From Alaska to Iraq: Exxon Mobil’s Global Reach

by Karen Button

March 24 marked the 17th anniversary of the US’s largest and most devastating oil spill in US history. In 1989 Exxon’s tanker Valdez ran aground in remote Alaska, dumping millions of gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound’s pristine waters, coating 1,600 miles of its coastline. The Sound’s wildlife and Cordova’s (the small fishing town hardest-hit) economy are still in recovery nearly two decades later. Exxon’s legacy of devastation lives on in Alaska.

When the company originally self-reported a loss of 10.8 million gallons from its cargo of 53 million, the number was widely accepted, and is still widely used today to describe the spill. However, a report finally released five years post-spill by the State of Alaska estimated 30-38 million gallons were actually spilled.

Exxon denies this claim, as it also denies responsibility for lingering illnesses that hundreds of former workers are now suffering. Nicknamed the “Valdez Crud,” over 6,700 workers sought care for various respiratory illnesses at Exxon-run health clinics during clean-up operations. Federal health investigators visited the clean-up sites three times during the summer of 1989, yet Exxon refused to turn over any health records to officials. In the ensuing lawsuits, Exxon has settled most cases out-of-court, requiring all records sealed and preventing access to any information about the causes of illness.

The oil giant also reneged on their promises to pay for all damages wreaked by the spill. Ordered in 1994 to pay $5 billion in punitive damages (based on their profits in 1989) to the thousands of families whose livelihoods were ruined, Exxon instead filed numerous appeals, the latest of which was this past January. This was the same month the mega-corporation reported the largest annual profit ever earned by a US corporation--$36 billion dollars. Further, Exxon acted deplorably behind the scenes, offering seven Seattle-based seafood operators a 15 percent cut of the $5 billion if they would settle out of court. Even the courts registered their disgust with Exxon’s behaviour, when US District Judge Holland accused them of acting “as a Jekyll and Hyde, behaving laudably in public, and deplorably in private.”

In February both DemocracyNow! and The Miami Herald reported that Exxon Mobile earns a massive $5 million an hour. The oil giant could pay its twelve-year-old debt to Alaskans with just five days of its revenue, instead, it accrues upwards of one million in interest for each year it delays.

Exxon Mobil has one of the most deplorable environmental and public relations records of major oil companies. Yet, it is also one of four multi-national companies most likely to profit hugely in Iraq.

Though the contracts have yet to be signed, behind-the-scenes agreements have all but guaranteed privitisation of nearly 80 percent of Iraq’s oil fields. In Crude Designs: The Rip-Off of Iraq's Oil Wealth, industry analyst Gregg Muttitt writes, “At an oil price of $40 per barrel, Iraq stands to lose between $74 billion and $194 billion over the lifetime of the proposed contracts.” According to James Paul of the Global Policy Forum, “Shell, BP, Exxon, [and] Chevron would get the lion’s share.” In an earlier interview he pointed out, as an example, if Exxon were to gain control of Iraq’s best known super-giant field, al-Majnoon, it would double the company’s reserves in one stroke. “If you figure oil at $50 a barrel and multiply it out,” Paul explained, “it’s a total profit spread of $1 trillion. That’s more than all companies put together since John D. Rockefeller.”

Now, consumer and advocacy groups are taking on the world’s largest privately-owned oil conglomerate through boycotts.

The 15-member environmental and public interest advocacy group www.exxposeexxon.com hosts a website detailing Exxon Mobil's not-so-honorable activities, which include paying for scientific reports downplaying the threat of global warming. The group, which launched their boycott last July, represents hundreds of thousands of members and includes groups like USPIRG, MoveOn.org, and Greenpeace, which has labeled Exxon Mobil “No. 1 Climate Criminal.” In a related story, the Wall Street Journal recently reported that an IRS audit of Greenpeace was prompted by a little-known watchdog group that challenged Greenpeace's tax-exempt status. “Two and a half years ago, Public Interest Watch… wrote to the Internal Revenue Service urging the agency to audit Greenpeace and accusing the environmental group of money laundering and other crimes.” Yet, according to the Wall Street Journal, “tax records show more than 95 percent of the funding of Public Interest Watch was provided by the oil giant Exxon Mobil.”

Last December www.consumersforpeace.org also kicked off a consumer boycott, for reasons related to the war in Iraq. A coalition of organisations that include After Downing Street, Gold Star Families for Peace, the Traprock Peace Center, International Socialist Review, and Progressive Democrats of America, the group said Exxon Mobil was “selected for boycott because of its apparent active involvement in U.S. policy in the Middle East in general and Iraq in particular.”

Besides calling for “an immediate withdrawal of US troops and
mercenaries from Iraq and prosecution of US officials responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity,” the group is also joining the call for a “buy-cott” of Citgo gas.

Headquartered in the Houston, Texas, Citgo was purchased in 1990 by the PDVSA, a subsidiary of the national oil company of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. With some 4,000 employees, it is one of the US’s largest refineries. That may be crime enough in the eyes of the Republican Congressman from Texas, “Big Oil” Joe Barton, who has initiated an investigation into Citgo. But what’s aggravated Mr. Barton most, it seems, is that the Venezuelan-owned company actually lowered its prices for oil last year, rather than raise them. Not only did Citgo supply 25 million gallons of discounted heating oil to low-income homes across the Northeast, it also gave free supplies to homeless shelters and to four Maine Tribes. These are the “crimes” being investigated.

Yet, the program was initiated in part at the request of a dozen US senators. Ten major oil companies were asked late last year to help low-income families pay their heating bills from record oil profits. Citgo was the only company to respond. The nationalized oil company also committed $1 million in aid to survivors of Hurricane Katrina, while others have been accused of padding their pockets at the expense of those in need.

While the violence that now defines Iraq grabs headlines, the quiet bargaining between privitisation and nationalisation of Iraq’s oil is taking place behind closed doors. Ask any Alaskan who lived through the Exxon Valdez oil spill and they will tell you Exxon is no longer welcome. Windfall profits rule the game in privatised industry. Yet, most northeasterners who’ve benefited from the shared nationalism of Venezuela’s Citgo corporation would have a different story to tell.

At least for now in the US, there is a choice at the pump.

For more information about where to find a Citgo station, go to http://www.citgo.com/CITGOLocator/StoreLocator.jsp

Samara Bombing and the third anniversary of mess

An Open Letter from Dr. Salam Ismael
Baghdad, Iraq

I worked in many areas of conflict inside Iraq over the past three years and have witnessed many horrific scenes of slaughter and innocent people being shred to pieces. I felt pain and bitterness inside me but this is the first time since the invasion of Baghdad that I have felt anxious about my country and the direction that it's taking. I've always been confident that Iraq would never descend into civil war.

A few days after the crime in Samara was committed, the shrine of Imam Hassan Al Haidi was attacked and bombed. The proceeding days and hours were extremely hard for everyone of us. Many Sunni mosques were attacked and in some cases burnt down. Militia wearing black uniforms – belonging to one of the political parties orchestrated a campaign of violence and intimidation bringing chaos and fear to the streets. For the first time I felt that the country could be on the edge of civil war.

People closed down their shops. Families phoned their loved ones to return home and locked their doors. Bodies of young men- shot from close range were found in the streets of Baghdad. People started preparing their guns and brought weapons from local shops to protect themselves. Blockades were constructed to protect homes, mosques and businesses. I am the son of a Shiaa mother and a Sunni father and live in a mixed neighbourhood of the city. My mother was scared every time I left the house to go to the hospital or morgue as part of my work documenting the human rights violations and killings in the days following the attack on the shrine. My mother kept phoning me asking where I was, what I was doing and demanding that I return home. The fear of loved ones being killed in a potential civil war had a deep impact on all Iraqis regardless of their religious background. In the following days I felt that this fear was the thing that united most ordinary Iraqis who are living outside the green zone struggling with the difficulties of daily lives.

When I witnessed young shiaas protecting a Sunni mosque in my neighbourhood alongside sunni I breathed a sigh of relief. I saw a thirteen year old boy at around four in the morning with his khafiya wrapped around his head carrying a gun. I saw the child falling asleep from time to time whilst standing on his feet with his gun. He was there to protect his mosque from and the community from the wave of madness that was being unleashed by the militia. During this time I felt the same emotions as I did during the siege of Fallujah where I was working as a doctor. We had run out of food and were depressed and loosing hope. The first truck that broke the blockade to bring food to us was a shia convoy carrying aid. They entered Fallujah announcing on a loud speaker 'we came here to help you' they raised their fingers in a victory salute and brought us hope. Then as now I remembered the old Arab saying 'the blow that doesn't kill you can only make you stronger'. I realised the fabric of Iraqi society would never be shred to pieces – we are more united now than ever before and believe that we have turned the corner and that civil war is a distant possibility.

In the last three years US hummers were patrolling all over Baghadad. The highway in front of my house was now empty of soldiers and four days following the attack on the shrine the soldiers had vanished.. The same story was repeated in neighbourhoods across Baghdad. People were asking where are the US soldiers, the tanks and why are they not protecting us and our Neighbourhoods?

The occupiers failed to uphold their responsibility under the Geneva Convention to maintain law and order and protect civilians in the areas they are controlling. The occupiers told us that they had invaded Iraq to protect us but now when we needed protection they were nowhere to be seen. Why didn't they try and stop the violence and attacks?

I participated in an interview with the BBC who told me that the coalition forces couldn't get involved in this issue as they would be seen as supporting one side against the other. My response and the response of many Iraqis is well- why are they here? Who are they protecting? This goes back to the old question of the demand of Iraqis – that the coalition forces leave. Two days after the attack of Samara two British soldiers in Basra were killed as Iraqis are becoming more angry and frustrated that these soldiers are in their country and want them to leave.

In every society it's the police and army that take responsibility for enforcing law and order. The trust of the people is essential if law and order is to be carried out effectively. This trust collapsed following the attack of the shrine. People blockaded themselves into their homes and took up arms to protect themselves and their families. The army and police stood at the edges and observed what was happening. Militia wearing police and army uniforms carried out attacks against civilians. This has created a total breakdown in the trust and confidence of the people to these authorities that are supposed to serve and protect us.

What kind of future does Iraq have riddled with these militia and flooded with a sea of weapons? Samara is a good example of how militia disgusted [sic] in uniform are carrying out killings and terrorising Iraqis.

Two days on from the attack in Samara and the murder of hundreds of people by militia a strike was carried out by fifty doctors in one of the main hospitals in Baghdad. Doctors were unable to work because people were threatening them with guns and violence to save the lives or treat patients admitted to the hospital. I went to the hospital to assist the doctors with their actions. The doctors described how one of the doctors was taken at gun point to treat a member of the militia inside the hospital. The doctors were on strike for a day before they were forced to return to their duties.

I was horrified seeing the number weapons people were carrying inside the hospital. How can doctors work to save lives when their own lives are being threatened?

This leads me onto ask the question what kind of future do Iraqi's face under the rule of the militia instead of the rule of government and law?

Today marks the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. The invasion was carried out in the name of human rights and democracy. An invasion in the name of weapons of mass destruction. An invasion that has cost the lives of hundreds and thousands of innocent Iraqis. An invasion that was supposed to show Iraqis the light at the end of the tunnel has instead brought more darkness.. We Iraqis are still waiting to come out of the tunnel and see the light.

This invasion has caused the breakdown of law and order, the governmental system has been destroyed. The bullet and bomb now rules the streets and the cheapest thing inside Iraq is the life of a human being. From the chaotic picture that I have described to you- one must ask who is responsible for what has happened? For making Iraq an open battle field? Who is responsible for arming the militia? Who is responsible for dissolving the army and police? Many Iraqis believe that if this situation was intended it is nothing short of a crime. If the outcome is a result of misplanning then it's an even bigger crime. George Bush and Tony Blair who claim to be the guards of democracy and human rights are responsible for this crime. This 'misplanning' can be repeated anytime in anyplace. In the last three years thousands have lost their lives and human rights and democracy is being smashed around the world under the hammer of the so called 'war on terror'.

Dr Salam Ismael

Iraqi Women Tours US, Speaks Against the War

by Karen Button

On the eve of the third anniversary of Iraq’s invasion, a small delegation of Iraqi woman are in the US to talk about what life under US occupation of their country looks like. They arrived in time for International Women’s Day when a couple thousand women and a few men marched to the White House protesting the war. Their message was clear. Bearing pink signs in both Arabic and English that read “Leave Iraq Now!” and “No to Occupation,” the Iraqi women led the march organised by CodePink: Women Say No to War.

At a later press conference where debate about what the minutia of American troop withdrawal would entail, delegation member Entisar Mohammad Ariabi, began crying out of frustration. “It is not fair,” she said, “that on Women’s Day we are not talking about women’s lives in Iraq!”

Dr. Entisar, pharmaceutical head at Al-Yarmouk Teaching Hospital in Baghdad, has been documenting Iraq’s deteriorating health system. The reality, she said, is that “in Iraq a woman is either looking for her children under the rubble of her [bombed] house or for her husband in the prisons! I would also like to remember the pregnant women who cannot find sufficient care, where there is no hospital or delivery room for her because so many doctors have left, or she cannot take an ambulance because they are shot at.

“Many hospitals have been destroyed in Baghdad, Haditha, and al-Qaim during military bombings. Many of the doctors in these places have been beaten, killed or arrested by US troops.

“So many of the diseases under control under Saddam are now back, especially for children—meningitis and hepatitis because of no medicines or vaccines. There are also health problems due to bad water and lack of sanitation.” According to UNICEF, said Dr. Entisar, before the invasion Iraq was number 80 on the list of countries ranked according to death of children under the age of five. This was also during sanctions. Iraq now ranks number 36.

“We [Iraqi women] are sitting here safe. You cannot imagine how we feel being here because we are very worried about our families. We are calling them every day just to make sure they are still alive. End this occupation! It is the reason for all these things!”

Earlier, the delegation had attempted to meet with a number of congressional members to discuss the situation in Iraq, only to be stymied by tight schedules and what some of the women felt was a lack of interest.

“Most were too busy to meet with us,” said journalist and human rights worker Eman Ahmed Khammas. “One actually met us in the hallway. Some did not even take notes.”

Dr. Entisar said she told them, “I’m talking about the deaths of thousands of Iraqis. If you don’t have even five minutes, I refuse to talk!”

“This is the problem,” said Khammas, pointing to a story in The Washington Post about how well things are going in Iraq. “This is the way issues in Iraq are covered in the media unfortunately; [American] people know almost nothing except the ‘happy image’ that really does not exist.”

“We want to tell you this story of Iraq because the media is not telling you the real story.” Faiza Al-Araji, a religious Shi’a who’s married to a Sunni, explained that she used to be a civil engineer until the invasion made a blogger out of her. (afamilyinbaghdad.blogspot.com) “This is a kind of documentation about what is happening in Iraq. I can tell you from personal experience, six months after the war started, I had guns put in my face and was robbed. I went to the Iraqi police and to the US troops and they both said, ‘sorry, we can’t do anything.’

“Last August the Ministry of Interior arrested my son. They put a bag over his head and took him for four days. These were the worst four days in my life! And, this is the story of most Iraqi women now.”

Fortunately, another prisoner had a cell phone, so Al-Araji’s son was finally able to call her. He told her that the “seniors” within the Ministry told me if his family would pay, he would be released. “We had to pay the seniors in the Ministry $1000 and they released him. This is now the face of the government in Iraq.” Al-Araji’s son was lucky. Most who are arrested by the Ministry are severely tortured, many end up dead. In fear, Al-Araji’s family fled to Jordan where they now live.

Khammas continued, “We hear about horrible stories of torture in the Iraqi prisons, which are unfortunately worse than the American ones. The Iraqi authorities deny their existence,” she says, though too many witnesses have sworn to their presence. “We don’t know the exact number of those detained, but many people are missing in Iraq.

“Another big problem are the continuing military operations. Bush said they ended in May 2003, but this is not true. They have taken place in Najaf, Samarra, the west of Iraq. When they make these raids life stops; school stops, everything stops, and people end up as refugees. For example, with Steel Curtain operations [in Al-Qaim] 8,400 families were left homeless.
“Nearly 50 percent of those who have died during the war are women and children. Death is the king of the streets in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq.”

As to sectarian divisions and the resulting violence, Al-Araji was clear. “It was Bremer who began dividing us; he is the one who named the Sunni Triangle. He put the principles sectarian division in the constitution of Iraq. We never had this before; this is not Iraq. [The Americans] created this story.”

Nadje Al-Ali, a writer and researcher who specializes in women in the Middle East elaborated, “The UK and the US have fueled these differences especially by not securing the borders before now.”

She also attributes the violence to frustration. “After three years, basic services haven’t even been rebuilt,” She pointed to destroyed schools, lack of electricity, and sanitation services.
With this the current situation, asked Al-Araji, “how could I trust [the Americans] to stay another 3 years in Iraq? If [the Americans] are doing anything good for us, give me facts on the ground that Iraq is better and I will never say another word!!”

Instead, Al-Araji charged, “What really exists is a country in absolute chaos! After three years, Iraqis have lost the ‘key.’ We aren’t even the decision-makers in our own country!”

The solution, they all concluded, “Pull out troops!”

Meanwhile, as these Iraqi women tour the US speaking at rallies commemorating the third anniversary of the war in Iraq, American and Iraqi forces have begun Operation Swarmer. Being conducted north of Baghdad, the American military is calling the operation the "largest air assault" in nearly three years.

For information about where the Iraqi women’s delegation are speaking, go to www.womensaynotowar.org

“A cocktail of enemies”

by Karen Button

It was difficult to leave the Middle East, knowing of the uncertain chaos that continues to increase with each day in Iraq. And, of course, knowing I can leave, while my friends, and thousands that I don’t know, can’t. My last days in Jordan were very full with last minute interviews and conversations with friends inside Iraq, which were peppered with the background sounds of gunshots and helicopters flying overhead, despite the curfews.

As one friend reported, "the situation here is very, very bad. Every night in Baghdad there's shooting and of course no one can go out and check out what's happening. The day before yesterday a guard in front of a primary school was killed. The children were inside, so it was a terrible day for them. A teenager from a poor family who picks up garbage from the houses nearby the school was also killed. The attackers didn’t have masks on, they’ve become that brave. This boy tried to run away and was shot. Why? Maybe because he saw them. Too many children don't want to go school now because they are so scared.”

Another says “Yesterday, there were four suicide bombers in Baghdad alone. This violence, it's become like a sort of habit to us. Like, the director of the [Baghdad] morgue, Dr. Faik. He just ran away to Jordan for fear of his life after he reported the real number and condition of bodies.”

She was referring to Faik Bakir who received multiple death threats after reporting that up to three quarters of the 7,000 dead he’s examined in recent months show signs of torture and execution. Many of the bodies have a single bullet shot to the head, their hands tied behind their backs. Others show signs of horrific torture, holes drilled into their bodies and the sides of their heads. I have seen many of these types of pictures, some shown to me by people who desperately want the truth to be told, but are just as desperate to maintain anonymity to ensure the same doesn’t happen to them or their family members.

The number of dead in Baghdad’s morgue has been steadily increasing; the facility now receives 700-1,000 people a month. In Iraq it’s widely believed that the Ministry of the Interior is responsible for the majority of these deaths, yet across the Atlantic these reports are just now making headlines. Outgoing chief of the United Nations human rights office in Iraq made international news when he recently told The Independent, "[The killings are] being done by anyone who wishes to wipe out anybody else for various reasons. But the bulk are attributed to the agents of the Ministry of the Interior."

Yet, it’s not just the Ministry of the Interior Iraqis fear. Coalition forces, CIA and other foreign intelligence forces, American-hired mercenaries (which have numbers greater than the British military), sectarian armed militias, the Iraqi resistance fighters, common criminals, international mafia, and suicide bombers all combine to make life in Iraq on the third anniversary of America’s war more deadly than ever.

“I’ll go back to the West soon to deliver more of the medical supplies to the hospital there,” another friend informs me. When I express my concern and ask if it’s really safe to travel there, he laughs and tells me, “Well, I feel safer there because at least I just need to watch out for the Americans. Here, in Baghdad it's like a cocktail of enemies. You don’t know who you might be killed by.”