The Editor,

“Power concedes nothing without demand; it never has and it never will”–Frederick Douglas.

“There comes a time in life when one must take a stand that is neither safe, nor popular, nor politics but you take it because it is right”– Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Here in America, let a white government official call any black person a “Nigger” and see what happens to that official.

He/she will resign immediately or be fired by the Mayor, Governor or President. Blacks and others will protest until hell freezes over. You don’t insult the dignity of a race/tribe and get away with it.

Free speech has moral “red lines” that cannot be crossed.

When you insult a fellow citizen, a Mandingo Liberian by allegedly calling him a “Mandingo Dog”, there is no justification whatsoever for such immoral behavior by an official of our government.

Thus, Mary Broh needs to resign now or be fired from her position by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

We call on all good Liberians, the Christian community, politicians and presidential and legislative candidates to weigh in and demand that Mary Broh be fired from her job. It is the right thing to do.

What Mary Broh is accused of insulting a fellow Liberian is no different from what tribal/native Liberians endured for over 150 years under the ruling minority Americo-Liberians/Congau would insult and referred to tribal Liberians as ” country asses,” even to this day.

A recent example was in January 1998 when former Senator and now a presidential candidate, Congau Charles Walker Brumskine referred to a sitting native Senator Bedell Fahn of Margibi County as a “country fool/ass,” according to an official letter of complaint dated February 3, 1998 written by Senator Fain to his fellow lawmakers.

This arrogance and contempt for natives by the Congau resurfaced yet again in this 2017 presidential campaign when Mr. Brumskine rained insults of “nonsense” on native presidential candidate Joseph Boakai, ironically accusing the well-respected Mr. Boakai of “encouraging the Native versus Congau divide.”

A case of pot calling a tea kettle black.

And it is this same arrogance that perhaps has led the likes of Madame Broh to call a native Liberian by his tribe as a “Mandingo Dog”, obviously encouraged by Broh’s close friendship with President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

But our Mandingo brothers and sisters must organize and use their votes as a political weapon in this election for candidates who remain silent and are supported by President if she refuses to fire Madame Broh.

Madam Broh has a history of unlawful behavior and recklessness because of her friendship with President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

As Mayor of Monrovia, Broh reportedly slapped a pregnant woman who was also an aide to a sitting House of Representatives member and got away with the crime.

Madam Broh reportedly ordered the public beating of a Liberian journalist and other citizens in public view.

As Mayor, Broh, without court order or approval, Broh destroyed the homes and businesses of citizens in the name of city beautification. And it is this jungle justice behavior without consequences that led her to call another Liberian a “Mandingo Dog.”

But President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf who is Mary Broh’s boss was married to a Mandingo man, a marriage that produced four sons. President Sirleaf seems to value her friendship with Broh over Broh’ s insult of the entire Mandingo tribe.

We must not sugar-coat this grave hurt and insensitivity Broh has brought to the Mandingo community.

Today, it is the Mandingo; tomorrow it could be you and your tribe. A wrong is a wrong is a wrong.

We condemn in the strongest terms the deplorable action of a government official and the conspicuous silence of President Sirleaf. Let the protests begin.

Jerry Wetter Wion, Washington, DC, USA
lanswion515@gmail.com

This is the same old song, the same deja vu of giving excuses not to indict Fomba Sirleaf, yet again.

Are the “investigators” saying they can’t find any evidence on Fomba’s hunting trip to South Africa? What about evidence from the airline about how his ticket was paid for?

The ticket had to be in Fomba’s name, the hotel room where he stayed had to be in Fomba’s name – and how were these services paid for by Sable? Everything can’t be cash for a business company that has kept records on all of those indicted so far.

There is video record of Fomba going in and out of the hotel in South Africa, arrival and departure records with both the Liberian and South African immigration at the airports, restaurant/food payment receipts, etc.

So what the heck Fonati Koffa and his bunch of so-called investigators are talking about that they don’t have enough evidence to indict Fomba? Give whatever little evidence that you have on Fomba to the Grand Jury and let the jurors determine if the evidence can’t hold water or not enough to convicted him.

How did Sable arrive at the price tag of $7,598.00 for Fomba Sirleaf?

These are the same investigators who said Sable people flew to Liberia from South Africa with “$500,000.00 CASH” and gave same to Eugene Shannon and ECB Jones and were able to provide the “evidence” but can’t come up with the video and paper trail for Fomba’s hunting safari to South Africa? Give me a break.

This whole thing of giving excuses for Fomba and the others (Cletus Wortorson and Sumo Kupee) is all part of a cover up by the Task Force to shield them from prosecution. Fomba is President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s son, Hello?

This is the same Fomba Sirleaf who got away with the NSA-Executed armed robbery against South Korean businessmen that netted his agents some $250,000.00. That was the work of another “Presidential Investigator, David Jallah” who recommended that the government should refund the $250,000.00 to the Koreans even before any trial was ever held.

Then a judge ruled that the Koreans could not have been the victims of the NSA agents executed armed robbery because of prior “agreement/arrangement between the NSA armed robbers and the gold seller” who reportedly had the $250,000.00 in his possession.

But Fomba Sirleaf’s NSA had told former Justice Minister Christina Tah in a written statement that his “NSA agents seized from the South Koreans US counterfeit money in the amount of $49,500.00 and cyanide meant to both ruin the banking system and to commit terrorism in Liberia.”

And why didn’t the judge ask Fomba and his agents to produce the seized counterfeit money and the cyanide as evidence seized in their armed raid against the South Koreans is another mystery of government special “investigators.”

Therefore we should not be surprised if this golden boy son of President Sirleaf is not indicted again. But this case and other cases in which Fomba is linked can be revisited under a new President of Liberia by next year. Fomba’s luck will run out one day.

Jerry Wehtee Wion,
Journalist and Political Commentator
Washington, DC, USA

The Editor,

The families ( of Mr. Lawrence Gross & Mrs. Shelley K. Gross) can seek an independent second opinion or hire another reputable pathologist, say from the United States so that the hired Nigerian pathologist’s findings can be put to the test. It is also good to get a second or third opinion to put all doubts to rest.

And this quandary of a poor national healthcare system also speaks to why Liberia fits the label of a “failed state.” That an entirely sovereign state that was given over US $1 billion to upgrade its healthcare system two years ago in the wake of the Ebola epidemic does not have its own medical pathologist speaks volumes.

It means the Police/government does not have the ability to scientifically solve major crimes and questionable deaths where the cause of death becomes a guessing game like the deaths of this young couple from America What a national disgrace?

Yet, there are many college dropouts, some literally functional literates in government earning outrageous salaries of anywhere between US $100,000.00 to over $400,000.00 a year, but there is not a single medical doctor in Liberia perhaps earning anything close to US$100,000.00 a year.

I challenge the government to prove me wrong. Thus, issues of life and death matters surrounding suspicious crimes and or deaths go unsolved only to fuel the ever-present Liberian rumor mill of EL-THEY-SAY.

And after 11years in office with one year left, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s two top spin masters–Presidential Press Secretary J. Piah and Minister of Information and Propaganda Eugene Nagbe–last week were gloating about the “progress and accomplishments” of the Sirleaf regime. Liberia is doomed.

But President Sirleaf and the top cronies in her government have not had their blood pressure checked at any government funded medical center in Liberia; they all run to America and Europe each year for the best care money can buy, spending their people’s money.

This takes me back to my other recent comments that President Sirleaf’s oldest sister Jenny is both National Coordinator of Liberia’s health industries and Chairman, Board of Directors of the neglected government funded John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital, the main public referral medical center in Liberia.

This is the level to which Liberians have been reduced by a government that raised the hopes and aspirations of not only Liberians, but Africans and the worlld in general—President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is Liberia and Africa’s first woman president.

But Piah and Nagbe saw in Ellen the political messiah who has delivered Liberians to the Promised Land of everything desired and promised to Liberians in 2005 when she campaigned for the presidency: safe drinking water, electricity, good healthcare system, good all weather roads, good schools and good paying jobs where “Papa would come home from work with his bags full with food and goodies to make the family whole again and restore the long lost smiles of war battered children,” she promised the world in the presence of American First Lady Laura Bush and former Presidential National Security Advisor, Dr. Condoleezza Rice.

And Liberians are returning to the same rituals this year known as presidential elections and none of the nearly 20 candidates can promise Liberians that if elected, he/she would conduct a comprehensive audit of President Sirleaf and her entire government of 12 years.

We hope incoming US President Donald Trump will put a pause on American tax dollars to Liberia until following a full audit of the billions of dollars the American government has given to Liberia since the 14-year Liberian civil war ended in 2003.

If President Trump thinks there is swamp in Washington that needs draining only, he needs to drain the Liberian swamp which has been sucking American tax dollars since 1847, some 170 years now. President Trump will find out that some the political crocodiles in the Liberian swamp some have found their way to America with the stolen money meant help the poor in Liberia. Go get them Donald. I am mad because my tax dollars are unaccounted for also in Liberia.

Jerry Wehtee Wion, Washington, DC, USA

The Editor,

As Africa’s first independent Republic and 170 years old, we are still trying to figure out how to run clean, safe drinking water into pipes to our cities and towns from the abundance of our rivers and lakes. No one can survive without drinking water.

You can go on hunger strike for weeks and months but you will need water to survive that long. Shame that our government can’t provide this necessity for human survival for our people.

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf campaigned on providing safe drinking water and electricity for Liberians in six months upon taking office. It is 11 years now and still no water and electricity. But she and the cronies who run our government drink imported bottled water.

President Sirleaf has not had her blood pressure checked at any government funded medical center in Liberia since taking office on January 16, 2006.

She travels to America for the best in medical care made possible by American tax payers, and she uses our tax dollars to pay for her medical care in America each year. Ebola rightfully exposed the broken healthcare system in Liberia.

Our once national pride, the US-built and equipped John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Monrovia has been neglected to the extent that the place is not even fit to take your dog there for good treatment. African leaders on state visits to Liberia in pre-war era sought medical care at JFK Hospital.

The United States, United Nations, European Union, World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, all pumped over a billion dollars into our broken healthcare system during the Ebola crisis. Where is all that money now?

President Sirleaf’s oldest sister Jenny Bernard is National Coordinator for the nation’s health services, and doubles as Chair of the Board of Directors of the John F Kennedy Memorial Hospital. Jenny and the Sirleaf Clan are into every money making business in Liberia: telecommunications, oil, gold and diamond, logging and they even own a bank.

Ellen is President but big sister Jenny is the Prime Minister. Jenny’s husband Estrada, who both spend most of their time in their Long Island, New York Mansion, is both Legal Advisor and also National Security Advisor to sister-in-law and President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Beloveth son Robert Sirleaf is Economic Advisor to mom President Sirleaf.

In addition, Robert was head of the National Oil Company of Liberia with his $360,000.00 a year salary, and NOCAL went bankrupt a year after Robert left. Mom President swears her Golden Boy son will not not be audited, let alone indicted for running NOCAL into bankruptcy.

Another beloveth son, Prince Charles is put in charge of our money as Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Liberia.

The figurehead Governor proper answers to Prince Charles. Another son, Fomba Sirleaf’s job is keep mom’s critics and perceived political enemies in check, terrorizing them if necessary. Fomba is Director of the dreaded and notorious National Security Agency (NSA).

Another beloveth son runs a family-owned bank, and brother Carney is a big gold and diamond tycoon. More on the Sirleaf Clan to come.

Jerry Wehtee Wion,
lanswion515@gmail.com
Washington, DC, USA

Liberia now runs on a three-tier class system society: the tiny rich powerful congua, the corrupt overpaid big shots who are enjoying in the government both congua and native, and the poor masses majority of whom are the long suffering tribal people. Every Liberian back home fits into one of the three categories.

Go back to Christmas 2005 which would be three weeks before President-elect Ellen Johnson took office and the mood was festive with great anticipation that the end was near in the suffering of the Liberian people. Ellen Sirleaf never missed a beat to raise the expectations of the people, trumpeting her credentials as the person would deliver Liberians to the promised land of peace, happiness and self-sufficiency in things to come: jobs, water, electricity, good hospitals, roads, schools, national reconciliation and Economic buoyancy.

“Liberia is not a poor country but a country run poorly”, she was thundered then. Then upon taking office on January 16, 2006, in front of foreign dignitaries, she promised the full restoration of electricity, pipe-borne safe drinking water in six months, meaning by Independence Day July 26, 2006. In attendance were American First Lady Laura Bush, White House National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and the richest black American woman Oprah Winfrey.

Everything or dream is achievable with her at the leadership helm of the country if, and a big IF, we are determined to defeat the country’s number enemy: Corruption. She then declared “war on corruption as enemy number one.” The corruption enemy has taken our leaders prisoners of war (POW).

Looking back now, how some wish they didn’t put the cart before the horse. Sadly, words, once spoken can’t be taken back. This is why smart politicians watch their words and don’t talk too much and that their actions speak for them. Too little, too late for others.

The promises would include that the dwindling father population decimated during the war would mean they would take center stage as the engine that restores the breadwinner role in the family. Ellen promised “Papa new good paying jobs and would come home from work with his bags full with goodies to restore the long lost smiles of his children and family.” Papa is still looking for job and many refused to return home because of the shame.

11 Christmases later and this possible misprint in the Frontpageafrica headline: “Jingle, Jingle, HARD CHRISTMAS” and the heart-wrenching stories by Liberians at a time of the year when people are to be jolly? Yet, there are those who don’t feel the pain of the economically hard pressed Liberians; the top one percent in government who have enriched themselves with their New York City Wall Street-like salaries ranging from $100,000.00 to $400,000.00 in a failed state like Liberia. Christmas has been good to them since Ellen took office.

This also is the time that good Santa presidential candidates should show their juice and be visiting the forgotten slum residents in vote rich communities of West Point, Clara Town, New Kru Town, Soniwhen, Sinkor Old Road, Bassa Community, Logan Town in good Christmas spirits Ch politicking dropping off bags of rice, meat, chickens and cooking oil. May God continue to have mercy on the poor, war traumatized, poverty-stricken, disease-infected, hungry Liberians while the rich big shots eat steak and drink whisky this sad Christmas.

Jerry Wehtee Wion,
Journalist and Political Commentator
Washington, DC, USA

The Editor,

“Public interest, public interest and public interest.” This is the message meant not only for most of our half-baked pseudo-intellectuals and constitutional-defect driven and self-serving public officials who see themselves as masters and not servants of THE PEOPLE. I hope this sends a powerful message to our elected officials in all three branches of government who love to sue journalists.

Bravo radio talk show host Henry Costa, and to the American judge for driving sense into the heads of Liberia’s Public Works Minister Gyude Moore and others bent on seeking self-glorification at the expense of the long suffering and marginalized press in Liberia.

Public officials can’t sue the media for acts they are accused of committing–true or not– as long as the information is for public consumption or in the public interest. We have had many instances of public officials in Liberia suing journalists and media institutions.

Even President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf did sue Liberian journalists. And most of our officials went to school here in America and should know better. The same goes for Justices on our Supreme Court and in the National Legislature.

But this ruling by this American judge won’t deter Liberian government officials because Liberian democracy is an exception to the norm or is different, and why after 170 years of so-called independence, Liberia is still Africa’s first failed experiment at genuine democracy on the Continent.

Imagine how many lawsuits that could have been filed here in American courts from the just concluded American presidential elections by the various candidates from what each said of the others? It would have been a bonanza or Christmas for lawyers. That is the beauty of American democracy but we in Liberia who modeled our democracy after the American system have yet to catch on.

Thus again, what is the “public interest” as stated by the American judge? It is “in furtherance of the right of advocacy on issues of public interest. Any written or oral statement made by: (1) In connection with an issue under consideration or review by a legislative, executive or judicial body, or any official proceeding authorized by law; or (2) In a place open to the public or a public forum in connection with an issue of public interest; or (B) Any other expression or expressive conduct that involves petitioning the government or communicating views to members of the public in connection with an issue of public interest.”

Thus the American judge/court dismissed the case of Public Works Minister Gyude Moore against radio talk show host Henry Costa. However Minister Moore is entitled to an appeal, even all the way to the US Supreme Court. Is the Supreme Court of Liberia listening, as well as other courts and judges in Liberia, and law professors at the University of Liberia Arthur Grimes School Of Law? Good that Moore sued in America and not in Liberia where he probably would have “won” his case.

Jerry Wehtee Wion,
Journalist and Political Commentator
Washington, DC, USA

The Editor,

The CDC does not need Senator Jewel Taylor and her husband, the jailed former dictator Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic Party to win any elections, but a coalition with other politicians with “clean hands” will greatly help the chances of the CDC.

This has been my argument since, and I wish the CDC would look behind the notion of guilt-by-association as Vice President Joe Boakai is being painted with the brush of corruption.

When has a Vice President wielded any power in Africa, let alone in Liberia under these absolute dictators that roam the Continent?

Vice Presidents historically in Africa and in Liberia in particular are the equivalent of the “good old boys”, never to be seen as a menace to the all-powerful Presidents.

This is the dilemma in which poor country boy Joe Boakai finds himself. He therefore becomes the logical coalition partner with Senator George Weah and the CDC to win in a first round knockout in 2017, provided the CDC cuts its ties to the NPP and other shady political characters who want to ride the political coattails of the popular Senator Weah.

The argument that Mr. Weah has the right to associate with the convicted former President Taylor, his wife and whatever is left of the once repressive NPP is to commit political suicide and kiss the presidency goodbye.

Like it or not, the road to the Liberian Presidency goes through Washington, DC. If the CDC is smart enough to realize this, its best route to the Liberian Presidency is to tag team with Vice President Joseph N. Boakai, unless the CDC is prepared to wait it out another 12 to 24 years.

I say these things because events in Liberia are shaped by forces outside of Liberia. Just this week, the Liberian Ambassador to the United Nations, Lewis Brown appealed to the United NationSs to allow the UN Peacekeepers in Liberia to remain in Liberia until a new President takes over from failed, lame duck President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

Who do you think pays for the salaries of the peacekeepers who have been in Liberia since 2003? Which country contributes the bulk of the UN operating budgets?

The United States taxpayers. Which country has been babysitting Liberia since 1822?

The United States of America. Which President told Liberian dictator Charles Taylor to pack up and leave Liberia in 2003?

US President George Bush. Which country provides the most financial aid to Liberia each year? The United States. Which country does the National Elections Commission of Liberia run to most for money and logistics to conduct elections?

The United States of America. Now think hard.

But there is a new no nonsense Sheriff in the White House.

His name? Donald Trump. He is about to shut down the US free money pipeline to rogue regimes around the world. Consider the party over.

I hope some of our friends in the CDC will pay attention to these warnings.

A small shame is better than a big shame. Senator George Weah and the CDC have far more in common with VP Boakai than with Jewel Taylor and the NPP. I hope it won’t come down to “I told you so.”

Jerry Wehtee Wion,
Journalist and Political Commentator,
Washington, DC, USA

Wow, Charles Taylor’s former National Security Advisor John T. Richardson is preaching and predicting chaos and instability because according to him, “I’ll challenge this government to prove it is taking us to free and fair elections.”

Thus, the need for an interim government.

If a John Yarkpawolo had said what John Richardson said, he would be charged with treason and sedition.

Activists Jefferson Koijee, Vandalark Patricks and opposition party leader Simeon Freeman and others were either arrested, ordered to appear before the Police or went into exile for lesser utterances. Will Richardson be summoned to “clarify” his doom and gloom prediction?

Mr. Richardson saw no evil, heard no evil and spoke no evil as security adviser to Charles Taylor during Taylor’s murderous regime he was part of. And he can call Allan White a racist all he wants because he too will one day join Taylor for the war and economic crimes they committed in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Mr. Richardson, it is interesting to note, must know those Allan White said talked to Charles Taylor because “they want to know how Taylor won 76% of the votes” when their NPP campaign slogan was “he killed my pa, he killed my ma but I will vote for him.”

Richardson: “You’ll be a fool to think you could be President of this country (Liberia) if you don’t ask Charles Taylor how he did it. And people are sitting around talking about they (are) shame. Oh no, they are denying it. How stupid can they be?”

Richardson obviously knows more about those who are seeking Taylor’s advice on how to win elections in Liberia and they should stop denying they talked to Taylor.

This goes to Rep. Acarous Gray and others challenging “Racist Allan White” to provide evidence of any contacts with Mr. Taylor who are “denying it.”

So when did John Richardson begin to know the importance of holding free and fair elections in Liberia?

It is like pot calling tea kettle black. If Mr. Richardson wants retributive and retroactive justice for Africa from America then he should set up his African Slave Trade Reparations Tribunal and arrest Americans who he deems responsible for slavery.

Richardson is beginning to sound like his now imprisoned former boss Charles Taylor who cried bluff when talks for his arrest and prosecution first surfaced for the crimes committed in Sierra Leone. And now the need for a Liberia War and Economic Crimes is as real as night and day and he is worried.

Already, some Liberians who confessed to funding the civil war are secretly pleading with the International Criminal Court for immunity and clemency on the basis of gender, age and positions in government.

But they were told a resounding no. Richardson, no doubt, knows he can run but can’t hide from justice because war crimes carry out statute of limitation.

This is why the next President of Liberia will be someone who had no role in the war and is not in bed with Charles Taylor, his NPP and its frightened members.

Richardson knows the Liberians who are talking to Taylor to seek his advice on how to win elections by 76 percent of votes.

My confidential source close to what was the inner core or Executive and Military Wing of the NFL rebel faction called me to say President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf knows better and won’t dare touch John T. Richardson.

The source says Richardson belongs to the “elite” class of the NFL that included Charles Taylor, Charles Bright, Koko Dennis, Tom Woewiyu and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf herself as head of the civilian face and chief financier of the rebel faction.

My source: “Not only will Ellen not touch John Richardson, because he Richardson is mad that Ellen double-crossed or sold out on the group when she Ellen turned Taylor over that he is now spending the rest of his life in jail,” he told me.

He then added: “Richardson is capable along with the others in causing trouble for Ellen and they have some money they are sitting on in Monrovia enough to create problems during the election. They did not and could not take their money out of Liberia for fear they may never get it again,” he said.

My source noted that Richardson is most probably in contact with Mr. Taylor and he could be getting his cues from Taylor about creating chaos during the elections.

“Besides Richardson being a Congua for which Ellen could not arrest him, but also because he, Taylor, Ellen and others constituted the the core of the NFL. In addition, his (Richardson) father wrote the book ‘Liberia Past and Present,” my source told me.

He said it is possible that Taylor contacted those named by Allan White through the urging of Richardson and others in the NPP and could create chaos if their preferred candidate is not declared winner and then cry foul, fraud and a rigged elections, the source confided in me.

He said “Richardson and his cohorts in the NPFL are scared to death they could join Charles Taylot in jail, yhus his rants againdt Mr. White.

Richardson presentation or interview was poor and not professional but that his outburst should not be taken lightly, he is a smart guy but an angry person at Ellen Johnson Sirleaf,” my source noted.

Jerry Wehtee Wion,
Journalist and Political Commentator
Washington, DC, USA

The Editor,

When human life doesn’t seem to matter anymore in Liberia and those charged with safeguarding and protecting life doesn’t seem to care – it seems.

Does the police/government keep record on lives lost by these senseless tragedies: deaths from car accidents, deaths from poor care/treatment in hospitals of patients, rapes, domestic violence, violence of any nature, unexplained deaths (strokes, heart attacks, various forms of cancers, autopsies of all deaths both natural and otherwise or when we blame it on the unproven “witchcraft”?

And why didn’t the President demonstrate some compassion by returning home immediately upon hearing of such tragedy? This is why we have ministers and Ambassadors to represent her.

And how many foreign trips has the world’s most traveled Head of State Ellen Johnson taken out of Liberia since January 16, 2006, and please add the cost/dollar value to every country she has visited. We pray that the Foreign Ministry should safeguard this public record, or we may have to get it from the American Embassy.

Just a thought and not a sermon

Jerry Wehtee Wion,
 Journalist and Political Commentator
Washington, DC, USA

The Editor

There is an unanswered million dollar question by the CDC, the well-respected Professor Wilson Tarpeh and Representative Acarous Gray: Is the leader of the Congress for Democratic Change, Senator George Manneh Weah in contact with convicted war criminal, former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor to sway the outcome in the coming presidential elections and to avert a future Liberia War and Economic Crimes Court ?

The answer is either yes or no, then if yes, dwell into the justification later if he contacted Mr. Taylor. A no is a no, period.

It is irreverent whether Mr. Allan White is a paid lobbyist for Mr. Beninoi Urey or not. This is not the issue at stake. What is at stake is the serious allegations that a wealthy convicted former Liberian President is attempting to sway the outcome in a pending election.

That both Mr. Tarpeh and Rep. Gray could not emphatically answer the question leaves more room for speculation, and Mr. White is under no legal obligation to provide any “evidence” in any public debate unless in a competent court of law when it becomes necessary.

From my advantageous point as a Liberian journalist based in Washington with very reliable, diplomatic and intelligence sources in the US government, true or not, but I have been given additional information on the alleged contact between Mr. Weah and Mr. Taylor and his operatives.

Money is also said to have exchanged hands from Mr. Taylor’s operatives to Mr. George Weah, initially about $100,000.00 delivered in Morocco and perhaps a million dollars more pending or already delivered to the CDC to have Mrs. Jewel Taylor on the ticket as Vice President to Mr. Weah. Where there is smoke, fire certainly is lurking underneath.

On the reported phone contact between Ambassador/Senator George Weah and Mr. Taylor, former NPFL General Daniel Bracewell is said to have initiated the call to Mr. Taylor on General Bracewell’s own private phone.

The call was reportedly made from Senator Weah’s house from a bathroom. Those present at the time and supposedly spoke with Mr. Taylor are Mr. Bracewell, Senator Weah, Representative Alex Tyler, the Chairman of Alex Tyler’s LPDP, the Chairman of Senator Jewel Taylor’s Nation Patriotic Party (NPP) and the former Chairman of the powerful House Was and Means Committee, Representative Kollie.

I have said and will say this again: the CDC does not need the NPP and other shady Liberian characters to win any election in Liberia. There is more to winning elections than being the largest, grassroots mass-based opposition political party in Liberia. You also need Washington’s political and economic blessings to win and govern in Liberia. This is what the CDC must realize now and should govern itself accordingly.

The CDCians must also ask themselves why are both men who prosecuted Mr. Charles Taylor,—Allan White and Stephen Rapp—coming out in the same week to talk about the importance of a future Liberia War and Economic Crimes Court? Doesn’t that send a signal that Uncle Sam is very concerned and is monitoring events in Liberia? No individual, President or otherwise, in Liberia will be elected to the presidency if he or she is not on good terms with Washington, period.

I have admonished and continue to urge the CDC and Senator Weah to try and work out a collaborative deal with Vice President Joseph Boakai who both didn’t have any role to play in the civil war, but critics of Mr. Boakai continue to paint him with the guilty brush of association of corruption in the Unity Party.

Mr. Boakai is minus the Unity Party and it is no secret why President Ellen Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is reportedly not supporting him but instead she is supporting Mr. Charles Brumskine of the Liberty Party. But good luck to both Mr. Weah and Mr. Boakai.

Senator Weah himself needs to address these serious allegations of his reported ties to Mr. Charles Taylor, or it may well derail his presidential dreams. CDC should know better that the United States has the capability to monitor, be it the phone contacts, Internet transactions, travels and banking and financial dealings of every Liberian, period. The media is not a court for Mr. Allan to provide evidence of Mr. Weah’s alleged contacts with Mr. Taylor.

The United States is and has been the babysitting Liberia and will get its way regardless. As for Beninoi Urey being an errand boy of Charles Taylor, well, the United States has permanent interests and NOT permanent friends.

Just ask Saddam Hussein of Iraq, Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, Manuel Noriega of Panama and even William R. Tolbert of Liberia. And like it or not, there will be a Liberia War and Economic Crimes Court and neither the NPP nor Mr. Charles’s Taylor will prevent it.