Wikileaks report: Mills rejects oil bribe

President Atta Mills         It is gradually emerging that President John Evans Atta Mills may, after all, not be immune to bribery and corruption as some corporate bodies troop to the Castle, Osu, the seat of government, attempting to bribe the president. Latest in the series of leaked cables from the whistle-blowing website, Wikileaks, is an open admission by President Mills that some oil companies had attempted to offer him a juicy package to influence him. The cables, which were sent on February 16, 2010, indicated that President Mills held a meeting with US Assistant Secretary of States, Johnnie Carson, accompanied by the US Ambassador, Special Assistant, Cook and one Econoff on February 3, 2010. At the said meeting, President Mills told the aforementioned individuals how he was committed to putting the country’s oil proceeds to good use but had cause to complain that a number of corrupt oil company representatives had attempted to bribe him. "Assistant Secretary Carson, accompanied by the Ambassador, Donald Teittelbaum, Special Assistant Cook and Econof, met with President John Atta Mills on February 3, 2010, Carson strongly emphasized the need for leadership in ensuring that Ghana oil resources, arc managed for the benefit of the country. He stressed the importance of adherence to rule of law and transparency to maintain Ghana's attractiveness for investment and its ultimate success in, developing its oil resources. President Mills said he is determined to ensure oil will be a blessing, but that a number of corrupt oil company representatives have attempted to bribe him. He said that he refused the money and was offended by their efforts," the leaked report said. President Mills however failed to disclose the names and identities of the supposed companies involved but only said "he said that he refused the money and was offended by their efforts" since he was committed to the rule of law and transparency. President Mills could not hide his government's reservations in dealing with Kosmos Energy which is currently producing oil along with Jubilee oil partners in the country, accusing the company of not being transparent in their dealing with the Government of Ghana (GoG). He emphasized the importance of respect in dealing with the GoG, accusing Kosmos Energy of multiple offenses. Mills claimed that Kosmos initially denied that they were planning to sell their assets in the Jubilee Fields when they were said to be interested in selling: At the time, President Mills, who appeared bitter, indicated that Kosmos had invited a delegation to go to London to discuss a potential sale, but before the meeting, the CEO of ExxonMobil informed him that Exxon had entered into an exclusive agreement with Kosmos to purchase the asset. Whilst he acknowledged the right of Exxon to enter into such an agreement with Kosmos, President Mills said he felt both Ghana and he personally had been misled and disrespected by Kosmos. Two days before President Mills made these disclosures to the US officials, the Minister of Energy, Dr. Joe Oteng-Adjei, wrote a letter to ExxonMobil CEO Tillerson, saying the GoG was unable to support an ExxonMobil acquisition of Kosmos's Ghana assets as long as the companies retained their exclusivity agreement and denied the GoG a role in the asset acquisition process. Later, when President Mills met the US officials, he praised ExxonMobil's expertise in oil exploration and production Whilst raising issues with Kosmos letting other companies view sensitive data in what he described as a violation of Ghanaian law. Under normal circumstance the President said Kosmos should have sought the consent or the GoG before such access could he granted, indicating that Kosmos had exposed documents on the oil to 26 companies when it was supposed to be confidential. Mills accused management of Kosmos of ignoring a proposal by government to buy its shares in the Jubilee Fields when the announced their intention to sell. That notwithstanding, he indicated that GoG would adhere to transparency and the rule of law in its dealings with Kosmos, according to the cables "he also said that he did not want to create the impression that the GoG was singling out anyone company for mistreatment”. President Mills was also quoted as telling the United States authorities he wanted equipment installed in the presidential lounge of the airport to screen his entourage for drugs when leaving the country. “Mills wants these officials to be checked in the privacy or his suite to avoid any surprises if they are caught carrying drugs,” the cables released on December 14, 2009 read. He also told the US officials that “elements of his government are already compromised and that officials at the airport tipped off drug traffickers about operations there”. Source: Daily Guide/Ghana

Power sharing: An ugly Paradigm shift in African Politics; Gbagbo must be removed by force

Gbagbo must be removed by force

Lord Aikins Adusei

*By Lord Aikins Adusei

Dangerous precedents
The year was 2008. The countries: Kenya and Zimbabwe. The subject matter was presidential elections between the then incumbents Mwai Kibaki of Kenya and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and their challengers Raila Odinga and Morgan Tsvangirai respectively. Both elections had similar things in common. The opposition candidates in the respective countries won the elections but the incumbents refused to go, called on their supporters to inflict harm on their opponents and stole the verdict under the watchful eye of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and East Africa Community, the Africa Union and the international community.

First was Mwai Kibaki who came to power after Arap Moi's two decades of corrupt dictatorship came to an end. Kibaki during the campaign promised to weed corruption and put Kenya back as East Africa's economic powerhouse. After using state machinery including the media (electronic and print) he could not win the people's heart and mind. He failed to deliver on his promises and the people punished him for failing. But he refused to go and made diabolical calculations that earned him the presidency of the country under a sham arrangement called 'power sharing'. His refusal to accept the choice of the people led to a senseless bloodbath which resulted in more than 1200 people losing their life. Raila Odinga who had won the election was given the position of Prime Minister.

Then came Zimbabwe. Mugabe too lost to Morgan Tsvangirai after the first round and went about employing all manner of tactics that finally forced Tsvangirai to withdraw from the election effectively handing over the presidency to Mugabe. Kenya's power sharing was imported and imposed on the people of Zimbabwe against their will.

Thus in both Zimbabwe and Kenya power sharing was considered the solution to the debacle in those countries. The Zimbabwe's power sharing deal sponsored by SADC, retained Mugabe as president, while Tsvangirai got the less important Prime Minister position with Arthur Mutambara as Deputy Prime Minister. To add insults to injury Mugabe and his Zanu-PF were given key portfolios, and sweeping powers that placed them in charge of the country. Meanwhile Mugabe has refused to abide by the terms of their agreement that stipulate that both the Prime Minister and the President must consult each other for major appointments. In October 2010, Tsvangirai wrote to the United Nations protesting at Mugabe's unilateral appointment of officials without consultation as stipulated by the agreement.

Thus in Zimbabwe since the government of unity was sworn in more than eighteen months ago nothing seems to have worked. Mugabe and his supporters have done everything in their power to make sure that the unity government does not work. Mr. Mugabe has totally hijacked the implementation and twisted it in his favour. He and his Zanu-PF agents continue to frustrate the unity government forcing Tsvangirai to threaten to pull out many times. As The Economist magazine put it “Mr Mugabe still treats the agreement and his prime minister with contempt. Mr Tsvangirai recently announced that journalists were now free to report on Zimbabwe without government approval, yet he was promptly contradicted by the information minister, a Zanu-PF man, who said that journalists without proper accreditation could face up to two years in jail. After months of negotiations, Mr Tsvangirai at last secured the release of human-rights activists and MDC sympathisers who had been detained, and many tortured, on treason charges. But a few weeks later they were rearrested.”

Although better than Zimbabwe in terms of the implementation of the power sharing agreement, Kenya's power sharing implementation is also beset with the same problems despite the rhetoric by the politicians that they would let it work. The negative impact on the disagreements are manifold but the most serious of them all is that in Zimbabwe as it is in Kenya the people who voted for change continue to suffer under the same leaders they rejected. Their economic, social and political conditions have not improved a bit.

It is clear that the concept of power sharing as it has been practiced in both Kenya and Zimbabwe has been flawed and has been a sham that ought not to have been considered in African politics at all. But this appears to be what Laurent Gbagbo is hopping for when he refused to accept the people's verdict. His call for Mr. Ouattara to meet him to dialogue is intended to ensure that he remained president. Gbagbo appears to be towing the same line as Kibaki and Mugabe hopping that by refusing to relinquish power and using the military to terrorise the population he would be able to force Quattara into a power sharing deal. He was also hopping that the regional leaders will support his move for a possible power sharing arrangement. But it is clear from the outpouring of support for Mr. Quattara that Gbagbo hugely miscalculated and underestimated the intelligence of the West Africa and the AU leadership.

Show of Support for Ouattara
Unlike Zimbabwe and Kenya where regional leaders were divided and could not speak with one voice, thereby allowing the stolen verdicts to stand, the leadership in West Africa is speaking with one voice asking Gbagbo to step down and allow the legitimately elected leader to take the mantle of leadership. The support expressed by the leadership in West Africa has not only isolated Gbagbo regionally and continentally but has also reduced his influence in the region to only his southern controlled part of the country.

Reacting to calls by Gbagbo to accept defeat the President of ECOWAS James Victor Gbeho said “"There is nothing to negotiate as far as ECOWAS is concerned. From now on, ECOWAS will deal with Ouattara, not Gbagbo." The UN Secretary General also made it clear to Gbagbo that Mr. Ouattara's nominee for the post of UN Ambassador will be recognised. President Khama Ian Khama's government in Botswana also condemned Gbagbo's power grab efforts in Ivory Coast. “The Government of the Republic of Botswana is deeply concerned about African leaders who reject election results that are not in their favour. Such actions not only deny people the right to have leaders of their choice, but also thwart efforts to maintain peace and security on the African continent”. Morgan Moseki, Botswana Congress Party's Secretary for International Affairs released statement saying “We urge the AU not to allow the Kenyan and Zimbabwean style Government of National Unity in Ivory Coast as this creates good precedence for losers who remain heads of state with full privileges despite the outcome”.

The strongest show of support came from Kenya's Prime Minister Raila Odinga who has called for Gbagbo to be removed by force. Odinga (himself a victim of electoral short-change) said in a news conference in Cancun-Mexico that “Mr Gbagbo must be forced even if it means using military means to get rid of him because he is just now relying on military power not people power to intimidate the people. He thinks that he can basically intimidate the people to submission so that he can continue to rule in undemocratic fashion. This will only spell doom and destruction for Ivory Coast.” “What is building up in Ivory Coast now is a tragedy Africa cannot afford this time and one that the international community must not allow at any cost.”

The message from West African leaders and the Africa Union leadership has been loud and clear: Africa will not accept such blatant abuse and entrenchment of power. They will no more tolerate or support autocratic regimes that are hell bent on controlling power at all cost.

Meanwhile the Central Bank in West Africa Chaired by Mali's President seem to have pulled the plug denying Gbagbo access to funds that could help him sustain his illegitimate regime. According to the Reuters News Agency a statement issued by the West African Central Bank stated "The council of ministers has taken note of the decisions of the U.N, the African Union, and of (West African regional body) ECOWAS, to recognize Alassane Ouattara as the legitimate elected president of Ivory Coast," and that only appointed members of the "legitimate government" would be allowed to access funds held in the central bank's accounts.

The blow to deny Gbagbo funds was made heavier after the World Bank also announced that it was cutting all financial help (loans and grant) to the country. The European Union led by France, (former colonial power) has been threatening sanctions. The United States has also proposed sanctions threatening to freeze assets of Gbagbo and his key allies held in the US.

Defiance and acts of violence
But so far Gbagbo has stood his grounds and has remained stubbornly defiant urged on by the country's military. At the same time he and his supporters appear to be adopting the crude tactics Mugabe adopted: arrest, torture and killing of those suspected to have voted for his opponent. Kyung-wha Kang, the U.N. deputy high commissioner for human rights, said “Between 16 and 21 December, human rights officers have substantiated allegations of 173 killings, 90 instances of torture and ill treatment, 471 arrests and detentions and 24 cases of enforced or involuntary disappearances,”. "We have credible reports that almost 200 people may have already been killed, with dozens more tortured or mistreated, and others may have been snatched from their homes in the middle of the night," U.S. ambassador Betty E. King said during the Human Rights Council's meeting in Geneva.

Y. J. Choi, the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative in Ivory Coast, said he was personally prevented from visiting a site suspected to be a mass grave. “I went there and we were about to enter into negotiations then reinforcement came with young men mounted on pick-up trucks […] with rocket launchers directly aiming at us… Finally, because of our rules of engagement we returned but we will continue to try to reach this site to verify the facts.” “I met him several times to deliver two messages: that he lost and must accept it; the second message was if his action to change the results of the election results in serious violations of human rights then there would be no turning back. He will be dragging […] people into tragedy.”

Gbagbo must be removed by force
The overwhelming support Mr. Ouattara has received internationally suggests that no matter how hard Gbagbo tries to remain in power he will only be doing damage to his reputation as a statesman and ruin his country's economy as Mugabe did. This will be too obvious if the threats of sanctions against him and his government are implemented. The logic of the sanctions is that it will make it difficult for him to govern his country. The soldiers who are backing him may switch side or may turn and remove him after the sanctions begin to hit them. There is a clear similarity between Gbagbo's cling on power and what happened to Mamadou Tandja of Niger when he took a similar path. Although the condemnation and isolation and threat of sanctions by the ECOWAS, AU, EU, US and UN is a welcoming development that effort should not stop at only isolating him or targeting he and his allies with sanctions.

I believe the whole idea to use sanctions to cripple him cannot be a viable option; it cannot bring the change in leadership that Ivorians voted for. It has not worked in Zimbabwe and will not work in Ivory Coast. Gbagbo as stubborn as he is will want to cling on to power at all cost, even if it means totally collapsing the country. This is why I strongly agree with Raila Odinga that all options must remain on the table as dialogue continues. However, it must also be made loud and clear to Gbagbo that Africa and the international community will only accept Ouattara leadership as president and nothing less. The message must be made loud and clear to Gbagbo that Africa and the international community will use force to bring about the change that Ivorians hope for should the need arises. That message must also include the warning that he Gbagbo and his backers will join Charles Taylor in The Hague to answer for any crime they commit in the country. We cannot be serious about regional security, stability and development if we cannot implement military intervention to bring about that security and stability. Africa should not accept Kenya and Zimbabwe style power-sharing arrangement that so far has not delivered any tangible results to the ordinary people living in those countries. Gbagbo must not be allowed to ruin his country as Mugabe has done to Zimbabwe. It must be understood that Gbagbo does not command the support of the people as the election results indicate; neither does he have any valuable options. The only option available to him is to accept defeat or face the wrath of the world.

If the wish of Gbagbo and the military leaders in the country is to plunge Ivory Coast into another senseless bloodbath, then that wish must be denied of them. Therefore any attempt to legitimise Gbagbo's rule through power sharing arrangement will set a dangerous precedent in West Africa, a region already noted for its instability and political upheavals. Those who want to take Africa back to the Stone Age like Gbagbo must be stopped at all cost.

The removal of Gbagbo by force will send a powerful message to current and would be tyrants that their corrupt and autocratic style of governance will no more be tolerated on the continent. Therefore, Nigeria, Kenya, Botswana, South Africa, Ghana, Senegal, Tanzania, Malawi and all countries in Africa that believe in democracy and freedom of the people to choose who should lead them should get prepared to contribute soldiers to unseat Gbagbo should the current efforts to persuade him to go peacefully fail. However, any military confrontation must be led by Africans. 

Neighbouring countries must also get ready to accept people fleeing the country and provide them with food and shelter until such a time that peace returns to the troubled country.

The precedents set by Mugabe and Kibaki and encouraged by regional power brokers seem to have informed Gbagbo that he too could have his way. Perhaps if EAC and SADC regional leaders and Thabo Mbeki in particular had been more vocal and supportive of Morgan Tsvangirai and Odinga as the West Africans are doing the debacle and the dysfunctional unity governments in Zimbabwe and Kenya as we have them today would have been averted including the dangerous precedents set by Kibaki and Mugabe and being followed by Laurent Gbagbo. 

The actions of West African leaders, as well as those of AU, UN, EU and the US in the coming days and perhaps weeks will be crucial to what happens to the change and hope that Ivorians voted for. For now the options for Gbagbo is to admit defeat, leave office peacefully or be prepared to be removed by force.

*The author is an anti-corruption campaigner and the author of “Switzerland: A parasite feeding on the economies of poor African and Third World Countries?”
E-mail:politicalthinker1@yahoo.com

WikiLeaks cables: Ghanaian police 'helped drug smugglers evade security'

African anti-narcotics operation funded with £1m from UK thwarted by corrupt officials at airport, US embassy cables say

• • Share556
  • 
  • 

• Robert Booth
• guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 14 December 2010 21.29 GMT
• Article history

Security guards on duty at Kotoka airport in Accra, Ghana. Some unidentified airport police are corrupt, according to the US embassy cables. Photograph: Tugela Ridley/AFP/Getty Images

A £1m taxpayer-funded anti-trafficking campaign to stem the flow of cocaine into the UK through Ghana's busiest airport is beset by corruption, with drugs police sabotaging expensive British-bought scanning equipment and tipping off smugglers, leaked US embassy cables reveal.

Ghana president John Atta Mills even worried that his own entourage could be smuggling drugs through his presidential lounge at Accra's Kotoka airport and asked a senior UK customs official last November for help to screen them "in the privacy of his suite to avoid any surprises if they are caught carrying drugs", according to the US embassy in Accra (cable 234015).

The US embassy reported what it had been told by Roland O'Hagan, the British head of Operation Westbridge – a joint UK-Ghanaian anti-smuggling operation.

The cable said: "President Mills had expressed interest in acquiring itemisers [sensitive, portable screening devices] for the presidential suite at the airport in order to screen his entourage for drugs before boarding any departing flight."

The extraordinary request reveals the depth of the crisis in the bilateral operation to crack down on wholesale drug trafficking into the UK through an airport which has become a main transit hub for South American drug cartels channelling hard drugs into the UK and Europe after the authorities successfully blocked routes from the Caribbean.

Drugs worth £100m have been seized so far, amid growing international concern expressed in the cables that drug trafficking is becoming "institutionalised" in west Africa.

The UN has estimated that up to 60 tonnes of cocaine, worth £1.3bn, is smuggled through the region each year.

According to the cables, Ghanaian narcotics control board (Nacob) officers working in collaboration with British officials:

• actively helped traffickers, even telling them the best time to travel to avoid detection (164939)

• sabotaged sensitive drug scanners paid for by British taxpayers • channelled passengers, including pastors and bank managers and their wives, into the security-exempt VVIP lounge despite suspicions they were trafficking drugs.

Smuggling has become so blatant that on one flight last year, two traffickers vomited up drugs they had swallowed and subsequently died (234015), while parcels of cocaine were found taped under the seats of another KLM plane even before boarding (125133).

Mills had publicly pledged to crack down on trafficking into the UK via the airport and won the presidency with an anti-drugs platform.

But in June 2009 he told the US ambassador to Ghana, Donald Teitelbaum, "he knows elements of his government are already compromised and that officials at the airport tipped off drug traffickers about operations there (214460)."

Embassy contacts in both the police service and the president's office "have said they know the identities of the major barons," but "the government of Ghana does not have the political will to go after [them]", a December 2007 cable said (135389).

A UK official overseeing Westbridge had observed Nacob agents at the airport directing passengers away from flights receiving extra scrutiny, a confidential US embassy cable revealed in August 2008 (164939).

"On one occasion, [the official] returned unexpectedly to the airport at 4am to screen a flight. An arrested trafficker told the UK official that the trafficker had been told that Westbridge was not operating that night. A test by Westbridge officials of the cellphone SIM card of a trafficker found the phone numbers of senior Nacob officials."

He said two itemisers were incapacitated by sabotage, remarking "the knowledge required to remove the filters exceeded the basic knowledge of the operators". The cable concluded: "The government of Ghana does not provide the resources necessary to address the problem and, at times, does not appear to have the political will to go after the major drug barons."

Operation Westbridge began in November 2006 and the UK government has trumpeted its success.

Last year the minister responsible for drug trafficking, Alan Campbell, told a parliamentary inquiry the scheme was a "very good example" of how to tackle the cocaine trade, while the Home Office said in a written statement that "these operations meet our drugs strategy commitment to intercept drugs and drugs couriers before they reach the UK".

A different picture emerges in the cables. Kim Howells, a Labour Foreign Office minister, delivered a "stern message" to the Ghanaian government in October 2007 about its lack of co-operation and responded "testily" to a request from Ghana's interior minister for more scanning equipment, saying: "If a 'criminal' is operating equipment, it is worthless," according to the US embassy.

Three months later the embassy reported that "seizures in Accra drop to almost zero when the Westbridge team ... is back in London (135389)".

In November 2009 O'Hagan told the US embassy that Nacob believes that the airport's VVIP lounge has been a source of drugs leaving the country.

"Nacob placed two officers in the lounge to screen departing passengers, and the number of passengers using the VVIP lounge has decreased," the embassy reported O'Hagan saying late last year

President Mills suspects drug traffickers in his own government?

The troubled yet troublesome Wikileaks cables rummaging nations across the globe has its snowballing damnations hitting Ghana as the Guardian goes public with a detailed account of how security operatives engaged in the fight against drug trafficking are tipping off “couriers” with information of when it is “safe” to board flights to avoid being arrested. President John Evans Atta Mills is also quoted as expressing fears persons in his own entourage could be engaged in smuggling drugs through the presidential lounge of the Kotoka airport and therefore asked a senior UK customs official in November 2009 for help to screen them but "in the privacy of his suite to avoid any surprises if they are caught carrying drugs". According to the leaked cables, not only are officers of the Narcotic Control Board (NACOB) actively helping traffickers and even calling the criminals on their mobile phones to tell them when to travel to avoid detection, they are also noted to sabotage sensitive drug scanners provided to the government of Ghanaian while channeling passengers, including pastors and bank managers and their wives, into the security-exempt VVIP lounge despite suspicions they were trafficking drugs. The leaked cables touch both the Kufuor administration and the present Mills reign, as evident in the full report culled and republished below. WikiLeaks cables: UK's anti-drugs fight in Ghana 'beset by corruption' US diplomats claim corruption in Ghana has ruined costly UK-funded anti-drugs smuggling operation A British operation to stem the flow of cocaine through Ghana has been beset by corruption, with local drug police sabotaging expensive scanning equipment and tipping off smugglers to avoid detection, leaked US embassy cables reveal. Ghana's president, John Atta Mills, even worried that his own entourage may be smuggling drugs through his presidential lounge at Accra's Kotoka airport, and asked a senior UK customs official in November 2009 for help to screen them "in the privacy of his suite to avoid any surprises if they are caught carrying drugs", according to the US embassy in Accra. The request reveals a deep crisis in the bilateral operation against wholesale drug trafficking into the UK through an airport which has become one of the main transit hubs for South American drug cartels after the authorities successfully blocked routes from the Caribbean. Operation Westbridge has so far cost the taxpayer more than £1m and more than £100m worth of drugs has been seized amid growing UK concern that drug trafficking is becoming institutionalised in west Africa. The UN has estimated that up to 60 tonnes of cocaine, worth £1.3bn, are being smuggled through west Africa, mostly into Europe, each year. According to the cables, Ghanaian narcotics control board (Nacob) officers working with British officials: • Actively helped traffickers, even calling the criminals on their mobile phones to tell them when to travel to avoid detection. • Sabotaged sensitive drug scanners provided to the Ghanaian government. • Channelled passengers including pastors and bank managers and their wives, into the security-exempt VVIP lounge despite suspicions they were trafficking drugs. Smuggling has become so blatant that on one flight last year, two traffickers vomited drugs they had swallowed and subsequently died, while parcels of cocaine were found taped under the seats of a KLM plane even before boarding. Roland O'Hagan, the British head of Operation Westbridge, reportedly told the US embassy: "President Mills had expressed interest in acquiring itemisers [portable screening devices] for the presidential suite at the airport in order to screen his entourage for drugs before boarding any departing flight." Mills had publicly pledged to crack down on wholesale drug trafficking into the UK via the airport and won the presidency on an anti-drugs platform. But, in June 2009, he told the US ambassador to Ghana, Donald Teitelbaum, "elements of his government are already compromised and that officials at the airport tipped off drug traffickers about operations there". Embassy contacts in the police service and the president's office "have said they know the identities of the major barons," but "the government of Ghana does not have the political will to go after [them]", a December 2007 cable said. A UK official overseeing Westbridge had observed Nacob agents at the airport directing passengers away from flights receiving extra scrutiny, a cable from the US embassy in Accra revealed in August 2008. "On one occasion, [the official] returned unexpectedly to the airport at 4am to screen a flight. An arrested trafficker told the UK official that the trafficker had been told that Westbridge was not operating that night. A test by Westbridge officials of the mobile phone sim card of a trafficker found the phone numbers of senior Nacob officials." He said two itemisers were incapacitated by sabotage, remarking that "the knowledge required to remove the filters exceeded the basic knowledge of the operators". The cable concluded: "The government of Ghana does not provide the resources necessary to address the problem and, at times, does not appear to have the political will to go after the major drug barons." Operation Westbridge began in November 2006, overseen by the Home Office and Foreign Office, and the government has trumpeted its success. Last year, the Home Office minister responsible for tackling drug trafficking, Alan Campbell, told a parliamentary inquiry that the scheme was a "very good example" of how to tackle the cocaine trade, while in a written statement, the Home Office said "these operations meet our drugs strategy commitment to intercept drugs and drugs couriers before they reach the UK". In the confidential cables, a different picture emerges. Kim Howells, Labour foreign office minister, delivered a "stern message" to the Ghanaian government in October 2007 about its lack of co-operation and responded "testily" to a request from Ghana's interior minister for more scanning equipment, saying "if a 'criminal' is operating equipment, it is worthless," according to the US embassy in Accra. Three months later, the embassy reported that "seizures in Accra drop to almost zero when the Westbridge team …is back in London". In November 2009, O'Hagan told the US embassy that Nacob believes the airport's VVIP lounge has been a conduit for drugs leaving the country. Bank managers, pastors, and their wives were among those given official passports and access to the lounge which circumvents security checks, the embassy reported. "Nacob placed two officers in the lounge to screen departing passengers, and the number of passengers using the VVIP lounge has decreased," the embassy reported O'Hagan saying late last year. Credit: www.guardian.co.uk