Coup plotters may target Sir Mark

[emad]

Andrew Meldrum in Pretoria and Michael White
Monday January 17, 2005
The Guardian

Sir Mark Thatcher has provided evidence to South African authorities about the involvement of others in the failed coup plot in Equatorial Guinea, officials said yesterday.

"Mark Thatcher has spoken to our investigating officer about other people who were involved in the coup plot and he is continuing to speak to us," Sipho Ngwema, a spokesman for South Africa's special prosecutors, told the Guardian. "We are in constant contact."

.....


In London, some MPs, led by Tony Wright, who chaired an inquiry into modernisation of the honours system, argued yesterday that he should lose the knighthood - a baronetcy inherited from his father, Sir Denis - for the "dishonour" he had brought on it. Downing Street ducked all mention.

............

There is considerable speculation in South Africa that Sir Mark will implicate prominent businessmen and arms dealers. Mr Ngwema confirmed there is a risk that some of those implicated could threaten Sir Mark. "He will be giving the investigating officer the names of bigger fish, who are South Africans ... They might want to do something to him."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1391929,00.html

[Taxloss]

1. What a mockery of a modern state we sometimes seem to be.

Sigh.

[gandalf]

5. John le Carré, The Night Manager

This plot would have fitted nicely in le Carré's description of British covert foreign policy, arms trafficking...

[Taxloss]

6. Or even Frederick Forsyth, "The Dogs of War".

How could Tatcher think that he might get away with this? At heart, he must think that African regimes, no matter how nefarious, are "not proper countries".

[notadmblnd]

2. and He's going to move to Texas with the rest of his family?

how much is it going to cost the american taxpayer to protect him? I think his visa to the US should be denied.

[leesa]

3. What's good for the goose...I have no problem with this, if true.

[Wilber_Stool]

4. Don't fuck with the South Africans

If they want him, they'll get him.