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Politics : Bush-The Mastermind behind 9/11? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sea_urchin who wrote (7974)	8/27/2004 3:18:22 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20039

Re: So, to me, something is seriously wrong somewhere --- I don't believe the story but what it's really about that I can't tell you. What if the real target was bogeyman Robert Mugabe? Equatorial Guinea was just a cover... Perhaps the plot's chief objective was to bring some muscle to Zimbabwe's isolated white farmers? Clue: UK accused of mercenaries plot Rory Carroll in Johannesburg Thursday March 11, 2004 The Guardian Zimbabwe yesterday said 64 suspected mercenaries aboard a plane seized in Harare could be executed for what it claimed was a western plot to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea. The home affairs minister, Kembo Mohadi, accused Britain, the US and Spain of conspiring to take over the oil-rich west African nation with the help of the alleged soldiers of fortune intercepted in transit at Zimbabwe's international airport. The Zimbabwean authorities cited the presence of a former SAS officer, Simon Mann, to portray the bizarre affair as proof that MI6 was involved with the US-registered Boeing 727-100 which was seized on Sunday night. The men arrested were mostly former soldiers from South African's apartheid-era Buffalo Battalion, based in Namibia, a diplomatic source said, and comprised 20 South Africans, 18 Namibians, 23 Angolans, a Zimbabwean travelling on a South African passport and two men from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mr Mann, who left the British army several years ago, is based in Cape Town and believed to hold a South African passport. Bolt cutters, uniforms, a dinghy and other equipment were found on board. A British company, Logo Logistics, claimed yesterday it had hired the men and that they were en route to the Democratic Republic of Congo to guard mines and that the seizure was all a "dreadful misunderstanding". But for the Zimbabwean authorities, who have long accused the US and Britain of trying to destabilise President Robert Mugabe, the seizure was a public relations bonanza. The government of Equatorial Guinea, oil-rich and accused by critics of being despotic, arrested 15 men on Tuesday which it said were an advance guard. The former Spanish colony appeared to coordinate yesterday's statements with Harare which added the Spanish intelligence services to its list of malefactors. The affair triggered a backlash in South Africa against its growing numbers of mercenaries. The foreign affairs minister, Nkosozana Dlamini-Zuma, said she was in no rush to assist the South Africans in Zimbabwe, or another group which is under house arrest in Equatorial Guinea. "They are not exactly innocent travellers finding themselves in a difficult situation," she said. She confirmed there were at least seven South Africans who had been arrested in Equatorial Guinea. "I know one man has addressed the diplomatic corps and explained what funny things they were doing up there," she said. guardian.co.uk