Reply #31: The Dogs of War

[seemslikeadream]

Thanks Dulcey


Not even Frederick Forsyth thought of so many twists and riddles in his Dogs of War, probably the best-known novel about mercenaries.
The book was based on Forsyth's personal adventures - he was involved in an unsuccessful scheme to overthrow the head of state of Equatorial Guinea in 1972.
But even the Dogs of War cannot rival this bizarre tale of confusion.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=84&art_id=vn200... ...

Ladies and Gentlemen,
visitors from the darkside,
it is with much pleasure that I present:
AFRICAN OIL POLITICS
which offers
forward-looking views on african oil politics and related energy security issues
http://africanoilpolitics.blogspot.com/2004_03_01_afric... ...

This MOST INSIGHTFUL BLOG
offers information, interviews and analysis that cannot - to my knowledge - be found elsewhere.
As you all know, the US is VERY dependent on oil and as global oil reserves diminish, the West is once again aligned in a Scramble for Africa.
The Organization of African Unity, having seen what the the first Western-led Scramble for Africa did to the people and the resources of Africa, took the pre-emptive step, in 1999,
of permanently outlawing coups d'etat on African soil.
http://www.thisdayonline.com/archive/2003/04/22/2003042...
Unfortunately,
this action has not deterred certain nations (whose ideas of protective pre-emptive action consist basically of violating the Peace of Westphalia) from doing their darndest to destabilize African nations - and most especially those African nations who have oil.
http://www.netnomad.com/fineman.html
The African Oil Politics blog keeps a watchful eye on these and other oil-related developments.
But I digress.

Our story today,
starts in Madrid,
where a terrible bombing occurred on March 11, 2004.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/spain/article/0,2763,1166996,...

The bombings in Madrid have distracted the attention of many from the events taking place in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe investigators allege that Spanish-based rebel leader Severo Moto offered the suspects money and oil rights to overthrow the government in Equatorial Guinea. Fifteen suspected mercenaries were also arrested in that country last week.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=79&art_id=qw107... ...

Pedro said the men were recruited by an agent representing Logo Logistics, which had connections with the now defunct Executive Outcomes (EO), a private security company owned by former South African Defence Force intelligence officer Eben Barlow.
The recruiting agent is known to be a former 32 Battalion sergeant.
EO is now operating under the name of Saracen and has close links with Logo Logistics, based in London.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=84&art_id=vn200... ...

And now, over to our star reporter:

Saturday, March 13, 2004
Before I start to the review of the most juicy stories of the day, let me urge you to visit Katryn Cramer's blog. She did a wonderful job tracking the N4610 plane background and posting updates. Katryn is a SciFi writer and editor from Pleasantville (NY). I wonder what grabbed her interest. Sometimes, Africa just looks like another planet and African Oil Politics reads like a pod conspiracy.
Today's media coverage was... average. No new interesting leads emerged. However, more western (mostly Bristish) newspapers dare report the story. But there's a specific twist and bias that is absent from the African papers reviewed here yesterday. I'll start with Nicholas Christian's piece which is clearly designed to arouse pity for Simon Mann - the poor little boy who finds himself in such a baaad situation:

FEARS were growing last night for a former British soldier who faces the death sentence after he was arrested in Zimbabwe and charged with aiding a coup plot against another African country. ... Amid reports he has homes in South Africa and in Hampshire, Mann’s nationality remains unclear. The army will sign-up those Britons with dual nationality and citizens from the Commonwealth but has not confirmed Mann was a member of the forces. He is said to be Sandhurst-trained and to have served in Northern Ireland with the Scots Guards and later in the 1990 Gulf War as an intelligence officer in Riyadh. His father is said to be the late George Mann, president of the Marylebone Cricket Club and a former captain of England’s cricket team. Since leaving the army, Mann has been employed as a computer consultant and linked to a number of ‘private military’ firms, including Sandline International and Executive Outcomes.

I love how hard he tries to turn the guy into a victim. Come on Christian, you're talking about a dog of war - a tough guy trained by the SAS and who makes his living organizing coups, killing people. And don't repeat that he's LINKED to a number of PM firms. Just say that he was he was one of the founders of Executive Outcomes and everybody will understand. But thank you for bringing us up to date about his film career. I didn't know he played Colonel Wilford in Bloody Sunday. I'll watch the DVD to check how the guy looks like.
http://africanoilpolitics.blogspot.com/2004_03_01_afric... ...

And now to Kathryn Cramer's blog.

First of all, N4610 isn't just any random former US cargo plane. Rather it is a specific military plane with a specific history which is relatively easy to find out on the web. As is widely reported, the plane was registered to Dodson Aviation, Inc. of Ottawa, Kansas. Jetliners.com lists the plane as operated by the U. S. Air Force. It also gives additional information: that the plane is a specific type of Boeing cargo plane, a C-22B, and it gives an additional identification number 83-4610. Airlink has a nice factsheet with a picture of the type of plane, a Boeing 727-100 modified for air national guard support missions.
<snip>
The plane in question was on display at the Andrews AFB, Department of Defense Open House on May 15, 1999. The records of the airshow suggest that it was also assigned to the 201st Airlift Squadron, District of Columbia Air National Guard.
The State Department disingenuous claim -- endlessly repeated in news stories around the globe -- is that they have " no indication this aircraft is connected to the U.S. government."
http://www.kathryncramer.com/wblog/archives/000457.html

Oh my!
http://www.propagandacritic.com/articles/examples.osi.h...
http://www.moveon.org/censure/caughtonvideo /

Cde Mohadi said Mann had revealed that the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), America*s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Spanish Secret Service aided the group.
The secret services persuaded the Equatorial Guinea service chiefs, that is the head of police and commander of the army, not to put up any resistance.
They were promised cabinet posts in Moto*s government.
The agencies were responsible for the hiring of the Boeing 727-100 from Dodson Aviation and they also provided satellite communication system to link up Moto in Spain, Mann and du Toit in South Africa and Bonds in Malabo.
United States forces are reportedly carrying out military exercises around Equatorial Guinea.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200403100875.html



Surely this is is all an unfortunate coincidence.
There is NOTHING to link N4610 acts of international terrorism
such as the attacks in New York and Washington DC
by N334AA and N644AA.
Surely the 1/14/2002 FAA cancellation dates on
these three aircraft is just happenstance, or a mere coincidence.
OK,
so Auric Goldfinger stated bluntly that
"one is happenstance, two is coincidence, but three is enemy action"
but he is NOT a reliable source of information since Ian Fleming pulled a Jack Kelley when he came up with that quote.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/2004-03-18-2004-03-18_kell... ...

Equatorial Guinea's state radio said Moto had paid South African Nick du Toit, 48, the leader of the advance party in Equatorial Guinea, $10-million (about R67-million).
Speaking on state television, Du Toit said the advance party would take strategic targets such as the presidency, the military barracks, police posts and the residences of government members.
South African security sources say the Zimbabwean group was heading to a covert military training camp in Cameroon that was to be the staging point for a seaborne assault.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=68&art_id=vn200... ...

DAMN AL QAEDA.
SHUT DOWN THEIR TRAINING CAMPS.
WE DO NOT NEED TO DISCUSS INNOCENCE OR GUILT.
WE KNOW THEY ARE GUILTY.
HAND THEM OVER.
RIGHT NOW.

This is the US State Department 1996 report concerning
the Current Administration of President Teodoro Obiang, who,
"together with his associates, dominates the Government. The President's Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE) controls the judiciary and the legislature, the latter through fraudulent elections. "

d. Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, or Exile
Police routinely hold persons in incommunicado detention. The government arrested political figures and detained them for indeterminate periods. There were also credible reports that around five members of the Movement for the Autodetermination of the Island of Bioko (MAIB), an ethnically based political opposition group, were detained in prison for several weeks. At least 15 members of the opposition were arrested for political activity during the year.

In February, opposition leader Severo Moto and nine additional opposition and military figures were arrested and charged with treason.
At their trial in April (which lasted only 7 hours), one defendant was acquitted. The others were convicted and sentenced to long prison terms. Moto received a 28-year sentence. The trial was held in a military court which did not have jurisdiction over Moto, a civilian.
After extensive international criticism and an international campaign for his release, he and his fellow defendants were pardoned and released in August. Although the Government did not force Moto to leave the country, he left to reside abroad soon after his release.

There are nominal but unenforced legal procedural safeguards regarding detention, the need for search warrants, and other protections of prisoners' rights. Judicial warrants are required. Generally, however, the police arrest suspects without having obtained warrants.
Authorities also continued to hold citizens of Nigeria, Ghana, Gabon, and other countries to secure bribes.
The Government does not force citizens into exile.
http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/ERC/democracy/1995_hrp_report... ...

WHAT BARBARISM.
Thank God for our freedoms.

NEW YORK, March 19 (Reuters) - The euro rose against the dollar in early New York trade on Friday on reports of a bomb threat to Washington DC schools, traders said.
http://www.forbes.com/home_europe/newswire/2004/03/19/r...

SO WHAT?
We are still WAY better than those heathens.

The Zimbabwe government said Simon Mann, an additional alleged plotter who had met the plane at the airport Sunday in Harare, confessed to having backing from London, Washington and Madrid.
Both British and U.S. officials, including U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, said they knew nothing about the plane or the plot. Spain, named as a co-conspirator and home of purported coup plotter Moto, threatened to file a formal complaint with Zimbabwe's government.
Questions remain
What happens next to the alleged mercenaries in Zimbabwe remains unclear. So far there appears to be little evidence that the men committed any crime beyond lying about the number of passengers on the flight, which Boshoff called "a small technical issue."
"You have to prove conspiracy, and that's not easy," he said. "What did they do wrong? That's my question."
Plenty of other questions remain as well. Could the apparent planned arms sale in Zimbabwe have been part of an entrapment plot, aimed at embarrassing Mugabe's enemies in the West? Was a flight plan filed in South Africa, indicating the plane was headed to Burundi, a smokescreen?
As South Africa's Star newspaper noted this week, "the solution . . . is easy. Frederick Forsyth just needs to write `Dogs of War II.'"
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0403... ...