Shell oil-military revolving door

This video says about itself:

Shell Oil: Human rights go up in flames

Gas flaring happens when oil is pumped out of the ground, producing gas. The gas is separated out and, in Nigeria, is usually burnt as waste. This practice, combined with numerous oil spills, has left communities in the Niger Delta with little option but to drink polluted water, eat contaminated fish, farm on spoiled land and breathe in air that smells of oil and gas. It also makes a mockery of Shells much-flaunted business principles.

In his last speech as president of the USA, President Eisenhower warned against the military-industrial complex.

Today, it often seems that this complex is, more precisely, a military-oil industrial complex.

The sanctimonious denials by both Tony Blair and oil corporations like BP and Shell that these corporations, God forbid, had anything to do with preparing the war in Iraq, have been exposed as lies.

Shell plays a major role in designing the future strategy of NATO. A strategy of yet more humanitarian wars wars for oil, for other resources, for politicians wanting to avert people’s attention from domestic problems, for politicians’ delusions about their reputations in history, etc. etc.

Today, there is news about an agreement between Shell corporation and the Dutch Department of War. “Of course”, like in many other countries, the Dutch Department of War is euphemistically officially called Department of Defence.

There will be some cuts in the Dutch “Defence” department (if ALL “austerity” would directly hurt poor people, arts, the environment, etc., while the military budget would keep rising all the time, then cuts hurting poor people, arts, the environment, etc. would be more difficult to sell to the people). Now, the Dutch “Defence” department has agreed with Shell that some ex-“Defence” employees will be transferred to jobs at the multinational oil corporation. A Shell spokesperson says: “because we need people with technical skills”. Maybe, skills in preparing and waging wars for oil are considered to be “technical” skills as well.

USA: Last week the Wall Street investment bank Moelis & Company announced that it had hired former Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, guaranteeing him $3.4 million in pay through 2015. Cantor’s multi-million-dollar payout represents compensation for his service to Wall Street during his time in Congress and illustrates the incestuous relationship between the US political establishment and big business: here.

SOLOMON HUGHES investigates the politicians selling their services to companies that advise the obscenely wealthy on how to avoid tax: here.

Related articles

• Eric Cantor Investment Wanker
• Shell convicted for pollution in Nigeria
• David Cameron helps Shell polluters of Nigeria

• Shell Oil Axes Exec For Alaska Drilling Fiasco. Will More Heads Roll? (forbes.com)
• Shell reveals Iranian oil trade loss (en.trend.az)
• Shell barred from returning to drill for oil in Arctic without overhaul (guardian.co.uk)
• Setback for Shell’s Arctic oil ambitions as rigs require repair in Asia (telegraph.co.uk)
• Shell continues spilling oil in North Sea despite efforts to improve (guardian.co.uk)
• Shell oil rigs in Alaska to be repaired in Asia (guardian.co.uk)
• Niger Delta Farmers Vs. Shell Oil: Dutch Court Largely Rejects Nigerians’ Case Against Shell (thenigerianoracle.com)