WEBVTT - Part Two: The Dumbest Coup In World History 0:00:03.360 --> 0:00:06.000 It's the part of the second to Now that's not 0:00:06.040 --> 0:00:09.320 how we should introduce a podcast. Welcome back to Behind 0:00:09.360 --> 0:00:12.920 the Bastards. This is a podcast about terrible people. And 0:00:12.960 --> 0:00:15.720 this is part two of our series on the Wonga Coup, 0:00:15.800 --> 0:00:18.159 which started as an episode about a coup, but the 0:00:18.200 --> 0:00:20.799 first part was really just a more general description about 0:00:20.800 --> 0:00:24.079 the history of coups in Africa as both a literary 0:00:24.120 --> 0:00:27.600 tradition and as a real attempted thing, ending with the 0:00:27.720 --> 0:00:31.720 terrible story of the dictators of Equatorial Guinea. My guest 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:36.800 on part two, as with part one, is Bridget Todd. 0:00:38.880 --> 0:00:41.760 I get that. I get the fake airhorns. I love it. 0:00:42.280 --> 0:00:46.480 There's a national here. Yeah, sadly there's a national airhorn shortage, 0:00:46.520 --> 0:00:48.880 so we were out of the real ones. But when 0:00:48.920 --> 0:00:51.320 when those come back in stock, I will I will 0:00:51.360 --> 0:00:56.000 force our editor to put them back in. Please do. 0:00:56.240 --> 0:00:58.800 I I will only go on podcasts where I am 0:00:59.080 --> 0:01:03.160 introduced the plot with airhorn, so please please do. Yeah, 0:01:03.200 --> 0:01:05.039 I think it should be illegal to introduce people any 0:01:05.040 --> 0:01:07.440 other way, to be honest, Like, can you imagine if 0:01:07.480 --> 0:01:10.000 that's how like like first dates always went, and just 0:01:10.040 --> 0:01:12.160 like anytime you're out at the bar, you just randomly 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:15.679 hear you like because like two people are meeting on 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:19.839 tender or something. I love it. My people are Caribbeans, 0:01:19.840 --> 0:01:22.560 so we love a good airhorn. Oh yeah, yeah you do. 0:01:22.880 --> 0:01:25.760 I would really like some sort of sound effect to 0:01:25.840 --> 0:01:27.880 let me know if it's like a cute meat or 0:01:27.920 --> 0:01:31.679 if it's like this guy is or this person is horrifying, 0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:34.200 Like I would like to know that. I would like 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:36.800 some sort of sound of what to happen. What would 0:01:36.840 --> 0:01:39.759 be your horrifying sound effect for a for a date? 0:01:41.000 --> 0:01:46.600 What's the what's the theme song of Hannity? I'm Sean 0:01:46.800 --> 0:01:51.200 Hanny dy I eat man at Tease. I think that's it. 0:01:51.360 --> 0:01:58.480 I'm pretty sure that's that's basically it. Yeah, yeah, Bridget, 0:01:59.640 --> 0:02:03.560 you are the host of a new podcast launching next 0:02:03.600 --> 0:02:07.160 month h called There Are No Women on the Internet. Right, 0:02:07.960 --> 0:02:11.760 that's true. Uh, it's not mostly true. It launches on 0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:13.880 July seven, and it's called there Are No Girls on 0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:16.200 the Internet. But you got the broad stroke? Oh wait, 0:02:16.280 --> 0:02:21.640 June is after Okay, yep, sorry, well I got the 0:02:21.680 --> 0:02:24.360 broad strokes. And speaking of broad strokes, let's get the 0:02:24.360 --> 0:02:28.560 broad strokes of this coup, right, Um. Yeah, I'm a 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:33.760 master of transitions. Thank you. Uh. So, yeah, we we 0:02:33.880 --> 0:02:36.919 ended our episode talking about the dictators of Equatorial Guinea 0:02:36.960 --> 0:02:39.720 and this attempted coup that didn't turn into a coup 0:02:39.760 --> 0:02:43.720 but did turn into a successful book, which is, Um, 0:02:44.360 --> 0:02:46.280 I don't even know what level of privilege that is, 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:50.040 where you like attempt to overthrow a sovereign nation in 0:02:50.120 --> 0:02:52.680 order to make a profit and fail but still get 0:02:52.760 --> 0:02:55.400 rich off of the book. Like that's that's like I 0:02:55.440 --> 0:02:59.840 feel like there's another level of white privilege that's like, yeah, 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:02.520 I don't even know how to describe that. That's like 0:03:02.720 --> 0:03:06.760 platinum white privilege that it's like yeah, like yeah, that 0:03:06.880 --> 0:03:11.000 is some like ultra uncut pure white privilege. Yeah, that's 0:03:11.000 --> 0:03:13.200 the kind of white privilege you need the Costco card 0:03:13.240 --> 0:03:15.480 to take advantage of, right, Like you gotta pay an 0:03:15.520 --> 0:03:22.240 extra sixty five dollars. There's a yearly subscription that you 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:28.040 have to pay into for that. So yeah, so yes, um, 0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:30.520 and now we're going to start So, so we're gonna 0:03:30.560 --> 0:03:33.560 go back in time again. And now that we've explained 0:03:33.760 --> 0:03:36.760 all of these coups and mercenaries in the situation in 0:03:36.800 --> 0:03:39.840 Equatorial Guinea, we're going to go back in time, um 0:03:39.880 --> 0:03:42.880 to talk about another mercenary before we get back to 0:03:42.920 --> 0:03:47.400 Equatorial Guinea, and this mercenary's name is Simon Francis man 0:03:48.040 --> 0:03:51.480 Uh Now Simon was born on June nineteen fifty two. 0:03:51.680 --> 0:03:54.480 His family were British as all hell, I think they're 0:03:54.520 --> 0:03:58.000 Irish British so like British people who became part or 0:03:58.040 --> 0:04:00.880 Irish people who like did all enough to become part 0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:03.680 of the British aristocracy and got to be a lot 0:04:03.720 --> 0:04:06.480 less Irish as a result of things. Anyway, I don't 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:09.320 really know. Um. The man family wealth came from brewing, 0:04:09.360 --> 0:04:11.360 and right around the same time Simon was born, his 0:04:11.440 --> 0:04:14.600 family sold their family business to a big company in 0:04:14.640 --> 0:04:16.720 return for a pile of cash and a seat on 0:04:16.760 --> 0:04:19.840 the board. This meant that Simon grew up very comfortable, 0:04:19.880 --> 0:04:21.560 but it also meant that he would need to find 0:04:21.560 --> 0:04:24.200 a new career for himself when he grew up. Taking 0:04:24.200 --> 0:04:26.680 over the family business would not be an option. In 0:04:26.720 --> 0:04:29.520 the grand tradition of all fancy English people, his parents 0:04:29.560 --> 0:04:32.080 sent him the funk Away to spend his childhood and Eaton, 0:04:32.520 --> 0:04:35.680 which is frequently referred to as the nursery of England's 0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:39.239 gentleman uh Eaton, is probably the most prestigious high school 0:04:39.240 --> 0:04:42.960 on the planet. Boris Johnson went there, as did David Cameron, 0:04:43.000 --> 0:04:46.400 Prince William, Prince Harry, Tom Hittleston, and in general about 0:04:46.440 --> 0:04:48.600 thirty of all of the famous British men who have 0:04:48.640 --> 0:04:51.159 ever lived like it eatens where you go if you're 0:04:51.200 --> 0:04:56.520 a fancy British boy. Now this is like some like 0:04:56.800 --> 0:05:01.520 very fancy British white guy shit. I feel yeah, yes, 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:04.359 this is like this is this is the peak of 0:05:04.440 --> 0:05:07.799 fancy British white guy ship like it does it doesn't 0:05:07.880 --> 0:05:10.880 get I would say the whitest thing it is possible 0:05:11.080 --> 0:05:13.839 to be is a British person who went to Eaton. 0:05:14.320 --> 0:05:18.880 Like that's that's like like top tier of of white dude. 0:05:19.040 --> 0:05:24.960 Like very few of us are that white mm hmm. Now, 0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:28.159 Eating currently cost fifty two dollars a year in tuition, 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:30.680 and the cost was broadly similar when Simon went there. 0:05:30.920 --> 0:05:33.680 Only students from age thirteen to eighteen are accepted, and 0:05:33.720 --> 0:05:37.880 the application process starts at age ten. Eating students each 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:41.520 get their own separate room. Students are split up into 0:05:41.560 --> 0:05:44.000 fifty person houses where these boys are watched over by 0:05:44.000 --> 0:05:47.160 a full time staff supervised by what a Business Insider 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:53.720 article I found calls a hired dame. Yeah, yeah, I 0:05:53.720 --> 0:05:56.440 wouldn't imagine having that on your resume. Yeah, I was 0:05:56.480 --> 0:06:00.680 a hired dame for about four years in the nineteen nineties. Yeah, 0:06:00.680 --> 0:06:02.840 and they also couldn't they couldn't just call it like 0:06:02.880 --> 0:06:05.680 an r A like here, like familiar with It has 0:06:05.720 --> 0:06:09.440 to be a hired dame. Poor people have r a's 0:06:09.640 --> 0:06:14.400 bridget Rich people have hired dames. And I do think 0:06:14.400 --> 0:06:16.160 like your r a's job is just to make sure 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:19.200 nobody burns the building down. Really like a hired dame. 0:06:19.320 --> 0:06:21.640 They're doing a lot. More so, like she's managing this 0:06:21.680 --> 0:06:24.960 whole staff of people who like adults, So all these 0:06:25.040 --> 0:06:27.800 kids when the eighteen are living alone in little apartments 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:31.000 and having an entire staff of adults clean for them, 0:06:31.120 --> 0:06:34.559 um clean their clothing, like, launder their clothing, cook food 0:06:34.600 --> 0:06:36.680 for them, and like this woman whose job it is 0:06:36.720 --> 0:06:39.080 to manage all of the people who manages their lives, 0:06:39.120 --> 0:06:42.720 like it's this kind of imagine what that does for 0:06:42.800 --> 0:06:47.880 you as a little kid growing up, Like it's yeah, 0:06:47.920 --> 0:06:50.479 I feel like it would really fuck me up to 0:06:51.040 --> 0:06:53.720 have an adult woman doing all this ship for me, 0:06:53.760 --> 0:06:55.280 and I'm a little kid. I feel that there's no 0:06:55.320 --> 0:06:58.080 way I can come out of that being well adjusted. Yeah. 0:06:58.120 --> 0:07:01.640 I think that's probably the case with Etonians, as they're known. 0:07:01.880 --> 0:07:05.000 So after rich Boy High school, Man joined the military 0:07:05.120 --> 0:07:08.279 and went into officer training at the Royal Military Academy 0:07:08.360 --> 0:07:11.280 at Sandhurst. In addition to being Brewers, the men and 0:07:11.320 --> 0:07:14.200 his family had a long history of military service. Simon 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:17.040 graduated and followed in his father's footsteps by accepting a 0:07:17.040 --> 0:07:20.880 commission in the Royal Scots Guards. He was good at soldiering, 0:07:20.960 --> 0:07:22.720 and after a few years he applied to join the 0:07:22.760 --> 0:07:26.560 Special Air Service, Britain's equivalent to the Navy Seals. He 0:07:26.640 --> 0:07:28.800 eventually became a troop commander in the s A S 0:07:28.880 --> 0:07:32.480 and specialized in counter terrorism and intelligence gathering. Both of 0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:35.480 those specialties will become powerfully ironic as we go along, 0:07:36.120 --> 0:07:38.480 but for now. Simon did his three year rotation and 0:07:38.520 --> 0:07:40.600 then returned to the regular Army, where he was stationed 0:07:40.600 --> 0:07:43.800 in Northern Ireland. He bounced around Cold War era Europe 0:07:43.800 --> 0:07:46.320 in Central America until the early nineteen eighties, when he 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:50.320 grew bored of army life and retired. Man immediately moved 0:07:50.320 --> 0:07:53.160 to the private military sector, joining a company run by 0:07:53.360 --> 0:07:56.800 S A. S founder David Sterling, who was pretty close 0:07:56.840 --> 0:07:59.600 to just being a straight up fascist. Uh. And in 0:07:59.680 --> 0:08:03.520 general Old Man's friends during this period were members of 0:08:03.520 --> 0:08:06.160 like a trend in British conservatism that started in the 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:09.320 early nineteen seventies when the Labor Party won control of 0:08:09.360 --> 0:08:12.760 the government and right wingers began ranting about communist infiltration. 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:16.760 In the early seventies, Sterling, his boss, had solicited volunteers 0:08:16.800 --> 0:08:19.360 to join what he called a strike breaking army to 0:08:19.440 --> 0:08:23.240 destroy the unions in Britain violently. Um. This put him 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:27.200 ideologically right in line with Margaret Thatcher's political mentor airy Neive, 0:08:27.240 --> 0:08:30.200 who urged a right wing coup against the Labor government. 0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:34.040 Oddly enough, this also put Sterling and his fellows right 0:08:34.080 --> 0:08:38.000 in line with David Bowie, who openly supported an extreme 0:08:38.080 --> 0:08:40.480 right wing government and stated in the early seventies that 0:08:40.520 --> 0:08:45.480 Britain needed a dictator. Yeah, but you know that about 0:08:45.559 --> 0:08:53.400 David Bowie, did you. Yeah, when like in the seventies, 0:08:53.400 --> 0:08:56.680 when unions got super powerful in England and uh, the 0:08:56.760 --> 0:09:00.440 Labor government started winning a bunch of David Bowie, an 0:09:00.480 --> 0:09:04.240 extreme right wing government and a coup and a dictator. Uh. 0:09:04.280 --> 0:09:06.520 You know this is like when you're presented with, like 0:09:06.600 --> 0:09:09.160 when you know, the idea of a problematic saves, when 0:09:09.160 --> 0:09:12.280 you're presented with some unfavorable information about somebody that you 0:09:12.320 --> 0:09:14.839 love and you're like, I pretend I do not see it. 0:09:15.480 --> 0:09:19.040 I feel like that's like I'm like, ohs it Sylvie 0:09:19.120 --> 0:09:23.040 with your Lager's jersey. Of course. Exactly, yeah, exactly, yeah. 0:09:23.080 --> 0:09:25.200 I mean, as much as we may try to be here, 0:09:25.320 --> 0:09:28.440 we all have someone like that. I love what I 0:09:28.480 --> 0:09:35.800 love Bill Shatner, and he's objectively a monster. Yeah. So 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:38.880 the talk of coups on the British right wing mostly 0:09:38.920 --> 0:09:41.600 died down in nineteen seventy nine when Margaret Thatcher was 0:09:41.640 --> 0:09:45.000 elected Prime Minister, but Simon Mann's social circle in the 0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:47.439 early eighties was made up almost exclusively of folks who 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:51.440 were unabashed supporters of violently suppressing the left. He worked 0:09:51.480 --> 0:09:54.080 with David Sterling's company as a rent a mercenary and 0:09:54.160 --> 0:09:57.560 hobnobbed with high society. But a desk job didn't suit Man, 0:09:57.600 --> 0:09:59.800 and he was already getting restless by the time his boss, 0:09:59.800 --> 0:10:02.320 Guy in trouble for misusing funds donated to this to 0:10:02.360 --> 0:10:05.800 a charitable foundation. Lucky for him, by this point, Saddam 0:10:05.880 --> 0:10:08.720 Hussein had invaded Kuwait and the British military was suddenly 0:10:08.720 --> 0:10:12.199 involved in something interesting again. Man re enlisted and joined 0:10:12.240 --> 0:10:15.800 British Army staff in Saudi Arabia. The war didn't last long, 0:10:15.880 --> 0:10:18.040 and in its wake, Simon Mann was left more bored 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:20.520 and restless than ever. He got involved with an oil 0:10:20.600 --> 0:10:23.160 firm that was investing in the newly emerged oil industry 0:10:23.160 --> 0:10:25.839 in Angola, and as luck would have it, just as 0:10:25.880 --> 0:10:29.160 Man started sniffing around Angola in nineteen ninety two, the 0:10:29.240 --> 0:10:31.680 nation found itself in the midst of a civil war. 0:10:32.679 --> 0:10:36.640 Now Angola's second largest political party, UNITA, had started out 0:10:36.640 --> 0:10:39.400 as a left wing organization supported by the People's Republic 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:42.360 of China, but during the nineteen eighties UNITA had pivoted 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:44.760 to the hard right under the command of Jonas Savimbi. 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:47.600 Thanks to our old buddy Paul Manafort, it received piles 0:10:47.600 --> 0:10:49.959 and piles of money and guns from the Reagan administration 0:10:50.040 --> 0:10:54.360 during this period. In nineteen ninety two, UNITA troops overran 0:10:54.480 --> 0:10:56.680 several oil pump thing of a jigs near a town 0:10:56.760 --> 0:11:00.560 called Soyo. The Angolan army failed to retake the will field. 0:11:01.120 --> 0:11:03.760 Now this was a threat to Man's investments in the area, 0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:05.880 but more than that, it was an opportunity. He and 0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:09.400 his business partner, an entrepreneur named Tony Buckingham, approached the 0:11:09.440 --> 0:11:12.520 government of Angola and said, Hey, we're pretty sure we 0:11:12.559 --> 0:11:14.800 could put together a mercenary army to take care of 0:11:14.840 --> 0:11:18.320 this rebel problem for you, and Angola said, yes, it 0:11:18.400 --> 0:11:20.559 really is that easy, or at least it was in 0:11:20.640 --> 0:11:25.760 the early nineties too. Get your own army. Yeah, that's cool, 0:11:27.760 --> 0:11:30.240 totally cool. Like, wouldn't it be cool if you could 0:11:30.280 --> 0:11:32.600 just like a master or own army with that amount 0:11:32.640 --> 0:11:35.839 of ease, welcome back come about. Yeah, I mean that's 0:11:35.880 --> 0:11:38.000 what I'm trying to do with this whole fd A thing. 0:11:38.120 --> 0:11:41.360 But um, it's it's it's harder than I thought to 0:11:41.400 --> 0:11:45.040 amass your own army, to be honest, frustrating. What would 0:11:45.360 --> 0:11:47.680 what would your the what would your army be called? 0:11:48.640 --> 0:11:54.160 I don't know, I think I don't know. I I uh, 0:11:55.120 --> 0:11:56.920 maybe you're right. Maybe that's why I haven't gotten an 0:11:57.000 --> 0:11:58.800 army yet, is that I haven't figured out the branding 0:11:58.800 --> 0:12:02.920 for it. Yeah, that's a shame. I'll have to think 0:12:02.960 --> 0:12:11.000 about that. Bridget So the whole, the whole, Yeah, so 0:12:11.040 --> 0:12:13.840 Simon Mann and his partner Buckingham got to follow in 0:12:13.880 --> 0:12:16.520 the grand tradition established by Bob Dinnard in myke Cory. 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:19.000 Only unlike those men, they were helping to keep a 0:12:19.080 --> 0:12:22.640 ruler in power and actually fighting against far right militants. 0:12:22.679 --> 0:12:25.000 So you might call this a promising start, or at 0:12:25.040 --> 0:12:29.520 least as promising a start as any mercenary outfit can have. Um, 0:12:29.559 --> 0:12:32.840 you know, broadly. Um. It doesn't end well, though, As 0:12:32.880 --> 0:12:35.880 Adam Roberts notes, Quote Man, however, was a little different. 0:12:35.920 --> 0:12:37.920 He was as likely to wear a crumpled business suit 0:12:37.920 --> 0:12:41.600 as riomless spectacles and rimless spectacles as camouflage or chest webbing. 0:12:41.800 --> 0:12:44.079 He was an early example of a new sort of mercenary, 0:12:44.160 --> 0:12:48.160 the type familiar with company law, bank transfers, and investor agreements, 0:12:48.160 --> 0:12:51.320 as with the workings of a browning pistol. In other words, 0:12:51.400 --> 0:12:54.040 Simon Mann was probably the first example of a modern 0:12:54.120 --> 0:12:57.679 mercenary leader, the prototype for men like Eric Prince so 0:12:57.840 --> 0:13:01.319 before him. Mercenaries are like these, like really hard bitten people, 0:13:01.400 --> 0:13:03.840 like guys who go to war in their youth and 0:13:03.920 --> 0:13:07.199 never escape it, and like you know, like Bob Dinnard 0:13:07.240 --> 0:13:10.240 in My Corey, like those those dudes saw heavy, heavy combat, 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:12.800 and it just like they were just fucked up in 0:13:12.840 --> 0:13:14.160 a way that this was all they could do, and 0:13:14.200 --> 0:13:15.920 all of their men were kind of the same way. 0:13:16.320 --> 0:13:20.520 Simon Mann is someone who is perfectly capable of succeeding 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:23.960 in the non shooting people world, and in fact has 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:26.880 been very successful in that, but he likes the excitement 0:13:26.920 --> 0:13:29.679 of war, so he's like he gets involved in this 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:33.640 mercenary company as a business um, and he's really the 0:13:33.679 --> 0:13:37.320 first example of that. He's the Eric Prince type, right, um, 0:13:37.440 --> 0:13:40.400 where he's a good he's good at running a corporation, 0:13:40.520 --> 0:13:43.680 and he also just thinks it's cool to have an army. Um. 0:13:43.760 --> 0:13:45.760 And that's that's kind of the sort of dude that 0:13:45.800 --> 0:13:48.440 man is. And he blazes a trail. Yeah, I feel 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:51.839 like that's really a dangerous recipe, that kind of that 0:13:51.920 --> 0:13:53.840 kind of dude who thinks it's it's cool to have 0:13:53.880 --> 0:13:58.960 an army. Yeah. Yeah, because he's gonna use it. You know. 0:13:59.000 --> 0:14:01.320 There's something to be said. Like Mike Horrer, as we 0:14:01.600 --> 0:14:04.360 talked about, was a monster, like killed a ton of people, 0:14:04.520 --> 0:14:07.760 super racist, but at least he got shot at a lot. 0:14:07.880 --> 0:14:09.920 Like he and his men like they like he he 0:14:09.920 --> 0:14:12.119 he didn't. He wasn't just like sitting in a boardroom 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:15.000 while people committed murder on his behalf like he was. 0:14:15.040 --> 0:14:17.959 He was out there, and I guess that's something Simon 0:14:18.000 --> 0:14:20.320 Mann is going to be the sits in a boardroom 0:14:20.360 --> 0:14:27.640 while people get shot kind of leader. Um yeah, so yeah, 0:14:27.680 --> 0:14:29.960 he was not really an adrenaline junkie um in the 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:32.720 in in the traditional way, Like he wasn't addicted to 0:14:32.760 --> 0:14:35.120 like running into combat and getting shot at directly. He 0:14:35.160 --> 0:14:38.080 was happy staying behind the lines and basically playing. Like 0:14:38.240 --> 0:14:40.720 you get the feeling that running a mercenary army for 0:14:40.720 --> 0:14:42.720 Simon Mann is like what a lot of people get 0:14:42.760 --> 0:14:46.040 out of playing real time strategy video games. Like that's 0:14:46.120 --> 0:14:48.000 kind of what he likes about it is it's like 0:14:48.040 --> 0:14:51.040 the stakes and stuff. Um so yeah. He hires a 0:14:51.040 --> 0:14:53.520 bunch of South African and British mercenaries to fill out 0:14:53.560 --> 0:14:56.200 his army. These are white and mostly black men who 0:14:56.200 --> 0:14:59.600 had worked in counter terrorism, which counter terrorism within the 0:14:59.640 --> 0:15:02.400 South African context in this period meant that they had 0:15:02.400 --> 0:15:05.240 been supporting the apartheid government of South Africa and fighting 0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:09.400 against like Nelson Mandela and his crew. Um So, for 0:15:09.480 --> 0:15:11.600 the sake of having a corporate structure and all the 0:15:11.680 --> 0:15:15.720 legal permits necessary to buy guns and stuff. Man somehow 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:19.080 wound up in control of a private security firm called 0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:22.240 Executive Outcomes. We'll talk about them a little bit later. 0:15:22.640 --> 0:15:25.120 The bulk of his soldiers were veterans of the thirty 0:15:25.160 --> 0:15:28.040 two Battalion, which is a veteran South African unit who 0:15:28.040 --> 0:15:30.600 had fought in Angola before, and they've been fighting on 0:15:30.640 --> 0:15:33.400 the same side as Jonas Savimbi then because the apartheid 0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:37.240 government backed this far right militia. But since the apartheid 0:15:37.280 --> 0:15:39.440 government had fallen, you know, they just wound up on 0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:42.280 the other side, fighting against these guys that they fought 0:15:42.280 --> 0:15:45.200 alongside before, which actually works out great because they know 0:15:45.240 --> 0:15:48.440 all their tricks. Um thirty two Battalion had a reputation 0:15:48.480 --> 0:15:52.200 for toughness and for viciousness. Their nickname was the Terrible Ones, 0:15:52.640 --> 0:15:55.080 and in February of nineteen three they got a chance 0:15:55.120 --> 0:15:58.400 to prove they deserve the name. Man's Little Army launched 0:15:58.440 --> 0:16:01.480 an assault to retake the oil fields of Soil, supported 0:16:01.480 --> 0:16:04.160 by the Angolan Air Force and army. The core of 0:16:04.200 --> 0:16:06.400 their force was just twenty five men, but these were 0:16:06.480 --> 0:16:09.200 hardened veterans, and they had the assault skills necessary to 0:16:09.200 --> 0:16:11.800 act as the tip of the spear for the undisciplined 0:16:11.840 --> 0:16:15.000 and largely amateur and Golan army. The Unita rebels were 0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:17.520 forced to retreat and the end Goolan Army to established 0:16:17.520 --> 0:16:20.680 a beachhead on the Soyu oil field. The success so 0:16:20.840 --> 0:16:24.200 You earned Executive Outcomes a reputation for ferocity and competence. 0:16:24.480 --> 0:16:27.760 The England government offered Man an eighty million dollar contract 0:16:27.800 --> 0:16:29.760 if his firm would help them continue the war against 0:16:29.840 --> 0:16:33.440 Unita and train the regular Angolan army. More battles followed, 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:36.880 and Executive Outcomes expanded into a much larger force, eventually 0:16:36.880 --> 0:16:40.560 reaching more than a thousand regular employees, and Goalie even 0:16:40.640 --> 0:16:43.680 let Man help run their air force. In nineteen nine four, 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:46.280 they carried out what Man claimed was the largest combined 0:16:46.360 --> 0:16:49.560 arms attack in Africa since World War Two, forcing UNITA 0:16:49.600 --> 0:16:54.120 out of the Soyu oil fields entirely. So he it 0:16:54.160 --> 0:16:56.480 seems like it's working out so far. Uh in The 0:16:56.520 --> 0:16:59.320 mid nineties were in general probably a pretty happy time 0:16:59.320 --> 0:17:01.840 for Simon Mann. He expanded his little army into a 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:06.000 medium sized army, complete with planes and helicopters. From nine 0:17:06.040 --> 0:17:08.840 to nineteen ninety six. They fought numerous battles in Angola 0:17:08.880 --> 0:17:12.280 and other African countries. Twenty one Executive Outcomes men were 0:17:12.359 --> 0:17:14.520 killed in various clashes, but they racked up a much 0:17:14.600 --> 0:17:17.879 higher death toll among the rebels they fought. Unita was 0:17:18.000 --> 0:17:21.720 largely funded by diamond mines, and Man's contract specified that 0:17:21.760 --> 0:17:24.080 he got a cut of any diamond mine freed by 0:17:24.160 --> 0:17:27.879 his men. So this is really interesting because it leads 0:17:27.920 --> 0:17:30.960 to they don't just get like a percentage of the profits. 0:17:30.960 --> 0:17:35.400 Executive outcomes like as part of like a web of companies, 0:17:35.400 --> 0:17:37.680 and it's almost impossible. I don't think anyone has ever 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:39.840 really done a good job of unraveling all of them. 0:17:40.040 --> 0:17:43.160 But Simon Mann and his business partners create like multiple 0:17:43.280 --> 0:17:47.360 different companies, including a mining company that they have actually 0:17:47.400 --> 0:17:50.040 like they get a contract to run these diamond mines 0:17:50.119 --> 0:17:52.680 that they liberate with their soldiers, and then the mining 0:17:52.720 --> 0:17:55.520 company that Simon Man owned starts mining the diamonds, so 0:17:55.560 --> 0:17:58.399 they get money from the diamond mining. UM. He creates 0:17:58.400 --> 0:18:00.959 a subsidiary called branch in g which does a lot 0:18:01.000 --> 0:18:03.560 of the oil extractions. And this is where things start 0:18:03.600 --> 0:18:06.480 to get really fucking complicated. UM and In fact, things 0:18:06.520 --> 0:18:09.080 have been complicated from the beginning because at this point 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:12.280 in Africa, all of these different fucking mercenary companies and 0:18:12.359 --> 0:18:17.040 mining companies are all like like it's it's it's shady 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:20.320 fucking corporate ship. Like where you you'll have like twenty 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:22.920 different companies that are all really the same company run 0:18:22.960 --> 0:18:25.199 by the same three or four guides, but they're different 0:18:25.240 --> 0:18:28.879 companies on paper. Um. So, like Executive Outcomes had started 0:18:28.880 --> 0:18:31.480 as a front company for a South African war criminals 0:18:31.480 --> 0:18:34.440 that he could evade international arms embargoes. And I don't 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:37.800 really know how Man wound up running it, but like 0:18:38.880 --> 0:18:42.160 Man wound up basically using this as like the face 0:18:42.240 --> 0:18:44.920 for his company, even though like the real company actually 0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:48.359 doing most of the fighting for Executive Outcomes was another 0:18:48.480 --> 0:18:51.520 company Man had founded called Sandline. Like it's all fucking 0:18:51.960 --> 0:18:56.119 stupidly complicated. Um And to make matters even more complicated, 0:18:56.119 --> 0:18:58.199 a bunch of other shady companies that we all know 0:18:58.280 --> 0:19:00.879 and love were involved to for so, for example, that 0:19:01.000 --> 0:19:04.480 big first deal that Executive Outcomes brokeren with Angola to 0:19:04.720 --> 0:19:08.560 have their their their fucking mercenary army liberate those diamond minds. 0:19:08.800 --> 0:19:13.840 It was brokered by de beers, so like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:19:13.880 --> 0:19:17.560 we all know to beers. Yeah, this is like tail 0:19:17.640 --> 0:19:19.800 as old as time when it comes to fucking like 0:19:20.200 --> 0:19:24.080 rich gas companies, like shell companies, you know, it's like 0:19:24.880 --> 0:19:27.400 this is tales all the time, like companies where it's 0:19:27.400 --> 0:19:29.800 all like, oh, these different companies with like crazy names 0:19:29.840 --> 0:19:31.960 and it's all one company, but they were actually like 0:19:32.000 --> 0:19:34.400 five companies. All you need to know is that, like 0:19:34.600 --> 0:19:38.720 somebody is getting fucking paid and shady shit is happening, right, Yeah. 0:19:39.160 --> 0:19:41.760 All you really need to know about this in particular 0:19:41.920 --> 0:19:45.080 is that like Simon Mann and a handful of his 0:19:45.160 --> 0:19:47.119 friends at the top, who are all white dudes, are 0:19:47.119 --> 0:19:50.119 getting paid millions of dollars and all of the fighting 0:19:50.160 --> 0:19:54.240 and dying is being done by mercenaries sixty or seventy 0:19:54.240 --> 0:19:57.080 percent of whom are black guys. Um, And they're not 0:19:57.119 --> 0:19:59.840 getting paid so much like it's good money for them. 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:02.960 It ain't Simon Man money, um, because the real moneys 0:20:02.960 --> 0:20:05.720 and the diamonds in the oil um. The mercenaries are 0:20:05.760 --> 0:20:07.520 just a way to get at the diamonds in the 0:20:07.560 --> 0:20:11.159 oil um. Yeah, and you'll hear a lot of like 0:20:11.200 --> 0:20:13.920 libertarian types talk about how good a job Executive Outcomes 0:20:13.920 --> 0:20:16.119 did here um, and they did a great job at 0:20:16.200 --> 0:20:19.840 fighting Unita, but they didn't really care about stabilizing Angola. 0:20:19.840 --> 0:20:23.840 They cared about stabilizing the mines and oil fields of 0:20:23.880 --> 0:20:27.920 Angola and the roads that lad those two distribution centers UM, 0:20:27.960 --> 0:20:31.000 which is why they didn't actually achieve any long term 0:20:31.400 --> 0:20:37.280 security for the region. UM. So yeah, by nine, Executive 0:20:37.280 --> 0:20:40.080 Outcomes was effectively a giant web of companies, all more 0:20:40.160 --> 0:20:42.520 or less run by Simon Mann and his buddy Buckingham, 0:20:42.720 --> 0:20:46.879 with interest in mining, oil, security, air transport, and everything imaginable. 0:20:47.280 --> 0:20:50.520 In nineteen the government of Sierra Leone went to Executive 0:20:50.520 --> 0:20:53.639 Outcomes begging for their help and suppressing a brutal insurgent 0:20:53.640 --> 0:20:57.639 group called the RUF. Now, the RUF had been formed 0:20:57.640 --> 0:21:01.160 by a disaffected army corporal and they basically gone from 0:21:01.320 --> 0:21:05.719 fringe political armed group to violent psychopaths. Their trademark tactic 0:21:05.840 --> 0:21:08.280 was severing the arms of their victims. Depending on how 0:21:08.280 --> 0:21:10.440 pissed they were, ore UF men would either give short 0:21:10.480 --> 0:21:13.520 sleeves where they amputated just the hand, or long sleeves 0:21:13.560 --> 0:21:16.200 where they took the whole arm. So yeah, these guys 0:21:16.200 --> 0:21:18.440 are bad uh and they're kicking the ship out of 0:21:18.440 --> 0:21:20.480 the government to Sierra Leone, and a big part of 0:21:20.480 --> 0:21:23.000 why is that they're receiving money in arms from Liberian 0:21:23.000 --> 0:21:26.639 President Charles Taylor. And so in short order, Sierra Leone 0:21:26.680 --> 0:21:29.840 is near collapse and Executive Outcomes gets hired. They come 0:21:29.880 --> 0:21:32.600 in and they effectively changed that. They pushed the rebels 0:21:32.640 --> 0:21:35.600 back and focus heavily on retaking diamond minds the RUF 0:21:35.640 --> 0:21:38.320 had occupied. This was a decent tactic, but it was 0:21:38.359 --> 0:21:41.879 also very profitable. The Sierra Leonese government had awarded a 0:21:41.960 --> 0:21:45.560