Shell Denies Company Infiltrated Nigerian Government

[sabra]

Source: Dow Jones Newswires

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB) strongly denied an allegation in a U.K. newspaper Thursday that it had infiltrated Nigeria's government.

"The Guardian's assertion that Shell has somehow infiltrated the Government of Nigeria is absolutely untrue, false and misleading," said the spokesman, referring to a U.S. Embassy cables published by Wikileaks.

Shell's former executive vice president in the region, Ann Pickard, said at an October meeting that Shell had become aware the Nigerian government was discussing oil licenses with Chinese and Russian companies because "the government of Nigeria had forgotten that Shell had seconded people to all the relevant ministries and that Shell consequently had access to everything that was being done in those ministries," according to the cable.

Read more: http://english.capital.gr/News.asp?id=1101423

[Playinghardball]

1. FRIGGIN' LIARS!!!

I'd trust Wikileaks before I believed in any said by a oil company...

[subsuelo]

3. Amazing that those who expose the real criminals ...

... are the ones that get prosecuted.

What a world we live in.

[TheMadMonk]

4. True and yet not true. Some of it really is up to interpretation.

Much depends on how openly those people were "seconded" to the Nigerian ministries. And it is actually quite possible that this was very openly done.

And yet the Guardian's reporting can be true as well, openly inserted or not, Shell in the end did have a damned good "mole's eye veiw" of the inner workings of the Nigerian govt. The comentary about needing to keep the US govt. appraised on a "need to know" basis for security reasons rings true and lends veracity to the boasts about the depth of Shell's "infiltration".


And let Shell spin its wheels. Methinks nothing's going to be stirred up except more muck.

[elias49]

2. Sure. The cables must be lying...

This an example of the value of Wiki...the rich and powerful will lie to us less. How can they help it.
If something's in black and white, what then?
To paraphrase: "Who ya gonna believe? Me? Or your lying eyes."

[Liberalynn]

5. unfortunately today too many people these days

choose to believe the liars. :cry: Thats why Palin, Faux news, and the tea partiers are so successful even in what is supposedly a well educated country like ours.