[GPSCC-chat] Qaddafi gets us oil companies to lobby for him

[Jim Doyle]

Cables released by Wikileaks led to this story in Blomberg
Financial dealing with the dealings of the oil companies,
lobbyists, congress, administration officials

*http://tinyurl.com/6xhw2y4*
*
Qaddafi Coddled by U.S. Oil Companies
**Whose Hearts Are Where The Money Is*
By Judy Pasternak, Jim Snyder and Nicole Gaouette -
Jun 13, 2011 9:01 PM PT

excerpts:
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Lobbying Success

The companies’ waiver quest gained urgency after Qaddafi’s demand
that they get Libya off the hook or else, according to interviews and
State Department cables examined by Bloomberg that were posted by
WikiLeaks on its website.

Qaddafi chose executives of two companies with successful lobbying track
records in Washington to convey his message.

On or about Feb. 24, 2008, the dictator summoned ConocoPhillips Chairman
and Chief Executive Officer James J. Mulva to Sirte, Qaddafi’s hometown in
northern Libya. Mulva endured “a half-hour ‘browbeating,’” according to a
March 12, 2008, cable 
<http://www.wikileaks.ch/cable/2008/03/08TRIPOLI214.html> written by 
Chris Stevens, U.S. charge d’affaires for Libya.

Qaddafi “threatened to dramatically reduce Libya’s oil production and/or 
expel”
U.S. oil companies, and told Mulva to “engage members of the U.S. Congress
and The Administration” on the issue, Stevens wrote.

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A U.S. District Court ruling two weeks before Bush signed the bill with the
Lautenberg measure illustrated its threat to oil companies. The court 
ordered
Libya and government officials to pay $6 billion to the families or 
estates of six
American victims of France’s UTA Flight 772 that crashed in 1989. More than
two dozen other suits had been filed by the injured and families of 
those killed in
attacks linked to Libya.
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