Another Taylor Arrested

By Douglas Farah

Charles Taylor's son, the notorious "Chucky" Taylor, was arrested over the weekend in Miami, as he attempted to enter the United States. According to press reports, he is being held on the charge of providing false information on his passport application. He apparently lied about who his father was.

Chucky, whose real name is Charles Emmanuel, is Taylor's eldest son and a U.S. citizen, having been born in Boston. He was summoned to Liberia by Taylor after Taylor assumed the presidency of Liberia in 1997. Until then, he had barely met his father. But he worked hard to make his father proud, adopting his last name and serving as head of the brutal and repressive "Anti-Terrorist Unit" (ATU). The ATU was one of Taylor's chief instruments of repression, used to round up political opponents, suspected political opponents, business competitors and anyone else the Taylor's didn't like. Many never returned from captivity.

From his perch of family protection and impunity, Chucky engaged in a host of criminal activities, engaging in business with Lenoid Menin, a Russian-Israeli drug trafficker who engaged in illegal logging activities in Liberia. He had people executed and several times his father had to place him under house arrest because his rages were so violent that even Taylor senior was embarassed. That is quite a feat!
Read the full blog here.

TrackBack