What's up with the guy from DC who got caught trying to help a coup in the Congo?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The spouses of these people don’t even know the extent of their work activities. They are not allowed to tell them much at all about what they do at work.

Pretty sure this guy is not a 3-letter agency employee. He seems to be a get-rich-quick type of schemer based on what I've found online. He also has a federal conviction for trafficking pot.

He and his wife are home schooling their kids in some rural coastal town in South Africa.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The spouses of these people don’t even know the extent of their work activities. They are not allowed to tell them much at all about what they do at work.

Pretty sure this guy is not a 3-letter agency employee. He seems to be a get-rich-quick type of schemer based on what I've found online. He also has a federal conviction for trafficking pot.

He and his wife are home schooling their kids in some rural coastal town in South Africa.

I'll add - he appears to have grown up in the Cleveland Park/Tenleytown area. His step-father was a Georgetown Law professor. So definitely a local native.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The spouses of these people don’t even know the extent of their work activities. They are not allowed to tell them much at all about what they do at work.

Pretty sure this guy is not a 3-letter agency employee. He seems to be a get-rich-quick type of schemer based on what I've found online. He also has a federal conviction for trafficking pot.

He and his wife are home schooling their kids in some rural coastal town in South Africa.

I'll add - he appears to have grown up in the Cleveland Park/Tenleytown area. His step-father was a Georgetown Law professor. So definitely a local native.

Wow. It's like a movie.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If he's from DC, can we assume this is where his remains will be mailed?

They aren’t going to kill him. They are going to let him rot in probably one of the worst prisons you can imagine for the next 30 years or until he dies of tropical disease. Best deterrent you could imagine against future foreign coup plotters.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I think his wife is a victim and I feel sorry for her. Maybe there were red flags before they got married, maybe there weren't. But now her husband is in deep trouble and her world has been turned upside down. She herself has not done anything criminal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:State department passport too?

Are you reacting to the bottom right where it says "US Dept of State"? I think that's standard.

Wait that doesn’t make any sense. State Department folks take and pass the foreign service exam, and work in embassies to further diplomacy and friendly dialog.

They don’t participate in coups.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:State department passport too?

Are you reacting to the bottom right where it says "US Dept of State"? I think that's standard.

Wait that doesn’t make any sense. State Department folks take and pass the foreign service exam, and work in embassies to further diplomacy and friendly dialog.

They don’t participate in coups.

It’s not a diplomatic passport. It just says that the State Dept issued the passport. Mine says the same.

[Anonymous]

Tbh, who doesn’t dream of taking over a 3rd world country and be its petty dictator?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tbh, who doesn’t dream of taking over a 3rd world country and be its petty dictator?

Only a fool would believe that this would be possible in a country as massive and complicated like the Congo.

It sounds like the coup leader was actually a delusional egomaniac that probably should have gone to therapy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Yes, I think his wife is a victim and I feel sorry for her. Maybe there were red flags before they got married, maybe there weren't. But now her husband is in deep trouble and her world has been turned upside down. She herself has not done anything criminal.

We don’t know if she’s done anything criminal. In any case, she had to know that her husband was engaged in exploitative business practices in Africa and was happy with the lifestyle that gave her. Did she never ask how he was qualified to be a legitimate gold miner?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tbh, who doesn’t dream of taking over a 3rd world country and be its petty dictator?

Only a fool would believe that this would be possible in a country as massive and complicated like the Congo.

It sounds like the coup leader was actually a delusional egomaniac that probably should have gone to therapy.

Fair. What country is your go-to in grand strategy coup domination?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Yes, I think his wife is a victim and I feel sorry for her. Maybe there were red flags before they got married, maybe there weren't. But now her husband is in deep trouble and her world has been turned upside down. She herself has not done anything criminal.

We don’t know if she’s done anything criminal. In any case, she had to know that her husband was engaged in exploitative business practices in Africa and was happy with the lifestyle that gave her. Did she never ask how he was qualified to be a legitimate gold miner?

NP but what is a legitimate gold miner? Mining in general is always held up as a backbreaking job for people with no education or other prospects, and gold mining is either that "heading down the shaft with a pickaxe" model or shaking a pan in a creek. If someone told me they were a gold miner I would not demand credentials.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Yes, I think his wife is a victim and I feel sorry for her. Maybe there were red flags before they got married, maybe there weren't. But now her husband is in deep trouble and her world has been turned upside down. She herself has not done anything criminal.

We don’t know if she’s done anything criminal. In any case, she had to know that her husband was engaged in exploitative business practices in Africa and was happy with the lifestyle that gave her. Did she never ask how he was qualified to be a legitimate gold miner?

NP but what is a legitimate gold miner? Mining in general is always held up as a backbreaking job for people with no education or other prospects, and gold mining is either that "heading down the shaft with a pickaxe" model or shaking a pan in a creek. If someone told me they were a gold miner I would not demand credentials.

LOL he wasn't doing the mining himself. He was in the business of trying to buy & flip mining concessions. Who knows if he was actually successful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tbh, who doesn’t dream of taking over a 3rd world country and be its petty dictator?

Only a fool would believe that this would be possible in a country as massive and complicated like the Congo.

It sounds like the coup leader was actually a delusional egomaniac that probably should have gone to therapy.

Fair. What country is your go-to in grand strategy coup domination?

Small, poorly governed countries with resource wealth are the obvious targets: Guyana, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Brunei. But you need an insider as the titular leader or else you won’t have legitimacy. A lot of coups fail because it’s relatively easy to take over the Presidential Palace but what next? You cannot hole up in there indefinitely if no one will follow your orders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Yes, I think his wife is a victim and I feel sorry for her. Maybe there were red flags before they got married, maybe there weren't. But now her husband is in deep trouble and her world has been turned upside down. She herself has not done anything criminal.

We don’t know if she’s done anything criminal. In any case, she had to know that her husband was engaged in exploitative business practices in Africa and was happy with the lifestyle that gave her. Did she never ask how he was qualified to be a legitimate gold miner?

NP but what is a legitimate gold miner? Mining in general is always held up as a backbreaking job for people with no education or other prospects, and gold mining is either that "heading down the shaft with a pickaxe" model or shaking a pan in a creek. If someone told me they were a gold miner I would not demand credentials.

LOL he wasn't doing the mining himself. He was in the business of trying to buy & flip mining concessions. Who knows if he was actually successful.

So then he should have expertise in mining exploration and international conflict minerals investment and reporting requirements.

There is no way to spin this that shouldn’t have caused his wife to have serious red flags.