American Warlord
Authors: Johnny Dwyer
THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK
PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A
.
KNOPF
Copyright © 2015 by Johnny Dwyer
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House LLC, New York, and distributed in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto, Penguin Random House companies.
Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House LLC.
Some of the material in this work is derived from the author’s article “American Warlord” (
Rolling Stone
magazine, September 15, 2008).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dwyer, Johnny.
American warlord : a true story / Johnny Dwyer.
pages cm
ISBN
978-0-307-27348-2 (hardcover)
ISBN
978-0-385-35303-8 (eBook)
1. Taylor, Chucky, 1977– 2. Taylor, Charles Ghankay. 3. Political violence—
Liberia. 4. Soldiers—Liberia. 5. Liberia—History—Civil War, 1989–1996—
Atrocities. 6. Liberia—History—Civil War, 1999–2003—Atrocities. 7. Liberia—
Politics and government—1980– I. Title.
DT636.53.T395D87 2015 966.62033—dc23 2014025451
Front-of-jacket photograph: Liberian warlord Charles Taylor by Pascal Guyot (detail), AFP/Getty Images
Jacket design by Oliver Munday
Cartography by Mapping Specialists
v3.1
For my father and my son
It’s nothing to be proud of to be a Congo man.
—Roy Belfast Jr. (aka Chucky Taylor)
July 28, 2011
FEBRUARY
6, 1820—Settlers depart from New York Harbor to resettle along the coast of West Africa.
JULY
26, 1847—The settlers adopt a constitution and form the Republic of Liberia.
DECEMBER
1871—Jefferson Bracewell, an ancestor of Charles Taylor, from Valdosta, Georgia, arrives in Arthington, Liberia.
JANUARY
28, 1948—Charles McArthur Taylor is born in Arthington, Liberia.
APRIL
14, 1979—In Monrovia, a protest over the increased cost of rice, a staple food, turns violent, and government troops fire on protesters.
APRIL
12, 1980—Soldiers from the Armed Forces of Liberia storm into the president’s bedroom at the Executive Mansion, killing him. Master Sgt. Samuel Kanyon Doe assumes control of the country, giving Taylor a role in the government.
1983—Taylor flees Liberia for the United States with $990,000 in government funds. He is arrested and incarcerated at Plymouth County House of Corrections.
SEPTEMBER
15, 1985—Taylor breaks out of jail at Plymouth and escapes the United States.
DECEMBER
24, 1989—Taylor launches the civil war under the mantle of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) in Gbutuo, Liberia.
JULY
1990—American diplomats broker an agreement with Taylor to avoid an assault on Monrovia. West African peacekeepers land; weeks later President Doe is killed by a rival warlord.
MARCH
23, 1991—The Revolutionary United Front (RUF), backed by Taylor’s forces, attempts to take over the government of Sierra Leone.
SUMMER
1992—Charles Emmanuel (aka “Chucky Taylor”) arrives in Liberia to be reunited with his father.
OCTOBER
1992—Taylor launches Operation Octopus in an attempt to seize control of Monrovia, but it is beaten back by West African forces.
APRIL
6, 1996—Fighting engulfs Monrovia, forcing the evacuation of the U.S. embassy.
JULY
19, 1997—Charles Taylor is elected president of Liberia.
1998—Taylor forms the Anti-Terrorist Unit; Chucky assumes leadership.
APRIL
21, 1999—An assault on Voinjama, in northeastern Liberia, marks the opening of the final phase of the Liberian civil war.
JULY
7, 1999—The RUF and the government of Sierra Leone sign a peace agreement.
2002—Investigators with the Special Court for Sierra Leone pursue Charles Taylor’s connection to the civil war in that country.
MARCH
10, 2003—Taylor is indicted under seal by the Special Court for Sierra Leone.
JUNE
4, 2003—While Taylor is attending peace talks in Accra, his indictment is unsealed in Freetown.
JULY
2003—Rebels lay siege to Monrovia as President George W. Bush tells Taylor to step down. Chucky flees Monrovia for exile in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
AUGUST
11, 2003—Taylor steps down and enters into exile in Calabar, Nigeria.
JANUARY
2004—In the United States, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) opens a weapons-trafficking investigation into Liberia.
MARCH
21, 2006—Liberia’s president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf arrives in Washington for a state visit and addresses a joint congressional session.
MARCH
29–30, 2006—Charles Taylor is arrested near the border with Cameroon; Chucky Taylor is taken into custody at Miami International Airport by ICE.
DECEMBER
6, 2006—Chucky Taylor is indicted under U.S.C. § 2340A, the federal antitorture statute, becoming the first person charged under that law.
JUNE
4, 2007—Charles Taylor’s trial for crimes against humanity begins at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, located at The Hague.
JANUARY
9, 2009—After a two-month trial, Chucky Taylor is convicted on eight counts of torture and related charges and is sentenced to ninety-seven years.
FEBRUARY
18, 2011—After the Eleventh Circuit upholds Chucky Taylor’s conviction, the Supreme Court declines to consider further appeals from him.
MAY
30, 2012—Following his conviction and appeals, Charles Taylor is sentenced to fifty years for crimes related to the civil war in Sierra Leone.
MAY 10, 2007
NATIONAL POLICE HEADQUARTERS
STOCKHOLM
,
SWEDEN
At just before four p.m., the American revealed the photo lineup.
1
Sulaiman Jusu considered the set of photographs, which were projected on a screen in the conference room: six men, all dark-skinned, frowning, and clad in khaki prison garb.
2
Let me know if there is anybody in any of the photos that you recognize
, the American said.
Jusu understood. He had grown up in an English-speaking country in West Africa: Sierra Leone.
3
Nine years earlier he, his wife, Isaatu, and his three brothers had set off on foot from Kenema, a small city in eastern Sierra Leone, to escape fighting between rebels and government militias that had torn through the nation’s small diamond-producing region. They had drifted from town to town along the frontier—Mano Junction, Sagbema, Daru, Bomaru. As they moved, their options dwindled. Rebels, tribal militias, and foreign fighters had made life a gamble for civilians throughout much of the region. Isaatu was six months pregnant, and they could not remain on the move forever, so Jusu, his wife, and her twin sister crossed into Liberia, choosing to become refugees. Their journey eventually took them to Sweden, but only after a detour that nearly cost Jusu his life.
The American sitting across the table from Jusu was a special agent from Immigration and Customs Enforcement named Matthew Baechtle.
4
From the outset, his investigation had been a long shot, a vague directive to look into a civil war halfway across the globe to see whether any U.S. citizens had violated any international sanctions or laws. For years the case had meandered and stagnated, searching for a focus, until suddenly, a year earlier, Baechtle had found a target and a crime. But he needed more evidence. Weeks earlier he had learned of Jusu’s identity (and of his potential as a witness), and he’d flown to Stockholm to see what, if anything, this man knew.