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 Miles, he had just gotten out of the hospital with malaria
He gets in the car and 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 Miles, "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 pseudonym's were meant to strike terror into the hearts of their enemies.
So there's a General Rambo, cause he's scary
There was a General Mosquito, because mosquitos 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-Laden's.
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 we were coming with cameras to shoot him.
They say they're not gonna let him out but we can interview him in the jail
and we can interview the commander.
- Can we go in now? - Yeah
Let's go in now.
So the minute we arrived in Baboon Town, our car was surrounded by a bunch of sketchy dudes
So when Miles 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, others are saying you can't go see him.
others are saying you can't go see him.
And we just have to sit there and wait.
I like being in the police station
It's nice.
Monkey.
Little Monkey.
He's got herpes, I think, or something
What's wrong with the monkey? Why's the monkey here?
What did the monkey do wrong?
Why is the monkey here?
We're in a police station
in the middle of the red-light district
to meet General Bin-Laden, and wondering why the monkey is here.
and eventually after sitting there for a while
we realized, "Oh! We've got to grease some palms."
So we gave them some money and bam, we were back in the jail
and we could talk to Bin-Laden.
- Hey Bin-Laden! - Yeah - How are you?
- This is my friend Shane. - Shane. Nice to meet you.
We're gonna try to get you out of here now and then we can go back
We can go back and do the interview. Very Nice. That'd be fine.
God bless you.
To get him out, what do we have to do?
Do you know what he did?
Yeah, I know what he did. We're talking about to get him out, what do we have to do?
You gotta pay that money...
You want to videotape this station without my permission?!
Is that what we do?! You did not get any permission from me to videotape my office!
Ok, we'll stop. It's off, it's off.
The video's off, he's carrying it, he's just holding it right now.
Well, I hope that I haven't been recorded here, OK?
Because, you know, there's a criminal...
We're good people, we're good people.
Nobody is recording anything.
- You pay some cash, you can get him out of here. - Sure I can give him cash
Can we him and pay you a fine?
- And then take him? - Fine! - OK, great.
OK, let's go, let's go, let's go!
OK, let's go, let's go!
We went in there, and we're being followed by the police right now
Are you serious?
Yeah we might have to change tapes or do something because -
What we do is, we shoot cars, and if they come, we can give them the tape.
There's nothing on the tape.
You can have a blank tape in there?
Yeah we do, right now!
We should just get out of here!
Let's go to the warehouse.
Don't worry, no one is going to take the tape.
This is our boss man.
Photography, anything you want to do here. This is my compound, you are free.
OK.
No police will come here to do anything to you.
You will mind the step, nobody past here!
Our trip is getting progressively heavier.
- We will go on top of the building. - Yeah that would be good.
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.
He's one of my lords.
I'm the Minister of National Security.
Nice to meet you.
I want you to see for yourself.
We're happy that you people are here.
After we got Bin Laden out of jail, he was very excited to get us up to his rooftop to 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.
So maybe you could explain a little bit about
so first of all, you became known as Bin Laden during the war.
- During the war - And after the war, now you're trying to help people by doing carpentry and teaching karate
After the war, I saw some friends going astray.
So since I was a general, I will bring them together.
So I do both carpentry and masonry.
And I've got men that are in my workshop who do carpentry work
And then we go out to the field and do martial arts.
Do you get any money here?
We do our own collection sometimes...
But the U.N. or the government doesn't give you any money?
The government does not give me support. The U.N. does not give me support.
This is the first time, meeting you people, recording me and getting information from me.
We really need the government's attention to our program.
Is this the red-light area right here?
Is there a lot of crime in red-light?
Yea, this is the Red Light.
What's the problem?
Now it seems like
Everyone hanging around knows how we got him out.
and for how much.
And that has gotten around.
It's a hot topic of conversation.
I don't think Shane knows that, so he's nice and calm on screen.
I'm keeping the stress level a bit higher than usual.
Look at Liberia! Look at Liberia! We can build this place!
We don't expect that in this country, founded on Christian principles,
people should be in government office with blood on their hands!
Let them open their minds and their hearts to the country!
Why should Mama Liberia sink into poverty?
So Miles 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."
Now, be careful so you don't fall down the stairs.
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.
Holy fuckin' shit.
That was out of hand, we gotta get out of here!
There was some heavy duty vibes there...