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A Coup for a Mountain of Wonga

Dr. Alexander von Paleske --- 16th August 2006-- -- The failed coup in Equatorial Guinea in 2004. Or: How a slew a British public school boys turned mercenaries/politicians/businessmen tried to take over an African state in 2004. Casting: Sir Mark Thatcher, Simon Mann, Eli Calil, Tony Buckingham, David Hart, Greg Wales and many more

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The failed coup in oil rich Equatorial Guinea is in the headlines in Britain again, after the satirical movie COUP! is being shown and a book about the failed coup "THE WONGA COUP" by Adam Roberts has just been published. The British paper "Observer" in an article by Robert McCrum wrote two days ago:

" adly the plotters, led by ill-fated Simon Mann, allowed their greed to get the better of their organization. Adam Roberts shows with merciless precision, how the dogs of war panicked, where they should have been cool, and screwed up, where they should have been clinically efficient."

Efficient? In other words there is nothing wrong if a slew of former British public school boys stage a coup in Africa with some dozens of former apartheid soldiers turned mercenaries, provided they are cool and efficient.

We want these mercenaries out of Africa forever.

The Actors and the Spiderweb

Let’s start with the alleged leader, Simon Mann, former SAS man, Etonian, son of a rich beer brewing family in Britain, who after his service for queen and country became a mercenary under his boss Tony Buckingham, the latter number 244 on the list of the wealthiest Englishmen and former owner of British mercenary company Sandline and founder of and director in the oil company Heritage Oil, listed on the Toronto stock exchange.

His employee Simon Mann was basically looking after Buckingham’s ventures in many African countries, to call him the real godfather of that attempted coup seems far fetched, Tony Buckingham is fitting much better in these shoes.

Let’s continue with other persons in Britain, accused of being involved in the failed coup and their connections.

There is first to name Eli Calil, Britain of Lebanese origin, a friend of Equatorial Guineas’s opposition leader, Severo Moto Nsa. He allegedly brought Simon Mann and Moto together.

Calil happily and illegally allegedly banked money for the former horrible Nigerian dictator Sunny Abacha, who died a few years ago..

Calil is also being investigated in France for money laundering on the one side, and on the other side he is a close friend of Tony Blair’s Ex-Minister for scandals, Peter Mandelson.

Mandelson could no longer be gainfully employed in Tony Blair’s cabinet, because of several scandals involving “small gifts” from good friends including Calil. He, however, managed to get another job with Tony’s helping hand – a friend is a friend - more distant to the mother of all parliaments, this time as EU trade commissioner in Brussels.

Peter Mandelson has strictly denied to be involved or even have heard anything about the planned coup beforehand, we will see what the taped telephone calls will reveal.

There is Lord Jeffrey Archer, former chief of Maggie Thatcher’s Conservative Party who spent just a few years in prison for perjury and perverting the course of justice, however still a member of the House of Lords, whose sessions he must have sadly missed while in prison. He allegedly wanted to benefit financially from Simon Mann’s coup, as the stock market these days does not offer much and the interest rates are lousily low. So he allegedly put a bit of his pocket money, a few ten thousands of British pounds into Simon Mann’s coup savings account, placed in the tax haven of Guernsey. Of course, he denies, but there was a payment made by a J.H. Archer into that account. And he phoned Mr. Calil before the coup, most likely to tell him, that crime does not pay.

Unfortunately we must wait a bit to get insight into this account, into which other fashionable peers are accused to have paid money in as well, because a British court on the small Guernsey Island has blocked the request of the government of Equatorial Guinea to have a closer look.

And, alas, the former vice-chairman Howard Flight of the same party via the Investec banking group offered a loan of US $ 30 million for agricultural development in Equatorial Guinea - after the coup – of course.

Next in the line Greg Wales, old friend of the Thatcher family with African experience.
He denies having been involved, however an E-Mail, passed on to me to the by the widow of the alleged transportation officer for that coup, the German Gerhard Merz, who died after his arrest in Equatorial Guinea amidst allegations of torture, shows the exact opposite.

And there is David Hart, 60, Old Etonian like Mann, and old friend of the Thatcher family. He was Maggie Thatcher’s chief enforcer during the British miners strike in the 80s he handed out money for strike breakers from a suite at Claridges, a hotel in London, that takes per room per night, what a miner earns in one month. The Government of Equ. Guinea accuses him of being involved as well.

Not to forget Sir Mark Thatcher, Mummy Maggie’s son who has been famous for making headlines, negative ones mostly and who cobbled together an income without breaking too much sweat. Now barred from entering the US where his former wife and children live, after he was arrested in Cape Town and later confessed to have violated South Africa’s anti-mercenary laws and sentenced to a suspended prison term and a fine.

Buckingham, Spicer and Mann are old African hands, experienced to get mining rights in exchange for military hardware and software. The software consiting of old apartheid soldiers.

For Example Sierra Leone in 1998
Tony Buckingham’s company Sandline, of which Tim Spicer, Ex SAS, Ex British Colonel, OBE, was the chief executive until 2000, offered their service to ousted president Kabbah in exchange for diamond mining rights, with old apartheid soldiers of the infamous Buffalo Battallion, and Koevoet, well known killer units, their motto: shoot to kill, no prisoners, and their battleground in those days were the newly independent states of Angola and Mozambique with the refugee camps of the ANC and SWAPO.

The unit, named Executive Outcomes, was founded and headed by Eeben Barlow, former member of the Buffalo Battalion and then of the Civil Cooperation Bureau (CCB) the latter a South African apartheid death squad, which can take credit for countless extrajudicial killings inside and outside South Africa including hundreds of captured SWAPO freedom fighters allegedly killed with poison delivered by a Dr. Wouter Basson and the bodies thrown out of a plane over the Atlantic Ocean.

The international crook Rakesh Saxena, resident in Canada since 1996, offered them 10 million US Dollars, he had mining interests there as well, and with Saxena’s money Spicer bought tons of weapons in Bulgaria and elsewhere.

This was the start, of what was later called the Arms to Africa Affair. Active in this scheme there were also Simon Mann and Nick du Toit.

Nick du Toit was a former member of the apartheid South African terror and destruction gang called Reconnaissance Commandos or Recce. He came with his murder squad on 14th June 1985 into Gaborone/Botswana on a killing spree. They murdered 14 people amongst them a pregnant mother and a six year old child.

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Mourning the victims of the raid, Michael Dingake, Ex Robben- Island prisoner
Photo: Dr. v. Paleske

This military intervention in Sierre Leone was in flagrant violation of an UN arms embargo, who cares, and with the approval of the resident British High Commissioner, Penfold. When the things came out, it nearly brought down the Blair Government.

Global Players
Already before their Sierra Leone job, Spicer, Mann and Buckingham had gone global in 1997, this time to the other end of the globe, Papua New Guinea for a lump sum of 36 million US Dollars to be paid by one of the poorest states on earth.

The Government there fought unsuccessfully against a rebel group on the Island of Bougainville to get hold of a copper mine, owned by the British company Rio Tinto. The fight erupted because of the environmental disaster, caused by the mine, that threatened to destroy the livelihood of the people there.

Buckingham, Spicer and Simon Mann offered “help”, the mercenary way via Sandline and Sandline subcontracting the dreck of the Ex Out mercenaries.

Also with them Lafras Luitingh, another former member of the Apartheid-CCB, who can take credit for having been involved in the murder of ANC activist Dr. David Webster on 1st May 1989 in Johannesburg and SWAPO Advocate Anton Lubowski in Windhoek on 12 October 1989.

However the army rebelled, Spicer was arrested and later released only thanks to discrete diplomatic pressure by the British government. Still they made their fortune, as they had worked on prepaid basis.

In preparation for the Wonga Coup attempt of 2004 Mann was collecting the former Executive Outcome mercenaries, promising them huge returns and off they went, their journey ended prematurely at Harare International Airport , capital city of Zimbabwe.

There Mann still is, guest of President Robert Mugabe in his Chikurubi Maximum prison, serving a four year prison term for illegally buying arms of war and earmarked for the extradition to Equatorial Guinea.

Mercenary Spicer big in Iraq
Meanwhile Spicer was busy elsewhere, He opened a new mercenary company after he left Sandline by the name of Aegis and the Invasion of Iraq brought him a fat contract by the Pentagon to the tune of 293 million US Dollar. He is now overall in charge of all the mercenaries in Iraq, totaling more than 20.000, quite a few former Executive Outcomes dreck.

And Tony Buckingham is busy in Iraq as well.
In 1995 he paid a courtesy call to Iraq, walking in the Hotel lobby of the Al Rasheed Hotel over a distorted picture of former US president Bush and exploring with former Iraq’s Oil minister possible oil ventures.

After he Invasion he is back, go with the flow, having good contacts with Iraqi Oil ministry officials and getting a prospecting license in Kurdistan for his company Heritage Oil.

And he quickly closed the mercenary company Sandline after the failed coup on 16th April 2004 with the flimsy excuse, that he did not get enough support from the British government while at the same time Tim Spicer got his 293 million US contract with the Pentagon.

Simon Mann has not revealed, who is behind the failed coup Calil? Buckingham? Ranger Oil Canada, Buckingham's business partner plus Heritage Oil?, or all of them? and did they have the tacit approval of the British government?

The British Government and the Wonga Coup
The British Government got wind of the planned coup two month before it started. The Foreign office called in mercenary Tim Spicer, yes, Spicer, to tell the coup plotters something – what? Something what?

And what was the role of the British secret service Mi6?
Justin Longley was an employee of Simon Mann. He is the nephew of Sir Dearlove, who was the head of the Mi6 at that time.

What did Germany’s Foreign Office know, who tries to put the torture and death of Gerhard Merz in Malabo under the carpet and how much was Spain involved, where Severo Moto lives?

However Mann may talk now, seeing, that the Black Beach Prison in Malabo might be his last and final destination.

We will see, the scandal has not come to an end yet.

Dr. Alexander von Paleske is Head of the Department of Oncology at the Princess Marina Hospital in Gaborone/Botswana and Ex-Barrister-at-Law, High Court Frankfurt (M), Germany