Mystery plane flew from S Africa

[I AM SPARTACUS]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3545507.stm

Mystery plane flew from S Africa


State TV showed soldiers sorting through equipment on the plane
A plane carrying 64 alleged mercenaries impounded by Zimbabwe came from South Africa, say air authorities there.
But mystery still surrounds the plane, which while apparently registered with a US company was also reportedly sold to a South African company a week ago.

The intended destination of the men on board - described as burly and white, and militarily equipped - is unknown.

The Zimbabwean cabinet is discussing the issue and has promised more details about the plane and its cargo soon.

The US authorities have denied that there is any connection between the plane and the government, while acknowledging that it may be US-registered.

[Judi Lynn]

1. This looks rotten, doesn't it?

From the article:

If the men on board are confirmed as mercenaries, it appears they failed to receive required authorisation from South Africa's National Conventional Arms Control Committee.

That has infuriated the South African opposition Democratic Alliance, which says it is writing to the government to demand more information.

Spokeswoman Raenette Taljaard told the BBC there appeared to be a "gaping hole" in the control of South African airspace.
(snip/...)

So are we to assume that _Bush is kindling another kind of war in South Africa, as well?

Does everyone remember that Kissinger lied about U.S. involvement with South Africa in Angola? There are declassified documents which bear this out, and can be studied now:

Conflicting Missions provides the first comprehensive history of the Cuba's role in Africa and settles a longstanding controversy over why and when Fidel Castro decided to intervene in Angola in 1975. The book definitively resolves two central questions regarding Cuba's policy motivations and its relationship to the Soviet Union when Castro astounded and outraged Washington by sending thousands of soldiers into the Angolan civil conflict. Based on Cuban, U.S. and South African documents and interviews, the book concludes that:


• Castro decided to send troops to Angola on November 4, 1975, in response to the South African invasion of that country, rather than vice versa as the Ford administration persistently claimed;
  
  
• The United States knew about South Africa's covert invasion plans, and collaborated militarily with its troops, contrary to what Secretary of State Henry Kissinger testified before Congress and wrote in his memoirs.
  
  
• Cuba made the decision to send troops without informing the Soviet Union and deployed them, contrary to what has been widely alleged, without any Soviet assistance for the first two months.

(snip)

Conflicting Missions also argues that Secretary Kissinger's account of the US role in Angola, most recently repeated in the third volume of his memoirs, is misleading. Testifying before Congress in 1976, Kissinger stated "We had no foreknowledge of South Africa's intentions, and in no way cooperated militarily." In Years of Renewal Dr. Kissinger also denied that the United States and South Africa had collaborated in the Angolan conflict; Gleijeses' research strongly suggests that they did. The book quotes Kissinger aide Joseph Sisco conceding that the Ford administration "certainly did not discourage" South Africa's intervention, and presents evidence that the CIA helped the South Africans ferry arms to key battlefronts. The book also reproduces portions of a declassified memorandum of conversation between Kissinger and Chinese leader Teng Hsiao-p'ing which shows that Chinese officials raised concerns about South Africa's involvement in Angola in response to Ford and Kissinger's entreaties for Beijing's continuing support. The memcon quotes President Ford as telling the Chinese "we had nothing to do with the South African involvement." Drawing on the Cuban documents, the book challenges Kissinger's account in his memoirs about the arrival of Cubans in Angola. The first Cuban military advisers did not arrive in Angola until late August 1975, and the Cubans did not participate in the fighting until late October, after South Africa had invaded.
(snip/...)http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB67/

[R Hickey]

2. Bush didn't know anything about it. He was out of the loop...

Maybe they were going to be Aristide's honor guard, for his flight to South Africa.

[Cooley Hurd]

3. Was the pilot named Eugene Hasenfus?

[cspiguy]

4. O.K. - sounds stinky - But PLEEZE don't make us root for Mugabe

his stench has fouled that land for way long enough.

[Nevernose]

5. Y'know, I felt the same way about Saddam

Kind of like when Jeffrey Dahmer got murdered in prison. Murder is wrong, of course, but it WAS a notorious child murderer...