American Warlord (51 page)

  8.
 Baechtle interviews.

  9.
 
United States vs. Belfast
, Trial Transcript, October 16, 2008.

10.
 Caroline Heck Miller, “United States Supplemental Pleading on Pre-trial Motions Referred to Magistrate Judge,” June 18, 2007.

11.
 
United States vs. Belfast
, Trial Transcript, October 16, 2008.

12.
 Ibid., “Government Exhibit CE-5,” October 1, 2008.

13.
 Ibid.

14.
 Ibid., Trial Transcript, October 16, 2008.

  1.
 Gregory Naples, interview by author, August 17, 2010.

  2.
 
United States vs. Roy M. Belfast, Jr.
, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida, Miami Division, Trial Transcript, September 30, 2008.

  3.
 John Kroger,
Convictions: A Prosecutor’s Battles Against Mafia Killers, Drug Kingpins, and Enron Thieves
(New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008).

  4.
 Hamza Abdul Aziz (aka Chucky Taylor) to author, March 15, 2007.

  5.
 Alexander Acosta, former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, interview by author, October 1, 2009.

  6.
 Caroline Heck Miller, assistant U.S. attorney, interview by author, December 16, 2009.

  7.
 Karen Rochlin, assistant U.S. attorney, interview by author, December 16, 2009.

  8.
 Naples interview.

  9.
 Acosta interview.

10.
 Matthew Baechtle, interviews by author, May 25 and August 16, 2010.

11.
 Lori Lightfoot to author, June 1, 2010.

12.
 
United States vs. Belfast
, Trial Transcript, October 14, 2008.

13.
 Naples interview.

14.
 
United States vs. Belfast
, “Second Superceding Indictment,” November 7, 2007.

15.
 “Charles Emmanuel to Honorable Judge Graham,” Document 12-2, Case no. 1:06-CR-20758-CMA, United States District Court Southern District of Florida Miami Division, December 21, 2006.

16.
 Boadicea Cole to author, August 12, 2007.

17.
 Jane Mayer,
The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals
(New York: Doubleday, 2008), p. 198.

18.
 Carl Levin, floor speech on the nomination of Alice Fisher for assistant attorney general, September 19, 2006,
http://1.​usa.​gov/​UOruty
.

19.
 Hamza Abdul Aziz (aka Chucky Taylor) to author, March 15, 2007.

20.
 
United States vs. Belfast
, Trial Transcript, October 28, 2008.

21.
 Ibid., October 16, 2008.

22.
 Rufus Kpadeh, interview by author, December 15, 2009.

23.
 Author’s notes, Gbatala, June 2007.

24.
 
United States vs. Belfast
, Trial Transcript, October 16, 2008.

25.
 Ibid., October 28, 2008.

26.
 Ibid., October 16, 2008.

  1.
 Hamza Abdul Aziz (aka Chucky Taylor) to author, November 14, 2009.

  2.
 
United States vs. Roy M. Belfast, Jr.
, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida, Miami Division, “Second Superceding Indictment,” November 7, 2007.

  3.
 John Wylie, interviews by author, May 21 and September 30, 2010.

  4.
 Anonymous, interview by author, June 17, 2009.

  5.
 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Diana Tsang, branch chief, to George Waldroup, senior special agent, September 29, 2008.

  6.
 Johnny Dwyer, “Bush Torture Memo Slapped Down by Court,”
Time
, November 3, 2008.

  7.
 Alexander Acosta, former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, interview by author, October 1, 2009.

  8.
 
United States vs. Belfast
, Trial Transcript, October 16, 2008.

  9.
 Hassan Bility, interview by author, September 2008.

10.
 Christopher Graveline and Michael Clemens,
The Secrets of Abu Ghraib Revealed: American Soldiers on Trial
(Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books, 2010).

11.
 
United States vs. Belfast
, Trial Transcript, September 29, 2008.

12.
 Ibid.

13.
 Wylie interviews.

14.
 
United States vs. Belfast
, Trial Transcript, September 30, 2008.

15.
 Caroline Heck Miller, assistant U.S. attorney, interview by author, December 16, 2009.

16.
 
United States vs. Belfast
, Trial Transcript, October 1, 2008.

17.
 Ibid., Trial Transcript, October 2, 2008.

18.
 Baechtle interviews.

19.
 
United States vs. Belfast
, Trial Transcript, October 2, 2008.

20.
 Ibid., Trial Transcript, October 10, 2008.

21.
 Ibid., Trial Transcript, October 16, 2008.

22.
 Ibid.

23.
 Ibid.

24.
 Baechtle interviews.

25.
 
United States vs. Belfast
, Trial Transcript, October 28, 2008.

26.
 Baechtle interviews.

27.
 
United States vs. Belfast
, Trial Transcript, October 10, 2008.

28.
 Barbara Medina to author, October 30, 2008.

29.
 
United States vs. Belfast
, Trial Transcript, January 9, 2009.

30.
 Lynn Henderson to author, November 3, 2008.

31.
 
United States vs. Roy M. Belfast Jr.
, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, Appeal no. 09-10461-AA, “Brief for the Appellant Roy M. Belfast,” January 23, 2009.

32.
 
Rufus Kpadeh et al. vs. Charles McCarthur Emmanuel
, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida, Miami Division, “Complaint—Class Action,” January 9, 2009.

33.
 Ibid.

34.
 “United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL),” UN News Center,
http://www.​un.​org/​en/​peace​keeping/​missions/​unmil/
.

35.
 Republic of Liberia, Truth and Reconciliation Commission,
Final Report
(Monrovia, June 29, 2009), p. 341,
http://trcof​liberia.​org/​resources/​reports/​final/​trc-​of-​liberia-​final-​report-​volume-​ii.​pdf
.

36.
 “Remarks by the President and CEO of National Oil Company of Liberia (NOCAL) at 1st General Staff Meeting,” National Oil Company of Liberia, February 1, 2013,
http://bit.​ly/​1o9PRg​V
(accessed June 24, 2014).

37.
 Author’s notes, Monrovia, October 2011.

38.
 
Roy M. Belfast, Jr. vs. United States
, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, no. 10-8120, February 22, 2011.

39.
 Roy Belfast, Jr. (aka Chucky Taylor), interview by author, July 28, 2011.

  1.
 Michael Biddle, interview by author, June 2007.

  2.
 Hamza Abdul Aziz (aka Chucky Taylor) to author, November 14, 2009.

All photographs are courtesy of the author and Lynn Henderson except for the following:

1.1
President Charles Taylor meeting Reverend Jesse Jackson: Courtesy of Associated Press

1.2
Taylor in Buchanan, Liberia; Courtesy of Getty images

1.3
The Gbatala base, Bong County, Liberia: Courtesy of Christopher Herwig

1.4
Assistant United States Attorney Karen Rochlin: Courtesy of Karen Rochlin

1.5
Immigration and Customs Enforcement Speial Agent Matthew Baechtle: Courtesy of Chris Gravelin

Johnny Dwyer is a reporter living in New York City. He has written for
Esquire, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, Time, Foreign Policy
, and
The New York Times.
American Warlord is his first book.

Chucky Taylor (right) appearing with his father before reporters at an unknown location in Liberia

A defaced photograph of Charles Taylor found among Chucky’s personal effects

President Charles Taylor meets Reverend Jesse Jackson, a Clinton administration special envoy, on February 11, 1998, in Monrovia. On the visit, Jackson told Taylor that his purpose was not to “scold Liberia for the excesses committed during the war,” but “to revive the warm partnership relationship that has always existed between the two countries.” (
illustration credit i1.1
)

Taylor in Buchanan, Liberia, on May 29, 1990, on the offensive against the Armed Forces of Liberia en route to securing vital port access (
illustration credit i1.2
)

Chucky Taylor in Monrovia in 2003, celebrating his visiting son’s birthday

Chucky in Liberia at an unknown date and location

A torn photograph of a teenage Chucky at his childhood home in Orlando in the early 1990s

Chucky wearing body armor (center, left) and others at an unknown date and location in Liberia

Chucky with his personal firearm at an unknown date and location in Liberia

Chucky on an unknown date and location in Liberia

Chucky with Anti-Terrorist Unit (ATU) and other security in Gbatala, Liberia, on an unknown date

Chucky with Benjamin Yeaten at the funeral of a colleague at an unknown location in Liberia