WikiLeaks cables: Shell's grip on Nigerian state revealed
US embassy cables reveal top executive's claims that company 'knows everything' about key decisions in government ministries
David Smith
The Guardian
December 8, 2010
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/dec/08/wikileaks-cables-shell-nigeria-spying
Nigerian oil, Shell Despite billions of dollars in oil
revenue, 70% of people in Nigeria live below the
poverty line. Photograph: George Osodi/AP
The oil giant Shell claimed it had inserted staff into
all the main ministries of the Nigerian government,
giving it access to politicians' every move in the oil-
rich Niger Delta, according to a leaked US diplomatic
cable.
The company's top executive in Nigeria told US
diplomats that Shell had seconded employees to every
relevant department and so knew "everything that was
being done in those ministries". She boasted that the
Nigerian government had "forgotten" about the extent of
Shell's infiltration and was unaware of how much the
company knew about its deliberations.
The cache of secret dispatches from Washington's
embassies in Africa also revealed that the Anglo-Dutch
oil firm swapped intelligence with the US, in one case
providing US diplomats with the names of Nigerian
politicians it suspected of supporting militant
activity, and requesting information from the US on
whether the militants had acquired anti-aircraft
missiles.
Other cables released tonight reveal:
US diplomats' fear that Kenya could erupt in violence
worse than that experienced after the 2008 election
unless rampant government corruption is tackled.
America asked Uganda to let it know if its army
intended to commit war crimes based on US intelligence
- but did not try to prevent war crimes taking place.
Washington's ambassador to the troubled African state
of Eritrea described its president, Isaias Afwerki, as
a cruel "unhinged dictator" whose regime was "one
bullet away from implosion".
The latest revelations came on a day that saw hackers
sympathetic to WikiLeaks target MasterCard and Visa
over their decision to block payments to the
whistleblowers' website.
The website's founder, Julian Assange, spent a second
night in jail after a judge refused him bail prior to
an extradition hearing to face questioning over sexual
assault charges in Sweden.
Campaigners tonight said the revelation about Shell in
Nigeria demonstrated the tangled links between the oil
firm and politicians in the country where, despite
billions of dollars in oil revenue, 70% of people live
below the poverty line.
Continue reading this article at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/dec/08/wikileaks-cables-shell-nigeria-spying
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