The Ultimate Idiot's Guide to Being an African Junta

Can PowerPoint slides keep a notorious military regime from committing atrocities?

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

David M. Crane, the former U.N. war crimes prosecutor for the Special Court in Sierra Leone, and his chief investigator, Alan W. White, indicted former Liberian warlord and president Charles Taylor in 2003. Three months ago, their new firm CW Group International offered to sell legal services to the murderous military junta in Guinea. (Read the full story by Turtle Bay's Colum Lynch here.)

The company's proposal included a PowerPoint presentation on how to convert a repressive military force into a defender of the people that obeys the laws of armed conflict. The proposal was ditched after Guinea's accused war criminal and junta leader, Moussa Dadis Camara, was shot in an assassination attempt carried out by one of his own officers.

Now if only Charles Taylor had seen this.

 SUBJECTS: AFRICA
 

ASHIKCHRIS

6:47 PM ET

February 24, 2010

Who knew...

... that instead of going to law school, I could have charged $300/hr making slides transition in interesting ways.

 

GRANT

5:42 PM ET

February 25, 2010

And what precisely did they

And what precisely did they think this would accomplish? Seriously, what?

 

CLARK KENT

2:07 AM ET

February 26, 2010

Paying for free advise

Pretty shameful abuse of the Red Cross/Red Crescent for their profit-making enterprise (and the same advise the Federation could have given for free) and they didn’t even show the symbol correctly (it’s reversed)

 

GRANT

2:36 PM ET

February 26, 2010

That wasn't the International

That wasn't the International Red Cross. If you reread it you'll notice it was a for-profit firm.

To quote this page:

"David M. Crane, the former U.N. war crimes prosecutor for the Special Court in Sierra Leone, and his chief investigator, Alan A. White, indicted former Liberian warlord and president Charles Taylor in 2003. Three months ago, their new firm CW Group International offered to sell legal services to the murderous military junta in Guinea."

The Red Cross had nothing to do with this, and it wouldn't have charged for that.

 

MOHAIR.SAM

9:43 AM ET

February 26, 2010

Chicken soup for the Despot's Soul

What's beneath "pathetic"? This. Seriously.

 

JDULIN

10:46 AM ET

February 26, 2010

Definately Incompetence...

After reading Turtle Bay's Colum Lynch article, I was left wondering...Did CW Group International make a less indicting report of Moussa Dadis Camara than the U.N. because of their own incompetence, a flawed U.N. report, or possibly corruption and questionable motives? I think I have my answer. (For better or for worse.)

 

SJC

2:47 PM ET

March 4, 2010

Not exactly an unfamiliar approach...

But you realize, of course, that this is the way that western militaries train a lot of their own recruits as well, right? (At least at the lower levels). The military police brigade from West Virginia who was in charge of Abu Ghraib was found to even be lacking this level of training.

Simple messages put in positive (rather than negative) forms, lots of pictures, etc. The only difference is that they were charging $300.

An interesting comparison might be the card that was given to troops in Vietnam, "The Enemy in Your Hands". http://www.history.army.mil/books/Vietnam/Law-War/Law-Apph.htm

Not exactly the most comprehensive summary of the Geneva Convention. Can't imagine why they had problems there...