Mark Thatcher faces court over 'coup plot'

[seemslikeadream]

Staff and agencies
Monday September 6, 2004

South Africa's justice ministry today approved a request from Equatorial Guinea to question Sir Mark Thatcher over an alleged plot to overthrow its government.
The 51-year-old son of Lady Thatcher, the former British prime minister, is likely to face questioning in open court over allegations that he funded a coup attempt in the oil-rich state.

Under South African law, the questions are given to a magistrate, who will then subpeona Sir Mark to answer. A spokesman for the justice ministry said it "could all happen very fast now".

Sir Mark is also expected in court on November 25 over charges that he violated South Africa's anti-mercenary laws. He denies all charges.
more
http://www.guardian.co.uk/southafrica/story/0,13262,1298468,00.html

[Octafish]

1. I heard "Sir Mark" has his house up for sale. Related?

Well, anyway, they loathe him in Jolly Old...

Coup Charges Cap Mark Thatcher's Career

BETH GARDINER
Associated Press

LONDON - One of Britain's iconic names is back, in bizarre circumstances tailor-made for the country's boisterous tabloids.

Sir Mark Thatcher - son of British political legend Margaret Thatcher, titled by inheritance, and wealthy through connections and marriage - is in trouble in a far-off land for allegedly bankrolling a bungled African coup attempt.

The story features oil interests, a dictator reported to harbor cannibalistic tendencies, mercenaries from elite private schools in Britain, a Lebanese immigrant tycoon and faint echoes of Britain's former colonial dominance. And the people are lapping it up - especially the front-pages photos of the white-haired, suited Thatcher being led away from his Cape Town mansion by police.

"I wish my daughter could make what he's making," said David Ryan, a 50-year-old London letter carrier. "He made a fortune out of his mum's name. ... He's just got what he deserves."

CONTINUED...

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/world/9541738.htm?1c

A bit o' history for those who enjoy readin' and the like...

The SAS: Prince Philip's manager of terrorism

by Joseph Brewda

EXCERPT...

The relations of these SAS firms with the Iran-Contra narcotics trafficking, emerged dramatically in August 1989, when reports surfaced in the British and Italian press that the Colombian Cali Cartel, historically most closely tied to the George Bush machine, had hired SAS veterans to assassinate Pablo Escobar of the rival Medellín Cartel. On Aug. 16, three days after the story broke, Colombian presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán, a fierce opponent of the drug trade, was assassinated, some Colombian government sources say, by these British mercenaries. Among the individuals identified as working for the Cali Cartel were Col. Peter McAleese, a former SAS officer in Malaysia; Alex Lenox, a former member of the SAS Counter-Terrorism Warfare task force; and David Tomkins, a veteran of Afghanistan.

SNIP...
Oman was a particularly critical base of SAS operations into Afghanistan throughout the 1979-89 war. According to the recent unauthorized biography of Mark Thatcher, son of the former British prime minister, Oman's extensive SAS community served as the principal British arms-shipping center for the mujahideen.

SNIP...

Landon enjoyed intimate ties to both Mark Thatcher and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher throughout the 1980s, and this further facilitated Oman's key role as a weapons conduit to the Afghan mujahideen. A look at a map of the Arabian Sea and the Indian subcontinent shows that Oman is a stone's throw away from the Pakistani port of Karachi, the major weapons-importing point (and heroin-exporting point) for the Afghan rebels.

Ironically, another strong player in Oman during this period was one of the American CIA figures who most closely followed the British SAS model: Theodore G. Shackley. Shackley had directed the CIA's "secret war in Laos" during the late 1960s and early 1970s, and had written a book, The Third Option, spelling out the SAS approach to training and controlling local insurgent armies as surrogates. Much of the Laos "secret war" had been financed by the sale of Golden Triangle opium. Shackley was a pivotal behind-the-scenes player in George Bush's "secret parallel government" apparatus that ran the Afghan, Nicaraguan, Angolan, and other covert operations.

CONTINUED...

http://www.econcrisis.homestead.com/SFAN_SAsPrincePhilip.html

Oil. Drugs. War. "Powers" that make the BFEE global.

[Octafish]

13. You want to control the world? Then control the oil.

You want to control ALL the world. Then control ALL the oil.



In June, 1999, Colombia's president Andres Pastrana arranged for
Richard Grasso, head of the New York Stock Exchange,
to meet with Raúl Reyes, the head of FARC finances,
in the cocaine-producing DMZ of Colombia.
The two were caught in an infamous embrace
that saw very little exposure in the media.

The New U.S.-British Oil Imperialism

By Norman D. Livergood

     The American and British ruling circles have been engaged in a policy of military imperialism for several centuries. The American revolution was fought to bring the United States under new, non-British rulers, with the new regime sold to the public as a democracy. In the twentieth century, these American ruling elites have revolved around the Rockefeller, Brown, Harriman, and Morgan family dynasties. The Bush family, beginning with Prescott Bush, have served as satraps of the Rockefeller, Brown, and Harriman interests.

     As we've seen, in earlier articles on these imperialistic rulers (Part 1, Part 2), the British and American ruling cabals decided that the energy of choice for the world would be oil and natural gas (not coal)--just as the drugs of choice would be alcohol and tobacco.

      To overcome the problem of his oil holdings being broken apart by the U.S. government in 1911, John Rockefeller set out to control the world's energy reserves. World War I was the strategy of the world oil cartel (Standard, Shell, British Petroleum) to take over the colonies of France, Holland, Spain and Portugal. The engines of war now ran on petroleum-based products, so ownership of oil could determine who won or lost a war--therefore who would rule the world. Oil, instead of gold, became the token of power.

     By 1919, the Oil Empire, not based on countries or nations, but on private corporations, ruled the world.

     The Big Three oil cartel, which controlled oil in the Persian Gulf and southeast Asia areas, wanted to gain control over the vast oil reserves in the southern part of the Soviet Union. They financed the fascist regimes in Germany, Italy, and Japan with the hope that they would invade and control Russia. The Oil Rulers planned to defeat the German, Italian, and Japanese regimes and take control of the oil reserves in the Soviet Union. The Rockefeller circle also planned to take control of Persian Gulf oil from the British-Persian Oil cartel and seize control of southeast Asian oil from Royal Dutch Shell.

CONTINUED...

http://www.hermes-press.com/impintro1.htm

[UpInArms]

18. Oil: Reason Behind Coup Bid

http://allafrica.com/stories/200409070757.html

THE men exposed as plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea are the scum of the earth.

Next time someone demands that the West should "take over and sort out Africa", remember this scandal and the real face of Western intervention it reveals.

The coup organisers are a group of public school boys and financial racketeers who have grabbed fabulous wealth through their arms deals.

And oil is at the centre of the whole affair.

Equatorial Guinea is one of a group of oil-producing West African nations which are being bullied and bribed to provide new alternatives to Middle Eastern supplies.

The coup plotters? Mark Thatcher, Simon Mann, David Hart and a certain J. H. Archer wanted to use mercenaries to snuff out Equatorial Guinea's present government and install a new one which would give them access to most of the oil money.

<snip>

Mark Thatcher would never have faced any problems in the old South Africa, where Nelson Mandela was in jail and whites ruled.

He loved the old racist regime.

When his mother was criticised for opposing sanctions against apartheid, Mark said: "My sympathy is with the struggling white community."

...lots more worth a complete read...

[sattahipdeep]

2. One Scary looking guy

Theodore





If Richard Armitage was, as Khun Sa avowed, a major participant in parallel
government drug trafficking, then it explained why our efforts to rescue POWs
had been inexplicably foiled, time after time... If it was true, Richard Armitage
would be the last man in the world who would desire to see prisoners of war
come home alive.<1123>

http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=84&contentid=696&page=2

[seemslikeadream]

3. There's a word for how I feel

I'm going to look for it.

If Richard Armitage was, as Khun Sa avowed, a major participant in parallel government drug trafficking, then it explained why our efforts to rescue POWs had been inexplicably foiled, time after time... If it was true, Richard Armitage would be the last man in the world who would desire to see prisoners of war come home alive.<1123>

As "Special Consultant to the Pentagon on the MIAs," in Bangkok in 1975, Armitage reportedly spent more time repatriating opium profits then recovering POWs. In 1976, when Khun Sa was still selling heroin to CIA officials, the head of the CIA was none other than George Bush.<1124>

Former presidential candidate H. Ross Perot, who was appointed presidential investigator for POW/MIA affairs, came upon the same information, and was warned by former Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci to stop pursuing the connections to Armitage. As he sadly explained to a group of POW/MIA families in 1987: "I have been instructed to cease and desist."<1125>

[seemslikeadream]

4. Schadenfreude

We are ready now for a second German term, Schadenfreude, which is quite the opposite of Einfuhlung yet related to it for the same reason that sympathy and sadism are extremes that touch each other. Schadenfreude literally means "harm-joy."

We tend to conceal this emotion because in real life we experience it mainly in relation to people whom we do not like. The feeling probably derives from a sense of fairness: it is most predictably aroused if someone gets his comeuppance, as when a pompous or dishonest man loses his fortune. We do not feel Schadenfreude when the home of a poor family burns down, or when a child tumbles down the stairs, for these victims never threatened our self-worth.

Schadenfreude is the exact opposite of sympathy. Instead of sharing the pain of someone else, we get a kick out of it.

http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/~reffland/anthropology/anthro2003/origins/dewaal/compassion.html

[sattahipdeep]

5. I agree. Seems all of it is tied in.

"The greater our knowledge increases, the more our ignorance unfolds." -- John F. Kennedy

:hi:

[Joe Chi Minh]

6. Ben Veniste

Ben Veniste's languid interrogation of Armitage during the Abou Ghraib enquiry, in all its poorly-stifled hilarity, was one of the most hilarious things I have ever seen on TV.

The gradual change in the expression on Armitage's face was a study. The erstwhile, bluff, plain-speaking, old sea dog cum-Mr-nice-guy, public servant soon became decidedly mean and shifty. I wish I had recorded it. Unfortunately I can't access the C-Span videos, and the remedial instructions are way over my head. I wish I had all Ben Veniste's professional stuff on tapes. He's right up there with the very best. An absoute star.

[Joe Chi Minh]

19. Correction

In case anyone is interested and didn't spot it, I think it was on the panel of the 9/11 Commission that Ben Veniste was interrogating Armitage, not the abu Ghraib enquiry.

[seemslikeadream]

20. Thanks KCabotDullesMarxIII

I'll look for that

[seemslikeadream]

7. ignorance unfolding

Robert "Bud" McFarlane went on to form his own consulting firm, and joined the board of American Equity Investors (AEI), founded by Prescott Bush. AEI's board of directors reads like a Who's Who of the spook world, including former CIA officials George Clairmont and Howard Hebert, and CIA lawyer Mitch Rogovin, who was George Bush's legal counsel when he was Director of the Agency.<1154>

AEI invested in a Tulsa, Oklahoma company: Hawkins Oil and Gas, from 1988 to 1991. McFarlane was a "consultant" for Hawkins and several other companies on the Ech power project in Pakistan, which required frequent trips to that country.<1155> This was during the tail end of the largest covert operation the U.S. ever conducted — the arming of the Mujahadeen, who trained in Pakistan. McFarlane sat on the "208 Committee," who's job it was to procure weapons for the Mujahadeen, and arms contracts for the Pakistani government.

Recall that Richard Armitage, who was the contact for Fazoe Haq, governor of the Northwest Frontier Province, also sat on the "208 Committee." As Alfred A. McCoy writes in The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia:

It's known that the CIA paid the Afghan guerrillas, who were based in Pakistan, through BCCI.… That the Pakistan military were in fact banking their drug profits, moving their drug profits from the consuming country back to Pakistan though BCCI. In fact the boom in the Pakistan drug trade was financed by BCCI.…

.........

Stephen Jones claimed he had learned through the Saudi Arabian Intelligence Service that Iraq had hired seven Pakistani mercenaries — Mujahadeen veterans — to bomb targets in the U.S., one of which was the Alfred P. Murrah Building.<1158>

Just who were these "Pakistani mercenaries," and were they really working for Iraq?

http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=84&contentid=696&page=2


:hi:

[sattahipdeep]

8. Who appointed Krongard Executive Director in 2001

In 1975, Shackley became Associate Director in the Directorate of Operations,
which put him in charge of Covert-Operations, Counter-Intelligence, and
ironically, Counter-Narcotics, all under the command of George Herbert Walker
Bush.

As Wall Street Journal reporter Jonathan Kwitny writes about Ted Shackley in
his book, The Crimes of Patriots:

Looking at the list of disasters Shackley has presided over during his career,
one might even conclude that on the day the CIA hired Shackley it might have
done better hiring a KGB agent; a Soviet mole probably could not have done as
much damage to the national security of the United States with all his wile as
Shackley did with the most patriotic of intentions.

http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=84&contentid=696&page=2

[seemslikeadream]

16. Look who I ran into studing Sudan

THE ACTIONS OF EDWIN WILSON ARE TYPICAL of the mirror images that reflect the reality of world politics. A former CIA agent, Wilson is currently in prison for his Libyan dealings. He trained Libyan would-be terrorists while American policy denounced the Libyan terrorist network. His recruits staffed and trained the air force of Libya leader Col. Ghaddafi, and he supplied planes, men and weapons for Ghaddafi's military forays into Chad and Sudan. Such weapons sales were likely financed by the CIA-connected Nugan Hand Bank. While Wilson's escapades often have been seen as that of a traitor, they constantly had the approval of top covert warfare planner Theodore Shackley, as Jonathan Kwitny points out in The Crimes of Patriots.

During the moderate era of U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Wilson was jailed and Theodore Shackley, as well as some 800 other CIA covert operations agents, were fired. Before his imprisonment, Wilson, along with Clines, organized assistance to the Contras via Israel, who were Somoza's arms suppliers. Carter's attempts to isolate Iran were frustrated in a similar manner by the same strange alliance of extremist former covert agents and Israel. Even during the holding of the hostages, abruptly ending after the installation of Ronald Reagan as President, Israel supplied arms to the Khomeini regime. These included spare parts for U.S.-made tanks and F-4 Phantom jets, as Jonathan Marshall, Peter Dale Scott and Jane Hunter show in The Iran Contra Connection.

AGENTS FIRED BY Carter were employed in the Reagan election campaign, turning their covert tactics on the incumbent President, Reagan's campaign chairman, veteran intelligence agent William Casey, openly boasted of running an "intelligence operation" against Democrats. Later, investigations by a congressional committee showed Reagan forces had infiltrated their opponents with spies, and had even managed to acquire the "debate book" of President Carter, a briefing book used for his television debate with Reagan.

http://www.aboutsudan.com/interviews/baroness_cox_stokes_the_flames_o.htm

[sattahipdeep]

21. Particularly important to find out. Indeed no lady.

Ledeen, Robertson....

"The Lord has just blessed him," Robertson said of Bush. "I mean, he
could make terrible mistakes and comes out of it. It doesn't make any
difference what he does, good or bad, God picks him up because he's
a man of prayer and God's blessing him." :crazy:

Ledeen writes:

Just as the quest for peace at any price invites war and, worse than war,
defeat and domination, so good acts sometimes advance the triumph of evil, as
there are circumstances when only doing evil ensures the victory of a good
cause. (p. 93) :puke:

This article is the documented story of how a political religious movement called
Dominionism gained control of the Republican Party, then took over Congress,
then took over the White House, and now is sealing the conversion of America
to a theocracy by taking over the American Judiciary. It’s the story of why and
how the wrath of God Almighty will be unleashed against the middle class,
against the poor, and against the elderly and sick of this nation by George W.
Bush and his army of Republican Dominionist rulers.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5646.htm

But, just as the Lady is, indeed, no lady, so the CSI is anything but Christian.
Beneath the veneer of humanitarian concern for the oppressed, is one of the
most important tools of British Intelligence. Its actual function, as the documented record
shows, is to implement a policy dubbed the "Clash of Civilizations" by another operative
of British Intelligence, Bernard Lewis, and popularized by yet another of their stripe, Samuel Huntington.
Through political operations, which often include intelligence and military activities, CSI has been
in the forefront of efforts to foment conflict between Christians and non-Christians, most specifically, Muslims.

The war in Sudan is a case in point, and perhaps a showcase of CSI methods.

Christian Solidarity International

....
Thus, it is of considerable interest to hear what Lady Cox has to say, when
queried on these matters.

And, for an American, it is particularly important to find out, who the
political personalities are in the United States, with whom the Lady works.

They are as guilty as she is, of promoting genocide against Africans.

http://www.aboutsudan.com/interviews/baroness_cox_stokes_the_flames_o.htm

Thank you seemslikeadream :hi:

[seemslikeadream]

22. grassroots mob to cover for the foreign policy of the British oligarchy

I wish I would have seen this earlier!

Christian Pharisees target China, Sudan
Executive Intelligence Review, July 4, 1997, p. 83

On June 23, a gaggle activists ranging from the "religious right" and neo-con networks, to liberal Democrats, held a summit on religious persecution overseas. The meeting, held at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C., was to organize a grassroots, church-based movement to target certain nations allegedly persecuting religious minorities. These people are no more interested in protecting religious freedom, than the 1980s' Project Democracy was intended to promote democracy. A look at one of the leading participants, Christian Solidarity International (CSI), shows clearly that what is being organized is a grassroots mob to cover for the foreign policy of the British oligarchy: the destruction of nation-states. The whipping boys for these modern Pharisees are the two premier nation-states of the developing sector, Sudan and China.



The meeting included the London-controlled Freedom House of Leo Cherne (chairman of the Reagan-Bush President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board), the Family Research Council of Gary Bauer (another specimen from the Reagan-Bush White House), Father Richard Newhouse, a radical epigone of Michael Novak, Michael Horowitz from the Hudson Institute, CSI's Jim Jacobson, Ralph Reed of the Christian Coalition, and another Catholic radical free-trader, William Bennett of Empower America, among other cheer- leaders for the "Contract on America." The odd Democrat made for ecumenical window-dressing, including co-chair Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.). The event was sponsored by Empower America, and co-chaired by Bennett.

Nina Shea of Freedom House opened the gathering, with a broadside against Sudan, which is de rigueur for any meeting involving Lady Caroline Cox's Christian Solidarity International. Cox is making a career of trying to overthrow the Sudanese government, under cover of saving Christians, and is currently organizing logistical support for Sudanese rebels who, under her influence, have refused to join the government-initiated peace treaty to end the decades-long civil war. Along with Lady Lynda Chalker, Cox is also organizing support for the Ethiopian and Eritrean allies of Ugandan dictator Yoweri Museveni, who are currently attempting to invade Sudan.

more
http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cache:CmgKgb1Ci5EJ:www.aboutsudan.com/opposition/us/christian_pharisees.htm+Christian+Solidarity+International+bush&hl=en

[sattahipdeep]

24. MMC annual revenues of $5.9 billion.

Bremer and the ‘terror’ business Now here’s a man (and a company) that
has a vested interest in ‘terror’ and does quite well out of it thank you (shades of
Halliburton Inc.). Not surprisingly, Marsh offers its clients its own version of a
Homeland Security package complete with various ‘threat’ levels.

Alvin?

[diamond14]

17. John F. Kerry BUSTED BCCI...and that's why reTHUGlicans are so PISSED

(BCCI = Bank of Credit and Commerce International)....

Kerry busted BCCI at great risk to his career and his life, MANY of our own congress and government officials demanded that he back off...and in the end, Kerry revealed the WEB of terrorists, including pinochet and more....and the major bust of BCCI doesn't show up on Kerry's Senate voting record, so bush* screams that Kerry has no record...sorry bush*, Kerry does have a record, a record of BRAVERY and getting the IMPORTANT part done....


THAT is a big reason why reTHUGlicans will do ANYTHING...repeat ANYTHING to keep Kerry from become PRESIDENT....because Kerry will CLEAN HOUSE....it's coming....let's get to work...just a few more weeks, volunteers....roll up your sleeves and VOLUNTEER to save America...


http://www.JohnKerry.com

in Northern Virginia
http://www.NoVAforKerry.com

[Snazzy]

9. Dollars for Guinea: how palms were greased by oil

Dollars for Guinea: how palms were greased by oil
What a slippery mess the black stuff leaves. Paul Lashmar finds it has enriched not the people but the corrupt rulers of a West African state, while Rebecca John comes across conflict on the trail of the new pipeline from the Caspian to the Mediterranean
05 September 2004


In January of this year, US energy giant Marathon Oil began expanding its extraction infra- structure in the West African state of Equatorial Guinea. America's fourth-largest oil company, Marathon is a big player in exploiting the tiny country's oil and gas reserves.

As part of the expansion, in one private deal, Marathon delivered a cheque for more than $611,000 (£340,000) for the purchase of 50 hectares of convenient and virgin land located in Punta Europa. The cheque was made out personally to D Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who also happens to be the President and effective dictator of this oil-rich but poverty-stricken country.

Shortly afterwards, the Houston-based Marathon Oil agreed to buy an additional 208 hectares of Punta Europa land to be used for a proposed liquefied natural gas plant. The price is $1.4m and the deal is also being conducted through Abayak SA, a company controlled privately by President Obiang who seems to own huge tranches of key real estate in the country.

In yet another deal, Marathon hired its local staff exclusively through APEGESA, a company that executives believe to be partly owned by Juan Olo, the country's former energy minister and a prominent businessman. APEGESA takes a 20 per cent cut of the salary of all locals who are lucky enough to be employed. The rake-off is a nice little earner for not doing too much.

...

As one oil analyst commented: "What the report revealed is corporate behaviour by these oil companies more in tune with the buccaneering days of the early 20th century rather than the 21st century. Have no lessons been learned by corporate America?"

....

http://news.independent.co.uk/business/analysis_and_features/story.jsp?story=558315

[daleo]

10. Unfortunately, lessons have been learned

And the main one is, if you are rich enough, crime pays. Thatcher's devious spawn will walk, I have no doubt.

[Snazzy]

11. ah, just found that on page 6

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=803240

Catching up--I've been off dabbling in other scandals. Still haven't checked out how the Bob Dole/Frank Carlucci walking around money investigation went:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=2308225&mesg_id=2308225

Anyway, that's a really good article on the US oil companies' complicity.

Riggs is of course the conduit of that money. But more explosively this week will be the Graham book.

The 27 redacted pages in the Senate 9/11 report involve the Saudi Riggs accounts--I hope he spells it out.

[Snazzy]

12. BG Ed: A reckoning for Pinochet

GLOBE EDITORIAL
A reckoning for Pinochet
September 6, 2004

LATE LAST month the world witnessed another attempt to bring political injustice to light.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Chilean Supreme Court ruled in a 9-8 vote on Aug. 26 that General Augusto Pinochet should be stripped of the immunity that protected him from being prosecuted for human rights abuses. He controlled Chile from 1973 to 1990 after leading a military coup against the democratically elected president Salvador Allende. Pinochet's regime was marred by egregious campaigns of torture and human rights abuse.

Pinochet can now be tried for his role in Operation Condor, a murderous agreement among South American military leaders to help each other track and kill dissidents.

Trying Pinochet will not erase memories of pain and horror. It will not wash away the grief of those whose friends and relatives were "disappeared." But the ruling offers justice that might eventually grant some peace.

The ruling is also an important -- if belated -- legal victory establishing that leaders are not above the law.

....

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2004/09/06/a_reckoning_for_pinochet/

----------

Also see (think this fell into archives, this didn't come out today, despite dateline--interesting piece):

Posted on Sun, Sep. 05, 2004

CHILE

Who's behind Pinochet's millions? Judge looking

An inquiry into money laundering and tax evasion allegations against Augusto Pinochet may hurt the leader's image and be costly for his family.

BY KEVIN G. HALL

Knight Ridder News Service


SANTIAGO, Chile - Investigative Judge Sergio Muñoz, who is looking into sources of former Chilean strongman Augusto Pinochet's millions, may well determine whether one of Latin America's once most feared dictators dies a convict.

...

The impact reflects the fact that Chile is a conservative nation, by far the most Swiss country in South America, whose citizens pride themselves on their probity. Many believed that Pinochet might have been a ruthless dictator but at least he wasn't a thief.

Now detractors claim that his secret U.S. bank accounts give credibility to claims that he took bribes from arms dealers and, possibly, siphoned off money from military accounts that are funded by a share of state copper sales and thus are off-limits to modern presidents and lawmakers.

...

According to the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, at least two shell companies were created in the Bahamas to further conceal the money, perhaps from criminal proceedings against Pinochet under way in Europe and Chile. Riggs Bank officials estimated Pinochet's worth to be $50 million to $100 million

....

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/americas/9589911.htm

Pinochet's shell companies, Ashburton and Althorp, track to South Africa British concerns. Mark Thatcher has some Chilean arms dealing scandals of his own while Mummy Thatcher is one of Pinochet's biggest defenders. SA mercs are not only overthrowing govs in Africa, but busy in Iraq, as are Chilean mercs. Thatcher has some Saudi arms deal links as well. Common thread is Riggs.

That is, on the money-laundering, covert arms trade, mercenary, and oil/mineral exploitation fronts--not to mention terror funding--you can tie it all together through Riggs. This is much like what some people are calling the "grand unified of theory of the neocons" with Plame, Chalabi, faked intel, Niger yellowcake, Iran/Iraq/Israeli policy, etc. Same deal, slightly different angle from 'follow the money.' The common thread between the two sets of meta scandals is BFEE connections and way of doing world wide corruption, although I'd say the Riggs side is more poppy's BFEE, neocons a whistleass innovation.

Not at all unlike Iran/Contra and BCCI.

[hang a left]

14. kick

[emad]

15. Link to Channel Islands money laundering?

Lawyers in Guernsey acting for Equatorial Guinea's President, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, are seeking to discover the identities of those who allegedly bankrolled the coup attempt, and will seek details of payments made into the account of Simon Mann, who is said to have masterminded the plot. Among those said to have paid in to it is a certain J H Archer - prompting speculation it is Lord Archer, a claim he denies.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/story.jsp?story=559004

As I recall there has been some mention from an Africa Economic Digest writer about Thatcher's wife Diane being the main signatory on Channel Islands trust fund accounts held in beneficially/nominally for the Thatcher children.

And that she has held out from anyone attempting to freeze these on allegations that they related to "consultancy payments" made to her husband during the years 1997-2000. And that these alleged consultancy fees related to payments from Texas companies partnered by Jeff Skiliing....

See:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=803240

[Snazzy]

23. Oh UK/SA media: PLEASE name banks

We would finally know, maybe we would finally know, which country sponsored.

The Channel Islands and Diane is interesting. Riggs is there of course. As are some other interesting possibilities--which bank there does Debeers own. Or Mahfouz. Anyway, if they'd just name a bank already. If it is Riggs, that would be incredibly stupid on the part of Thatcher, but wait--that seems to be his trademark.

Spain, UK, US, France, Saudis--which bank?

BTW--check out the former Triton oil (I have posts somewhere here)--Dallas and heavily Bushco (two pioneers). Wonder if Scratcher had something there?

Ashburton, the name of one of the Pinochet accounts, is a wealth management grp. in the Channel Isles. They connect to SA heavily, owned by Debeers outright at one point, now a split w/ First Rand (Rand Merch. Bank) and Anglo American. I.e. the diamond people all over the place.

But Sir Mark was just hiring those choppers to protect mines, right?

[emad]

25. Naming Guernsey banks: from today's Times Online:

Times snip:
Coup drama plays on in a Guernsey court
By Simon de Bruxelles in St Peter Port

THE hunt for the conspirators behind an alleged attempt to depose the dictator of a small African republic led up the sweeping spiral staircase of a courthouse in Guernsey yesterday.............

At yesterday’s hearing a local advocate acting on behalf of Mann was seeking to overturn an order requiring the Royal Bank of Scotland International to disclose the contents of bank accounts and safe deposit boxes belonging to two companies he owns. Mann’s two companies, Systems Design ltd and Logo ltd, have offices in Guernsey. The bank accounts will reveal who contributed to the estimated $7 million coup kitty. The safe deposit boxes in a vault beneath a St Peter Port bank, the court heard, are believed to contain contracts signed by the co-conspirators and other vital documents. Any coup plot was foiled before it began when an aircraft with Mann and 67 alleged South African mercenaries on board was seized in Harare in Zimbabwe last March................

The disclosure order was originally granted in the same court in April. The bank released five pages of accounts to lawyers for Equatorial Guinea that identified a number of deposits, including a payment of $190,000 from one J H Archer, before Mann’s companies obtained an ex-parte injunction. Lord Archer denies any knowledge of or involvement in the coup plot. Advocate Nick Barnes told the Lt Bailiff Chris Day, presiding over the hearing, that the application for disclosure should have come through “official” government channels. He suggested that the information obtained under the disclosure order would be used to bring criminal charges against the conspirators, who could ultimately face the death penalty in Equatorial Guinea.
From:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,172-1251804,00.html

[seemslikeadream]

27. contain contracts signed by the co-conspirators and other vital documents

In La Cour, which still draws on Guernsey’s Norman French heritage for much of its ritual, a tale unfolded of the plot to stage a coup d’état in Equatorial Guinea and replace its President, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, with an opposition leader living in exile in the former colonial power, Spain.

For a colourful cast of characters who include Obiang, a dictator accused by opponents of eating his enemies’ testicles, Sir Mark Thatcher, the son of the former prime minister, Simon Mann, an Old Etonian former SAS officer, Nick du Toit, a South African arms dealer, and the disgraced former Tory peer Jeffrey Archer, its deliberations could prove crucial.

Mann is in prison in Zimbabwe awaiting sentence this Friday on charges of buying arms without a licence. He faces up to ten years in prison. Sir Mark is on bail in Cape Town and could face up to 15 years if he is found guilty of backing the attempted coup.

At yesterday’s hearing a local advocate acting on behalf of Mann was seeking to overturn an order requiring the Royal Bank of Scotland International to disclose the contents of bank accounts and safe deposit boxes belonging to two companies he owns. Mann’s two companies, Systems Design ltd and Logo ltd, have offices in Guernsey.

The bank accounts will reveal who contributed to the estimated $7 million coup kitty. The safe deposit boxes in a vault beneath a St Peter Port bank, the court heard, are believed to contain contracts signed by the co-conspirators and other vital documents. Any coup plot was foiled before it began when an aircraft with Mann and 67 alleged South African mercenaries on board was seized in Harare in Zimbabwe last March.
more
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,172-1251804,0...

[emad]

28. More from today's Independent:

Alleged coup plot man tries to protect accounts
By James Falla
08 September 2004

Snip:
Alan Merrien, for Equatorial Guinea, said certain bank details had already been given to its attorney-general, but that more information was sought. "To identify the conspirators it is necessary to identify those who paid money into the accounts," he said. "No evidence is needed on those in custody but is needed to support proceedings in this plot, starting in England and elsewhere." But Mr Barnes said a conspiracy had yet to be proved.

Whether the island's courts have jurisdiction to release the information will be discussed further when the case resumes tomorrow morning.
Whole story:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/story.jsp?story=559319

[seemslikeadream]

29. emad, anything here?"Riggs Bank" "Systems Design"

Mr. Gladstone has served as Vice Chairman
of the Board of the Company since 1998 and
as Chairman from 1997 to 1998. From 1974
to 1997, Mr. Gladstone held various
positions, including Chairman and Chief
Executive Officer, with Allied Capital
Corporation, a specialty finance company,
and certain of its predecessor companies.
He is a trustee of Capital Automotive
REIT, a real estate investment trust. From
1992 to 1997, Mr. Gladstone served as a
Director and President and Chief Executive
Officer of Business Mortgage Investors, a
Real Estate Investment Trust. Mr.
Gladstone served as a Director of the
Riggs National Corporation (the parent of
Riggs Bank) from 1993 to May 1997 and of
Riggs Bank from 1991 to 1993. He currently
serves as a Trustee Emeritus of The George
Washington University. Mr. Gladstone is a
Member Emeritus of Capital Investor, a
private fund backed by Information
Technology professionals to make
investments in start-up companies and is
chairman of Coastal Berry Company, a large
farming business. He is also an advisor to
the Women's Growth Fund, a venture capital
fund that invests in women-owned
businesses.
http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:tKq9U0KRtUwJ:www.americancapital.com/investor_relations/sec_filings/filings/PRE-14A-3-20-2001.html+%22riggs+bank%22+%22Systems+Design%22&hl=en

[emad]

30. Thanks ...will get back on this one

later

[emad]

33. Naming names of those Guernsey bank account financiers:

The identities of some of the alleged coup backers may be those who were arrested and charged in the UK with financing the 1985 coup in LIBERIA. Subsequent charges were left on file after Margaret Thatcher's personal intervention.

In the UK these are:

BRIGADIER ANDREW PARKER BOWLES, brother of Camilla, Prince Charles's
live in lover

EDWARD VAN CUTSEM, close chum of Prince Charles and former director/shareholder of De Beers diamond company

HENRY TONGA , gambler and nightclub owner - 22 Jermyn Street, Mayfair, London

RUPERT DEEN, UK socialite and playboy

DAMIAN ASPINALL, son of John Aspinall "a misanthropic rogue who won and lost fortunes at gambling tables while holding vaguely pro-nazi eugenicist views" involved in the 1974 disappearance of Lord Lucan

As I recall there was an article way back in 1986 in the UK press about how the 1985 attempted coup was masterminded by these, using money sourced to RIGGS BANK and directly implicating George Bush Jr.

[Snazzy]

32. Ah, thanks--details!

So we are on a different island (of the UK's Bahamas more or less, from my US perspective) and have Bank of Scotland and St. Peter Port bank to look into.

Will do. But not tonight, soon.

Edit--Emad, you thought Diane had accounts on Jersey before, any more on that?

Edit2: "You cannot add this topic to your bookmark list because it is already there."

[emad]

26. Maybe he's prosepcting for something other than oil or diamonds

maybe....yellowcake uranium? Jane's Defence Weekly ran a piece some time last year which I haven't sourced online yet about Sudan being the latest best bet for yellowcake mining. Seem to remember this was part of a WMD story refuting the Niger yellowcake source; someone writing to Jane's editor saying advance geological tests north of Darfur had been extended after traces found.

Now that would be an interesting substance for Thatcher's spawn to mine and trade in.....some many clients all over the world. North Korea, Iran? Maybe. Best bet one of those Caucusus states south of Russia bidding to create an Islamic superstate?

OK tyhis is just speculation, but a definite maybe...

[phoebe]

31. something else is going on here.. a palpable feeling that

the Conservative party is being smeared, (not that they don't deserve it) but it makes one wonder what the Labour party is trying to keep hidden. Whatever "it" is, it has to be big...

[sattahipdeep]

34. sentence Simon Mann Court to sentence 'mercenaries'

The magistrate said he would
begin handing down sentences
on 10 September. ?

[muriel_volestrangler]

35. Yes, that's still expected today

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3643250.stm

"Most of them will be hoping their ordeal is over when the court hands out sentences on Friday."

[sattahipdeep]

39. Thatcher set for jail hell if found guilty

12 September 2004

As Simon Mann is imprisoned for his role in a coup attempt, his
associate could face a worse fate. Fred Bridgland reports from
Johannesburg

http://www.sundayherald.com/44695




Bush administration engulfed in scandal

http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=2974

[seemslikeadream]

40. Campaign begins to 'buy' Mann out of prison

By Jane Flanagan in Johannesburg and Philip Sherwell, Chief Foreign Correspondent
(Filed: 12/09/2004)

A campaign to "buy" Simon Mann out of his Zimbabwean prison cell has been launched by wealthy friends who fear for the life of the Old Etonian former SAS officer if he has to serve the seven-year term handed out in Harare on Friday.

Family and supporters of the British leader of an alleged coup plot in Equatorial Guinea believe that the appalling conditions in Chikurubi prison will take a heavy toll on his health.

"We're also taking as deadly serious the threats against his life that some of the other defendants have been making," said a close friend. The 66 South Africans jailed with him for between 12 and 16 months months blame the 51-year-old scion of the Watney's brewing empire for their incarceration.

Friends have told Mann's heavily-pregnant wife Amanda that they will try to get him back to the family estate in Hampshire within a year. His lawyers are not appealing against the sentence for illegally trying to buy weapons for £100,000 in Harare in March.

more
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/09/12/wmerc12.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/09/12/ixworld.html

:hi:

[muriel_volestrangler]

37. Zimbabwe jails 'coup plotters'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3643250.stm

The leader of a group of 67 alleged mercenaries accused of plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea has been sentenced to seven years in jail.

Former British SAS officer Simon Mann has been convicted by a Zimbabwe court of illegally trying to buy weapons.

The men were arrested in March when they landed at Harare Airport. They denied plotting a coup.

The other alleged mercenaries and the plane's pilots were sentenced to either 12 or 16 months in prison.

[seemslikeadream]

36. Oil tycoon and '$750,000 for coup plot'

By Patrick Sawer And Paul Sims, Evening Standard
10 September 2004

It was handed over by two of plot leader Simon Mann's former colleagues, who have turned state evidence.

Calil's solicitor said he did not wish to respond to the claim that he had raised money for the plotters, but he denied any knowledge of the plot.

Also on the list, which has been seen by the Guardian, are businessman Greg Wales and property dealer Gary Hershman. They are alleged to have raised half a million dollars each towards the cost of staging the ill-fated coup, it was reported today.

British mercenary Mann also contributed $500,000 to the plot to overthrow the president of Equatorial Guinea for which he now faces 10 years behind bars, according to the list. The 51-year-old former Etonian will be sentenced by a Zimbabwean court today.

Other alleged financiers on the list include South African-based British businessman David Tremain, who is also alleged to have raised $500,000 for the plot. He is alleged to have worked on behalf of a syndicate of South African and other investors. Tremain and Wales deny any involvement in the coup bid. Mr Hersham, who runs prominent Mayfair estate agency Beauchamps, denies investing any money or knowing of the coup attempt.

more
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/13093892?source=Evening%20Standard

[sattahipdeep]

38. Texan oil contract

10 September - Block "I" offshore Equatorial Guinea's Bioko Island is to be
explored by Noble Energy, a Texan oil company deeply involved in the Central African
dictatorship. The Equatoguinean government has approved the exploration deal that opens
up a new block immediately adjacent to oil producing offshore block.

The Texan oil company's Chairman, Charles Davidson, in a statement today praised the
"excellent relationship with the government of Equatorial Guinea" as he announced the new
contract to explore Block "I" offshore Bioko Island. The block is to be explored in
cooperation with the Equatoguinean government and GEPetrol, a "state-owned company"
that is under the control of Equatorial Guinea's dictator Teodoro Obiang Nguema.

http://www.afrol.com/articles/13928