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Recent Appearances...

Europe

EU Ministers Vow Syria 'War Criminals' Won't Go Unpunished

2021-04-02

[PUBLISH.TWITTER]

EU Ministers Vow #Syria 'War Criminals' Won't Go Unpunished https://t.co/AskhhnAE7s
— Asharq Al-Awsat English (@aawsat_eng) April 1, 2021

So how's Prince Johnson doing these days?

Link

Home Front: Politix

Rosenstein says he wouldn’t approve Russia warrant now

2020-06-04

[APNEWS] Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told lawmakers Wednesday that he would not have approved an FBI surveillance application for a former Trump campaign aide during the Russia investigation had he known at the time about the problems that have since been revealed.
But he did approve it then, the consequential results including political sliming of innocent men, personal bankruptcies of victims, and inflaming political passions to the detriment of the nation as a whole. Prince Johnson is really sorry he videotaped Samuel Doe being tortured and castrated. He's a preacher now, and reformed. Samuel Doe, on the other hand, remains deader than Tut, and his agonies can't be undone.
Rosenstein’s comments amounted to a striking concession that law enforcement officials made mistakes as they scrutinized ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Motive is key. If you do things on purpose they're not "mistakes." If they had been mistakes nothing would have happened after a short initial investigation.

But even as he acknowledged the legitimacy of anger from Trump and his allies, he defended his appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller to lead the probe and affirmed his support for the conclusion that Russia interfered but did not criminally conspire with associates of the Trump campaign.
If Russian "interference" was confined to phony Facebook accounts and a bunch of bots, what was the need for a special prosecutor targeting the Trump administration? Why was Mueller given carte blanche?
“I do not consider the investigation to be corrupt,
That's a rose colored view. It was corrupt on its face, and now the facts are out to back up that statement.
but I understand the president’s frustration given the outcome that there was no evidence” of a conspiracy between the campaign and Russia, Rosenstein said.
Golly. I'll bet Trump also recognizes the frustrations of Adam Schiff, San Fran Nan, and Jerry Nadler.
His appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee was for the first in a series of oversight hearings scrutinizing the FBI’s Russia investigation and the law enforcement officials involved. With subpoena authority expected to be granted this week, the hearing served as the opening salvo of the GOP’s election-year congressional investigation into what they say are damaging findings about the Russia probe from an inspector general review.
What went around is what's coming around, y'say?

The president’s allies have taken fresh aim at the Russia investigation over the last year, pointing to newly declassified information to allege that Trump and his associates were unfairly pursued. They have also claimed vindication from the Justice Department’s decision to dismiss the case against ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn and at times advanced unsupported theories against Obama administration officials.
Umm... Three words there: "January Fifth Meeting."
“We’re going to look backward so we can move forward,” committee chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said in explaining the purpose for the hearings. “If you don’t like Trump, fine, but this is not about Trump or not liking Trump. This is about moving forward as a nation.”
Damage is done. Time to sift through the wreckage.
Graham also questioned whether Mueller should have been appointed at all. Rosenstein said he believed there was a sufficient basis for the investigation when he appointed Mueller in May 2017, but when Graham asked if he would agree that by that August, there was “no there there,” Rosenstein said yes.
May 2017 was five months into the administration. If I recall correctly, the calls for impeachment started coming a month before Trump was inaugurated.
Democrats lamented the hearing’s politically charged and retrospective nature, saying Republicans were attempting to refocus attention away from more urgent problems, including unrest in cities set off by the death of George Floyd and the coronavirus pandemic.
"Let's just Move On®. It's all in the past. We were all so much younger then!"

“This hearing wastes this committee’s time in a blatant effort to support the president’s conspiracy theories and to help the president’s reelection,” said Democratic Sen. Mazie 'We Democrats know so much that we tend to alienate voters' Hirono of Hawaii.
Good to hear from the Sage of Honolulu. I don't recall her wanting to concentrate on problems of the moment during the patently biased witch hunts, the targeted events of which were coincidentally in the past when the fishing expedition began.
The hearing delved into detail in two areas that Trump allies have recently seized on to challenge the conduct of law enforcement.
Law enforcement has no place in politix, regardless of anyone's personal opinions. Law enforcement's job is to umm... enforce the laws.
Rosenstein was pressed repeatedly about his decision to sign off on the fourth and final application for a warrant to eavesdrop on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page on suspicion that he was a Russian agent.

That's Carter Page, the sometime FBI asset...
Page has denied wrongdoing and was never charged with a crime, and a Justice Department inspector general report identified significant errors and omissions in each of the applications submitted to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
Just little details that an assistant attorney general couldn't be expected to catch.
The watchdog said the FBI relied in part for its applications on a dossier of information compiled by a former British spy whose research was funded by Democrats and the Hillary Clinton campaign. The FBI used the dossier even though agents were aware of the possibility that it could have been colored by Russian disinformation and omitted information that called into question allegations they were making in the application.
Nobody thought the idea of Trump hiring hookers to pee on the bed Obama had slept in was umm... out of line? Unlikely?
Asked by Graham if he would have signed the warrant application knowing what he knows now, Rosenstein replied, “No, I would not.”

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Africa Subsaharan

ICE Deports Former Liberian Security Forces Commander Living In The US

2020-04-30

[DAILYCALLER] Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday repatriated a member of a rebel forces group involved in human rights
...not to be confused with individual rights, mind you...
violations back to his native country.

Escorted by ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations officers, 56-year-old Alexander Mentol Zinnah boarded an ICE deportation flight and was handed over to Liberian law enforcement authorities, according to a blurb from the agency. The removal marked the latest significant deportation by ICE, even in the face of a worldwide pandemic that has scaled back most air travel.

Before arriving in the United States, Zinnah was a military and law enforcement official under former Liberian President

Charles Chuck Taylor
The former President-for-Life of Liberia, of whom the best that could be said was that he wasn't quite as horrible as Prince Johnson, at least not usually.
, who is serving a 50-year prison sentence for human rights abuses.

A probe by ICE’s Homeland Security Investigation (HSI) unit first revealed that he was a member of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia, a rebel organization led by Taylor that committed a number of human rights abuses — including massacres, kidnappings and torture. Zinnah had also been a member of the Liberian National Police and even served as a commander during Taylor’s time in office.

HSI arrested Zinnah in 2017 for immigration violations and for violating his parole into the country. The Liberian national had attempted to fight the deportation order.

A U.S. immigration court slapped Zinnah with a final order of removal in May 2019. He lodged an appeal of the decision, but that request was shot down by the Board of Immigration appeals in January, and his request to be released from custody was also dismissed in February.

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Africa Subsaharan

Liberia: Man Found Guilty of 'War Crimes' Was Granted SA Visa, Court Hears

2017-12-09

[All Africa] A man, convicted of being an accessory to war crimes for selling weapons to former Liberian president

Charles Chuck Taylor
The former President-for-Life of Liberia, of whom the best that could be said was that he wasn't quite as horrible as Prince Johnson, at least not usually.
, was issued with a temporary visa to stay in South Africa until 2020.

This emerged in the Cape Town Magistrate's Court on Friday during the appearance of 75-year-old Augustinus Petrus Kouwenhoven.

Kouwenhoven was jugged
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
in Fresnaye at 08:00, ahead of his possible extradition and handover to Dutch authorities.

He was surrounded by coppers as he walked to the courtroom and waited for his appearance.

Prosecutor Christopher Burke told Magistrate Phakama Madinda that a Dutch court had found Kouwenhoven guilty of war crimes, arms trading and crimes against humanity.

The Dutch government made a request for his provisional arrest, and warrants were obtained and executed in Cape Town on Friday morning.

The prosecution indicated that it would oppose bail and said it needed time to prepare for a bail hearing.

A runaway from justice

"The State has reason to believe that Mr Kouwenhoven is a runaway from justice which makes him a flight risk," Burke said.

The law usually allows a seven-day remand for bail to be obtained.

Burke proposed a compromise that involved keeping the accused in the Sea Point police cells until Tuesday so that the State could gather the information they needed.

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Africa Subsaharan

Liberia: George Weah Distances CDC From 'NPP, Charles Taylor Agenda'

2017-10-27

[All Africa] George Weah, political leader of CDC, upon his return from Nigeria, Wednesday October 25, refuted the notion that his party is a movement to bring Mr Taylor back to the country.

"CDC has its own agenda. The CDC agenda is not an NPP agenda. CDC's agenda is not a Taylor agenda.

"Our vision for this country which we have clearly explained since the 2005 elections are about an inclusive form of government with everyone has equal access to opportunities and resources" - George Manneh Weah, Standard Bearer, CDC

"This is the lowest level that our opponents have taken the national politics," he stressed.

He further told his opponents that they should have been informing Liberians about how they intend to make their (Liberians) lives better after being in power for 12 years and squandered everything rather they are there spreading falsehood that

Charles Chuck Taylor
The former President-for-Life of Liberia, of whom the best that could be said was that he wasn't quite as horrible as Prince Johnson, at least not usually.
will influence him when he is elected President.

Link

Africa Subsaharan

Prince Johnson Tips Weah Over Boakai for Liberia's Presidential Run-off

2017-10-27

[All Africa] Senator Prince Y. Johnson (MDR, NIMBA) Standard Bearer of the Movement for Democratic Reconstruction today endorsed the candidacy of football legend-turned Senator George Manneh Weah, dealing a major blow to Vice President Joseph Nyumah Boakai's bid to succeed Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.

The next government, he said would needs to stop the importation of rice and invest in mechanized farming in order to make our country self-reliant in food production. "I know that no one party can solve all these problems alone. That is why we must all join in to make the Liberian dream a reality. We must also continue to promote the doctrine of freedom of speech and civil liberties for all Liberians and strangers within our borders. WE must lend our support to elect that government that will be "for the people, of the people and by the people"!

Senator Johnson said he was grateful to the Almighty God for the peaceful conduct of the October 10, 2017 General Elections of which he was a candidate for the Presidency and hailed the National Elections Commission and the Liberian people for their strong commitment to peace and democracy.

In the June 2009 final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission(TRC), which was established as part of the 2003 peace deal, the TRC recommended Johnson's inclusion on a list of 50 people who should be "specifically barred from holding public offices; elected or appointed for a period of thirty (30) years" for "being associated with former warring factions."

Johnson labelled the recommendation a "joke," noting the absence of several other combatants from the list, and vowed to resist any charges brought as a result of the report.

Johnson finished fourth in the just-ended first round after securing 127,666 votes for 8.2 percent. It remains to be seen how much his backing of Weah, who won the first round with 596,037 votes for 38.4 percent, will impact the run-off.
This is the very same Prince Johnson who tortured the late President Samuel Doe to death and videotaped it. He and Charles Taylor and a few other bad guyz then proceeded to tear Liberia apart in a vicious civil war that went on for what felt like forever but only stretched from 1989 through 1997 and resulted in the rule of Chuck Taylor and the death of about a quarter million people....

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Africa Subsaharan

Liberia counts votes in historic election

2017-10-12

[Al Jazeera] Across Liberia votes are being counted to determine the country's next president and legislators.

Polls closed at 6pm local time (18:00 GMT) on Tuesday and a provincial declaration is expected within the next 24 hours.

However, the electoral body has until October 25 to declare a winner or announce a runoff for the presidency.

A runoff seems likely as unofficial reports from the Liberia Broadcasting System suggest ex-footballer George Weah and current Vice President Joseph Boakai are leading.

A candidate must get at least 50 percent of the vote to be declared the winner. The peaceful vote will see the west African country's first democratic transition of power in more than 70 years.

Should there be a runoff, the winner is slated to be announced on November 8.

Al Jazeera's Ahmed Idris, reporting from the capital Monrovia, said Liberians were "enthusiastic and passionate" about the elections.

"They want to see a new government that can address the critical issues in their lives: funding infrastructure, like roads, health care, education, and building upon the relative peace in Liberia over the last 12 years."

Twenty candidates are running to replace incumbent president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf who was held the role for 12 years, the maximum amount of time allowed by the country's constitution.

Johnson Sirleaf was the first elected head of state in Africa.
A nonsense statement. Liberia's first elected president was Joseph Jenkins Roberts, in January 1848. President Johnson Sirleaf was the first president elected after the civil war set off by the the military coup of Sgt. Samuel Doe that resulted in the death of elected president William R. Tolbert. Doe was tortured to death by Prince Johnson, who then had to fight over the spoils with Chuck Taylor. Perhaps the writer meant that Sirleaf was the first female elected head of state in Africa. I can't think of another one, but that might only be because I'm too lazy to look it up.
In 2011, she was a joint recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for her "non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peacebuilding work," following Liberia's bloody 14-year civil war, which came to an end in 2003.

Speaking on Monday, she urged Liberians to "vote for the person and persons you believe will make Liberia a better place. The world will be watching. Let's make them proud."

About 2.2 million Liberians registered to vote, slightly less than half of the country's population.

Link

Africa North

Rocket attack on UN camp in Mali kills one, wounds 9

2017-05-04

[AlAhram] Shelling and rocket fire on a UN camp in Mali's troubled Timbuktu killed one yet to be identified person and maimed nine peacekeepers, the United Nations
...a formerly good idea gone bad...
mission said Wednesday.

It is the latest attack to hit the mission, known as MINSUMA, stationed in the country since 2013 and considered its most dangerous active peacekeeping deployment.

"A mortar and rocket attack was launched against the MINUSMA camp in Timbuktu," a UN statement said.

"The provisional toll is nine maimed among the peacekeepers, four seriously who are being evacuated to Bamako. The attack also killed one person, they are still being identified," it added.

The UN mission said it had reinforced the camp's defences and deployed air cover to identify where the enemy fire had originated, describing it as a "terrorist" attack.

Sweden's armed forces confirmed one of its soldiers was maimed, though not severely. "A Swedish soldier was lightly injured and is now being cared for by the Swedish medical unit," it said in a statement.

Liberia's armed forces, who also have peacekeepers among the mission, also confirmed "several injuries and other casualties", according to Prince Johnson, deputy chief of staff, but would not specify more.

"We are investigating the matter," he added.

Northern Mali fell to Islamist Lion of Islam groups linked to al-Qaeda in March 2012, and although these forces were driven out of key towns by a French-led military intervention the following year, the Islamists have now spread further south.

The 13,000-strong UN mission was deployed to provide security and assist Malian troops struggling to keep the country safe, but it has been targeted constantly by Islamist Lion of Islams, with dozens of peacekeepers killed.

Three Malian Islamist Lion of Islam groups with previous al-Qaeda links recently joined forces to create the "Group to Support Islam and Moslems" (GSIM), led by Iyad Ag Ghaly of Ansar Dine
...a mainly Tuareg group that controlled areas of Mali's northern desert together with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and MUJAO in early 2012...
, and have killed Malian soldiers further east near the Burkina Faso
...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other...
border.

Nine Malian soldiers were killed and five maimed Tuesday, an attack that has become near routine in the country's north and centre.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

US names Syrian generals linked to attacks on civilians

2016-11-22

[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The United States on Monday named a dozen Syrian generals and officers accused of leading attacks on civilian targets in the five-year war and warned they would one day face justice.

US Ambassador Samantha Power said the military commanders were involved in "killing and injuring civilians" with assaults on schools, hospitals and homes since the outbreak of the war in 2011.

"The United States will not let those who have commanded units involved in these actions hide anonymously behind the facade of the Assad regime," Power told the Security Council.

Among those named were five major generals -- Adib Salameh, Jawdat Salbi Mawas, Tahir Hamid Khalil, Jamil Hassan and Rafiq Shihadeh -- along with five brigadier generals and two colonels.

The council met as Syrian and Russian warplanes pounded rebel-held parts of northern Syria including Aleppo, where food rations were running out in the besieged eastern part of the city.

"Those behind such attacks must know that we in the international community are watching their actions, documenting their abuses and one day they will be held accountable," said Power.

"These individuals feel impunity," she said, warning that so did former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic and Liberian warlord

Charles Chuck Taylor
The former President-for-Life of Liberia, of whom the best that could be said was that he wasn't quite as horrible as Prince Johnson, at least not usually.
who faced trial for war crimes.

"Today’s atrocities are well-documented and the civilized world’s memories are long," she said.

UN aid chief Stephen O’Brien told the council that nearly one million people were living under siege in Syria, revising figures from six months ago that showed nearly half a million Syrians were cut off.

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Africa Subsaharan

Ethnic clashes in Guinea leave dozens wounded

2013-07-16

[Al Ahram] Dozens of people were maimed Monday in ethnic festivities in the west African state of Guinea, officials told AFP, after petrol station guards killed a youth from a rival tribe.

A police source said the violence broke out in the southern forest region when the guards from the Guerze tribe accused the youth, an ethnic Konianke, of stealing before torturing and beating him.

The victim's family told their fellow Konianke tribespeople who "rose up against these medieval practices" in the town of Koule, the source said.

The violence spread to the nearby scenic provincial capital N'Zerekore, 570 kilometres (350 miles) southeast of Conakry, leaving dozens injured and several homes destroyed.

Security forces deployed to break up the fighting had been unable to restore calm in N'Zerekore by the afternoon, witnesses told AFP, while the police source said there were "dozens maimed by machetes".

"The two communities are now fighting with machetes, axes, sticks and stones. I cannot say the exact number of casualties in the districts or even the number in hospital. The situation is extremely serious," he added.

"Since the festivities broke out in Koule overnight and moved to N'Zerekore, we have registered one death and at least 50 injured, 20 in Koule and 30 in N'Zerekore," a hospital source told AFP.

Communal violence is common in the region, near the border with Liberia, where festivities between the two tribes regularly break out over religious and other grievances. The indigenous Guerze are mostly Christian or animist, while the Koniankes -- seen as newcomers -- are Moslems considered to be close to Liberia's Mandingo ethnic community.

In Liberia's civil war, which ended in 2003, rebels fighting the forces of then president

Charles Chuck Taylor
The former President-for-Life of Liberia, of whom the best that could be said was that he wasn't quite as horrible as Prince Johnson, at least not usually.
drew much of their support from the Mandingo community.

The Guerze, known as Kpelle in Liberia, were generally considered to be supporters of forces loyal to Taylor, who was locked away
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
last year for "aiding and abetting" war crimes in neighbouring Sierra Leone.

Link

Africa Subsaharan

Liberia's Charles Taylor appeals war crimes sentence

2013-01-23

[FRANCE24] Liberia's former president

Charles Taylor
The former President-for-Life of Liberia, of whom the best that could be said was that he wasn't quite as horrible as Prince Johnson, at least not usually.
launched an appeal Tuesday against a 50-year sentence handed down by a UN court in May for his role in aiding the rebels responsible for war crimes during Sierra Leone's decade-long civil war.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

UN official says no to Syria amnesty

2012-06-03

[Al Ahram] The UN's top human rights
When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much...
official said Saturday that there should be no amnesty for serious crimes committed in Syria, even if the threat of prosecution might motivate members of the regime to cling to power at all costs.
Asked if Syrian

Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Supressor of the Damascenes...
should be allowed to leave power in exchange for safe haven, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said international leaders seeking peace may be drawn to "politically expedient solutions which may involve amnesty or undertakings not to prosecute."

But she said that would be wrong under international law.

"You cannot have amnesty for very serious crimes," she told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named during an interview in Brussels. "So my message is very clear -- there has to be accountability."

Lawyers for former Liberian President

Charles Taylor
The former President-for-Life of Liberia, of whom the best that could be said was that he wasn't quite as horrible as Prince Johnson, at least not usually.
, who was sentenced Wednesday by the Special Court for Sierra Leone to 50 years in prison, had argued that giving him a long sentence would send the wrong message to Assad.

Courtenay Griffiths, an attorney for Taylor, criticized the court for refusing while setting Taylor's sentence to take into account his decision to step down from power after his indictment in 2003.

"What lesson does that send to President Assad?" Griffiths asked. "Maybe the lesson is: If you are a sitting leader and the international community wants to get rid of you, either you get murdered like Qadaffy, or you hang on until the bitter end." Libyan leader Muammar Qadaffy
... one of those little rainstorms from the Arab Spring...
was killed by a mob in October.

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