[Marxism] U.S. and Brits Complicit in Equatorial Guinea Coup Attempt

[Brian Shannon <Brian_Shannon@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

BRITISH AND UNITED STATES HAD DETAILED FOREKNOWLEDGE
AND THEREFORE COMPLICITY IN THE COUP PLOT

[This coup plot looks like a really bad Hollywood movie of 20 years 
ago. However, the figures involved are closely tied with British 
financial and political interests. The plot becomes even richer when 
you tie in the arrests of the main force of the mercenaries by the 
government of Zimbabwe. President Robert Mugabe has become personally 
involved. If you throw in the contemporary refusal of touring British 
cricketers to meet with President Mugabe, you have enough elements for 
a classic British farce. But the plot was serious and involved the 
attempt to seize a tiny country that along with its neighbors may have 
as much as 10% of the world's oil reserves!]

[Now only if the U.S. and Britain can come up with the threat of 
terrorism and WMDs in Gulf of Guinea. Probably not, the main religions 
are Catholicism and pre-monotheist. Even a "wag the dog" scenario would 
be challenged by portraying a poverty-stricken country of 525,000 souls 
as capable of delivering WMDs or even more than a handful of 
terrorists. Yet, it is a dictatorship and the dictator must be "evil." 
And "everyone" knows that Mugabe is "evil" and hates democracy! Plus we 
have Black soldiers and Spanish speakers and a religion in common--much 
easier than Iraq.]
___________

When the hapless plotters were arrested in March on the runway of 
Zimbabwe's Harare airport, the allegations against them were precisely 
those outlined in the documents seen by the FCO. A second report, sent 
to MI6 in January, was even more specific, naming Equatorial Guinea as 
the prime target and telling the Foreign Office it was set for March.

'Because I [Johann Smith] was continuing to work in Equatorial Guinea 
with government, it was not in my interest that there be a coup 
d’etat,' he said. 'I therefore wanted to warn the Equatorial Guinea 
authorities. I also considered it my duty to warn the authorities in US 
and England because some of their nationals might be killed. I 
submitted a report in December 2003 of what I had discovered to Michael 
Westphal of the Pentagon [in Donald Rumsfeld's department]. I expected 
the US government to take steps to warn Equatorial Guinea or to stop 
the coup. This was also my expectation as regard the British 
government, which I warned through two SIS [Secret Intelligence Service 
or MI6] people I knew, and to whom I sent the report by email, also in 
December 2003, to their personal email addresses.'

When Smith began to get more intelligence of the plot in January from 
his former military colleagues who were working for Du Toit's South 
African firm, he sent another report to the Pentagon and SIS.

'After preparing and sending my December report I received further 
information,' said Smith. 'I put this in a second report, which I sent 
by email to the same people as the first one: Michael Westphal of the 
US and to British SIS contacts'.

By February the plot was an open secret in London. It was certainly 
talked about at an event at the Royal Institute for International 
Affair, organised to discuss 'revenue transparency in Equatorial 
Guinea'. It is alleged that at one stage an executive from an oil 
company operating in the region actually stood up and said: 'Everyone 
knows there's going to be a coup led by South African mercenaries.' A 
witness also claims that the names of Calil and Moto were linked to the 
plot.

As England cricketers have been quick to realise, Zimbabwe's president 
Robert Mugabe seizes on any opportunity to attack his country's former 
colonial power. Certainly when his officers captured Mann's group of 
mercenaries and military equipment in Harare, he was quick to tell the 
world that he believed Britain, the US and Spain had been plotting a 
coup in the oil-rich West African state.

FULL at 
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,6903,1361298,00.html
_________________

Allegations of corruption and human rights abuses by Equatorial 
Guinea's government led to the closing of the U.S. embassy in Malabo in 
1995. The rapid growth of U.S. private investment in Equatorial Guinea 
since 1996, however, combined with an increased U.S. interest in the 
region, prompted a July 2002 decision to reopen the U.S. embassy in the 
country.

For many years, agriculture (primarily cocoa, coffee and timber) formed 
the basis of the Equatoguinean economy. Since 1995, significant 
offshore oil discoveries in the Gulf of Guinea have caused oil to 
displace cocoa as the country's most important export commodity, and 
have made oil production the major driver of Equatorial Guinea's 
growth. Real gross domestic product (GDP) growth was strong at 14.2% in 
2003, and is expected to be as high as 21.2% in 2004. GDP growth has 
been robust for several years, pushed higher by increased oil output. 
U.S. investment, almost exclusively in the oil/energy sectors, has 
increased dramatically since 1996. As of 2003, Equatorial Guinea was 
the third biggest recipient of foreign direct investment from the 
United States in sub-Saharan Africa, after South Africa and Nigeria.

Oil is Equatorial Guinea's most valuable asset. Since the discovery of 
the Zafiro field in 1995, production has increased more than tenfold, 
and oil has quickly become the country's most important export 
commodity, accounting for nearly 90% of the value of total exports in 
2003. Equatorial Guinea's oil reserves are located mainly in the 
hydrocarbon-rich Gulf of Guinea, containing estimated probable reserves 
as high as 10% of the world total. As a result, large amounts of 
foreign investment, primarily by U.S. companies, have poured into the 
country's oil sector in recent years.

[Population of 525,000; slightly smaller than Maryland; Spanish and 
French are the official languages]

[Many more details, including the names of various national and 
multinational oil and oil exploration companies at
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/eqguinea.html]

from Brian Shannon_______________________________________________
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