The Dictator's Achilles' Heel

[seemslikeadream]

Tito Drago

.......

MADRID, Jul 21 (IPS) - Legal action in Spain and the United States taking aim at secret bank accounts of President Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea could become a weapon to help put an end to his 25-year dictatorship, say opposition leaders and activists from the West African nation.

The trials could mark the beginning of the end for a dictatorship ”which has turned the country into one enormous prison,” Celestino Okenve, head of the Madrid-based non-governmental group Equatorial Guinea Solidarity Forum (FSGE), which will be lodging a lawsuit in the Spanish courts, told IPS.

Prisons in Equatorial Guinea hold between 50 and 100 political prisoners to a cell, ”and the entire national territory has been converted into a prison for the rest of the population” of around half a million people, he said.

......

The U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations reported last week that there were around 700 million dollars in bank accounts in the Washington-based Riggs Bank in the name of Obiang, his family and associates, with deposits or transfers coming in from U.S. oil companies.


......

Moto said the Apr. 25 legislative and municipal elections in Equatorial Guinea were fraudulent, and that the United Nations ”left Obiang with a free hand to torture prisoners and submit them to farcical trials with no political guarantees,” because no mechanisms were put in place to monitor human rights during the election process.

more
http://ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=24731

[bemildred]

1. It would be an excellent thing if Obiang were removed.

Although the prospects for a better replacement are not good.

[seemslikeadream]

2. It would be an excellent thing if Jonathan Bush's name

would come up more often!

Thanks to NNN0LHI for this

Web Site Cites Bush-Riggs Link

A political Web site written by a Democratic operative drew attention yesterday to the fact that President Bush's uncle, Jonathan J. Bush, is a top executive at Riggs Bank, which this week agreed to pay a record $25 million in civil fines for violations of law intended to thwart money laundering.


Jonathan Bush, who is a major fundraiser for his nephew, was appointed in 2000 to run Riggs Investment Management Co. His association with Riggs began when he headed J. Bush & Co., a New Haven, Conn., company he created in 1970 and built to offer advice on money management.

Riggs bought J. Bush & Co. in 1997 to help create a one-stop financial outlet offering a range of services, from insurance to securities trading and investment advice. News reports at the time said investment bankers estimated the purchase price, which was not disclosed, as $5.5 million.

The headline posted yesterday on the Web site, http://www.davidsirota.com reads, "Bush's Uncle Is Executive At Bank Fined for Laundering Saudi Money."

more
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28396-2004May14.html

more
WaPo: Allbritton Loses Riggs Bank (front page, day 3)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=691609

[emad]

3. Obiang 'will eat my testicles'

Snip:
Malabo - A plot to abduct the president of the small, oil-rich west African nation of Equatorial Guinea was unveiled on national television on Wednesday by the alleged leader of a group of mercenaries, apparently a 48-year-old South African. "It wasn't a question of taking the life of the head of state, but of spiriting him away, taking him to Spain and forcing him into exile and then of immediately installing the government in exile of Severo Moto Nsa," said the man, introduced as Nick du Toit.

Malabo called on Wednesday for the extradition of Moto, who tried to mount a coup against Obiang in 1997 from Angola and recently set up a government in exile in Spain. "The leader of this mercenary operation whose aim was to topple the current government had been recruited by the "escapee" from Equatorial Guinean justice Severo Moto Nsa for a sum of $10m," the state radio said.

But Moto denied any involvement in the alleged plot. Severo Moto "has at no time left Spain," said a statement issued by his government in exile. Moto also went on the offensive, telling Spanish radio station Onda Cero that Obiang was an "authentic cannibal" who "systematically eats his political rivals. "A while back he paid millions to those they call marabou (sorcerers) to tell him if his power base was safe. They told him that to keep his grip on power he had to kill people close to him.

Wants to eat my testicles

"Obiang wants me to go back to Guinea and eat my testicles. That's clear," he told Onda Cero. An earlier radio report had described du Toit as a "trafficker in arms and diamonds". It added that the rest of the 15 were from Angola, Armenia, Sao Tome and Principe and South Africa, as well as one German citizen. But a South African diplomat based in neighbouring Libreville said he had no knowledge of Du Toit's background. Du Toit said on television: "The group was supposed to start by identifying strategic targets such as the presidency, the military barracks, police posts and the residences of government members." "Then it was supposed to have vehicles at Malabo airport to transport other mercenaries who were due to arrive from South Africa. "But at the last minute, I got a call to say that the other group of mercenaries had been arrested in South Africa as they were preparing to leave the country." An Equatorial Guinean envoy was dispatched to Nigeria on Wednesday for talks with President Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria's junior foreign minister Saidu Balarabe Samaila said on Wednesday. Samaila also confirmed that Nigeria's embassy in Malabo had been surrounded by Equatorial Guinean soldiers with the consent of Nigerian officials, and that around 150 Nigerian citizens had taken shelter there. Last year when the leader of another oil-rich Gulf of Guinea island nation - President Fradique de Menezes of Sao Tome - was overthrown in a coup, Nigeria took a leading role in returning him to power.

Edited by Trisha Shannon
http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_1496535,00.html

testicle recipie from the Uncle Jonathan NeoCon Cookbook???????

[struggle4progress]

4. kick

:kick: