.comment-link {margin-left:.6em;}

Born at the Crest of the Empire

Friday, June 20, 2008

Simon Mann implicates Thatcher, the US

British mercenary head Simon Mann has begun talking about the Equatorial Guinea coup plot he managed, and he's pointing fingers everywhere, directly implicating Mark Thatcher and indirectly saying the US signed off.
Mann testified that a scout had been sent to the U.S. to gauge the government's reaction to a possible coup.

"The opinion in Washington, the Pentagon, Langley, and the oil companies was basically all the same, which was that the situation, the political situation, in Equatorial Guinea was very unsatisfactory, very dangerous, and that a well conducted change of government would be welcome," he said.

I'm sure this "scout" dealt with the US "in the hypothetical," but it will still not be well received around the world. Per the BBC, he also puts in Spain and South Africa.

(It's interesting though, he doesn't say why these men would pay millions to bankroll the coup. What's their return on investment? What's the money trail?)

7 Comments:

  • And the American public said, "Yawn. What's on Access Hollywood?..."

    By Blogger -epm, at 8:24 AM  

  • Yeah.

    But you know it was noticed by all the other oil countries out there.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 8:29 AM  

  • Anymore I look at most of the American population as an aimless cultural and intellectual ghetto. Most of it is intentional neglect and the reinforcement of the image as intelligence as a deficiency.

    I'm becoming much more Darwinist in my views everyday. The wolves feed on the sheep and the sheep keep on eating. Domesticated and docile beyond nature's original intentions the majority of stupid ones are going to take the rest of us down with them.

    By Blogger matt, at 9:32 AM  

  • I can't see Spain wanting any part of this. They don't have that kind of relationship with their former colonies. France, yes. Spain, no way, José.

    And South Africa in the "empire" game? Bloody unlikely.

    Now, would the U.S. support overthrowing an abusive regime in an oil-rich country? Hmm. Yes, I think they would. In fact, it would seem that the the U.S. is only concerned with human rights in oil-rich countries, unless they have strongly allied themselves with us in the past.

    It's interesting though, he doesn't say why these men would pay millions to bankroll the coup. What's their return on investment? What's the money trail?

    Well, we've seen that the Administration believes that once a country is "liberated" it will automatically be willing to throw away it's oil wealth in gratitude, right?

    By Blogger Todd Dugdale , at 12:54 PM  

  • I have no idea. This is just what Simon Mann is throwing around.

    But, having watched some of the fiascos involving British intel and Italian that have come to light, I wouldn't find it all that surprising if elements of the Spanish government had been in on this.

    It is very much about oil, and the ROI for Thatcher and whoever else may have absolutely nothing to do with Eq. Guinea or oil. They may have gotten some data/computer contract that left them with an extra few million lying around, or a post or share in some big private company.

    But my question still would be, I don't think they just throw that money out there for the good of the people of Eq. Guinea. Somewhere, and in some form, that money came in to them with this intent.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 1:34 PM  

  • If EG were a Muslim country, I could see Spanish intelligence going against the government. But it would quickly come un-done. Spain has interest only in the former territories near Spain, and they hold on to these tenaciously. Morocco is their limit, and that is soft.

    It would be exclusively American or British intelligence services backing this. And, like Iraq, the good of the people would have very little to do with it.

    Am I missing something in your concerns here? A failed soldier of fortune is singing like a birdie to muddy the investigation, and he's hopelessly screwed. I'm only surprised he hasn't implicated the Pope yet.

    By Blogger Todd Dugdale , at 3:03 PM  

  • No, there's nothing more here than that, it's just rare that we see one of these bungled where we get to look at some of the behind the scenes.

    And, yeah, Mann has an interest in implicating everyone so it should be judged skeptically.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 4:41 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home