European Tribune - Irish Protesters Smeared As 'Terrorists' By Shell/Statoil: Calling Norway!

Irish Protesters Smeared As 'Terrorists' By Shell/Statoil: Calling Norway!

by irishhead
Sun Jul 17th, 2005 at 02:51:29 PM EST

Background on this story and on the five Irishmen jailed at the behest of the Shell/Statoil/Marathon Oil conglomerate is here in a previous Daily Kos diary.

Anti Shell/Statoil/Marathon Oil Campaigners in Ireland campaigning against an unprecedented type of onshore gas pipeline were smeared today by the biggest selling newspaper in Ireland as - you've guessed it - Terrorists.

PARAMILITARY-style death threats have been made against workers on Shell's controversial €300 Corrib gas pipeline project in Co Mayo, the Sunday Independent can reveal. The threats have forced a number of sub-contractors to lay off workers while Shell has confirmed that a number of their employees have been subjected to intimidation and threats.

Here are some Pictures. Do These People look like terrorists to y'all?

So why am I posting this on the European Tribune Blog? Well Statoil, a Norwegian state firm are part of the consortium who are trampling over the rights of these Irish people (5 of whom remain in jail) and I'd like to figure out how campaigners can leverage Norwegan support to put some pressure on Statoil.

Anyone any ideas? Anyone from Norway round these here parts? I do remember some pics of fjords a while back.

Issues and Full Background to this story is available here.

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Irish Protesters Smeared As 'Terrorists' By Shell/Statoil: Calling Norway! | 12 comments (12 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Irish Protesters Smeared As 'Terrorists' By Sh (none / 1)

Well, I am Norwegian and my dad is management in Statoil...

The world's northernmost desert wind.

by Sirocco (sirocco2005ATgmail.com) on Sun Jul 17th, 2005 at 05:34:16 PM EST

Does your dad know about this? (none / 0)

Has this made the Norwegian news?

by Hausfrau on Sun Jul 17th, 2005 at 10:51:36 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Does your dad know about this? (none / 0)

Nope. See my comment below.

The world's northernmost desert wind.

by Sirocco (sirocco2005ATgmail.com) on Mon Jul 18th, 2005 at 03:12:24 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Hi - hope you can help with some information. (4.00 / 3)

Hi thanks for commenting on my first diary here. I hope I can be so bold as to put a few questions out here for you or anyone else with expertise.

Is this story making it's way into Norway?

Am I correct that Statoil is a publically owned company in Norway?

Would they be allowed to run a first of it's kind high pressure unrefined straight out of the seabed pipeline up one of the beautiful fjords you posted pictures of?

Here are some pictures of the protesters and texts of letters being handed in at the Norwegian Embassy in Dublin.

I'd also particularly appreciate advice on dealing with and any contact details for any good journalists on environmental issues in the liberal press in Norway.

by irishhead on Sun Jul 17th, 2005 at 08:58:28 PM EST

Re: Hi - hope you can help with some information. (none / 1)

Is this story making it's way into Norway?

Can't really say it is, no. I'd never heard of it before.

Am I correct that Statoil is a publically owned company in Norway?

The state owns 70,9% of the shares. However, it does not interfere with managerial decisions, so petitioning the Norwegian government will probably not be effective.

Would they be allowed to run a first of it's kind high pressure unrefined straight out of the seabed pipeline up one of the beautiful fjords you posted pictures of?

No. Why does the Irish government allow the equivalent?

And if the jailed people are in fact innocent of the 'paramilitary style' death threats and so on, why have the Irish courts agreed to jail them?

I don't mean to sound dismissive about this, and in substance I'd expect to sympathize with the locals upon studying the issue more closely. But it seems to me that the crucial decisions here have been made by Irish authorities and courts, for whatever reasons.

Obviously, when the country in question is a corrupt military dictatorship, that's a vacuous point. Such was the case with Shell Oil's involvement in Nigeria during the 90s, for example. But Ireland is an affluate democracy with the rule of law. So the question Norwegians would ask themselves is, If the Irish have allowed this stuff, why should we care?

I don't know about so many specialized environmental reporters, but this guy writes on environmental stuff in Aftenposten, Norway's 'paper of record':

ole.mathismoen@aftenposten.no

Aftenposten's news suggestion e-mail:

mmred@aftenposten.no

Or you could contact the head of the foreign affairs section in Bergens Tidende, a quality paper with solid petroleum coverage:

Atle M. Skjærstad (Skjaerstad)
Fax +47 55 21 46 81
utland@bt.no

Or the news editor for the liberal tabloid Dagbladet:

Eivind Ljøstad (Ljoestad)

elj@dagbladet.no

As with all journalists, the story should be presented as concisely as possible, preferably with links to local coverage that doesn't require registration.

For more tips and info you might shoot a mail to Bellona, a well-connected environmentalist group: info@bellona.no

Good luck.

The world's northernmost desert wind.

by Sirocco (sirocco2005ATgmail.com) on Mon Jul 18th, 2005 at 03:10:30 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Hi - hope you can help with some information. (4.00 / 2)

Thanks so much for this. The five men have actually been in jail for 15 days or so now and these claims about terrorist threats are emerging as their campaign becomes more and more popular. The only on the record source for the claims is shell management.

A lot of people in Ireland believe that the whole process allowing the development is corrupt as any other explanation for the craven behavior of the government does not make any sense. I really appreciate the time you took to reply and the contacts you have given me.

The news as it concerns Shell is going international now but statoil seem to be able to hide behind Shell and are recieving little adverse publicity even though quite a few of the Statoil outlets in Ireland have been picketed and blocaded in recent weeks.

by irishhead on Mon Jul 18th, 2005 at 05:25:44 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. (none / 1)

I would never have known this was happening had you not posted this diary.

by Hausfrau on Sun Jul 17th, 2005 at 10:56:12 PM EST

Re: Irish Protesters Smeared As 'Terrorists' (4.00 / 2)

This story made the UK Guardian today. Again Statoil manage not to get any of the negative publicity they deserve on the issue.

Excerpt:

"Community spirit here was torn apart by Shell," Mrs Corduff said. "But the imprisonment of villagers has galvanised everybody back together again. Shell doesn't understand community or neighbourly life. They thought jailing people would weaken us, it has strengthened us."

Werner Blau, a physics professor at Trinity College, Dublin, and part-time Rossport resident, told protesters the pipeline would not comply with US standards which were "pretty lax".

In August 2000, a gas pipeline exploded in New Mexico and killed 12 people. Last year an explosion in a natural gas pipeline in Belgium killed 15 and injured 120.

One of the imprisoned men, Micheál Ó Seighin, 65, told the Guardian before he was jailed that villagers felt "like Chicken Licken: we are waiting for the sky to fall down on our heads".

Jerry Cowley, the independent MP for Mayo, said: "The small man is being trampled into the ground."

Michael Ring of Fine Gael said Ireland was now living in a "dictatorship within a democracy".

Some local workers on the project have downed tools in protest. One security guard who resigned his post with Shell said: "I didn't agree with the company being able to send critics to jail because they got in its way."

A Shell spokesman said the company was certain the project had met all the stringent health and safety, planning and environmental requirements to build the pipeline to "world-class standards".

by irishhead on Mon Jul 18th, 2005 at 06:42:34 AM EST

Re: Irish Protesters (none / 1)

Welcome to European Tribune...keep us posted with updates on developments, please. (And thanks Sirocco, for the leads...seems we have one of our first pieces of blog activism developing...which also may be conflicting, with your father in the business, and all).

"Once in awhile we get shown the light, in the strangest of places, if we look at it right" - Hunter/Garcia

by whataboutbob on Mon Jul 18th, 2005 at 01:19:24 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Green Irish and US JCS Dick Myers (none / 1)

Defence Minister cancels meeting with US Chief of Staff

Defence Minister Willie O'Dea today cancelled plans for a meeting with United States Joint Chief of Staff General Richard Myers.

Irish Peace Activists

Anti-war protesters had condemned the general's visit to Dublin but a spokesman for the Department of Defence said the informal meeting would not now go ahead.

But anti-war protesters, who gathered at Defence Forces headquarters in Phoenix Park, said no representative of the Irish State should be meeting with a member of the US military.

"This suggests a very high level of collusion between the Irish State and the US military machine," he said.

"With the news that troop numbers at Shannon have doubled it suggests that the Irish Government is increasing collusion with the US at a time when the US invasion of Iraq has never been more discredited."

"It is deeply concerning and it is an affront to Irish neutrality and shows a very high degree of contempt to the views of the majority of Irish people."

Diary Serie London Bombings @ Eurotrib

by Oui on Wed Jul 20th, 2005 at 04:21:14 PM EST

So: (none / 0)

Shell demands that we accept their claims of death threats on faith alone? That is typical faith-based rhetoric from the right.

They are spoiled brats who can't handle public pressure. Call a waaaaaaaaaaaaaambulance!!

Iraq War news and comment.

by Eternal Hope on Thu Jul 21st, 2005 at 11:10:12 PM EST

NI and GWB Hands Off Approach (none / 1)

.
Just a reminder to Blair-Bush foreign policy failures: Northern Ireland - Israel/Palestinian conflict - North Korea - Iran

US reduces Ulster to secondary importance
3.12.01 Toby Harnden Telegraph

Washington March 12, 2001 -- N. Ireland is to be downgraded as a policy issue by the Bush administration. It will return responsibility for it from the White House to the State Department. According to British & Irish sources, Richard Haass, nominated as director of policy planning under Gen Colin Powell, the new Secretary of State, will be given responsibility for the N. Ireland portfolio. Under Pres. Clinton, the National Security Council handled Irish matters from the White House.

President George W Bush has made clear that he will not take the same close interest. Haass, former Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, is a Middle East specialist thought never to have visited N. Ireland. He was a member of the National Security Council under Pres. George H W Bush Sr. Haass stressed at a conference last year that Mr Clinton had "gone to and fro and been attracted to issues of second order importance and ignored issues of first order importance".

The Bush administration has indicated that it views N. Ireland as a secondary matter and would not appoint a special envoy. American Sinn Fein supporters were dismayed when Mr Bush indicated to Tony Blair that he would intervene in N. Ireland only at Britain's request. After Irish govt pressure, the White House has added a reception to the St Patrick's Day events next week and Gen Powell has said that Mr Bush would listen to Bertie Ahern, the Irish Prime Minister, when deciding whether to engage in N. Ireland.

~~~

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~~~

by Oui on Fri Jul 22nd, 2005 at 04:03:13 PM EST

Irish Protesters Smeared As 'Terrorists' By Shell/Statoil: Calling Norway! | 12 comments (12 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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