Pat Robertson had lobbied the first Bush administration on Taylor’s behalf in order to gain the rights to gold mines controlled by Taylor’s war lords in Liberia. Taylor testified that Robertson had indeed been his main political ally in the United States and according to pilots that worked for Robertson’s Operation Blessings, planes that Robertson told 700 Club viewers were ferrying Christian relief supplies to genocide victims in Rwanda were in fact carrying mining equipment to Liberia.
Taylor’s trial lasted five years, during which the court heard a catalog of horrific acts committed by rebels whom Taylor helped arm in Sierra Leone’s civil war. The war ended in 2002 after more than a decade of fighting and more than 50,000 deaths. . . (more)
