File Under: Ain't Gonna Happen

MONROVIA – Liberia's defence minister said on Friday an exiled confidant of former president and warlord Charles Taylor was plotting to assassinate top government officials and called for international help tracking him down.

Benjamin Yeaten, Taylor's former chief of staff and one of his most feared fighters, is believed to be armed, somewhere in West Africa and planning to return to Liberia to destabilise it, Defence Minister Brownie Samukai said.

Given the unlikelihood of any such attack succeeding while 14,000 UN peacekeepers are here, I have to wonder who would stand to benefit from the making of this announcement? Is it a coincidence that this item surfaces just as the TRC is starting up?

Or maybe I'm naive. I guess I wouldn't have believed that the Executive Mansion would catch fire on Founders Day, either.

P.S. NPR in the US has done a radio story on the TRC sessions taking place in the States.