4 US citizens sentenced for attempted Gambian coup

[webfact]

4 US citizens sentenced for attempted Gambian coup

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Four U.S. citizens were sentenced in federal court for their roles in a failed attempt to overthrow the government in the West African nation of Gambia, the U.S. attorney's office said Thursday.

The men were sentenced for conspiring to violate the Neutrality Act, which makes it illegal to take military action against a country with which the United States is "at peace." The charges stemmed from a Dec. 30, 2014, coup attempt in the former British colony, which came as longtime President Yahya Jammeh was away.

"These defendants conspired to overthrow a foreign government," U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger said in a statement. "Regardless of the legitimacy of their personal and emotional connections to The Gambia, these men placed countless innocents in harm's way when they engaged in a brazen and fatally flawed attempt at regime change."

Cherno Njie, 58, of Lakeway, Texas, was sentenced to a year and a day in prison. Prosecutors say Njie was a financier and would have served as the interim leader of Gambia had the coup succeeded.

Alagie Barrow, 43, of Lavergne, Tennessee, and Banke Manneh, 43, of Jonesboro, Georgia, were each sentenced to six months in prison. Papa Faal, 47, of Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, a former member of the U.S. military, was sentenced to time served.

Faal, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Gambia, admitted in court that he participated in the attack on Gambia's State House. Three other members of the conspiracy were killed, the U.S. attorney's office said.

According to the defendants' guilty pleas and court documents, the coup plotting began in at least 2013. Prosecutors say Njie, Manneh and Barrow led the effort to research, plan, supply and execute the coup.

The defendants planned the coup by phone, email or face-to-face at Njie's home in Texas, court documents said. According to an FBI affidavit, a search of Njie's home revealed a spreadsheet that suggested Barrow, a former member of the Tennessee Army National Guard, may have received more than $125,000 to support the operation. At Barrow's home, authorities found a book about planning a coup.


-- (c) Associated Press 2016-05-13

[Koosdedooes]

Not the sharpest knives in the draw it seems... FBI found a book" the dummies guide to coup planning"....priceless

[optad]

A year and less for organising a state coup, yet leak information and data about US activities and you will get life

[soalbundy]

it is amazing in this day and age that people still plot illegal activities with E-mail and phone, even savvy people like politicians or stock exchange traders

[Smokin Joe]

It worked out much better in "The Wild Geese".

[soalbundy]

what has Gambia ever done for us, and where is it any way

[Koosdedooes]

what has Gambia ever done for us, and where is it any way

West Africa..south of Senegal, what is intresting they have just started oil and gas exploration there

If these boys were less dumb than they were, they could have recruited Mark Thatcher, who has expert knowlege levels of trying to organise coups in Africa..

You never know the 125k they received came from the CIA ?

[Koosdedooes]

It worked out much better in "The Wild Geese".

They should have read Mark Thatchers book..."the concise handbook of Africa coups"

[soalbundy]

what has Gambia ever done for us, and where is it any way

West Africa..south of Senegal, what is intresting they have just started oil and gas exploration there

If these boys were less dumb than they were, they could have recruited Mark Thatcher, who has expert knowlege levels of trying to organise coups in Africa..

You never know the 125k they received came from the CIA ?

oil and gas, shouldn't we be bombing them now or something of the sort.

[Koosdedooes]

what has Gambia ever done for us, and where is it any way

West Africa..south of Senegal, what is intresting they have just started oil and gas exploration there

If these boys were less dumb than they were, they could have recruited Mark Thatcher, who has expert knowlege levels of trying to organise coups in Africa..

You never know the 125k they received came from the CIA ?

oil and gas, shouldn't we be bombing them now or something of the sort.

Coup option first...its a cheaper way to change a goverment

[SgtRock]

what has Gambia ever done for us, and where is it any way

West Africa..south of Senegal, what is intresting they have just started oil and gas exploration there

If these boys were less dumb than they were, they could have recruited Mark Thatcher, who has expert knowlege levels of trying to organise coups in Africa..

You never know the 125k they received came from the CIA ?

And they would not have served any jail time either

[Koosdedooes]

what has Gambia ever done for us, and where is it any way

West Africa..south of Senegal, what is intresting they have just started oil and gas exploration there

If these boys were less dumb than they were, they could have recruited Mark Thatcher, who has expert knowlege levels of trying to organise coups in Africa..

You never know the 125k they received came from the CIA ?

And they would not have served any jail time either

A year and a day and time served are hardly a just and fair sentence for attempting to overthrow a legimate goverment, conspiracy, intent to commit acts of violence is it ?...with sentences like that one couldnt help thinking they had been tried in a Thai court given the farcial nature of the judgement

[NovaBlue05]

Not sure how much of coup $125K will buy you these days.....even in Gambia

[Falcon]

They were all Gambian nationals at one time or another until they migrated to the us. Good for the. That they got out of the country (Gambia) and weren't detained there for trial inside the country. Yaya jammeh is a crazy zealot and would have had then executed had they still been in Gambia, no question about it.! I have known jammeh (the president) for years and he was always a power hungry guy in them days even as a soldier. Since becoming president, through making a coup himself, he has become even worse.

[facthailand]

Okay, so it's fine if the natives get restless and stage their own coup against popular and even democratically-elected leaders.

But if you're American, you could get six months for that!!!

[alfalfa19]

These guys watched the movies "wild geese" and "dogs of war" and got carried away, methinks.

[Happy Grumpy]

Not the sharpest knives in the draw it seems... FBI found a book" the dummies guide to coup planning"....priceless

drawer

Sounds like a bad slapstick comedy movie starring Sacha Baron Cohen.

[ballpoint]

Not sure how much of coup $125K will buy you these days.....even in Gambia

Send it to me and I'll recreate it in Isaan to find out.

[Koosdedooes]

Not the sharpest knives in the draw it seems... FBI found a book" the dummies guide to coup planning"....priceless

drawer

Sounds like a bad slapstick comedy movie starring Sacha Baron Cohen.

Yes miss...please forgive my omission in spelling said word incorrectly..you can instuct your "learners" the same Monday morning

[arjunadawn]

Not sure how much of coup $125K will buy you these days.....even in Gambia

I know what $100k might have bought 12 years ago!

About 10-12 years ago I was on a contract in Iraq providing security for the dog pecker gnat journalists who worked across the ante-chamber from Amb. Paul Bremer at the Presidential Palace (his detail were all US only). In fact, on this STRATCOM detail across the building from the Ambassador, most were SA (MVM 2004). I was invited by a few of them to a contract which paid, they said, $100k/for 1 month. No other information was provided except Africa. Since this number was so impossibly high it sounded... well, the kind of thing people might later say to me "W T F were you thinking?" It turned out to be the best contract I never had.

They all got arrested in a neighboring country as they were about to start a coup in Africa! Positively true story. It was less like this OP debacle then the Seychelles coup attempt, but for a brief moment, impossibly close.

[Koosdedooes]

Not sure how much of coup $125K will buy you these days.....even in Gambia

I know what $100k might have bought 12 years ago!

About 10-12 years ago I was on a contract in Iraq providing security for the dog pecker gnat journalists who worked across the ante-chamber from Amb. Paul Bremer at the Presidential Palace (his detail were all US only). In fact, on this STRATCOM detail across the building from the Ambassador, most were SA (MVM 2004). I was invited by a few of them to a contract which paid, they said, $100k/for 1 month. No other information was provided except Africa. Since this number was so impossibly high it sounded... well, the kind of thing people might later say to me "W T F were you thinking?" It turned out to be the best contract I never had.

They all got arrested in a neighboring country as they were about to start a coup in Africa! Positively true story. It was less like this OP debacle then the Seychelles coup attempt, but for a brief moment, impossibly close.

The seychelles was "Madmike" wasnt it ? and it wasnt 10-12 years ago that was 1981 and Iraq never kicked off until 2003..so your dates seem a bit off, Mark Thatchers attemped coup in EG was 2004

[OJAS]

what has Gambia ever done for us, and where is it any way

It inflicted the holiday from hell on me 20+ years ago!

[Koosdedooes]

what has Gambia ever done for us, and where is it any way

It inflicted the holiday from hell on me 20+ years ago!

Never been to Gambia, but by all accounts from other people who have quite a beatiful place

[Koosdedooes]

These guys watched the movies "wild geese" and "dogs of war" and got carried away, methinks.

Wild geese was an excellent movie apparantly Mad Mike Hoare was employed as a consultant on the movie, and he would know all about arranging coups in Africa

[arjunadawn]

Not sure how much of coup $125K will buy you these days.....even in Gambia

I know what $100k might have bought 12 years ago!

About 10-12 years ago I was on a contract in Iraq providing security for the dog pecker gnat journalists who worked across the ante-chamber from Amb. Paul Bremer at the Presidential Palace (his detail were all US only). In fact, on this STRATCOM detail across the building from the Ambassador, most were SA (MVM 2004). I was invited by a few of them to a contract which paid, they said, $100k/for 1 month. No other information was provided except Africa. Since this number was so impossibly high it sounded... well, the kind of thing people might later say to me "W T F were you thinking?" It turned out to be the best contract I never had.

They all got arrested in a neighboring country as they were about to start a coup in Africa! Positively true story. It was less like this OP debacle then the Seychelles coup attempt, but for a brief moment, impossibly close.

The seychelles was "Madmike" wasnt it ? and it wasnt 10-12 years ago that was 1981 and Iraq never kicked off until 2003..so your dates seem a bit off, Mark Thatchers attemped coup in EG was 2004

Yes, it was many years ago and it was Col. Hoare. The one I refer to involves the son of a UK politician. I tried to suggest that the fiasco 12 years ago was more like Seychelles. This OP farce is like bad black comedy. Many of the SA SF folks worked for MVM with Blackwater being just across the hall doing the Amb detail. A few SA guys talked about this great gig coming up. They left the contract for the gig in Africa. Later we learned they were arrested with a plane full of weapons. This was in 2004.

[chilli42]

Had they been successful, all would be well between them and the US

[ilostmypassword]

Not sure how much of coup $125K will buy you these days.....even in Gambia

I know what $100k might have bought 12 years ago!

About 10-12 years ago I was on a contract in Iraq providing security for the dog pecker gnat journalists who worked across the ante-chamber from Amb. Paul Bremer at the Presidential Palace (his detail were all US only). In fact, on this STRATCOM detail across the building from the Ambassador, most were SA (MVM 2004). I was invited by a few of them to a contract which paid, they said, $100k/for 1 month. No other information was provided except Africa. Since this number was so impossibly high it sounded... well, the kind of thing people might later say to me "W T F were you thinking?" It turned out to be the best contract I never had.

They all got arrested in a neighboring country as they were about to start a coup in Africa! Positively true story. It was less like this OP debacle then the Seychelles coup attempt, but for a brief moment, impossibly close.

Say what you will about the organizers of the attempted coup, by offering you a place in it at least they proved that they weren't sexists.

[Matt96]

what sentence people who, for example, tried to overthrow the US president would get? death sentence? life sentence?

what an awful example of double standards...

like William Calley, who was found guilty in murdering 22 unarmed Vietnamese, got 3,5 years of "house arrest"

"Somoza may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch." as always

disgusting