Gaddafi’s American Partners, Some Surprises

NOVANEWS

List of Companies Working With Gaddafi in Washington

(Sourced from the Livingston Group, Registered Lobbyists for the former Government of Libya and Colonel Gaddafi)

By Gordon Duff, Senior Editor

Research is showing that the Gaddafi regime, now exposed as partnering with Israeli ingelligence through former Bush envoy, David Welch and Congressman Dennis Kucinich, has had a long and fruitful partnership with “big oil,” and the American defense establishment.  These are the unpleasant facts that jouranlists and bloggers now know to have been receiving “backhanders” from Gaddafi all along were being paid to hide.

In the last couple of years, members of congress and staffers have visited Libya 1394 times.  (Log of visits downloadable as PDF here)

Big oil and the Gaddafi regime have a long history of partnership.  This is the organizational chart showing the relationships between Exxon and Occidental Petroleum and Colonel Gaddafi:

These companies share representation with Colonel Gaddafi, his closest friends in Washington:

• 3001, Inc. (Secretive Aerospace Defense Company owed by Northrop Grumman)

• Accenture (One of world’s largest business “information” and management firms)

• Applied Signal Technology (Top Defense Intelligence Technology Firm)

• Arcadian Networks (Defense Communications Firm)

• Arete Associates (Top Defense Intelligence Technology Firm)

• Bearing Point (Defense Industry management firm, now bankrupt)

• Bohannan Houston

• Bovis Lend Lease Holdings

• Brunswick

• Business Council of New Orleans

• Current Group

• Defense Solutions (Top Defense Intelligence group)

• EADS (One of the world’s largest defense contracting companies)

• Energy Conversion Devices

• Erickson Air-Crane

• ESM Group

• Feld Entertainment

• Gallagher-Kaiser (Clean room technology for high tech defense production)

• Goodyear

• Heritage of America

• Innovative Emergency Management (Homeland Security contractor)

• International Shipholding Corp. (among the largest Defense Logistics Contrators)

• Marine Desalination Systems

• MERSCorp (Mortagage “bankster” operation)

• Noranda Aluminum

• Northrop Grumman (One of the world’s largest defense contracting companies)

• Novologix (Healthcare “big pharm” pirates)

• nXn Tech (Largest data mining (internet spying) firm)

• Oracle

• Raptor Detection (Defense firm specializing in explosives)

• Raytheon (One of the world’s largest defense contracting companies)

• Recursion Ventures (Military and Intelligence Cyber Protection Firm)

• Renewable Opportunities Inc.

• Shallow Water Energy Security Coalition

• Rolls-Royce (One of the world’s largest defense contracting companies)

• SJB Group (Oil Industry Contracting Firm)

• SunRx

• TECT Corporation (Surprise…Defense, Aerospace, Missiles)

• TenCate (Aerospace “stealth” composites)

• Thinkstream (Computer networks for Intelligence Agencies)

• TVI Corporation (Military contracting firm, equipment for handling bioweapons, chemical warfare agents)

• U.S. Chamber of Commerce (GOP based lobbying organization representing “big business,” largest in the world)

• Verizon Corporation

• Verizon Wireless (Access to America’s wireless phones and internet)

• Weston Solutions (Defense Contracting Firm)

TRADE WITH GADDAFI

The following companies are known to have conducted business with Libya:

Chevron
ConocoPhillips
Dow Chemical
Exxon
Mobil
Four Seasons Hotels
Halliburton
Hess
Corporation
InterContinental Hotels
Marathan Oil Corporation
Marriott
Hotels
Motorola
Occidental Petroleum
Raytheon
Shell Oil
Sheraton
Hotels
United Gulf Construction
Valmont Industries
White & Case

Gaddafi operated a kleptocracy in Libya with the assistance of Big Oil and other sovereign nations: NY Times.

Since trade sanctions against Libya were lifted seven years ago, the country has become a hotbed of energy investment. Major oil companies from Exxon to BP stand to lose up to billions of dollars in investments and expected future revenues if hostilities continue: CNN.

Muammar Gaddafi’s son, Saif al-Islam, personally profited by siphoning off oil from an offshore field owned by France’s Total oil company and its German partner Wintershall, according to a cable from the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli. Whether he dipped into Libya’s share of the profits or the companies was unclear: Haaretz.

Gaddafi’s children flaunted their wealth and plundered from their country, diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli revealed. The Libyan leader’s offspring also carved out powerful roles for themselves in the country’s infrastructure, from telecommunications to maritime shipping to national security: Breaking News.

Having survived international isolation and U.S. airstrikes for more than 40 years in power, Gaddafi is confronting the biggest threat to his rule he had to face—the rebellion of his own people. The lack of a clear institutional system in Libya, were the rebels to prevail, raises serious questions about what’s next for the country: CBS.

According to a diplomatic cable, UK gun manufacturer York Guns requested an export license to deliver 130,000 Kalashnikov automatic rifles to Libya in late 2008. It was not clear how the rifles would be used, raising questions about whether Libya was supplying weapons in the Chad/Sudan conflict. Neither party offered answers: Wikileaks, Scotsman.

The European Union, led by the UK, Italy and France, granted export licenses for nearly a billion Euros in arms to be sold to Gaddafi: Wikileaks, PressTv, Independent, Guardian, EUObserver. Italian Oil company Eni Chief blasted Libya sanctions as detrimental to energy security: WSJ.

US foreign aid to Libya was less than $1 million in 2010, a congressional aide said, although trade has flourished since Washington began to lift sanctions in 2004. Last year, US exports to Libya were $665 million, while imports were $2.12 billion: Reuters.

Amerada Hess ConocoPhillips and MarathonOil paid Libya’s National Oil Corporation $1.3 billion to return to their former oil and gas operations in Libya: Oil & Gas.

U.S. firms — G.E., ConocoPhillips and Haliburton, for example — do business in Libya by exploiting tax loopholes and registering as foreign or offshore subsidiaries. More than 60 U.S. companies were doing business in Libya: 60 Minutes.

Companies have sought deeper economic ties between the US and Libya. Twenty-five (25) companies participated in bi-lateral talks as recently as Feburary 2010: Jerusalem Post.

Gaddafi goes Hollywood and financed movies: The Daily Beast.

The Financial Times investigated Libya’s sovereign wealth fund, of which some of its assets have been frozen:FT, FT (registration required).

University of Oxford continues to investigate Libya’s sovereign wealth fund, including, without limitation to, its Italian investments, the Carlyle Groups involvement, the distribution of its assets, its Canadian investments, the creation of subsidiaries which complicates tracing of money: Oxford.

U.S. Banks received an estimated $32 billion in deposits from Gaddafi through Libya’s sovereign wealth fund:Reuters, Wikileaks.