The Editor:
I am going to be blunt. I wanted to speak/write in our tribal language of Kru but this memo is also for public consumption. Armed Forces Chief of Staff, Major-General Prince Johnson is using code words that simply mean the Army will do to you what the Army in Mali did to President Keita: overthrow the government after months of People Power Protests. And remember too that former President Keita had not paid the soldiers for months but Keita wanted the soldiers to brutally kill protesters to keep him in power. But the opposite happened.
In short, that is the message or warning from your Army Chief of Staff and Major-General Johnson probably has the support of Uncle Sam. The last time I checked, it was reported that you President Weah asked General Johnson to resign to appoint him as the Liberian Ambassador to the United Nations; my diplomatic and military sources in both Monrovia and here in Washington, DC told me the US government urged General Johnson not to resign. Why?
Because you President Weah could be on “borrow time” based on your poor performance in the three years under your belt: widespread corruption, human rights abuses with the mysterious disappearces and murders of citizens, bloody government-sponsored street violence against peacefully protesting citizens, your unchecked massive accumulation of wealth overnight and your booming real estate empire.
Unpaid thousands of protesting public healthcare workers were summarily terminated by; add to them hundreds or perhaps a few thousand unpaid staffers working for the overpaid elected Representatives and Senators, and lately are joined by staffers of Justices of the Supreme Court and other lower courts throughout the country owed one year in back salaries thereby compromising the integrity of the judicial system.
But you have crossed the “Red Line” and what upsets the US government more is your selling of Liberian diplomatic passports to Islamic Jihadist groups–ISIS, Talaban and whatever is left of Bin Ladin’s Al Queda–who are a threat to US national security interests and those of US allies including Israel; plus the selling of said passports to South American drug cartels and their hired agents including the Nigerian drug runner you have posted near the US southern border in Mexico as your Consul-General.
You are bitting too much of what you may not be able to swallow and stomach. Infact, you attempted to grant the cargo handling business at our international airport, RIA to questionable “Arab Investors” but the Americans stopped you Do you weigh the consequences of your decisions?
Former President William R Tolbert paid little attention to the Army and the Army overthrew him in a bloody coup on April 12, 1980. Tolbert tried to step on the toes of America by stabbing Israel and America in the chest at the United Nations with his anti-Israeli rhetorics and pro-Abab nationalism. And do you think the know-it-all Americans didn’t have any role or prior knowledge in the overthrow of Tolbert?
Tolbert also reportedly had his hand in the death of the American ambassador to Liberia who died from poisoning because the US envoy wanted the Army to take over the government when dictator William VS Tubman died in July 1971 in a London hospital to end over 100 years of minority Americo-Liberian rule in Liberia for native rule.
As for President Samuel Doe, he thought he was invisible and so the guy who was in jail here in America, Charles Taylor, mysteriously “escaped” from a top US prison to lead a rebellion against Doe and you think the Americans had no role or prior knowledge of the planners and financiers of the rebellion/war against Doe? Doe also “big-mouthed” the Americans and was very corrupt. He burned government financial documents at the Finance Ministry when the Americans arrived in Monrovia and were about to audit him. He forgot that he got over $500 million from the Americans.
As for Charles Taylor, his worst “sin” he committed was to be in bed with enemies of America. Taylor harbored two of Ben Ladin’s Al Queda terrorists who bombed the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania—he was hiding them in Monrovia for $2 million paid to him by Bin Ladin’s group.
When you are warned–not by the US Ambassador in Monrovia nor the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs nor by the Deputy Secretary of State in the State Department, but—by the US Secretary of State himself, Mike Pompea; do you understand the gravity of the threat you are posing to US national security interests by selling Liberian diplomatic passports to enemies who seek to do harm to America? Please research the phrase “US National Security Interests.” And remember this: the US has permanent interests and NOT permanent friends.
From the missing LD$16 billion, the US $25 million, the $49 million Coronavirus money, you better give the soldiers the darn money.
Jerry Wehtee Wion
Washington, DC, USA