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Trouble on Oiled Waters–Halliburton, BP, Bush, Cheney and Blair
By Dave Emory - May 29, 2010 @ 8:24 pm in News & Supplemental
Comment: With the devastation unfolding on the Gulf Coast because of the gusher BP has unleashed on the human and marine residents of the area, it is worth contemplating the corporate elements whose actions have precipitated the disaster. The dubious cement installation at the failed rig was installed by Halliburton–formerly headed by Dick Cheney and the beneficiary of numerous lucrative contracts bestowed by the Bush administration in Iraq and Afghanistan (among other places).
“Halliburton in Spotlight in Gulf Spill Probe” by Margot Roosevelt; Los Angeles Times; 5/1/2010. [1]
Excerpt: “Investigators delving into the causes of the massive gulf oil spill are examining the role of Houston-based Halliburton Co., the giant energy services company that was responsible for cementing the deepwater drill hole, as well as the possible failure of equipment leased to British Petroleum. . . .
. . . A 2007 study by the U.S. Minerals Management Service found that cementing was the single most-important factor in 18 of 39 well blowouts in the Gulf of Mexico over a 14-year period.
Halliburton has been accused of performing a poor cement job in the case of a major blowout in the Timor Sea off Australia last August. An investigation is underway. . .”
In addition, British Petroleum, Tony Blair and George W. Bush are inextricably linked. A powerful Scottish family–the Gammells–have been cozy with the Bushes for decades. W has long been close to scion Bill Gammell. The land mark text Family of Secrets [2] by Russ Baker [3] details this milieu. (Read a mini-review of the book [4].)
. . . . George W. and Bill [Gammell] remained close, and the two talked the day Bush was elected governor of Texas in 1994. The following year, Bill Gammell, whose company vice chairman was a former Labour energy minister, renewed his relationship with British Labour leader and soon-to-be prime minister Tony Blair.
Bill Gammell’s ties to Blair date back to prep school in Edinburgh, where the two had been friends and basketball teammates. Gammell arranged the initial meeting between the two world leaders, and Bush’s first words to the British prime minister were: “I believe you know my old friend, Bill Gammell.”
W. would mention his family’s connections to the Gammells in a 2005 Oval Office interview with the Times of London . . . He [Bush] discussed past business deals with Billy Gammell, an “oil and gas guy” who used to visit Midland, Texas, and became “a very successful entrepreneur.” . . .
Blair’s decision to back Bush enthusiastically on Iraq appears to have paid dividends. In 2008, when Iraq’s oil ministry began handing out no-bid development contracts to a select group, one of the lucky parties was BP–a company that had as much influence in the Blair government as American oil companies had in the Bush-Cheney White House. Blair surrounded himself with at least a dozen executives from BP. . . the prime minister maintained such a close relationship with BP’s CEO Lord Browne that newspapers dubbed the giant oil company “Blair Petroleum” (although some wondered if it wouldn’t be more fitting to call the British government the British Petroleum government.) . . .
(Family of Secrets by Russ Baker; pp. 434–436.)
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URLs in this post:
[1] “Halliburton in Spotlight in Gulf Spill Probe” by Margot Roosevelt; Los Angeles Times; 5/1/2010.: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/may/01/nation/la-na-oil-spill-investigation-20100501
[2] Family of Secrets: http://www.familyofsecrets.com/
[3] Russ Baker: http://russbaker.com/archive-of-articles/
[4] Read a mini-review of the book: http://spitfirelist.com/news/family-of-secrets-a-very-important-new-book/
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