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Robertson and Liberian leader hope to strike it rich in West Africa

Reverend M.G. "Pat" Robertson, whose failed African diamond-mining operation nearly five years ago stirred criticism and prompted a still current state investigation, is embarking on a new African mining venture. This time he's searching for gold. As his ally, Robertson has an African strongman with a colorful, terrorist, satanic and bloody factual history.

 

In West Africa, Liberian President Charles Taylor has signed a mineral development agreement with Freedom Gold, Limited, a majority Robertson owned company based at the Virginia Beach headquarters of the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), according to the Liberian government. Robertson's Liberian contract allows for exploration and eventual permanent mining rights in the Bukon-Jedeh region of southeastern Liberia.

 

Reverend Pat Robertson's "for profit" company, Freedom Gold, Ltd., was incorporated in the Cayman Islands in December 1998 according to the official Cayman company charter records. Robertson is identified as the company's president and sole director (allowable under Cayman common law).  Joseph Mathews, Vice President of Finance and Administration for Freedom Gold, Limited, has recently confirmed with The Beach News recent Liberian newspaper reports that Robertson's company has committed to spending $10 to $15 million in the "initial" exploratory phase of this venture. "The mining company has no connection to Robertson's television ministry", Mathews said. "At this point we're not sure where all that money is coming from . . . One of the options we have is, in the process of exploration, the government has allowed us to use some of the gold that we uncover to defray some of the costs of exploration. We've got some geologists trying to find out how much that is.''

As reported by the Liberian newspaper The Inquirer on May 21, 1999, "Liberia considers its mineral resources to be an important element in jump-starting and sustaining the nation’s economic growth. Bukon Jedeh, in Sinoe and Grand Kru Counties in the southeastern part of the country, is believed to be a major gold area in Liberia, according to official surveys. Freedom Gold Limited, based in Virginia Beach, USA, is a company owned by Dr. M. G. (Pat) Robertson, who is internationally recognized as a Christian broadcaster, philanthropist, businessman and leader in the United States of America. Freedom Gold is committed to spending 10 to 15 million dollars (US) during the exploration phase of this major mining venture. The agreement was signed on behalf of the government, by Jenkins Dunbar, former Minister of Lands, Mines & Energy; John Bestman, Minister of Finance; Dr. Q. Somah Paygai, Chairman of the National Investment Commission and attested by the former Minister of Justice Counselor Eddington Varmah before it reached President Taylor’s desk. The agreement will now be sent to the Legislature for an expected ratification without objection. The Government of Liberia, the official release said, shall receive an equity interest of 10 percent of the company on ratification of this agreement while Liberians will be offered the opportunity to purchase at least 15% of the shares after the exploration period."

According to the official Liberian government press release issued on May 20, 1999, Dr. Robertson - who personally signed the Agreement for Freedom Gold - said in a statement to President Taylor, "I pray that this investment may become a wonderful blessing to the people of Liberia and will be one of many significant investments that will be made under your administration in the nation of Liberia." Joseph Mathews, Vice President of Finance and Administration for Robertson's Freedom Gold Limited, said Dr. Robertson's intent is to help "kick-start'' the Liberian economy "which has been shattered by years of civil war."  There was no indication from the press release or Freedom Gold's incorporation papers of how the company is capitalized or its projected Liberian mandatory employment, income and start-up date.

Liberian Warlord terrorist and President, Charles Taylor, has declared his intention to head a government that "respects human rights and the rule of law." Even the U.S. State Department has maintained a recent cautious relationship with Taylor citing his atrocious record of human rights abuses within the last decade in Liberia along with the recent revelations of his alliance with Libya and the Sierra Leone Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels.

 

Among his many claims to fame and inhumane terrorism, Taylor is the only man to escape from the Plymouth County, Massachusetts jail and never be apprehended. It seems his "higher education" in America appears to have had a few felonious bumps. In 1983, he originally sought assylum in the United States after being accused of embezzling $1 million from the Liberian government headed by President Doe. He was arrested by U.S. marshals upon arrival where he was then incarcerated in the Plymouth County Jail as a federal detainee awaiting INS extradition.

 

On September 15, 1985, purportedly with a hacksaw and a rope of knotted bedsheets, he and four other inmates climbed out of a second floor window and ran into the thick woods surrounding the Plymouth Detention Center. His three fellow escapees were all subsequently captured, but Taylor was never apprehended.  A warrant for "felonious escape" remained on the NCIC (National Computer in Crime) and Massachusetts crime computer until 1993, when it was "mysteriously" deleted. Terrorist Charles Taylor had "vanished" until July 1989 when he surprisingly "surfaced" in Liberia with a well armed army of "rebels" and began a 6 year long hellish and bloody march to a coup-de-etat.

 

Charles Taylor.... a felon, prison escapee, terrorist, and "tribal warlord".... became the President of Liberia in a 1997 election that ended seven years of alleged "tribal" (to be more exact, "mining rights") fighting in which it is estimated by the U.S. State Department that half of Liberia's 3 million people were either killed or "displaced" (another word for "forcibly moved off their homeland").

 

A recent report by the Human Rights Watch blamed all factions in the Liberian civil war for atrocities -- including executions without trial, torture, forced labor, rape and extortion -- all this against civilians. After seizing power, Taylor placed many of his "rebel" fighters in the Liberian security and police forces. He created a special "security police" unit, known by Liberians as the ``tie-dyed boys'' (virtually the same as Hitler's SS Corps but with tie dyed shirts, not black shirts) supposedly because of their blue/green/black camouflage military uniforms. The unit quickly became known for terrorising civilians (a little deja vu Hitler here?) and looting.

 

In one particular incident, political Taylor critic Samuel Dokie, his wife, and two other people were (without trial) killed while in "police" custody after their arrest by Taylor's "special security" (SS) bodyguards in November 1997. Their crime? Unknown.

 

In August 1998, Taylor's rebel troops tried to arrest his 7 year rival Roosevelt Johnson (who was the Aviation Minister under Taylor) accusing him of attempting to overthrow Taylor's government. Johnson sought refuge in the U.S. Embassy in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, and was flown to Sierra Leone. Some say, and the facts appear to prove, that Taylor never forgave the people of Sierra Leone for this.

 

According to news reports, on May 24, 1999, Taylor fired nearly all his Executive Cabinet (all but two Muslim Ministers) and several heads of public corporations for "failure to attend a national Muslim prayer service", as ordered. "Any government official who does not know God, Allah, will not serve in my government,'' Taylor said to the international media including CNN . A week later, Taylor reversed himself and reinstated the ousted officials acting, he said, on the alleged "wishes" of the Liberian people.  Taylor's critics portray him as a corrupt leader who has looted the country while most Liberians barely eke out a living. In a article published last fall, the expatriate group Liberian Democratic Future estimated Taylor's personal wealth at $450 million and compared him to the late Mobutu Sese Seko, who amassed a fortune while ruling Zaire (now known as the Congo) "with an iron fist for three decades" before he was driven out of power by rebel forces in 1997. Who can estimate his "net worth" now?

 

Here's a real ironic and revealing fact: We now have confirmation that it was Mobutu (the former corrupt ruler of Zaire) who granted Pat Robertson diamond mining rights (leases, NOT ownership) in Zaire in 1992. Additionally, "Two pilots told The Beach News in 1997 that airplanes sent to Zaire by Operation Blessing, Robertson's IRS tax-exempt humanitarian organization, were used almost exclusively to ferry equipment for the diamond venture."

 

It was those accusations that sounded an alarm with a Northern Virginia State Senator, who suggested that the arrangement had potential tax and consumer fraud implications. A two-year-long State investigation ensued.  The matter now rests in the office of Attorney General Mark Earley, who pledged an "impartial inquiry" that he says will be untainted by the $35,000 campaign contribution he received from Robertson in 1997.  A spokesman for Senator Earley said that "the investigation should be completed in the next few weeks"

 

Robertson's diamond "exploration" ultimately failed and was "officially" shut down, but it seems he likes the glitter of gold much better. So then, Reverend Pat Robertson, please look at the pictures below which are a result of the atrocities and terrorism of your gold mining "partners".

Pictures provided by http://www.sierra-leone.org

While the world press centers it's attention on the Kosovo crisis, genocide undertaken by rebel terrorists under such inhumane campaigns as "no living thing" continue to flourish in Sierra Leone. You won't find any concentration camps in Sierra Leone as the purported "People's Army", comprised of various rebel factions and former Sierra Leone Army (SLA) soldiers, flagrantly murder innocent civilians in their houses and on the public streets. Eight years ago, on March 23, 1991, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) began this senseless war against innocent civilians by attacking Bomaru Chiefdom in the southeast of Sierra Leone.

According to the U.S. State Department, from January 1998 until April 1999, the death toll in Kosovo-Serbia is estimated to be a combined 2,000 army, police, KLA, and civilian casualties. In the same time period, they allege that Sierra Leone has seen more than 22,000 civilians murdered, not including the casualties incurred by the West African ECOMOG Peace-keeping forces or the rebels. This amounts to greater than 1,300 civilian war related deaths monthly, not including those dying from starvation and disease.

Some newspapers in Sierra Leone have stated that, since the onset of this war, more than one million Sierra Leoneans have died. If accurate, that would amount to nearly 22% of the population. The amount of seriously injured civilians who have survived thus far cannot be accurately counted, but some Christian missions groups contend that there may be as many as 50,000 women and children deliberately maimed by these cowardly rebels. Limbs have been cut off of most of these defenseless victims as a warning of more terror to come.

RUF leader Foday Sankoh recently stated (March 1999) on the BBC Network Africa programme that "the armed conflict in Sierra Leone is a holy war". How can this war be considered holy when it is daily targeted at innocent defenseless civilians? Is it a matter of Muslim against Christian? What's the name of Sankoh's purported god who orders his soldiers to unprovokingly butcher children and destroy all property in their path? In Kambia recently, a woman was sleeping in her hut with her children when, without warning, screams of terror filled the air. The mother woke up to see her children being burned alive. As she cried out for help, a bullet struck her in the head. The same group of rebels entered a nearby health clinic for small children and infants, mercilessly amputating the hands and feet of babies.

Sierra Leone is blessed, or rather cursed, with vast diamond and gold fields now being plundered at the price of civilian lives. Foday Sankoh was a former rebel associate of Charles Taylor. Former rebel leader, now President of Liberia, Charles Taylor and his alliance of rebel factions have transformed Monrovia into a diamond market paid for with the innocent blood of Sierra Leone. Foreign investors are seen daily in the Liberian capital buying Sierra Leone diamonds from Taylor and his band of thieves. His business partners include Colonel Fred Rundle of South Africa and Colonel Yair Klein of Israel.

Rundle was a former Executive Outcomes mercenary leader who is currently training rebels in Liberia to fight the war in Sierra Leone. Klein was a former paramilitary instructor during the 1980's training drug cartel terrorists to attack the Columbian government. One of Klein's operations was the implementation of Ukranian aircraft and crews to illegally fly in and drop vital equipment and supplies to the Sierra Leone rebels from Robert's Field in Monrovia and other points from within Liberia.

Libya's leader, Colonel Ghadaffi, is shipping tons of arms, food and ammunition into Liberia through the Republic of Chad which has no UN arms sanctions or embargo. The Libyan military supplies are then flown by airplane and helicopter to various rebel controlled areas within Sierra Leone for distribution and storage. Colonel Ghaddafi says he can broker peace in Sierra Leone because he has "great influence over the rebel leader Foday Sankoh". Charles Taylor of Liberia agrees. Of course they can say this; they are the power and force behind the RUF, now being improperly named the "People's Army". Idi Amin Dada applied genocidal "cleansing" to Uganda during the 1970's and now it appears that Charles Taylor, with the support of Ghadaffi, has taken up where Amin left off.

With the help of various mercenary and paramilitary groups, including Executive Outcomes from South Africa, the then National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC) of Sierra Leone, under the leadership of Captain Valentine Strasser, almost ended this war in 1995. It was Strasser's declared unilateral cease-fire and quest for peace that allowed the rebels to strengthen and reorganize their defeated and scattered forces. The elected civilian government, under the current leadership of President Tejan Kabbah, would have most likely ended this war militarily by the end of 1996 had the Sierra Leone government not chosen a negotiation path which led to the signing of the Abidjan Peace Accord (which is now of no effect and worthless since the RUF has repeatedly broken the pace terms. Obviously, the Peace Accord was only a ruse for the rebels to re-strengthen their forces.

Tens of thousands of Sierra Leone civilians have been raped, deliberately mutilated, or killed in the latest campaign by the "People's Army" that began in February 1998. Men, women and children, numbering in the thousands, have been abducted by the rebels for use as unwilling soldiers, forced laborers, and sexual slaves. Women and young girls are actively targeted for sexual violence, including rape and sexual slavery. The younger children are forcibly recruited as rebel soldiers.

While the U.S. and the European Union play politics in Kosovo, the real genocide is taking place in Sierra Leone. These rebels are like no other group in the world. They have no rules and no respect for the unarmed innocent. Rather, they abhor the innocent and take great pleasure in maiming, raping and torturing them. These cowardly rebels have abolished all mercy. Their cause is unknown and their goals are unrecognized. They can't even agree among themselves what they want. Their only desire is to destroy and kill. They have no productive means in their actions, yet they continue to slaughter without restraint.

Ghadaffi has a new goal. He wants to control the entire north-west African region. He is supplying the arms, technology and ammunition to the likes of West Africa's most notorious rebel, Charles Taylor, who managed to level Monrovia and totally destroy everything else in the once prosperous Liberia prior to starting his terror in Sierra Leone. Since there is very little left of Sierra Leone, who will be next on their agenda? Guinea? Perhaps. The stolen gold and diamonds of Sierra Leone have made these evil demons multi-millionaires while unthinkable suffering is their payment to the Sierra Leoneans.

A senior government minister in Sierra Leone accused the United Nations of focusing too much on atrocities in the Serbian province of Kosovo while failing to deal with the brutal killings in his own country. The finance minister of Sierra Leone, Dr. James Jonah -- a former UN undersecretary general -- said more than two-thousand people had been killed and many more have had their hands and feet cut off during the rebel attack on Freetown in January 1999. Dr. Jonah openly accused Liberia and Burkina Faso of supporting the rebels, and urged the UN to make clear it will not tolerate such action. The UN has done nothing in Sierra Leone since this official appeal on January 30.

The world press is deliberately ignoring Sierra Leone. The world leaders are doing the same. As Christians, we should be demanding why. A million souls have perished from a small nation... is this not enough? Is large scale genocide now acceptable in certain parts of the world? It appears to be so. It's purportedly acceptable to bomb Serbia, but not acceptable to stop the terrorism of the RUF in Sierra Leone. Had it not been for the 35,000 Nigerian ECOMOG soldiers, Freetown would be completely gone now. At the very least, it's necessary for us to support the ECOMOG peace keepers as Sierra Leone hangs on to what very little she has left. The real war criminals go free while we watch Clinton play his New World Order game. The truth is, there is no order of any kind to this new world.

This report was compiled by Anthony Wayne for Lawgiver.Org

Additional credits due to The Beach News.

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