Stewart Copeland

<p>"I arranged the first planes for Bob Geldoff to get the shipments out. I had a Saudi Arabian friend with a bunch of planes and I connected them and arranged the first three or four loads. I also played at the Live Aid concert. That's a funny question though... where were you during Live Aid?"&nbsp;

I only asked because you'd already been to Africa.&nbsp;

Yeah, sure (smiles). My father (ex-C.I.A.) was there too on their first few trips. He knew all the Sudanese politicians who have since been kicked out. But he was able to help them out."&nbsp;</p>

<p>

[...]

"We also found an architect who had a lot of experience in building these relief camps. When there is an earthquake, you have to build all these temporary buildings for accommodation and hospitals. But there's all this government bullshit you have to go through... see, to the Sudanese government, it's all a form of population control - 'Feed them? Well, if we turn our backs then they'll all die and we won't have to...' You know. They saw it in a very different light.&nbsp;

"We had to convince them that the world was watching and that they had better play it straight. Not that they would give a damn about the world watching. It's a very different world over there."&nbsp;</p>

<p>

SPIN accused Geldof of being too naive.&nbsp;

"They cannot really criticise Bob Geldof on that. He may be naive - he's a kid from Ireland and he'd never been to the Third World before.&nbsp;

"It's a whole different thing. They not only speak different languages, they have different ethical ideals, different religions, different ideas about responsibilities.&nbsp;

"The attitudes are so different and it's a lion's den. Even for people who spend their whole lives out there, trying to deal with the Oriental mind, or Asian mind, or African mind - it's a specialized kind of thing. But Bob learned very quickly.&nbsp;

"And Live Aid has a higher percentage - well, every dollar you gave to Live Aid has the highest percentage in the history of relief for actually going into the mouths that it was intended to feed. All the other organizations - of which there are many - gobble up 60 per cent in administration, maintaining offices and paying the staff, so only 40 per cent gets through. With Band Aid, 80 per cent got through.&nbsp;</p>

<p>

[...]

Your father used to be in the CIA didn't he?&nbsp;

"He was one of the founders. He tells stories now about the good old days - like the time they replaced the Syrian government by mistake! They were all sitting around playing poker one night, some American guys and some Syrian generals, just talking: 'You know, what could we do - we could do this and we could do that, we could assume power.' And that's what happened and they were dealing directly with Washington!&nbsp;

"But that's to do with American foreign policy - they have their ambassador and their CIA agent [singular!] in every country. But when the ambassador in the Lebanon phones up the White House and says 'the Israelis are bombing our hospitals,' they don't listen. If anyone even picks up the phone at all, which usually they don't, they say 'Oh, it's so-and-so in Beirut belly-aching again, exaggerating as usual!'"

&nbsp;~ Stewart Copeland in <i>Rock Express</i>. #110 1987, previous and Continued from page 45.&nbsp;</p>