Condi Rice's Oil Connections

With all the outrage about Exxon CEO Lee Raymond getting a $400 million retirement package, it's worth remembering Secretary of State Condi Rice's ties to the oil industry. She was a director of Chevron for ten years, from 1991 to 2001. She had a Chevron tanker named after her; however, the "Condoleeza Rice" was renamed the "Altair Voyager" shortly after she was named President Bush's National Security Adviser in 2001. Along with Bush's and Cheney's ties to the oil industry, the San Francisco Chronicle reported: "But critics said the ship served as a giant floating symbol of the Bush administration's cozy ties to the oil industry." Any questions why gas is approaching $3.00 a gallon and why VP Dick Cheney made $8 million last year?

If Exxon can pay $400 million for one man's retirement, and Chevron can build a Condi Rice tanker, you'd think somebody could afford to build a new oil refinery in the US. But apparently when you're a big shot investing money in your oil company has a low priority. The top priority is to get yours, pay yourself lots of money! Stockholders and consumers take 2nd or 3rd place, much less doing anything for your country. Poor America. Those she makes rich curse her.

NYT Op-Ed on Walt-Mearsheimer Paper

The New York Times has an excellent op-ed on the Walt-Mearsheimer paper on the power of the Jewish Lobby in America. One of its best points is that criticism of Israel or of American policy toward Israel is not necessarily anti-Semitism. The use of the anti-Semitism epithet is effective, but if overused or used improperly, it may become like the boy crying wolf. Then what do Jews do if true anti-Semitism rears its head?

Dispute over German Archives

This Washington Post article about the difficulty of access to German archives dealing with the Holocaust reminds me of a question I sometimes have when I hear about the Holocaust. How many Holocaust survivors cooperated with the Nazi death camp guards as "capos"? These were Jews who assisted the German prison guards in suppressing their Jewish fellow prisoners. While I would guess they were not favorably viewed by the other prisoners, they could grant favors. There was an example of this in the movie, "The Pianist." As one review notes, the star "was saved from transport to the death camps by a Jewish capo."

If, in fact, many Holocaust survivors were capos, they would probably never admit it. It would be interesting if these archives could shed any light on this issue.

Non-Proliferation Links

The NYT has published a list of non-proliferation site links:

The following related sites provide further information about nuclear technology and proliferation.

Managing the Atom Project, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard UniversityConducts policy-relevant research on issues affecting the future of nuclear weapons and nuclear energy technology.

Institute for Science and International SecurityNon-profit, non-partisan institution dedicated to informing the public about science and policy issues affecting international security. Its efforts focus on stopping the spread of nuclear weapons, bringing about greater transparency of nuclear activities worldwide and achieving deep reductions in nuclear arsenals.

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Non-Proliferation ProjectClearinghouse of information, maps, chronologies and links on nuclear proliferation.

Nuclear Threat InitiativeNTI works to reduce the global threat from nuclear, biological and chemical weapons and is co-chaired by Ted Turner and Sam Nunn.

Center for Non-Proliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International StudiesProvides information and analysis to combat the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

Federal Police of Malaysia: Press ReleasePress briefing report by Federal Police of Malaysia on their investigation of the Khan Network. Excellent source of fairly detailed information not normally made available to public.