A few months before I was captured, I visited the Good Shepherd women’s prison in Bogota. I had been impressed by those women who wore makeup and wanted to lead a normal life in their isolated world. Prison was a microcosm, a little planet of its own. [...] I felt sorry for the women, and I was touched by the anxious way they had of asking for little favors, as if they were asking for the moon: a lipstick, a pen, a book. I must have promised them things and then gone on to forget. I lived in another world then, and I thought I was doing more for them by speeding up the legal proceedings on their behalf. How mistaken I was. It was the lipstick and the pen that could have changed their lives. Now I understood.

The book was riveting and horrifying. The most shocking aspect of her account of captivity is the cruelness of her fellow hostages. They were so mean to each other, it was at times almost too painful to read.

In the event of a robbery, do nothing to resist or antagonise your assailant. Look down at the ground to show you have no intention of identifying the criminals at a later date. In the event of gunfire, seek refuge immediately.

Google Find

After I did a search for "Staples."

De tin wey dey follow.

Google found so many results so quickly!

Would I like to filter by images or video, or just look at everything?

Let me know if you find anything else fun.

Nigeria: Multiple explosions, gunfire reported in university campus in Kano

At least three explosions, followed by an exchange of gunfire, were reported on 29 April in an old section of the Bayero University campus in the northern city of Kano (Kano state). In addition, an unconfirmed source claims that eight people were killed in the blasts. Details of the attacks are still emerging.

From a Control Risks/International SOS email. Bayero University is where I lived last summer, and studied Hausa two summers ago. It is one of the few public spaces in Kano where one can meet Hausa Nigerian women.  This is really sad.

Documents received through a Freedom of Information request show that as early as December 2000, the State Department sought information “to weaken and discredit the Taylor regime internationally” as part of a “long-term campaign” to be waged at the United Nations. [...]

Following Taylor’s arrest and indictment, the State Department, through actions at the United Nations and active fundraising for the tribunal, continued to play an outside role in the proceedings. U.S. diplomats were briefed on Taylor’s finances and the quotidian details of his incarceration — from his diet to his phone allowance to the number of visitors he received — at the ICC detention unit. There, Taylor had struck up a friendship with fellow detainee, Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga, who was convicted in March.

“The two detainees are apparently getting along well,” an August 2006 cable noted. [...]

“The process was outlandish. All the years that it took and all of the money that was spent, I think there must be a better method,” said Herman J. Cohen, a former ambassador and assistant secretary of state for Africa during the first Bush administration. [...]

Taylor also used his testimony to promote the persistent rumors of his connections to intelligence services, including the CIA, whom he claims engineered his escape from jail. (The Plymouth House of Corrections, a chronically overcrowded and out-of-date facility, had suffered a series of escapes prior to Taylor’s.)

Griffiths expressed outrage at the court’s treatment of alternate judge Malick Sow of Senegal when he tried to voice a dissenting opinion after the verdict was read out. Sow, who as an alternate did not have a vote, rose to complain that the evidence against Taylor was too flimsy for a conviction. But the other three judges turned their backs on him and walked away, while court technicians immediately cut off an in-house television feed to reporters.

H/t to Dan.

Charles Taylor listens to verdict.

The Special Court for Sierra Leone delivered their verdict this morning. It took more than two hours to read, and involved first ruling on the facts of the case, then the role Taylor played, and then the legal findings. Taylor sat behind his legal team, periodically taking notes.

Judge Lussick read the verdict in a monotone voice, pausing only to sip his water or move on to a new section.

The ruling was measured. The court found support for some prosecution allegations, but not others. To give a taste of this, Taylor was found to have provided medical care to some RUF leaders, but it is not clear how continuous or substantial this support was.

Taylor was found guilty of aiding and abetting all of the charges in the indictment. Thank God.

The most interesting part of the ruling, however, was that the judges found that Taylor did not have command and control over the RUF. Nor was he part of a joint criminal enterprise. Taylor “helped” and “guided” and “substantially influenced.” Bockarie was “deferential” to Taylor. But the RUF was not under Taylor’s control, and Taylor was not part of a joint criminal enterprise, according to the verdict.

In the AFRC trial, the Special Court ruled that joint criminal enterprise was not a crime within the court’s jurisdiction. This trial chamber (of the same court!) implicitly accepted that it was (how is that possible? update: this is possible, also see comment), but found insufficient evidence for this charge.

I wonder how Liberians and Sierra Leoneans who watched the verdict understood it. It seemed so official. “Bockarie received quote top-up-cards end quote,” Judge Lussick said at one point. The court ruled on facts with almost unwavering certainty. What is it like to see a foreigner make these judgements so confidently? Does it bring more certainty to the past, or do local people think the judges were tricked?

Any appeals must be filed within 7 days, and sentencing is set for May 16.

As the judges rose to leave, you could hear via the live stream a male voice (not Taylor or Griffiths, I think – update: it was the alternate judge) say, “I would like to say something before the court is adjourned.” The judges continue to leave the room, but the man goes on, “The one point where the judge–” then the live stream cuts out. It’s not clear who this was.

Charles Taylor awaiting his verdict this morning.

Charles Taylor in upper right, his lead lawyer, Courtenay Griffiths in lower right.

The courtroom.

Judge Lussick reading the verdict.

Daily Observer: Their only coverage today is a reprint of an article that appeared in Newsweek.

New Dawn: “Taylor’s loyalists uncertain as government calls for calm”

Heritage: “Government maintains position on Taylor trial”

The Informer: “D-day this week”

New Democrat: No coverage