Oil Money Remains a Poisonous Influence in International Politics

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Oil Money Remains a Poisonous Influence in International Politics
Blake Lambert | Bio | 07 Sep 2007
World Politics Review Exclusive


HALIFAX, Nova Scotia -- Lust for oil can overpower a country's democratic ideals and common sense, and the United States is not immune.

Consider Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice's rhetorical embrace of Equatorial Guinea's president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, in April 2006.

"You are a good friend and we welcome you," she said.

Two years earlier, the U.S. Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations disclosed how Rice's "good friend" and his family held multimillion dollar accounts, gleaned from government revenue, in Riggs Bank, which was eventually convicted of violating America's Bank Secrecy Act.

When not ripping off the state treasury, Obiang has eliminated dissent against his regime, which has been accused of torture by human rights groups. State radio has declared him God.

In 2004, President George W. Bush welcomed Gabonese President Omar Bongo to the White House after Rice's predecessor, Colin Powell, made the first-ever trip by a secretary of state to the country two years earlier.

Those visits were arranged after the Senate's investigative committee revealed in 1999 how Citibank, the largest U.S. bank, moved $130 million of Bongo's money through its system, almost all of that cash coming from government funds.

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