Apartheid Oil

This is a work of fiction. It is based on known and established facts that are augmented by the characters created within the writers mind. The characters, however, are based on actual individuals, either living or dead, who have come together in this book as they never did in real life. There is one exception and that is the character of Mary. I wish she had existed.


The apartheid government of South Africa did exist for many decades. There was a United Nations embargo imposed against South Africa at the behest of the United States and most of the European states. The central subject of this story is how South Africa got crude oil during that embargo period. It is a matter of fact that South Africa did import crude oil form a Gulf state. 


A congressional investigation into the involvement of one or more U.S. government agencies, clandestine or otherwise, in supplying oil to South Africa during the embargo period never got off the ground, and was berried in the halls of Congress never to see the light of day, or CNN or ’60 Minutes’.


It has never been proven that any U.S. or British government agency profited from the sale of oil to South African during the embargo period. However, when a private individual appears to be living well beyond his means and that becomes a visible fact then he is normally audited by the taxing authorities. The author wonders why the same is not true of a government agency that exists beyond its visible and government constitutionally approved budget and congressionally approved means.


My thanks to the British Barrister who at the time of our story was residing in Bahrain for his full disclosure of the facts of his real life involvement as referenced within the story and for the sharing of detailed background information of ‘Apartheid Oil” as an international incident. The author takes full credit of adding a few characters (and subtracting a few others) to protect the innocent involving that gentleman and his families and their real life experience. 


As to the interplay, ‘turf wars’, competitiveness, agency miss management, lack of communications and incompetence of, and between, the various U.S. government organizations periodically referenced within this story, the authors only response is ‘I used to work there’.


As to that part of the story that takes place in Bermuda and involves the joint efforts on the part of the U.S. and UK intelligence community, that is all fiction. It did not take place in Bermuda and both the U.S. and the UK says that they were not there and it never happened, and I’ll be dammed if I could ever prove it one way or the other. The fact that it could have happened somewhere other than Bermuda would have taken too much time to research.