The Editor,
The reported invitation to President Weah and his Minister of Justice by Langley (CIA Headquarters) and not the State Department or the White House is a strange one. I have been around diplomatic circles for some time now (including 4 years of active duty as head of the largest Bureau within Foreign Affairs). I am finding it difficult to see a precedent in recent years. Even during the days of Mobutu Sese Sekou of Zaire (a loyal asset of Langley), no invite came directly from the CIA.
Some have argued that perhaps the CIA is looking to cut a deal with Weah as the geopolitical rivalry intensifies between East and West and as the US re-evaluates its strategic interest in Sub-Saharan Africa. I also find this other theory strange. Spy Agencies, recruiting an Asset do not expose that Asset in the way the invite to Weah exposes him to suspicion amongst his peers. Moreover, Spy Agency seldom exposes their intentions so openly in the way the open invite to Weah does.
Could this invite to President Weah, which also includes his Attorney, the Minister of Justice, be to confront him with irrefutable evidence of money laundering (which President Biden declared as a National Security threat to the US) for which some of his key lieutenants have been sanctioned by the US? Allegations of money laundering were also raised by the Kroll report into the investigation into the USD25 million mop-up fiasco.
There have also been allegations of rampant corruption by key actors of both the US Congress and the Executive Branch of Government, notably amongst which is the kleptomaniac label ascribed to the Weah regime by Representative Chris Smith of the US Congress. Then there are also numerous mysterious and suspicious murders in which the Weah regime has been complicit.
Could the objective of the invite be to read to Weah the Riot’s Act? Could it be a carrot and stake to exact compliance on some matter deemed extremely important to the US interest?
Whatever the case, President Weah and his Government must come clean with the Liberian people. The Liberian people need to know the nature of the invitation to Langley as well as the outcome of such an unusual invitation.
George Wisner
Monrovia, Liberia