The Biggest Story You Didn't Read
The Sunday Times buried the news, which broke on Sunday, that Nigeria will allow Charles Taylor to be sent back to Sierra Leone, presumably for a trial. Taylor, of course, is responsible for deaths of between 250,000 and 300,000 people.
The Times sticks it on A11, which is inexcusable. But no matter, because Taylor may not even be in Nigeria at all [a notion we believe was first floated by Ryan Lizza]:
CALABAR, Nigeria, March 27 (Reuters) - The whereabouts of exiled former Liberian President Charles Taylor, who is wanted for war crimes by a court in Sierra Leone, were being kept secret on Monday as rumours intensified he had left his house.
Nigerian authorities and a spokesman for Taylor declined to say anything about the location of the former warlord, who went into exile in the southeastern Nigerian city of Calabar in 2003 as part of a deal to end a 14-year civil war in his country.
Lizza, in TNR, made clear that Taylor's exile was a joke:
Last April, he gave an hour-long TV interview in Nigeria in which he said he would like to return to Liberia. He has been in regular contact via e-mail and telephone with his former aides. He is helping several parties that will compete in the Liberian elections scheduled for October. Last August, the United Nations had to slap a travel ban on several Liberians because they were acting as couriers for Taylor. A March 17 U.N. report noted, "[F]ormer military commanders and business associates, as well as members of [Taylor's] political party, maintain regular contact with him and are planning to undermine the peace process." Last month, Jacques Klein, the U.N. special representative in Liberia, told NPR that Taylor's former allies are simply awaiting his return to the country. "Charles Taylor's a psychopath and a killer," Klein added. "He's still very much involved. He's intrusive in Liberian politics."
TNR also explained that the Bush Administration might not care too much if Taylor were to be -- as we say in the old school -- "in the wind":
Beneath differing views on Africa policy within the bureaucracy may lie a more sinister reason for the administration's intransigence. One of the most persistent rumors in the circle of policy wonks, reporters, and government officials who follow the issue is that the Bushies are gun-shy about a trial, because Taylor would reveal some unsavory details about his relationship with the United States. It has been widely alleged but never confirmed that Taylor was a source of U.S. intelligence on Libya. Douglas Farah, the former West Africa correspondent for The Washington Post and the author of a recent book documenting Taylor's ties to Al Qaeda, says he has now unambiguously confirmed that Taylor was indeed on the U.S. payroll. Farah told me, "Taylor was a paid informant of the U.S. Defense Department intelligence service and reported regularly on his trips to Libya from at least 1992 to 1995. Debriefings took place in Ouagadougou. It was at a time when the United States had very little access to Muammar Qaddafi, and Taylor was traveling to Libya twice a month and meeting regularly with Qaddafi and Qaddafi's senior people ... I know this from folks on the U.S. side and people on the ground in Africa. They delivered attache cases of cash [to Taylor] in return. It was clearly a paid relationship. This was the period when the worst abuses were being committed by Taylor's child soldiers in the war in Liberia."
Recently, noted diplomat and geopolitical expert, Laura Bush met with President Obasanjo of Liberia. Here's how it went:
Q Can I ask about your meeting with President Obasanjo? Did the subject of Charles Taylor come up at all?
MRS. BUSH: I did not bring up the subject of Charles Taylor. I didn't really think that was my role in a meeting with President Obasanjo. Other members of the government can bring that up.
I know he knows what the United States' thoughts are and policy is concerning Charles Taylor.
Indeed.
The Times sticks it on A11, which is inexcusable. But no matter, because Taylor may not even be in Nigeria at all [a notion we believe was first floated by Ryan Lizza]:
CALABAR, Nigeria, March 27 (Reuters) - The whereabouts of exiled former Liberian President Charles Taylor, who is wanted for war crimes by a court in Sierra Leone, were being kept secret on Monday as rumours intensified he had left his house.
Nigerian authorities and a spokesman for Taylor declined to say anything about the location of the former warlord, who went into exile in the southeastern Nigerian city of Calabar in 2003 as part of a deal to end a 14-year civil war in his country.
Lizza, in TNR, made clear that Taylor's exile was a joke:
Last April, he gave an hour-long TV interview in Nigeria in which he said he would like to return to Liberia. He has been in regular contact via e-mail and telephone with his former aides. He is helping several parties that will compete in the Liberian elections scheduled for October. Last August, the United Nations had to slap a travel ban on several Liberians because they were acting as couriers for Taylor. A March 17 U.N. report noted, "[F]ormer military commanders and business associates, as well as members of [Taylor's] political party, maintain regular contact with him and are planning to undermine the peace process." Last month, Jacques Klein, the U.N. special representative in Liberia, told NPR that Taylor's former allies are simply awaiting his return to the country. "Charles Taylor's a psychopath and a killer," Klein added. "He's still very much involved. He's intrusive in Liberian politics."
TNR also explained that the Bush Administration might not care too much if Taylor were to be -- as we say in the old school -- "in the wind":
Beneath differing views on Africa policy within the bureaucracy may lie a more sinister reason for the administration's intransigence. One of the most persistent rumors in the circle of policy wonks, reporters, and government officials who follow the issue is that the Bushies are gun-shy about a trial, because Taylor would reveal some unsavory details about his relationship with the United States. It has been widely alleged but never confirmed that Taylor was a source of U.S. intelligence on Libya. Douglas Farah, the former West Africa correspondent for The Washington Post and the author of a recent book documenting Taylor's ties to Al Qaeda, says he has now unambiguously confirmed that Taylor was indeed on the U.S. payroll. Farah told me, "Taylor was a paid informant of the U.S. Defense Department intelligence service and reported regularly on his trips to Libya from at least 1992 to 1995. Debriefings took place in Ouagadougou. It was at a time when the United States had very little access to Muammar Qaddafi, and Taylor was traveling to Libya twice a month and meeting regularly with Qaddafi and Qaddafi's senior people ... I know this from folks on the U.S. side and people on the ground in Africa. They delivered attache cases of cash [to Taylor] in return. It was clearly a paid relationship. This was the period when the worst abuses were being committed by Taylor's child soldiers in the war in Liberia."
Recently, noted diplomat and geopolitical expert, Laura Bush met with President Obasanjo of Liberia. Here's how it went:
Q Can I ask about your meeting with President Obasanjo? Did the subject of Charles Taylor come up at all?
MRS. BUSH: I did not bring up the subject of Charles Taylor. I didn't really think that was my role in a meeting with President Obasanjo. Other members of the government can bring that up.
I know he knows what the United States' thoughts are and policy is concerning Charles Taylor.
Indeed.
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