On Spooks and Subs
Revelations by prominent British journalist and author Gordon Thomas in his latest book, Inside British Intelligence: 100 Years of MI5 and MI6 , published last year, show Britain’s foreign secret intelligence service mounted an operation to thwart the Chinese arms delivery to Zimbabwe in April 2008.
“Britain’s intelligence services have increased surveillance of China over the years because of China’s activities in Africa. In April 2008, MI6 asked for one of the Royal Navy’s nuclear Trident-class submarines to track a floating arsenal of weapons and bombs dispatched by the Beijing regime in China on board a rust-stained freighter, the An Yue Jiang, to President Robert Mugabe’s pariah state of Zimbabwe,” Thomas says.
“On board were 1000 rocket-propelled grenades, 2000 mortar rounds, and three million rounds of ammunition. MI6 agents in South Africa believed the arsenal was intended to further cow Zimbabwe’s starving population (after the disputed elections).”