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| Africa: Subsaharan |
| Taylor paid protection money to Foopie |
| 2004-08-24 |
| Former Liberian president Charles Taylor sold conflict diamonds to known al-Qaeda operatives that may have been used to finance the September 11 attacks on the United States, according to a confidential report from the UN-backed war crimes court in Sierra Leone. "It is clear that al-Qaeda had been in west Africa since September 1998 and maintained a continuous presence in the area through 2002," said the document, produced by the office of prosecutor David Crane. The document, gleaned from press reports, witnesses to sightings of al-Qaeda operatives in Liberia and interviews with a single, unnamed source, is the latest effort to link the global terror network to conflict diamonds mined during the civil war that ravaged the west African state for a decade. But more tellingly, according to Washington Post reporter Douglas Farah, who first revealed many of the links between Taylor and the terror group, it shows the flagrant intelligence shortfalls in truly understanding al-Qaeda's connections to Africa. "The United States has not perceived itself to have a strategic interest in sub-Saharan Africa on the terrorism front until very recently," Farah said in a 5 August interview with allAfrica.com. "The development not only in Liberia of a functioning criminal state is not a secret to anyone who has been to the region or who lives in the region. The whole scenario is part of the neglect by the outside world." What it is not, said former US ambassador to Sierra Leone Joseph Melrose, is a smoking gun. "You can't say it hasn't happened, but you can't prove evidence in court because it is circumstantial evidence," he told AFP by telephone from Pennsylvania. "But there is a long tradition in the diamond sector (of shady dealings) and they have to acknowledge that some of these blood diamonds could be terror diamonds." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #4 Maybe he enjoyed the soundtrack to the Fabulous Baker Boys |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-08-24 1:58:52 AM |
| #3 Tis one of the many nom de guerres used by Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani. |
| Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-08-24 1:47:20 AM |
| #2 What is the origin of the nickname "Foopie"? |
| Posted by: PBMcL 2004-08-24 1:27:15 AM |
| #1 So many topics involved... I guess 2 seem to scream loudest to me, anyway... 1) How good it is that Taylor's not in the position to keep up being one of the premier assholes in Africa (ZimBob's day will come, prolly from the inside). Of course, his replacements prolly picked up where he left off. 2) CIA, The Gutting and Emasculation of. Letting people who have no guts or vision run it, such as Tenet, after it had been thoroughly gutted and castrated by Church & Friends and turned into a pet leak headline generator, made it just this side of useless in many depts. The Africa Desk was prolly occupied by Roscoe Seat Filler III Esq, formerly State Dept CoffeeBoy. CIA, DIA, NIS, et al (or the new NIS plan being tossed around or whatever finally falls into place as a structure) is going to need some serious money, total protection from politicians, and ballsy leadership to recover, else we will continue to be blind-sided Out of Africa. The resource riches are there. It would be great if they were to benefit the people of Africa instead of the thugs and asshats... no matter how nattily they dress up. |
| Posted by: .com 2004-08-24 12:29:12 AM |