Equatorial Guinea 2004 coup - Mark Thatcher and Co.

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Firestarter
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Equatorial Guinea 2004 coup - Mark Thatcher and Co.

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On 7 March 2004, mercenaries organised by mainly British financiers were arrested in Zimbabwe when they planned to carry out a coup d'état attempt in the oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, the so-called Wonga Coup.
The plan was to get rid of Equatorial Guinea's brutal dictator Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, and install the exiled Severo Moto as the new puppet president, who promised to give his foreign backers oil riches after he had become president.

The most interesting funder of the coup is the son of Lady of the Garter, former British PM Margaret Thatcher, Sir Mark Thatcher.
Mark Thatcher first denied all accusations, but then pleaded guilty to financing the coup plot in Equatorial Guinea in a South African court, for which he was fined without going to prison!

The suspect names came from the so-called "Wonga list" (after which the coup was named) by James Kershaw, who was Simon Mann's accountant. Mann was the prime suspect and fall guy, and the close friend of Mark Thatcher. Mann had worked for British Intelligence (SAS).
Kershaw was recruited by Nigel Morgan, another friend of Mann, who in turn was connected to the South African Secret Service.

While both Britain and the US denied orchestrating the plot, they don't deny that they received a full detailed plan months before the Wonga coup would be staged, including the dates, details of arms shipments and key players.
In December 2003 and January 2004, 2 highly detailed reports of the planned coup, from former commander in South African Special Forces Johann Smith, were sent to British intelligence (Jack Straw) and to a senior aide of then US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Equa ... at_attempt


Mark Thatcher continued to deny involvement in the attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea. Despite evidence that he frequently telephoned several of the key conspirators in the coup.
One of the conspirators Mark Thatcher called is the disgraced Tory peer Lord Archer. The same Jeffrey Howard Archer paid about £74,000 to the account of Simon Mann, the alleged ringleader of the coup.

According to Crause Steyl:
I met Mark (Thatcher) three or four times. He was a partner in the venture. He put in about $250,000. The money was wired to my company account in various installments.
.
Mark Thatcher himself transferred about $285,000 to the mercenaries that would execute the coup: https://web.archive.org/web/20080228120 ... 25!7001!-1


All things considered, things were looking bad for the boy of Baroness Thatcher, he looked to be imprisoned in a not so luxurious Equatorial Guinea jail.
So Mark pleaded guilty "to "unwittingly" attempting to finance the coup plot by buying a helicopter for the alleged coup plotters", and was given a four-year "suspended sentence" and a fine of about $560,000 (that mama paid): http://www.afrol.com/articles/15309


Simon Mann was arrested on the airport of the capital of Zimbabwe, Harare. On the Boeing 727 were 64 former South African mercenaries, who had fought for the apartheid regime. It stopped in Harare to load the rifles, mortar bombs, rocket launchers and ammunition needed for the coup onto the plane.
Simon Mann’s buddy and neighbour in South Africa was none other than Mark Thatcher. They were also business partners.

Exiled politician Severo Moto was waiting in a neighbouring country ready to fly by helicopter to Equatorial Guinea after the coup had made him President. Mark Thatcher deposited $100,000 dollars into Mann’s account for a helicopter, probably to fly Moto to Equatorial Guinea.

On 31 March 2004, Simon Mann wrote from Zimbabwe's prison to his wife and lawyers:
Our situation is not good and it is very URGENT. It may be that getting us out comes down to a large splodge of wonga! Of course investors did not think this would happen. Did !? .... They [the lawyers] get no reply from Smelly and Scratcher [who] asked them to ring back after the Grand Prix race was over!......We need heavy influence of the sort that ... Smelly, Scratcher ... David Hart and it needs to be used heavily and now. Once we get into a real trial scenario we are fucked.
"Scratcher" was a not so subtle reference to Sir Mark Thatcher and "Smelly" referred to Ely Calil.
David Hart, a millionaire property developer, was a journalist for "The Times" and an adviser to Mark's PM mother Thatcher during the 1984 miners’ strike.

Nick du Toit introduced Mann to a Zimbabwean arms dealer and paid a £100,000 deposit for the weapons. Du Toit's business partner was a minister in Equatorial Guinea. After Mann’s arrest in Zimbabwe, the authorities of Equatorial Guinea arrested Du Toit and 14 others, who were allegedly plotting to overthrow the government in a coup: https://www.dannymorrison.com/wp-conten ... ve/063.htm
(https://archive.is/DDnpK)


After the British intelligence associated Simon Mann had spent 5 1/2 years in Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea jails, he was pardoned by President Teodoro Obiang.
When he was back in Britain, he made a stunning u-turn. Suddenly his British and American handlers weren't involved in the coup anymore, but now Mann claimed that both Spain and South Africa had "given the green light" to the coup: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3597450.stm

After Simon Mann was pardoned by Equatorial Guinea's dictator Teodoro Obiang Nguema, he was paid - "had his expenses covered" - to defend Teodoro's son and vice-president of Equatorial Guinea, Teodorin Obiang Nguema, in a court of law in France.
Simon Mann said that the trial of Teodorin was to "destabilise and overthrow" the "recognised and legitimate regime" of Equatorial Guinea.

I don't know why this was relevant at this trial, but he also accused the faithful servant of the Anglo-Dutch royal families, George Soros, of plotting to overthrow Equatorial Guinea's government. Mann also accused exiled opposition leader Severo Moto Nsa and British-Lebanese businessman Ely Khalil of conspiring with black George against the brutal dictator.
Again I don't understand the relevance, but he also accused William Bourdon, lawyer for the anti NGO Transparency International, of being part in the plot.
Needless to say, Simon Mann didn't have a shred of evidence for these allegations: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-40420872


Before his u-turn, Simon Mann included a section in his memoirs about Lady of the Garter Margaret Thatcher knowing about and supporting the coup.
For some reason, this was removed before his memoirs "Cry Havoc" were published in 2011...

In 2004, at Margaret's Belgravia home she said to Mann about the planned coup: "I'm sure it's going to work" (strange typo in the link "giunea"): https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... up-attempt


As if the son of the former PM of Britain, Margaret Thatcher, financing the coup and being friends with the alleged ringleader Simon Mann isn't bad enough...

The son of Simon, Jack Mann, is also good friends with both Princes William and Harry. In 2006, William and Harry skipped Princess Beatrice’s fancy 18th to go to Jack’s 23rd birthday party in Oxfordshire.
Jack Mann was so close to Harry that he was even tipped as his best man.

Jack Mann was (is?) a good polo player.
See Prince Harry (L) and Jack Mann at the Audi Polo Challenge on 30 May 2015, London, England.
Image
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/arti ... Queen.html
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Re: Equatorial Guinea 2004 coup - Mark Thatcher and Co.

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Like so very often when I investigate a topic, the official story doesn't add up.
With so many high profile people involved, they wouldn't let the coup plotters be arrested in Zimbabwe. Unless it was meant to fail, as the only way to make the brutal dictator of Equatorial Guinea Teodoro Obiang Nguema more popular.
If so, Obiang was in on the plot, which could explain that he released Simon Mann after only a year in Equatorial Guinea's prison, and then paid him to appear in a court case against his son.

A variety of “intelligence agents”, were producing regular reports on the planning of the operation.
Two weeks before the coup attempt, the plot was discussed at a semi-public meeting at Chatham House (the British counterpart of the CFR).
Some oil companies were even informed!
Still Mark Thatcher claimed that he didn't know for what he paid $285,000...

Secrecy would have been very important! As so many people already knew in advance of the coming "coup", which was leaked to the press to make it more convincing, it shouldn't be taken too seriously should it: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2008/7/9 ... narys-tale


How to make a coup that was designed to fail more credible?
South African Judge Peel Johnson, acquitted 8 defendants because he found their defence that the coup was sanctioned by the South African, British, Spanish, and US governments credible!

The director general of the South African secret service, Hilton Dennis, even admitted that he knew of the plot but did not "sanction" it: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/fe ... rialguinea


The following information on supposed coup plotter Mohamed Salaam and his father, Hany Salaam, is bizarre.
To me this makes it all the more probable that the "Wonga coup" was really a "false flag" staged by and for Equatorial Guinea's dictator Teodoro Obiang Nguema to become more popular and to imprison political adversaries accusing them of plotting a coup against him. There have been multiple "coups" claimed by Obiang since he became its "president". According to our wonderful media some of these weren't "real" coups at all. But I still haven't found a single story that the "Wonga coup" was meant to fail...

Since 1997, oil transformed Equatorial Guinea, with Hany Salaam and Ely Calil offering their "help" to Equatorial Guinea's president. After they secured a good oil deal for both parties, still in 1997, Mohamed Salaam went to Equatorial Guinea to live there. In 2001, President Obiang was so pleased with him that he gave him a $50,000 gift "for services to the country". Mohamed Salaam became honourary consul to the Philippines and even got a lucrative contract from Obiang to report (or stage?) "subversive activities".

When his son was sentenced for his role in the coup and incarcerated, his father continued his jet set lifestyle.
See Hany Salaam on holiday in Jordan with his 50 years younger English girlfriend Harriet Cole, right, and air stewardess Kimberley.
Image

In one of those strange "coincidences", Simon’s wife, Amanda Mann, worked for Hany Salaam in London in the late 1980s.
It was Amanda Mann, who hired lawyer Andy Kerman to defend Simon Mann in court. In another one of those strange "coincidences", Kerman was a friend of Ely Calil. Calil was of course accused by Simon Mann of being the mastermind behind the Wonga coup.

At least 2 months before Simon Mann (ex-SAS) says he first met Calil and learned of the coup plot, in February 2003, Mohamed Salaam was visited by 2 men.
They were both British and guests of Mohamed.
They were with a company specialising in managing fisheries licensing arrangements.
They said they were ex-SAS. They had a meeting with President Obiang.
.
Another strange thing is that Mohamed Salaam was only arrested, after Mann was extradited after he had spent more than 5 years in jail in Zimbabwe, before being sentenced to 18 years in prison: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... nment.html


Mohamed Salaam's sister, Princess Ghida Talal, is married to Prince Tala bin Muhammad, first a national security adviser to King Hussein and later a special adviser to King Abdullah of Jordan.

Simon Mann’s "advance party of mercenaries" was led by the South African arms dealer Nick du Toit, who set up a fishing business in Malabo as a front: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/ ... ialguinea3

.
Firestarter wrote: Thu Apr 29, 2021 8:33 pmIn 2004, Unaoil CEO Cyrus Ahsani passed a secret message from KBR to Mohamed Salaam, scion of a Lebanese oil clan.
In 2008, Mohamed Salaam and British special forces soldier Simon Mann were arrested, charged and convicted of plotting a coup to overthrow Equatorial Guinea’s brutal leader, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
Mann told that Sir Mark Thatcher (son of former UK prime minister Lady of the Garter Margaret Thatcher) and oil man Ely Calil, were both part of the plot. Salaam was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Mann was sentenced to 34 years in jail but was already released in 2009
viewtopic.php?p=70011#p70011

This is with what I started this investigation, but I haven't found a single article on how Unaoil was involved in all of this, which seems likely as they were "lobbying" in Equatorial Guinea...
Whatever the truth behind the coup, which probably will never come out, people involved could be considered a threat the moment they would become whistleblowers.

The Lebanese-British Ely Calil suddenly died in a strange "accident" on 28 May 2018, when he fell down the stairs in his house and broke his neck.
Calil was a close friend of Lord Archer (who was also involved in the coup plot), Sir March, and the infamous Lord Mandelson.
Calil offered his flat to Mandelson when he was forced to sell his own Notting Hill home after the scandal about his undisclosed loan from fellow minister Geoffrey Robinson.

In June 2002, Calil was accused of bribing a former Nigerian dictator with £40 million to "fix" a big contract for French oil company Elf.

Calil admitted that he hired Simon Mann and his mercenaries to provide military assistance to Severo Moto, but claimed he didn't know of any coup, saying:
I am not a coup planner. I don't have a talent in that sense.
But yes, I financed Severo Moto's political activities and yes, I introduced Simon Mann to him because of his background in security.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... nsion.html


The following gives more details on the trial in Equatorial Guinea against Simon Mann for orchestrating the 2004 "Wonga coup".

Besides being sentenced to 34 years in jail (of which he served only 1 year, after 4 /12 year in Zimbabwe), Mann "was ordered to pay a fine and compensation to the Equatorial Guinea state" totalling $24 million (£12 million). Did he really pay that? And how much did he get paid in return for defending Equatorial Guinea's president's son in a court case in France?!?
According to a contract, Mann (would have?) received £15 million for the Wonga coup.
.
The attorney general also claimed the main conspirators included Calil, Mark Thatcher, the British businessmen Greg Wales and David Tremain and Nigel Morgan, a former intelligence officer with the Irish Guards now living in South Africa. Calil had put in $2m (£1m).
https://bristle.wordpress.com/tag/mohammed-salam/
(https://archive.is/BLQ2Y)


According to US officials, Greg Wales (a London-based property dealer) approached them about the coup.
Greg Wales twice met Theresa Whelan, in charge of African affairs at the Pentagon for the Bush administration, in Washington before the Wonga coup.

David Tremain (a South Africa-based British businessman), is alleged to have been "fronting" for a group of South African and other investors.

Both Wales and Tremain deny involvement in the coup: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Equa ... at_attempt
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Re: Equatorial Guinea 2004 coup - Mark Thatcher and Co.

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Firestarter wrote: Wed May 05, 2021 8:19 pmBesides being sentenced to 34 years in jail (of which he served only 1 year, after 4 /12 year in Zimbabwe), Mann "was ordered to pay a fine and compensation to the Equatorial Guinea state" totalling $24 million (£12 million). Did he really pay that? And how much did he get paid in return for defending Equatorial Guinea's president's son in a court case in France?!?
According to a contract, Mann (would have?) received £15 million for the Wonga coup.
Simon Mann now claims that he was personally ordered in Cape Town by Lady of the Garter Margaret Thatcher, who told him “I know what's going on — and you two guys have just got to get on with it”.

Simon Mann was rewarded by the ruthless dictator of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang, for staging the coup that was meant to fail and make Obiang more popular.
After he had been in jail in Zimbabwe for 4 years, Mann was extradited to Equatorial Guinea, where Mann offered to help Obiang to identify traitors who were in on the coup. Simon Mann has since gone on expenses-paid visits to Equatorial Guinea, and got rewarded by Obiang with almost £100,000 in cash, who warmly embraces him when he arrives in the country: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... st-it.html


So you could say that this confirms that:
Firestarter wrote: Wed May 05, 2021 8:19 pmWith so many high profile people involved, they wouldn't let the coup plotters be arrested in Zimbabwe. Unless it was meant to fail, as the only way to make the brutal dictator of Equatorial Guinea Teodoro Obiang Nguema more popular.
If so, Obiang was in on the plot, which could explain that he released Simon Mann after only a year in Equatorial Guinea's prison, and then paid him to appear in a court case against his son.
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