USA Africa Dialogue Series - Wikileaks Cables: Shell's Grip On Nigerian State Revealed

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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