This reminds me of the Wonga Coup (http://www.amazon.com/The-Wonga-Coup-Ruthless-Determination/...), the Mark Thatcher operation to try to "regime change" Equatorial Guinea, a small, oil-rich country with a non-democratic government.

I'm kind of surprised these kind of operations aren't more frequently attempted. Plus, it would be relatively easy to "succeed" in the very short term -- the problem is in few cases would there be long term better governance as a result.