#bigoil — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #bigoil, aggregated by home.social.
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Making it easier to get permits for carbon capture, transport and storage has been a major lobbying goal of #BigOil group IOGP, which is moderating a panel on “Strengthening Europe’s industrial base with CCS value chain”.
4 out of 6 speakers on the panel are from the #fossilfuel industry. 🛢️🛢️🛢️🛢️
👇
1st Conference on European Per... -
The ICP is spearheaded by the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP), which represents all the big names in #BigOil, from BP, ExxonMobil & Shell to TotalEnergies, Eni & Equinor.
The #EU Commission is sending 3 high-level speakers, alongside 9 speakers from #fossilfuel industry. 👇
1st Conference on European Per... -
The UN makes it official: 1.5°C will be breached
Meanwhile, OPEC has no intention of turning off the taps. On the contrary: Its 2026 outlook projects oil demand continuing to rise to 124 million barrels a day by 2050, and calls for $17.7 trillion in oil investment between now and then.
Money that should be spent on a rapid phase out of fossil fuels and preparation for the disasters we can no longer avoid
https://r.sib.wedonthavetime.org/mk/mr/sh/7nVTPdZCTJDXPcsUdxHIhkpg5ycjma1/Buy5Gm4nhrna
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Hot tip:
You can be "committed to reducing Canada's emissions and achieving net-zero by 2050"
****** OR *******
You can build another DEADLY pipeline for the #BigOil skunks
But you can't do both
This is the #MarkCarney government LYING to you about #ClimateChange.
Again.
#cdnpoli
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:jeuzjfwsgn62xfoe7qo4jul5/post/3muufarekpk2b
Taffer-either-step-up-or-step-... -
#MissKittyPolitics #BigOil did this. Big Oil is a #Crime #Syndicate. #MissKitty has delivered #solar #data #centers. Somebody should pay attention. #Armageddon
The reapers reap and then they are reaped. So has #TheLord told. ~Selah~
After the flood: human sufferi... -
"The science backs up what people on the front lines already know: humanity's addiction to burning massive amounts of #coal, #oil and #gas is heating our planet, turning more of #Canada's vast #forests into tinderboxes, and spreading dangerous smoke far beyond the flames." https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/wwa-study-climate-change-wildfires-9.7297131
#BorealForest #ClimateBreakdown #wildfires #drought #BigOil #ClimateCriminals
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"The science backs up what people on the front lines already know: humanity's addiction to burning massive amounts of #coal, #oil and #gas is heating our planet, turning more of #Canada's vast #forests into tinderboxes, and spreading dangerous smoke far beyond the flames." https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/wwa-study-climate-change-wildfires-9.7297131
#BorealForest #ClimateBreakdown #wildfires #drought #BigOil #ClimateCriminals
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"The science backs up what people on the front lines already know: humanity's addiction to burning massive amounts of #coal, #oil and #gas is heating our planet, turning more of #Canada's vast #forests into tinderboxes, and spreading dangerous smoke far beyond the flames." https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/wwa-study-climate-change-wildfires-9.7297131
#BorealForest #ClimateBreakdown #wildfires #drought #BigOil #ClimateCriminals
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"The science backs up what people on the front lines already know: humanity's addiction to burning massive amounts of #coal, #oil and #gas is heating our planet, turning more of #Canada's vast #forests into tinderboxes, and spreading dangerous smoke far beyond the flames." https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/wwa-study-climate-change-wildfires-9.7297131
#BorealForest #ClimateBreakdown #wildfires #drought #BigOil #ClimateCriminals
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"The science backs up what people on the front lines already know: humanity's addiction to burning massive amounts of #coal, #oil and #gas is heating our planet, turning more of #Canada's vast #forests into tinderboxes, and spreading dangerous smoke far beyond the flames." https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/wwa-study-climate-change-wildfires-9.7297131
#BorealForest #ClimateBreakdown #wildfires #drought #BigOil #ClimateCriminals
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Opeens is de #airco de kop van jut in de media. Het is volgens mij de zoveelste poging van #bigoil om de aandacht af te leiden en heel sneaky de oplossing (#electrificatie van de energievoorziening) de zwarte Piet toe te schuiven. Het zou de #dynamischestroom prijs ook nog eens opdrijven, maar die is vanavond ook weer bizar hoog, terwijl het nu aangenaam weer is met ‘s nachts temperaturen waar je lekker bij kunt slapen. Me dunkt dat het eerder te maken heeft met het feit dat gascentrales opgestart moeten worden omdat Franse kerncentrales stilgelegd worden vanwege te warm koelwater. En hoe komt dat? Airco’s? Kom nou toch. Nee, electrisch is veel efficiënter en schoner omdat er amper afvalwarmte is. En een airco warmt de atmosfeer niet op, omdat de warmte slechts verplaatst wordt en niet extra aangemaakt. Verbrandingsmotoren daarentegen dumpen 60 a 70% van de energie als warmte in de atmosfeer. En natuurlijk CO2. Het is waanzin om daarmee door te gaan. De airco is een zeer efficiëntie overlevingsstrategie tijdens een #hittegolf . In combinatie met #zonnepanelen en #thuisaccu #nulopdemeter wordt het #electriciteitsnet niet belast, maar juist ontlast. En dan die kul dat de airco rijk tegenover arm zet. Een airco is voor een huisbezitter niet duur in aanschaf en al helemaal niet in gebruik. Huisjesmelkers zou m.i. verplicht moeten worden om airco’s en zonnepanelen te installeren en dat mag wat mij betreft ook gesubsidieerd worden. Ik ben geen expert, slechts iemand die veel nadenkt over deze zaken en daaruit zijn conclusies trekt en ernaar handelt.
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At #Chevron’s Gates, Communities Demand #Justice and a #FossilFree Future
#AntiChevron Day 2026 united communities fighting #extraction, #EnvironmentalRacism, and #corporate impunity across continents
May 21, 2026 | Paul Paz y Miño
"Nearly three decades after communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon first brought global attention to Chevron’s crimes, and 13 years after activists launched the first Anti-Chevron Day in 20 countries, the resistance continues. Chevron remains one of the most polluting companies on Earth – and one of the most determined to avoid accountability for it.
Anti-Chevron Day
"For the 13th year running, Anti-Chevron Day brought frontline leaders from across the globe to the shadow of Chevron’s #RichmondCA refinery, where communities gathered with anger, grief, music, ceremony, and determination to confront one of the world’s most destructive oil companies.
"The gathering came just weeks after the historic First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels in Santa Marta, #Colombia, where Indigenous leaders and governments demanded an urgent and just transition away from the fossil fuel economy that continues to poison the territories and devastate the health of frontline communities worldwide. In Richmond, that demand felt immediate and deeply personal. It is being shaped by the people most directly harmed by extraction and pollution, and by movements building solidarity across borders.
"Chevron must clean up its '#RainforestChernobyl' in the #EcuadorianAmazon!
"For over three decades, Chevron chose profit over people. While drilling in the Ecuadorian Amazon from 1964 to 1990, it deliberately dumped more than 16 billion gallons of #ToxicWastewater, spilled roughly 17 million gallons of #CrudeOil, and left #HazardousWaste in hundreds of open pits dug out of the forest floor."
#BigOil #ChevronKnew #OilDrilling #EnvironmentalCatastrophe #OilPollution #AmazonWatch #IndigenousResistance #CleanUpYourMessChevron
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Your regular reminder each of these #CostOfClimate stories involves YOU the taxpayer covering the damages as opposed to the fabulously wealthy #BigOil companies that LIED about all of it & profited mightily We need to stop being suckers We need to MAKE THEM PAY #SUEBIGOIL #ClimateChange
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:g2etkgo54mymirahunukhwkf/post/3mldtcqdiws2h -
Your reminder that as it stands ALL the enormous costs of #ClimateChange will be paid for by taxpayers and NOT the fabulously wealthy #BigOil companies that SPENT BILLIONS lying about the dangers so they could reap unprecedented profits. #SueBigOil #CostOfClimate
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:prhg7e4i6rmbpzhxgb4vdc36/post/3mkzothgl7s2t -
#Wikipedia - Origin of the concept of a #SacrificeZone
"According to the United Nations Human Rights Council [#UNHRC], the term Sacrifice zone emerged in the #ColdWar period when #NuclearTesting, conducted by #colonial powers, such as the #UnitedStates, #France, the #UnitedKingdom, and the #SovietUnion transformed sections of land into #uninhabitable and highly #radioactive areas. Sacrifice zones can be defined as communities that experience dangerous levels of hazardous contamination and waste exposure. Sacrifice zones are linked to #racism, #oppression, #patriarchy, and #colonialism, as they are hubs of #pollution that disproportionately target and harm the physical and mental health of marginalized groups who face overlapping forms of #oppressions.
According to Helen Huntington Smith, the term was first used in the U.S. discussing the long-term effects of #StripMining #coal in the American West in the 1970s. The National Academy of Sciences/National Academy of Engineering Study Committee on the Potential for Rehabilitating Lands Surface Mined for Coal in the Western United States produced a 1973 report that introduced the term, finding:
In each zone the probability of rehabilitating an area depends upon the land use objectives, the characteristics of the site, the technology available, and the skill with which this technology is applied. At the extremes, if surface mined lands are declared national sacrifice areas, all ecological zones have a high probability of being successfully rehabilitated. If, however, complete restoration is the objective, rehabilitation in each zone has no probability of success.
Similarly in 1975, Genevieve Atwood wrote in Scientific American:
Surface mining without #reclamation removes the land forever from #productive use; such land can best be classified as a #NationalSacrifice area. With successful reclamation, however, surface mining can become just one of a series of land uses that merely interrupt a current use and then return the land to an equivalent potential productivity or an even higher one.
Huntington Smith wrote in 1975, "The Panel that issued the cautious and scholarly National Academy of Sciences report unwittingly touched off a verbal bombshell" with the phrase National Sacrifice Area; "The words exploded in the Western press overnight. Seized upon by a people who felt themselves being served up as 'national sacrifices', they became a watchword and a rallying cry." The term sparked public debate, including among #environmentalists and politicians such as future Colorado governor Richard Lamm.
The term continued to be used in the context of strip mining until at least 1999: '#WestVirginia has become an environmental sacrifice zone'."
#JoeManchin #BigOil #BigCoal #StripMining #EnvironmentalRacism #CoalMining #Appalachia #PollutionSacrificeZones #CorporateColonialism
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@ZEITONLINE @podcast-auch-das-noch-ZEITONLINE
#DEpol #Plutokratie #Oligarchie
Der internationale #Lobbyismus hat bereits die größte #Demokratie in eine plutokratische Oligarchie transformiert:
(u.a.) https://mastodon.social/@HistoPol/113194365443224418
Nunmehr machen sich #BigOil und andere multinationale Konzerne offen auf, das #MAGA-Erfolgsmodell in #Europa zu wiederholen:
https://mastodon.social/@HistoPol/114028192105204864
Siehe auch #CitizensUnitedVsFEC
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Jeder neuer #Verbrenner auf der Straße ist nicht nur ein großes Problem für unsere Zukunft, sondern auch ein großes Geschenk für #BigOil, denn diese Konzerne schaffen es seit mehr als 60 Jahren den Klimawandel herunterzuspielen, Nebelkerzen zu zünden & wirkliche Lösungen auszubremsen, weil sie die Leute in Unsicherheit vernebeln. Und unser Verkehrsminister fällt drauf rein.
Leute, aufwachen! E-Fuels aus 100% erneuerbarer Energie sind zwar eine tolle Erfindung… (3/4)
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#Politik #Verarschung -
#TigerSwan Former Delta Operator sought to incite violence at the #DakotaAccessPipeline
by Jack Murphy Feb 26, 2018“’Everyone just saw #oil and saw dollar signs,' a security contractor who worked on the #DAPL project told SOFREP before commenting that Reese, 'wants to be the next #ErikPrince.' At one point, TigerSwan was making a million dollars in profit per month while working on DAPL. No one at the company wanted to see that spigot turn off so some employees provoked the protesters in order to prolong the conflict. ETP was unaware of this as their director of security, Eric Lyons, was inexperienced and took whatever TigerSwan said at face value.
“Another incident took place when Porter ordered several ex-Rangers to do penetration tests of the protester camps by driving a pickup truck right through their perimeter lines. The former Rangers blasted into Camp 3 where many of the more radical #NativeAmericans were known to be and made a loop through the camp. As protesters moved their vehicles to close off the entrance and trap them, the Rangers drove over a snow bank and escaped. Next, they drove down to Camp 1 and repeated the same tactic. This time the Native Americans drove after them and they got into a high-speed pursuit down the road.
“This action resulted in the women and children vacating the camps, while those remaining went up to 100% security and prepared for law enforcement and security contractors to come clear the camps, which was never going to happen. The #protesters simply burned through resources and the native American tribe was not in a position to help them since they had spent the water protector donations to the tune of 3.2 million dollars in order to settle their casino debts.
“‘I know for a fact that the money went into a lot of people’s pockets,' said Eddie Stormcloud who was a leader in one of the #WaterProtector camps and attended many closed-door sessions with the tribal council. Stormcloud also told SOFREP that the true amount of money was closer to nine million dollars rather than the 3.2 reported. At the end of the day, it seemed that everyone was cashing in on the situation at #StandingRock.
“‘Porter’s real goal was to keep this thing going as long as possible,' a former TigerSwan employee told SOFREP. 'Some of the protesters wanted to do big actions because they would get more media coverage and more funding. TigerSwan wanted it to happened because their contract would be prolonged. Meanwhile, ETP had no idea.'
“One of the first contractors on the ground at #DAPL told SOFREP that, 'when TigerSwan came on that was when the shit show started. They came in with this military ideology when it was a police operation. They were almost willing to go in and do things that RGT [Russel Group] would never do because you can’t by law. So the oil company looked to TigerSwan as the authority and a lot of guys went over to them.'
“The security contractor continued, saying that TigerSwan had an attitude of, 'we are going to walk into a room with a bunch of thugs and will be the biggest thug in the room.'
“‘They are trying to prolong this as a cash cow,' another contractor lamented.
“TigerSwan sent an unsigned and undated document from a nameless e-mail address to SOFREP denying the contents of this article. It reads in part, 'The claims you make have no basis in reality and are completely made up.' The document goes on to state, 'At no time were there any approved operations outside of the scope of the contract. Just like any dynamic organization, the client’s enterprise team for DAPL would come up with creative ideas to do their jobs differently, but nothing outside the scope of the contract was ever approved.'
"A legacy brought home from #Iraq and #Afghanistan: The conflict at Standing Rock created a number of precedents for the future of #protests and #counterprotest actions. While companies like #Blackwater were private military companies operating abroad, TigerSwan brought the tactics that contractors and soldiers use in Baghdad to American soil for the first time.
“'Someone is going to get shot, and then a bunch of people are going to get shot, and then we are going to have a #WoundedKnee III. That’s going to reflect badly on the national guard, on law enforcement, and certainly on private security contractors,' Landon Steele said. 'Guys need to be really leery and really careful and ask the really hard questions when a contract holder calls them and says we have a contract here in the US.'
“Today, TigerSwan employs contractors running static and roving security patrols for the #MarinerEast2 #ME2 pipeline being built in #Pennsylvania by #ETP. The company also has eyes on the Atlantic pipeline and would like to bid on upcoming security contracts that will need to be fulfilled for the project.
“TigerSwan’s internal security assessments anticipate protests when the Atlantic pipeline is run through North Carolina and West Virginia.”
Full article:
https://sofrep.com/news/tigerswan-former-delta-operator-sought-to-incite-violence-at-the-dakota-access-pipeline/#WaterIsLife #BigOil #OilAndGasIndustry #NoDAPL #HumanRights #Covert #Corporatism #Corporatocracy #Corruption #Capitalism #Colonialism #ACAB #Activism #ClimateChange
#EnvironmentalJustice
#ErikPrinceColonialism #CorporateColonialism #Blackwater #TigerSwan -
After Spying on #StandingRock Protest, #TigerSwan Shopped Info to Oil Firms
by Alleen Brown and Naveena Sadasivam
04/17/2023""More than 50,000 pages of documents were recently made public after the company behind the Dakota Access pipeline lost a court case to keep them secret."
"Leaked documents and public records reveal a troubling fusion of private security, public law enforcement, and corporate money in the fight over the Dakota Access pipeline."
"A new business model for breaking down environmental movements was being hatched in real time. On Labor Day weekend in 2016, private security dogs in North Dakota attacked #pipeline opponents led by members of the #StandingRockSioux Tribe as they approached earth-moving equipment. The tribal members considered the land sacred, and the heavy equipment was breaking ground to build the Dakota Access pipeline. With a major public relations crisis on its hands, the pipeline’s parent company, Energy Transfer, hired the firm TigerSwan to revamp its security strategy.
"By October, TigerSwan — founded by James Reese, a retired commander of the elite special operations Army unit Delta Force — had established a military-style pipeline security strategy.
"There was one nagging problem that threatened to unravel it all: Reese hadn’t acquired a security license from the North Dakota Private Investigation and Security Board. Although Reese claimed TigerSwan wasn’t conducting security services at all, the state regulator insisted that its operations were #unlawful without a license."
https://theintercept.com/2023/04/13/standing-rock-tigerswan-protests/
#Activism #ClimateChange
#EnvironmentalJustice #StandWithStandingRock #NoDAPL #Mercenaries #BigOil #ClimateJustice #ACAB -
Revolving door from #CIA to #Blackwater
By Greg Miller
Aug. 21, 2009WASHINGTON —
“The CIA’s decision to hire contractors from Blackwater USA for a covert assassination program was part of an expanding relationship in which the agency has relied on the widely criticized firm for tasks including guarding CIA lockups and loading missiles on Predator aircraft, according to current and former U.S. government officials.“The 2004 contract cemented what was then a burgeoning relationship with Blackwater, setting the stage for a series of departures by senior CIA officials who took high-level positions with the North Carolina security company.
“The revolving door helped fuel a backlash against what many inside the agency and on Capitol Hill came to regard as an overuse of outside firms, many of which made millions of dollars after filling their staffs with former CIA employees.“‘I have believed for a long time that the intelligence community is over-reliant on contractors to carry out its work,' said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. 'This is especially a problem when contractors are used to carry out activities that are inherently governmental.'
“Her comment underscored how the Blackwater contract’s disclosure has renewed questions about the sort of work the CIA has outsourced since the Sept. 11 attacks. In recent years, the agency has also faced criticism for using contractors to interrogate prisoners.“Experts said that there may not be any legal barrier against using contractors to kill terrorism suspects or subject them to brutal interrogations. Still, they said, there tends to be deep public discomfort with the idea of delegating certain activities -- whether issuing pardons, making arrests or pulling triggers -- to people who are not direct government employees.
“‘The use of force has been traditionally thought of as inherently governmental,' said Jeffrey Smith, former CIA general counsel. 'The use of a contractor actually employing lethal force is clearly troublesome, but I’m not sure it’s necessarily illegal.'
“U.S. officials familiar with the targeted-killing program said that Blackwater’s involvement was limited in scope and duration, and that the arrangement ended several years before CIA Director Leon E. Panetta killed the program two months ago.
“The program was kept secret from Congress for nearly eight years before Panetta told lawmakers about it in June. CIA officials have emphasized that the program was never operational and that it did not lead to the capture or killing of a single terrorism suspect.
“‘It was never successful, so he ended it,' CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said. Panetta 'never suggested to Congress that anyone at the CIA misled the intelligence committees or otherwise broke the law.'“The CIA delivered a report to Congress earlier this month after conducting an internal investigation of the program, which was launched after the Sept. 11 attacks but was canceled and restarted several times under different regimes at the agency.
“Officials familiar with the report said that the agency did not have a formal contract with Blackwater in connection with the targeted-killing program. Instead, the agency hired the company’s founder, Erik Prince, a former Navy SEAL, and other Blackwater executives to help turn an idea for forming Al Qaeda hit squads into an operational program.“The effort ranged from consulting with top executives to carrying out training exercises at Blackwater’s headquarters in North Carolina. Company officials did not respond to requests for comment.
“Blackwater was also closely associated with the CIA’s Predator aircraft operations, one of the most successful weapons in the agency’s arsenal against the Al Qaeda terrorist network. Former CIA officials said that from the beginning, Blackwater provided security at the air base in Shamsi, Pakistan, where the Predator aircraft were based.
“At the time, the company that manufactures the drone, General Atomics, was responsible for loading the Hellfire missiles used to target dozens of Al Qaeda leaders. But that task was subsequently switched to Blackwater, sources said.
“The agency 'has always used contractors,' said a former CIA official familiar with the Predator operations. 'You have to be an explosives expert,' and the CIA has never sought to use its own personnel for the highly specialized task. 'We didn’t care who put on the munitions as long as it wasn’t CIA case officers,' the former official said.“Gimigliano declined to comment on Blackwater’s involvement with Predator, saying the CIA 'as a rule does not deny or confirm reports on contractual relationships.'
“Blackwater changed its name to Xe Services LLC to escape the notoriety that followed a series of bloody incidents in Iraq, where the firm was accused of employing excessive force while providing protection for State Department employees. In one case, Blackwater guards were accused of opening fire in a crowded Baghdad square and killing 17 civilians.“The CIA had hired Blackwater in a similar capacity in 2002 to provide security at agency facilities in Afghanistan. Two years later, the CIA turned to Blackwater executives for help with the assassination program largely because the company, which has hired dozens of former U.S. special-operations soldiers, was seen as having deeper expertise than the agency itself on clandestine lethal operations.
“The use of contractors for the task was not considered an issue under the secret authorities that then-President George W. Bush had granted the agency.
'If there’s a covert-action finding that says, ‘Go hunt down Osama Bin Laden’ -- which there was -- the agency can use whatever means necessary,' said a former senior CIA official.“Over the next several years, the ties between the CIA and Blackwater deepened as a series of CIA executives took senior roles at the company.
“Among them were J. Cofer Black, former head of the CIA’s counter-terrorism center; Robert Richer, former No. 2 for operations; Alvin B. 'Buzzy' Krongard, former executive director; and Enrique 'Ric' Prado, military chief of the counter-terrorism center.“Former CIA Director Michael V. Hayden sought to reverse that trend by refusing to grant security clearances to contractors until at least 12 months after they had resigned from the agency. But Hayden defended the use of contractors during a panel discussion on the issue Thursday.
“‘We go to contractors because they possess certain experience or certain knowledge that we don’t have inherently inside our workforce,' Hayden said. 'We generally use the best athlete available in the draft.’”
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-aug-21-na-cia-blackwater21-story.html
#Blackwater CIA #TigerSwan #BigOil #HumanRights #Covert #Corporatism #Corporatocracy #Corruption #Capitalism #Colonialism
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Security Firm Running #DakotaAccessPipeline Intelligence Has Ties to U.S. Military Work in #Iraq and #Afghanistan
By Steve Horn
Oct 28, 2016"#TigerSwan is one of several security firms under investigation for its work guarding the Dakota Access pipeline in North Dakota while potentially without a permit. Besides this recent work on the #StandingRockSioux protests in #NorthDakota, this company has offices in Iraq and Afghanistan and is run by a special forces Army veteran.
"According to a summary of the investigation, TigerSwan 'is in charge of Dakota Access intelligence and supervises the overall security.'
"The Morton County, North Dakota, Sheriff’s Department also recently concluded that another security company, Frost Kennels, operated in the state while unlicensed to do so and could face criminal charges. The firm’s attack dogs bit #protesters at a heated Labor Day weekend protest.
"Law enforcement and private security at the North Dakota pipeline protests have faced criticism for maintaining a militarized presence in the area. The American Civil Liberties Union (#ACLU) and National Lawyer’s Guild have filed multiple open records requests to learn more about the extent of this #militarization, and over 133,000 citizens have signed a petition calling for the U.S. Department of Justice to intervene and quell the backlash.
"The Federal Aviation Administration has also implemented a no-fly zone, which bars anyone but law enforcement from flying within a 4-mile radius and 3500 feet above the ground in the protest area. #DallasGoldtooth, an organizer on the scenes in North Dakota with the #IndigenousEnvironmentalNetwork, said on Facebook that '#DAPL private security planes and choppers were flying all day' within the designated no-fly zone.
"Donnell Hushka, the designated public information officer for the North Dakota Tactical Operation Center, which is tasked with overseeing the no-fly zone, did not respond to repeated queries about designated private entities allowed to fly in no-fly zone airspace.
"What is TigerSwan?
"TigerSwan has offices in Iraq, Afghanistan, #Jordan, #SaudiArabia, #India, and #LatinAmerica and has headquarters in North Carolina. In the past year, TigerSwan won two U.S. Department of State contracts worth over $7 million to operate in Afghanistan, according to USASpending.gov.
"TigerSwan, however, claims on its website that the contract is worth $25 million, and said in a press release that the State Department contract called for the company to 'monitor, assess, and advise current and future nation building and stability initiatives in Afghanistan.' Since 2008, TigerSwan has won about $57.7 million worth of U.S. government contracts and subcontracts for security services.
"Company founder and CEO James Reese, a veteran of the elite Army Delta Force, served as the 'lead advisor for Special Operations to the Director of the CIA for planning, operations and integration for the invasion of Afghanistan and Operation Enduring Freedom' in Iraq, according to his company biography. Army Delta partakes in mostly covert and high-stakes missions and is part of the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), the latter well known for killing Osama Bin Laden.
"One of TigerSwan’s advisory board members, Charles Pittman, has direct ties to the #OilAndGasIndustry. Pittman “served as President of #Amoco Egypt Oil Company, Amoco Eurasia Petroleum Company, and Regional President BP Amoco plc. (covering the #MiddleEast, the Caspian Sea region, Egypt, and India),' according to his company biography.
'Sad, But Not Surprising'
"Investigative journalist #JeremyScahill told #DemocracyNow! in a 2009 interview that TigerSwan did some covert operations work with #Blackwater USA, dubbed the 'world’s most powerful #mercenary army' in his book by the same name. Blackwater has also guarded #OilPipelines in central #Asia, according to Scahill’s book.
"Reese advised Blackwater and took a leave of absence from TigerSwan in 2008 in the aftermath of the #NisourSquareMassacre, a shooting in Iraq conducted by Blackwater officers which saw 17 Iraqi civilians killed. TigerSwan has a business relationship with Babylon Eagles Security Company, a private security firm headquartered in Iraq which also has had business ties with Blackwater.
"'It is sad, but not surprising, that this firm has ties to the US interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq,' Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the women-led peace group #CODEPINK and the co-founder of the human rights group #GlobalExchange, told DeSmog. 'It is another terrifying example of how our violent interventions abroad come home to haunt us in the form of repression and violation of our civil rights.'
"The North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Private Investigation and Security Board are also conducting parallel investigations to the one recently completed by Morton County. TigerSwan did not comment on questions posed about their contract."
https://www.desmog.com/2016/10/28/private-security-firm-dakota-access-iraq-afghanistan-blackwater/
#TigerSwan #BigOil #NoDAPL #Blackwater #HumanRights #Covert #Corporatism #CIA #Corporatocracy #Corruption #Capitalism #Colonialism #ACAB #ErikPrince #ErikPrinceColonialism
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Extent of #Blackwater and #CIA Collaboration Uncovered
By Yana Kunichoff
Published December 11, 2009"New details of Blackwater participation in clandestine CIA raids detail the extent to which private security contractors were involved in covert government antiterror operations.
"According to former employees and current and former American intelligence officials, who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity because they feared repercussions, Blackwater security guards participated in clandestine raids to capture or kill suspected insurgents in #Iraq and #Afghanistan and in transportation of detainees on CIA flights.
"The raids against suspects were said to occur almost nightly between 2004 and 2006, the height of the Iraqi insurgency. Several of the former Blackwater employees said the lines dividing the government-sanctioned agencies (the CIA and the military) and Blackwater began to blur.
"This information highlights a more extensive relationship between the CIA and Blackwater, now re-named Xe Services, than government investigation had previously acknowledged.
"This was confirmed recently by an article about #ErikPrince, the founder of Blackwater, published in Vanity Fair. In it, Prince spoke about the extent of his involvement with the CIA, which ranged from putting together, funding and executing operations to bring personnel into 'denied areas' to targeting specific people for #assassination who were deemed enemies by the #USGovernment.
"Though Prince alleged that he participated as a private citizen and used his personal funds to carry out operations, the Blackwater employees interviewed by The New York Times confirmed both their full knowledge of and participation in the raids.
"#Xe spokesman Mark Corallo, however, continued to deny this."
Full article:
https://truthout.org/articles/extent-of-blackwater-and-cia-collaboration-uncovered/#TigerSwan #BigOil #HumanRights #Covert #Corporatism #Corporatocracy #Corruption #Capitalism #Colonialism
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It’s terrifyingly easy to sabotage our oil and gas pipeline infrastructure
An environmental activist group demonstrated the surprising ease of disrupting the North America oil and gas pipeline system. Armed with nothing more than some bolt cutters and hardhats, a group of five activists simply cut through a few chains and twisted shut the emergency valves at five different cross-border pipelines, located in four …
#BigOil #BigGas #EasilyDisrupted #NorthAmerica #BoltCutters #HardHats #DirectAction #ShutValves
