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Soldiers of Misfortune: the Angolan Civil War, The British Mercenary Intervention, and UK Policy towards Southern Africa, 1975–6

2014; Routledge; Volume: 36; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/07075332.2013.836120

1949-6540

Geraint Hughes,

Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics

AbstractThis article examines the controversial involvement of British mercenaries in the early phases of the Angolan civil war (1975–6), and analyses the effect of their intervention on UK domestic politics and foreign affairs. It concludes that the mercenaries involved - who fought with the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA) in January 1976 - were recruited largely as a result of private initiative, and that the available evidence suggests that the British government was not officially complicit in their enlistment. This article also shows that the mercenary intervention not only sharpened party-political differences between the Conservative and Labour parties over East–West relations, but also contributed to domestic fears of right-wing paramilitary activity within Britain itself.Keywords: cold warAngolaBritainPortugalSouthern Africa Notes1. F. Andresen Guimares, The Origins of the Angolan Civil War. Foreign Intervention and Domestic Conflict (Basingstoke, 1998); D. Spikes, Angola and the Policy of Intervention: From Local Bush War to Chronic Crisis in Southern Africa (Jefferson NC, 1993).2. A. Alao, Brothers at War: Dissidence and Rebellion in Southern Africa (London, 1994), 1–43; W. Minter, Apartheid's Contras: An Inquiry into the Roots of War in Angola and Mozambique (London, 1994); A. Malaquias, ‘Angola: How to Lose a Guerrilla War’ in M. Boas and K.C. Dunn (ed), African Guerrillas. Raging Against the Machine (Boulder, 2007), 199–215.3. E. George, The Cuban Intervention in Africa, 1965–1991: From Che Guevara to Cuito Cuanavale (Abingdon, 2005); P. Gleijeses, ‘Havana's Policy in Africa, 1959–76: New Evidence from Cuban Archives’ and O.A. Westad, ‘Moscow and the Angolan Crisis, 1974–1976: A New Pattern of Intervention’, both in Cold War International History Project (CWIHP) Bulletin viii-ix (1996–7), 5–20, 21–37; P. Gleijeses, Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959–1976 (Chapel Hill, NC, 2002), 97–159.4. For the origins of IAFEATURE, see G. Bender, ‘Kissinger in Angola: Anatomy of Failure’ in R. Lemarchand (ed), American Policy in Southern Africa (Washington, DC, 1978), 65–143; J. Hanhimaki, The Flawed Architect. Henry Kissinger and American Foreign Policy (Oxford, 2004), 403–24; J. Prados, Presidents’ Secret Wars (Chicago, IL, 1996), 338–47; N. Davis, ‘The Angola Decision of 1975: A Personal Memoir’, Foreign Affairs, lvii (1978), 109–24.5. Steven F. Jackson provides some analysis of Beijing's policies in ‘China's Third World Foreign Policy: The Case of Angola and Mozambique, 1961–93’, The China Quarterly, cxlii (1995), 388–422. F.-X. Verschave, La Francafrique : Le Plus Long Scandale de la République (Paris, 1999) does examine aspects of French policy towards Angola after the cold war. For South African policy-making see Hilton Hamann, Days of the Generals: The untold story of South Africa's apartheid-era military generals (Cape Town, 2001), 1–45; F. Jacobus du Toit Spies wrote an Afrikaans history of the SADF intervention, Operasie Savannah: Angola, 1975–1976 (Pretoria, 1989).6. G. Stone, ‘Britain and the Angolan Revolt of 1961’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, xxvii (1999), 109–37 and ‘Britain and Portuguese Africa, 1961–1965’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth Studies, xxviii (2000), 169–92; N. MacQueen, ‘Belated Decolonization and UN Politics against the Backdrop of the Cold War: Portugal, Britain, and Guinea-Bissau's Proclamation of Independence’, Journal of Cold War Studies, viii (2006), 29–56; N. MacQueen and P. Aires Oliveira, ‘‘Grocer meets Butcher’: Marcello Caetano's London Visit of 1973 and the Last Days of Portugal's Estado Novo’, Cold War History, x (2010), 29–50.7. ZANU's main source of support came from China and (after 1975) Mozambique. ZAPU - based primarily in Zambia - received arms and training from the USSR and Warsaw Pact states. P. Moorcraft and P. McLaughlin, The Rhodesian War: A Military History (Barnsley, 2008), 73–7.8. ‘Lawyers blame Britain for Fate of Mercenaries’, The Times, 15 June 1976. John Simpson, a BBC journalist who reported on the Angola conflict, makes a similar claim in his memoir Strange Places, Questionable People (Basingstoke, 1999), 139. See also W. Burchett and D. Roebuck, The Whores of War. Mercenaries Today (London, 1977), 41–51.9. ‘Could Britain be Heading for a Military Takeover?’, The Times, 5 Aug. 1974; H. Strachan, The Politics of the British Army (Oxford, 1997), 184–90.10. D. Porch, The Portuguese Armed Forces and the Revolution (London, 1977).11. J. Marcum, The Angolan Revolution: Volumes I and II (Cambridge, MA, 1969 & 1978); A.J. Klinghoffer, The Angolan War: A Study in Soviet Policy in the Third World (Boulder, 1980); R. Garthoff, Détente and Confrontation: American-Soviet Relations from Nixon to Reagan (Washington, DC, 1994), 556–93; B. Porter, The USSR in Third World Conflicts: Soviet Arms and Diplomacy in Local Wars (Cambridge, 1984), 147–81; O. Arne Westad, The Global Cold War. Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times (Cambridge, 2005), 207–36.12. F. Bridgland, Jonas Savimbi. A Key to Africa (London, 1986), 253–326.13. J. Stockwell, In Search of Enemies. A CIA Story (London, 1978), 182–4, 217–26; Garthoff, Détente and Confrontation, 567–8.14. S. Percy, Mercenaries: The History of a Norm in International Relations (Oxford, 2007), 185–9; P. Gleijeses, ‘“Flee! The White Giants Are Coming!”: The United States, the Mercenaries, and the Congo, 1964–1965’, Diplomatic History, xviii (1994), 207–37.15. Christopher Sanders (Private Secretary to William Rodgers, Minister of State for the Armed Forces) to Patrick Wright (Private Secretary to Prime Minister), 12 May 1976, [Kew,] U[nited] K[ingdom] N[ational] A[rchives], DEFE 13/1077. One of the participants, Peter McAleese, lists the names and fates of the 143 mercenaries in his memoir No Mean Soldier: The Autobiography of a Professional Fighting Man (London, 1993), 263–9.16. This account of the mercenary mission is taken from the following sources: C. Dempster and D. Tomkins, Fire Power (London, 1978); T. Geraghty, Guns for Hire. The Inside Story of Freelance Soldiering (London, 2008), 49–75; A. Mockler, The New Mercenaries (London, 1985), 156–231; P. Tickler, The Modern Mercenary. Dog of War, or Soldier of Honour? (Wellingborough, 1987), 62–96.17. Simpson, Strange Places, 149–55. See also Kinshasa to FCO, No.49, 8 Feb. 1976, PREM 16/742, UKNA. ‘I was Ordered to Shoot Britons, Defendant tells Luanda Tribunal’, The Times, 14 June 1976.18. ‘Angola-bound Mercenaries Questioned by Police’, The Times, 4 Feb. 1976. James Callaghan (Foreign Secretary) to Dr Agostinho Neto (President of Angola), 28 June 1976, PREM 16/1503, UKNA. Two Britons (Derek John Barker and Andrew Gordon McKenzie) and a US citizen (Daniel Gearhart) were shot with Georgiou. The remaining US and British prisoners were released in 1982 and 1984 respectively. ‘Trial of Mercenaries in Angola Questioned’, The Times, 21 Dec. 1976; Prados, Secret Wars, 347; ‘Angola Frees Jailed Britons’, The Times, 28 Feb. 1984.19. Stone, ‘Britain and the Angolan Revolt’ and Stone, ‘Britain and Portuguese Africa’, passim.20. J.W. Young, The Labour Governments 1964–70. Volume 2. International Policy (Manchester, 2003), 181–3.21. S. Howe, ‘Labour and International Affairs’ in D. Tanner, P. Thane, and N. Tiratsoo (eds), Labour's First Century (Cambridge, 2000), 120–2; J. Callaghan, The Labour Party and Foreign Policy: A History (Abingdon, 2007), 268.22. MacQueen, ‘Belated Decolonization’, 39–41; Stone, ‘Britain and the Angolan Revolt’, 115–6, 125; M. Meredith, The State of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence (London, 2005), 89–92. Labour's hostility to Portugal's Estado Novo was also ideological, insofar as (like General Francisco Franco's regime in Spain) the party's membership regarded it as a Fascist state. MacQueen & Oliveira, ‘“Butcher meets Grocer”’, 32, 36, 41–2.23. Hansard House of Commons Debates H.C.Deb 5s, vol. 906 (London, 1976), 24 Feb. 1976, cols. 216–17. The Foreign Secretary, James Callaghan, had two ministers of state as his subordinates: Hattersley and David Ennals. Hattersley's brief included East-West relations. See K.O. Morgan, Callaghan: A Life (Oxford, 1997), 411–2.24. J.C. Campbell, ‘The Mediterranean Crisis’, Foreign Affairs, liii (1975), 605–24; K. Maxwell, ‘The Thorns of the Portuguese Revolution’, Foreign Affairs, liv (1976), 250–70; J. Story, ‘Portugal's Revolution of Carnations: Patterns of Change and Continuity’, International Affairs, lii (1976), 417–33.25. R. Harvey, Portugal. Birth of a Democracy (Basingstoke, 1978); Porch, Portuguese Armed Forces, passim.26. JIC(76)3, The Outlook for the Southern Flank of NATO, 29 April 1976; K. Hamilton and P. Salmon (eds), Documents on British Policy Overseas III, V: The Southern Flank in Crisis, 1973–1976 (London, 2006), 525–33. Hereafter DBPO III, V. The JIC report observes that the United States’ own backing for the Salazar and Caetano regimes, the Greek military junta and Franco had fuelled anti-US sentiment in Portugal, Spain, and Greece. Edward Peck (head of UK Delegation to NATO) to Sir John Killick (Deputy Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Office – hereafter FCO), 8 April 1975; Chiefs of Staff Defence Policy Note 206/25(Final), A Preliminary Assessment of the Military Consequences if Portugal Withdraws from NATO, 26 March 1975, DEFE 11/857, UKNA.27. MacQueen and Oliveira, ‘“Butcher meets Grocer”’, 30, 45–6. Conversation between Harold Wilson and Mario Soares (Portuguese Foreign Minister) at 10 Downing Street, 2 May 1974, DBPO III, V, pp. 357–60. Conversation between Callaghan and Soares at HM High Commission, Ottawa, 19 June 1974, PREM 16/241, UKNA. Tom McNally (political advisor to Foreign Secretary) to Callaghan, 22 Dec. 1975; and minute by P.J. Weston (FCO), Call on the Prime Minister by Dr Mario Soares, 22 Dec. 1975, PREM 16/1054, UKNA.28. Morgan, Callaghan, 431–3; Mario del Pero, ‘“Which Chile? Allende?” Henry Kissinger and the Portuguese Revolution’, Cold War History, xi (2011), 625–7; Sir Peter Ramsbotham (HM Ambassador at Washington DC) to Callaghan, 9 May 1975, DPBO III, V, 440–2.29. A. Lane, ‘Foreign and Defence Policy’ in A. Seldon and K. Hickson (eds), New Labour, Old Labour. The Wilson and Callaghan Governments, 1974–1979 (London, 2004), 162. The effects of this conversation with the Soviet leader are beyond the scope of this article, although should be noted that Brezhnev himself apparently drew a distinction between Portugal - where support for a PCP takeover would damage East–West détente - and its former colonies - where support for national liberation was in the USSR's interests. See V. Zubok, ‘The Soviet Union and détente of the 1970s’, Cold War History, viii (2008), 427–48.30. Weston to Wright, 8 Aug. 1975, PREM 16/1054, UKNA. JIC(75)17, The Outlook for Portugal and its Relationship with the Western Alliance, 26 June 1975, DBPO III, V, 453–7.31. D.C. Thomas (South-West European Department, FCO) to Killick, 24 Oct. 1974; Killick to N.C.C. Trench (HM Ambassador at Lisbon), 5 June 1975; and meeting between Wilson, Callaghan, and President Francisco da Costa Gomes at CSCE Summit, Helsinki, 1 Aug. 1975, DBPO III, V, 376–82, 390–7, 448–50, 470–5.32. Conversation between Callaghan and Soares at 1 Carlton Gardens, 26 May 1974; Conversation between Callaghan and Soares at UK High Commission, Ottawa, 19 June 1974, PREM 16/241, UKNA. P.J. Barlow (Rhodesia Department, FCO) to S.F. St C. Duncan (HM Consul, Lourenco Marques/Maputo), 23 July 1975, FCO 36/1750, UKNA. Trench to Callaghan, 12 Feb. 1975, DBPO III, V, 390–7.33. Lane, ‘Foreign and Defence Policy’, 155–6; G. Till, ‘The Return to Globalism: The Royal Navy East of Suez, 1975–2003’ in G. Kennedy (ed), British Naval Strategy East of Suez, 1900–2000. Influences and Actions (London, 2005), 248.34. Lane, ‘Foreign and Defence Policy’, 164–5; Lusaka High Commission to FCO, No.24, 4 Jan. 1975, PREM 16/634, UKNA; A.H. Campbell (Deputy Under-Secretary for Southern African Affairs) to Sir Antony Duff (Head of Africa Department, FCO), 4 Feb. 1976, FCO 7/3131, UKNA.35. C. Andrew, Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5 (London, 2010), 636; B. Donoughue, Downing Street Diary. With Harold Wilson in Number 10 (London, 2005), entry for 2 Feb. 1976, 652–3.36. G. Hughes, Harold Wilson's Cold War: The Labour Government and East–West Politics, 1964–1970 (Woodbridge, 2009).37. G. Hughes, ‘“Giving the Russians a Bloody Nose”: Operation Foot and Soviet Espionage in the United Kingdom, 1964–1971’, Cold War History, vi (2006), 229–49.38. Record of a meeting on détente held in the FCO on 7 Dec. 1976, Documents on British Policy Overseas. Volume III. Détente in Europe, 1972–1976 (London, 2001), 466–70. Hereafter DPBO III; J. Campbell, Margaret Thatcher. Volume One: The Grocer's Daughter (London, 2000), 338–42, 353–7.39. See Terence Garvey to Callaghan, 6 Dec. 1975 and Callaghan to Howard Smith (Moscow), 29 Jan. 1976 and 11 March 1976, DBPOIII, 421–37.40. INT44(76)1, The Soviet Union and the MPLA: Likely Future Relationship, 21 Jan. 1976, CAB 190/100, UKNA; JIC(77)9, Soviet Policies in Africa, 21 Nov. 1977, CAB 186/24, UKNA; JIC(78)2, The Nature of the Soviet Threat, 3 March 1978, CAB 186/26, UKNA.41. John Banks, memoir - The Wages of War: The Life of a Modern Mercenary (London, 1978) - contains improbable tales about secret operations in East Germany and Vietnam on behalf of the CIA. Banks was subsequently imprisoned in November 1980 for attempting to extort money from a Nicaraguan diplomat (see ‘Mercenary “was Told to Keep Silent”’, The Times, 19 Nov. 1980; ‘Mercenary Leader Jailed for Blackmail Attempt’, The Times, 25 Nov. 1980), and was last heard of in a case involving a Ghanaian businessman accused of drugs smuggling (‘Man Cleared in Customs Heroin “Sting”’, The Independent, 6 April 1993).42. Prados, Secret Wars, passim; R.J. Aldrich, The Hidden Hand: Britain, America and Cold War Secret Intelligence (London, 2002).43. C. Jones, Britain and the Yemen Civil War, 1962–1965 (Brighton, 2004); D. Hart Davis, The War That Never Was (London, 2011).44. Field Marshal Michael Carver (Chief of Defence Staff) to Peter Carrington (Defence Secretary), 9 Jan. 1973, DEFE 13/964, UKNA; Carver to Roy Mason (Defence Secretary), 6 Jan 1975, DEFE 32/22, UKNA.45. General Kenneth Strong (Director-General Intelligence, MOD) to Peter Thorneycroft (Defence Secretary), Note of Discussion with Colonel McLean, 20th June 1964, 2 July 1964, DEFE 13/570, UKNA; Peter Gilmour (Defence Secretary) to Edward Heath, 16 Jan. 1972, DEFE 13/964, UKNA.46. Wright to C.J.S. Brearley (Cabinet Office), 29 Jan. 1976 and R.N. Dales (FCO) to Wright, 9 Feb. 1976, PREM 16/742, UKNA.47. Banks, Wages of War, 100–1; McAleese, No Mean Soldier, 60–3; Dempster and Tomkins, Fire Power, 23–45, 60–1, 64, 67, 87–9; Stockwell, In Search of Enemies, 164, 215; D.H.J. Hilary (Home Office) to J.D. Bryars, 2 May 1977, CAB 164/1373, UKNA. ‘Jail Soldier Signs Up Army’, The Sunday People, 18 Jan. 1976.48. Memorandum by D. Tomkins (Permanent Under-Secretary's Department (PUSD), FCO), 10 Feb. 1976, PREM 16/742, UKNA. The PUSD's remit included liaison with the intelligence services.49. Hart Davis, passim; A. Hoe, David Stirling (London, 1992), 354–89.50. Minute by L.G. Walker (MOD), 19 Feb. 1976 and Sanders to Wright, 12 May 1976, DEFE 13/1077, UKNA. The formal title of the TA (the British equivalent of the US Army National Guard) at this time was the Territorial Army and Volunteer Reserve (TAVR), but for convenience's sake the author uses the better-known name and abbreviation.51. Burchett and Roebuck, Whores of War, 26–40; Saunders to Wright, 16 Feb. 1976; note by A.J. Ward (MOD), 13 Feb. 1976, DEFE 13/1077, UKNA.52. Note by Saunders, 24 March 1976; Memorandum by General Sir Peter Hunt (Chief of the General Staff), 1 April 1976, DEFE 13/1077, UKNA.53. The choice of ‘Callan’ was apparently inspired by a British television serial of the same name, involving an assassin working for British intelligence. Dempster and Tomkins, Fire Power, 84–5, 106–7, 119–20, 141, 157–8, 164, 293, 311–16, 326–45; Geraghty, Guns for Hire, 59–61; McAleese, No Mean Soldier, 64, 69, 78–84; A.J. Cragg (Private Secretary to Roy Mason) to Wright, 10 Feb. 1976, DEFE 13/1077, UKNA.54. Stockwell, In Search of Enemies, 183, 191–2; Geraghty, Guns for Hire, 68.55. Minute by H. Philips (Home Office), 5 Feb. 1976, PREM 16/742, UKNA. The role of MI5 and the Special Branch in infiltrating extremist groups is covered in the BBC2 documentary True Spies, presented by Peter Taylor and broadcast on 27 Oct. and 3 Nov. 2002. See also Andrew, Defence of the Realm, 587–99, 656–69.56. Meeting between Ted Rowlands (Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs) and Dr Soto Prieto (Cuban Ambassador to UK), 28 Jan. 1976, FCO 7/3125, UKNA. Campbell to Duff, 4 Feb. 1976, FCO 7/3131, UKNA.57. Meeting in Cabinet Room, 9 Feb. 1976, DEFE13/1077, UKNA. Cmnd 6569, Report of the Committee of Privy Counsellors Appointed to Inquire into the Recruitment of Mercenaries (HMSO 1976). Lord Diplock had overseen anti-terrorist legislation in Northern Ireland, which permitted courts to try terrorist suspects without juries. P. Taylor, Brits: The War Against the IRA (London, 2002), 200.58. Percy, Mercenaries, 197–8; Donoughue, Downing Street Diary, 10 Feb. 1976, 661; B. Pimlott, Harold Wilson (London, 1993), 692, 700.59. Note by Barlow (Rhodesia Dept), 27 Feb. 1976, FCO 36/1872, UKNA. M.R. Eaton (FCO) to D.C. Mottram (Cabinet Office), 17 Aug. 1977, CAB 164/1373, UKNA.60. D.H.J. Hilary (Home Office) to J.D. Bryars (Cabinet Office), 2 May 1977; M.A. Holding (West Africa Department, FCO) to Bryars, 3 May 1977, CAB 164/1373, UKNA; W. K. Prendergast (MOD) to B. Cartledge (10 Downing Street), 30 Dec. 1977, DEFE 24/1759, UKNA.61. T. Cliff (MOD) to Bryars, 1 April 1977, CAB 164/1373; Fred Mulley (Defence Secretary) to David Owen (Foreign Secretary), 29 Sept. 1977, DEFE 24/1759, UKNA.62. H.C.Deb5s, vol. 906; Written Answers, 26 Feb. 1976 (HMSO 1976), 286; H.C.Deb5s, vol. 907, Oral Answers, 10 March 1976 (HMSO 1976), 409–11. See ‘Angola Mercenaries Recruited by “Small-Time Crooks”’, The Times, 11 Feb. 1976.63. H.C.Deb5s, vol. 906, cols. 201–399. Letter by Winston Churchill (MP), Role of Mercenaries in Angola, in The Times, 12 Feb. 1976.64. Prados, Secret Wars, 333–7; P. Agee, Inside the Company: A CIA Diary (London, 1976); John Hunt (Cabinet Secretary) to Robert Armstrong (Principal Private Secretary to PM), 17 Dec. 1974, PREM 16/670, UKNA; Minute by Richard Sykes (FCO) to Callaghan, 30 April 1976, FCO 82/671, UKNA; Andrew, Defence of the Realm, 632. As noted in Sykes to Callaghan, Agee had contacted the Cuban foreign-intelligence agency, the DGI, to offer his services, having been rebuffed by the KGB. See C. Andrew and V. Mitrokhin, The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West (London, 1999), 300–5. Sykes was subsequently appointed as Ambassador to the Netherlands, and was shot dead by the Provisional IRA on 22 March 1979. ‘IRA link in Envoy's Death’, The Guardian, 23 March 1979.65. Andrew, Defence of the Realm, 632–8; Donoughue, Downing Street Diary, 2 Feb. and 17 Feb. 1976, 652–3, 669. Conversation between Wilson and Senator Frank Church at 10 Downing St, 16 Feb. 1976, PREM 16/1150, UKNA.66. Andrew, Defence of the Realm, 627–43. ‘Privately Preparing for the Worst’, The Times, 29 July 1974; ‘Unison not Private Army, General says’, The Times, 10 Aug. 1974; ‘General Expects Three Million Backers’, The Times, 28 Aug. 1974.67. GEN129(74)3, Terrorist Threat at Heathrow, 18 Jan. 1974, CAB 130/636, UKNA. Strachan, Politics of the British Army, 187–9.68. Donoughue, Downing Street Diary, entry for 9 Feb. 1976, 658–9; Minutes by Wilson to Hunt, 8 Feb. 1976, PREM 16/742, UKNA.69. Mockler, New Mercenaries, 200–1, 222–3; Meeting in Cabinet Room, 9 Feb. 1976, DEFE 13/1077, UKNA; Minutes by Wilson to Hunt, PREM 16/742, UKNA; Donoughue, Downing Street Diary, entry for 9 Feb. 1976, 659.70. K. Connor, Ghost Force: The Secret History of the SAS (London, 1998), 275–9; G. Crile, Charlie Wilson's War (London, 2007), 199–200; S. Dorril, MI6: Fifty Years of Special Operations (London, 2001), 752.71. ‘Six Mercenaries in Luanda Trial reject British Barristers’, The Times, 14 June 1976.72. Record of Discussion at State Department between US and British officials, 13 Feb. 1976, FCO 7/3128, UKNA; Washington DC to FCO, No.794, 4 March 1976, FCO 7/3130, UKNA; Bridgland, Savimbi, 541–7.73. Campbell to Duff, FCO 7/3131; Lord Cromer (Ambassador at Washington) to Alec Douglas-Home (Foreign Secretary), 5 Jan. 1972, FCO 82/176, UKNA.74. Paper by Central and Southern Africa Department (FCO), The Immediate Outlook in Central and Southern Africa, 20 Feb. 1976, FCO 7/3129, UKNA.75. 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Arielli, ‘In Search of Meaning: Foreign Volunteers in the Croatian Armed Forces, 1991–1995’, Contemporary European History, xxi (2012), 1–17.80. A. Roberts, The Wonga Coup: Simon Mann's Plot to Seize Oil Billions in Africa (London, 2009).81. N. Ghouri, ‘The “Trigger Happy” Foreigners Making a Killing in Kabul’, The Week, 5 March 2011; ‘Blackwater Guards lose bid to Appeal Charges in Iraqi Civilian Shooting Case’, The Guardian, 5 June 2012.