Corporate Watch (Sweatshops, Corporate crime, War profiteering, etc.)

October 5, 2010 by Paul

Natural Resources

Gulf Dispersants: BP and Nalco Play Toxic Roulette
Terry J. Allen
July 19th, 2010

BP has dumped almost two million gallons of dispersants from Nalco in the Gulf of Mexico that is disguising the extent of the Deepwater spill and the inability of existing technology to mitigate the disaster. Even if BP eventually staunches the hemorrhage of oil, devastating toxins will linger for decades.

War & Disaster Profiteering

U.S. Congressional Wartime Commission Targets Armed Contractors
Pratap Chatterjee
June 23rd, 2010

This week, almost a decade after the U.S. "War on Terror" began, the Commission on Wartime Contracting held two days of hearings into the role of private contractors in conducting and supporting war. The Congressional witness table included Aegis, DynCorp and Triple Canopy. Curiously, Blackwater was not called; and the CEO of Torres Advanced Enterprise Solutions failed to appear.

Aegis security contractor in Tikrit, Iraq, March 21, 2010 Credit: Michael Heckman, U.S. Department of Defence

Energy

The True Cost of Chevron: An Alternative Annual Report
Antonia Juhasz
May 25th, 2010

Chevron's 2009 Annual Report celebrates 130 years of Chevron operations. We, the communities and our allies who bear the consequences of Chevron's offshore drilling rigs, oil and natural gas production, coal fields, refineries, depots, pipelines, exploration, chemical plants, political control, consumer abuse, false promises, and much more, have a very different account to offer.

TrueCostofChevron.com May 2010

Food and Agriculture

ADM's New Frontiers: Palm Oil Deforestation and Child Labor
Charlie Cray
May 18th, 2010

ADM has moved beyond the days of blatant price-fixing that landed its top execs behind bars. But the company's forays into new global agricultural markets bring charges of complicity in forced child labor and rampant deforestation. Critics assert that the conglomerate's embrace of self- regulation and voluntary guidelines is but a cynical ploy to deter effective reform.

Cartoon by Khalil Bendib

Energy

BP: Beyond Petroleum or Beyond Preposterous? (2000)
Kenny Bruno
May 12th, 2010

In 2000 British Petroleum launched an expensive ad campaign, re-branding its corporate image into the eco-friendly "BP: Beyond Petroleum.” We said it then. When a company spends more on advertising its environmental friendliness than on environmental actions, that's greenwash.

Three long weeks into the BP oil disaster roiling the Gulf of Mexico, CorpWatch's December 2000 skewering of its new image sadly, bears repeating.

New Internationalist, June 2001

War & Disaster Profiteering

Afghanistan, Inc.: A CorpWatch Investigative Report (2006)
Fariba Nawa
April 30th, 2010

The recent boom in humanitarian aid has an underbelly largely invisible to charity sector outsiders. “Easy money: the great aid scam," packs a biting critique (Linda Polman, The Sunday Times Online, April 25).

In 2006, CorpWatch’s "Afghanistan, Inc.", cited by Polman, drilled down on reconstruction dollars, in what’s become known as “Afghaniscam.” We bring our report to you again.

War & Disaster Profiteering

Afghanistan Spy Contract Goes Sour for Pentagon
Pratap Chatterjee
March 16th, 2010

Mike Furlong, a top Pentagon official, is alleged to have hired a company called International Media Ventures to supply information for drone strikes and assassinations in Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to a complaint filed by the CIA and revealed by the New York Times on March 15.