The+spy+who+wants+to+topple+Selebi,+Makhudu+Sefara,+City+Press

City Press, Johannesburg, 25/11/2006 19:42 - (SA)
=The spy who wants to topple Selebi=

//Is the country's top cop a corrupt liar or the victim of a well-orchestrated smear campaign by a gang led by a bitter ex-foreign spy?// **MAKHUDU SEFARA** //reports//

FOR Paul O’Sullivan, it started as a principled fight against what he saw as his unjustified dismissal from the plum job as head of security at the Airports Company of South Africa (Acsa).

After all, a few months before his axing for alleged poor performance, O’Sullivan had received a R200 000 bonus for his good performance. After the axe fell, O’Sullivan went out digging for information on the people he thought were behind his unceremonious axing, their motives and interests, their friends and their alleged shady associates.

They included Acsa chief executive Monhla Hlahla, Kusela security boss Noel Ngwenya, national police commissioner Jackie Selebi and a host of alleged corrupt cops.

O’Sullivan enlisted all the help he could get. And, being a former foreign spy, he got all the help he needed. But what he found, he says, surprised but did not shock him. Instead, it made him more determined to seek justice and see all those involved behind bars.

Ngwenya was arrested in 2002 for R2.3 million VAT fraud. Ironically, O’Sullivan had succeeded, with the help of police working under Selebi, in sending him to jail for this.

Now all of O’Sullivan’s energies are being marshalled into ensuring that Selebi resigns, or like Ngwenya, is incarcerated or, as he says, “goes into exile”.

But who is this man who has stirred a hornet’s nest and got the country talking about Selebi?

Paul Robert O’Sullivan is an Irish national born on August 26 1955. He obtained UK citizenship later.

He served in the British intelligence service but says he resigned or retired more than 20 years ago. South African authorities believe he is economical with the truth. Many say there is no such thing as retirement in the spy business. Authorities claim he is an active agent and that in his previous life as an official agent, he spied on matters relating to Russian aircraft.

They claim to know that his training related to penetration, counter- intelligence, counter-surveillance and counter-terrorism. They say they know he worked for the UN police’s Special Operations Programme in the early ‘80s and went on to many other jobs.

He arrived in Joburg in early 1990 and immediately registered as a police reservist. He obtained citizenship four years later. He divorced in 1999 after his ex-wife opened a case of assault against him. He married Russian Irina Stepanova in 2004.

O’Sullivan confirmed last week that he worked as a foreign intelligence agent many years ago. He said he was young, perhaps naïve, and lured mostly by the financial rewards. He told City Press he did not have to prove he was no longer an active agent.

He was employed in July 2001 as head of security at Africa’s busiest airport. An intelligence source says O’Sullivan’s bitter war with Selebi is fuelled by his persistent interests, either for himself or others, in aircraft.

In his list of those who should go, Selebi is next and, given his profile, the nation is gripped by the unfolding events.

After last week’s tearful press conference, O’Sullivan this week released information about Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula. He said his brother-in-law had an interest in a firm linked to one of Kebble’s companies. But what he, perhaps conveniently, forgot to say was that the wife of the National Director of Public Prosecutions, Vusi Pikoli, also has interests in the firm.

Another intelligence source said: “Nqakula is targeted because he is openly hostile to Paul. But Pikoli’s wife is omitted because his boys appear to be helping him to achieve his stated mission – to bring down the commissioner.”

O’Sullivan has made three serious allegations against Selebi.

These are – his inappropriate relationship with alleged underworld “landlord”, Glenn Agliotti, who was arrested by the Scorpions recently in connection with the killing of mining magnate Brett Kebble; that Selebi received R50 000 as a bribe from Agliotti and that there is a foreign account into which money was deposited for Selebi’s benefit.

Many news organisations have been trying to find the country where this account is allegedly being held, the name of the bank or even an account number.

But O’Sullivan has revealed none of these crucial details. He is content with making the claim, then sitting back and watching the media lap it up without demanding proof.

All that is known of the R50 000 is that it was alleged by a source of O’Sullivan’s, referred to only as CS. Many of O’Sullivan’s assertions so far have been about Selebi’s relationship with Agliotti.

The Mail & Guardian reported on Friday that Selebi, who admits to knowing Agliotti, should have known he was involved in criminal activity as early as 2003 after police had investigated him.

On whether the relationship between Selebi and Agliotti was deep enough to compromise him is a matter President Thabo Mbeki and his cabinet should finally decide on. Mbeki has said the country must trust them to act appropriately on the matter.

But questions remain about O’Sullivan’s relationship with Scorpions investigators. He makes startling revelations in letters he wrote to several people, including what he can make the Scorpions do.

On the face of it, O’Sullivan comes across as a powerful man who can determine, or greatly influence, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in the decisions it must take and essentially, doing what investigators themselves ought to do.

Pikoli told City Press on Friday that he became aware of O’Sullivan’s conduct sometime in June.

“I instructed specific investigators to desist Paul (O’Sullivan) from taking statements (on behalf of the Scorpions. It looked like a parallel investigation . . . I got concerned. I told them he was hurting the investigation.”

O’Sullivan says there is nothing wrong with this. He is a citizen helping in the fight against crime.

Selebi says O’Sullivan has a clear programme to smear him.

Reference is made to a letter O’Sullivan wrote to his lawyer which says, “In view of the fact that Selebi has claimed all I have said is untrue, I have decided to make this communication available to the Sunday Times. Maybe trial by media will remove this country from the brink of a police state.”

However, Pikoli says O’Sullivan can, like anyone else, still bring information to the NPA, his spy history notwithstanding.

What was important was not the history of the person bringing information but that it was thoroughly checked out.

He said if O’Sullivan was a foreign spy, there were agencies in the country “better equipped than the NPA to arrest and charge him for espionage”.

He said he would probe claims that O’Sullivan used NPA computers to type statements because it would be a breach of security.

From available data, it is clear there is an investigation into Selebi although Pikoli will not comment.

It is also clear O’Sullivan’s relationship with Scorpions investigators – Herby Heap, Robyn Plitt and Andrew Leask – is less than appropriate. Plitt has since resigned from the NPA.

Whether the actions by investigators are part of O’Sullivan’s stated mission to send Selebi into exile is a moot point.

Many see the seeming readiness of Scorpions investigators to play along with O’Sullivan as part of the big turf war between police and the NPA over who should have control of the Scorpions.


 * From: http://www.news24.com/City_Press/Features/0,7515,186-1696_2035844,00.html**

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