the forces that are fighting his terror-producing regime? In an article entitled “Liberia to Invoke Arrest of U.S.-Based LURD Financiers” (allaboutliberia.com, February 15, 2002), one of Taylor’s gravy-seeking, soul-selling and self-styled Liberian journalists, specifically named Dr. Amos Sawyer, Alhaji Kromah and Cllr. Charles Brumskine as US-based financiers of LURD and said that the Taylor dictatorship was out to have these individuals arrested for violating “U.S. Federal Code 956”. In case you missed it, here is the first paragraph of that article:

“In the wake of the latest dissident attack in Klay, Bomi County, which left scores of civilians massacred and properties vandalized President Charles Taylor says his government will soon ask the United States Federal authorities to arrest all US-based financiers of the Liberian dissidents.”

Are Dr. Sawyer and Cllr. Brumskine providing financial backing for “Islamic Jihad terrorists” who want to impose Islamic Laws on the Liberian nation or are there now two dissident groups (LURD and “Islamic Jihad Movement”) at war with Taylor and his band of renegade Revolutionary United Front, Burkinabe, Ukrainian, and apartheid-era neo-Nazi South African mercenaries? This kind of filth would have easily gone without a single reaction or notice from any sound-minded human being. But we have a moral obligation to expose Charles Taylor and his herd of morally and politically degenerate individuals for what they really are, as reflected by the extent to which they will sink to lie and deceive. And since they have brought up the issue of the “United States Federal authorities” arresting Liberians in the USA for “violating US law”, we should take this opportunity to also remind the Liberian despot and his cohorts that he (Taylor) is still a fugitive of US law. He broke out of a Plymouth (Massachusetts) jail and fled to Libya where he received extensive terrorist training. After receiving training in Libya, this cunning and morally bankrupt man launched a devastating war for personal aggrandizement and enrichment, under the pretense that he was fighting to rid Liberia of the government of Samuel K. Doe.

Another demonstration of the evil Taylor regime’s utter dishonesty is reflected in a news story carried on the allaboutliberia.com web page (February 9, 2002) where there is a photo of a man (identified as Mr. Mehn Tobo) with his right leg amputated about midway between the ankle and the knee. The news story under the title “LURD Terrorists Carrying Out Amputation in Bomi County” attributed this gruesome and abominable act of barbarism to LURD rebels and said this was the first act of amputation committed on Liberian soil. The article went further to equate the amputation to similar acts committed by Revolutionary United Front rebels of Sierra Leone during that country’s 10-year civil war. However, rational individuals around the world are aware of the fact that Charles Taylor’s military and paramilitary forces are comprised almost exclusively of former RUF rebels who made the hacking off of human limbs a favorite pastime during their reign of terror on the people of Sierra Leone. This fact was amply documented by the United Nations, the US State Department, British military forces operating in Sierra Leone and by Amnesty International. So how in this world are we to believe that the RUF, supplanted in Liberia in the form of Charles Taylor’s infamous Anti Terrorist Unit, did not in fact commit this despicable act? After all, they are an old hand at committing unimaginable human cruelty against innocent defenseless men, women and children.

A closer look at the photos on the web page about this story reveals something else that might not be readily apparent to an average reader. The cold-blooded Taylor regime used the victim of this horrendous act of savagery as a propaganda showcase. What is my reason for saying this? Well, take a look at the photos and you will see that (1) there was no attempt made to even dress or apply bandage to the man’s wound and alleviate his pain and (2) the victim’s amputated leg was placed near a neatly laid out, clean white cloth or garment to give a good background for photography. Additionally, I doubt it very seriously that the victim would have had the courage to refuse rebels’ request or command to “show them the bypass from Mamonie Village to Klay”. Would you have been that courageous? And look at what the news article quoted the victim as saying about how the misfortune befell him: “While I was trying to escape, they (LURD rebels) held me down physically and started chopping my leg off with a blunt instrument.” Does any prudent person on this earth believe this nonsense?

I do not in any way, shape or form intend to speak in defense of LURD rebels since (1) I do not even know them and what their ultimate objectives are, given our experiences with the PRC regime and Charles Taylor and (2) I am not sure if they themselves have not hurt the Liberian people in one way or the other. But experience tells us that this kind of gruesome punishment is usually not meted out against people who disobey such simple requests as the one LURD rebels allegedly made of “Mr. Tobo”. Our experience with the recent civil war in Sierra Leone, for example, shows that those whose limbs were severed by RUF rebels were accused of being supporters of the opposing faction. And if you were an armed rebel who asked that man to show you a route, would you have hacked off his leg when he refused and supposedly started to escape or would you have forced him at gunpoint to show you the route or bypass? From the viewpoint of a pure military strategy, wouldn’t a rebel be more interested in getting to his destination first and foremost? My instincts tell me Taylor’s forces, probably the notorious RUF rebel dominated ATU, committed this satanic act after they concluded “Mr. Tobo” was a supporter of LURD. The regime’s propagandists are going to have to find a better and more “credible” way of lying to the Liberian people and the world.

As lies continue to proliferate under Taylor’s corrupt and authoritarian regime, so too are the revelations of the regime’s evil machinations and those of the shady international characters that are associated with the Liberian tyrant. The Washington Post reported on February 26, 2002 that Sanjivan Ruprah, a man listed in a U.N. report as holding a Liberian diplomatic passport (under the alias Samir M. Nasr) and identified as deputy commissioner of the Liberian Maritime Commission, was providing significant intelligence information to United States and European law enforcement officials about the sanction-busting global weapons trafficking network that provided weapons to Al Qaeda, the Taliban, UNITA, the RUF and Charles Taylor. Ruprah was arrested in Belgium on February 7, 2002. He is also on the list of Liberian government officials and Charles Taylor associates affected by the U.N. sanction and travel ban imposed on May 7, 2001. Sanjivan Ruprah is said to be a top associate of Victor Bout. United Nations reports describe Bout as a former Soviet military officer who specializes in breaking arms embargoes around the globe. He is said to hold several passports.

The Washington Post also reported on November 2, 2001 that US intelligence officials have uncovered a link between the regime of Charles Taylor and Al Qaeda through Ibrahim Bah, a Libyan trained former Senegalese rebel. The Post news article under the title “Diamonds mined in Sierra Leone enrich Al Qaeda” indicated that Bah was the Al Qaeda point man who selected diamond dealers and that only Bah and a few other individuals (probably including Charles Taylor) knew of the identities of those dealers. The article further states:

"Bah's contacts and sympathies were forged on the battlefield, according to intelligence reports and sources who know him well. After fighting with the Casamance separatist movement in Senegal in the 1970s, Bah trained in Libya under the protection of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

"Like bin Laden, Bah spent several years in the early 1980s fighting alongside Muslim guerrillas against Soviet forces in Afghanistan.

"Bah then joined the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia to fight Israeli forces in southern Lebanon before returning to Libya at the end of the 1980s. In Libya, Bah met and trained several men who would go on to lead rebellions in West Africa, including Charles Taylor of Liberia and Foday Sankoh of Sierra Leone, the RUF's founder. Bah himself later fought in both Liberia and Sierra Leone."

Charles Taylor and his paid propagandists have the very difficult task of trying to hide “a piece of rotten meat” within close proximity of a very curious and unrelenting group of people. That curious and unrelenting group of people is those of us who have vowed to expose the widespread dishonesty and brutality prevalent in Liberia today. We should warn them that even if they succeed in hiding the “rotten meat” itself, they will fail in covering up the funk.

Mistakes sometimes result when well-meaning individuals inadvertently fail to see the difference between perception and reality. However, when notorious and habitual liars and internationally renowned con artists like Taylor and his allies consistently and purposefully fail to see the evil consequences of their behavior, we cannot accord them the decency of referring to their policies and actions as resulting from mistakes. Mentally, Charles Taylor lives in a world of his own. He is completely devoid of foresight for Liberia’s future. Taylor has no feeling for the plight of others and he is innately insulated from any sense of moral obligation to anybody. This man cares only about getting richer by the day and about holding absolute, unquestioned brutal political power. He does not give a hoot about our people. Taylor’s behavior gives real life meaning to the saying: “Among my mother’s children, I love myself the best. Once my stomach is full, to hell with the rest.” This is the kind of nature that drives the man and the people around him to lie without the slightest shade of shame or after thought.

It is just too obvious that anyone with half the brain of a mouse can see the plain absence of basic common sense and logic in the “news stories” routinely manufactured and put out by Taylor’s “journalists for hire”. But blinding ignorance plagues the retards that grind out such garbage. They are motivated by greed for material, financial and political rewards. As such, they are hopelessly naïve and sadly unable to see beyond their own noses. It is as if those idiots and scoundrels, including their boss (Taylor), live with their heads perpetually buried in the ground and that they stay up just long enough each time to put out the rubbish that is published on their web page.