NEW details of Thatcher coup plot: London Evening Standard

[emad]

The tangled web emerges about "Scratcher's" Xmas party chums' donations to finance coup - a MUST READ:

Snip from:
By Keith Dovkants, Evening Standard
26 August 2004

An Evening Standard investigation into the Mark Thatcher affair reveals how a network of friends and social contacts were asked to invest money in the attempted coup. Some were never told the real story; others knew the details - and they were among Thatcher's Christmas guests. The key figure was Thatcher's close friend Simon Mann, who drove to the party from his home in Hout Bay with his wife, Amanda. Mann is the charismatic Old Etonian, former SAS officer who was arrested in March with a band of mercenaries in Zimbabwe and accused of masterminding the plan to depose the president of Equatorial Guinea by force.

Our investigation reveals that Mann, 51, sought money to finance the coup from individuals in his influential social and business circle. Leaked legal documents show a payment of $134,980 (£74,000) was made to Mann's company, by a "J.H. Archer", four days before Mann was seized. The initials are those of Lord Archer, the disgraced Conservative peer and bestselling author who is an old friend of Baroness Thatcher. His friendship with Eli Calil, a London-based businessman who has been accused of being involved in the coup attempt, goes back even further - more than 30 years.

Soon after Mark Thatcher's arrest yesterday, Lord Archer's lawyers sought to quell speculation that the peer might have been involved in bankrolling the mercenary operation and said in a statement that he had "no prior knowledge". His lawyers also denied he had issued a cheque for the amount shown on the bank statement from Mann's company. When it was pointed out the sum was paid by credit transfer, his legal spokesman said Lord Archer "considers the matter closed". One person who admits being approached by Mann was Gianfranco Cicogna, a South Africabased telecoms tycoon. Mr Cicogna, who was once engaged to television presenter Tania Bryer, is a friend of socialite diarist Taki Theodoracopulous. He has a home in Chelsea and is well known in London society. Mr Cicogna disclosed that he was approached by Mann this year: "I did not really appreciate the grandeur of their ideas," he said. Asked if he knew there was a plan to stage a coup he said: "Not really. I don't think it crossed my mind."

He said he discussed investing $200,000 (£112,000) in a "project" in Equatorial Guinea, but never handed over any money: "What return that would have brought, I have no idea," he said. "We were going to meet again. Nothing of this was finalised." He said he last saw Mann about a week before he was arrested in Zimbabwe. He first knew of the drama from newspaper reports. Among those who chatted to Baroness Thatcher at the Christmas party in Cape Town was London-based entrepreneur Greg Wales, a friend of both Mark Thatcher and Mann. Mr Wales, 54, who owns a large house in Richmond- Upon-Thames, revealed that Mann and Thatcher were discussing a secret business project last year: "It was their business, not mine," he said. He agreed he had talked about possible investments in Equatorial Guinea, but denied he had any knowledge of a coup attempt.

MORE MORE MORE:
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/12810227?source=Evening%20Standard

[seemslikeadream]

1. more from your link

In a statement made in jail in Harare, and apparently signed by him on every page, Mann said he made a trip to Gabon in January 2003 with Mr Wales and Gary Hersham, a leading figure in London's property world. He said the objective was to put a proposition to Gabon's president "whereby he could better regulate his oil industry". The proposal was declined. Gabon has a long-running territorial dispute with Equatorial Guinea.

In his statement, Mann said Mr Hersham later asked him to meet Mr Calil in London. After their first meeting, Mr Calil asked him to meet Severo Moto, Equatorial Guinea's exiled opposition leader. Mann said he later agreed to try to help Mr Moto return to Equatorial Guinea after an "uprising" against the present regime.


Du Toit is in detention in Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, after being arrested there with 14 other alleged coup conspirators as the plan unravelled after Mann's arrest.

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

If the documents are genuine - and he has not denounced them - they suggest the coup, if successful, could have earned him millions of pounds. The papers comprise two formal agreements which outline rewards from Severo Moto and the Provisional Government of Equatorial Guinea. Both are signed by F. Mann (his second Christian name is Francis) but Moto's signature does not appear.

[emad]

5. Gary Hersham, partner of BeauchampEstates in London, is

(from memory) former business partner and property adviser/consultant to KEVIN MAXWELL, son of Israeli spy and failed newspaper tycoon Robert Maxwell.

Kevin Maxwell currently going bankrupt AGAIN in the UK (he is UK's No1 bankrupt, went down for £400 million after his father's Mirror Group of Newspapers went bust, robbing Mirror pensioners of their entire pension fund...)Kevin Maxwell now faces bankruptcy again because a property investment company he bought, Global Investment, owes £1BILLION....

Snip:
Independent on Sunday, The August 01, 2004

Kevin Maxwell, the son of the disgraced newspaper tycoon, Robert, faces a financial meltdown this week. The High Court will hear an application on Wednesday to wind up Meynard Freres, the finance operation run by Mr Maxwell (pictured right), Malcolm Grumbridge, a long-time associate of the Maxwell family, and Larry Trachtenberg, an American-born financier who ran businesses for Robert Maxwell before his death in 1991. Both Mr Trachtenberg and Mr Maxwell were acquitted of fraud and theft offences relating to the disappearance of more than pounds 400m from the pension funds of companies in the Maxwell empire, which collapsed in late 1991. The controversial businessman is battling to avoid personal bankruptcy and to stop the winding-up of his main remaining business interest.

The High Court will hear an application on Wednesday to wind up Meynard Freres, the finance operation run by Mr Maxwell (pictured right), Malcolm Grumbridge, a long-time associate of the Maxwell family, and Larry Trachtenberg, an American-born financier who ran businesses for Robert Maxwell before his death in 1991. Both Mr Trachtenberg and Mr Maxwell were acquitted of fraud and theft offences relating to the disappearance of more than pounds 400m from the pension funds of companies in the Maxwell empire, which collapsed in late 1991. Mr Maxwell was declared bankrupt when he was deemed responsible for the losses, but discharged his bankruptcy three years later. Mr Maxwell then set up a telecoms company, Telemonde, which was listed on the Nasdaq market in the US. However, this company, where Mr Trachtenberg was also a director, collapsed two years ago. Since then, Mr Maxwell has been operating via Meynard Freres, a business he set up in the mid-1990s. It has been active doing financial and property deals.

It was involved a few months ago in the purchase of the business and assets of Astec Engineering Services, a Midlands business that had run into difficulty and was restructuring under a company voluntary arrangement (CVA). The CVA was supervised by a north London insolvency practitioner, David Rubin. Mr Rubin presented a winding-up petition against Meynard Freres at the High Court on 24 June because of moneys still owning under the Astec deal. A hearing is due on Wednesday and if Meynard does not pay up it is likely to be closed down. Mr Maxwell faces being declared bankrupt before this
happens. Judge Michael Payne at Oxford Crown Court gave him 45 days in the middle of June to pay a debt of pounds 1bn owing to a company called Global Investment.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=12569477&BRD=1012&PAG=740&dept_id=226966&rfi=6

Larry Trachtenberg is father of David Trachtenberg,colleague of US Undersecretary of Defense Dov Zakheim. Sat with him on Clinton's WMD/NMD missile defense review commite back in 1998...

The grace was given to Mr Maxwell to allow him to sell assets to pay the money.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. Gianfranco Cicogna

friend of socialite diarist and convicted drug smuggler Taki Theodoracopulous.

[seemslikeadream]

4. Well now

from your link



Taki: 'We’re sending The
American Conservative to every
fucking policy wonk in Washington.
I’ve had 35 years as a journalist,
and now I want a little bit
more gravitas. I’m not going to
be writing about how I got
drunk and fell on the floor
and chased some pussy.'


Taki, normally so right-wing he's off the charts, isn't sounding like much of a fascist these days either, even if he does have a dog named Benito. He calls Bill Kristol, the neoconservative editor of The Weekly Standard, "a little dictator who wants Kristol first, the U.S. second and the world third, in that order."


"This sand is my sand, according to the rich, lefty pricks, and to hell with children when it comes to my privacy." A typical Taki commentary will contain sentences such as "May the fleas of a thousand camels infest his armpits" and "It is a truth universally acknowledged that the Belgian foreign minister, Louis Michel, was born of the union between a cockroach and a cow."

[emad]

8. Cicogna cited on SA telecoms turf war: link

No cut-offs, but Telkom still sees rerouting as illegal
October 20, 2002

By Lloyd Coutts

Johannesburg - Telkom continued to regard the use of telephone systems that allowed companies to bypass the utility's landlines in favour of the cellular network as illegal, it said this week.This comes after the utility agreed to stop threatening companies using switchboard systems that route calls to cellphones via the two GSM cellular networks as a cost-efficiency measure.In terms of the agreement with the Independent Cellular Service Providers' Association of South Africa (ICSPA), Autopage Cellular, Nashua Mobile and Orion Telecom, Telkom agreed not to disconnect or threaten to reprogram or disconnect any equipment connected to any non-Telkom supplied PABX connected to the Public Switched Telecommunications Network.

However, it said the agreement was binding pending the outcome of a high court application that would be heard in February next year to determine the legality of dedicated circuits and data terminal interface (DTI) equipment used to connect private branch exchange (PBX) switches directly to any of the three cellular networks.The temporary agreement did not alter Telkom's stance on the issue, and the company continued to regard the connection of a customer's PBX switch to any of the three cellular networks, whether by means of a dedicated circuit or by means of DTI devices, as illegal.

"This is an issue that has not yet been determined by either the Independent Communications Authority of SA or any competent court," said Telkom's legal services group executive, Mandla Ngcobo.
He added that Telkom would reprogram any of its PBX systems leased by customers if these were found to be using dedicated circuits or DTI devices.However, Telkom now faces a damages claim involving hundreds of millions of rands from service providers who say Telkom's threats have had a negative effect on the business, and are an attempt to bully players in a rapidly burgeoning subsector of the telecommunications market. Only months ahead of its listing, Telkom is also fending off a $130 million claim by US software company Telcordia.

The ICSPA says Telkom has been sending threatening letters to clients of its member companies ahead of a February ruling in an attempt to crush competition.Gianfranco Cicogna, the ICSPA chairman, said his organisation was concerned that Telkom was using the "illegality tactic" to scare clients away from using alternative network services, and had cost the industry money."Telkom has for some time been making allegations regarding the connection of cellular least-cost routing devices to customer PABXs."Recently Telkom's allegations had intensified to the extent that Telkom was threatening to disconnect equipment from PABXs situated on clients' premises."Many clients were distressed. In ICSPA's opinion, the service of least-cost routing is not illegal and hence the case brought by Telkom to close down the business is being defended. ICSPA believes the client should have the right to decide which network to use for routing its voice or data traffic," he said.

Telkom is a PABX supplier, but will not install software that links the machines to non-Telkom lines, which Cicogna said this week was affecting its sales. He said clients were now threatening to pay their bills because they believed they were using an illegal service.Meanwhile, Icasa has agreed to retract all correspondence claiming that least-cost routers are illegal.In a letter to the ICSPA's attorneys, acting chairman Julia Hope said: "Icasa is awaiting the final determination of the matter between Telkom and Nedtel Cellular and eight others ... until such final determination has been made. Icasa will not make any further pronouncements with regard to the legality of least-cost routing."


http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=123081

[seemslikeadream]

3. Thatcher 'planned to quit S Africa'

Aug 26 2004
Sir Mark Thatcher was planning to leave South Africa when he was arrested, authorities in the country said.

The son of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is under house arrest and facing the possibility of 15 years in jail after being accused over an alleged plot to topple the government of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea.
http://icnorthwales.icnetwork.co.uk/news/ukworld/tm_objectid=14574834&method=full&siteid=50142&headline=thatcher--planned-to-quit-s-africa--name_page.html

ONLY 15 YEARS!

[emad]

6. BBC said lunchtime today he was heading back to Texas....

more on this soon....

[Tatiana]

7. Texas?

***Sigh***

Why am I not surprised?

[emad]

9. Re: Texas,and SA loansharking:

The boy Mark ... adventurer and would-be playboy
By Valentine Low And Ed Harris, Evening Standard
25 August 2004

Snip (first six paras excellent for character assessment/assasination
by ES writers...)

In 1987 he married Diane Burgdorf, the daughter of a millionaire Texas car dealer he met while working as a salesman for Lotus. Settled in Dallas, he created a complex web of companies, helped along by the contacts he had made through his mother. His ability to alienate people also continued. Neighbours were left aghast at the occasion he stormed into a house across the street and ordered the woman who opened the front door to move her car from outsidehis house. At a get-to-know you party he refused a name tag, saying: "If they they don't know who I am by now they never will."

But he also made friends. Intriguingly, a 1994 newspaper article reported among his powerful Texan allies were one George W Bush Jr, then running for state governorship.

By then he was said to be worth as much as £40million. But he told the Financial Times in 1994 his net worth was no more than ?5million. His US business dealings soon caused him major headaches. The security alarms company Emergency Networks, of which he was a non-executive director, went bust, with the US Internal Revenue Service claiming it owed £1.7million in unpaid taxes. He was later cleared of any liability.

Then he was sued by a former partner in a Texan fuel company who accused him of conspiracy, fraud, money laundering, usury, deception and perjury. He later settled the matter with an unconfirmed out-of-court payment said to be £330,000.

In 1995 he moved to Cape Town - not least to escape what he called the "Texas crap" - with his wife and their two children, Michael, now 15, and Amanda Margaret, 11. Since then there have been persistent rumours the marriage is in trouble, although the couple have never officially separated. Even once settled in a £570,000 mansion, Thatcher could not escape embarrassment and controversy.

In 1998 his firm was investigated over claims he had been running an alleged "loan-shark" operation among South African government officials. At one stage he was said to have lent money to 900 policemen, soldiers and other public servants.

Now his arrest over allegations he was involved in a planned coup in Equatorial Guinea seems the latest in a line of unsavoury controversies.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/12784023?source=Evening%20Standard

Re:
Then he was sued by a former partner in a Texan fuel company who accused him of conspiracy, fraud, money laundering, usury, deception and perjury. He later settled the matter with an unconfirmed out-of-court payment said to be £330,000.

I have non-internet link about this which I am just checking out, will post after a phone call or 2...

EDIT:

My source says it was Jonathan Bush (RIGG'S CEO!) who gave Thatcher a CHARACTER REFERENCE that got him off the Internal Revenue Service rap, and that Junior submited an affidavit for Thatcher's defense re the conspiracy, fraud, money laundering, usury, deception and perjury rap that got settled out of court...

From: The Kansas City Star:

He started his own company and moved to Texas in April 1984 after a lengthy controversy over reports that he represented a British construction firm that won a $600 million contract in Oman while Mrs. Thatcher was there on a trade-boosting trip in 1981.

Thatcher also was scrutinized by Britain's Parliament in 1994 over news reports that he was involved in arms sales to Saudi Arabia and Iraq while his mother was prime minister. In one case, the Sunday Times reported that Thatcher made $15 million in commissions on a $25 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia, but it said there was nothing illegal about the deal.

Thatcher moved to South Africa two years ago after business troubles in the United States.

While living in Dallas, he settled a civil racketeering lawsuit for an undisclosed sum. He also faced charges from the Internal Revenue Service over his role with a Dallas-based home security company that went bankrupt.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/columnists/9489477.htm?1c

[sattahipdeep]

15. Vanz Kant Danz but he'll steal your money

Executive Outcomes ties lead to London and Sir George Bush.

The ability of Executive Outcomes to thrive as privatized warlords, it is believed, is
in part due to the privatization of U.S. intelligence services by George Bush, who, as
vice president, beginning in 1981, carried out Executive Order 12333,
which placed all U.S. intelligence operations under Bush's personal control.

http://www.aboutsudan.com/action/geopolitical/executive_outcomes.htm

[seemslikeadream]

16. Plaza 107 and its links to Executive Outcomes

The Diamond Dogs

This commercial enterprise has given EO its nickname; 'the diamond dogs of war'. A recent United Nations report noted that once a firm like EO is able to establish security in an area 'it apparently begins to exploit the concessions it has received by setting up a number of associates and affiliates' which engage in 'legitimate' businesses. Such firms thus acquire 'a significant, if not hegemonic, presence in the economic life of the country in which it is operating'.

One of the Plaza 107 group firms is Branch Energy (BE), an English corporation which registered in the Isle of Man, a tax haven, in April 1994. EO is a major shareholder in BE, with 6o per cent of BE Angola, 40 per cent Of BE Uganda, and 40 per cent Of BE Sierra Leone. In June 1996 BE merged with Carson Gold, controlled by Canadian mining magnate Robert Friedland, to form Diamond Works Inc. This company, which has prospecting rights in Congo, Namibia, Botswana and Senegal, and is now the second largest concession holder in Angolait, was recently awarded the Alto Kwanza diamond exploration concession in Bie Province, covering an area of more than 18,ooo sq. km. In July 1996 the Sierra Leone government awarded the company a twenty-five-year lease to the Koidu diamond fields in the Kono region 'liberated' by EO. Diamond Works has contracted Lifeguard, another SRC subsidiary, at us$6o,ooo a month to protect its diamond fields in Sierra Leone.

Another line of analysis suggests that the prime mover in the employment of EO in Sierra Leone came from the South African mining house Gencor. In 1996 Gencor sold its controlling interest in the Australian company Cudgen RZ to another Australian firm, Renison Goldfields Consolidated (RGC). A subsidiary of RGC, Consolidated Rutile Ltd., in partnership with the us firm Nord Resources Group, controls half of Sierra Rutile Ltd, which with an annual production worth US$200 Million a year is the largest rutile mine in the world. The mine was the regional headquarters for Eo during their operations in West Africa and when they withdrew Sierra Rutile Ltd. took out a contract with Lifeguard.

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/sheppard.ht...

America's secret armies
A swarm of private contractors bedevils the U.S. military

BY LINDA ROBINSON
Those who recall the awful sight of the corpse of Sgt. 1st Class Randy Shughart being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu in 1993 also recall the American reaction–the prompt withdrawal of troops. Yet when four retired Special Forces operators were taken hostage and one of them tortured three years later in Liberia, no one knew. Brian Boquist, a former Special Forces officer and founder of International Charter Inc. of Oregon, told U.S. News how he and his small aviation company wound up on the firing line. ICI was hired by the State Department in December 1995 to provide air and logistics support to the regional peacekeeping group of West African states known as ECOMOG. As Liberia spiraled into bloody chaos, about two dozen ICI staffers snatched weapons off dead locals and defended the U.S. Embassy until U.S. Navy SEALs and Army Special Forces arrived on April 9, 1996. ICI stayed on to airlift about 40 tons of food for some 40,000 refugees and won the State Department's Contractor of the Year award for their actions.

There's much to investigate. For starters, the Pentagon does not even know how many contractors it uses. Last spring, Army Secretary Thomas E. White revived an effort to count all contractors under his purview. A preliminary report to Congress in April guessed that the Army contracted out the equivalent of between 124,000 and 605,000 person-work-years in 2001. Nor is there a reliable count of the contractors who provide "emergency essential" services on the battlefront and elsewhere, despite the urging of the Department of Defense (DOD) inspector general a decade ago. In an internal E-mail last fall, one colonel urged that the Army logistics chief review all field systems to see what contractor support they entail. It reads: "At the very least, he could count these little beggars in some fashion before they show up on the battlefield and surprise some poor commander with horrific support, real estate and security requirements."

http://www.sandline.com/hotlinks/4contractors.htm


more
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=125&topic_id=9558&mesg_id=9963&page=

[Snazzy]

17. Was wondering where Margaret was...

HAMPTONS DIARY

August 24, 2004 -- WHILE local Dem ocrats were sloshing around in the mud to support John Kerry at Alan and Susan Patricof's home in East Hampton on Saturday, Republican bigwigs attended a drier dinner at Carroll Petrie's Southampton home, held in honor of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Rudy and Judi Giuliani joined former Sen. Al D'Amato and his new wife, Katuria Smith, GOP power players Nancy Brinker and Gail Hilsom, Reagan biographer Bob Colacello, Newsweek columnist Lally Weymouth, actress Dina Merrill and her husband, RKO Pictures chairman Ted Hartley, and New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger for the swank 30-person affair.

Diary hears guests dined on salmon mousse, followed by ice cream sundaes, after which Petrie asked Giuliani to say a few words. The former mayor, who sat next to the 78-year-old former iron lady of Britain, praised her for being a great principled leader, even when public opinion was against her. He added that President Bush is the same kind of leader.

Thatcher, who is staying with longtime pal Petrie for four days, also had dinner in Mirko's in Watermill the previous night and liked it so much, Petrie asked the eatery to open up just for them for Sunday lunch.

....

http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/29434.htm

Of course she's in the Hamptons.... Little pre-RNC shindig.

[the Kelly Gang]

10. Margaret Thatcther supported Apartheid..wanted Nelson Mandela in jail

forever..what a disgrace of a family

[seemslikeadream]

12. Pinochet has also a good friend for quite awhile

[dArKeR]

13. Same as the Bush Crime Family. Barbara=Margaret

[emad]

11. Latest update from The Guardian:

Thatcher and a very African coup

Mercenaries' dreams of riches fell apart at Harare airport. Then links to British Establishment figures emerged
Jamie Wilson, David Pallister and Paul Lashmar
Thursday August 26, 2004


According to his lawyer yesterday, Sir Mark was arrested on suspicion of providing financing for a helicopter linked to the coup plot.

Banking records show the company, which trades as Air Ambulance Africa from the town of Bethlehem in the Free State, paid $100,000 (£55,000) into Logo's account on March 2, less than a week before the coup attempt was launched. The head of Air Ambulance, Crause Steyl, did not return calls yesterday. His brother Niel, a former pilot for the infamous South African mercenary outfit Executive Outcomes in the 1990s in which Mann was also involved, was the pilot of the ill-fated Boeing that landed at Harare.

According to well-placed South African sources, Triple A provided a twin-engined King Air turboprop which flew the exiled Equatorian Guinea opposition leader, Severo Moto, from Spain to Bamako in Mali on the eve of the alleged coup attempt, in preparation for his triumphant return to power.

Friends of Sir Mark in South Africa, however, claim that he had entered into a completely separate contract with Triple A to provide an air ambulance helicopter for work in Equatorial Guinea. "I don't think he knew what he was getting into," one told the Guardian.
The genesis of the alleged coup plot, according to Mann's own witness statement, began in January 2003 when he was introduced to Eli Calil, a Chelsea-based businessman, in London - a friend and financier of Mr Moto, leader of the Party for Progress of Equatorial Guinea and president of the Guinean government in exile in Madrid.
More:
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,9174,1291122,00.html

[emad]

14. Link to Peter Mandelson: from The Independent

How former PM's son became embroiled in mystery of plot to oust brutal despot
By Kim Sengupta
26 August 2004

Snip:
His contacts in Britain were said to include Sir Mark, and Ely Calil, a London-based oil trader who made his fortune in Nigerian oil. In June 2002, Mr Calil was questioned by French police investigating payments of millions of pounds in commission by the French oil company Elf Aquitaine to Sani Abacha, the former dictator of Nigeria.
Mr Calil, of Lebanese background, is a former financial adviser to Jeffrey Archer......

The oil trader lives in a £12m house in Chelsea and has several other properties that he rents out. Peter Mandelson, while Northern Ireland Secretary, was a tenant, renting a £500,000 apartment in Holland Park. But there is no suggestion Mr Mandelson has other connections to Mr Calil.

Mr Mandelson said: "I have no knowledge of any coup and he has not sought my advice on it." He has refused to discuss in detail his relationship with the Lebanese businessman but said he had paid "the proper rent personally" for the apartment, and that it has been for less than a year.Mr Calil is being sued in the High Court in London by the government of Equatorial Guinea for being allegedly seeking to "maliciously overthrow ...

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/story.jsp?story=555145

[RainDog]

18. of course, none of the dots will connect in the U.S. media

they're too busy repeating lies about Kerry's service in Vietnam.

So is Riggs Bank the new Bush BCCI?

How many Americans know about the Bush suport for dictators around the world for years and years.

I honestly think they would care if they realized how people have used taxpayer dollars to fund murders and torturers...just look how they were whipped into a frenzy over Saddam (although the part about our govt's support was sort of left out.)