Posted on 02/13/2002 10:45:33 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Zimbabwe's main opposition leader was involved in a plot to assassinate or overthrow Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, a consulting firm with ties to Mugabe's government claimed Wednesday.
An official at Dicksen & Madson said he secretly taped a meeting with Morgan Tsvangirai, president of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, where they discussed removing Mugabe from power. Tsvangirai was apparently unaware of the firm's connection to the government.
The grainy footage was broadcast on Australian television Wednesday night.
Tsvangirai told The Associated Press the tape was "contrived."
He refused to comment further, but opposition spokesman Learnmore Jongwe said Tsvangirai "has no plan, desire or motive to eliminate President Mugabe. The MDC president believes in a peaceful and constitutional transfer of power through the ballot box."
A presidential election is scheduled for March 9-10. Tsvangirai poses the greatest challenge to Mugabe's 22-year rule since Zimbabwe gained independence from Britain in 1980. Mugabe has become increasingly unpopular amid the collapse of his country's economy and political violence against opposition supporters.
A man representing Tsvangirai's party approached Dicksen & Madson in November, said Ari Ben-Menashe, the firm's president.
The opposition officials appeared unaware the firm had done work for Mugabe's government for "a few years" and believed it had connections to assassins, Ben-Menashe said. It is currently representing the government as lobbyists.
At two meetings in London, Tsvangirai raised the subject of assassinating Mugabe and arranging a coup d'etat, said Ben-Menashe, who attended the meetings. He said he had an audio tape of one of those meetings.
A third meeting was arranged in Montreal with a hidden camera that secretly taped the proceedings, he said.
That tape aired Wednesday on SBS television's "Dateline" program. It showed an aerial view of four men sitting around a boardroom table. The black-and-white picture was grainy and the faces of the men - including the one identified as Tsvangirai - were largely obscured.
"The MDC, represented by the top man who's sitting here right now, commits to ... the coup d'etat or the elimination of the president," Ben-Menashe said on the tape.
During the meeting, the man identified as Tsvangirai expressed concern the military might take over if Mugabe were "eliminated."
But he also expressed hope "the MDC on the one hand and the army on the other can work together to ensure a smooth transition toward democracy through the electoral process, even if it means delaying the election."
The opposition said the story was part of an ongoing government smear campaign intended to distract people from the important issues of joblessness, AIDS and food shortages.
The Zimbabwean government did not immediately comment on the accusation. Under security laws passed last month, acts of "insurgency, banditry, sabotage or terrorism" carry a penalty of life imprisonment.
Zimbabwe has been wracked by political violence over the past two years that human rights workers, opposition officials and international observers blame mainly on ruling party thugs' efforts to intimidate opposition supporters in advance of the election.
Tsvangirai himself has been the target of several violent attacks blamed on ruling party henchmen.
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Zimbabwe (Mugabe) rejects EU poll observer (murder and mayhem rule: opposition "stretched to the limit") [Excerpt] Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai poses the main election threat to Mugabe amid discontent with a collapsing economy and chronic food shortages in a land once known for agricultural abundance.
Analysts say the food problems stem from Mugabe's seizure of white-owned land, which has disrupted commercial farming. [End Excerpt]
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EU deadlocked with Zimbabwe over election observers [Excerpt] It was not clear what action the government would take if Schori and other barred Europeans traveled widely around the country and visited areas not on regular tourist routes.
The EU has warned Zimbabwe (Mugabe) of sanctions unless the elections are free and fair, and unless observers and international journalists are allowed to work unhindered.
Political violence has intensified ahead of the presidential vote in which Mugabe, 77, and his increasingly unpopular ruling party face opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, 49, a charismatic former labor leader. [End Excerpt]
Ari Ben-Menashe appeared three times in the first show, highlighted as an Israeli intelligence officer. PBS reported that "Israeli intelligence officer Ari Ben-Menashe says he was one of half a dozen Israelis sent to Paris at Casey's request to help coordinate arms deliveries" and "Israeli intelligence officer Ari Ben-Menashe claimed that he saw intelligence reports about Casey's trip to Madrid." After Newsweek and The New Republic published their exposés of the sources pushing the October Surprise story, including the fact that Ben-Menashe's wife called him a liar, Frontline's second program admitted: "His credibility with reporters collapsed because some of his assertions proved implausible, particularly his claim about George Bush."
from:
http://www.mediaresearch.org/news/mediawatch/1992/mw19920501jca.html
And more if you search.
Regards
A. Cricket
Amateurs. Good Grief!
I'm going to your link now. This is interesting.
Mugabe will never leave voluntarily and if anything happens to him the military will take over. This is politics African style, pure power and corruption. Watch for the U.S. to push the other south african governments to remove him.
What has suprised me is how Mugabe has twisted every legitimate organization and used them to his own ends. It reminds me of a certain U,S. president. It is facinating to see our own future played out here. Once the procedures have been perfected it will be impossible to keep them from being used. In the future we will not face an ideological opposition but one of avarice, cloaked in ideology.
More striking is what we don't see here. I sense that G.W. and Cheney have learned how to play the game. At least I hope that they are using the existing powers and interests to achieve our ends. When Mugabe falls we will be nowhere near.
Even with Mugabe gone, the future is dismal. The opposition should not be suprised at anything Mugabe does. After all, it is a part of a well established pattern.
It's odder than that. Check out the Media Research Center report on the president of this Canadian company. Post #6.
It seems ths same guy that's making the accusation, was involved in the October Surprise.
My screen name is derived from a character in Chinese history who arose in the provinces to sweep aside centuries of superstition and obedience to challenge corruption and orthodoxy in a reform effort. If we believe in anything it is that freedom is an inherent characteristic of mankind. The tumult of the centuries is the search for that freedom. The price will be high but it will come.
I believe it will too.
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