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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.