Wed, Sep 29, 2004 page7

• US officials linked to Equatorial Guinea coup plot

  COVERT BACKING The Pentagon's African affairs chief endorsed mercenaries as `supporting US national security objectives overseas,' in part to avoid political scrutiny

  • THE GUARDIAN
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  Links have been discovered between senior US military officials and the failed coup plot in Equa-torial Guinea.

  Theresa Whelan, a member of the Bush administration in charge of African affairs at the Pentagon, twice met a London-based businessman, Greg Wales, in Washington before the coup attempt.

  Wales has been accused of being one of its organizers, but has denied involvement.

  Equatorial Guinea official sources claim that last November, when the plot was in its early stages, English mercenary Simon Mann paid Wales about US$8,000. Mann was subsequently jailed for seven years in Zimbabwe on charges linked to the coup plot.

  A few days after the alleged payment, Wales went to Washington to a dinner and conference organized by an influential group of US "private military companies," the International Peace Operations Association (IPOA).

  The US Africa affairs chief told the group that the Pentagon was eager to see them operate in Africa, saying: "Contractors are here to stay in supporting US national security objectives overseas." They were cheaper, and saved the use of US forces in peacekeeping and training, Whelan said.

  She added: "The US can be supportive in trying to ameliorate regional crises without necessarily having to put US troops on the ground, which is often a very difficult political decision ... Sometimes we may not want to be very visible."

  A US defense official told Newsweek magazine on Sunday: "Wales mentioned in passing ... there might be some trouble brewing in Equatorial Guinea."

  The regime of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea has accused the US of backing the plot, but the Pentagon denies supporting it.

  IPOA's members include MPRI, a firm formed by retired generals. MPRI had already been allowed to compile a survey of Equatorial Guinea's military weaknesses on Obiang's behalf, overcoming objections by the Clinton administration that it would help prop up a dictator.

  Wales made his first contact with Whelan at the dinner. Two months later his firm, the Sherbourne Foundation, was paid another US$35,000 by the coup plotters, according to Equatorial Guinea.

  Wales then organized another meeting at the Pentagon with Whelan on the eve of the day originally planned for the coup, Feb.19. The Pentagon says the meeting ranged over many African topics, and that Wales' statements did not call for any action to be taken. However, the Obiang regime has complained that the US did not warn it of the coup plot, although it received intelligence from South Africa.

  The Feb. 19 plan is said to have been aborted after a hired aircraft broke down. The plotters then acquired a former US Air National Guard Boeing from Kansas.

  Both the US and Britain have extensive oil interests in Equatorial Guinea which, in the words of one US official, is "the new Kuwait." There also is a good deal of unofficial sympathy in US military circles for the coup plotters. One of those present at the IPOA dinner said on Sunday: "Ethically, you have to want to see Obiang removed."
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