he Liberian Ambassador accredited to the
United States remains defiant and
unapologetic as he falls from grace with the
various Liberian community members, who are
now calling for his removal from office.
Several angry Liberians, including some of
those accused as “enemies of the state”
found expression for their frustrations at
Ambassador Charles Minor’s lack of concern
for the plight of Liberians, especially
those who have been accused as “Enemies” of
the state in the Nippygate scandal.
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Making his point: Dr. H. Boimah
Fahnbulleh shares a thought with
Diaspora Liberians during Sunday's
town hall meeting. |
Some said the Ambasador has closed the doors
of the Embassy to Liberians, accusing him of
being “Selective” in dealing with fellow
Liberians in the US. “We believe it is in
the best interest of the government of
Liberia to recall this Ambassador. He has
failed us,” Declared angry Liberians. Amb.
Minor did not respond to most of the
allegations leveled against him.
At the five-hour town hall meeting,
organized by the Liberian Community
Association in the Washington DC area held
in Silver Spring, MD Sunday, Liberians from
all communities braved the wicked winter
weather to amass at a local community center
to engage the Ambassador and President Ellen
Johnson Sirleaf’s national security advisor,
H. Boima Fahnbulleh for the first time since
the so-called Nippy spy memo issue, which
has caused considerable nervousness and fear
engendered by the controversy.
From the onset, the embattled Ambassador
began his address to the audience by making
reference to a recent statement made by
former Ambassador Freeman that there is
nothing wrong with the country’s diplomatic
mission reporting issues of national
security intelligence to the central
government.
Minor said his mission has the
responsibility to report as regularly as
possible issues of important national
security concern, economic, social,
security, health and all other matters of
relevance. He added that even if some of
those issues are irrelevant, it is still his
duty to report to the national government.
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A cross section of Liberians at the
town hall meeting. |
The Ambassador emphasized that reporting
issues of national security to the
government does not suggest the Embassy is
spying on its citizens. He does not view the
so-called spy memo as a divisive tool and
that it should not be considered an
instrument of fear within the Liberian
community. “No one should worry, we have
nothing on you,” he declared.
Amb. Minor informed the community that as a
result of the memo incident, he has
commissioned a detail investigation into the
scandal and that Liberian authorities will
be interviewing the suspected individuals
who have been circulating the emails and all
other leaked information from the Embassy.
He confirmed Christopher Nippy and the
Embassy communications officer, Samuel Abu
have since been recalled, which he noted
demonstrates government’s swift action to
address the issue and provide immediate
resolution.
He also said he ordered an audit of the
Embassy’s management information system by a
qualified firm with the knowledge and
experience of establishing the current state
of security or non existence of appropriate
security, the accessibility of various staff
and users to the system, specifically
where the so-called Nippy memo originated
from.
He explained that initial audit reports have
already revealed the system security
vulnerability in which the system
administrator in charge of the internet
domain could enter other staff's email
accounts and write emails ,as if that staff
was the author of such emails, and that
there has been another individual who has
been transmitting information to the public
that the Embassy deemed classified. He
failed to name names.
The ambassador refused to accept the blame,
arguing that there were motives behind the
publication of the memo by the
FrontPageAfrica, to which he said he is not
aware. He denied spying on members of the
Liberian community in the Diaspora.
Grasping for more evidence to distinguish
him from the rest of the pack, Ambassador
Minor said such classified document, like
the spy memo could have been transmitted
from the Embassy to the public domain which
was published by the FPA. He also told
Liberians at the meeting that the audit has
also discovered that certain staff of the
Embassy was involved in inappropriate
internet use, including internet
pornography.
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“There is no reason for me to
apologize to anyone, because I have
done nothing wrong.”
Charles A. Minor,
Liberian Ambassador to the U.S. |
“We are determined to continue the audit and
I can assure that we will get to the bottom
of it,” Minor said, but refused to accept
the blame for the trouble the entire spy
memo saga has caused the Liberian community
across the US.
As he fought to clear his name of any wrong
doing in the memo saga, fuming Liberians at
the meeting called for his immediate removal
from office. They asked the Liberian
government through the security advisor to
recall Ambassador Minor for consultation and
to further determine his role in the entire
episode. “How can such memo come out without
the knowledge of the Ambassador, which means
he does not have control of the Mission,”
said Mark of Clinton, MD.
During the questions and answer session,
some angry Liberians including those accused
as “Enemies of the state” in the spy memo
came forward looking straight in the eyes of
the Ambassador as they asked their questions
directly to him. At some point, Minor’s
first victim in the scandal, Samuel Abu,
former Press Attaché at the Embassy accused
the Ambassador of harassment and
intimidation. “The Ambassador continues to
harass me…” he disclosed.
Abu, like many others called on the Liberian
government to recall Minor to face
investigation in the scandal. “Amb. Minor is
aware of what is going on at the Embassy,”
said Abu, who also revealed that an official
letter recalling him has not been received.
“I heard about my recall on the radio in
Liberia by Information Minister Bropheh.”
Theophilus Bettie, one of the accused
Liberians charged Amb. Minor for not being
fair and open to the Liberian people. He
said the Ambassador’s lack of remorse and
the need to have urgently addressed the
issue speaks volume that he “Does not care
for Liberians.”
Bettie furthered that since his name
surfaced in the damming memo incident as one
of the so-called “Enemies of the state”
people now joke him about it, which he
thinks is pitiful. “This is not a laughing
matter, because it is not easy to erase such
stigma from my head.” He was disappointed
that since the spy memo incident, Amb. Minor
has not offered apologies to his kinsmen for
the trouble the incident has caused them..
'Does Not Have to Apologize, Minor
Says
In his response, Amb. Minor said he does
not have to apologize, because he has done
nothing wrong. “There is no reason for me to
apologize to anyone, because I have done
nothing wrong.” The Ambassador also failed
to respond to Abu’s allegations. He sat with
his eyes red and holding his chin in
disbelief. He would slowly shake his head on
many occasions when attacked by another
angry Liberian.
The Ambassador was taken to task by many for
his refusal to take responsibility for the
memo trouble. In a post meeting interview,
most Liberians expressed disappointment that
the Ambassador should have taken
responsibility for what happened at the
Embassy and not try to point fingers at
others. Some believe Nippy “is the fall guy
in the whole scheme and the big fish is
still roaming free.”
Former communication officer Abu joined the
call for Amb. Minor to be recalled to help
with the investigation in Liberia.
“Amb.Minor is part of the problem at the
Embassy, so I believe the government must
consider recalling him, because he accused
us and we too have some things against him.
He can not be left out.”
Memo received from anonymous source,
Fahnbulleh says
The President’s national security advisor,
Dr. Fahnbulleh who is being accompanied by
the Director of the Cabinet, Medina Wesseh
to the US, told the community that the spy
memo in question was received by the
Liberian government in December 2006 from an
unknown source, while the Liberian
Ambassador maintained he is not aware of any
memo being transmitted from the Embassy.
Fahnbulleh termed the memo as “Baseless and
bogus.” He reiterated that government was
not spying on Liberians in the Diaspora.
“All of us are victims of these kinds of
tactics. We do understand there are old
hands in the system who are good at
fabricating all sorts of lies and
disinformation. There are people who are
engaged in all sorts of tactics because they
want money, or because they want to advance
themselves and there are people who engage
in these things because of political
relevance,” Fahnbulleh said.
According to Fahnbulleh, “We do receive
volumes of so-called intelligent reports and
it is our duty to search them and if we feel
it is credible, we alert our security
organizations to follow through, or if we
feel it is garbage we throw it out.” The
security advisor explained that in other
cases where the government deemed the
information is credible, agents are
dispatched to further investigate. We bring
these people to justice to uphold the rule
of law to take its course, but in this one,
there is no need to panic. You are free to
come to Liberia and I guarantee no one will
touch or harass you.”
Fahnulleh said the Liberian government knew
about the memo in December 2006, and that “I
shared the information with the president of
ULAA the email I received at the time from a
source, we don’t know where. We also
discussed this at the national Security
Council. We weighed the possibility of some
of the actors participating in such plot and
we concluded that there was not an iota of
truth in it and we discarded it.”
According to him, he made personal contact
with one of the accused, former Presidential
candidate Winston Tubman and told him that
people were playing games with his name.
Fahnbulleh said the government received an
email that was useless, and President
Sirleaf does not believe that Winston Tubman
is capable of such.
He said while it is true that government
allows its citizens the rights to freedom of
expression, it does not have any
institutionalized policy to victimize
Liberians in the US. He denied the
government is not spying on its people. “Go
ahead and criticize the government, but it
is not true we are spying on people. The
President does not support or condone such
practice,” he said.
For Minor, the Liberian government has been
aware of the memo contents for more than a
year and has since considered it irrelevant.
So he wondered why it came up this time.
“The timing of the publication is indeed
strange.”
Unity Party Stands Accused
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Recalled, dismissed former Media
relations spokesman at the Liberian
embassy Samuel Abu makes a point
during the town hall meeting Sunday. |
Meanwhile some critics wondered why the
Unity Party which is the cradle of the
Ellen-led government has not made any
official reaction from the party leadership.
Liberians believe that the UP has failed
them by not taking action to mitigate the
fear that has come to grip Liberians in the
Diaspora recently.
The fact that the Diaspora branch of the
party which is reportedly considered as the
“Most powerful” block of the ruling party
headed by chairman Gayah Fahnbulleh has done
nothing publicly to help ease the situation,
some Liberians are disappointed. They see
Gayah as being “In bed with the political
leadership,” while others feel he has been
bought.
Gayah, once considered an astute political
operative among his peers in Liberia when he
was UP national chairman has shown lack of
leadership in the matter, which is even of
more concern to most UP members in the
Diaspora. “Where is Gayah in this entire
thing that’s happening,” cried one Liberian,
who wants to remain anonymous.
They recalled how Gayah called for the
investigation of then chairman of the
transitional government, Gyude Bryant for
financial malpractices. He is also noted for
leading mass demonstrations against the
Charles Taylor led government in Liberia and
in Washington DC, at which time he called
for Taylor’s investigation for human rights
abuses, corruptions and international
crimes. Gayah lamented that if found
culpable, Taylor should be removed from
office and be declared a wanted man.
He lobbied state department officials and
members of congress to make sure that Taylor
was brought to justice for crimes committed
against humanity and corruption which he
succeeded in doing at the time.
The outspoken UP chairman was instrumental
in leading the UP to electing the first
female president in 2005 and since the
elections, the Chairman has literally
disappeared from the political scene.
Chairman Fahnbulleh remained tight lipped
when contacted at the town hall meeting
Sunday. He walked away as our reporter tried
to get a word from him. With such high
profile issues including the LPRC audit, the
Auditor General’s allegation that the
government is three times corrupt and the
current saga at the Liberian Embassy near
Washington DC looming, the only comment from
Gayah would only declared: “No comment at
this time. I will talk when I am ready.”
