Thread by @nimkef

24 Jan 1997

EXECUTIVE OUTCOMES has brought new meaning to the concept of the “corporate state” by mustering what is arguably the world’s first corporate army, is again at war, only this one is of words, fought in the arena of public opinion.

mg.co.za/article/1997-0…

It is six years since Executive Outcomes emerged as a mercenary force to be reckoned with in Africa. Even now, as Zaire threatens to implode, there is speculation (denied by the company) that their mercenaries are moving in to shore up the crumbling rule of President Mobutu.

A “UK Eyes Alpha” (“top secret”) British intelligence report records that “Executive Outcomes was registered in the UK on September 1993 by Anthony (Tony) Buckingham, a British businessman and Simon Mann, a former British officer”.

Buckingham, an SAS vet, friend & business associate of former Liberal Party leader Sir David Steel

Buckingham is CEO of Heritage Oil and Gas, which has drilling interests in Angola and elsewhere. Heritage, now incorporated in the Bahamas, is also linked w/ Ranger Oil of Canada

Mann, a former troop commander in 22 SAS regiment specialising in intelligence, has served in a dozen countries, from Cyprus to Central America, Saudi Arabia to Nigeria.

It was in 1993 that Buckingham and Mann first met Eeben Barlow, a veteran of the Angolan war and former officer in the South African Defence Force (SADF). Barlow’s last job in the SADF was in the Civil Co- operation Bureau (CCB) in foreign operations.

He claims he ran Region 6, Western Europe. Among his tasks was leaking damaging information to friendly European journalists falsely linking the African National Congress with the Irish Republican Army.

In January 1993, Buckingham and Mann commissioned Barlow to recruit a force of South African veterans with combat experience in Angola to capture Soyo, one of the centers of the oil industry, which was in the hands of Unita.

A small force of less than 100 men succeeded, though Unita recaptured Soyo when the South Africans left. Luanda then put out a request for a larger mercenary force, offering oil concessions in return.

According to the British intel doc, “Ranger allocated $30M for the op & placed the contract w/ Buckingham and Mann.” They in turn appointed Barlow and Lafras Luitingh - a former CCB colleague of Barlow who had led the 1st attack on Soyo - as commanders- in-chief of the merc force

The two recruited 500 men, most of them from the old South African Defence Force. And effectively turned the course of the war.

From Angola, they moved on to Sierra Leone, shoring up the regime of Valentine Strasser against the Revolutionary United Front of Foday Sankoh.

They are now reported to be in Kenya, where they have gone into partnership with Raymond Moi, a son of President Daniel arap Moi. They are said to have provided personnel to protect Canadian oil interests in the Sudan.

They're believed to be providing protection for gold & oil prospecting ops in Uganda & are rumoured to have a training contract with the govt. They have been accused of supplying arms to Burundi. It has been reported Executive Outcomes has links w/ 30+ countries, mostly in Africa

Africa has long experience with mercenary armies, but Executive Outcomes’ soldiers are not just “guns for hire”. They are the advance guard for major business interests in a latter-day scramble for the mineral wealth of Africa.

Buckingham, Mann and others run 18+ companies from the 2nd floor of Plaza 107 (535 King’s Road, London). Inc intl oil, gold and diamond mining ventures, a chartered accountancy practice, an airline, foreign security services and off-shore financial management services

Company & staff names, dated Sept 1994, inc. Executive Outcomes Ltd, Ibis Air Intl, Heritage Oil & Gas, Branch Intl Ltd, Branch Mining Ltd & Capricorn Systems Ltd. Among the directors & staff are Buckingham, Mann, Sir David Steel & the South African dir of Ibis Air, Crause Steyl

Branch International is believed to be the holding corporation for a string of subsidiaries engaged in the hunt for oil, gold, diamonds and other precious minerals.

Capricorn Systems is believed to be a descendant of the “Capricorn Africa Society”, established by the eccentric military hero who founded the SAS, Sir David Stirling - himself involved in mercenary operations before his death in 1990 at 74.

Executive Outcomes flew into Angola in 1993 on two Beechcraft King Airs operating from Lanseria, courtesy of Capricorn Air.

Later registered as Ibis Air in both Angola and South Africa, it is Executive Outcomes’ air force, w/ a fleet of:
3 727s
at least 2 MI-17 helicopters
2 “Hind” MI-24 gunships
several small fixed-wings - one w/ surveillance capabilities
at least 2 fighter jets
and private jets

For the last two years, Ibis has been operating from the Johannesburg International Airport, from the quarters of Simera, the aviation division of Denel.

Plaza 107 has its twin in Strategic Resources Corporation, based in Lynnwood, Pretoria. Bank documents dated March 1995 showed this to be the holding corporation for another string of companies including ...

Saracen, a security Co. specialising in “VIP protection, strategic point protection and business security protection”

Falconer Systems, a front for Executive Outcomes in providing logistical supplies to “UN-related orgs”

Bridge Intl, specialising in construction & Civ Eng

How far Executive Outcomes has spread its wings is spelled out in the British Intelligence doc: “The indications are that Executive Outcomes is acquiring a wide reputation in sub-Saharan Africa for reliability and efficiency.

It has a particular appeal to smaller countries desperate for rapid assistance. UN operations are cumbersome and slow and the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) has hitherto shown itself to be generally ineffective except as a talking shop.

There is every likelihood that Executive Outcomes’s services, which are already extending beyond the field of security into import/export and administration, will continue increasingly to be sought.

There are even indications, according to the document, that the OAU could be “forced to offer Executive Outcomes a contract for the management of peace-keeping continent- wide”.

Its successes “are a cause for concern. It appears that the company and its associates are able to barter their services for large shares of an employing nation’s natural resources and commodities.

On present showing Executive Outcomes will become ever richer and more potent, capable of exercising real power, even to the extent of keeping military regimes in being. If it continues to expand at the present rate, its influence in sub-Saharan Africa could become crucial.”

Early recruitment by Executive Outcomes appeared to be facilitated or at least tolerated by ANC leaders who - as UK intel report puts it - believed “it would remove from SA a number of personnel who might have had a destabilising effect on the forthcoming multi-racial elections.”

But the ANC government has had second thoughts about Executive Outcomes. Last month the national conventional arms control committee announced it would ask Parliament to pass legislation to curtail the involvement of South Africans in mercenary activities.

The strategy is to subject the sale of military, or intel services, inc. training, to the same licensing process as dealing in military hardware - even to the extent of requiring end-user certs. The legislation would also apply to South Africans operating extra- territorially

Barlow makes light of the proposed legislation. “I doubt very much whether Prof Kadar Asmal’s legislation is aimed at us and we have no fears for that,” he said.

“We are not going to help anyone that is not a legit govt, or which poses a threat to South Africa, or that is involved in activities which are frowned upon ... We have had a major impact on Africa. We have brought peace to two countries which were almost destroyed by civil wars”

Barlow claims that his company is the target of a “smear” campaign by the South African military, and accuses his former comrades of jealousy at the success of his private army.

Asmal will not discuss Executive Outcomes specifically, but there is little doubt that his intention is to use licensing to control EO. It is legitimate for one govt to ask for the assistance of another government, Asmal argues, but there is no room for free enterprise

Asmal dismisses the argument that Executive Outcomes has brought a modicum of stability to Africa - playing a peace-keeping role lamentably neglected by the intl community, inc. the South African govt. “There is no case to be made - even to stop genocide,” he says bluntly.

Whether Asmal can assume the control he seeks is another matter. Extra-territorial legislation is notoriously difficult to implement. And Executive Outcomes’s personnel are likely to have little trouble juggling citizenship with the help of grateful client-states.

The major Western powers could squash Executive Outcomes, but it is difficult to see their motive. Africa, to the rest of the world, is a troubled continent, a plague on the conscience and a trap for the unwary - as Somalia taught the United States.

The world needs its mineral wealth. It's far safer for leaders of Western democracies to leave responsibility for murky dealings w/ Africa’s despots to those enjoying the limited liability of the corporate world. In the process have they spawned the world’s 1st corporate army?