McCain has netted at least $700,000 from the oil and gas industry since 1989.

In Congress, he has worked tirelessly to advance the interests of the oil industry. For example, McCain's tax plan gives the top five oil companies $3.8 billion a year in tax breaks. ... oil companies that have contributed to McCain have benefited greatly in terms of their foreign operations. One might cite the case of Chevron, for example, which has donated to McCain's cloak-and-dagger International Republican Institute (IRI). [Which also participated in the 2002 coup against Chavez in Venezuela.]

Charlie Black and Santo Domingo Massacre

Black's Washington, DC public relations firm BKSH has developed a reputation for taking on foreign clients who display scant regard for human rights. In 1998, Black agreed to represent Occidental Petroleum (or Oxy), an energy company based in Los Angeles, California. At the time, the GOP spin master was surely aware of Occidental's sordid past. In Colombia, the company had already acquired a reputation for its brutal and militaristic policies.

The same year Black took on Occidental, the company was embroiled in controversy when the Colombian Air Force dropped cluster bombs on Santo Domingo, a village near an Occidental pipeline, killing 18 innocent civilians. Human rights groups and Colombian government officials said the bombing was a mistake that occurred because three employees of a Florida-based aerial security company employed by Occidental to monitor guerrilla movements had provided "incorrect" coordinates to Colombian military pilots.


Occidental and the U'wa

The Santo Domingo massacre was certainly a black mark on Occidental's record. ...Oxy acquired the right to explore for oil in the country's northeast. Unfortunately, in granting Oxy its exploration permit, the government ignored a constitutional requirement that native peoples within the area be consulted first. Oxy quickly became embroiled in conflict with the indigenous U'wa, whose territory was nestled in the misty forests of northeast Colombia near the border with Venezuela.

As company geologists and engineers moved in to build roads through the indigenous reservation, so too did the Colombian army, which installed two military bases in the vicinity. It wasn't long before the military began to harass local residents.

Known as a proud, strongly rooted people, the U'wa repeatedly denounced Occidental's oil operation. The U'wa argued that oil exploration would threaten their people, damage the land, fill their territory with alien workers and destroy the world they knew. At one point the approximately 5,000 U'wa even threatened to commit collective suicide by leaping from a cliff unless the oil company stopped operations on their territory.

Tensions were ratcheted up when, in February 2000, Oxy began construction on its Gibraltar 1 drill site. Some 2,700 U'wa Indians, local farmers, students, and union members immediately attempted to stop Oxy's construction. When indigenous peoples sought to prevent trucks from reaching the construction site, riot police used tear gas to break up a road blockade. Three U'wa children were drowned in a fast-flowing river as the U'wa fled the attack.

Black continued his lobbying efforts over at BKSH. Over the long haul the PR man's loyalty to Occidental proved enormously lucrative, with Black netting $1.6 million in fees for BKSH from 2001 to 2007. Occidental was surely pleased with Black's work: in 2003, Congress approved a special appropriation of nearly $100 million for the protection of oil pipelines in Colombia.

The most controversial episode dates from December 1998, when the Colombian Air Force dropped cluster bombs on Santo Domingo, a village near an Occidental pipeline, killing 18 people. Human rights groups and Colombian government officials say the bombing was a mistake that occurred because three employees of a Florida-based aerial security company employed by Occidental to monitor guerrilla movements had provided incorrect coordinates to the Colombian military pilots.

The American employees of the security company dropped out of sight, and Colombian government efforts to have them handed over for questioning and perhaps trial were fruitless. Frustrated by what they consider the security company’s stonewalling, human rights groups filed suit in California in 2003 and 2004 against Occidental, whose headquarters is in Los Angeles.

Ever wonder why the fuck McCain would detour his campaign and go down to Columbia with Liebermush? Well we may have our answer here.

This is intense, and of course, it also includes McCain's senior adviser, Charlie Black and human rights abuses. The two go hand-in-hand, and McCain is neck deep in this.

http://ww4report.com/node/5843

More on the IRI:

http://www.nndb.com/org/683/000051530/
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/GOP_orga...itics_0609.html
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4332.htm
http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/4932/1/206

This really isn't an exaggeration, McCain and his buddies have LITERALLY been at war, killing poor people around the world, for more than two decades now.

Excellent report, my friend.
Thank you.

Any time.

It just kills me that McCain is literally swimming in dictator connections, and nobody in the media is covering it.

American hero MY ASS.

The Obama camp would do well to assail Charlie Black. Not Obama himself, but someone should keep Black on the hot seat.

Recently, non-governmental human rights organizations presented a report to the Inter-American Commission in which we indicated the increase of extrajudicial executions directly attributed to members of the public force. The report concluded:

“Over the last year (July 2006 to June 2007), at least 1,348 civilians lost their lives in Colombia due to socio-political violence. Of these, 119 persons were forcibly disappeared. In cases in which the generic perpetrator of the violation is known, 70.8% of the cases were attributed to the State: 39,1% (287 victims) were directly attributed; while 31,7% (233 victims) was due to the tolerance or support to the violations committed by paramilitary groups. 29.2% (214 victims) of the cases were allegedly attributed to the guerrillas.

“If these figures are added to the amount registered over the last four years (July 2002 to June 2006), at least 12,547 civilians lost their lives due to socio-political violence. This period coincides with the implementation of the so-called policy of ‘democratic security,’ which has the supposed objective of protecting the Colombian population. Paradoxically, over these years, there has reportedly been an exceptional increase of violations to the right to life directly committed by State agents, who implement the policy of ‘democratic security’ and protecting and guaranteeing every one’s human rights.

“From July 2006 to June 2007, 287 violations to the right to life directly committed by State agents were registered (51 forced disappearances and 236 extrajudicial executions). If, in addition to these deaths, the deaths registered over the preceding four years (July 2002 to June 2006) are also considered, since the beginning of the implementation of the policy of ‘democratic security,’ 1,190 persons in total lost their lives due to the direct action of State agents (235 forced disappearances and 955 extrajudicial executions).

this kinda stuff hurts their heads...too much information, McCain -hero, me like

Here are a couple more links relating to McCain's nasty activities in his little war on democracy organization, the IRI.

Some stats about Columbia specifically:

http://www.colectivodeabogados.org/article...id_article=1253

And this is an article that covers more broadly the overarching "Shock Doctrine" activities that men like McCain support:

http://americas.irc-online.org/columns/amp...0310terror.html

Tell me again, who's the terrorist? I'd say McCain. McCain is just as much, if not MORE of a terrorist than Osama bin Laden, because his reach has been far more extensive, disruptive, and well-funded over a period of many years.