WEBVTT - Part Two: General Butt-Naked and the Liberian Civil War 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:05.880 Hey, everybody, Robert Evans here and for the last two years, 0:00:05.920 --> 0:00:09.360 Behind the Bastards listeners have funded the Portland Diaper Bank, 0:00:09.400 --> 0:00:13.840 which provides diapers for low income families. Uh. Last year 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:17.320 y'all raised more than twenty one dollars, which was able 0:00:17.360 --> 0:00:20.160 to purchase one point one million diapers for children and 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:24.160 families in need in one um. And this year we're 0:00:24.160 --> 0:00:27.960 trying to get two dollars raised for the Portland Diaper Bank, 0:00:28.720 --> 0:00:31.760 which is going to allow us to help even more kids. 0:00:32.280 --> 0:00:34.320 So UM, if you want to help, you can go 0:00:34.440 --> 0:00:38.360 to bTB fundraiser for PDX Diaper Bank at go fund me. 0:00:38.520 --> 0:00:41.280 Just type and go fund me b TB Fundraiser for 0:00:41.360 --> 0:00:44.800 PDX Diaper Bank. Again, that's go fund Me bTB Fundraiser 0:00:44.880 --> 0:00:47.400 for PDX Diaper Bank, or find the link in the 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:57.680 show notes. Thank you all, Ah, Behind the Bastards. That's 0:00:57.680 --> 0:00:59.720 how I would say this show's name if we were 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:07.679 dry time radio DJs. This life of podcasting with me 0:01:07.800 --> 0:01:10.240 get up at five am every morning and talk to 0:01:10.280 --> 0:01:15.280 people on their well it's uh horn dog in the 0:01:15.400 --> 0:01:20.520 apple here with you do do our morning buts days 0:01:21.080 --> 0:01:25.880 travel thing. Here's a part sound that could be a Shearine, 0:01:25.920 --> 0:01:28.399 that could be how we live our lives. Anything for you, 0:01:28.520 --> 0:01:34.680 Robert Kings, We'll both get greatly addicted to cocaine, I mean, 0:01:35.160 --> 0:01:39.760 Sharine problematically addicted to cocaine. And then I'll o d 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:41.679 and have to go to the hospital, and then I'll 0:01:41.680 --> 0:01:44.240 become a born again Christian and I'll start another radio 0:01:44.280 --> 0:01:46.360 show but it's super racist and right wing, and then 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:49.360 I'll become a congressman and then the vice president of 0:01:49.360 --> 0:01:53.720 the United States. That's the logical timeline and route any 0:01:53.760 --> 0:01:57.160 white man. So I'm gonna that's like like the shirt 0:01:57.200 --> 0:02:04.760 I wear every day. I'm gonna just pensive. But everybody, 0:02:04.760 --> 0:02:06.880 we all love we all of our former vice president 0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:12.959 Michael Pitts. Yeah, bless God, bless well pin that I mean, yeah, 0:02:13.040 --> 0:02:15.000 we're just talking about how God isn't really come on, 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:18.200 that's an obvious Joe. We we we we we we. 0:02:18.200 --> 0:02:20.840 We were just talking about how Charles Taylor has invaded 0:02:20.880 --> 0:02:26.000 Liberia or is like carrying out a liberation freedom civil 0:02:26.040 --> 0:02:28.720 war yeada, YadA yda. Anyway, he's got his troops, they're 0:02:28.720 --> 0:02:31.160 taking more and more of the country. Um, and there's 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:34.280 other warlords and there's other people like fighting against the government. 0:02:34.320 --> 0:02:36.960 Like it's not all Charles Taylor, but his forces are 0:02:37.000 --> 0:02:41.360 like gradually advancing on the Capitol. And as they advance 0:02:41.440 --> 0:02:43.840 on the Capitol in April of nineteen ninety, one of 0:02:43.880 --> 0:02:48.519 the places I was born in April nineteen ninety And 0:02:48.560 --> 0:02:52.720 when you're a little baby, so recent and well, baby Sharie, 0:02:53.840 --> 0:02:58.440 Charles Taylor's liberation forces reaching the outskirts of the Firestone 0:02:58.560 --> 0:03:02.400 rubber plane invasion. Now the guy in charge of it, 0:03:02.520 --> 0:03:05.080 this dude in Sminger, who's again like the ex pat 0:03:05.160 --> 0:03:08.120 the white dude who's like running this plantation. Um, he 0:03:09.160 --> 0:03:11.560 sends out a message to all of the Liberian like 0:03:11.600 --> 0:03:14.920 the indigenous workers who live on the plantation, and he's like, 0:03:15.120 --> 0:03:20.200 don't worry, be calm, there's nothing to fear. He says repeatedly, like, UM, 0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:24.639 I'm not, you know, worried about what's going to happen. Um. 0:03:25.000 --> 0:03:27.760 The rebels, you know, aren't gonna funk with you. Like 0:03:27.840 --> 0:03:32.160 everything's fine, keep right on working. Um. Now you want 0:03:32.160 --> 0:03:34.440 to guess if he's saying the same thing to the 0:03:34.440 --> 0:03:36.920 ex pats, the white workers who live there with their families. 0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:40.920 I don't like where this is going, he sends them 0:03:41.040 --> 0:03:44.200 a confidential letter saying, due to the current unstable political 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:46.640 situation in Liberia, we believe it is prudent to plan 0:03:46.720 --> 0:03:49.240 for the worst case scenario. He tells them to pack 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:51.800 emergency supplies to fill up their cars to meet its 0:03:51.840 --> 0:03:54.840 secret rally points in case of an evacuation uh and 0:03:54.880 --> 0:03:57.200 he states the information contained in this memo, even the 0:03:57.280 --> 0:03:59.600 very existence of this memo, should not be discussed with 0:03:59.640 --> 0:04:02.640 persons covered by it. Um. He also sends home the 0:04:02.680 --> 0:04:04.880 wives and children of all the ex pats who worked there. 0:04:05.280 --> 0:04:11.320 So here's the cool thing. They're fine because again, Charles 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:13.720 Taylor also not a stupid person. I don't want to 0:04:13.800 --> 0:04:19.360 He's inventive converse. He did after inventing converse, he invades Liberia, 0:04:19.360 --> 0:04:20.640 and he's like, I'm not going to murder a bunch 0:04:20.640 --> 0:04:22.520 of like white people working at the Firestone. That's not 0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:24.599 good for me. Like that's gonna piss off all of 0:04:24.600 --> 0:04:27.520 these governments that I don't particularly want angry at me 0:04:27.640 --> 0:04:30.719 right now. Yeah, because that's like that's the kind of 0:04:30.720 --> 0:04:33.520 thing that's gonna get dough a bunch of weapons from 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:36.000 the whoever, right, Like, you don't want to murder? So 0:04:36.080 --> 0:04:37.680 he has I don't think you ever had any intention 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:39.760 of harming the ex pats working there, just because it 0:04:39.760 --> 0:04:42.400 wouldn't have been a smart thing to do. But this 0:04:42.440 --> 0:04:44.760 has become an ethnic war at this point. Right, Doe 0:04:44.839 --> 0:04:47.800 is massacring the members of ethnic groups that are opposed 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:51.159 to him. Uh, Taylor is massacring Krown and members of 0:04:51.200 --> 0:04:54.120 like other allied like ethnic groups that are allied with 0:04:54.200 --> 0:04:57.159 Dough in his regime. Right, So when Charles Taylor's forces 0:04:57.240 --> 0:05:00.720 reach the Firestone plantation, they start picking out all of 0:05:00.800 --> 0:05:02.880 the people who are members of these groups that are 0:05:02.920 --> 0:05:06.920 their enemies and massacring them. Quote from Republica. The first 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:09.279 person the rebels killed after crossing the river, according to 0:05:09.279 --> 0:05:12.120 several witnesses, was a mentally handicapped man. He was gunned 0:05:12.160 --> 0:05:14.680 down in the street. Next, the rebels began hunting down 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:17.919 people who belonged to tribes closely associated with the ruling regime. 0:05:18.320 --> 0:05:22.560 Kevin Estel, a British expatriate who was Firestones agricultural operations manager, 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:26.080 recalled seeing piles of dead bodies of Liberians lying outside 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:28.960 the Harbell supermarket. He was told the rebels had executed 0:05:29.000 --> 0:05:31.080 the men in public because they were from a rival tribe. 0:05:31.320 --> 0:05:33.400 They had been stitched riddled with bullets from May case 0:05:33.480 --> 0:05:35.800 forty seven, straight up and down their bodies. He said. 0:05:36.080 --> 0:05:38.200 They were left in the street, their bodies swelling in 0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:42.080 the sun. So that's good for Firestone, Like, hey, you 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:45.120 guys are fine, don't worry about it. White people get 0:05:45.120 --> 0:05:50.839 the fun out exactly. Pretty messed up, pretty pretty bad stuff. God, 0:05:51.880 --> 0:05:54.320 white people, Well, I would say, so, I would say, 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:57.240 none of that's good behavior. I would say both abandoning 0:05:57.279 --> 0:06:00.560 your workers, not telling them they're in danger, only protecting 0:06:00.600 --> 0:06:04.800 the white people. Firestone, Why why don't you know this? 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:08.240 I think there are things we do should to Firestone 0:06:08.320 --> 0:06:12.159 property that would be good. But boycotting, I don't know 0:06:12.160 --> 0:06:14.000 if that's the most effective thing that could. I mean, 0:06:14.040 --> 0:06:17.479 I I I've gone there a bunch of times. I 0:06:17.480 --> 0:06:20.000 don't needn't know this blunt diamond history, you know what 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:23.680 I mean? Make a molotov out of a Chuck Taylor 0:06:23.760 --> 0:06:26.960 converse and tucking through the window of a Firestone tire store. 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:32.760 So yeah, when Charles Taylor invaded Laboria, his problem. His 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:35.800 plan probably was not to spark the building of a 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:38.400 series of child militias filled with drug adult and heavily 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:43.080 armed kids. But it kind of happens as the invasion proceeds. 0:06:43.160 --> 0:06:46.120 Right once his forces are in country, they're engaging with 0:06:46.160 --> 0:06:49.760 those forces, he's running up into shortages of manpower. The 0:06:49.880 --> 0:06:55.160 decision to arm kids just becomes militarily pragmatic. So at 0:06:55.240 --> 0:06:58.680 this point Dough has spent like that half decade he's 0:06:58.720 --> 0:07:02.080 been in power, sending his military two different provinces and 0:07:02.200 --> 0:07:04.479 killing all of the men he can find, raping most 0:07:04.560 --> 0:07:07.480 of the women, and then often killing them to write UM. 0:07:07.560 --> 0:07:10.880 And as a result, there's a shipload of angry, starving 0:07:10.960 --> 0:07:14.400 orphans in Liberia, you know whose parents got murdered by 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:18.320 the regime. Now, if you're Charles Taylor, you're always short 0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:22.440 of dudes to hand guns. Um, what's a great source 0:07:22.480 --> 0:07:25.480 of manpower? But a bunch of like twelve year old 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:29.480 kids who were piste off because their families died. Um. 0:07:29.640 --> 0:07:33.840 If anything, they're like, they're potentially more loyal because you're 0:07:34.080 --> 0:07:37.800 the loyal because the purpose starving and they need an 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:42.280 authority figure. Charles Taylor provides both. So he gives these 0:07:42.320 --> 0:07:46.280 kids guns and he gives them cocaine, UM and other drugs. 0:07:46.280 --> 0:07:48.320 But cocaine is the big one. Because man let me 0:07:48.360 --> 0:07:49.800 tell you, I mean, this is just something I've learned 0:07:49.800 --> 0:07:51.480 a lot. If you want to get a child to 0:07:51.520 --> 0:07:52.920 fight for you, you've got to give him a lot 0:07:52.920 --> 0:07:55.080 of cocaine. That's the best way to get kids to 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:59.600 fight with you or for you, um whatever, both. Really, so, 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:02.160 these kids have been exposed to the culture of human 0:08:02.200 --> 0:08:05.480 sacrifice and corpse desecration engaged in by the most prominent 0:08:05.520 --> 0:08:08.400 and powerful adults in their world. Again, these kids grow 0:08:08.480 --> 0:08:11.880 up seeing all of both, kind of the president's signpost 0:08:11.960 --> 0:08:14.800 aspects of this, and then after the Civil War they 0:08:14.840 --> 0:08:17.760 see all of these warlords doing this ship. I mean, 0:08:17.760 --> 0:08:22.880 they're beyond traumatized. Can only there, It's not it's more 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:26.320 than traumatized. Certain aspects of this has become normalized. This 0:08:26.400 --> 0:08:28.920 is what you do in the war. This is what 0:08:28.960 --> 0:08:31.600 you do to exert power right and to take power 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:35.320 for yourself, to protect yourself. These are practices you engage in. 0:08:35.720 --> 0:08:38.000 So as Taylor's men take more and more of the country, 0:08:39.040 --> 0:08:42.720 journalists start to see roadblocks manned by small boys units 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:45.920 um draping their command posts with the bones and guts 0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:48.920 of slaughtered enemies and civilians for like ritual purposes to 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:53.280 protect themselves. Um. Dough responds in the predictable way by 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:55.920 handing guns out to Krawn kids and kids of any 0:08:55.920 --> 0:08:59.199 other allied ethnic groups in Monrovia and sending them out 0:08:59.240 --> 0:09:02.920 in ad hoc death squads and platoons to attack Taylor's soldiers, 0:09:03.080 --> 0:09:07.240 who by late nineteen laying siege to the capital UH. 0:09:07.280 --> 0:09:10.320 These children that Dough arms in the city become known 0:09:10.400 --> 0:09:13.440 as the nineteen nineties Soldiers. At one point, they attack 0:09:13.440 --> 0:09:16.480 a Lutheran church that's filled with members of rival ethnic 0:09:16.480 --> 0:09:19.920 groups UH, and using axes and machetes, they murder more 0:09:19.960 --> 0:09:22.560 than six hundred refugees from these kind of ethnic groups 0:09:22.559 --> 0:09:25.439 that they're seen as being opposed to the president. Um 0:09:25.480 --> 0:09:28.720 like like kids just massacring six hundred people with axes 0:09:28.760 --> 0:09:30.480 like and again these are like some of them are 0:09:30.520 --> 0:09:36.600 like ten little kids. Often. Um. So, Taylor has a 0:09:36.600 --> 0:09:39.680 lot of initial international support for obvious reasons, but it 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:43.000 becomes quickly obvious that he is just as vicious as Dough. Right, 0:09:43.200 --> 0:09:50.600 there is not a real moral difference between these two dudes. Um. Yeah, 0:09:50.880 --> 0:09:54.840 Liberian expact pet positions like Ellen Surleif, who had supported 0:09:54.840 --> 0:09:58.120 Taylor initially, quickly dropped him, and she'll get like attacked 0:09:58.200 --> 0:10:00.760 later on because she helps fund him early the economists. 0:10:01.559 --> 0:10:05.240 Yeah yeah, but also like you know, he didn't start 0:10:05.280 --> 0:10:08.160 off doing some of the ship he would later do. Um. 0:10:08.200 --> 0:10:09.400 I don't know, I'm not going to weigh in on 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:12.840 that too much, but uh so, the good Dough Jackson 0:10:12.880 --> 0:10:15.280 Doe tries to join up with Charles Taylor's forces at 0:10:15.320 --> 0:10:17.679 one point, and Taylor like uses him a little bit 0:10:17.720 --> 0:10:19.440 as like a billboard, like look at us, you know, 0:10:19.480 --> 0:10:21.840 we're legitimate. This guy really won the election. He's on 0:10:21.840 --> 0:10:24.280 our side. But then a couple of weeks later, Jackson 0:10:24.280 --> 0:10:26.520 Doe disappears and nobody knows what happens to him, probably 0:10:26.520 --> 0:10:28.880 because Taylor's like, well, I don't actually I'm going to 0:10:28.960 --> 0:10:32.920 be the president. So this guy here, yeah, you're you're 0:10:32.920 --> 0:10:36.360 not really needed, You're not really useful here. So as 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:39.160 all this killing continues um, the world just kind of 0:10:39.160 --> 0:10:43.840 watches on in shock. Taylor's forces gradually boxed Dough into 0:10:43.880 --> 0:10:47.760 pretty much just controlling the capital Um, and his overthrow 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:50.839 was only halted by the arrival of an international military 0:10:51.000 --> 0:10:54.320 mission made up by soldiers from West African states. Although 0:10:54.480 --> 0:10:57.000 Nigeria is basically a d percent of the effort, and 0:10:57.000 --> 0:11:00.840 it's more or less Nigeria intervening in order to try 0:11:00.840 --> 0:11:02.679 and have things work out in a way that's best 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:05.360 for Nigeria. Right, That's often what you'll hear people claim, 0:11:05.400 --> 0:11:09.640 at least so because like Dough connected to the US 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:12.959 and Nigeria also wants some Yeah, there's a number of reasons. 0:11:12.960 --> 0:11:15.319 I'm not gonna like, I'm not gonna attempt to lay 0:11:15.320 --> 0:11:18.760 into like, but yeah, this is supposed the International Mission 0:11:18.800 --> 0:11:22.959 is primarily Nigeria, and it's primarily Nigerian forces. So they 0:11:23.000 --> 0:11:25.600 set up shop in the capital to like monitor things 0:11:25.640 --> 0:11:28.600 and try to negotiate a peace between Taylor's forces and 0:11:28.640 --> 0:11:32.200 the rebel Taylor Taylor's forces and does or the different 0:11:32.240 --> 0:11:37.040 rebel groups dominated by Taylor and Dough um. But this 0:11:37.120 --> 0:11:40.120 isn't really doesn't go anywhere because none of the belligerents 0:11:40.120 --> 0:11:42.880 are really willing to discuss any kind of peace as 0:11:42.920 --> 0:11:45.400 long as Dough remains in the country and Do is 0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:48.640 not willing to leave, and so the situation is stymied 0:11:48.679 --> 0:11:52.520 once again until on September nine, n President Dough gets 0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:55.360 in his motor cade to visit the International Military Missions 0:11:55.400 --> 0:11:58.680 headquarters and through a comedic series of errors. He winds 0:11:58.720 --> 0:12:01.120 up captured by troops from the a f L, which 0:12:01.160 --> 0:12:04.000 is the party that Charles Taylor is a member of. Now, 0:12:04.360 --> 0:12:06.679 the a f L splits into at one point, and 0:12:06.720 --> 0:12:08.840 Taylor is in charge of a bunch of the troops, 0:12:08.880 --> 0:12:11.760 and then another guy named Prince Johnson, who is a warlord, 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:15.679 is like in control. He's like also a major warlord 0:12:15.679 --> 0:12:17.160 in this period, right, So these guys are in the 0:12:17.200 --> 0:12:19.520 party that Taylor's affiliated with, but they're under the command 0:12:19.559 --> 0:12:22.440 of this other warlord, Prince Johnson. And I'm gonna quote 0:12:22.440 --> 0:12:25.800 from the Liberian Civil Wars. The events that followed were 0:12:25.840 --> 0:12:28.840 captured on film by a Palestinian journalist representing a Middle 0:12:28.840 --> 0:12:31.280 Eastern news agency, the result of which was a snuff 0:12:31.360 --> 0:12:33.920 film that later found its way into circulation all across 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:37.400 West Africa. The sequence opens with Prince Johnson seated at 0:12:37.440 --> 0:12:39.480 a desk, a can of Budweiser beer in his hand 0:12:39.520 --> 0:12:41.720 and a string of hand grenades slung around his neck. 0:12:42.040 --> 0:12:44.800 Opposite him, seated on the floor and dressed only in underwear, 0:12:44.800 --> 0:12:47.720 with his arms and legs tightly bound. With Samuel Doe. 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:51.120 A rambling interrogation followed, interspersed with him singing in prayer 0:12:51.160 --> 0:12:53.520 as Prince Johnson and an audience of his men grew 0:12:53.520 --> 0:12:56.640 steadily more inebriated. Doe could be heard pleading for his 0:12:56.720 --> 0:12:59.440 arms to be loosened and appealing for brotherhood, while jeers 0:12:59.440 --> 0:13:02.880 in general conversation punctuate the background scenes. Then, at a 0:13:02.920 --> 0:13:05.680 certain point, Johnson thumped the desk and ordered Doe's ear 0:13:05.760 --> 0:13:08.160 to be cut off. Dough was held down by several 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:10.000 men as one man armed with a knife cut off 0:13:10.000 --> 0:13:12.040 his ears as he wailed and thrashed on the floor, 0:13:12.280 --> 0:13:14.960 And so it continued. The torture went on between bouts 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:18.040 of muddled interrogation and snippets of discussion of Doe's potential 0:13:18.080 --> 0:13:22.320 to escape despite his condition thanks to his juju power. Death, 0:13:22.360 --> 0:13:24.840 no doubt, came slowly, and it is generally accepted that 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:27.880 he died in the early hours of September ten. So 0:13:28.360 --> 0:13:31.600 pretty nasty. Also pretty similar to how the last guy 0:13:31.640 --> 0:13:34.240 goes out to how Dough kills the last press point. 0:13:34.480 --> 0:13:38.480 That's a very good throwback, Yes, Laberia. At this point, 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:41.400 when you've had two presidents get tortured and executed by 0:13:41.440 --> 0:13:43.679 the guy who takes over after them, that's not a 0:13:43.760 --> 0:13:46.240 good precedent, right, I thought a good track record. I 0:13:46.240 --> 0:13:50.720 would say, like, look, the US has had some a 0:13:50.800 --> 0:13:53.360 complicated history with democracy. I don't want to get up 0:13:53.400 --> 0:13:54.640 on our high horse, but I think it's fair to 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:58.040 say that's not an ideal transition of power. You know, 0:13:58.280 --> 0:14:02.640 that's not the best way that can go. Yeah. Yeah, 0:14:02.960 --> 0:14:06.760 just recently remembered how you opened up this entire story 0:14:07.240 --> 0:14:10.120 about someone named button naked, and I'm so curious how 0:14:10.160 --> 0:14:15.720 we're to general butt nakeds coming baby, Okay, I would love. Yeah, 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:20.400 that's not as fun a figure as you're thinking right now. Well, 0:14:20.440 --> 0:14:21.880 I know, you know, because I told you he's not. 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:26.360 I know he's not as fun as he sounds. Okay, fine, fine, 0:14:26.680 --> 0:14:29.880 So you might think this would have been the end 0:14:29.920 --> 0:14:34.680 of things, hopefully, but obviously the violence just continues. Taylor's 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:37.600 victory against Dough sets off a six year period of 0:14:38.000 --> 0:14:41.800 kind of free for all civil warfare. Now Taylor is 0:14:41.920 --> 0:14:44.720 in charge in the capital for much of this, but 0:14:44.840 --> 0:14:46.920 the capital city and a lot of the country gets 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:49.840 split up by this patchwork of different militia units. They're 0:14:49.840 --> 0:14:52.840 all allied to different strong men, all of them call 0:14:52.920 --> 0:14:55.800 themselves generals. Some of them are in charge of armies 0:14:55.840 --> 0:14:57.520 that have thousands of guys. Some of them is just 0:14:57.600 --> 0:14:59.920 like a couple of dozen dudes, right, they all call 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:04.000 themselves generals. Most of these guys are pretty young, you're talking, 0:15:04.040 --> 0:15:07.440 we're talking in like their twenties. Um. Basically none have 0:15:07.520 --> 0:15:09.760 formal military experience. Some of them had been in the 0:15:09.760 --> 0:15:11.880 librarian military. A lot of them are just like fucking 0:15:12.000 --> 0:15:14.520 dudes who joined militias during the early stage of the 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:17.720 civil war and wind up you know, in charge of units. 0:15:18.240 --> 0:15:21.360 Um at this point, are you are you? I know, 0:15:21.800 --> 0:15:23.440 no one has all the answers. But like it's is 0:15:23.480 --> 0:15:29.240 Taylor like revered or like, oh, this person's fear because 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:32.440 the violence never ends, Like nobody likes Dough But like 0:15:32.480 --> 0:15:39.640 Taylor's not bringing peace to Liberia. He is definitely very 0:15:39.680 --> 0:15:45.240 popular members of ethnic groups that had been purged by Dough, right, Um, 0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:48.360 but that does not obviously the country kind of falls 0:15:48.400 --> 0:15:51.240 apart into this massive civil war afterwards, so he's not 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:55.000 like widely seen as legitimate you know, um, and of 0:15:55.040 --> 0:15:59.520 all these different warlords and generals and whatnot. Basically, since 0:15:59.560 --> 0:16:01.880 they don't have much in the way of military experience, 0:16:01.880 --> 0:16:05.000 their understanding of war and how to prosecute. It comes 0:16:05.000 --> 0:16:08.560 from American action movies. Um, it's a mix of like, 0:16:08.600 --> 0:16:11.600 it's a mix of American action movies. The own like 0:16:11.680 --> 0:16:14.600 the trauma they remember from being like twelve and seeing 0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:17.080 the early days of the war, right uh, and then 0:16:17.160 --> 0:16:20.000 myths they kind of remember from childhood about like different 0:16:20.040 --> 0:16:23.720 Indigenous practices, and as an adult they adopt noms to 0:16:23.800 --> 0:16:26.520 gear for themselves that are a dizzying mix of awesome 0:16:26.520 --> 0:16:31.160 and nonsense. Famous rebel leaders included General Chuck Norris, General 0:16:31.200 --> 0:16:35.400 one Ft Devil, General Mosquito, General Mosquito Spray, and of 0:16:35.440 --> 0:16:37.640 course the guy we're going to spend most of this 0:16:37.680 --> 0:16:42.240 episode discussing General butt naked. So that's where that of course, 0:16:42.240 --> 0:16:46.120 it's a child fucking Yeah, they're fucking like kids may 0:16:46.240 --> 0:16:48.240 there like I mean like twenty or something, but like 0:16:48.280 --> 0:16:50.760 they were kids when the fighting started. In many cases, 0:16:50.840 --> 0:16:54.120 I think it's you would most likely get stunted at 0:16:54.120 --> 0:16:55.880 that age, you know what I mean. There's only so 0:16:55.960 --> 0:16:59.520 much yeah, and developing you do when you're so your 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:03.680 traumatie so young, and so I don't know, Yeah, this 0:17:03.800 --> 0:17:06.760 is by the time Taylor's in power. This is a 0:17:06.840 --> 0:17:09.800 civil war that's being fought by kids who probably don't 0:17:09.800 --> 0:17:12.960 have a ton of memories from before ship started to 0:17:12.960 --> 0:17:18.719 go really get really violent through things. Yeah, so, General 0:17:18.720 --> 0:17:22.600 butt Naked's real name was Joshua Milton blacky Uh. He 0:17:22.720 --> 0:17:26.280 was born on September nineteen seventy one as a member 0:17:26.280 --> 0:17:29.760 of the Sarpo tribe. One source I found, the credibly 0:17:29.880 --> 0:17:33.880 named mysterious universe dot Org give this gives this description 0:17:33.880 --> 0:17:36.160 of his upbringing. And obviously I'm going to explain why 0:17:36.440 --> 0:17:38.679 this is largely bullshit, but I want to read this 0:17:38.720 --> 0:17:40.399 because it gives you an idea of how kind of 0:17:40.400 --> 0:17:44.480 like popularly and more in like less credible, but like 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:47.879 main not mainstream, but like one of the ways, like 0:17:48.440 --> 0:17:50.760 the way in which people talk about this guy's background 0:17:51.040 --> 0:17:53.760 most commonly, even though it's not accurate. Quote. As he 0:17:53.800 --> 0:17:55.800 grew he was just another boy, like so many in 0:17:55.800 --> 0:17:58.280 the world. Somewhat rebellious, yes, but there was no clue 0:17:58.320 --> 0:18:00.720 as to the darkness and atrocities that ahead on his 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:03.199 path to the future. His childhood would diverge from the 0:18:03.200 --> 0:18:04.760 norm when, at the tender age of eleven, he was 0:18:04.800 --> 0:18:07.879 made a tribal priest after an initiation ceremony in the forest. 0:18:08.280 --> 0:18:10.960 Lay would claim during his initiation ritual, he had a 0:18:11.000 --> 0:18:13.679 strange and terrifying vision in which he says the devil 0:18:13.720 --> 0:18:15.400 came to him and proclaimed him to be a great 0:18:15.440 --> 0:18:18.320 warrior who could gain vast supernatural power if only he 0:18:18.359 --> 0:18:22.280 were to practice cannibalism and perform human sacrifices, and his 0:18:22.320 --> 0:18:27.159 life would change dramatically after this. Now these are lies. Uh. 0:18:27.400 --> 0:18:30.439 Joshua Milton Lay General Butt Naked is a huge liar. 0:18:31.040 --> 0:18:33.800 The mysterious universe thing is based heavily on a book 0:18:33.800 --> 0:18:36.920 that he wrote after he became a born again Christian. 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:40.920 His book titled The Redemption of an African war Lord 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:44.680 is a pretty standard redemption narrative. You see a lot 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:48.160 of evangelical I used to be a Satanic priest, sacrifice 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:51.480 in babies and then a huge thing and like especially 0:18:51.520 --> 0:18:54.920 during like this actually this exact period, the Satanic panic 0:18:55.000 --> 0:18:56.840 is hitting in the United States, and you're getting a 0:18:56.840 --> 0:18:59.119 lot of these like people being like, oh, I was 0:18:59.160 --> 0:19:02.200 a devil wor shipper and then I found Jesus Christ. 0:19:03.160 --> 0:19:06.560 Blaye's narrative is like the same thing. One of the 0:19:06.560 --> 0:19:09.440 differences though, that he absolutely murders a little kid. He 0:19:09.840 --> 0:19:11.960 kills a shipload of people and does a bunch of 0:19:12.000 --> 0:19:17.399 like anyway, so what you're saying is he runs this website. No, no, 0:19:17.520 --> 0:19:20.520 this is kind of based on Yeah. So Blahie claims 0:19:20.520 --> 0:19:25.080 to have engaged from an early age in elaborate nightmare 0:19:25.080 --> 0:19:27.959 acts of child sacrifice to gain powers, like even as 0:19:27.960 --> 0:19:29.679 a little kid. He says he's doing this as the 0:19:29.720 --> 0:19:34.240 priest um and true, like, well no, because he's not 0:19:34.320 --> 0:19:38.360 a child priest um but committing but like he's doing 0:19:38.680 --> 0:19:42.639 up things as an adult. He is claiming that at 0:19:42.640 --> 0:19:45.639 age eleven, he becomes a priest and learns human visits 0:19:45.680 --> 0:19:49.760 by the devil and starts sacrificing people. That's pretty certainly 0:19:49.840 --> 0:19:53.080 not true. There's basically one good article about this guy 0:19:53.119 --> 0:19:55.680 that I found. It's called The Greater the Center. It's 0:19:55.680 --> 0:19:58.919 in the New Yorker. It's written by Damon tabor Um 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:01.280 and a lot of report orders who aren't Tabor kind 0:20:01.280 --> 0:20:03.199 of taken in and charmed by blah He He's a 0:20:03.280 --> 0:20:06.440 very charming guy. Tabor talked to his family though, and 0:20:06.480 --> 0:20:10.080 among other things, he pretty easily punctures the myth that 0:20:10.160 --> 0:20:14.280 Blahi was some sort of child murder priest. Quote Harrison 0:20:14.400 --> 0:20:17.040 shine Challer, another of Blahi's half brothers told me that 0:20:17.080 --> 0:20:19.280 he had been unaware of Blahi's life as a priest. 0:20:19.440 --> 0:20:22.480 As far as Chader knew, Blai was merely a rebellious youth. 0:20:22.560 --> 0:20:24.240 Their mother would give him money to buy food for 0:20:24.240 --> 0:20:26.119 the family, and he would disappear into the streets of 0:20:26.119 --> 0:20:29.000 Monrovia for weeks at a time. He left school after 0:20:29.000 --> 0:20:31.160 the third grade and later sold kool aid and chicken 0:20:31.160 --> 0:20:34.200 soup at a local market wearing a purple necktie, purple shirt, 0:20:34.240 --> 0:20:37.280 purple trousers, and purple shoes so people would recognize him. 0:20:37.560 --> 0:20:40.560 He then moved on to drug trafficking and robbery. Sometimes. 0:20:40.680 --> 0:20:44.040 Chader said he and Blaihie worked together. A Nigerian soldier 0:20:44.040 --> 0:20:47.159 once asked Blahi to help him gain spiritual powers. Blai 0:20:47.240 --> 0:20:50.520 prescribed a witchcraft treatment, an enema, and while the soldier 0:20:50.560 --> 0:20:54.800 was indisposed, Chader stole his money. So this I think 0:20:54.920 --> 0:20:57.399 is a more credible version of his back story. He 0:20:57.600 --> 0:21:01.040 is a con man, he knows how do He's always 0:21:01.040 --> 0:21:04.440 thinking about an angle. He wants to make money, um 0:21:04.480 --> 0:21:07.040 and I think he will get into this more later, 0:21:07.080 --> 0:21:10.840 but I think he adopts this very American Christian but 0:21:10.880 --> 0:21:14.280 although not just because Liberian Christianity has a lot in 0:21:14.320 --> 0:21:16.160 common with like the Revival bat like all, you see 0:21:16.160 --> 0:21:18.200 a lot of the same things over there, these Revival meetings, 0:21:18.240 --> 0:21:20.399 speaking and tongues, they have as much acclaim to it 0:21:20.400 --> 0:21:23.840 as Americans do. Obviously, um because again there started out 0:21:23.840 --> 0:21:27.320 as a colony. But that's what he's doing. When you 0:21:27.359 --> 0:21:31.240 hear about these crazy stories of like him sacrificing babies 0:21:31.280 --> 0:21:36.760 from magical powers, that's what he's doing. He is also 0:21:37.400 --> 0:21:39.479 as a warlord, as we're gonna get to, he commits 0:21:39.480 --> 0:21:41.640 a lot of crimes against humanity. Do not get me wrong. 0:21:41.840 --> 0:21:45.320 This is a very complicated story for that reason. So again, 0:21:45.760 --> 0:21:48.520 in order to puncture his claims about his early life, 0:21:49.080 --> 0:21:51.960 um Tabor also goes on to note that while witchcraft 0:21:52.000 --> 0:21:54.760 and human sacrifice are a part of some indigenous beliefs 0:21:54.760 --> 0:21:58.119