Report Alleges US Role in Angola Arms-for-Oil Scandal

CorpWatch ^ | May 17, 2002 | Wayne Madsen

[rdavis84]

Report Alleges US Role in Angola Arms-for-Oil Scandal

By Wayne Madsen
Special to CorpWatch
May 17, 2002

As the US Congress continues its investigation of the Enron affair, human rights advocates are calling for a probe of the Bush administration's possible role in another energy and influence-peddling scandal. According to a recent report by the British-based non-governmental organization Global Witness, Bush and US oil interests have ties to some of the key figures in the arms-for-oil scandal which has devastated Angola.

Known as "Angolagate" in France, the scandal involves arms-for-oil deals between French businessman Pierre Falcone, the head of a firm called Brenco International; his colleague Jean-Christophe Mitterand, the son of the former French president; and a Russian-born Israeli named Arkadi Gaydamak.

According to "All the Presidents' Men," a March 25 report on Angolagate by Global Witness, Gaydamak funneled billions of dollars in arms and oil-backed loans to Angola's government in return for lucrative oil contracts with Western oil companies. Falcone and Gaydamak, relying on the special access that Mitterand had to the Angolan government, managed to transfer some $463 million in arms to Angola.

The net effect of the Angolan arms buildup was the scrapping of the 1994 Lusaka Peace Agreement between Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos and long-time UNITA rebel leader Jonas Savimbi, a one-time favorite of the Central Intelligence Agency and a person who President Reagan once hailed as the "George Washington of Angola."

The newly-armed Angolan Army -- supported by an array of US-based private mercenary companies like MPRI and AirScan -- went on a bloody offensive against UNITA in 1998 and was eventually able to push Savimbi's rebels further into the jungles in the eastern part of the country. This compelled UNITA to mine and sell more diamonds on the black market to buy arms. The trade in "blood diamonds," in turn, led to a number of human rights abuses by UNITA. Ironically, Savimbi -- Reagan's George Washington of Africa -- was gunned down by Angolan Army troops in a remote area of Angola on February 22, the birthday of America's first president.

According to Global Witness, the links between Angola's corrupt government and the Bush administration are just as odorous as those linking Luanda's leadership to past and current members of the French government, both Socialist and Gaullist. In addition to the French oil giant Total-Fina-Elf, oil companies like Chevron, Texaco, Philipps Petroleum, Exxon Mobil, and BP-Amoco -- all with close links to Bush and his White House oil team -- were heavily involved in propping up dos Santos in return for profitable off-shore oil concessions.

After transferring some $770 million in oil revenues to their own private bank accounts, dos Santos and his cronies became convinced that pluralism in their country would be a very dangerous thing for their future business deals. They also quickly abandoned their former Marxist beliefs in favor of the type of capitalist principles embraced by George W. Bush and Jacques Chirac.

[rdavis84]

Catch it before it's Gone :-)

[comitatus]

This should stay up - it is a classic example of how leftist propaganda works. Note that there is not even a hint of any remote claim of actual wrongdoing by the Bush Administration. Although it is hard to tell, this sort of tripe being mostly a string of unconnected alleged relationships rather than any actual facts (the Chomsky method in action), most of whatever these morons are upset about seems to have happened in the 1990s. Bush's sole "guilt" is that he has "ties" to oil companies - and the theory apparently is that Bush is thus to blame for anything any oil company has ever done. There are a few gratuituous slurs about Savimbi and George Washington, something about US-base mercenary groups (is Bush behind those too?) with no apparent connection to anything. This sort of ethereal guilt by the vaguest, usually imaginary, association is the stock in trade of these groups.

[rdavis84]

It appears that by MPRI's claims that we have an "authorized at the highest U.S. government levels" presence there.

"Overview----
Internationally, MPRI provides a wide range of services to the US government and, under license by the US government, to a number of foreign countries. Our work ranges from assisting Ministries of Defense establish policies, procedures, and strategic plans; assisting armed forces in democracy transition efforts; working with armies to attain greater efficiencies, economies, and effectiveness; working with legislators to provide effective oversight; and a long list of humanitarian and peace operations around the world.

For example, under contract with the U.S. Department of State, MPRI shipped more than $900,000,000 worth of donated food and medical supplies to the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union over a five year period; MPRI has provided peace keeping monitors for both the Department of Defense and the Department of State and MPRI provides major support and program integration expertise to the State Department’s Africa Crisis Response Initiative (ACRI) and the Defense Department’s African Center for Strategic Studies (ACSS).

A number of MPRI's current international contracts are directly established with a foreign government ---; Each has in place a license from the U.S. Department of State. MPRI's current international efforts are ongoing in every major region of the world. In the Balkans, for example, MPRI conducts Democracy Transition Assistance Programs, Long Range Management Programs, and Military Stabilization Programs involving the training and equipping of armies in transition. As part of these programs, MPRI established and runs Battle Simulation Centers and a Combat Training Center. A wide range of programs is ongoing in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and in Latin America."

From their site --- More MPRI

[rdavis84]

And AirScan (seems like "retired" spook heaven)------

WHO WE ARE ---
AirScan, Inc. is a veteran owned, small business specializing in airborne surveillance and security. Using state of the technology, AirScan has for over ten years provided clients with the highest quality support to meet their surveillance, security, and training requirements. As AirScan's capabilities have expanded, our professional, comprehensive results have provided clients with the information needed to respond in a timely manner to a wide variety of security, environmental, and research needs. AirScan, Inc. is headquartered in Rockledge, FL and has elements located in Santa Maria, CA, Washington DC, Boise, ID, and various locations in Africa and Europe. Clients include the United States Air Force, NASA, Angola, multi-national oil companies, various state and private agencies, ESPN, and others.

From ---- AirScan

[comitatus]

So let's try again, slowly. What precisely is it that the Bush administration is alleged to have done that is illegal, unethical, or just not very nice, or otherwise has anything to do with whatever this drivel is supposed to be about? On what evidence? Can anything resembling that rather basic information be rationally gleaned from that rambling lunacy?

[Tacis]

I, for one, would welcome a high level investigation of Angola. If there is any dirty secret about the place, it certainly involves Cuba and Fidelito. Cuba, at one time, had about 45,000 troops in Angola, trying to impose communist control over the entire country, including the oil. They claimed to have left but didn't. I believe that Cuban operatives are responsible for the murder of Jonas Savimbi and that an investigation will make this and Castro's role very clear.

Whatever arms-for-oil arrangements there are, have been going on for 40 years and Bush has nothing to do with them, although, his father might have.

[rdavis84]

"So let's try again, slowly."

O. K. h e r e 's__s o m e t h i n g__f o r__y o u__t o__t r y.

Click the link that goes to CorpWatch as the source, find their "Contact Us" link and ask them those questions. Otherwise, realize s l o w l y that this is here for varied reading purposes of those who want to view different "takes" on issues.

O . K . ?

[Eric in the Ozarks]

It was common knowledge that Cuban troops used poison gas in Angola in the late 1970's-early 1980's.
Now, Jimmy Carter says he didn't find any evidence while he was in Havana.

[comitatus]

Thank you for effectively illustrating my point. You can't answer the question because there is absolutely nothing in the article you posted that makes any allegation, provides any evidence or even attempts to support any claim that the Bush administration has done, not anything wrong, but anything at all related to whatever the article is supposed to be about - and I can't figure that out, it is such a hodge-podge of random nonsense. Suggesting links to other sites with equally unsubstantiated paranoid drivel merely proves my point - the article as posted is incoherent gibberish.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

You find a lot of this in European and South American newspapers. They're still publishing Hitler sightings in Paraguay.

[tet68]

There isn't enough tinfoil in the world to protect against this kind of swill.

[rdavis84]

"absolutely nothing in the article you posted that makes any allegation, provides any evidence or even attempts to support any claim that the Bush administration has done, not anything wrong, but anything at all related to whatever the article is supposed to be about"

Well, it sure got you and some 'buddies in kind' riled up, didn't it?

I suspect that the most frequently visited threads these days are "Day in the Life of....." drivel that speak for themselves in pictures, right.

You seem to take the standpoint that anything at anybody's site that has viewpoints other than the RNC's should be written by Lawyers. That isn't going to happen. This isn't a Courtroom, and the best advice you should follow is "Get Over It".

The level of "irate" about this info/viewpoint brings to mind the questions "Why is this so sensitive, and why now?", to me.

[miamimark]

The thing about oil is that it has no serial numbers and it's untraceable. Ideal contraband. I wonder if the Arthur Andersen accountant is the one that counts each barrel. heheh

[rdavis84]

"I wonder if the Arthur Andersen accountant is the one that counts each barrel. heheh"

It was probably the guy out in Denver that turned up dead out in the woods :-)

That'll teach him to Count Right!

[Vast Buffalo Wing Conspiracy]

I don't know much about what has really been going on in Angola, but I find it both strange and significant that Savimbi was our "George Washington" in the 80's, but in the 90's when we did not "need" him anymore, he suddenly dropped off of the radar, and his demise elicited hardly more than a peep from those who had formerly hyped him.

After transferring some $770 million in oil revenues to their own private bank accounts, dos Santos and his cronies became convinced that pluralism in their country would be a very dangerous thing for their future business deals. They also quickly abandoned their former Marxist beliefs in favor of the type of capitalist principles embraced by George W. Bush and Jacques Chirac.

In reality the "communists" in Angola were simply one Angolan tribal group, and the "pro-capitalist" UNITA were another, rival, Angolan tribal group. One group spouted Marxist rhetoric to please their Cuban paymasters, the other group spouted free market rhetoric to please their capitalist paymasters. That's about as deep as the issues of "left" vs. "right" went in Angola. The reality was tribal politics, not Marxism or capitalism.

And according to this acticle, the "communists" found no real problem switching to "capitalism" when it came time to switch from their former (communist) to their current (capitalist) backers. Once they did that, Savimbi and UNITA became irrelevent to their former backers, who simply switched from one proxy to the other.

[rdavis84]

Good analysis, thanks. And then there are OUR boys in the middle stirring the pot, just to promote Democracy of course! Just like they've HELPED us with their activities with the Islamics. (The CIA, of course)

[comitatus]

You misunderstand, intentionally, I assume. My first comment was a suggestion to leave the article up to provide us a classic example of leftist propaganda-utterly devoid of any factual content, just a bunch of disconnected names strung together with the hope that the ignorant and uneducated would think there was something behind all the smoke. And your responses have provided an equally instructional example - you have been unable to respond with anything resembling a factual response. There is no there, there, as you have helped illustrate. I'm not riled, I repeat, this is highly educational, and I recommend it to others. Exposure of this sort of idiocy is the best defense.

[rdavis84]

You are assuming that there is a constant, unquestionable "Burden of Proof" upon any article poster that dare post anything that brings into question the dealings of top level administration functionaries --------except if they belong to the Dims.

Articles that use terms like "highly placed administration sources", and "confidential sources close to.....", and "anonymous sources" are permissable to folks like you if the target is the political opposition.

"Newsflash" ---- most of us are aware of the game. Folks have a tendency to make up their own minds on political matters, and specialists in "Information Control" are going to have to get more Orwellian. It's Close, but not selling real well.

So, we'll just have to let more develop in Africa, won't we? Just like we're required to do in the Balkans, Afganistan, Pakistan, India, and on and on.......

We're just supposed to be Good Little Sheep, and Quiet.

BTW, the polls are starting to get embarrassing with regard to the percentage of 'sheep' who don't trust the government, doncha think?

[GuillermoX]

LOL! I agree.