Will Charles Taylor detail his infamous Plymouth prison break?
By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff
WASHINGTON -- It has been a mystery for more than two decades how former Liberian president Charles G. Taylor broke out of the Plymouth County Correctional Facility in 1985, beginning a journey that ultimately made him one of Africa's most notorious strongmen.
The world may finally get its answer as early as next week when Taylor takes the stand for the first time in his war crimes trial in The Hague, where he is accused of ordering atrocities during neighboring Sierra Leone's civil war.
Stephen J. Rapp, the prosecutor in the trial, told the Globe today that Taylor -- who has been indicted on 17 counts of crimes against humanity -- is expected to give testimony for as many as six weeks, during which he is predicted to detail extensively various periods of his life, including his time in the Boston area.
Rapp said that Taylor has provided the prosecution with just a five-page summary of what he is going to talk about. "I think he has a lot more to say," he said.
One incident that many observers are particularly curious to hear about is his Plymouth prison break, which has long been fodder for conspiracy theorists who believe Taylor may have been aided by elements within the US government who later used him as an informant.
Taylor was a student at Bentley College (now University) in Waltham after he fled Liberia in 1983 in the face of charges that he embezzled money from the Liberian government, then headed by Samuel Doe, whom Taylor supported in a bloody 1980 coup.
Taylor was arrested in 1984 in Somerville pending extradition. While fighting the extradition charges -- his lawyer was former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark -- Taylor escaped from the Plymouth prison on Sept. 15, 1985, along with four other inmates.
Taylor's wife and sister-in-law reportedly met him at nearby Jordan Hospital and drove him in a getaway car to Staten Island in New York, where he disappeared. All the other escaped inmates were eventually caught.
Taylor reportedly showed up in Muammar Qaddafi's Libya, where he underwent guerilla training before leading a bloody revolution in his native country at the head of an army known as the Revolutionary United Front.
After a 15-year reign of terror as Liberia's president -- including claims by the United Nations that he aided members of the Al Qaeda network raising money from the trade of gemstones -- Taylor was indicted by the special court for Sierra Leone in 2003.
Under pressure from the Bush administration he was handed over to the court in 2005 by the government of by Nigeria, where he was in hiding.
Since his trial began last year more than 90 witnesses have testified to his role in Sierra Leone's bloody civil war, in which hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed.
Comment
Permalink
EmailThis blogger might want to review your comment before posting it.
About Political Intelligence
News from the Washington Bureau
I can't wait to read his autobiography!!
Another outstanding alum from Bentley.....
Infromative article. We all wait to hear his testimony. However, there is a slight error in the Globe article. Taylor was warlord of the National Patrriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) which he founded. The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) was the rebel movement in Sierra Leone which he is accused of supporting in connection with war crimes and crime against humanity in Sierra Leone.
Interesting - LBJ's Attorney General defending a known murderer & terrorist...
notreaty: you shouldn't be surprised! The Primary Function of Government is to Pretend to Fail!
Hmmm ! If indeed he states that the United States government let him our of jail. Those American officials responsible for his release should also be tried on charges of War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity
Interesting - LBJ's Attorney General defending a known murderer & terrorist...""
Completely irrelevant to anything. Everyone deserves representation. Nothing but retarded snarkiness.
Hey dan, "alumni" have to graduate.
I thought he went to U Mass Boston.
hey matt, i'm offended by your "retard" remark. (and LBJ was just as dirty as I am!!)
That sound more like a BU Alumni. A International espionage with a fine U.S. education. We accept cash only.
Ramsey Clark would defend Osama Bin Ladin. He defended Saddam. Hes an anti-American Lyndon Larouch cultie scumbag. He never met an enemy of America that he didnt like more than us or our allies. GOOGLE "Ramsey Clark and Lyndon LaRouche hate America" that will tell you all you need to know.
Dan?
Ummm.....he isn't an alum, so cool your snark, mmmkay?
Bentley reject you or what?
I don't think that Taylor was a known murderer and terrorist at the time that Clark represented him. In any case Matt is right, every accused person, no matter how seemingly unsavory -- has the right to legal representation.
I could be mistaken, but I believe Ramsey Clark served under Jimmy Carter.
If us gov't officials aided his escape, that would have been during the Reagan adminstration. wonder if ollie is covering this story closely on his talk show?
Interesting article, but with some errors. Taylor is charged with 11, not 17 counts of crimes against humanity, war crimes and other violations, and led the bloody revolution as head of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), not the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). He is accused of supporting the RUF rebels in Sierra Leone - which were also allegedly made up of rebels from Liberia - in order to destabilise the country. This support to the RUF is what prosecutors in the case have sought to establish in order to convict Taylor.
President Taylor hopefully will have the dignity not to satisfy the sensationalism of the average American but will professionally go through his defense, supposedly another four years for the witnesses only. As a former elected Head of State he deserves respect - and if proven guilty of personal responsibility for atrocities he will be punished by law.
Until then let me remind you of psychological implications, of uneducated "commanders" that take a directive order (from a President or some higher command) and use it as an excuse for excesses, looting, raping, killing, to enrich themselves and satisfy their inferior existence.
No, I do not suggest Taylor is innocent or not responsible (that is why he stands in the court in The Hague, to clarify), but I remember Mi Lai and dozens other incidents in recent history (involving US troops just as much as any other military), and I have not been able to gather the basic difference between atrocities in Sierra Leone, Liberia (Taylor is not accused of war crimes in Liberia) or "there" (Vietnam, Kuweit, Iraq, Central America a.s.o.).
In Liberia most everybody was involved in that civil war at some point, in some way, over the many years, especially politically prominent people. Even President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf received the recommendation of the "Truth and Reconciliation Commission", started by herself, to be banned from public office for 30 years because of HER involvement., supporting Taylor in the early years of the rebellion against Samuel K. Doe (He shot 13 Ministers at the beach during his coup 1980 - Ronald Reagan shook HIS hand in the White House).
In the peace accord that the terrorist groups "LURD" and "MODEL" (supposedly supported by the US through Guinea and la Cote d'Ivoire) signed, together with the legitimate government in 2003, you find "amnesty" for the years from 1989 - 2003, which covers Liberia. But the exile, granted to Taylor in Nigeria, brought President Taylor to The Hague, through pressure from Bush. For the betterment of mankind, I suppose.
Granted, Taylor committed the crimes (or some of them) he is accused of: doesn't it still look all very "fishy", should I use the word "dirty", the way things evolved around this whole story?
The prison break is a minor, irrelevant point. Much more interesting would be the breach of agreement of international guarantors for the exile of Taylor, his arrest, first tried unsuccessfully in Ghana during the peace talks. The involvement of the US in the killing of President Doe, and other parts of the recently bloody history of Liberia, factually colonized by the US in 1822, and founded by freed slaves (that was a clever way to get rid of them) 1847 after suppressing the indigenous population and enslaving THEM after 25 years of war, and factually until today.
I started with sensationalism.
John Wayne was not politically inclined, so an inferior Western Movie Actor made it to the Presidency. Luckily, Arnold is not a born American. President Obama is another sensation, hopefully in a positive way, for a change. Madame E. Johnson Sirleaf, first female President, as in Germany Angela Merkel. Saddam hangs, Bin Laden runs, Putin shakes hands, let's see what we will do about North Korea and Mugabe before Palin runs for Presidency.
Aren't there enough sensations already, so we can let the legal proceedings around Taylor and all individuals involved in these atrocities go without making it another spectacular event? A little less emotion, minus the Kindergarten, looking at justice and fairness with seriousness: don't throw with stones...
Taylor actually led the National Patriotic Front (NPFT) Not the Revolutionary United Front which was headed by Foday Sankor of Sierra Leone
Well put Kai !
Sorry but this article is full of mistakes - in addition to the ones pointed above, Mr Taylor only served as President of Liberia for 6 years (1997-2003), and not 15 as reported by this writer. I would like to think that journalists will always try to cross check their facts.