Johnny Dwyer - American Warlord: A True Story

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.

www.aaknopf.com

Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House LLC.

Some of the material in this work is derived from the authors 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. SoldiersLiberia. 5. LiberiaHistoryCivil War, 19891996

Atrocities. 6. LiberiaHistoryCivil War, 19992003Atrocities. 7. Liberia

Politics and government1980 I. Title.

DT636.53.T395D87 2015 966.62033dc23 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

Its nothing to be proud of to be a Congo man.

Roy Belfast Jr. (aka Chucky Taylor)

July 28, 2011

FEBRUARY 6, 1820Settlers depart from New York Harbor to resettle along the coast of West Africa.

JULY 26, 1847The settlers adopt a constitution and form the Republic of Liberia.

DECEMBER 1871Jefferson Bracewell, an ancestor of Charles Taylor, from Valdosta, Georgia, arrives in Arthington, Liberia.

JANUARY 28, 1948Charles McArthur Taylor is born in Arthington, Liberia.

APRIL 14, 1979In Monrovia, a protest over the increased cost of rice, a staple food, turns violent, and government troops fire on protesters.

APRIL 12, 1980Soldiers from the Armed Forces of Liberia storm into the presidents bedroom at the Executive Mansion, killing him. Master Sgt. Samuel Kanyon Doe assumes control of the country, giving Taylor a role in the government.

1983Taylor 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, 1985Taylor breaks out of jail at Plymouth and escapes the United States.

DECEMBER 24, 1989Taylor launches the civil war under the mantle of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) in Gbutuo, Liberia.

JULY 1990American 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, 1991The Revolutionary United Front (RUF), backed by Taylors forces, attempts to take over the government of Sierra Leone.

SUMMER 1992Charles Emmanuel (aka Chucky Taylor) arrives in Liberia to be reunited with his father.

OCTOBER 1992Taylor launches Operation Octopus in an attempt to seize control of Monrovia, but it is beaten back by West African forces.

APRIL 6, 1996Fighting engulfs Monrovia, forcing the evacuation of the U.S. embassy.

JULY 19, 1997Charles Taylor is elected president of Liberia.

1998Taylor forms the Anti-Terrorist Unit; Chucky assumes leadership.

APRIL 21, 1999An assault on Voinjama, in northeastern Liberia, marks the opening of the final phase of the Liberian civil war.

JULY 7, 1999The RUF and the government of Sierra Leone sign a peace agreement.

2002Investigators with the Special Court for Sierra Leone pursue Charles Taylors connection to the civil war in that country.

MARCH 10, 2003Taylor is indicted under seal by the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

JUNE 4, 2003While Taylor is attending peace talks in Accra, his indictment is unsealed in Freetown.

JULY 2003Rebels 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, 2003Taylor steps down and enters into exile in Calabar, Nigeria.

JANUARY 2004In the United States, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) opens a weapons-trafficking investigation into Liberia.

MARCH 21, 2006Liberias president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf arrives in Washington for a state visit and addresses a joint congressional session.

MARCH 2930, 2006Charles Taylor is arrested near the border with Cameroon; Chucky Taylor is taken into custody at Miami International Airport by ICE.

DECEMBER 6, 2006Chucky Taylor is indicted under U.S.C. 2340A, the federal antitorture statute, becoming the first person charged under that law.

JUNE 4, 2007Charles Taylors trial for crimes against humanity begins at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, located at The Hague.

JANUARY 9, 2009After 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, 2011After the Eleventh Circuit upholds Chucky Taylors conviction, the Supreme Court declines to consider further appeals from him.

MAY 30, 2012Following 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.

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. 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 nations small diamond-producing region. They had drifted from town to town along the frontierMano 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. 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 Jusus identity (and of his potential as a witness), and hed flown to Stockholm to see what, if anything, this man knew.