By Philipbert Semogai Browne
PART 2
The United States Ambassador accredited to Monrovia, John William Blaney, after presenting his credentials to the President of Liberia at the Executive Mansion, would request an audience with the President of the Republic, H.E Charles G. Taylor.
The audience with Pres. Taylor was to deliver a special message from his superiors in Washington DC. Which was immediately granted. Amb. Blaney insisted that only the First Lady of Liberia, Madam Jewel Howard Taylor, should be in attendance. The closed door meeting lasted a bit over thirty minutes. After their close door meeting, the Ambassador, Madam Taylor and Pres. Taylor, exchanged pleasantries and the Ambassador departed the Executive Mansion.
As of today, details of the message delivered are still a misery and classified as the content of the message is still unknown.
Meanwhile, at the Ministry of Defense on Benson Street, Minister Daniel Chea, Deputies and Assistant Ministers, Gen. Kpankpa Y. Kornah, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of Liberia and members of the Military High Command were in readiness to welcome the US Ambassador to the Ministry of Defense.
The Ambassador arrived as scheduled, a driver and a security. The security opened the vehicle door for him but did not bother escorting the Ambassador into the Ministry of Defense. He was greeted by the Minister of Defense and an array of senior Defense executives and AFL higher-ups. The Minister escorted the Ambassador into the conference room and the meeting started.
Minister Chea explained about the LURD unprovoked attacks coming out of Guinea and displayed the huge quantities of brand-new
United States Military weapons captured. As the weapons were visibly marked showing ownership to the United States Military. The Ambassador listened attentively without a word or gesture of interruption. After Minister Chea rested his monolog, the Ambassador spoke.
He greeted the gathering warmly totally evading the subject matter at hand of captured United States Military weapons and the allegations of the US Government support to LURD. The astonishing thing was that the Ambassador spoke for less than two minutes and departed for probably the American Embassy or another meeting.
Ambassador Blaney on his feet said ” by way of introduction, my name is John William Blaney. “I” was the Ambassador accredited to Pretoria (South Africa) for the demise of Apartheid. “I” was the Ambassador accredited to Kinshasa (Democrat Republic of the Congo) during the assassination of Laurent Kabila. “I” was the Ambassador accredited to Luanda (Angola) that ended the civil war. “I” wrote the sanction regime on Liberia and now “I” am the Ambassador accredited to Monrovia (Liberia).
After the introduction, Ambassador Blaney bidded the audience farewell. He was escorted back to his vehicle by the same array of senior Defense executives and military higher-ups. Upon their return to the conference room, they were noisily raining praises on the Minister of Defense for adequately dealing with the subject matter, putting the Ambassador on the spot and giving it “HOT” to him.
All this while, I am still seated trying to make sense of the Ambassador’s introduction. Why did this Ambassador volunteered all those classified and sensitive information about himself? Was it his mission to assassinate Pres. Taylor? Was it his mission to overthrow the government of Liberia? Was it his mission to end our civil war? Why did he write the sanctions regime on Liberia? What was his actual mission to Liberia. As I mentally toyed with many questions trying to find the answers, Min. Chea and his noisy cheerleaders returned.
The place was extremely noisy with Min. Chea’s cheerleaders lavishing praises on him for putting the Ambassador on the spot. I banged the conference room table with my full force causing a very loud and disturbing bang sound. The room got immediately quiet with puzzling look on the once excited faces, looking straight into my direction.
“WE ARE FUCKED!”, “WE ARE FUCKED!!” I shouted twice at the peak of my voice, taking advantage of the deafening silence that had overtaking the Defense conference room. What do you mean Minister, I repeated in a very loud voice, “SHIT, DAMIT WE ARE FUCKED!”. I then repeated and summarized the Ambassador’s introduction and explained the implications for such classified information. We sat quietly, observing a moment of silence and mourned our premature demise
. One by one we sadly departed the conference room with bowed and shaking heads to our respective homes prepared for the worst. “AFTER THAT, THE SHIT WENT ROLLING DOWN THE HILL FASTER THAN EXPECTED AND WE WERE DOOMED, CHARLES TAYLOR RULE HAD COME TO A VIOLENT END”. The End OF PART 2, PART 3 TOMORROW.
Sorry for the Military language.
