Firm that paid Obama adviser in business with warlord-tied official

Fox News ^ | 8/11/2012 | By Richard Cohen

[tobyhill]

A South African company in the spotlight for paying $100,000 in speaking fees to White House adviser David Plouffe is also in business with a Liberian official under U.N. sanctions for his ties to convicted war criminal and former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor.

That's among the latest details to emerge on the connections involving MTN Group, a subsidiary of which paid President Obama's former campaign manager for engagements in late 2010, shortly before he joined the White House.

The ties to Liberia's bloody Taylor era center on Benoni Urey, who was commissioner of maritime affairs in Liberia during Taylor's reign. Urey remains on the U.N. assets-freeze and travel-ban list, even though a U.N. committee last month removed more than a dozen other Taylor allies from the list.

Urey is deeply involved with an entity called PLC Investments Limited, which is MTN's business partner in Liberia. MTN confirmed the companies together own Liberia's Lonestar Cell MTN -- MTN owns 60 percent, and PLC Investments owns the rest. MTN has been in Liberia since 2006.

Before MTN got involved, the Lonestar company was suspected of being a "source of funds" for Taylor himself, according to a 2009 U.N. report.

[piasa]

OCTOBER 1997 : (JESSE JACKSON BECOMES BILL CLINTON'S "POINT MAN FOR AFRICA" --- See SIERRA LEONE, LIBERIA)

FEBRUARY 11, 1998 : (LIBERIA : JESSIE JACKSON MEETS SEVERAL TIMES PRIVATELY WITH LIBERIAN STRONGMAN CHARLES TAYLOR)

MARCH 1998 : (BILL CLINTON'S $42.8 MILLION AFRICA TRIP : AT JESSE JACKSON'S PROMPTING, CLINTON MAKES CALL TO LIBERIAN STRONGMAN CHARLES TAYLOR {See DIAMOND TRADE} FROM AF1)

MARCH 1998 : (SIERRA LEONE : ELECTED PRESIDENT KABBAH RETURNS TO POWER WITH HELP FROM THE UK & NIGERIA; RUF LEADER SANKOH {See LIBERIA} IS ARRESTED FOR TREASON & SENTENCED TO DEATH BUT JESSE JACKSON GETS THE SENTENCE LIFTED)

APRIL 1998 : (CHICAGO, IL : OPERATION PUSH HQ : JESSIE JACKSON HOSTS A "RECONCILIATION CONFERENCE" TO PROMOTE THE RULE OF CHARLES TAYLOR IN LIBERIA)

SEPTEMBER 1998 : (LIBERIA : CHARLES TAYLOR'S SSS GOES AFTER RIVAL ROOSEVELT JOHNSON AND ASSASSINATES HIM IN THE ENTRYWAY OF THE US EMBASSY WHERE HE HAD SOUGHT REFUGE - See GEMSTONE TRADE/CONFLICT DIAMONDS, CHICAGO ILLINOIS' JESSE JACKSON)

JANUARY 1999 : (SIERRA LEONE : AFTER HAVING HIS 1998 DEATH SENTENCE LIFTED THANKS TO JESSE JACKSON'S INFLUENCE, RUF LEADER SANKOH'S FIGHTERS {See LIBERIA, CHARLES TAYLOR} GO ON ANOTHER KILLING SPREE BEFORE A WEST AFRICAN PEACEKEEPING FORCE LED BY NIGERIA MANAGES TO FIGHT THEM TO A STALEMATE )

JULY 1999 : (SIERRA LEONE : SANKOH IS RELEASED FROM HOUSE ARREST AND IS GIVEN THE VICE PRESIDENCY OF A NEW GOVERNMENT, EFFECTIVELY GRANTING HIM "LEGAL" CONTROL OF THE COUNTRY'S DIAMOND MINES, SOME OF WHOSE PROCEEDS HE THEN DIRECTS TO LIBERIA'S CHARLES TAYLOR IN EXCHANGE FOR WEAPONS -- See JESSE JACKSON)

1999 TO 2003 : (LIBERIA : AL QEADA LEADERS DEAL WITH CHARLES TAYLOR, OTHERS IN LIBERIA--- SEE SIERRA LEONE)