The Bush Family: Misunderstood patriots or traitorous gangsters?

You decide:


Great Grandfather Samuel: WWI war profiteer, dealt weapons to both sides, etc...

Grandfather Prescott: Nazi financier, IG Farben/Allen Dulles ties, etc...

Poppy George HW: Operation Zapata; Dallas 1963; October Surprise; Iran/contra black ops introduces crack cocaine to the US underclass; S&L and HUD fraud; bin Laden business associate; implicated in the Franklin scandal, CIA drug trade, international money-laundering, assassinations and mysterious deaths too numerous to mention, etc...

Uncle Jonathan: His Riggs Bank shows a money trail which leads to 9/11 hijackers; money-laundering financier for Saudi royals, etc...

Brother Jeb: PNAC signatory; voter-roll scrubber; linked to Iran/Contra pilot Barry Seal, CIA drug trade and 9/11 flight-school financier, etc...

Brother Neil: Silverado S&L CIA/mob fraud; pal of John Hinckley; Thai sex trade patron, etc...

Brother Marvin: Director of Kuwaiti firm providing electronic security to the World Trade Center and Dulles Airport; left shortly before 9/11 to join board of one of WTC's insurance carriers, etc...

George W: Treasury-draining, Saudi-financed, bin Laden-flying warmonger, etc...

the Bush family is enough to get ya branded a kooky conspiracy nut.

The seditious bastids!

...when it comes to the truth. There really is a Bush Organized Crime Family. It's worse than than anything imagined by Ian Fleming. Only Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin come close to that kind of "vision thing."



"Nyeeah! I shredded
your Constitution! See?!"

GITMO

nt

they are growing


don't forget all the niece and nephew drug dealing using rapist punks either.

The Dogs of War

Thanks Dulcey

Not even Frederick Forsyth thought of so many twists and riddles in his Dogs of War, probably the best-known novel about mercenaries.
The book was based on Forsyth's personal adventures - he was involved in an unsuccessful scheme to overthrow the head of state of Equatorial Guinea in 1972.
But even the Dogs of War cannot rival this bizarre tale of confusion.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=84&art_id=vn20040310081125342C ...

Ladies and Gentlemen,
visitors from the darkside,
it is with much pleasure that I present:
AFRICAN OIL POLITICS
which offers
forward-looking views on african oil politics and related energy security issues
http://africanoilpolitics.blogspot.com/2004_03_01_africanoilpolitics_a ...

This MOST INSIGHTFUL BLOG
offers information, interviews and analysis that cannot - to my knowledge - be found elsewhere.
As you all know, the US is VERY dependent on oil and as global oil reserves diminish, the West is once again aligned in a Scramble for Africa.
The Organization of African Unity, having seen what the the first Western-led Scramble for Africa did to the people and the resources of Africa, took the pre-emptive step, in 1999,
of permanently outlawing coups d'etat on African soil.
http://www.thisdayonline.com/archive/2003/04/22/20030422bus07.html
Unfortunately,
this action has not deterred certain nations (whose ideas of protective pre-emptive action consist basically of violating the Peace of Westphalia) from doing their darndest to destabilize African nations - and most especially those African nations who have oil.
http://www.netnomad.com/fineman.html
The African Oil Politics blog keeps a watchful eye on these and other oil-related developments.
But I digress.

Our story today,
starts in Madrid,
where a terrible bombing occurred on March 11, 2004.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/spain/article/0,2763,1166996,00.html

The bombings in Madrid have distracted the attention of many from the events taking place in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe investigators allege that Spanish-based rebel leader Severo Moto offered the suspects money and oil rights to overthrow the government in Equatorial Guinea. Fifteen suspected mercenaries were also arrested in that country last week.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=79&art_id=qw1079700483956B251& ...

Pedro said the men were recruited by an agent representing Logo Logistics, which had connections with the now defunct Executive Outcomes (EO), a private security company owned by former South African Defence Force intelligence officer Eben Barlow.
The recruiting agent is known to be a former 32 Battalion sergeant.
EO is now operating under the name of Saracen and has close links with Logo Logistics, based in London.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=84&art_id=vn20040319045713308C ...

And now, over to our star reporter:

Saturday, March 13, 2004
Before I start to the review of the most juicy stories of the day, let me urge you to visit Katryn Cramer's blog. She did a wonderful job tracking the N4610 plane background and posting updates. Katryn is a SciFi writer and editor from Pleasantville (NY). I wonder what grabbed her interest. Sometimes, Africa just looks like another planet and African Oil Politics reads like a pod conspiracy.
Today's media coverage was... average. No new interesting leads emerged. However, more western (mostly Bristish) newspapers dare report the story. But there's a specific twist and bias that is absent from the African papers reviewed here yesterday. I'll start with Nicholas Christian's piece which is clearly designed to arouse pity for Simon Mann - the poor little boy who finds himself in such a baaad situation:

FEARS were growing last night for a former British soldier who faces the death sentence after he was arrested in Zimbabwe and charged with aiding a coup plot against another African country. ... Amid reports he has homes in South Africa and in Hampshire, Mann’s nationality remains unclear. The army will sign-up those Britons with dual nationality and citizens from the Commonwealth but has not confirmed Mann was a member of the forces. He is said to be Sandhurst-trained and to have served in Northern Ireland with the Scots Guards and later in the 1990 Gulf War as an intelligence officer in Riyadh. His father is said to be the late George Mann, president of the Marylebone Cricket Club and a former captain of England’s cricket team. Since leaving the army, Mann has been employed as a computer consultant and linked to a number of ‘private military’ firms, including Sandline International and Executive Outcomes.

I love how hard he tries to turn the guy into a victim. Come on Christian, you're talking about a dog of war - a tough guy trained by the SAS and who makes his living organizing coups, killing people. And don't repeat that he's LINKED to a number of PM firms. Just say that he was he was one of the founders of Executive Outcomes and everybody will understand. But thank you for bringing us up to date about his film career. I didn't know he played Colonel Wilford in Bloody Sunday. I'll watch the DVD to check how the guy looks like.
http://africanoilpolitics.blogspot.com/2004_03_01_africanoilpolitics_a ...

And now to Kathryn Cramer's blog.

First of all, N4610 isn't just any random former US cargo plane. Rather it is a specific military plane with a specific history which is relatively easy to find out on the web. As is widely reported, the plane was registered to Dodson Aviation, Inc. of Ottawa, Kansas. Jetliners.com lists the plane as operated by the U. S. Air Force. It also gives additional information: that the plane is a specific type of Boeing cargo plane, a C-22B, and it gives an additional identification number 83-4610. Airlink has a nice factsheet with a picture of the type of plane, a Boeing 727-100 modified for air national guard support missions.
<snip>
The plane in question was on display at the Andrews AFB, Department of Defense Open House on May 15, 1999. The records of the airshow suggest that it was also assigned to the 201st Airlift Squadron, District of Columbia Air National Guard.
The State Department disingenuous claim -- endlessly repeated in news stories around the globe -- is that they have " no indication this aircraft is connected to the U.S. government."
http://www.kathryncramer.com/wblog/archives/000457.html

Oh my!
http://www.propagandacritic.com/articles/examples.osi.html
http://www.moveon.org/censure/caughtonvideo /

Cde Mohadi said Mann had revealed that the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), America*s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Spanish Secret Service aided the group.
The secret services persuaded the Equatorial Guinea service chiefs, that is the head of police and commander of the army, not to put up any resistance.
They were promised cabinet posts in Moto*s government.
The agencies were responsible for the hiring of the Boeing 727-100 from Dodson Aviation and they also provided satellite communication system to link up Moto in Spain, Mann and du Toit in South Africa and Bonds in Malabo.
United States forces are reportedly carrying out military exercises around Equatorial Guinea.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200403100875.html



Surely this is is all an unfortunate coincidence.
There is NOTHING to link N4610 acts of international terrorism
such as the attacks in New York and Washington DC
by N334AA and N644AA.
Surely the 1/14/2002 FAA cancellation dates on
these three aircraft is just happenstance, or a mere coincidence.
OK,
so Auric Goldfinger stated bluntly that
"one is happenstance, two is coincidence, but three is enemy action"
but he is NOT a reliable source of information since Ian Fleming pulled a Jack Kelley when he came up with that quote.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/2004-03-18-2004-03-18_kelleymain_x.htm?cs ...

Equatorial Guinea's state radio said Moto had paid South African Nick du Toit, 48, the leader of the advance party in Equatorial Guinea, $10-million (about R67-million).
Speaking on state television, Du Toit said the advance party would take strategic targets such as the presidency, the military barracks, police posts and the residences of government members.
South African security sources say the Zimbabwean group was heading to a covert military training camp in Cameroon that was to be the staging point for a seaborne assault.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=68&art_id=vn20040312035832269C ...

DAMN AL QAEDA.
SHUT DOWN THEIR TRAINING CAMPS.
WE DO NOT NEED TO DISCUSS INNOCENCE OR GUILT.
WE KNOW THEY ARE GUILTY.
HAND THEM OVER.
RIGHT NOW.

This is the US State Department 1996 report concerning
the Current Administration of President Teodoro Obiang, who,
"together with his associates, dominates the Government. The President's Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE) controls the judiciary and the legislature, the latter through fraudulent elections. "

d. Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, or Exile
Police routinely hold persons in incommunicado detention. The government arrested political figures and detained them for indeterminate periods. There were also credible reports that around five members of the Movement for the Autodetermination of the Island of Bioko (MAIB), an ethnically based political opposition group, were detained in prison for several weeks. At least 15 members of the opposition were arrested for political activity during the year.

In February, opposition leader Severo Moto and nine additional opposition and military figures were arrested and charged with treason.
At their trial in April (which lasted only 7 hours), one defendant was acquitted. The others were convicted and sentenced to long prison terms. Moto received a 28-year sentence. The trial was held in a military court which did not have jurisdiction over Moto, a civilian.
After extensive international criticism and an international campaign for his release, he and his fellow defendants were pardoned and released in August. Although the Government did not force Moto to leave the country, he left to reside abroad soon after his release.

There are nominal but unenforced legal procedural safeguards regarding detention, the need for search warrants, and other protections of prisoners' rights. Judicial warrants are required. Generally, however, the police arrest suspects without having obtained warrants.
Authorities also continued to hold citizens of Nigeria, Ghana, Gabon, and other countries to secure bribes.
The Government does not force citizens into exile.
http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/ERC/democracy/1995_hrp_report/95hrp_report_a ...

WHAT BARBARISM.
Thank God for our freedoms.

NEW YORK, March 19 (Reuters) - The euro rose against the dollar in early New York trade on Friday on reports of a bomb threat to Washington DC schools, traders said.
http://www.forbes.com/home_europe/newswire/2004/03/19/rtr1305198.html

SO WHAT?
We are still WAY better than those heathens.

The Zimbabwe government said Simon Mann, an additional alleged plotter who had met the plane at the airport Sunday in Harare, confessed to having backing from London, Washington and Madrid.
Both British and U.S. officials, including U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, said they knew nothing about the plane or the plot. Spain, named as a co-conspirator and home of purported coup plotter Moto, threatened to file a formal complaint with Zimbabwe's government.
Questions remain
What happens next to the alleged mercenaries in Zimbabwe remains unclear. So far there appears to be little evidence that the men committed any crime beyond lying about the number of passengers on the flight, which Boshoff called "a small technical issue."
"You have to prove conspiracy, and that's not easy," he said. "What did they do wrong? That's my question."
Plenty of other questions remain as well. Could the apparent planned arms sale in Zimbabwe have been part of an entrapment plot, aimed at embarrassing Mugabe's enemies in the West? Was a flight plan filed in South Africa, indicating the plane was headed to Burundi, a smokescreen?
As South Africa's Star newspaper noted this week, "the solution . . . is easy. Frederick Forsyth just needs to write `Dogs of War II.'"
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0403120249mar12,1,1 ...






Here the Washington Post story: US Ready to Fine Riggs Bank

Strangely enough, I don't think they mention the Bush connection. But, Tony Pierce does: Jonathan Bush not only works for Riggs, he is President and CEO of Riggs Investment Management.

According to Pierce:

Uncle Jonathan works for Riggs Investment Management, a "major" arm of Riggs Bank, who was fined Thursday for a record $25 million for violating anti-money laundering laws when it failed to report millions of dollars of cash withdrawls from Saudi accounts.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&conten...




U.S. Ready To Fine Riggs Bank
Saudi Embassy Money Reports Scrutinized
By Kathleen Day and Terence O'Hara
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, April 18, 2004; Page A01


Federal bank regulators are preparing to impose fines on Riggs Bank as soon as this week for not reporting millions of dollars in suspicious transactions at its embassy banking division, and have notified bank officers and directors that they may be sanctioned individually, according to people familiar with the investigation.



Those notified include Chairman Robert L. Allbritton; his mother, Barbara B. Allbritton, a director; and the nine other members of the bank's board, according to the sources.

The penalties would come as the FBI, bank regulators and three congressional committees continue to delve into Riggs's international banking relationships, particularly its two-decade role as chief banker for the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington.

Investigators are looking at the Saudi accounts for evidence of money laundering, which is the use of complex transactions to hide the origin or destination of funds related to illegal activities such as drug smuggling or terrorist acts. The investigators have reached no conclusions about the reasons for the transactions in the embassy accounts, including the personal accounts of the Saudi ambassador, Prince Bandar bin Sultan.

more
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&conten...

SAUDIS DON'T NEED KID GLOVES

New revelations regarding the Saudi Embassy's relationship with Riggs Bank should intensify our skepticism. Reports indicate that Riggs allowed Saudi nationals to engage in puzzling patterns of deposits, withdrawals and transfers without vetting or reporting the transactions as required by law. Reports further show that Saudi accounts were used to fund known supporters of terrorism and others who are currently being investigated for terror links.

The Saudis quickly absolved themselves of responsibility for any problems at Riggs and advised us that "it's not fair to apply American standards to this." Nevertheless, the reports of freewheeling cash transfers are troublesome, especially considering allegations that the Saudi embassy has been used to launder money for terrorists in the past, and that nearly 70 Saudi diplomats were expelled from the U.S. just this year due to their deep involvement in extremist activities.

Dealing as we are with a government perched atop a tinderbox of its own making, our actions should continue to reflect delicate political realities. But our delicacy must not convert to diffidence, and therefore we must challenge the Saudi belief that our demands for action can be subdued with thin facades of responsiveness.

A good next step would be establishing a clear expectation of near-term action in corralling their terror-linked charities. We also must fully explore the Riggs case and Saudi cash transfers occurring under our own nose. Finally, we must not waver in our determination to consistently refine our abilities to analyze and fracture terror funding networks. The PATRIOT Act has been a critical tool in this effort, and we must not dawdle in renewing the law and updating its capabilities to reflect ever-changing funding techniques

more
http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/24197.htm


Corporate Art Lovers Who Hate That Big Tax Bill

This hush-hush world, its boundaries defined by handsome East Side avenues and Chelsea and SoHo side streets, is far removed from the gavels, cellphones and hubbub of the major auction houses. It is frequented by major art collectors like Joe L. Allbritton, the biggest shareholder of the Riggs National Corporation and that bank's former chief executive.
more
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/09/business/yourmoney/09paint.html?ex=1...




Unravelling the riddle of Simon Mann

Rory Carroll and Jamie Wilson

19 May 2004 12:47


Perched on the banks of the river Beaulieu in Hampshire is a rambling house named Inchmery. Today its eight hectares of pasture are placid, but half a century ago they were a training ground for Polish paratroopers preparing for D-Day. When an old pine tree blew over in a storm several years ago it was found to be riddled with bullets from the Poles' target practice. For a man in search of a life less ordinary, the intrigue attached to the property must have seemed irresistible. In 1997, Simon Mann bought it.

Spring may be turning to summer, but Mann can only imagine the clear views across the mouth of the Beaulieu river and the Solent to the Isle of Wight. Since March 7 his home has been a 4m by 1,5m solitary confinement cell in Chikurubi prison, a maximum-security facility outside the Zimbabwean capital of Harare, where, his lawyer claims, he has been tortured, assaulted by prison officers, suffered lice, inedible food and general deprivation.

Mann is accused of planning to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea by leading a mercenary force into the capital, Malabo, and kidnapping or killing the president. His lawyers are fighting a formal extradition request from the West African country, where, it is safe to assume, prison conditions will be no better.

It is a story with implausible characters and plot twists. There is the alleged cannibal dictator, his playboy son and scheming relatives. There is the offshore oil waiting to make millionaires out of those audacious or desperate enough to seize it. There is the exiled politician and the Chelsea plutocrat. There is the planeload of mercenaries stopping in Harare to pick up weapons. And, at the heart of it all, there is Simon Mann. How the plot went awry and landed this unusual Englishman in manacles may come to be judged as the end of an era of white buccaneers who thought they ruled Africa.


and much more at:

http://mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=66566

Extensive bio. Plenty of merc/BFEE/oil/gold/SAS/CIA/BCCI/Riggs fodder for google. Just spent about an hour on Mann's Sandline, which leads to Sr. and Barrick--same guys.

KR:Iraq a land of opportunity for South Africa's apartheid-era troops


Iraq a land of opportunity for South Africa's apartheid-era troops

Knight Ridder - Sunday, May 16, 2004

By Sudarsan Raghavan

PRETORIA, South Africa _ A decade after the end of white rule, the war in Iraq is reminding South Africans of yet another uncomfortable legacy from the brutal days of apartheid _ South Africa's role in providing mercenaries to a wide range of military causes throughout the world.

Hundreds of former South African soldiers and police officers are serving in Iraq now as private security contractors. South Africans are among the private soldiers who guard L. Paul Bremer, the chief U.S. envoy to Iraq, and patrol the heavily fortified Green Zone, where the U.S. command is headquartered.

...

In March, 70 suspected mercenaries _ South Africans, Angolans and other nationalities _ flew from South Africa en route to allegedly overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, the dictator of Equatorial Guinea.

...

Many were ex-members of the 32 Battalion and were allegedly going to be paid $1.9 million and given oil concessions. They were charged with conspiring to commit a coup, which they have denied.

...

One security guard killed in Iraq confessed to South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission that he was part of an apartheid death squad that committed human rights atrocities.

....

http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story.asp?StoryId=CqkBNqeicu09vveHbrLjjq...



Victor Bout, Africa's merchant of death !!!!!!


UN names former KGB officer as millionaire gun-runner
The Guardian - December 23, 2000


Owen Bowcott and Richard Norton-Taylor
Saturday December 23, 2000

A Russian arms dealer and former KGB officer who is undermining international sanctions by supplying arms for diamonds to rebel forces in Africa is named and shamed in a ground-breaking report published by the UN yesterday.
Victor Anatoliyevich Bout, who holds at least five passports and uses as many as seven aliases, is identified as the businessman responsible for fuelling civil wars across Africa, including conflicts in Sierra Leone, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo. He is accused of ferrying heavy weapons, automatic rifles and ammunition from eastern Europe to rebel groups that control diamond mines.

Mr Bout's arms-dealing record in Africa was highlighted by the Guardian in January. Now, in extraordinarily detailed dossiers, the UN has exposed the use of forged end-user arms certificates by a secretive, commer cial network at the heart of some of the most protracted and destabilising conflicts in Africa. A UN report focusing on Angola alleges that Mr Bout sent 38 flights carrying heavy military equipment to the rebel movement Unita.

Mr Bout's network of companies has, allegedly, worked with a Briton, named in the report as Michael Harridine. He, it is said, was able to "obtain or change aircraft registration to certain 'less scrupulous' countries". Such "flags of convenience" allow paperwork to be circumvented, according to the UN.

At one stage Mr Harridine, along with Mr Bout's partner, a Belgian pilot by the name of Ronald De Smet, allegedly held the authority to conduct business in the UK on behalf of the Liberian aircraft register. Mr Harridine, who is said to work through a UK company based in Kent, Aircraft Registration Bureau, could not be contacted yesterday.

more
http://www.ruudleeuw.com/vbout2.htm

"Victor B watched for Taliban ties"
from The Washington Times,
22 July 2002
by Steve Park, The Washington Times

Prior to September 11, his name surfaced in reports by the United Nations and U.S. State Department as the key supplier of arms to guerrilla armies involved in nearly a dozen wars in Africa.

Viktor Vasilevich Butt, known more commonly as Viktor Bout, is often referred to in law enforcement circles as Victor B because he uses at least five aliases and different versions of his last name, said one U.N. Security Council report. The report finds Mr. Bout in violation of international arms embargoes, calling him a supplier of arms to guerrillas in Africa and claiming that he delivers the goods using his own fleet of more than 50 planes.

A State Department report says Mr. Bout also recruits East European mercenaries for African clients.

Mr. Bout's profile soared after September 11 with dozens of newspaper, magazine and television reports naming Mr. Bout as a supplier of arms to Afghanistan's Taliban rulers and possibly al Qaeda terrorists.

The Seattle Times reported in February that U.S. and European officials had gathered intelligence in Afghanistan and elsewhere suggesting that Mr. Bout was flying weapons into Afghanistan in the months before September 11.

more
http://www.fundforpeace.org/media/inthenews/itn20020722b.php

On the Trail of the Elusive Victor Bout

Hunted by Interpol, the Russian 'merchant of death' who helped arm the Taliban and al-Qaida is alive and well in Moscow

by Stephen Smith, Additional reporting by Afsane Bassir Pour in New York, Natalie Nougayrede in Moscow, Jean-Philippe Remy in Nairobi and Jean-Pierre Stroobants in Brussels
The Guardian Weekly
April 17, 2002



A 35-year-old Russian, Victor Anatolyevich Bout, is believed to be the main supplier of arms to the Taliban and the al-Qaida network. According to United States and British intelligence, he was delivering weapons -- and even toxic gas -- to Kabul until just before September 11. With the global war against terrorism at its height, one would imagine him to be a desperate and hunted man.

Not so. Despite being on Interpol's wanted list since February at the request of the Belgian police, he has revealed his whereabouts: he is alive and well -- and apparently under no risk of arrest -- in Moscow. His aim seems to be to trigger counter-investigations, of which he would be both the instigator and the subject. The shadowy Bout is looking for media exposure.

Peter Hain, the British minister for Europe, said in February that Bout was a "merchant of death" who supplied rebel or terrorist forces with arms in exchange for diamonds, and that he had also been the arms supplier of the Taliban and al-Qaida. "We are determined to put him out of business," Hain added. The United Nations has been trying to do just that for years, but with little success. In several reports detailing investigations into "blood diamonds" and into the violation of sanctions imposed on countries or armed factions in Africa, the UN has denounced Bout as a global mafioso who has ignored national borders and played cat and mouse with governments and their laws.

In December 2000 the UN revealed various well-financed and well-connected international networks that were capable of carrying illicit cargo all around the world without arousing suspicion. An organisation headed, or at least apparently controlled from outside, by an eastern European, Victor Bout, fell into that category.

The "eastern European" was in fact born in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, on January 13, 1967. An army officer of Russian nationality, Bout graduated from Moscow's prestigious Military Institute of Foreign Languages. In addition to Russian and his native Farsi, he speaks fluent English, French and Portuguese.

more
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/index.jsp


On the Bin Laden arms trail

Diamond trade

"His regiment was disbanded and essentially they went private," a Western intelligence official said recently. "It started with gun running to Afghanistan and then they discovered Africa."

The arrest warrant follows the capture in Belgium earlier this month of Sanjivan Ruprah who has been charged with criminal association and using a false passport.

Mr Ruprah is a potentially valuable informant because UN reports tie him to the illicit diamond trade in West Africa and to arrangements for Mr Bout's alleged weapons deliveries to be paid for with diamonds from Sierra Leone and Angola.

In particular, they will be looking to confirm previous reports linking al-Qaeda to an underground network stretching across Africa and trading in diamonds, weapons and other precious commodities.

more
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/1847578.stm

Key figures on UN list
Victor Bout
A Ukrainian-born arms dealer.

Belgium issued a warrant for his arrest earlier this year, for allegedly selling weapons to the al-Qaeda network.

The United Nations has also accused him of breaking arms embargoes on Angola's Unita rebels and Liberia's President Charles Taylor.

British Minister for Europe, Peter Hain, called Mr Bout a "merchant of death".

Other key figures named are:


Zimbabwean Businessman John Bredenkamp
DR Congo Minister Mwenze Kongolo
Retired Zimbabwean General Sibusio Moyo
Retired Ugandan General Salim Saleh
Zimbabwean General Vitalis Zvinavashe
Director of DR Congo's National Intelligence Didier Kazadi Nyembwe
DR Congo's ambassador to Zimbabwe Mwana Mawapanga
Ugandan Colonel Dan Munyuza
Ugandan military intelligence chief Nobel Mayombo.
more
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2346707.stm


Guinea opposition leader may be plotting coup


By Peter Fabricius


Severo Moto, the exiled opposition leader of Equatorial Guinea, is plotting another coup on the island state, this time using Chilean mercenaries, security sources believe.

Moto, who is living in Spain, was widely believed to have been behind the alleged coup attempt in the country which was aborted in March.

Security sources say that Moto and several of his allies met in London last weekend and agreed that another operation to overthrow Equatorial Guinean president Nguema Mbasogo had to be launched a urgently.

Moto is believed to be considering recruiting former commandos from Chile's military era to conduct the coup. They speak Spanish, the lingua franca of Equatorial Guinea, sources say.

more
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=87&art_id=vn20040516103308962C ...


London - Britain has bowed to US pressure to keep the name of a notorious arms trafficker, allegedly involved in supplying coalition forces in Iraq, off a list of those subject to planned United Nations sanctions, the Financial Times reported on Monday.

"London had originally supported moves to freeze Mr (Victor) Bout's assets, but appeared to have reversed its view under pressure from Washington" the financial daily said, citing evidence from several western diplomats.

In 2000, Peter Hain, then British foreign office minister responsible for Africa, described Victor Bout as "the chief sanctions-buster and... a merchant of death who owns air companies that ferry in arms" rebel and government forces in several African conflicts, including Liberia, Angola and Sierra Leone.

In a March resolution, the UN Security Council agreed to freeze the assets of former Liberian President Charles Taylor, now in exile.

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1528038,00.html


Equatorial Guinea also involved in the Riggs bank scandal


but laundering money for the government (Obiang) and likely paying out the bribes from the oil companies.

LA Times story (somewhere odd) has good details: http://www.ocnus.net/cgi-bin/exec/view.cgi?archive=43&num=11319&printe...

That's the Jonathan Bush linked company that there were other stories about today and recently--funneling money from Saudi's to the West Coast 9/11 terrorist cell.

I don't yet get if or how the coup money would be related. Greg Wales doesn't google very well, for one. But naturally we have a Bush linked company doing something hokey with oil rich EG, so there's got to be more to it. From some reading today, I think the International arm of Riggs is based in Miami--maybe throw in some Jeb, Cubans, drugs or other crazy Florida stuff that always makes up a nice BFEE crime conspiracy. I'm catching a strong wiff of BCCI.