Does a Senior Obama Official Have Unseemly Ties to Notorious Human-Rights Abuser Chevron?

[Orwellian_Ghost]

Among the abuses in which Chevron was implicated at the time was the May 1998 killing of indigenous residents of Nigeria's oil-rich Niger River delta. In response to a nonviolent protest on one of its oil platforms, Chevron provided company helicopters to the notorious Nigerian Mobile Police, known as the "Kill 'n Go," who used the helicopters to conduct a deadly attack on nonviolent protesters. Chevron's head of security rode along as the the police opened fire on the delta residents, and Chevron paid the soldiers who carried out the attack. (Despite overwhelming evidence of Chevron's complicity, late last year a jury in San Francisco cleared the company of responsibility. The case is on appeal.)

During the 2008 presidential race, Barack Obama rightly painted John McCain as the candidate of Big Oil, saying he was "in the pocket" of the industry, and the Democrats ran ads portraying Exxon as McCain's running mate.

But the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics pointed out, "Tallying contributions by employees in the industry and their families ... Exxon, Chevron and BP have all contributed more money to Obama than to McCain." After his election, Obama followed in Bush's footsteps, appointing another former Chevron director, Gen. James Jones as his national security adviser. In 2008, Chevron paid Jones $290,000 for serving on its board for seven months -- from May until December.

Now, the story of this slick oil company's romance with the government has taken a particularly crude twist: Last month, Chevron was given the Richard C. Holbrooke Award for Business Leadership in "recognition of the company's global public health programs." (And, no, this is not a story from The Onion.) It was first reported by Newsweek's Michael Isikoff.

<snip>

http://www.alternet.org/rights/141227/does_a_senior_obama_official_have_unseemly_ties_to_notorious_human_rights_abuser_chevron/?page=entire

[Tim01]

1. President Obama seems to be a big fan of corporations.

So it isn't surprising at all.

When he assigned a former Monsanto lobbyist to the FDA, THAT was surprising. Everything else pales in comparison.

[NashVegas]

2. May 1998?

Oy.

I've no doubt Obama is corporate-friendly, but can we at least get a relevant time-line for Chevron?

[ananda]

3. We all knew James Jones was a bad appointment from day one!

nt

[HamdenRice]

4. Completely bogus, misleading, dishonest Alternet article

Why am I not surprised.

There are certainly grounds to criticize Gen. Jones, but outright, blatant bald faced dishonesty, such as in this alternet article, does not make that case.

Jones spent almost his entire career in the Marines and the upper reaches of the Pentagon.

He was in private business for about a year, and was not an executive but a director. Directors of the kind Jones was are outsiders to the corporation who meet a few times a year to audit and otherwise oversee broad aspects of corporate performance on behalf of the stockholders.

Jones served on the Chevron board for less than a year.

The article starts out talking about Chevron's abuses in Nigeria ten years before Jones even joined the board, and then makes the blatantly dishonest suggestion that Obama has hired someone with "unseemly" ties to Chevron's human rights record.

What a piece of crap.

[madrchsod]

5. the comments on Open Secrets are interesting

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/08/oil-industry-leans-toward-mcca.html

they called the article misleading and back it up with facts...

using a link that has been discredited is bush-league journalism

[DevonRex]

7. +1. nt

[Arkana]

6. That's bullshit. Which employees were the ones that donated to Obama?

I donated to the campaign and I worked at an insurance company then. Did that mean Obama was in the pocket of Big Insurance as well?

[Robb]

8. Any excuse to trot this out:

[HamdenRice]

9. Once again: "Less Than Zero"

:silly: :crazy: :silly:

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: