Irish group in US effort to bar Thatcher

Belfast Telegraph
Former IRA men 'banned for less'

By Sean O'Driscoll

21 January 2005

An Irish-American lobby group has called on the Bush administration to ban Margaret Thatcher's son from entering the US after he pleaded guilty to providing a helicopter which was to be used in a failed coup d'etat in central Africa.

The Washington-based Irish National Caucus said that the government was deporting former Irish prisoners released under the 1998 Good Friday Peace Agreement and should apply the same standards to Mark Thatcher.

Thatcher, the son of the former British prime minister, has admitted funding a helicopter that was to be used in a bid to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea - although he said he thought he was funding an air ambulance.

The mercenaries had been plotting with a number of European businessmen to install a military junta and invest in oil and gas reserves in the country.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=603128

The son of an oil empire? Are they serious?

Are we going back to the good ol' bad days of African mercenary empires ruling the continent? I remember reading about the mercenary wars of Africa in the sixties and seventies, days when the Belgium Congo and Rhodesia attracted hordes of Soldiers of Fortune who fought, raped and killed across the continent as European mining companies raped the land.
Is the Son of a Thatcher about to kick off another open season on the veld?
Any job openings?
;-)