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U.S. Involved in Plot to Kill Bob?
A key witness in the treason trial of Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai hinted that the U.S. government was involved in an alleged plot to assassinate President Robert Mugabe. Tsvangirai and two senior officials from his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party are accused of plotting to kill Mugabe and overthrow the Zimbabwe government ahead of last yearâs presidential elections. The stateâs case hinges on a videotape recording of a meeting Tsvangirai held in Montreal with political consultancy Dickens and Madson in December 2001, where the opposition leader is alleged to have requested Mugabeâs elimination.The key state witness in the case, Ari Ben Menashe, the head of Dickens and Madson, told the court Tuesday that a senior official from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Edward Simms, attended that meeting. On Wednesday, the court heard a section of the four-and-a-half-hour tape in which Ben Menashe, gesturing towards Tsvangiari, said: âWork has been done on your behalf to get stuff through Congress, work has been done to get these guys (the CIA) on your side to do the elimination on your behalf.â It is not clear from evidence, provided so far, whether Simms is part of the CIA, as Ben Menashe claims. The defense has said Simms was not the CIA deputy director for Africa. Paul Nowack, a spokesman for the CIA in Washington, told AFP: âWe donât comment on whether people work for us or not.â The soundtrack on the black and white video shown in court was barely audible. On the first day of screening the court only watched the first half hour of the tape, repeatedly rewinding to listen again to parts that were hard to hear. The MDC has said it never requested Dickens and Madson to eliminate Mugabe, and did not know the company was linked to the Zimbabwe government. Indeed, on the section of the tape watched by the court on Tuesday, Tsvangirai was heard to say: âThe discussion was never about the elimination of Mugabe, it was about the election, and the post-election outcome.â However, Ben Menashe has insisted in court that he had clear instructions from Tsvangirai to assassinate Mugabe and help stage a military coup. It sounds like a set-up by Bob. Who goes to a "political consultancy" in Montreal to set up a coup? If the CIA is involved, I'd hope they wouldn't be screwing around like this â just get it done and move on, after a meeting or two in some respectable dark alley. I suspect that Tsvangirai was dumb enough to do business with a bunch that was also doing business with Bob and ZANU/PF, and that they used lots of euphemisms and slang in the meetings that can be made to look like a plot aimed "eliminating" Bob physically, rather than "eliminating" the odor of his dictatorship. I also suspect Tsvangirai is going to end up with a blindfold and a cigarette... Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2003-02-05 |
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