General Butt Naked?

SHANE SMITH: A lot of people would drink or do

drugs before fighting?

SHANE SMITH: Yeah.

SHANE SMITH: So you killed the child?

JOSHUA BLAHYI: Yes.

SHANE SMITH: And then you drank the blood?

JOSHUA BLAHYI: Yeah.

MALE SPEAKER : [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]

CROWD: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]

MALE SPEAKER 1 : So what kind of war is this?

Guerrilla?

MALE SPEAKER 2 : World War III.

SHANE SMITH: We here at Vice have been fascinated by

Liberia for a long time.

It's America's first and only foray into

quasi-colonialism in Africa.

It started as a back-to-Africa movement for freed slaves and,

in fact, their constitution was written in Washington.

And Monrovia, the capital city of Liberia, is actually named

after President Monroe.

It became a state in the 1840s.

So the freed slaves go back to Africa and promptly enslave

the native Africans based on the plantation method they had

learned in the US, which lasts for about 140 years, until

Samuel K. Doe, the first native African-born Liberian,

was elected.

But this doesn't last very long.

Why?

Because an American-educated--

and some would say American-backed--

rebel leader named Charles Taylor and his buddy, Prince

Johnson, came from America and overthrew him.

MALE SPEAKER: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]

MALE REPORTER : Despite reports that the government

wants talks with the rebels, the violence goes on.

FEMALE REPORTER : Rebel forces stormed into the center of the

capital today.

They are now less than a mile from the executive mansion

where President Samuel Doe has barricaded himself with about

500 soldiers.

SHANE SMITH: In fact, Prince Johnson had got to Doe before

his buddy Charles, ended up torturing him, cutting him up,

and is rumored to have eaten him while

filming the whole thing.

[SHOUTING]

SHANE SMITH: So Charles Taylor finally gets elected with a

campaign slogan that reads, "He killed my ma, he killed my

pa, but I'll still vote for him." And it

works, he gets elected.

But he's so corrupt that soon after, there's a bunch of

warlords fighting for control over Liberia, the country

devolves into civil war, and things go from bad to

severely fucked up.

SHANE SMITH : But this is like a civil war on steroids.

It's a post-apocalyptic Armageddon with child soldiers

smoking heroin, cross-dressing cannibals, systematic rape--

it's total hell on earth.

[GUNFIRE]

MALE SPEAKER: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]

MALE SPEAKER 1: We love the music.

There's the music.

MALE SPEAKER 2 : They call it the sound of death.

MALE SPEAKER 1: Yeah, but it's the sound of music to us.

SHANE SMITH: Liberia's been in the news a lot lately because

Charles Taylor is on trial at The Hague for war crimes.

But we wanted to know what happened to all the other

warlords, so we contacted a Canadian journalist who lives

in Liberia named Myles Estey, who's kind of a Kurtz-like

character--

tall, skinny, skeleton guy who's had malaria more times

than he's had hot dinners.

And he said he could get us access to all these

ex-warlords.

So we said, great.

We got on a plane, and we flew to Liberia.

[MUSIC - THE ALMIGHTY DEFENDERS, "ALL MY LOVING"]

SHANE SMITH : When you first get to Monrovia, the first

thing you think is, it's really hot.

It's really hot, it's really poor, and

it's totally chaotic.

In fact, when we went to pick up Myles, he had just gotten

out the hospital with malaria.

He gets in the car, and he says, are you ready to go?

We're going to Baboon Town in the red light district to meet

our first general, General bin Laden.

So as we drove to Baboon Town, we asked Myles what's up with

the name, "General bin Laden?" And he said, well, a lot of

the generals took different names because they didn't want

to be identified after the various wars, and these

pseudonyms were meant to strike terror into the hearts

of their enemies.

So there's a General Rambo, because he's scary, there was

a General Mosquito, because mosquitoes are terrifying

because they bring malaria.

The general that fought General Mosquito was named

General Mosquito Spray.

And of course, there's General bin Laden.

In fact, there's two General bin Ladens.

Our General bin Laden, we found out en route, had just

been put in jail.

Now, he didn't know why, but he suspected because the

authorities found out that we were coming with

cameras to shoot him.

MYLES ESTEY: And they say they're not gonna let him out,

but we can interview him in the jail and we can interview

the commanders.

SHANE SMITH : Let's do that.

Let's go then.

MYLES ESTEY: Yeah.

SHANE SMITH : So the minute we arrive in Baboon Town, our car

is surrounded by a bunch of sketchy dudes.

So when Myles came back and said we could interview bin

Laden in the police station, I was like, yeah, let's get out

of here and get in there really quick.

So we get into the police station, and it's chaos.

Some guards are saying you can go see him, other guards are

saying you can't go see him, and we just have to

sit there and wait.

SHANE SMITH: I like being in the police station.

It's nice.

[MONKEY SCREECHING]

SHANE SMITH: Monkey.

Little monkey.

He's got herpes, I think, or something.

Hi.

What's wrong with the monkey?

Why is the monkey here?

SHANE SMITH: Why is the monkey here?

[MONKEY SCREECHES]

SHANE SMITH: We're in a police station in the middle of the

red light district to meet General bin Laden, and I'm

wondering why the monkey's here.

[SHANE SMITH SIGHS]

SHANE SMITH : Then eventually, after sitting there for a

while, we realized, oh, we've got to grease some palms.

So we gave them some money and bang-- we were back into the

jail and we could talk to bin Laden.

Hey, bin Laden?

GENERAL BIN LADEN : Yeah?

SHANE SMITH : How are you?

MYLES ESTEY : This is my friend, Shane.

SHANE SMITH : Shane.

GENERAL BIN LADEN: [INAUDIBLE].

Yeah.

SHANE SMITH: Nice to meet you.

We're gonna try to get you out of here now, and

then we can go back.

SHANE SMITH: All right.

We're gonna do it right now.

GENERAL BIN LADEN: Now.

SHANE SMITH: OK.

MYLES ESTEY: Yeah, I know what he did.

We're talking about to get him out, what do we have to do?

MYLES ESTEY: To who?

MALE SPEAKER : OK, we'll stop.

We'll stop.

SHANE SMITH : Video's off.

OFFICER : --without the permission.

MALE SPEAKER : It's off.

SHANE SMITH : The video's off.

He's carrying-- he's just holding it right now.

MYLES ESTEY : Look, we're good people.

We're good--

nobody's recording anything.

MYLES ESTEY : Sure, I can give him cash and--

can we pay him and pay you a fine?

And then take him?

OFFICER : Fine.

MYLES ESTEY : OK, great.

OFFICER : That's good.

MYLES ESTEY : OK.

SHANE SMITH : OK, let's go, let's go, let's go.

Let's go, let's go, let's go.

OK, let's go, let's go.

MALE SPEAKER: Hey, yeah-- you!

SHANE SMITH: We went in there--

we're being followed by the police right now.

SHANE SMITH: Yeah, we might have to change tapes or do

something, because--

what we do is we shoot cars--

MALE SPEAKER : Yeah, that's--

SHANE SMITH: --and if they come, we can

give them the tape.

There's nothing on the tape.

SHANE SMITH: Yeah.

We do, right now.

GENERAL BIN LADEN: We'll go to my warehouse.

SHANE SMITH: OK.

GENERAL BIN LADEN: Don't worry about that.

SHANE SMITH: Our trip is getting progressively heavier.

SHANE SMITH: Yeah, that'll be good.

GENERAL BIN LADEN: We're going on top of the building.

SHANE SMITH: OK.

I'm kind of a little bit worried that the police are

gonna come get us right now.

I gave them a fake name and fake number.

SHANE SMITH: OK, nice to meet you.

SHANE SMITH: Nice to meet you.

SHANE SMITH: Thank you.

Thank you.

So after we got bin Laden out of jail, he was very excited

to get us up to his rooftop and tell us his story.

And according to him, the ex-generals, who are now the

community leaders, are the only ones doing anything to

help the people.

SHANE SMITH: So maybe you could explain a little bit

about-- so first of all, you became known as bin Laden

during the war?

GENERAL BIN LADEN: During the war.

SHANE SMITH: And then after the war, now you're sort of

trying to help people by carpentry and by karate.

GENERAL BIN LADEN: Karate.

SHANE SMITH: Do you get any money here?

SHANE SMITH: No, but the UN or the government doesn't give

you any money?

SHANE SMITH : Nothing?

SHANE SMITH: And is this area-- this is red light here?

GENERAL BIN LADEN: It's a red light.

This is red light.

SHANE SMITH: And is it--

is there a lot of crime in red light?

MALE SPEAKER : Oh yeah.

GENERAL BIN LADEN : Yeah, it's--

this is red light.

SHANE SMITH : Red light.

SHANE SMITH : So Myles comes over, stops the interview, and

says, we have to get the fuck out of here now.

Bin Laden looks down and he goes, yeah, yeah,

those aren't my guys.

You guys should really go.

SHANE SMITH : So bin Laden gave us an escort, and a

couple of his guys got us through the crowd to the car,

and we got the fuck out.

SHANE SMITH : So let's go.

Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go.

Holy fucking shit.

That was out of hand.

We gotta get out of here.

There was some heavy duty Libs there, boy.

So after meeting and being freaked out by General bin

Laden, we wanted to see what the UN and government were

doing to rebuild Liberia.

We met a local journalist named Nagbe, and we asked him,

and he said, you want to the government and UN are doing?

I'll take you to West Point.

West Point is the worst slum in Liberia, which makes it one

of the worst slums in West Africa, which makes it one of

the worst slums in the world.

Now, when you first get there, the first thing you want to do

is get the hell out.

It's open sewers everywhere--

shit, piss, garbage, everything mixed in--

and the stench is overpowering.