The Lost Adams Diggings is a Southwestern treasure story that
refers to the existence of a canyon rich in gold deposits somewhere in western
New Mexico in the early 1860s. ..
.. while not many would have read that –
most people would have seen the classic movie of 1969 directed by J Lee
Thompson – photographed in Super Panavision 70
- had this theme song ‘Old Turkey Buzzard’ !! .. .. ..
Old Turkey Buzzard; Old Turkey Buzzard; Flying, flying high
He's just awaiting; Buzzard's just awaiting;
Waiting for something down below to die
Old buzzard knows that he can wait
If you have not figured out that still – it is ‘Mackenna’s Gold’
starring Gregory Peck, Omar Shariff, Telly Savalas, Camilla Sparv and
others. The
movie was based on the novel of the same
name by Heck Allen using the pen name Will Henry, telling the story of how the
lure of gold corrupts a diverse group of people. The novel was loosely based on
the legend of the Lost Adams Diggings, crediting the Frank Dobie account of the
legend (Apache Gold and Yaqui Silver) in the author's note. The film was a
box-office failure in North America, but went on to become a major success in
the Soviet Union and the Indian subcontinent
!!!
Kenneth
David Kaunda (1924 – 2021) served as the first president of Zambia from 1964 to
1991. He was at the forefront of the struggle for independence from British
rule. Dissatisfied with Harry Nkumbula's leadership of the Northern Rhodesian
African National Congress, he broke away and founded the Zambian African
National Congress, later becoming the head of the socialist United National
Independence Party (UNIP).
Kenneth
Kaunda International Airport international airport is located in Chongwe District,
27 km from the centre of Lusaka, the capital and largest city
of Zambia . The airport opened in 1967
as Lusaka International Airport and was renamed in 2011 in honour of its first
President. Zambia is a
landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa. Its neighbours are the Democratic Republic of
the Congo, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Anglola, Zimbabwe and Botswana. The
capital city of Zambia is Lusaka, located in the
south-central part of Zambia.
BBC and other media reports state that a private plane found with
more than $5m (£4m) in cash, fake gold, guns and ammunition on board is at the
centre of a deepening investigation in the Zambian capital, Lusaka.
While it is categorically ascertained that the aircraft flew
from the Egyptian capital, Cairo, and landed a fortnight ago in Zambia, but
that is where the certainties stop. So far nobody in Egypt or Zambia admits to
chartering the plane or owning its contents.
The plane and its booty have opened many unanswered Questions. Could those involved be high-level Egyptian
or Zambian political or military figures? Was this a one-off flight or the
first out of hundreds to finally be rumbled?
It
is stated that there were six Egyptians
aboard the aircraft and others who joined them at Lusaka's airport are due to
appear in court shortly. Some of the
Zambians who are being held have been charged with espionage and obtaining
money on false pretences. The Egyptians have not yet been charged. The world might have remained oblivious to it
all were it not for a journalist whose fact-checking website, Matsda2sh,
accused officials in Egypt of involvement in the incident. Soon after that Egyptian plainclothes
security forces raided Karim Asaad's Cairo home in the dead of night and
arrested him.
At
first he just disappeared. Nobody knew where or why Mr Asaad had been taken. Then
independent Egyptian journalists published documents over social media purportedly
taken from the Zambian police investigation into the cash-filled aircraft. These reportedly named three Egyptian
military officers and a senior police officer among those arrested, backing up
Mr Asaad's allegations. A barrage of protests on social media, many of them
from fellow journalists, led to his release two days later. What exactly he had
been arrested for remains another mystery.
The Egyptian authorities would only say that the aircraft mentioned on
Mr Asaad's website was privately owned and merely transited through Cairo. In
other words, the country and its officials had nothing to do with the case. Soon
after that the spotlight shifted to Zambia after the plane touched down at
Lusaka's Kenneth Kaunda Airport.
The
plane is reported to have landed at Kenneth Kaunda Airport on 13 August
2023. Somehow, it seems, a Zambian man
carrying bags of what looked like gold was allowed to stroll through security
and meet the newly arrived Egyptians on the plane. Nobody appears to know who authorised this
but, according to Zambian media reports, a few cash handouts had helped ease
his path. After he climbed aboard the man allegedly sold a portion of the
supposed gold he was carrying to the men on the plane. They then asked him for
more. What is not clear is if they
managed to discover that what he was selling was actually counterfeit before
security staff arrived to search the aircraft.
The
arrest, it seems, was not straightforward.
Several of the officers who entered the plane are now being investigated
for allegedly receiving up to $200,000 each from the Egyptian nationals aboard
the plane. It is claimed this was their reward for allowing the plane to take
off without arresting anyone. When word somehow got
out that wads of money on the plane were allegedly changing hands, another
group of security staff charged onto the aircraft and arrested those inside. Presumably the suspects had trouble
explaining what they were doing with millions of dollars in cash, several
pistols, 126 rounds of ammunition and what looked like more than 100kg of gold
bars.
The glittering gold bars were not gold but turned out to be bars
made of mixture of copper, nickel, tin and zinc !! It seems the
Egyptians aboard the plane may have been saved from a very bad deal. The Zambian
lawyer acting for one of the 10 arrested men said another mystery was why the
security forces seemed so bad at Maths. Makebi
Zulu told the BBC that at first police said they had found $11m in cash. This,
he went on, was later downgraded to around $7m before finally settling on the
sum of $5.7m. One possible explanation could lie in reports that nearly half of
the money had been taken off the plane before the arresting team arrived. If
true that would mean those involved staggering through the airport with more
than $5m - a little hard to do discreetly.
It
is further alleged that while the Zambian and three other foreigners were sent
to jail to await their day in court, the six Egyptians were put up in a guest
house. The man who allegedly carried the
bags of fake gold onto the plane has since turned whistleblower and is reported
to be helping Zambian police get to the bottom of all this. Over the last couple of days several more
Zambian nationals have been arrested at a makeshift fake-gold processing plant,
and more arrests may well follow.
As
interest in the case around the world has grown, so has speculation. A
think-tank called the Egypt Technocrats, made up of independent Egyptian
professionals living around the globe, claims there are more than 300 secret
companies inside Egypt involved in money laundering operations. Some say vast
amounts of money may have been smuggled out of the country since President
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi came to power nine years ago. If true, could this flight
be just one of hundreds that have made similar trips? The theory being advanced in some circles is
that senior military officials and businessmen in Egypt, fearful that President
Sisi's regime could collapse, have been desperately trying to get their money
out of the country.
Though
as with everything to do with this mysterious case, nobody can be sure how much
of all this is true. The hope is that when a trial finally takes place many of
the questions raised will be answered. The danger is, however, that it might
just lead to even more questions.
28.8.2023
PS : the majority of the 2nd part of the post is from BBC.
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