Will WikiLeaks unravel the American 'secret government'?

[Peter Lemkin]

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

Comments (211)
David Smith in Lagos
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 8 December 2010 21.34 GMT
Article history

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

Looks like this Wikileak is really hurting Shell:

It sounds as if its reporter got a right earful from Shell's spokesman:

"You are seeking our views on a leaked cable to the Guardian newspaper allegedly containing information about the interpretation by a third party individual of a private conversation involving a Shell representative who has since left Nigeria.

We cannot comment on the alleged contents of the cable, including the correctness or incorrectness of any statements it allegedly contains.

The Guardian's assertion that Shell has somehow infiltrated the government of Nigeria is absolutely untrue, false and misleading."

So, Shell's argument seems to be that their representative no longer works in Nigeria and that, consequently, the story is no loner valid?

Defendant: "M'lud, I did kill them back then, but then I moved on to kill someone else, somewhere else, so I can't be guilty can I?"

M'lud: "Fair enough. You are free to go".

I agree with your analysis David, and while still friends and colleagues, I find certain members here overly-anxious to look for and post any 'dirt' on Assange and Wikileaks they can, beyond what I can see is reasonable, called for, and backed up by verifiable facts.

This issue seems to have the potential to cause a schism in the DPF. I hope not. Let us all agree to disagree on some of this and await proofs. That Wikileaks has irritated to the extreme certain large Corporations and Governments [not to mention their diplomatic [sic] entities as well as their intelligence entities and military entities says to me they are NOT to be taken lightly nor denigrated at the drop of a hat. Let it all play out. It is moving at lightning speed....and IMO has the possibility to change how the internet and journalism hereon in functions -or if either even exist as we knew them.