The War Crimes of Charles Taylor's American Son, Chucky

Chucky Taylor was the American son of the infamous African dictator Charles Taylor. Raised by his mother in the Florida suburbs, he followed his father to Liberia at 17.

Zoom

Comment. End comment. The U.S. Embassy in Monrovia reports on the emergence of Chucky Taylor’s Anti-Terrorist Unit in 1999.

I think the biggest insight I took from Chuckie [Taylor] was that evil is directly in front of you on a daily basis and depending on the environment you’re in and what your intentions are, you can indulge that or you can look away.

Journalist Johnny Dwyer on what ChuckieTaylor’s story taught him about the nature of evil. In American Warlord, Dwyer looks at how Taylor, son of former Liberian President Charles Taylor, went from Florida teen to imprisoned war criminal.

Florida Teen, War Criminal: The Life Of An ‘American Warlord’

(via nprbooks)

Zoom Info

• ISO
• Aperture
• Exposure
• Focal Length

• 80
• f/2.2
• 1/30th
• 4mm

aaknopf:

A very happy publication day to Jo Nesbo, Amit Chaudhuri, Tina Packer, Johnny Dwyer, Peter Slevin, and Joseph Bastianich & Tanya Bastianich Manuali!

Blood on Snow by Jo Nesbo

From the internationally acclaimed author of the Harry Hole novels—a fast, tight, darkly lyrical stand-alone novel that has at its center the perfectly sympathetic antihero: an Oslo contract killer who draws us into an unexpected meditation on death and love. 

Odysseus Abroad by Amit Chaudhuri

From the widely acclaimed writer, a beguiling new novel, at once wistful and ribald, about a day in the life of two Indian men in London–a university student and his bachelor uncle–each coping in his own way with alienation, solitariness, and the very art of living.

Women of Will by Tina Packer

From one of the country’s foremost experts on Shakespeare and theatre arts, actor, director, and master teacher Tina Packer offers an exploration—fierce, funny, fearless—of the women of Shakespeare’s plays. A profound, and profoundly illuminating, book that gives us the playwright’s changing understanding of the feminine and reveals some of his deepest insights. Packer, with expert grasp and perception, constructs a radically different understanding of power, sexuality, and redemption.

American Warlord by Johnny Dwyer

Chucky Taylor is the American son of the infamous African dictator Charles Taylor.

Raised by his mother in the Florida suburbs, at the age of 17 he followed his father to Liberia, where he ended up leading a murderous militia. Chucky is now in a federal penitentiary, the only American ever convicted of torture.

This shocking and essential work of reportage tells his tragic and terrifying story for the first time.

Michelle Obama by Peter Slevin

An inspiring story, richly detailed and written with élan, here is the first comprehensive account of the life and times of Michelle Obama, a woman of achievement and purpose—and the most unlikely first lady in modern American history. With disciplined reporting and a storyteller’s eye for revealing detail, Peter Slevin follows Michelle to the White House from her working-class childhood on Chicago’s largely segregated South Side.

Healthy Pasta by Joe Bastianich and Tanya Bastianich Manuali

Having grown up with Lidia Bastianich as their mother, Tanya and Joe Bastianich are no strangers to great-tasting Italian cooking. Today, the siblings both have illustrious careers in the culinary world—writing cookbooks, running restaurants, hosting television shows—and yet they are still faced with the question that many of us encounter in the kitchen every day: how can we enjoy the pasta that we crave in a healthy and satisfying way?  

Zoom

A little piece of history from the “American Warlord” FOIA cables. State’s first mention of Chucky Taylor, interestingly enough, in cable traffic between Monrovia and Ouagadougou in 1995.

Zoom

The official website for American Warlord is live and here. The book is available on April 7, but can be pre-ordered today.

Zoom

A snapshot of the appeal filed with the 2nd Circuit on my behalf today by Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma on the issue of a sealed courtroom and secret defendant in a prosecution in the Eastern District of New York.

Zoom

“NAIROBI CORE EAC MEETS TO DISCUSS KIDNAPPING OF AMERICAN CITIZEN” July 19, 2009 - U.S. Embassy - Nairobi

Zoom

Ambassador’s Farewell Call on President Sirleaf - Monrovia - February 2012

Zoom

Incident Report - Ebola Virus Disease - August 12, 2014 - NYC Office of Emergency Management

Zoom

“Does this jive with what you are hearing?” DEA in Honduras, 2011.

Zoom

Heavily redacted: Chevron and the Niger Delta - 2009.