Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power (91 page)

2.
Energy Information Administration import statistics, 2006–2008.

3.
Chaplin perspective and quotations: Lagos to Washington, December 7, 2004; September 9, 2005; February 26, 2006; and March 12, 2007 (W).

4.
Lagos to Washington, March 12, 2007, ibid.

5.
Interview with John Campbell. Also Abuja to Washington, June 17, 2008 (W).

6.
This Day
(Nigeria), March 10, 2006.

7.
Lagos to Washington, March 17 and March 31, 2006 (W).

8.
Interviews with Chief Samingo Etukakban and Chief Nduese Essien in Akwa Ibom. Lagos to Washington, May 3, 2006 (W).

9.
Graeme Buchan spoke at a press conference in Scotland after his release, as reported in the
Daily Telegraph,
October 23, 2006. “Uneasy”: Interview with a State Department official. “Fidgety”: Lagos to Washington, May 3, 2006 (W).

10.
Interview with Victor Attah.

11.
Sunday Express
, October 22, 2006.

12.
Interview with Victor Attah.

13.
Interview with a senior State Department official.

14.
Paula Smith:
Sunday Express,
op. cit. Paul Smith: Press conference, as reported in the Aberdeen
Evening Express
, October 23, 2006.

15.
http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2006/.

16.
Washington Post,
February 12, 2009. Also,
United States of America v. Jason Edward Steph
, United States District Court, Southern District of Texas, H-07-307, indictment filed July 19, 2007.

17.
All quotations, author’s interview with a Western diplomat in Nigeria.

18.
From the outstanding report on Delta militancy authored by Stephen Davis for the Coventry Cathedral: “The Potential for Peace and Reconciliation in the Niger Delta,” February 2009.

19.
Interview with an American official.

20.
Interviews with two senior security consultants in Lagos who serve the international oil industry.

21.
Estimates from participants in “Nigeria: Prospects for Peace in the Niger Delta,” Center for Strategic and International Studies, June 15, 2009.

22.
Abuja to Washington, September 9, 2005.

23.
All quotations, remarks by Rex Tillerson, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, January 8, 2009.

24.
Azaiki,
Oil, Gas and Life in Nigeria
, p. 51.

25.
When I traveled to conduct research in Akwa Ibom during 2009, I was hosted by Nigerian House of Representatives member Esseme Eyiboh. We shared the protection of a single Mobil Police gunman for several days. The policeman had a flying Pegasus emblazoned on the breast pocket of his uniform.

26.
Godswill Akpabio supporters, Qua Iboe landscape: Author’s travels. Spy police lawsuit:
Globe and Mail
, November 22, 2004.

27.
Interviews with Esseme Eyiboh and Nduese Essien.

28.
Interviews with Victor Attah and Nduese Essien.

29.
Remarks at the Woodrow Wilson Center, op. cit.

30.
Godswill Akpabio: “Words That Build a Nation,” op. cit. U.S. official and Esseme Eyiboh: Author’s interviews.

31.
Jendayi Frazer, Keynote address, Gulf of Guinea Maritime Safety and Security Ministerial Conference, November 15, 2006, Cotonou, Benin.

32.
Interview with Connie Newman.

33.
Lagos to Washington, March 31, 2006; May 12 and June 18, 2007.

34.
Interviews with U.S. officials.

35.
Lagos to Washington, February 23, 2010 (W).

36.
Interview with a security consultant in Lagos.

37.
All quotations, history of U.S. aid, piracy statistics: From author’s interviews with multiple U.S. officials and corporate security specialists who worked on the subjects described after 2006.

38.
Lagos to Washington, June 3, 2008, and January 15, 2009. Abuja to Washington, November 26, 2008 (W).

39.
Interviews with U.S. officials.

40.
Ojo Maduekwe: Center for Strategic and International Studies event, op. cit. Theresa Whelan: Testimony before the Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, July 15, 2008.

41.
Interview with Major General Michael Snodgrass.

42.
Lagos to Washington, September 19, 2008 (W).

43.
Interview with an officer at Africa Command.

44.
All quotations, author’s interviews with U.S. officials.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: “A PERSON WOULD HAVE TO EAT MORE THAN 3,400 RUBBER DUCKS”

1.
ExxonMobil 10-K, 2007.

2.
New York Times Magazine
, December 9, 2001.

3.
http://www.hcra.harvard.edu, examined and typed, January 30, 2011.

4.
“Hazard Index”: ExxonMobil PowerPoint presentation. Interview with Paul Thacker (MR).

5.
“Phthalates 101”: PowerPoint presentation left by ExxonMobil lobbyists with Capitol Hill offices, circa 2008. Also, ExxonMobil’s “Response to CPSC’s Request for Information,” January 12, 2009. The author is grateful for the outstanding work of Megha Rajagopalan, who obtained these and other materials, and conducted many of the background interviews cited.

6.
To see the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Fact Sheet on phthalates, which contains links to its exposure studies, see http://www.cdc.gov/exposurereport/Phthalates_FactSheet.htm.

7.
For an accessible but detailed review of scientific research into the health effects of phthalates in plastics, see the Congressional Research Service Report for Congress, “Phthalates in Plastics and Possible Human Health Effects,” updated July 29, 2008.

8.
Memorandom to Michael A. Babich, Consumer Product Safety Commission, August 31, 1998.

9.
“Phthalates 101,” op. cit.

10.
“No risk reduction”: ExxonMobil, “Approach to Cumulative Risk,” op. cit. “Politics”: “Phthalates 101,” ibid.

11.
Interview with a San Francisco regulator.

12.
Interview with Gretchen Lee Salter (MR).

13.
Interview with Virginia Lyons (MR). ‘They’re going to ban Gumby!”: Interview with Sarah Uhl, Clean Water Action, Hartford, Connecticut (MR).

14.
Mattel recall:
New York Times
, August 2, 2007.

15.
Interview with Liz Hitchcock (MR).

16.
Halperin and Harris,
The Way to Win
, pp. 206–8.

17.
Wall Street Journal
, May 27, 2006. Also, interviews with individuals familiar with the 2005 energy legislation episode.

18.
Interview with a conference participant.

19.
“Six old white guys . . . not to budge”: All quotations from interviews with congressional staff involved.

20.
Interview with Liz Hitchcock (MR).

21.
Interview with Janet Nudelman (MR).

22.
All quotations, interviews with participants.

23.
All dates and contribution amounts from Federal Election Commission records.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: “WE MUST END THE AGE OF OIL”

1.
Ann O’Hanlon invested extraordinary time and effort to analyze and collate Federal Election Commission records to document the insights about ExxonMobil’s political strategy relied upon in this chapter.

2.
Interview with an ExxonMobil executive.

3.
Interview with the consultant quoted, as well as interviews with other individuals familiar with ExxonMobil’s Washington strategies.

4.
Interviews with individuals familiar with ExxonMobil’s Political Action Committee.

5.
“Electing people”: From Citizen Action Team mailings provided by recipients, author’s files.

6.
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,
August 1, 2008.

7.
National Public Radio, August 5, 2008, www.npr.org.

8.
Interview with Jason Grumet.

9.
“It’s not going to be easy”: Transcript of MSNBC Democratic debate, February 26, 2008. “Think about that . . . outrageous”: Associated Press, June 9, 2008.

10.
“Oil company wish list”: Politics USA, July 31, 2008. “Is of economic significance”: Interview with Jason Grumet. “We must end the age of oil”: Barack Obama used this formulation on the campaign trail a number of times between the spring and summer of 2008. Among them: ABC News, August 5, 2008.

11.
“We felt like a candidate”: Interview with an ExxonMobil executive. Maurice Hinchey: Newhouse Newspapers, February 26, 2008.

12.
New York Times
, July 19, 2008.

13.
ABC News, August 13, 2008.

14.
ExxonMobil’s effective corporate tax rate of 47 percent in 2009 was among the highest among large corporations.

15.
Third presidential debate,
New York Times
, October 15, 2008.

16.
All quotations, interviews with Bennett Freeman.

17.
Interviews with individuals familiar with ExxonMobil’s deliberations. Tillerson said later: Rex Tillerson’s remarks at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, January 8, 2009.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: “ARE WE OUT? OR IN?”

1.
The portrait of Anton Smith is drawn from interviews with diplomats, nonprofit activists, human rights activists, business representatives, government officials, and other individuals in Equatorial Guinea and the United States. His views are also contained in the series of analytical cables Smith composed early in 2009.

2.
U.S. companies invested $13 billion: Malabo to Washington, February 27, 2009.

3.
“Torture Is Rife . . .”: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=28998&Cr=torture&Cr1=rapporteur.

4.
Interviews with people familiar with Anton Smith’s tour in Malabo, op. cit.

5.
All quotations are from the linked series of cables, Malabo to Washington, February 27, 2009; March 3, 2009; March 10, 2009; March 12, 2009; March 30, 2009; and May 21, 2009.

6.
Wald meeting, “Shared responsibility”: Washington to Yaounde, June 24, 2005. Cindy Courville, “because of market forces”: Yaounde to Washington, March 29, 2006. “our best ally”: Malabo to Washington, November 23, 2006. “lengthy and effusive”: Youande to Washington, October 6, 2006. These cables were released to the author in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.

7.
All quotations, interview with Francisco Nugua.