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Exxon Valdez Disaster- 15 Years of Lies
Source: Green Peace
Posted: March 24, 2004
It is fifteen years since the devastating Exxon Valdez oil spill, which saw 11 million gallons of oil pouring into a pristine wilderness area in Prince William Sound, Alaska. US oil giant ExxonMobil should come clean about the true state of the site of the spill as new research shows that the Sound is still suffering from adverse effects of the massive oil pollution. For more please click here
March 19, 2004: Exactly one year after the United States
launched the dawn invasion of Iraq, war profiteering by multinational
companies is at an all-time high with military contractors dramatically
boosting revenues by 19% over 2002.
Today Corpwatch, an Oakland, California, based non-profit is launching a
brand new version of the popular War Profiteers website to track these
military contractors on a regular basis. The website, which can be found
at www.warprofiteers.com, is the one-stop shop for communities, citizens,
taxpayers, policy makers, media, students and activists to learn about the
new merchants of global conflict.
“Profiting from killing is wrong. What makes it even more outrageous is
that taxpayers have to foot the bill. We intend to investigate these
abuses and inform the public about what these companies are doing. This
new website will be the premier place for the pubic to find out what is
happening behind the scenes of the so-called war on terrorism,” said
Pratap Chatterjee, program director at Corpwatch.
Today one in ten personnel in the 2003 invasion of Iraq come from private
industry, a dramatic ten-fold increase over the previous Gulf War in 1991.
Not only were most of these employees drawn from the biggest military
contractors in the United States: the company that won the most new work
was the company that the Vice-President Dick Cheney headed up before he
took office: Halliburton Corporation and its subsidiaries (e.g., Kellogg,
Brown, and Root) have won over $8 billion in contracts. Their military
revenue in 2003 of $3.9 billion was a staggering 700% higher than the
previous year!
The new website will feature weekly updates and regular investigative
features from our new military researcher, Adam Clay Thompson, based in
Washington DC. A special “Focus on Iraq” section will provide the latest
news about companies profiting from the continued occupation of that
country, continuing Corpwatch’s award winning coverage of companies like
Halliburton and Bechtel.
In addition, it will have selected profiles of major war profiteers and
explanations of the main sectors: weapons making, security, intelligence,
military logistics, reconstruction, policy & planning, multilateral and
bilateral finance and the mineral extraction industry. The website will
also offer updated factsheets, action items and a calendar of events.
The War Profiteers web site was originally created to distribute the
popular War Profiteer deck of cards, which has sold over 10,000 sets to
date. This deck will is available for a donation to the Ruckus Society,
one of the original creators of this popular game.
Go To Warprofiteers.com
How Coca Cola Could've Been Killing You
Coca-Cola is recalling its entire UK supply of bottled water Dasani - bottled "tap water".
The company, which launched the drink last month amid huge publicity, has announced all bottles being sold in the UK are to be withdrawn after levels of bromate were found to exceed UK legal standards.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) launched an investigation after it emerged that the source for Dasani was mains water supplied to Coca-Cola's factory in Sidcup, south east London.
A spokeswoman for the FSA said: "Coca-Cola, the makers of Dasani, informed the Food Standards Agency yesterday that some samples of their bottled water product, Dasani, have been found to contain bromate at higher levels than are legally permitted in the UK for either bottled or tap water.
"This is a sensible measure by the company as bromate is a chemical that could cause an increased cancer risk as a result of long-term exposure, although there is no immediate risk to public health".
16th Februaury 2004 - Drop The Charges Against Katharine Gun
In the run-up to the Iraq war, Katharine, a GCHQ translator, leaked documents to the Observer showing that US intelligence were asking their British counterparts to help spy on diplomats on the United Nations Security Council. This involved bugging phones and intercepting e mails from friendly countries such as Chile and Mexico who had the power to decide if the UN would back the war against Iraq.
Now, Katharine has been charged under the draconian Official Secrets Act. She faces the possibility of two years in prison. We think this is scandalous, and that the charges should be dropped.
Katharine's hearing at the Old Bailey is on 25th February. Click here to find out how to pressure the Government to drop the charges against her.
In The News 12th February 2004
corpwatch for more info...
· India: Findings on Cola Companies Expose Need for Food Standards
· Americas: Alleged Union-Buster Expands in South
· Romania: Commission Investigating How Bechtel Won Contract
· Iraq: RTI Plans Future "Local" Government
· US: Supreme Court Justice Guest of Cheney
· Nigeria: Halliburton Faces US Probe for Bribes
· GM Oilseed Rape Could Harm The Environment
· Costa Rica: Low Wage Workers Make Baseballs For Millionaires
· US: Halliburton Acknowledges Kickbacks in Iraq Contract
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Investigation Reveals Reconstruction Racket in Iraq
February 4th
A team of investigative reporters in Iraq have found a pattern of waste, fraud and abuse among U.S. companies receiving multi-million-dollar reconstruction contracts in the country, including massive over-charges for projects; shoddy work or a failure to complete tasks; and ignoring local experts who contend they could do the job better and cheaper.
The in-depth report by CorpWatch's Pratap Chatterjee and Focus on the Global South's Herbert Docena, published in the latest issue of Southern Exposure magazine, is an on-the-ground account of how U.S. taxpayer money given to Bechtel, Halliburton and other companies is being spent.
The investigative team spent three weeks in Iraq visiting project sites, analyzing contracts, and interviewing dozens of administrators, contract workers, and U.S. officials. Among the findings:
* Despite over eight months of work and billions of dollars spent, key pieces of Iraq's infrastructure power plants, telephone exchanges, and sewage and sanitation systems have either not been repaired, or have been fixed so poorly that they don't function.
* San Francisco-based Bechtel has been given tens of millions to repair Iraqs schools. Yet many haven't been touched, and several schools that Bechtel claims to have repaired are in shambles. One repaired school was overflowing with unflushed sewage; a teacher at the school also reported that the American contractors took away our Japanese fans and replaced them with Syrian fans that don't work billing the U.S. government for the work.
* Inflated overhead costs and a byzantine maze of sub-contracts have left little money for the everyday workers carrying out projects. In one contract for police operations, Iraqi guards received only 10% of the money allotted for their salaries; Indian cooks for Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root reported making just three dollars a day.
The report also reveals further details of Halliburton's contracts: for example, that of Halliburton's $2.2 billion in contracts, only about 10% has gone to meeting community needs the rest being spent on servicing U.S. troops and rebuilding oil pipelines. Halliburton has also spent over $40 million in the unsuccessful search for weapons of mass destruction.
"A handful of well-connected corporations are making a killing off the devastation in Iraq" observes Chris Kromm, publisher of Southern Exposure. "The politics and process behind these deals have always been questionable. Now we have first-hand evidence that they're not even doing their jobs."
Also featured in the winter 2003/2004 issue of Southern Exposure, on sale this month, is an expose of the increasingly powerful Washington arms lobby by investigative reporter Jason Vest.
Southern Exposure is published by the Institute for Southern Studies, a non-profit research center based in Durham, N.C. SE is a past winner of the National Magazine Award and George Polk Award, and a 2003 nominee for the Independent Press Award in Local/Regional Reporting.
For more information contact:
Pratap Chatterjee
Tel: 510-271-8080
CorpWatch
1611 Telegraph Ave., Ste. 703
Oakland, CA 94612
USA
www.corpwatch.org
Herbert Docena
Tel: +66-2-2187363-65
Focus on the Global South
c/o CUSRI, Chulalongkorn University
Bangkok 10330
Thailand
www.focusweb.org
Chris Kromm
919-419-8311 x26
Insitute for Southern Studies (Southern Exposure)
P.O. Box 531
Durham, NC 27702
USA
www.southernstudies.org
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