Simon Mann’s coup plot: Nasty, posh and British
By Simon Basketter
THERE is a tendency to portray the British ruling class as a somewhat buffoonish collection of toffs, removed from the realities of life. And there is some truth in it. The establishment in Britain is indeed an inbred collection of incompetents. But they are also an incredibly nasty and dangerous bunch of people.
Recently we got an insight into their world. British former special forces officer Simon Mann was released from Equatorial Guinea, in central Africa, where he had been sentenced in July 2008 to just over 34 years in jail.
In March 2004, Mann, Nick du Toit and three other South African mercenaries had attempted a coup with wealthy international backers and the approval of a number of governments. It failed and Mann was arrested.
Various murky forces had been working to get Mann out of jail. Anonymous friends and security sources were described as "thrilled" and "delighted" to hear that a private jet was bringing Mann home.
For instance, Rupert Allason, the former Conservative MP and a "military and intelligence expert" involved in negotiating the release, said he became involved at the request of a mutual friend of Mann’s, a member of his gentlemen’s club.
The Equatorial Guinea coup organisers were a group of public schoolboys and financial racketeers who have grabbed fabulous wealth through arms deals. Mann is a descendant of one of Britain’s wealthy brewing families, which accumulated money and influence in the mid-20th century.
His father George captained the England cricket team in the 1940s, as his father had before him in the 1920s. Mann attended Sandhurst, Britain’s prestigious military training academy, and went on to become a member of the SAS. He spent time in Northern Ireland, Europe and Central America.
Mann left the military in 1981 for a new career providing bodyguards to wealthy clients. From there, he helped to set up Executive Outcomes, a security outfit which was soon sending armed men into Africa.
He returned briefly to the military in 1991 as an adviser to Britain’s Gulf War commander, General Peter de la Billiere. Later Mann took part in the establishment of Sandline International, which was "involved" in a brutal civil war in Sierra Leone.
In a note sent out to his legal team after his capture, Mann moaned: "Our situation is not good and it is very urgent. They [the lawyers] get no reply from Smelly, and Scratcher asked them to ring back after the Grand Prix race was over . . .
"We need heavy influence of the sort that . . . Smelly, Scratcher . . . David Hart and it needs to be used heavily and now. Once we get into a real trial scenario we are f***d."
"Scratcher" was a nickname given to Mark Thatcher, son of Tory prime minister Margaret Thatcher, and "Smelly" to businessman Ely Calil. Lord Archer was thrown into the melee when phone records linked him to Calil and a J. H. Archer was found to have deposited a large amount of money into Mann’s offshore bank account days before the coup attempt.
Archer was also on friendly terms with Thatcher, but has refuted any link to the plan, a denial backed by Mann. With Mark Thatcher it is clearer.
"Educated" at Harrow public school, Thatcher stood out even among the fellow posh boys, earning the nickname "Thickie". This didn’t prevent him amassing a £60 million fortune. In 1986 Thatcher played a key role in brokering a corrupt contract between British Aerospace and the Saudi Arabian government, part of the £20 billion al-Yamamah deal.
Thatcher pocketed a commission that has been reported as being anything from £12 million to £20 million.
The other name on the email was David Hart. Both he and the coup participants say he had nothing to do with the coup attempt. For two decades the fanatically rightwing David Hart was a major behind the scenes player in the Tory party.
Another old Etonian, he was a former bankrupt and millionaire. Hart first came to public attention during the 1984 miners’ strike. From his suite in Claridge’s hotel, Hart bankrolled a scab miners’ movement, orchestrated a sickening Press campaign that portrayed scab miners as heroes and co-ordinated the legal action that saw the miners’ union funds seized by the courts.
Hart’s entry to Margaret Thatcher’s Downing Street inner sanctum was eased by his links with Ronald Reagan’s rightwing government in the US. He was particularly close to CIA boss Bill Casey in the early 1980s.
Hart went on to serve as a secretive adviser to both Margaret Thatcher and John Major. He also worked as a consultant for arms manufacturers BAE and Boeing.
Margaret Thatcher’s private secretary Andrew (now Lord) Turnbull recalled anger in Downing Street that "Hart was shabbily dressed in jeans and a sweater, or sometimes a not too well fitting check jacket".
Other former civil servants believed he had become too emotionally attached to the scab miners. Snobbery runs deep in the establishment, even among their own. But they also maintain a spirit of "fair play". So a whole number of key witnesses in London have not even been questioned about the coup, such as Greg Wales, Mann’s former business partner.
He was accused in a South African court of helping to plan the coup and approaching the Pentagon for support. As an aside, Justin Longley, the nephew of Sir Richard Dearlove — chief of MI6 at the time of the coup attempt — was a friend and associate of Mann.
He described Wales as a "spook", an accusation that makes a phrase including pots and kettles spring to mind. It should come as no surprise that both the Foreign Office and the British intelligence services knew about the planned coup months before its attempted execution.
It should also not be surprising that the gentlemen’s club closed ranks again to protect one of their own, however much of a fool he may be. – www.raceandhistory.com
Labels: MARK THATCHER, MERCENAIRIES, NEOCOLONIALISM, SIMON MANN
Read more...
Mann claims SA backed coup plot
by Kylie MacLellan
29/11/2009 00:00:00
SIMON Mann, a British mercenary jailed for plotting against the government of Equatorial Guinea, has said South Africa tacitly supported a failed 2004 coup in the oil-rich African nation.
Mann, who was released from prison earlier this month, told the BBC he believed that the operation had the unwritten consent of South African intelligence.
"South Africa wanted to be in," he said, according to extracts of an interview to be broadcast on Tuesday. "In fact, I was told: 'Get on with it.'"
"Because, if they are very good friends of the new government, it would be of great benefit to South Africa because they know perfectly well that billions of dollars are at stake," 57-year-old Mann said.
Educated at Eton, Britain's top private school, the ex-special forces officer was arrested in Zimbabwe along with 70 other mercenaries en route to Equatorial Guinea aboard a plane.
Extradited to Equatorial Guinea, he was sentenced in July 2008 for conspiring to topple President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. He was pardoned on health grounds, having served just over one year of a 34-year sentence.
During his trial, Mann portrayed himself as a pawn of international businessmen he said were trying to seize power and named the son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as being involved -- an allegation Mark Thatcher has denied.
In the BBC interview, Mann said he got on well with Mark Thatcher, at one point his neighbour in South Africa, describing how Margaret Thatcher would come and stay in a cottage in the garden of her son's house.
"I always sat next to her at dinner parties," he said. "She liked me. We even went on holiday together."
Mann, who said that from his point of view the purpose of the coup was to make money from the oil-rich country, said he wanted Mark Thatcher as an investor in the plot, and that he had told him precisely what the operation was.
Discussing some of his early plans for the coup, Mann said he had also considered an assassination and a guerrilla war, but these options had been discarded.
He said had been unhappy with aspects of the final plan but was under pressure from unnamed backers to get the coup over.
"I thought there was quite a good chance I was going to die, because I knew that far too many people knew about the operation," he said, adding that he should have had the courage to halt the plans but failed to.
On Sunday, Equatorial Guinea's President Obiang looked set to win an election landslide, extending his 30-year rule. - Reuters
Labels: MARGARET THATCHER, MARK THATCHER, MERCENAIRIES, SIMON MANN, SOUTH AFRICA
Read more...
Are SA mercenaries assisting Guinea’s military junta?
by Michael Trapido
Within a matter of weeks of Britain’s Simon Mann being granted a pardon for his part in a foiled 2004 coup attempt on Equatorial Guinea (which included a number of our guys), South Africans are once again being linked to mercenary activity. This time the allegations relate to Guinea where they are purportedly training soldiers for Guinea’s military junta.
This is the same junta which received international condemnation for the September massacre of opposition protesters by security forces.
In response to claims that our mercenaries have been spotted training Guinea’s military the director-general of South Africa’s International Relations and Co-operation department, issued a statement that the matter was being investigated.
The same would have regard to the Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act a copy of which is provided here.
In terms thereof the relevant sections are :
Definitions :
(iii) ‘‘foreign military assistance’’ means military services or military-related
services, or any attempt, encouragement, incitement or solicitation to render
such services, in the form of—
(a) military assistance to a party to the armed conflict by means of—
(i) advice or training;
(ii) personnel, financial, logistical, intelligence or operational support;
(iii) personnel recruitment;
(iv) medical or para-medical services; or
(v) procurement of equipment;
(b) security services for the protection of individuals involved in armed
conflict or their property;
(c) any action aimed at overthrowing a government or undermining the
constitutional order, sovereignty or territorial integrity of a state;
(d) any other action that has the result of furthering the military interests of
a party to the armed conflict,
3. No person may within the Republic or elsewhere—
(a) offer to render any foreign military assistance to any state or organ of state,
group of persons or other entity or person unless he or she has been granted
authorisation to offer such assistance in terms of section 4;
(b) render any foreign military assistance to any state or organ of state, group of
persons or other entity or person unless such assistance is rendered in
accordance with an agreement approved in terms of section 5.
8. (1) Any person who contravenes any provision of section 2 or 3, or fails to comply
with a condition with regard to any authorisation or approval granted in terms of section
4 or 5, shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine or to imprisonment
or to both such fine and imprisonment.
(2) The court convicting any person of an offence under this Act may declare any
armament, weapon, vehicle, uniform, equipment or other property or object in respect of
which the offence was committed or which was used for, or in connection with the
commission of the offence, to be forfeited to the state.
Accordingly if South Africans have been training foreign military without authorisation as set out in sections 4 and 5 of the act then they have committed an offence in terms of the act and are liable to punishment in terms of Section 8 thereof.
In terms of the definition set out in iii above it would appear that any South African found with the junta’s military would have an extremely difficult time explaining the reason for his being there. The act is clear; you cannot render foreign military assistance inside or outside the republic without permission.
It is bad enough that we have the people of this continent killing their countrymen on a daily basis without allowing leaders, particularly those that allow their own to be massacred, to start importing guns for hire.
With the above you should now be able to follow this story with a bit of insight.
Labels: MERCENAIRIES, SIMON MANN
Read more...
British gvt trying to silence Mann, says reports
The Independent/TZG
Wed, 11 Nov 2009 03:51:00 +0000
THE United Kingdom government is trying to silence Simon Mann as he seeks to spill the beans about finer details of the coup attempt that left him languishing in prisons across the African continent.
The convicted mercenary returned to Britain last week after he was pardoned by oil-rich Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang Nguema – the man he had planned to overthrow five years ago.
On his return, Mann made it clear he wanted revenge on those he believes made him the "fall guy" – notably the Lebanese millionaire, Ely Calil, and Sir Mark Thatcher, son of the former British prime minister, Margaret "The Iron Lady" Thatcher.
Mann's friends confirmed to the UK's Independent newspaper yesterday that he wants "justice" for both men – "not only for allegedly leaving him to carry the can for the disastrous coup attempt, but also for failing to look after his wife and children while he was in captivity thousands of miles away".
"Yet they also revealed that Mann has already been subjected to government pressure to keep his mouth shut." said The Independent.
The paper quotes a close friend of Mann saying, "The Foreign Office didn't do anything to help get him out of that place, but they have been very quick to try to get him to play ball now he is back.
"Simon has been told it would be in everyone's best interests if he could just draw a line under this whole thing.
"We know the Foreign Office wants to get on-side with EG [Equatorial Guinea] as quickly as possible but, frankly, it is also in their own interests for people to stop asking questions about this whole affair."
It is reported that Jack Straw, Britain's foreign secretary at the time of the attempted coup, initially denied that the UK Government knew about it in advance, but was later forced to admit that he did know.
"Whether any attempt was made to stop it, or encourage it, is not known. Mann has claimed that the UK, US, and Spanish governments all had prior knowledge," said the newspaper.
Mann is said to be pondering going public with his story – via a newspaper buy-up or, eventually, a book deal.
The "first significant questions over the credibility of the coup plot are also said to be emerging. Not least among them is whether the operation was ever a real "goer", as one critic described it: how an experienced former SAS man seriously expected to capture an entire state with just 60 men, and why stopping in Zimbabwe en route was deemed a sensible part of the strategy.
Their plane, a Boeing 727, was reportedly on the military side of the airfield, and beside it were 50 heavy machine guns, 20 light machine guns, 100 rocket-propelled grenade launchers, 61 assault rifles and tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition.
The Independent reports: "Inconspicuous is not a word that leaps to mind, which, in turn, suggests possible explanations. It was either a bafflingly naive diversion for a team so steeped in the ways of Africa to make. Or the conspirators thought the necessary people in Zimbabwe had been squared.
Reports in the Daily Mail claim that the call then went out for Sir Mark Thatcher to use his influence to get Mann and co liberated.
Sir Mark, the paper says, had done deals with elements in Zimbabwe, and often claimed to have considerable pull with the country's leadership. But Sir Mark – allegedly declined to help, and Mann languished in prison.
The EG government alleges that Mann, Sir Mark and others concocted their plot during meetings in London in late 2003 and early 2004. But a senior Home Office source said that, although the Metropolitan Police visited Mann at least three times in prison, and received relevant documents from the EG authorities, they were "essentially going through the motions". He added: "They are being asked to nail someone for perhaps planning an operation that in the end didn't take place. I don't see any will to ask any officer to push this too hard."
Although it remains illegal to conspire against another government while in the UK, no one has ever been prosecuted for the offence.
According to The Independent newspaper, the Met yesterday conceded that an investigation into the Mann affair was "ongoing", but refused to give further details, including the number of staff engaged in the operation.
Equatorial Guinea dropped its attempts to sue Mr Calil and Sir Mark – and British "security consultant" Greg Wales – after the case reached the House of Lords.
Any chances of getting at the truth – in court or otherwise – appear to rest with Mann alone. The mercenary claims to have the material – including details of email exchanges with Mr Calil and Sir Mark, and bank details involving front companies in the Channel Islands and elsewhere, which allegedly detail the financial preparations for the operation.
Mann, who is preparing to speak to Met officers later this month, also has a powerful incentive for revenge against his former colleagues. "He feels incredibly strongly that these people could have come to his rescue, or at least helped his family while he was in captivity." Whether he has the ammunition, or the will, to extract revenge is quite another matter.
Labels: MERCENAIRIES, SIMON MANN, UK, ZIMBABWE
Read more...
