Former Liberian President Charles Taylor ordered the execution of 250 mercenaries who fought in Ivory Coast's civil war, an ex-fighter from Liberia's war testified to a truth panel on Tuesday. Mohammed Sheriff told Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission how his comrades beat Sierra Leonean warlord Sam "Maskita" Bockarie to death and executed 250 of his fighters.
Taylor, who fled Liberia in 2003, is currently in a cell in the Hague awaiting trial for alleged war crimes committed during Sierra Leone's civil war - though not directly for any crimes in Liberia or Ivory Coast. Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, elected late last year, has ordered the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the hope of laying the ghosts of Liberia's bloody 1989-2003 civil war, although some fear the exercise may open up old wounds.
Sheriff told the commission's first testimony hearing that he fought for Taylor against Guinean soldiers before being sent to Ivory Coast, where civil war broke out in September 2002. Sheriff, wearing black jeans and a blue T-shirt, told the commission he, Bockarie and other "target commanders" were given $475,000 for the operation in cocoa-growing Ivory Coast.
Yeaten asked Sam Bockarie for his pistol-45 because his was not working. Sam knew that Yeaten was just joking and he decided to give his pistol to him. When he got his pistol from him, it was how he gave (the) order that they should knock Sam Bockarie down. His head was beaten with sticks until he died...
But later, amid international outcry over the war in Ivory Coast, Bockarie and his fighters were eliminated on Taylor's orders, carried out by soldiers under Taylor confidant Benjamin Yeaten at a place called Tiaplay near Liberia's border with Ivory Coast, Sheriff testified. "He (Yeaten) asked Sam Bockarie for his pistol-45 because his was not working. Sam knew that Yeaten was just joking and he decided to give his pistol to him. When he got his pistol from him, it was how he gave (the) order that they should knock Sam Bockarie down. He was knocked down. His head was beaten with sticks until he died," he said.
"Taylor passed an order through Yeaten that 'You are wasting time. I want you to destroy all evidence. All those boys that came with Sam Bockarie must be executed.' Those that were in Tiaplay, they were 250 in number, they were tied up and executed," Sheriff said. Bockarie's wife was also killed, he said. Bockarie, who had already been indicted before the same Sierra Leone war crimes court which is trying Taylor, had previously been reported to have died in a shootout with Liberian security forces in May 2003.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Classic buried lede:
"...investment in new power stations was also being hampered by ever more complex planning procedures and by governments persistent tinkering with the regulatory frameworks."
#2
"...investment in new power stations damn near everything was also being hampered by ever more complex planning procedures and by governments persistent tinkering with the regulatory frameworks."
There - fixed that for ya'.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/12/2006 19:09 Comments ||
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Chancellor Angela Merkel called Wednesday for reviving the failed European Union constitution but admitted that next year's German EU presidency would not achieve any breakthrough on the issue. "I am firmly convinced we need a constitution," said Merkel after talks with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso about Germany's programme for the EU presidency, which Berlin holds during the first half of 2007.
Dutch leaders have called for the text to be radically reduced in scope and for removal of the name "constitution". France is not expected to make any new moves on the constitution until after French presidential elections in May 2007.
Merkel admitted that Germany would not be able to clinch any final constitutional deal during its EU presidency which ends on June 30, 2007. Instead, Berlin would seek to hammer out a "roadmap" for further moves on the treaty, she said. The German leader rejected Dutch calls for a stripped-down text. "It must be something which deserves the name constitution and not merely an institutional set of rules," said the chancellor.
#1
The US Constitution is a minimalist extensible framework. It does not try to spell out every detail and every law for running the country but establishes a system for managing those laws. It's extensible via amendment, but places sufficient barriers to amendment such that changes occur infrequently (and only when sufficient consensus is reached).
In contrast many US states and many countries have constitutions that are much more heavy weight and try to spell out each and every law for running the state or country. Consequently, they must be changed frequently and quickly become unwieldy. Imagine if you had to amend the constitution every time you changed the pay or responsibilities of some public official.
Anyway, the proposed European constitution was a bad example of the later philosophy. Given the thinking of the Euro elites, I doubt that a 'revised' constitution will be any better. A heavy weight unmanageable constitution for Europe would exact a price both economically and in terms of loss of freedoms. Given Europes other problems, a 'new' constitution is the last thing they need.
#4
Before evn reading the first line the way it was designed was unaccaptable: not by the representaives of the people but by undemocratically appointed "experts" and bureaucrats. on name of what was Gisacard d'Estaing, a guy whose preisdency ws marred by scandals, whose disastrous rule brought socialists to power and who nowadays would not be voted as city dogcatcher, become the main architect of this
"Constitution"?
No way I will ver vote something eleborated this way.
The establishment media has a double standard when reporting the sexual proclivities of Republicans versus Democrats, a media watchdog group found in a report on the Mark Foley scandal.
Over the past 12 days, more than 150 stories on Foley aired on morning and evening news shows on ABC, CBS, and NBC, the Media Research Center, parent company of Cybercast News Service, found. Compare that to 19 stories over one year in the scandal involving Mel Reynolds - a Democratic congressman from Illinois convicted in 1995 of having sex with a 16-year-old campaign worker.
"The numbers are clear and shocking: 152 stories on Mark Foley over 12 days, yet only 19 stories on Mel Reynolds over an entire year. This double standard reeks of political partisanship and proves how far the liberal media will go to downplay the sexual degeneracy of a liberal Democrat and trumpet the sexual degeneracy of a Republican," said MRC President Brent Bozell in a statement.
Reynolds also conspired to have sex with the teen's 15-year-old friend, solicited child porn, and was convicted on 12 counts of sexual assault and obstruction of justice.
CBS did two stories on Reynolds' 1994 indictment (two anchor briefs), while NBC did one evening story and ABC didn't touch on the indictment at all, the MRC found.
And when Reynolds was convicted in 1995 on all 12 counts, NBC did 10 stories (seven anchor briefs, a morning story and two morning interview segments), CBS did five (four anchor briefs and a full morning story) and ABC reported on it once.
Foley resigned recently amid reports that he traded sexually inappropriate messages with an underage male participant in the congressional page program.
NBC did a total of 56 stories on the Foley scandal (20 on the evening news and 36 in the morning), compared to 50 on ABC (20 in the evening and 30 in the morning) and 46 on CBS (15 in the evening and 31 in the morning).
"The Republican is accused of repugnant behavior, via e-mail primarily, toward minors. The Democrat was charged, prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to prison for very real sexual assault toward a minor along with obstruction of justice," noted Bozell.
"The same networks that gave absolute minimal coverage to the Democrat are now flooding the airwaves with stories about the Republican, on the eve of the elections. If this isn't evidence of a liberal media agenda, nothing ever will be," Bozell added.
The MRC looked at stories on the Foley scandal from Sept. 29 when the story broke to Oct. 11. A fraction of the stories were brief anchor updates.
President Bush on Wednesday called ex-Rep. Mark Foley's approaches to House male pages "disgusting" and backed Speaker Dennis Hastert's efforts to learn how officials handled the problem. Bush's remarks at a White House news conference came as Peggy Sampson, supervisor of the page program, was questioned before the House ethics committee. The panel is not only investigating Foley's inappropriate and sometimes salacious electronic messages to former pages, but whether House officials covered up Foley's come-ons.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Foley's conduct was crass, crude and disgusting.
Hastert's handling of the situation ineffectual and his carping about the Dhimmis scoring points on his failure was very illadvised IMO.
The federal deficit fell to a four-year low in the budget year that just ended, a result President Bush pointed to Wednesday in claiming Republicans are better stewards of the economy than are Democrats. The administration said the deficit dropped to $247.7 billion - welcome news for Republicans struggling to keep control of Congress. Bush boasted he had made good on a 2004 campaign promise to cut the deficit in half over five years. "These budget numbers are proof that pro-growth economic policies work," Bush said.
Democrats said the improvement in the 2006 federal deficit was a temporary blip. They predicted rising deficits for years to come unless policies are changed.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2006 00:00 ||
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Any rumors why they think deficits are supposed to rise again?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Former Liberian President Charles Taylor ordered the execution of 250 mercenaries who fought in Ivory Coast's civil war, an ex-fighter from Liberia's war testified to a truth panel on Tuesday. Mohammed Sheriff told Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission how his comrades beat Sierra Leonean warlord Sam "Maskita" Bockarie to death and executed 250 of his fighters.
Chancellor Angela Merkel called Wednesday for reviving the failed European Union constitution but admitted that next year's German EU presidency would not achieve any breakthrough on the issue. "I am firmly convinced we need a constitution," said Merkel after talks with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso about Germany's programme for the EU presidency, which Berlin holds during the first half of 2007.
The establishment media has a double standard when reporting the sexual proclivities of Republicans versus Democrats, a media watchdog group found in a report on the Mark Foley scandal.
