Mark Thatcher held over coup plot

[muriel_volestrangler]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3596948.stm

on BBC ticker (and radio) now. This is the Equatorial Guinea plot - he was arrested on charges of funding and logistical assistance.

Update for full story:

The son of the former UK prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, Mark, has been arrested at his home in Cape Town.

He is said to have been detained by police elite anti-fraud unit, the Scorpions, investigating an alleged coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea.

A spokesman for South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority reportedly said he was held on suspicion of providing funding and logistical assistance.

Thanks for the link, Dookus.

[JSJ]

1. british empire refuses to die n/t

[gandalf]

2. that is interesting

I don't know much about the Thatcher familiy, but DUer emad aisat sana often includes Thatcher in her theories about the extended BFEE.

[rooboy]

3. Margaret Thatcher is a great admirer of Pinochet. n/t

[rooboy]

4. I can't find this story on BBC World's website...

can you provide a link?

[Dookus]

5. they JUST put it up

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3596948.stm

edit: Muriel, you may want to edit your post and include this link.

[Judi Lynn]

6. This is amazing. Thanks for the news. I found some articles.....

Scorpions arrest Mark Thatcher in Cape Town

August 25 2004 at 08:48AM

Scorpions detectives have arrested Briton Mark Thatcher at his Cape Town home on allegations that he was involved in a planned coup in Equatorial Guinea.

Scorpions spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi said the unit, part of the National Prosecuting Authority, arrested the son of former British prime minister Baroness Margaret Thatcher on Wednesday morning.

"The Scorpions have arrested the son of a prominent former British politician. We are investigating charges of contravening the Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act. This is in relation to the possible funding and logistical assistance in relation to the attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea. We have conducted a search and seizure operation at his home in Cape Town," Nkosi said.
(snip/...)

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=qw1093416301214B265

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mark Thatcher arrested over coup plot
August 25, 2004 - 4:58PM

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South African investigators today arrested former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher's son Mark over his alleged involvement in a coup plot in Equatorial Guinea, the SAPA news agency reported.

Makhosini Nkosi, spokesman for the Scorpions elite investigating unit, told the news agency that Thatcher had been arrested in Cape Town.

"The Scorpions have arrested the son of a prominent former British politician. We are investigating charges of contravening the Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act," he said.

"This is in relation to the possible funding and logistical assistance in relation to the attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea. We have conducted a search and seizure operation at his home in Cape Town."

Fourteen suspected foreign mercenaries are on trial in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea and 70 others detained in Zimbabwe over an alleged plot to topple President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.
(snip/...)

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/08/25/1093246605965.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mark Thatcher arrested
25/08/2004 09:20 - (SA)
Cape Town - Scorpion detectives have arrested Briton Mark Thatcher at his Cape Town home on allegations that he was involved in a planned coup in Equatorial Guinea.

Scorpions spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi said the unit, part of the National Prosecuting Authority, arrested the son of former British prime minister Baroness Margaret Thatcher on Wednesday morning.
(snip)

He added that Thatcher would appear in the Wynberg magistrate's court later in the day.

There was no immediate indication that Thatcher faced extradition to Malabo to join eight South Africans, six Armenians and four Equato-Guineans currently on trial there for the alleged coup attempt in March.

The alleged putsch mastermind, South African Nick du Toit, faces the death penalty and the others lengthy terms of imprisonment.
(snip/...)

http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_1578394,00.html

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. Mark thatcher's background

in arms dealing.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/saudi/story/0,11599,1208946,00.html

Prince Turki's name has long been linked with allegations of under-the-counter commission deals in the £50bn Al Yamamah contracts, which began under Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.
...
John was later suggested to be Jonathan Aitken, (later disgraced as the Tory arms sales minister because of commission dealings with Saudis). Mark was alleged to be Mark Thatcher, Lady Thatcher's son.

The transcripts quoted Prince Turki as backing John, saying" "I think Mark's connections regarding the military equipment ... we can't compare it with John's connections."

But Mark Thatcher was later alleged to have received up to £12m for his part in the deal.

[the Kelly Gang]

8. Mark Thatcher is an evil swine..everywere his mother went in the

Middle East he was with her doing armanents deals..totallt corrupt..she would introduce him to whatever leader she was meeting and pave the way for his kickbacks from UK arms dealers.

She once said 'why shouldn't he make some money on the side ?"

[Matilda]

9. Yes, he's always been shady.

Not very bright, no particuar talent, but made millions, thanks to
Mother.

[emad]

11. He once got lost in the Saharan desert en route for the Paris-

Dakkar rally and Mommy had to spend £500,00 of UK taxpayers' money to find him

[0007]

23. I bet the taxpapers' were plenty pissed, 'eh?

[emad]

24. Wondered when you might show on such a post 0007! Long time

no see....

[0007]

27. I've been here and there, 'tis nice to hear from my lady.

[emad]

10. Jeffrey Archer "provided £2 million funds" for mercenaries: BBC

Newsnight story, post #4:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=770521#770586

Jeffrey Archer financed this attempted coup? Where did the money come from? Was it from the pool of £57 million that he claimed to have raised for charity to give to the Kurds after Gulf War 1 that then went missing? (Baroness Nicholoson suing him alleging he stole some of the dosh...)

BBC story update:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3596948.stm

Mark Thatcher held over coup plot

Snip:
Sipho Ngwema, the director of special operations for police elite anti-fraud unit the Scorpions, said they had "credible evidence" Sir Mark financed the coup attempt.

Mr Ngwema told BBC News Sir Mark was co-operating with the police, and their search was proceeding "unhindered". "We are going to take all the documents we think are relevant to our investigation," he added.

[gandalf]

13. To go back to BCCI again, emad:

Here you wrote: "The bottom line of the UK class action evidence is that BCCI was a Mossad-run operation masterminded by the KGB via East German Stasi-head Marcus Wolf who dreamed up the whole thing with Henry Kissinger and George H Bush while he was CIA head."

Can you explain a little bit more why the Mossad and Stasi were involved in constructing BCCI? At the moment, I am reading a book of Victor Ostrovksy, he mentions also some strange connections, but I am not sure how much of it is based on facts.

What you write about the BCCI trial in London sounds very interesting. However, if I look in the Guardian archive, I find only very few articles. I read some articles in the economist, but they never mention the more sinister aspects of BCCI. The press doesn't seem to be eager to dig too much into it.

[emad]

14. Here's a good link Gandalf:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=660012&mesg_id=660064

More soon.....
See also Post #2:
London BCCI class action started January 13 this year. Opening
defence arguments lasted until July and court now in summer recess. Defence opening argument likely to last til December according to UK press reports.

Will it affect Kerry campaign? Maybe. The Plaintiffs' case is supported by over 30 years of UN Security Council files previously not placed into the public domain citing how BCCI was a cold-war Mossad operation masterminded by the KGB via East Germany's Stasi head Marcus Wolf in close co-operation with George H Bush as CIA Head acting under the aegis of Henry Kissinger. And how Thatcher was 100% complicit in the corruption of BCCI whose operations were conducted from London under her personal authority.

If the defence opening arguments finish before end of October it's possible the key central wintesses to be called by Gordon Pollock QC for the plaintiffs may fire the sort of opening salvos which will sink the BFEE. Depends on the timing.

The material is likely to be explosive as it allegedly ties in with the Banco Ambrosiano evidence being heard in Italy at the moment in the trial of those accused of murdering God's banker Roberto Calvi. The P2 Lodge has never been officially named in public, and neither has it's second generation - the crooks who progressed from terorism, mass murder, conspiracy to high public office in the 21st century.

Those who are familiar with the P2 Lodge and know it to be a paedophile organisation funded by the KGB since its inception in 1957/58 (see Piers Compton's "The Broken Cross" and David Yallop's "In God's Name") will doubtless relish 30 years of UN Security Council intelligence files being finally aired in public naming those household names we are all by now so familiar with from the world of politics, finance, military, judiciary, assorted high public office, entertainment etc etc.

Others must just check their seatbelts and prepare for the worst...

ALSO:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2237275

[gandalf]

15. Thanks! eom

[Citizen Daryl]

12. Mom left Sonny Boy some big jackboots to fill. n/t

[emad]

16. TheSpoof takes up the story:

Thatcher masterminded African coup fiasco

Johannesburg, Wednesday (Rioters) - Baroness Thatcher had to be resuscitated by MI6 emergency services this morning as she broke down at the news that her son Sir Mark Thatcher had been arrested at his Cape Town home and charged with financing a coup in Equitorial Guinea.

The news follows a series of revelations that mercenaries involved in the plot have confessed to federal prosecutors in Zimbabwe that Sir Mark was merely carrying out his mother's orders following her imminent bankruptcy petition after losing all her lifetime savings - along with Chile's General Pinochet - at the Riggs Bank, a US laundering facility run by President Bush's uncle Jonathan Bush. Further, that Equitorial Guinea's President Obiang had lost $500 million in sequestered personal accounts held at Riggs that US Undersecretary for Defence Dov Zakheim had siphoned off to facilitate a smooth whitewash of courtroom claims in Kabul by other mercenaries, led by Jonathan Idema, that they had been hired by the Riggs CEO to find Osama and claim the $25 million bounty in order to pay off fines imposed on Riggs after the Pinochet moneylaundering fiasco became public.
More:
http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s3i6402

[seemslikeadream]

17. I met with Thatcher, says alleged coup leader

August 25 2004 at 01:04PM

Malabo - Newly accused coup plotter Mark Thatcher, son of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, met with the alleged top conspirator in the months before an alleged foiled coup plot in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, a lead defendant testified on Wednesday.

Nick du Toit, a South African arms dealer facing the death penalty in Malabo for his alleged role, said in court that Thatcher was interested only in purchasing military hardware that was not involved in the alleged coup plot.

"Not at all, this was a normal business deal," du Toit said answering attorney's questions about whether the contact were about the coup plot.

Eighty-nine men are on trial in Equatorial Guinea and Zimbabwe for an alleged internationally backed conspiracy to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea, Africa's third-largest oil producer. Defendants include Britain's Simon Mann, on trial in Zimbabwe as the alleged top planner for the coup attempt.

TheSpoof, always a good read

Interesting day isn't it emad?

[emad]

20. Still no word from Jeffrey Archer or his solicitors, who must be

"looking forward with anticipation" to BBC Newsnight's anchorwoman Kirsty Wark's further probings into the documents she reported on on Monday night showing £2 million of his money doshed up the whole biz.

Is this the first domino to start the tumble from the Riggs/Obiang/Pinochet rumble???

Interesting day? Yep, the French are just celebrating the 60th anniv of liberation from the Nazis.....Maybe this Thatcher story is a kind of parallel universe situation....

[seemslikeadream]

22. 'Thatcher was in his pyjamas when we arrived'

"Certain elements also indicate that Mark Thatcher and a former Thatcher cabinet minister, who I cannot name, handled the financial planning of the coup," he said.

more
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=qw1093420621892B265

[Vladimir]

18. I hope this racist pig gets the jail time he deserves n/t

[seemslikeadream]

19. Profile: Mark Thatcher

Mark Thatcher after he was rescued in 1982
Sir Mark Thatcher is probably best remembered for getting lost in the Saharan desert for a week while his mother Margaret was running the country.

In 1982, aged 28, the motoring enthusiast took part in the Paris-Dakar Rally with very little preparation - as he admits himself.

The result was a full-blown and embarrassing international rescue mission.

It was one of the few times he managed to knock his mother off the front pages of Britain's newspapers.

"The biggest story of 1982 was the Falklands war. The second biggest also involved my mother and me," he once wrote.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3597196.stm

[seemslikeadream]

21. Prominent advocate to represent Thatcher

August 25, 2004, 13:07

Peter Hodes, a prominent Cape Town advocate, is expected to represent Mark Thatcher, son of Margaret Thatcher, the former British prime minister. Thacher was arrested by the Scorpions at his home in Constantia this morning.

Thatcher is to face charges of contravening the Foreign Military Assistance Act. He's suspected of bankrolling a coup plot in Equatorial Guinea. Thatcher will be charged at the Wynberg Magistrate's Court in Cape Town.

It has emerged that Thatcher is no stranger to controversy. In 1994 a Saudi dissident and British MP alleged that Thatcher received commission payments of 12 million pounds in a Saudi arms deal. The British public accounts committee however decided not to investigate this.

The Scorpions say that the South African case against Thatcher is serious and that they will not allow people living in South Africa to contravene the Constitution.
http://www.sabcnews.com/south_africa/crime1justice/0,2172,86495,00.html

[Joanne98]

25. Reuters........

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South African police arrested the son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on Wednesday on suspicion of involvement in a mercenary plot to topple the government of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea.

Thatcher was taken to a Cape Town court to face charges in connection with the alleged coup plot after police searched his home in an upscale suburb at the foot of Table Mountain.

"This man has a very serious case to answer in court," said Makhosini Nkosi, a spokesman for the FBI-style Scorpions unit as police arrived to arrest Thatcher. "The Scorpions unit does not just arrest people unless there is a very strong case."

The 51-year-old Thatcher, dressed in a dark suit, blue shirt and blue tie, did not speak to reporters outside his house as he was led to a black police sedan to be taken to the courthouse.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=GSRLEYMQVRSQMCRBAEZSFEY?type=topNews&storyID=6066740

So this is why Bushco is calling for a "colition of the willing" to invade Zimbawe........We caught a THATCHER.:)

[dArKeR]

26. Did Mark Thatcher bankroll coup plan?

South African police arrested the son of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher on Wednesday on suspicion of involvement in a coup plot in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea.

Sipho Ngwema, spokesperson for the Scorpions unit, said Thatcher, 51, was arrested early on Wednesday after police arrived to search his home in an upscale Cape Town suburb. Thatcher was in his pyjamas when he was arrested, Ngwema said.

Thatcher, a businessman who moved to Cape Town from the United States in 1996, "reacted like anyone else would react when confronted with police", Ngwema said, adding that he was expected to appear in court later on Wednesday.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=qw1093426561572B216