Phone links Thatcher to alleged plot

David Leigh and David Pallister
Saturday November 20, 2004
The Guardian

New evidence has emerged in South Africa linking Sir Mark Thatcher directly to the alleged coup plotters against the West African oil state of Equatorial Guinea.

Lawyers acting for one of the alleged British-led plotters, Greg Wales, last night tried to prevent publication of the information, claiming it was in breach of the Data Protection Act.

But phone records in the hands of the South African authorities and seen by the Guardian show that throughout the run-up to the coup attempt last March, Sir Mark was in contact with Mr Wales, the London-based businessman who has been accused of a central role in the plot.

On the day that a key contract was signed to provide a plane for the alleged coup, Mr Wales called Sir Mark in South Africa from London. He called him again the next day, January 17.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/equatorialguinea/story/0,15013,1355527,00.html

Given that 3 of his co-accused including Simon Mann have done a deal to testify against him already.....looks like he ain'tgottaprayer in this sting.

country is overthrown without the GOP white man's blessing. Surely the CIA knew this was going down.

September 26, 2004
This is hot stuff: Some of my regular readers may remember back in March when I discussed and linked to a November speech by Theresa Whelan, deputy assistant secretary of Defense for African affairs in the context of a discussion of whether the US had any advance knowledge of the Equatorial Guinea coup plot. The October 4th International edition of Newsweek, just up on the web, is reporting that British security consultant named Gregory Wales went up to Whelan after the speech and set up a February meeting in which he tipped her off about the coming coup attempt.
http://www.kathryncramer.com/m2/newarchives/2004/09/eq_coup_plotter.html

When George W. Bush's inaugural parade cruised down Pennsylvania Avenue toward the White House in January 2001, THE NEW pRESIDENT passed a Riggs National Bank branch, SPOTTED ALLBRITTON AND SHOUTED OUT, "Hey, Joe, how are you doing?"
That time, Allbritton wasn't looking the other way. An explosive Senate report ramrodded by Michigan's Carl Levin concluded this spring that in processing U.S. oil companies' money paid to Equatorial Guinea dictator Teodoro Obiang, Riggs "turned a blind eye to evidence suggesting the bank was handling the proceeds of foreign corruption."
An investment bank for wealthy people run by Bush's uncle Jonathan Bush was part of Allbritton's Riggs empire. But the biggest customer of Riggs National Bank was the Maryland-sized country of Equatorial Guinea. For a decade—until this year—Riggs handled more than 60 accounts for the country's government, officials, and their families, with deposits ranging from $400 million to $700 million.
http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/bushbeat/archive/000240.php

Now it turns out that Allbritton, whose control of Riggs finally collapsed this summer after those revelations, has contributed large sums of money to a private school of which Doug Feith is a director and former president.
http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/bushbeat/archive/000248.php

A group of 18 juniors and five teachers visited the Pentagon and were given a tour by Undersecretary of Defense for Policy and JDS parent Douglas Feith, who led the group into the Secretary of Defense’s private office, among other areas, and answered student questions regarding Pentagon policy, on May 16.
“The highlight of the trip was going to all of the special offices and rooms that are not typically open to the public,” said junior Sarah Ifft.
The group stopped for question-and-answer sessions in Feith’s office and in the conference room used by the Pentagon’s leadership to meet with military commanders around the world via video teleconference.
<snip>
The group was also able to visit the Press Room and greatly enjoyed the visit to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s private office.
“Visiting Rumsfeld’s office gave everyone the sense of him as a person, not just as a policy maker,” said Michael.
http://www.lionstale.org/21n6/news/n-newsbriefs.html#3

As you already know,
top-level security clearance is needed to enter the Pentagon's sensitive areas.
Meanwhile, back in the world of law enforcement.....

(Police Chief, Michael Chitwood of Portland, Maine)'s experience is most bizarre. He was infuriated to learn that the FBI knew of a visit to Portland by two Sept. 11 hijackers but did not inform him. When his police pursued a witness of that visit, the FBI threatened to arrest the chief. ''I ignored them,'' Chitwood told me. Has cooperation with the bureau improved? ''Not a bit,'' he said. Only Tuesday he learned from reading his local newspaper about a plane under federal surveillance parked at the Portland airport for seven weeks.
Oates is familiar with the FBI, having tried to work with the feds during 21 years with the NYPD before retiring this year to go to Ann Arbor. As a deputy chief who was commanding officer of NYPD intelligence, he describes the FBI as ''obsessed with turf.''
Closing doors to police officers particularly infuriates Oates. ''The security clearance issue is a tired old excuse that allows the FBI not to share,'' he told me. ''They should hand out 10,000 security clearances to cops around the country.'' Oates and other police chiefs believe Sept. 11 might have been averted had the FBI alerted local police agencies about a Minnesota flight school's report of an Arab who wanted instructions for steering a big jet, but not for landing or taking off.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/556255/posts

No security clearance for the cops,
but the kiddies get in to the PENTAGON NERVE-CENTER on "WHO'S-YO-DADDY" day.

WASHINGTON - A Pentagon e-mail said Vice President Dick Cheney coordinated a huge Halliburton government contract for Iraq, despite Cheney's denial of interest in the company he ran until 2000.
The March 5, 2003 e-mail, from an Army Corps of Engineers official, said that top Pentagon official Douglas Feith got the job of shepherding the contract, according to the newsweekly Time that hits newsstands Monday.
Feith had approved the multi-billion-dollar deal "contingent on informing WH (the White House) tomorrow. We anticipate no issues since action has been coordinated w(ith) VP's (vice president's) office," said the e-mail obtained by Time.
The newsweekly said it was three days later that Halliburton won the contract, although no other bids had been submitted.
<snip>
Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith was handed the job of coordinating the contract by his boss, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, Time said.
Feith, Wolfowitz and Cheney, along with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Cheney's Chief of Staff Lewis "Scooter" Libby, form the core of Bush administration "hawks" who pushed for the war in Iraq.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0531-02.htm

Which brings us right back to overthrowing governments for fun and profit.
And Riggs Bank.

Riggs, a Washington-based institution since the mid-19th century, has a near-exclusive franchise on business with the capital's diplomatic community. It was accused by federal regulators earlier this year of failing to report suspicious transactions in accounts controlled by diplomats from Saudi Arabia and officials of Equatorial Guinea.
The bank neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing when it agreed to pay the civil fine in May in a settlement with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a Treasury Department division.
http://www.independent-media.tv/item.cfm?fmedia_id=8165&fcategory_desc=The%20Bush%20Crime%20Family

The ethics investigation of R. Ashley Lee was triggered by a referral of the matter on July 20 by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency — where Lee was the lead examiner for Riggs — to the Justice Department. Inquiries into activities of current or former federal employees by Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility can sometimes develop into criminal investigations.
A report issued last month by the Senate investigators revealed that senior Riggs managers helped former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet conceal millions of dollars in assets from international prosecutors and U.S. regulators. The report said that when he was overseeing Riggs as an examiner, Lee instructed agency staff who had looked into the Pinochet accounts not to put their examination memos or supporting paperwork into the electronic files of the comptroller's office.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2004-08-06-sec-oil_x.htm

The payments from the oil companies to the government were facilitated by Riggs.
<snip>
But the Senate report concluded that in processing the oil money, Riggs "turned a blind eye to evidence suggesting the bank was handling the proceeds of foreign corruption." Riggs accepted oil companies' payments into a government account from which money could be withdrawn with the signature of Obiang and a second person: either his son, the country's minister of mines; or his nephew, the secretary of state for treasury and budget. At one point, Riggs allowed more than $35 million from the government account to be wired into the accounts of two companies in countries with bank secrecy laws. Senate investigators think at least one of the companies is controlled partly or wholly by Obiang.
In May, the bank agreed to pay $25 million in civil penalties to settle charges by regulators that the bank was "willful" and "systemic" in its violation of anti-money laundering laws.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1101-2004Sep6.html

You will recall the event where Gregory Wales set up the meeting for the FYI meeting.

Theresa Whelan
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for African Affairs
Remarks to IPOA (MERCENARY LOBBYIST GROUP) Dinner
19 November 2003
Washington, D.C.
Thanks very much for asking me to speak tonight. After looking around the room before and after the dinner started, I realized that a lot of you could probably do this better tonight than I could, but unfortunately you’re stuck with me.
What Doug (FEITH) asked me to speak on tonight was our experiences from a DoD perspective in using contractors (READ: MERCENARIES) in Africa in supporting US government objectives.
http://www.defenselink.mil/policy/isa/africa/IPOA.htm

When Riggs Bank found out that it had to pay back the money,
certain - ahem - "contractors in Africa"
were hired to assist in supporting US government objectives.