Bush Officials Condoned Regional Iraqi Oil Deal

Contract Contradicted State Dept.'s Public Stance Thursday, July 3, 2008; D01 Bush administration officials told Hunt Oil last summer that they did not object to its efforts to reach an oil deal with the Kurdish regional government in northern Iraq, even while the State Department was publicly expressing concern that such contracts could undermine a national Iraqi petroleum law, according to documents obtained by a House committee. Last fall, after the deal was announced, the State Department said that it had tried to dissuade Hunt Oil from signing the contract with Kurdish regional authorities but that the company had proceeded "regardless of our advice." Although Hunt Oil's chief executive has been a major fundraiser for President Bush, the president said he knew nothing about the deal. Yesterday, however, Henry A.. » read more

How a Shady Citigroup Subsidiary Secretly Makes Billions in the Oil Market

June 23, 2008 Crude oil has risen 700 percent in seven years; the lack of oversight has allowed companies like Phibro to pull in huge and questionable profits. If you want to flush out market manipulation, don't turn to the sleuths in Congress. They've been probing trading of the oil markets for two years and completely missed a company at the center of the action. During that period, a barrel of crude oil has risen from $50 to $140, leaving a wide swath of Americans facing a choice this coming winter of buying food or paying their heating bill. The company that Congress overlooked should have been an easy suspect.. » read more

THEFT Of A Nation by the ENRON Family Bush, Senator Phil Grahmm, etc. & the McCain link?

June 22, 2008   McCain's "Base" Comprised of Lobbyists  http://firedoglake.com/2008/05/28/ mccains-base-comprised-of-lobbyists/  Does An Outsider Stand A Chance In A Congressional Race? http://firedoglake.com/2008/05/28/ grittv-does-an-outsider-stand-a- chance-in-a-congressional-race/  > McCain's Cronies: Handling Gramm's Enron/UBS Baggage? http://firedoglake.com/2008/05/28/ mccains-cronies-handling-gramms-enronubs-baggage/ By: Christy Hardin Smith Wednesday May 28, 2008 http://firedoglake.com/author/2/ How exactly does John McCain answer the question of what he's doing handling Phil Gramm's Enron and UBS baggage in exchange for highly dubious economic advice? http://firedoglake.. » read more

Gulf To Earn 1.3 Trillion Dollars From Oil In Two Years

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DOSSIER: THE SECRET HISTORY OF ARMAND HAMMER

Posted 6/19/08 Armand Hammer was one of the odder, more odious characters of American business and politics, "famous" chiefly because he was rich enough to promote his mammoth ego. He has met his match in investigative writer Edward Jay Epstein, who performs the ultimate unmasking of a man who deceived, even betrayed, his country, his family and the hired toadies who posed as his friends. The public persona that Hammer polished, at great expense, was that of a renegade oilman who made billions from Libyan oil, chummed around with politicians up to White House level and adorned acres of galleries with paintings, some priceless, others fake. Hammer's lawyers bedeviled honest journalists who tried to write otherwise while he was alive, and they mostly succeeded. Steve Weinberg, author of an earlier critical biography, estimated to me that his British publisher spent $2 million defending a libel suit; it died when Hammer did, at age 92, in 1990.. » read more

Burma Gives "Cronies" Slice of Storm Relief

Friday 13 June 2008  On magazine's list of junta's chosen tycoons are some facing US sanctions.     Just seven days after Cyclone Nargis devastated Burma last month, the ruling military junta parceled out key sections of the affected Irrawaddy Delta to favored tycoons and companies, including several facing sanctions from the U.S. Treasury, according to a Burmese magazine with close ties to the government. Tay Za is a close associate of the ruling Burma junta.. » read more

Plan Mexico

Friday 13 June 2008 As Congress gears up to fund another year of war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is also readying a nearly half-billion-dollar aid package that would initiate a Colombia-like drug war in Mexico. The majority of funds would fuel the Mexican military, known for rampant human rights abuses and participation in organized crime. Outside Oaxaca University, federal police forcibly detain a man. Human rights abuses run rampant among the Mexican military and police force, yet the US plans to provide them with a fresh infusion of funds this year. (Daniel Aguilar: Reuters)     In May, the House and the Senate both approved versions of the drug-fighting legislation, dubbed "Plan Mexico," tucked into the "Global War on Terror" supplemental spending bill.. » read more

Chemical Law Has Global Impact

E.U.'s New Rules Forcing Changes By U.S. Firms Thursday, June 12, 2008; A01 Europe this month rolled out new restrictions on makers of chemicals linked to cancer and other health problems, changes that are forcing U.. » read more

Indian Workers Decry Recruitment Tactics

 Protesters cite "lifetime settlement" offer.     Vijay Kumar was working as a contract welder in the sweltering United Arab Emirates two years ago, far from his wife and family in southern India, when he spotted an advertisement offering welders and pipe fitters "permanent lifetime settlement in the USA for self and family." Labor and political groups helping Indian workers say the case is an important example of illegal human trafficking and was exacerbated by the chaotic conditions that characterized the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. (Photo: Ted Quant / Agencies)     Kumar answered the ad to find that workers were being recruited to rebuild oil rigs in Mississippi and Texas destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. He returned to India, signed a contract and paid a recruiter $20,000 to travel to the United States.. » read more

Controversy Was Karen Silkwood Murdered Part 1

About the controversy surrounding the death of Karen Silkwood, history and exploration of whether or not her death was murder. CONTROVERSIES   WERE THEY MURDERED?   KAREN SILKWOOD   Victim: Karen Gay Silkwood was a 28-year-old laboratory worker in the Kerr-McGee Corporation's Cimarron facility, a plant near Oklahoma City which manufactures highly radioactive plutonium fuel for nuclear reactors. She had begun work at the plant in the fall of 1972, after her six-year marriage had broken up. Her three children were left in the custody of their father after he remarried.   Silkwood joined the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers' Union (OCAW) and was elected to the union's governing committee in the spring of 1974.. » read more

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