The head of Sierra Leone’s international tribunal accused Liberian President Charles Taylor yesterday of harboring al Qaeda terrorists and assassinating a former lieutenant who was a fugitive from the U.N.-backed court. David Crane, the American prosecutor for the Special Court on Sierra Leone, said in an interview that Taylor poses a threat not just to West Africa but to the rest of the world. Crane, a former inspector general at the Pentagon and assistant general counsel for the Defense Intelligence Agency, said his investigations of Sierra Leone’s civil war had uncovered evidence of al Qaeda’s network operating in West Africa, principally to buy diamonds. “Diamonds fuel my conflict, and diamonds fuel the war on terrorism,” Crane said. “Charles Taylor is harboring terrorists from the Middle East, including al Qaeda and Hezbollah, and has been for years. It is time for the world to know this and who Charles Taylor really is. He is not just a regional troublemaker; he is a player in the world of terror and what he does affects lives in the United States and Europe.” Full Story
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