Operation Argon - du Toit - Gerhard - British Intelligence

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TheGreenGoblin
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Operation Argon - du Toit - Gerhard - British Intelligence

#1 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Sat Apr 18, 2020 3:57 am

I was prompted to think about this operation yesterday by an old friend who is suffering in lock down in Saudi Arabia and to whom I had sent a video produced by Wynand du Toit speaking about how people struggle to deal with the unknown and extrapolating from his own experience and advising people to handle the here and now in these times of Corona and knuckle down and handle the Covid-19 situation in a rational way (the link leads to that video which is in Afrikaans and I am sorry that it is not in English for the folks here as he speaks enormous sense).

All this lead on to a WhatsApp discusion about Operation Argon and canvassed the question as to how and why the operation failed.

I suspect that du Toit believes that his team were betrayed, most likely by the spy Dieter Gerhard and while this is highly likely I also pointed out that the Gulf Oil and Chevron oil installations they were planning to hit were American company owned and it is quite possible that either the CIA or the US mercenaries involved in guarding them were aware of the raid as well and pre-warned the Angolan forces and Cubans who were therefore expecting the raid. There is also a very likely third explanation and that is that the SADF pre-raid intelligence was poor and that the team were unaware of the heavy build up of Cuban and Angolan troops in the area, were unlucky and that they fell victim to the cock-up factor that can scupper the plans of the best and the bravest, as these blokes surely were.
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Re: Operation Argon - du Toit - Gerhard - British Intelligence

#2 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Sat Apr 18, 2020 3:59 am

I suspect that du Toit believes that his team were betrayed



As for the first highly likely point, Gerhard might have already been sussed by British Intelligence...
As part of his service in the Royal Navy, he trained at HMS Collingwood and served on HMS Tenby, and passed classified information about the weapons systems there to the Soviets. Among the systems he compromised through these activities were the SeaCat and Sea Sparrow missiles. He was also responsible for passing the first intelligence information about the French Exocet missile to the Soviets. British journalist and security services specialist Chapman Pincher maintained that, while in London in the late 1960s, Gerhardt was able to interview Royal Navy Polaris submarine crews for potential candidates that the Soviets could approach. It was also during this time that he met his first wife, British-born Janet Coggin whom he married in 1958.
Later, he was appointed commander of the strategically important Simonstown naval dockyard. In this position, he had access to all the South African Naval intelligence reports from the Silvermine listening post near Cape Town, as well as technical details of weapons systems. He reportedly revealed to the Soviets most of the Western naval surveillance techniques for the South Atlantic. During the 1982 Falklands War, Gerhardt was allegedly able to use his position to supply the Soviets with detailed information about the locations of Royal Navy ships in the south Atlantic that the South African Navy intercepted at Silvermine. Admiral of the Fleet Lord Hill-Norton publicly contradicted this view, but supported screening of Royal Navy officers who had been in contact with Gerhardt throughout his career.
Whatever the case it is a very interesting piece of history and du Toit is a brave man.
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Oil, the poisoned chalice and the Russian bear uses the Wagner Group..

#3 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Wed Apr 22, 2020 6:29 pm

An Islamist extremist group in northern Mozambique has killed dozens of villagers in its most bloody attack.
More than 50 people were massacred in an attack in Xitaxi in Muidumbe district after locals refused to be recruited to its ranks, according to police cited by local media. Most were either shot dead or beheaded.

“The criminals tried to recruit young people to join their ranks, but there was resistance. This provoked the anger of the criminals, who indiscriminately killed – cruelly and diabolically – 52 young people,” police spokesman Orlando Mudumane told the state-owned broadcasting service.

The attack occurred more than two weeks ago but details have only emerged now.

Militants have stepped up attacks in recent weeks as part of a campaign to establish an Islamist caliphate in the gas-rich region, seizing government buildings, blocking roads and briefly hoisting a black-and-white flag carrying religious symbols over towns and villages across Cabo Delgado province. The flag is also used by Isis and other Islamic extremists.

In March, the insurgents briefly occupied the centre of Mocímboa da Praia, a district headquarters, burning government facilities, including a barracks, and brandishing banners of affiliation to the so-called Islamic State.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... e-massacre

Wagner mercenaries.JPG
A deployment of Russian guns-for-hire, with links to the Kremlin, has sustained casualties in its fight against Islamist militants in Mozambique, multiple sources have told CNN.

In another example of Russia's growing reach into Africa, dozens of private military contractors are aiding the Mozambique army which is battling an insurgency in its northernmost province.
Russia's 'troll factory' is alive and well in Africa

The mercenaries in this resource-rich southern African country appear associated with Yevgeny Prigozhin, a St. Petersburg oligarch so close to the Kremlin that he is known as President Vladimir Putin's "chef."

Prigozhin, whose reach in the region stretches into Sudan, Libya and the Central African Republic, is thought to be the financier of the Wagner group, hundreds of whose fighters have also been deployed into Syria. His companies have been previously sanctioned by the US Treasury Department for their actions in Syria and his financing of the Internet Research Agency, which was responsible for Russian attempts to interfere in the 2016 US elections.

Prigozhin has routinely denied any connection to Wagner.
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/11/29/afri ... index.html
Though you remain
Convinced
"To be alive
You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."

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