Barack and Michelle Obama at a reception in New York with Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, president of Equatorial Guinea. In July 2003, Equatorial Guinea's state-operated radio declared Obiang Nguema to be a god. (Teodoro Obiang)
Frederick Forsyth's 1974 novel The Dogs of War is set in the 'Republic of Zangaro', which is based on Equatorial Guinea.
According to lobbyists in Washington, Equatorial Guinea is the 'Costa Rica of Africa'.
Tiny, oil-rich, Equatorial Guinea was once a Spanish colony. (Oh we love you so)
Equatorial Guinea is the third-largest oil producer in Sub-Saharan Africa.
In 1968, Francisco Macías Nguema was elected first president of Equatorial Guinea, and independence was recognised the same year.
In 1970, Nguema created a single-party state.
On Christmas day 1975, Macías had 150 alleged coup plotters executed to the sound of a band playing Mary Hopkins' tune Those Were the Days in a national stadium.[13]
Nguema’s reign of terror led to the death or exile of much of the country's population. (Equatorial Guinea - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Image from Banfield
In 1979, Teodoro Obiang Nguema took over in a bloody coup. (Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.)
He inherited a country with a population that had dropped to a third of its 1968 level.
In the 2008 parliamentary election, President Obiang Nguema's ruling party won 99 out of 100 seats. (Oh we love you so)
In 2009, in the presidential election, Obiang Nguema won almost 100% of the votes.
Reportedly, Equatorial Guinea is like the USA and UK in that it goes in for the torture of prisoners, control of the media, and widespread corruption.
Nguema's playboy son, Teodorin, has a '$35m house' in California, and an American visa.
Most of Equatorial Guinea's people live in dire poverty.
British mercenary, Simon Mann, attempted to topple Nguema in a coup in 2004.
Nguema announced that the plot to overthrow him involved the intelligence services of the United States, the United Kingdom and Spain, and Mark Thatcher and Simon Mann.
In 2006, President Obiang was warmly greeted by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who called him a "good friend". [10]
Obiang had a close relationship with Washington DC-based Riggs Bank.
The Riggs Bank is alleged to have connections to the Bush family and the Russian mafia.
In July 2004, the United States Senate published an investigation into Riggs Bank, into which most of Equatorial Guinea's oil revenues had been paid.
The Senate report showed that at least $35 million had been siphoned off by Obiang, his family and top officials of his regime. Inner City Press.[22]
On August 9, 2006, Harper's Magazine published an article by Ken Silverstein highlighting Obiang's recent connections with the US State Department and Independence Federal Savings Bank.[23]
Teodoro Obiang Nguema
The following is taken from http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/
January 19, 2006 -- With reports of over 200 contacts between convicted GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the Bush White House, there is also renewed interest in what "neighbor" Abramoff was referring to in his July 28, 2003 letter, written on Greenberg Traurig LLP stationery, to Gabon's President Omar Bongo concerning a proposed visit to the White House by the oil-rich African dictator.
Abramoff was paid $9 million by Bongo for arranging the visit. Abramoff is no stranger to representing African dictators. His clients have included the late Zaire (Congo) strongman Mobutu Sese Seko and Angola's assassinated rebel leader Jonas Savimbi. Indicted White House aide David Safavian, an Abramoff associate, also represented Bongo.
In his letter to Bongo, Abramoff states:
"I have been cautiously working to obtain a visit for the President . . . to see President Bush, the Congress and policy and opinion makers in the United States. As you know, we were, in advance of the war in Iraq, able to secure a tentative date for this meeting, however, the war cancelled all such scheduled visits, with the exception of the critical US war allies.
Since the time of the war, we have been discussing a rescheduling of the meeting.
Our firm was approached by a neighboring nation which also desired such a meeting, and indeed much more than a meeting. Of course, our firm's main strength is not in just setting up meetings, but in changing and impacting US policy, so to the neighbor, the meeting is important, but merely the tip of the iceberg.
The neighbor has offered to put up the resources which are necessary to not only secure a meeting, but more importantly, to commence a policy effort in Washington which could impact America's Africa policy in limited ways. These resources are substantial and would be used to build a support network for the neighbor which would enable the decision makers to move the neighbor up on the priority list. . . .
I suggested that I visit Gabon after my trip to Scotland in mid August, but that in order for me to preserve this and be able to turn down the neighbor's offer, we had to commence the representation, even in small part, perhaps ten percent . . . . Please bear in mind that the neighbor's proposal was to pay the entire amount up front."
According to informed sources in Washington, the "neighbor" referred to by Abramoff was oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, run by brutal dictator Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
In March 2004, South African and Zimbabwean forces foiled a coup attempt by British and South African mercenaries against Obiang. Later, Mark Thatcher, the son of Margaret Thatcher, pleaded guilty to his involvement in the coup in a South African court. Abramoff has close links to friends and associates of Margaret Thatcher, having helped arrange meetings between her and GOP officials.
It was revealed that senior British, Spanish, and American defense and intelligence officials, including Bush administration officials Michael Westphal and Theresa Whelan, were involved in the coup plot. Amid rumors that Washington wanted Obiang out of power, Obiang wanted to make a pitch for friendlier contacts with the Bush administration. Hence, the outreach to Abramoff.
But Obiang also had close financial links to the now-defunct Riggs Bank, a bank for which George W. Bush's uncle, Jonathan Bush, served as a senior official over a number of years.
Shortly before the March 2004 coup attempt, Obiang was abruptly told to close his Riggs account during a visit to the bank in Washington and Obiang's Riggs' account manager Simon Kareri was subsequently fired by the bank and his computer and files were seized at his home by FBI agents. It was discovered that Riggs and Obiang were involved in an Obiang-run slush fund called Abayak SA that received and paid out large sums of cash for various "services."
Jonathan Bush ran a New Haven, Connecticut-based Riggs subsidiary called J. Bush & Co., a money management firm that later morphed into Riggs Investment Management Company (RIMCO). Federal investigators discovered that Riggs set up phony and deceptive accounts and dummy corporations in off-shore locations like the Bahamas.
Riggs was caught up in the Russian Mafia money laundering scandal through its stake in a Channel Islands company called Valmet.
That scandal involved jailed Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and the Bank of New York scandal involving key Russian Mafia figures tied to various Abramoff business dealings, including gambling casinos and Internet gambling.
In May 2005, after Khodorkovsky and his partner Platon Lebedev were convicted of tax evasion and fraud by a Russian court and sentenced to nine years in prison, George W. Bush immediately came to the defense of these Russian Mafia kingpins.
According to Haaretz, 03/06/2005:Israeli firms are to train Equatorial Guinea presidential guard.Israeli arms dealers and security companies are negotiating a contract to train Equatorial Guinea's presidential guard...
A Foreign Ministry source confirmed to Haaretz that the ministry was aware of... the intensive activity of Israeli arms companies in Equatorial Guinea...
International human rights organizations said that if Israelis train Equatorial Guinea's presidential guard, it would help bolster one of Africa's most corrupt and tyrannical presidents...
A year ago, Israel Military Industries (IMI) sold Equatorial Guinea about $10 million worth of Shaldag Mk-II class Fast Patrol Boats manufactured by Israeli Shipyards.An IMI representative declined to comment on the matter Thursday.
IMI is one of the companies competing for the contract to train the presidential guard.
An failed coup attempt took place in Equatorial Guinea... organized by British businessmen including Mark Thatcher, the son of Britain's former prime minister.The coup plotters were assisted by British, South African, Armenian and German mercenaries. Most of them were arrested and sentenced to long prison sentences in Equatorial Guinea, Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Following the coup attempt, Obiang approached Israeli weapon dealers and security companies for assistance.
In addition to IMI, Aeronautics Defense Systems of Yavne, which manufactures drones, is also active in Equatorial Guinea. Several retired senior IDF officers, including Major General(res.) Avigdor Ben Gal, are on the Yavne company's board of directors...The company was involved recently in controversial dealings in Ivory Coast, where a civil war is taking place...
Other Israeli businessmen are also known to be involved in business deals in Equatorial Guinea.
Equatorial Guinea, located in west Africa between Gabon and Cameroon, is a former Spanish colony and until a few years ago was considered one of the most under developed states on the continent. Following the discovery of large quantities of oil a few years ago, it has become one of Africa's largest oil producers. American, British, South African and Malaysian oil companies are operating in the country. IMI's boats are intended to secure the oil rigs at sea. Obiang rose to power in 1979 after reportedly killing his uncle, the reigning president. Human rights groups say his security forces regularly carry out murders and mass arrests, and torture prisoners.
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One of Tony Blair's homes.
A Bush family home : Kennebunkport - Portland, United States ... 
en:Laxmi Niwas Palace
Mobutu befriended several U.S. presidents, including Nixon, Reagan, and George H.W. Bush.
