Moto 'escaped by chance'

[seemslikeadream]

31/08/2004 07:18 - (SA)

Erika Gibson


Pretoria - A motor car race on the runway of the airport at Las Palmas on the island of Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, was probably the single most important factor in preventing the arrest of more South Africans in the planned coup in Equatorial Guinea. Moto, who lives in exile in Spain, was allegedly on his way home to take over the government after the coup.

............

Earlier, the aircraft flew from Spain to Las Palmas, which is Spanish territory and therefore meant that they did not need any special clearance to land there.

Registration records at the Steinberger Hotel in Las Palmas may serve as future evidence in the prosecution of South Africans and some of the masterminds and financiers of the coup, who stayed there on the nights of March 6 and 8.The two pilots, Moto, Greg Wales and David Tremain checked in, the records show.

........

According to information obtained by Beeld, the hotel records will also show that Wales stayed at the hotel on March 7, shortly after the arrest of the 70 in Harare while the rest of the men were in Bamako.

.........

Apparently this money disappeared later. Further incriminating evidence is the fact that Wales's cellphone was later found in the aircraft after Moto had been safely returned to Spain. Beeld has learnt that this cellphone has been kept in safe custody in South Africa.

more
http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,6119,2-7-1442_1581224,00.html

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Hah! Looks like Greg Wales is in deep doo-doo now

and on Sunday, someone (Wales himself?) was trying to paint him as the one who tipped the authorities off:
http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,6119,2-7-1442_1580321,00.html

The Sunday Times meanwhile reported that the Pentagon and Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, or MI6, were warned in advance about the planned coup.

The US defence department was tipped off by Greg Wales, a British businessman named in legal papers as one of the ringleaders behind the alleged coup plot, the paper said.

Wales met a senior Pentagon official in Washington two weeks before the plan was put in motion and informed her that the situation in Equatorial Guinea had become "dangerous" and to expect trouble, it added.

[emad]

2. Moto & Charles Snyder:US was told of Thatcher coup plot(Sunday

Times)
Nicholas Rufford, Tom Walker and Dean Nelson Cape Town
SNIP


THE Pentagon and MI6 were warned in advance about the prospect of the African coup attempt which led to the arrest of Sir Mark Thatcher.
The American defence department was tipped off by Greg Wales, a British businessman named in legal papers as one of the ringleaders behind the plot. Two weeks before the plan swung into action, he met a senior Pentagon official in Washington and told her that the situation in Equatorial Guinea had become “dangerous” and to expect trouble. This weekend the official confirmed that the conversation had taken place, and the subsequent coup attempt tallied with the warning. The alleged plot failed when a group of mercenary soldiers were arrested in Zimbabwe while trying to collect a cargo of machineguns, mortars and other weapons at Harare airport in March...............

During earlier trips to the American capital, Wales, who worked for Simon Mann, the alleged coup leader, met a CIA analyst and representatives from the Africa section of the US State Department. Wales participated with government officials in private think tanks that had discussed the possibility that Obiang could be arrested for money laundering or human rights violations. “The State Department was under increasing pressure because of Obiang’s reputation to impose penalties on Equatorial Guinea which would have damaged American oil interests,” Wales said........ MI6 also knew in advance of a conspiracy to overthrow Obiang “through diplomatic channels”, according to a British official. However, the Foreign Office said publicly that it had no advance knowledge of any coup attempt.....

Sipho Ngwema, spokesman for the Scorpions unit of the police, said: “Thatcher definitely knew the money was for a coup. There was $275,000 in two payments. There were specific instructions and specific meetings which led to the purchase of logistical material they needed for the coup. It is not a vague connection.“Some of the material we picked up in the raid has assisted us in this. There are invoices from various transactions to him and receipts. It’s clear that there is a direct link. We took his computer and are downloading it now. There is also written material above and beyond the receipts.....

Since the botched coup, the Pentagon has announced plans for a show of naval strength in the Gulf of Guinea. A US navy battle group may be sent to waters near Equatorial Guinea as part of a wider military exercise...... Severo Moto, 60, the opposition leader in exile who has been linked to the coup plot, flew to Washington in 2002 where his backers had hired a lobbying firm to promote him as the future leader of the government in exile. Moto is said to have met Charles Snyder, a senior official in the African affairs bureau at the State Department, and other senior officials. A State Department official said he had not been briefed and had no comment on whether a warning of the coup had been received. Wales denies involvement in the coup plot......

Ronnie Kasrils, South Africa’s intelligence minister, is reported as having said that the alleged conspiracy to overthrow Obiang was infiltrated at an early stage by South African intelligence. Three agents were reported to have been among those held when Mann’s US-registered plane landed at Harare to pick up weapons.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-1237744_3,00.html

SO SOUTH AFRICAN intelligence worked a sting! Mark Thatcher's other notable UK idiot neighbour is Princess Di's asshole brother Charles Spenser. Just waiting for a new connection to emerge to link him to Mann, Du Toit, Thatcher and that coup financing dosh...