Iron Lady Smelt

Sometimes the words, they just sing. It has been pretty much ignored in our press, but the son of former English PM Margaret Thatcher has carried on that legacy of imperialism, and sought his fortune with a lack of respect for law that seems to be spreading in 'civilized' nation right wings.

British mercenary Simon Mann sought leniency from a court in Equatorial Guinea on Friday, saying he was sorry for having been part of a failed coup plot to topple the president of the oil-rich West African state.

Mann, an Eton-educated former special forces officer, risks being sent to jail for nearly 32 years for his role in the 2004 conspiracy to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. He has said he was just "an employee" in the plot.

"I apologise for what has happened and I am very happy that nothing actually happened in 2004," Mann told the court on the fourth and final day of his trial, held in a heavily guarded conference centre in the Equatorial Guinea capital Malabo.
(snip)
Equatorial Guinea's Public Prosecutor Jose Olo Obono said Mann had cooperated during the investigation and trial.

On Tuesday, he asked the court to sentence Mann to a cumulative jail term of 31 years and eight months on charges of crimes against the head of state, crimes against the government and crimes against the peace and independence of the state.

Olo Obono said Equatorial Guinea would seek the extradition of Mark Thatcher and Calil.

Defence lawyer Nvo said Mann had been lied to by Calil about the conditions in Equatorial Guinea, which, according to Mann's testimony, Calil had told him was ripe for a coup.

The persistence of profit motivation in relatives seems to be a primary object of holders of what are supposed to be public offices, and those oaths of office are discarded as soon as those offices are gained. Propaganda constitutes a weapon of these latter day coups - along with hired guns.

It seems that elections are a stepping stone up to status of coup leader. The banana republics used to be the creation of brutal - usually military - members of corrupt governments who took over the reins and the public trough by violence. Now it is using marketing firms and local voting officials. The violence comes afterwards.

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More banana republic maneuvers inside our U.S. right wing continue to echo.

The Senate report found that former Reagan administration consultant and Iran contra figure Michael Ledeen had brought two Farsi-speaking Pentagon officials—Rhode and Larry Franklin—to a December 2001 meeting in Rome with two unidentified Iranians as well as Ledeen's old Iran contra interlocutor Ghorbanifar, the subject of a CIA burn notice. Also attending the Rome meetings was at least one official with the Italian military intelligence service SISMI, which provided logistical support and a location for the Rome meetings. The Senate report found that Rhode later went to Paris for a second meeting with Ghorbanifar in June 2003—several months after then deputy national security advisor Stephen Hadley had ordered Ledeen and the Pentagon to shut down the Ghorbanifar channel.

Revelations that Iran Contra figures Ledeen and Ghorbanifar were involved in a new channel to the Bush administration set off alarm bells throughout the US government, and prompted multiple inquiries into whether the channel amounted to an unauthorized covert action and a possible counterintelligence threat. The latter issue was never resolved, after a top Pentagon official shut down the counterintelligence inquiry only a month after it had begun.

But the allegation that Rhode had hired a defense attorney raised the possibility that the issue may still be under investigation.

"The Justice Department has to decline to comment on that," a spokesperson for the department told Mother Jones Friday, after checking on a reporter’s query about a possible Justice Department investigation involving the Pentagon official.

The corruption still remains, and impeachment/resignation of Nixon only slowed the subjugation of the constitution. The need to probe deep and remove the leftovers from the Iran-Contra, Watergate years has been made all the more compelling by their cropping up in our mercenary sidecar to the reduced military.