Reply #20: Very cool that you put Bush and Thatcher in the same frame

[DrDebug]

and Khashoggi in the middle. It's like a tripple whammy...

Let's re-run the inside story (because it sounds like it came straight from The Piscine):

France Checkmated NATO
The Oil Dispute in Equatorial Guinea
France Checkmated NATO
ARTHUR LEPIC

The spectacular arrest of Mark Thatcher (British Iron Lady’s son) in South Africa and the confessions of his accomplices in Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea clarified completely the fail coup against this country. The operation was not organized by adventurers or mercenaries (Executive Outcomes) paid by international financiers, but by NATO. The U.S. had mobilized the British and Spanish services to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang and take control of the country to build the largest gas-liquefying station of the world. By doing this, the U.S. would have taken the French oil company Total out of the market thus favoring Spanish Repsol. But France knew about the operation and made it fail. (...)

Airline Triple A Aviation was linked to Thatcher’s activities for it seemed that Sir Thatcher used it to transfer some $275 000 of the operation funds. It seemed that the airline signed on January 2004 an agreement on aviation services with Logo Logistics, Simon Mann’s company. The bank records proved that $100,000 were transferred to Logo’s account on March 2,2004; only two days before the fail coup. Although South Africa rejected the Iron Lady’s son extradition to Equatorial Guinea, investigators could question him in South African territory. Sir Thatcher was prepared to leave South Africa, where he has lived since 1996, to avoid a tax investigation. His residency was already on sale for 4.5 million dollars and his family’s airline tickets for the U.S. were booked when he was arrested by the Scorpions. (...)

NATO at the Service of the Oil Coalition

But this was not the end of the story. Beyond Mark Thatcher’s personality, who’s been the focus of attention, the true actors began to appear NATO and France waged a strategic battle that reminded people of the Iraqi situation, another country among those not very common anymore which offered solid perspectives regarding energy investment recovery (...) For instance, it’s been known that American oil company Marathon Oil was to invest 1,000 million dollars in a liquified gas terminal project in Equatorial Guinea. However, certain experts, who noticed that this was the largest project on the liquified gas field in the world, estimated that in real life the contract was a 3 000 million dollar deal.

(...) At the moment in which the plan entered its final stage and mercenaries were ready to act, two Spanish warships suddenly set sail from a NATO base in Rota, with 500 elite soldiers on board. It seemed that only they knew what their destiny was and Spain had not sent any warship to Equatorial Guinea since the independence of this African country in 1968. The direction of the two ships was controlled by the Commander in Chief of the Command of the American forces in Europe and NATO Supreme commander, General James L. Jones.

(...) On the other hand, French intelligence services had the chance of intervening by informing South African and/or Zimbabwe’s authorities at the right time thus allowing them to capture the mercenaries on their way to Malabo and, at the same time, protect the interests of the French oil company Total. Currently, it is a pleasure for Zapatero’s government to assist the South African justice. Thirty years ago, by following a Frederick Forsyth-styled plan, a few skillful and unscrupulous mercenaries could have guaranteed a nice retirement for themselves. Today, for a few more barrels it is NATO, on behalf of the very same oil coalition that invaded Iraq, the one that launched itself on an adventure pushed by the international financial institutions.

http://www.voltairenet.org/article30088.html