November 12 Part 2: The liar ensconced in his lair

A short reply to Worlea Dunah’s ‘’Re-examining Dr. Fahnbulleh’s response in a face-saving defense for his betrayal.’’

We are forced to cope with the repetitious lies of Worlea Dunah and his mentors for the sake of the historical records. When one does not know, it is responsible, decent and honorable to admit ignorance and try to learn as much as possible before passing judgement. On the other hand, to pretend that one is knowledgeable and exhibit the attitude of a wiseacre, spewing out inanities, lies and gossip with such smugness is to move from an irritating gadfly to that of a psychopath. This is where we find ourselves.

Let us begin at the end of Dunah’s regurgitated foolishness that my polemics are ‘’polluted language, soniwhen parlance, street vulgarity.’’ This is hilarious, not only because it shows the barrenness of this liar but also that it exposes in all its lucidity the chronic limitations of a shameless braggart. My style of writing comes from the polemics. The Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus defines polemics as: ‘’a speech or piece of writing that argues strongly for or against something; the practice of using fierce argument or discussion.’’ This is a literary style that captured my attention when at the age of 18 I came across Marx’s ‘’Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte.’’ This classic on the causes and consequences of the failure of the 1848 revolution in Europe was written in 1852 with captivating polemics. From this inspiring piece, I sought and found more incisive polemics in some of the writings of Jean Paul Sartre, Antonio Gramsci, Frantz Fanon, Ahmed Sekou Toure, George Jackson, etc. What your insipid bombast demonstrates is that you have no idea of literary styles, semantics and syntax. It is truly said that ‘’a little learning is a dangerous thing….’’

My annoyance with your lies is not that you belch them out unashamedly and hurriedly but that you who sat as a representative of our people at one time are prone to render judgement with much flippancy. You are convinced that a man, steeped in prejudices, who had all reasons to lie and exaggerate patent falsehoods is credible, honorable, decent and untainted when dealing with interpretations and analyses in the murky world of political intrigues and vicious propaganda. This was the state of affairs in MOJA in the 80s and early 90s that led to undermining and eventual paralysis. It was from this cauldron of insidious bile that men like Fromayan came with their accusations, slanders and hearsay. I dealt with these then and my rebuttals were all published. I do not expect any responsible individual to accept as ‘’gospel truth’’ whatever comes out of the mouth of hostile participants. Your approach is not from the mindset of a thinking man but of a robot programmed to disseminate whatever is fed into it.

You wrote: ‘’On the anniversary of the sad death of the late Gen. Thomas Gonkoma Quiwonkpa, I reminisce on the circumstances of his debacle and I used a publication from a trusted and venerated progressive—James Fromayan, 70… concerning very cheap handset communication gadgets and the procurement process.’’ You are free to speculate who and what James Fromayan is but you are not at liberty to convey lies and cast aspersion on the integrity of someone you do not know. Fromayan made some allegations about money which was misappropriated but I do not remember anything about faulty communication sets as there was no such thing. There were articles published in February 2002 and I replied vehemently to the insinuations in 2002 and 2003 on the perspective website and on the Liberia Orbit site. Had you been interested in the truth, you would have looked for my articles because even Fromayan referred to one, ‘’Thus to dust,’’ which came out in the Liberia Orbit in February 2003. On the perspective website, I dealt with the treachery of some of the fellows in MOJA in a piece entitled, ‘’Now they know,’’ published in September 2002. There were many more but of course they didn’t interest you. I can understand why knowing where you are coming from!

In case you are interested and want to check out facts, it would confound you to know that Fromayan’s ‘’gospel truth’’ which you pontificate about is nowhere to be found on the perspective site of 2002 or 2003. I assume it was taken down because the publishers realized at some point after reading my rebuttals that it was a pile of balderdash, scripted to impress and deceive. It was published in October 2009 on Blojlu’s Blog. I never published on this site as you claimed and didn’t know about it until your slanderous disinformation was sent to me. I know who is behind this Blojlu’s Blog and why he published Fromayan’s baseless accusations after my TRC appearance.

Let me say here that after my many articles in 2002 and 2003 debunking the calumnies thrown at me by Fromayan and his allies, I was eager to listen to Fromayan repeat his allegations before the TRC but he never appeared. I am still wondering why someone who had so much ‘information’ and claimed to be knowledgeable about developments in Liberia refused to appear before the TRC. You must know that it is easy to lie and slander someone on a website but consequential to tell the same lies and disinformation before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. I went before the TRC and presented my case from my perspective. The final Report is an historical document and in it I am vindicated. On the other hand, how would you call those who claimed in the past to have knowledge of some transactions bordering on the calamity of which you write but refused to appear and state their cases? Were they cowards or opportunists? Let us move forward!

Fahnbulleh ‘’corrupted’’ no money ‘’on two occasions’’ as alleged by Fromayan and spread by you. It is patently obvious that a thief sees himself in others. I have read the GAC report of 2014 and kept a copy for future reference. In it, we are told that Worlea Dunah could not account for $71,000 USD belonging to the people of Nimba. Are you the same Dunah that the report cited as conniving with one Floyd Tomah to produce fake invoices? What happened to the accounts of your group called Center for Peace Education (COPE)? Are you still being funded by the donors? Dunah, I am not like you. I do not pilfer funds belonging to the people and their children. I have served as minister of Education, minister of Foreign Affairs, Senior political Advisor and National Security Advisor but not once have I been accused of stealing public funds. This is not in my character. For you or anyone to impugn my character as regards money is to be downright dishonest.

You argued rhetorically in your response to me: ‘’What a misplaced aggression on account of ascribing to the tenets of truth by making informed conclusion on an established document which is an ancient fundamental cornerstone of intellectual and educative exchanges.’’ Had you carried out research on this issue, then we would have concluded that your assertions were based on ‘an ancient fundamental cornerstone of intellectual and educative exchanges,’’ whatever that means! You did not read much nor were you interested in deriving the truth from relevant exchanges. You were intoxicated by lies and gossip as seen by your oft repeated question: ‘’What happened to the $22,000usd?’’ No one ever gave me such amount for walkie talkies! This accusation is bunkum out of the bottom of hell! Elder Harry Yuan is alive and in a better position to explain the financial transactions within the group that invaded in 1985. I am convinced he did not tell Fromayan anything about missing money when the latter joined the operations almost at the end of training and the beginning of the movement forward. Let me state here categorically that Fromayan was never a planner and operator of the process at the beginning. This was another fable he tried to convey and which you swallowed wholeheartedly.

Let us forge ahead! I want to conclude on your asinine assertions before dealing with some of the exaggerated lies of Fromayan, especially the one dealing with expressing the same outrageous nonsense in my presence in Accra and the car given to my late mother by Charles Taylor. Again, like the audit report on Nimba, I have the audit report on the NEC during Fromayan’s stewardship. It was my duty as National Security Advisor to read all audit reports and get to understand the characters who were in the public space, especially when they built mansions on their meagre salaries with no credit from any banking institution in the country.

You make some outlandish statements, two of which I found very amusing. You asserted: ‘’1. It is a fact that James Fromayan, a Liberian statesman, who is still alive wrote over a decade ago that he was part of the planning and execution of the November 12, 1985 invasion and further claimed that you pocketed $18,000usd of the full amount of $22,000usd given to purchase military grade communication gadgets for the November 12, 1985 invasion which publication has remained unchallenged until I wrote that piece…’’

In the first place, I do not know of Fromayan being ‘’a Liberian statesman.’’ What constitutes statesmanship in any historical context? For one to serve as chairman of NEC does not confer automatically the distinction of statesmanship on that individual, especially when one had to leave under dubious circumstances! This is one of the tragedies of our history. Any individual entrusted with a portfolio dons himself/herself with titles when in actuality like Shakespeare’s Macbeth. they appear ‘’like dwarfish thieves in giants’ robes.’’ I was never given $ 22,000usd for communication devices and as I argued on many occasions throughout 2002 and 2003, no such money was given to anyone to purchase communication gears. The communication gears were donated by Archie Williams who is still alive today! You are overly presumptuous and this hubris says a lot about your flawed character. What you wrote in 2021 was dealt with as far back as 2002 and 2003. The fact that you were ignorance of existing articles on this subject does not mean that they did not exist and to pompously argued that Fromayan’s publication had ‘’remained unchallenged until I wrote that piece,’’ is the hallmark of a charlatan! This I maintain!!

Again and again, you come across as an unstable individual or probably one suffering from the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. I presume you are still young and thus all symptoms of this degenerative disease in you are frightening and pathetic. You assert with dazzling pretense that: ‘’It is a fact that you, Dr. Fahnbulleh, remained behind in the hotel in Freetown and did not participate in the invasion’’. For the umpteenth time, I never stayed in a hotel in Freetown. I do not know who put this notion in your thick skull. I have always lived in the homes of my in-laws in Freetown. Someone decided to make a fool of you by feeding you such lies knowing that you would spew them like a broken faucet!

For your information, I was the chief political officer of the operations and followed the combatants to the border with the intention of taking part in combat in Monrovia. I have dealt with this episode in my TRC testimony and Joe Wylie who was present and is still alive can explain things better as a neutral observer. I never stayed back in Freetown and if some treachery had not occurred, we would not have had confusion at the border with the security personnel from Sierra Leone disarming me at the point of entry. As a revolutionary, cowardice is not in my blood! I would suggest that you stop listening to lies and gossip in this era when information is readily available and accessible in all spheres. I know Fromayan better than you and rest assured that I have never considered sweeping ‘’under the carpet’’ what you and others envisage to be my ‘’troubling role.’’ In my role as a militant in the African Revolution, I have always been ready to pay the ultimate price if needs be!

From my involvement in politics in Liberia with the first prison experience at the age of 17, I have never dealt with the issue of money. It has always been about conviction and principles. I would have stayed with the military government had I wanted to enrich myself. I turned down thousands of dollars when offered by the military to build a house. The former minister of Finance, G. Alvin Jones, is still alive. After I went into exile, I was called back to serve as foreign minister again but refused. In the interim government, I served for two years but had to leave because my late son was battling cancer. Fromayan said that I took money and travelled for long spells. This is a blatant lie! I travelled for long spells because I had to be in hospital with my son as I had to donate bone marrow but did not do so with money from the interim government. I have recounted all of these developments in several articles. Had it been about money, I would not have served as National Security Advisor for ten years with the lowest budgetary allocation in the amount of $72,000 USD! You heard me right—seventy-two thousand dollars each year for ten years! When Speaker Tyler saw this ridiculous amount for the office of the National Security Advisor and put in an additional three hundred thousand dollars, this amount was taken out by the president. He asked me what was happening and I told him that it was all political. You see Mr. gossip-monger, some people never left the agony of the grave yard of 1980! I did a long time ago even after witnessing the brutality and opprobrium meted out to my maternal grandfather, Nete Sie Brownell and my father, Ambassador Abdul Raman Boima Fahnbulleh, Sr. We struggle not for power, money or prestige but for the opportunity to serve the people and our Republic.

Had I wanted money and prestige, I would have jumped at the offer of some younger brothers in the CDC who asked me to be running mate to their candidate in the elections of 2017. I refused because I knew what would have obtained from certain quarters with the lies about ‘’socialist plot’ and perceived assassination attempt against madam Sirleaf. I had met young Samora Wolokollie at the Chinese restaurant around the Stadium and he had expressed his partisans’ determination not to accept anymore the shenanigans of 2011. I knew he was serious as I could see the frustration on his face. I had handled security records and knew the desperation of the cadres in the CDC. My involvement would have ratcheted the tension, fear and apprehension in certain quarters and led to serious consequences for our people and the Republic with hostile outside forces getting involved. I declined and went on to contest and promote my agenda of social democracy and popular participation. I never intended in the political struggle to ride on other people’s popularity for power and wealth. This has been my credo throughout my political life!

Fromayan argued in his piece that I stayed with Doe because of ‘’gravy.’’ It is obvious that he knows very little of my conviction and principles. The question is: why did I not accept another position or return to the Foreign Ministry when G. Alvin Jones brought Doe’s message to me in Paris that I should become Foreign Minister again? In his outrageous pontification, Fromayan lambasted my association with Alhaji Kromah. What he never knew was that Kromah and I are related through his late mother. Our tight bonds over the years, especially when he became a Council man during the war years was based on blood loyalty and our determination, together with Dr. George Boley to neutralize Charles Taylor by any means necessary. I was not looking for a job or money but an opportunity to rid the Republic of brigands. I have followed the propaganda against me by certain actors during these many years. This is one of the reasons why under the civilian dispensation, I went after the audit reports to get a glance into the appetites of many who profess to be ‘’clean and honorable.’ My statement still stands that tomorrow, our people will hear more revelations before various ‘’Commissions of Inquiry.’’ Worlea Dunah, we shall be waiting and when the time comes, we will shout, ‘’Hic Rhodus, hic salta!’’

Dunah recounts an encounter at the Legislature but as is his habit, he prevaricates again and again, trying to bolster his supposed relevance by crude innuendoes and absurd fabrications. Hear him out: ‘’I remembered you made a presentation to the joint Committee at the Legislature for the construction of a line of barracks stretching from Maryland County to Cape Mount County. I asked you, how many barracks are you talking about and what is the estimate (?) cost?’ Your reply: ‘I am not a carpenter to know these details.’’’ These are all unconscionable tales Dunah. I hope you are not losing it fast! I will briefly state what transpired.

I received a letter from the Legislature to appear and explain the security situation in the country in light of the reforms being carried out in conjunction with our international partners. What Dunah did not understand is that the National Security Advisor is answerable to the president of Liberia only. This is why anyone appointed to that position is not confirmed by the Legislature. I knew this but decided to go and enjoy the political theater. In the first place, it is not the responsibility of the National Security Advisor to discuss the construction of barracks with anyone. This remit is for the Ministry of Defense. I would have never thought of usurping this function. I met the Legislators and explained the security challenges facing the country. I dwelled on the different structures we were putting in place around the country with the security sector reforms. At this point, someone asked me about barracks (I now know it was Dunah) and I replied that I was not a builder of barracks and the question should be addressed to those at the Ministry of Defense. I was offhanded and sarcastic because I felt the question was comical and inappropriate. At this juncture my late comrade and brother Adolf Lawrence entered the Committee Room and jokingly said that students do not call a teacher to grill him. We all laughed and that was the end of the meeting. I now see that Dunah wants to claim some importance by having me appear before the Committee out of respect! Well, go ahead Dunah if this makes you feel good!

My final point on Dunah has to do with his remark that: ‘’…whenever I visited my ally, former president Sirleaf, you were gallivanting with a pistol on your hip to usher us in.’ This sickening fable comes from a traumatized mind! I never carried a pistol on the sixth floor of the Ministry of State. This was not in our SOP. Every security chief knew that the National Security Advisor did not carry a pistol on his hip around the president’s office. I kept my pistol in my jeep downstairs. Furthermore, I was not a protocol officer to usher people in to see the president. Let me expose this conman finally. He got this story from an article on security written by one Toweh assigned at the Executive Mansion. In the aftermath of a demonstration before the Foreign Ministry, Toweh had written that madam Sirleaf had no security to boast of and that the fact that Fahnbulleh carried a pistol on his hip meant nothing. I remember the demonstration and that the president was in the midst of the crowd as was her approach. I got my pistol from the jeep, placed it on my side and ran to meet the president in the crowd. Toweh must have seen my pistol on my hip and wrote his article about the lack of security.

Few weeks later, I was leaving the president’s chambers and Toweh was with a journalist from the Financial Times. I remarked about his article and said that my pistol was real and that he should not write things of which he was ignorant. The journalist from the Financial Times was surprised at the encounter and wanted to find out what was happening. I went to my office. Few minutes later, Toweh brought the journalist to my office. It was my time to be surprised. I asked the journalist what I could do for him and he said that he came to find out how a ‘’revolutionary Marxist-Leninist’’ who had studied in Eastern Europe during the cold war could be the National Security Advisor of a pro- U.S government. I looked at Toweh and saw the guilt in his eyes. He had spewed such nonsense to the journalist. I knew his connection to Nimba and why he was promoting this NPFL propaganda. I told the journalist where I had attended school and from my statement, he lost interest in this ‘’rabid Marxist-Leninist.’’ After Toweh and the journalist left my office, I called Jerolimick Piah and expressed my anger at the propaganda from Toweh. The latter told Piah that he wanted to apologise to me but I was not interested. This is where the story came from about pistol on my hip around the president.

Would I take on the role of protocol officer to usher people in to see the president? This was not one of my functions and I never did such. Dunah, I do not forget things easily especially when they involved people who are sleazy and unreliable. This is the source of the lie of me ‘’gallivanting with a pistol on your hip to usher us in.’’ One must laugh at this political midget and his delusion of grandeur! I never usher in Senators, Associate Justices and cabinet ministers to see the president. why would I do such with Representatives? What would I have been trying to prove? You made reference to my presidential bid twice and your winning as representative twice. Unlike you, I went national to convince my people. You won around your village. I am sure that had I stood around my grandfather’s village in Maryland or my father’s village in Cape Mount as representative I would have won many times. I long since moved out of the realm of village or regional politics! I am a nationalist and Liberia is my field of struggle not Maryland or Cape Mount.

I must now deal with Fromayan’s assertion that Charles Taylor gave my late mother a car. One of the reasons I have detested Fromayan over the years is his habit of being cavalier when dealing with people’s reputation and integrity. The story of the car was simple to explain. During the cause of the civil upheaval in Monrovia in April 1996, NPFL combatants commandeered my mother’s Mercedes Benz car which was taken to Taylor’s compound around the Nigerian Embassy. The car was seen in the compound by the late Nigerian diplomat Joshua Iroha who had accompanied an ECOWAS delegation to see Taylor and knew my mother’s car very well. On leaving Taylor’s compound, Ambassador Iroha contacted the old lady and told her that her Mercedes Benz was in Taylor’s compound. After Taylor was sworn in, the old lady sent a message to him that her car was seen in his compound and she wanted it back to move around Monrovia. Taylor knew about the Mercedes Benz and hinted that one of his commanders had taken it out of Monrovia and it was never seen again. It was against this background that Taylor promised the old lady that he would find another car for her but that it would not be a Mercedes Benz. He kept his promise to the old lady. This is the background to the story that Fromayan did not understand and spread the fable around the world that the old lady took a car from Taylor while I was criticizing him (Taylor). This was meant to discredit me in my advocacy and ridicule an old woman who had been deprived of her car. And this is the Fromayan that this political micky mouse Dunah writes about that: ‘’I am of the conviction that given James Fromayan’s reputation he is not going to put such in the public purview especially on such historic matter if it is not true.’’ This is sheer hogwash!

On the issue of Fromayan confronting me with his allegation in Accra and his claim in his piece: ‘’What is H. Boima Fahnbulleh, Jr.’s problem, ‘’that I did not response to him,’’ I can only giggle with derision at this fiction. In Accra at the last MOJA meeting I attended as a member of that Organization, Fromayan did not bring up any issue of money given for communication sets. He accused me of badmouthing comrades like Dew Mayson when the latter was paying my rent in Paris. I told him in the presence of the comrades that this was not true and that if he repeated such lies, I would get very brutal with him as this was an insult to my family. He thought that the presence of the comrades would restrain me and repeated his lies. At this point, I reached for him. It was the admonition of comrade Amos Sawyer that we should not behave like the Derg in Ethiopia that whenever there was a meeting there would be dead bodies! At this juncture, I left the meeting and MOJA for the last time. I later inquired of Mayson whether he had ever told Fromayan such lie and of course Mayson denied it. This is the Fromayan I know, a man who invents stories to ridicule and cast aspersion on the integrity of comrades. Joe Wylie was at the Accra meeting. I guess this was his last meeting with MOJA also. The altercation started in the meeting when Wylie, a long standing MOJA member was asked out of the meeting and the late Tom Kamara, an ally of Fromayan was asked to remain. I objected that this was unacceptable as Kamara was never a MOJA member. He affiliated with LPP but not with MOJA. This is the fact as I remember! Again, I wrote about these political developments so many times in 2002 and 2003.

Some comrades have asked me not to be bothered with the lies and sleazy disinformation from Dunah and his idols. I am sorry to disappoint you comrades but in this struggle for the emancipation and transformation of our people, we must be ruthless not only in discarding the putrid belch from the orifices of pseudo nationalists but in exposing their ignorance and treachery. It is tragic that over the years, many in MOJA forgot the lesson of a great Philosopher-General of bygone years: ‘’When the fortress is besieged, it is treasonable to dissent.’’ We have been under siege since 1979 and irrespective of our compromises, the enemies of our political tendency seek alliances to destroy and wipe us off the political map of our country. One is free to join them! We, on the other hand are at liberty to chastise you with our pens and expose your reactionary hides for the benefit of the children of tomorrow!!