Where Coup Plots Are Routine, One That Is Not

[DulceDecorum]

I've been looking for mention of this all week.
The US, Britain and Spain(Aznar) are very heavily implicated in trying to take over this country for their oil. The tone of this article indicates that somebody somwhere is very peeved.

March 20, 2004
MALABO, Equatorial Guinea, March 17 — This malarial West African dictatorship quashed another coup attempt this month, which is like saying the corner 7-Eleven served up another Slurpee. Quashed coups (five since 1996) are a political staple here, so routine that some say the government stages and then quashes them to burnish its image of invincibility.
But the coup this month was different. Nobody could make this coup up.
The coup attempt of 2004 features a dysfunctional ruling family, a Lamborghini-driving, rap-music-producing heir apparent and a bitter political opponent in exile who insists that Equatorial Guinea is run by a gonad-eating cannibal. It is said to involve a Lebanese front company, a British financier, an opposition figure living in exile in Spain and some 80 mercenaries from South Africa, Germany, Armenia and Kazakhstan.
Its messy denouement unfolded not in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea's capital, but 2,100 miles away, aboard an American jet in Zimbabwe.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/20/international/africa/20GUIN.html?ex=1080363600&en=7d043f3309034b60&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

[AP]

1. NYT: assholes for trying to normalize "coup plots" in Africa. They're...

...outrageous whenever they happen. It's just that the Times often endorses them (Venezueal anyone?).

I bet this article is going to be a real treat.

[AP]

2. Yep. Opening paragraph. "Nothing unusual hear folks. No need to pay

attention. No need to provide a political context. No need to blame anyone in the west. They bring it on themelves, don't you know?"

This malarial West African dictatorship quashed another coup attempt this month, which is like saying the corner 7-Eleven served up another Slurpee. Quashed coups (five since 1996) are a political staple here, so routine that some say the government stages and then quashes them to burnish its image of invincibility.

Bet they don't quote anyone to support that spin that the coups are staged.

[DulceDecorum]

9. About those payments......

May 15-21 2003
ExxonMobil and other leading oil companies are to face an investigation into how up to $500 million came to be deposited into a private US bank account, said to be solely controlled by the President of Equatorial Guinea.

The scandal follows revelations last week that the US Justice Dept. is investigating whether Mobil Oil Corp., now part of ExxonMobil, participated in a plan to route $78 million to the Swiss bank accounts of Kazakhstan’s president, Nursultan Nazarbvaev, and other senior officials.

Global Witness, a London-based anti-corruption campaign groups, has written to John Ashcroft, the US Attorney General, asking him to look into allegations that Equatorial Guinea’s ruler, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, has between $300-$500 million deposited in the Dupont Circle branch of Riggs Bank in Washington, DC.
http://www.agrnews.org/issues/226/worldbriefs.html

[AP]

3. Do you think the word "cannibal" appears in every NYT article about ...

... African politics? It appears in this one.

[AP]

4. Several paragraphs in, still waiting for political analysis.

However, we're only at this level analysis:

'With such a polyglot cast, this whodunit has become almost a parlor game among Africa watchers. "

[AP]

5. My question: if the west is so upset about human rights in EG,

why do we let American oil companies trade with them?

Cut them off economically until the spread teh wealth among the people.

Oh, did I hear you say it isn't about helping the people? You say it's about profits? Oh, now I understand.

[DulceDecorum]

7. Answer: Cheney

Leaders like Equatorial Guinea's Obiang Nguema Mbasogo and Congo (Brazzaville) President Denis Sassou-Nguesso also use the revenues generated from Halliburton-built offshore oil platforms to enrich themselves and their families while ruthlessly suppressing ethnic and political opposition.
http://www.progressive.org/wm0900.htm

Sources think the money for the coup attempt came from rival members of the ruling family, money that is stashed in the Canary Islands. Logo Logistics, the company that owns the aircraft on which Mann and his associates were arrested, has been linked by Africa Confidential to a Lebanese businessman, Eli Cahlil, who is also close to the United States oil company, Halliburton. Halliburton has an oil concession in Equatorial Guinea.
http://www.iol.co.za/general/newsview.php?art_id=ct20040314091038534G5003&click_id=2646&set_id=1

[DulceDecorum]

6. Bad Africans: Good Mercenaries: Gonad-eater gone

Two mercenaries stood out. In Zimbabwe, the plane had been met by Simon Mann, a British expatriate and onetime aide to senior British military leaders. Mr. Mann is a flamboyant soldier of fortune, a figure in books and even a cameo actor in a war movie. In the 1990's, two companies tied to him, Executive Outcomes and Sandline International, reclaimed Angolan oil fields and diamond mines from rebel armies and imposed peace in war-racked Sierra Leone in the absence of a United Nations force.

In Equatorial Guinea, the crucial plotter was identified as Nick du Toit, a South African special forces veteran who once worked for Executive Outcomes. This time, Mr. du Toit worked for Mr. Mann in a company called Logo Logistics. An official in that company, who goes by two names, has told reporters that it bought the Boeing 727 in Kansas this year as part of an innocent contract to protect gold miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo — not to overthrow a government.
<snip>
"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," said Mr. du Toit, who has not been seen since.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/20/international/africa/20GUIN.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5062&en=7d043f3309034b60&ex=1080363600&partner=GOOGLE

So, tell me,
what have Aristide and Chavez been eating?

[DulceDecorum]

8. Cannibalizing profits

May 19 2003 06:43:07:000AM Business Day 1st Edition
TWO incidents were reported last week which highlighted the fact that supply-side corruption is alive and well in Africa, at least in the oil business.

First, US giant Halliburton acknowledged that some of its officials had paid a $2,4m bribe to a Nigerian government official in return for tax breaks related to the company's operations in Nigeria.

Second, it was reported that ExxonMobil, Amerada Hess and other multinational oil companies were to face an investigation into how up to $500m came to be paid into the private US bank account of Equatorial Guinea's president.

<snip>

In an era where the New Partnership for Africa's Development is calling for partnerships with the developed world, and where Africa is being called on to change its own behaviour, the lack of transparency in oil companies' activities is a cause for concern.

So is the fact that international financial institutions are still accepting the illgotten gains of African tyrants. Obiang's fortune is said to be held by Riggs Bank in the US. Although oil company payments into offshore accounts are not illegal, the fact that state revenues are being paid into a president's personal account raises questions, not least of which is how Riggs bypassed US banking rules calling for the close monitoring of accounts set up by foreign political leaders.
http://www.bday.co.za/bday/content/direct/1,3523,1348417-6078-0,00.html

[DulceDecorum]

10. Who would Jesus overthrow?

Pretoria - The wife of one of the men being held in Equatorial Guinea believes her husband's faith will carry him through and that God will watch over him.

Belinda du Toit, wife of Nick du Toit, the alleged leader of the so-called South African mercenaries who were arrested in the tiny West African country 12 days ago, told Beeld in an exclusive interview she often wondered if her husband would ever return home again.

"But then again, he always said nothing comes across one's path without a reason. His faith will carry him through, and the Lord will watch over him even if nobody else believes in him right now."
http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,6119,2-7-1442_1501004,00.html

There, according to a South African intelligence agent, the men – many former members of South Africa’s defunct mercenary company Executive Outcomes (EO) – were to rendezvous at the camp with other former EO operatives and rebel fighters who had been training for six months to overthrow the President of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
Sometime this week, if all had gone to plan, the soldiers of fortune hoped to have ousted the president, installed Spanish-based opposition leader Severo Moto Nsa, and walked off with their booty.
But, as befitting the double dealing of the plots in Frederick Forsyth’s and Daniel Carney’s thrillers, things did not quite work out as intended.
http://www.sundayherald.com/40531

Mokhine said Amnesty International officials in London were meeting to decide on urgent action, which included making representations to the United Nations and European Union.
"Because of reports of torture, harsh detention facilities and human rights violations in Equatorial Guinea, we fear for the lives of the suspected mercenaries."
He added that Amnesty International was "pleasantly surprised" at how the 70 suspected coup plotters had been treated in Zimbabwe and that there had been no reports of torture.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=139&art_id=vn20040319052119374C752397&set_id=1

A lawyer representing the group has met his clients and said they have not complained about their treatment.
"They have not been ill-treated, they are happy and were even saying they are being given too much food in jail," Jonathan Samkange was quoted by AFP news agency as saying.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3504896.stm