Long Reach
Long Reach was a British-based company which served as a front for South African military intelligence, to gather data on the ANC. It received information from another South African front based in Washington, the International Freedom Foundation.[1]
Phillip Van Niekerk reported for the Observer:
- South Africa's former 'super-spy' turned penitent, Craig Williamson, created Long Reach and had a hand in the formation of the foundation. He told The Observer that both organisations were 'false flags' and that the foundation had traded on the names and anti-Communist sensibilities of leading political figures in the Reagan-Thatcher era.[2]
Colonel John Rolt, spokesman for the South African National Defence Force, confirmed to Van Niekerk that Long Reach was a front company.[3]
According to Van Niekerk, Williamson left the South African police in 1985, to found Long Reach. In 1986, the company did a deal with President Albert Rene to provide security to the government of the Seychelles.[4]
The Observer reported:
- Long Reach recruited former Ugandan Army officers and bought a shop near the ANC's Solomon Mahlangu School in Tanzania, where it eavesdropped on ANC students, said Williamson. It used Ghanaians and Malawians to recruit spies in London, and Britons to recruit spies in African countries where the ANC was active. Many people did not know they were spying for the apartheid regime. 'We were a British company, and there were a lot of non-South Africans involved,' said Williamson. 'We could justify the gathering of political intelligence on the basis that we were gathering information for confidential reports for corporate clients considering investing in the region.'[5]
Long Reach's managing director was Mike Irwin, a former US marine and veteran of the Falklands war. He claimed not to know that the company was a front, and said he left when unsavoury people appeared on the scene.[6]
Williamson left Long Reach in 1987 to join the South African President's Council.[7]
Long Reach had an intelligence office in Washington to capitalise on material being produced by the Cold War International Freedom Foundation.[8]
Notes
- ↑ Philip Van Niekerk, HOW APARTHEID CONNED THE WEST, The Observer, 16 July 1995.
- ↑ Philip Van Niekerk, HOW APARTHEID CONNED THE WEST, The Observer, 16 July 1995.
- ↑ Philip Van Niekerk, HOW APARTHEID CONNED THE WEST, The Observer, 16 July 1995.
- ↑ Philip Van Niekerk, HOW APARTHEID CONNED THE WEST, The Observer, 16 July 1995.
- ↑ Philip Van Niekerk, HOW APARTHEID CONNED THE WEST, The Observer, 16 July 1995.
- ↑ Philip Van Niekerk, HOW APARTHEID CONNED THE WEST, The Observer, 16 July 1995.
- ↑ Philip Van Niekerk, HOW APARTHEID CONNED THE WEST, The Observer, 16 July 1995.
- ↑ Philip Van Niekerk, HOW APARTHEID CONNED THE WEST, The Observer, 16 July 1995.
