Sunday, May 8, 2011

Is the death of Osama bin Laden FACT or FICTION?


The photo of Osama bin Laden before his death.

Speculations are spreading in the Arab world and among millions of Muslims in Nigeria that President Barack Obama and his administration have lied to the ignorant and innocent citizens of the United States and the rest of the world that they have killed Osama bin Laden, the founder and leader of the dreaded global militant Islamist group al-Qa'ida.


President Barack Obama

Many cynics, skeptics and conspiracy theorists have been questioning the authenticity of the claim that Osama bin Laden was actually “Killed In Action” (EKIA) by a 24-man U.S. Navy SEALs task force and aircrews from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment -- the "Nightstalkers" in one of the rooms on the third-floor bedroom of a comfortable house in a building in Abbottobad, a suburb of Islamabad, Pakistan on May Day, 2011.

The highly respected Nigerian Islamic scholar Afis Oladosu also raised the issue on The “second death” of Osama bin Laden published on Friday, May 6 2011 of the Friday Worship column in The Guardian newspaper of Nigeria.

Kawther Salam, the notable Palestinian journalist from Hebron is the most outspoken of the cynics, skeptics and conspiracy theorists who are saying that President Obama and his administration should tell their story to the marines!

The following is from Kawther Salam.

"One among many “small problems with this show is, Osama is reportedly dead since 16 December 2001. It was reported in June of 2001 that Osama was hospitalized because of kidney problems and that he received a visit of CIA employees in the hospital. In December 2001 an obituary was published in an Egyptian newspaper. And the holes in the story only become bigger the more one looks. To support the narrative of the US government, the AP agency first published and then retired a picture of the supposedly dead Bin Laden. The picture is below, together with another Osama bin Laden picture. If you look, you can notice that the picture on the left, purported to be a portrait of the dead OBL, is obviously a Photoshop job of the undistorted picture on the right. The picture on the left appears to be a composite of Osama’s head and details from the picture of a cadaver of unknown provenience, probably an Iraqi victim since many pictures of dead Iraqis have been published in the past by US soldiers. It is also obvious that the AP picture has been worked on with a blurring filter.



The photo of Osama bin Laden at death that Kawther Salam said is fake.


The fakery around Osama bin Laden is very interesting before the background that American citizens investigating the 9/11 attack have found that the list of victims of that crime published by CNN appears to be a vast catalog of false, composite identities. They have published a so-called “Vicsim Report” (“Vicsim” = Victim Simulation”) which includes many examples of manipulation of pictures and other personal details of purported victims. Another hole in the story published is the almost immediate DNA identification purported to have been performed. According to this article, it would take about two days to confirm an identification done with help of DNA (if a reader knows otherwise, please post a comment.)

Abottabad (link to Google map), the city in northern Pakistan where Osama was supposedly killed yesterday, lies sprawled along a valley, it has about 300.000 inhabitants. The city appears to be neither remote nor underdeveloped. It has many schools and other educational institutes, several hospitals, paved roads, government offices, a golf course, other modern amenities and several big military compounds. It appears inconceivable that Osama bin Laden could live for “years” in such a place without having come to the attention to the massive intelligence service of Pakistan. Several hundred meters immediately north of one of the probable locations of the house which was raided yesterday lies the campus the “COMSATS Institute of Information Technology”, a professional education institute whose Islamabad branch was visited on April 25 by British Prime Minister David Cameron. Whatever the Prime Minister was doing in Islamabad, it is doubtful that he traveled halfways around the globe to merely give some nice a speech in exactly the school which has a branch next to the raided house. The emissaries of empire always afford their tribute, be it in blood or otherwise."


You can also read Mark Dean's doubts in MADHOUSE: The Obama Omniscience on why Americans are asking their first black President for photos to authenticate his claims! From doubting the authenticity of his birth certificate, they are now doubting his claim of killing Osama bin Laden!

No one should ignore Alex Jones who even produced the YouTube video to expose ("the contrived "victory" in the War on Terror surrounding a man who many experts have said was already dead for years. After nearly a decade of "hunting" for Bin Laden, he is summarily shot in the head and allegedly dumped into the ocean (conveniently making the body unavailable). So goes the official life of Osama bin Laden (aka Tim Osman), one of the CIA's most useful patsies and assets.)



The testimony of Alex Jones supports that of Kawther Salam that the "second death" of Osama bin Laden is a hoax. But on May 6, 2011, "al-Qaeda acknowledged his death and concurrently vowed to retaliate."

Would President Barack Obama lie to the world and risk being impeached and vilified as the most dishonest President in the history of America? Imagine the grave consequences of such a calamity on the United States of America and the black race?


~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima



Saturday, May 7, 2011

Al-Qaeda Suspect Arrested in Deadly Marrakesh Bombing


The deadly blomb blast In Marrakesh killed 16 people, many of them foreigners (AFP/File, Abdelhak Senna)


Moroccan Response to Bombing Shows Deep Commitment to Human Rights Protection

WASHINGTON, May 6, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The lead suspect arrested by Morocco in its ongoing investigation of the deadly April 28 terrorist bombing in Marrakesh has been linked to al-Qaeda, according to a report by Morocco's Interior Ministry. The terrorist bombing at Cafe Argana in Marrakesh's central square killed 17 people—most of them Europeans—and injured 20.

World leaders, including UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have condemned the bombing. Morocco has won praise for its thoroughness and restraint in investigating the bombing.

Three Moroccan suspects were arrested in Safi, 220 miles south of Casablanca. The lead suspect, who was "linked to Al-Qaeda," had "made two explosive devices, which were triggered from a distance" by mobile phone, said the Interior Ministry. He "chose the Argana cafe because it is popular with Moroccan and foreign tourists."

Investigators found the suspects learned how to make the bombs on the Internet and "were absorbed by jihadist ideology," with "allegiance to al-Qaeda, and had already made several attempts to join some of the hotbeds of tension," including Chechnya and Iraq, before deciding to carry out their attack in Morocco.

Immediately following the attack, His Majesty King Mohammed VI called for respect for "the primacy of the rule of law" and vowed that the bombing wouldn't derail Morocco's new program of constitutional reforms, which he outlined in a speech to the nation on March 9.

Earlier this week, Moroccan Islamists said "they felt reassured that authorities acted with restraint and did not carry out mass arrests as they did in the wake of 2003 attacks," reported AFP. A leader of the Islamic opposition noted the contrast with the reaction following the 2003 Casablanca bombings that killed 45 people, when hundreds of Islamists were arrested.

The Moroccan American Center for Policy (MACP) is a non-profit organization whose principal mission is to inform opinion makers, government officials and interested publics in the United States about political and social developments in Morocco and the role being played by the Kingdom of Morocco in broader strategic developments in North Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East. For more, please visit www.moroccanamericanpolicy.org.

This material is distributed by the Moroccan American Center for Policy on behalf of the Government of Morocco. Additional information is available at the Department of Justice in Washington, DC.

SOURCE Moroccan American Center for Policy

CONTACT: Garth Neuffer, +1-202-470-2055, gneuffer@moroccanamericancenter.com

Web Site: http://www.moroccanamericanpolicy.org



10 Years of GSM in Nigeria


President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria on BlackBerry mobile phone, the most popular smart phone in the most populous country in Africa with over 90 million users of GSM phones..

10 Years of GSM in Nigeria

• The Global System of Mobile Communications (GSM) was introduced into Nigeria in August 2001 with only 400, 000 lines, and a dismal 0.4 teledensity. But today the active lines are over 90 million with a teledensity of 64.16!

• Nigeria is ranked as the largest and fastest growing telecom market in Africa and among the top ten fastest growing telecom markets in the world.

• The leading GSM operators in Nigeria are, MTN, Airtel, Etisalat, Globacom, Starcomms, Mtel, Visafone, Zoommobile, Multilinks



MTN Kiosk

• The Nigerian telecom industry has attracted over $18 billion in private sector investments, including direct foreign investment, contributing over N300 billion to the coffers of the Nigerian government through frequency spectrum sales and the annual revenue from mobile services is about four percent of the nominal GDP.



Nicolas Cage Won't Be Charged in New Orleans Case



American movie star and Hollywood heartthrob Nicholas Cage will not be charged after his April 16 arrest in New Orleans.

The popular actor was arrested in the French Quarter after disrespecting his wife in an argument over renting a new house. He was booked for domestic abuse, disturbing the peace and public drunkenness.


Cage had been free on $US11,000 bond put up by bail bondsman Duane Chapman, known as Dog the Bounty Hunter to reality TV fans.

See the details in the following press release.


Nicolas Cage Won't Be Charged in New Orleans Case


NEW ORLEANS, May 6, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The following statement is being issued by Nicolas Cage's defense attorney, Harry Rosenberg is as follows:
"The New Orleans District Attorney has confirmed that no charges of any kind will be pursued against Nicolas Cage.

After the investigation, the District Attorney's Office refused all charges against Nick and this matter has been closed.

We are pleased that the process led to the correct result, despite the inaccurate media reports, and that Nick has been cleared and all charges have been dropped."

SOURCE Harry Rosenberg

CONTACT: Annett Wolf, +1-310-887-0737, for Harry Rosenberg



Smartphone Sales Will Account for 53% of Global Handsets in 2015



Smartphone Sales Will Account for 53% of Global Handset Sell-Through in 2015, Pyramid Finds



CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 6, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Total handsets sold to end users globally will reach 1.46 billion in 2011, while smartphone sales will account for 27 percent of total handset sell-through. Driven by demand for inexpensive Android models, this figure will almost double to 53 percent in 2015, according to Pyramid Research's quarterly smartphone forecast released this week.

Offered as a quarterly-updated subscription or as a one-off resource, Pyramid's Smartphone Forecast provides annual sell-through of total mobile handsets and smartphones for a ten-year period, including five historical years and five forecast years. Smartphone sell-through data is also segmented by vendor and by operating system. Granular data is provided for key emerging and developed markets, with ten new countries added to its coverage in its latest release, making Pyramid's smartphone forecast the most detailed on the market today.

Download the Smartphone Forecast Insight , a summary of the findings from the Smartphone Forecast just released this week, written by Stela Bokun, Senior Analyst and Practice Leader for Mobile Devices at Pyramid Research.

"Much of the projected total market growth in 2011 will come from the Africa and Middle East (AME) region, which will see a strong demand for low-end smartphone models, ultra low-cost handsets and dual-SIM and full touch-screen feature phones," says Bokun. "The main drivers of the demand in the developed markets will be the launches of a number of flagship high-end devices and new features and technologies," Bokun explains. "However, inexpensive smartphone models, particularly those from Huawei and ZTE, also will be in high demand in some of the richest Western European, Asian and North American markets."

Android-based smartphones will continue to shake the smartphone world, but Pyramid's recent findings predict that by 2015, Windows Phone will overtake Android and other major competitors and establish itself as the leader in the smartphone OS space.

Download the Smartphone Forecast Insight here: http://www.pyramidresearch.com/downloads.htm?id=2&sc=PRN050611_SMRT.

To learn more about the new expanded smartphone coverage, or to download a forecast template, click here: http://www.pyramidresearch.com/SmartphoneForecasts.htm?sc=PRN050611_SMRT.

For more information about Pyramid Research's products and services, please visit www.pyr.com or email us at info@pyr.com.

CONTACT: Jennifer Baker, +1-617-871-1910, jbaker@pyr.com

SOURCE Pyramid Research

Web Site: http://www.pyr.com



"Transformers: Dark of the Moon" breaks iTunes Record!



6 May 2011 20:42 Africa/Lagos


New Trailer for Michael Bay's Transformers: Dark of the Moon Downloaded Over 6 Million Times in First 24 Hours on iTunes Movie Trailers, Breaking Previous Record

PR Newswire

HOLLYWOOD, Calif., May 6, 2011



HOLLYWOOD, Calif., May 6, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The new trailer for Michael Bay's "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" has been downloaded more than 6 million times in its first 24 hours on iTunes Movie Trailers (http://www.apple.com/trailers), becoming the most-viewed trailer in the site's history.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/19991206/PARLOGO)

The trailer, which recently debuted exclusively on iTunes Movie Trailers, gives fans a visually stunning sneak peak at this summer's highly anticipated "Transformers: Dark of the Moon." When a mysterious event from Earth's past erupts into the present day it threatens to bring a war to earth so big that the Transformers alone will not be able to save us. The third installment of the hit franchise, "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" stars Shia LaBeouf, John Turturro, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Patrick Dempsey, Kevin Dunn, with John Malkovich and Frances McDormand.

"Transformers represents big summer fun at the movies and iTunes Movie Trailers was the ideal place to debut the latest installment to a global entertainment audience," says Amy Powell, Paramount Pictures' Executive Vice President Interactive Marketing & Film Production.

About Paramount Pictures Corporation

Paramount Pictures Corporation (PPC), a global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment, is a unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), a leading content company with prominent and respected film, television and digital entertainment brands. The company's labels include Paramount Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, Insurge Pictures, MTV Films and Nickelodeon Movies. PPC operations also include Paramount Digital Entertainment, Paramount Famous Productions, Paramount Home Entertainment, Paramount Pictures International, Paramount Licensing Inc., Paramount Studio Group and Paramount Television & Digital Distribution.

SOURCE Paramount Pictures Corporation

CONTACT: Katie Martin Kelley, EVP, Publicity, +1-323-956-2821, KMK@Paramount.com, for Paramount Pictures



Friday, May 6, 2011

Nigeria and UNESCO launch $6 million national literacy programme


Photo Credit: 31 Exchange


6 May 2011 18:37 Africa/Lagos


Nigeria and UNESCO launch $6 million national literacy programme

PARIS, May 6, 2011/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- Efforts to achieve Education for All in Nigeria received a major boost today with the signing of an $6 million agreement between UNESCO and the Nigerian Government. Under the agreement, Nigeria will finance a project managed by UNESCO to revitalize adult and youth literacy in the country. It was signed today at UNESCO's Paris Headquarters by UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova and Nigeria's Federal Minister of Education Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufa'i.

Although Nigeria has made considerable progress towards Education for All, illiteracy remains a major problem, with an estimated 50 million adults who cannot read or write. Furthermore, some 8.6 million Nigerian primary-age children are out-of-school.

“The importance and enormous benefits of literacy both for individual empowerment and national development are well known and documented,” said Irina Bokova, following the signing ceremony. “As the UN's specialized agency for education, UNESCO has at its disposal a huge reservoir of expertise and experience. Every effort will be made to mobilize and effectively deploy these resources for the benefit of Nigeria.”

“This is a project charged with great expectations and it is in the spirit of achieving these expectations, together, that we envisioned our cooperation (Nigeria and UNESCO) for the achievement of the important goal of this major endeavor,” said Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufa'i, who currently chairs the E-9 initiative*. “It is our hope that Nigeria's successful implementation of this programme will serve as a model, not only for the E-9 countries, but also those in the Africa region and elsewhere, facing the literacy challenge. We count on UNESCO to continue to provide appropriate and adequate support for its success.”

The agreement will open the way for a vast programme to strengthen national capacities for designing, delivering, evaluating and monitoring quality literacy programmes. It will be implemented by UNESCO's office in the Nigerian federal capital, Abuja over 42 months, in close cooperation with the relevant Nigerian authorities.

This if the fourth “self-benefitting” agreement signed between Nigeria and UNESCO since 2004, when the Government in Abuja committed almost $1million for a programme to reform the Nigerian Science, Technology and Innovation System. In 2005, Nigeria provided over $3 million for a UNESCO programme to boost science and technology education in primary and secondary schools and colleges of education. In 2008, the government in Abuja committed $565,000 to support technical and vocational education in Nigeria (this programme was complemented by an additional $1.5 million implemented directly by Government services. These three programmes are all ongoing.

* The E-9 Initiative is a forum for nine high-population countries (Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan) to discuss their experiences in education, exchange best practices and monitor progress on achieving Education for All (EFA). Since its launch in 1993, the E-9 network has also become a powerful lobby for EFA and South-South cooperation.


Source: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)


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6 May 2011
19:25 Cote d'Ivoire / UNOCI's future role under preparation
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18:49 Experts and Policy Makers conclude CODIST II with resounding call to invest in Science Technology Innovation
18:37 Nigeria and UNESCO launch $6 million national literacy programme
17:59 El proyecto del Lago Kivu de ContourGlobal recibe la garantía de la Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency del Banco Mundial
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14:30 Researchers Join Forces To Cure Deadly Childhood Disease
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Source: African Press Organization



UNITY Calls for Release of Al Jazeera Journalist Dorothy Parvaz


Dorothy Parvaz


6 May 2011 14:00 Africa/Lagos

UNITY Calls for Release of Al Jazeera Journalist Dorothy Parvaz

PR Newswire

MCLEAN, Va., May 6, 2011

MCLEAN, Va., May 6, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- UNITY: Journalists of Color is calling on the government of Syria to release Al Jazeera reporter Dorothy Parvaz and allow her to continue her important work in the country.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110506/DC97026 )

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110310/DC62460LOGO )

Parvaz, a former reporter for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and a 2009 Nieman Fellow at Harvard, was apparently detained shortly after arriving in Damascus on Friday to cover anti-government protests in the country. Al Jazeera has been told by Syrian officials that they're holding Parvaz. She is a citizen of the United States, Canada and Iran. She joined Al Jazeera in 2010.

UNITY joins the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University and other media organizations in urging President Bashar al-Assad to immediately free Ms. Parvaz, and to cease efforts to hinder the work of the international media.

UNITY believes that a free press is one of the pillars of a democracy and it is our hope that Syria will adhere to the principles that guarantee the free flow of information and ideas.

About UNITY: Journalists of Color




UNITY: Journalists of Color, Inc. is a strategic alliance advocating news coverage about people of color, and aggressively challenging its organizations at all levels to reflect the nation's diversity. UNITY is comprised of four national associations: Asian American Journalists Association, National Association of Black Journalists, National Association of Hispanic Journalists, and the Native American Journalists Association together with an outreach to more than 8,000 journalists of color. In addition to planning the largest regular gathering of journalists in the nation, UNITY supports research and advocacy initiatives that promote its mission. For more information on UNITY, visit www.unityjournalists.org, email info@unityjournalists.org or call (703) 854-3585.

Media Contact:

Onica N. Makwakwa, Executive Director

UNITY: Journalists of Color, Inc.

Tel: (703) 854-3585

executive@unityjournalists.org

SOURCE UNITY: Journalists of Color

Web Site: http://www.unityjournalists.org/



So Where are the Jobs?



So Where are the Jobs? For The U.S. Economy, Bouncing Back Is Hard To Do
Construction, Finance, State/Local Government Holding Recovery Back

PR Newswire

NEW YORK, May 5, 2011

NEW YORK, May 5, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- When it comes to recessions, the U.S. economy doesn't bounce back like it used to, The Conference Board reports in an analysis released today.

By March 2011, the number of people employed in the U.S. was only 0.2 percent higher than in June 2009, when the recession ended, notes the report, entitled So Where are the Jobs?

The current recovery is the second slowest on record since 1961 – continuing a trend that began in 1991 of weak growth in both jobs and GDP. In the last three recoveries, neither GDP nor employment "roared back" as was typical after earlier downturns.

In the current recovery, some industries are doing better, others worse. "When looking across industries, the current recovery is showing some unique trends," says Gad Levanon, Associate Director of Macroeconomic Research at The Conference Board, and author of the report. "For example, employment in construction, finance and state/local government is not only declining, but declining much faster than in any other recovery since 1960. The decline in these industries is a result of forces that go beyond the ups and downs we see in typical recessions, and a strong bounce back is unlikely in the near future." Since the end of recession, total employment in construction, finance and state/local government declined by 1.06 million jobs, while the rest of the economy added only 1.3 million jobs.

The Conference Board report includes a breakdown by industry, including a listing of job recovery rates by sector and over time. For example:

* Hardest Hit : The number of jobs in construction (-8.1 percent), finance (-1.8 percent), and state and local government (-1.0 and -2.6 percent respectively) continued to decline in the 21 months after the end of the recession.
* Disappointing : Healthcare and leisure and hospitality jobs have recovered, but at a rate slower than any since 1960.
* Doing OK : Manufacturing suffered less job loss than in recent recessions, and in the last 12 months, manufacturing employment has grown at the highest rate since the 1990s.
* Shrinking Government : The growth in federal government jobs during the recovery has been historically high (38,000), but not enough to offset the unprecedented losses in state and local government jobs (-429,000).


Employment Outlook

In the near-term, employment growth will continue to be slow. The housing downturn, high oil and commodity prices, government austerity measures and limited consumer spending will prevent GDP growth from being more robust. Unemployment is likely to remain above 8 percent through 2012. The Conference Board forecasts GDP to grow at about 2.5 percent in 2011 and 2012, much lower than the rate of 3.5 to 4 percent typically reached during expansions.

Adds Levanon: "Longer-term prospects are more promising, however. In the last six months, employment outside of construction, finance and state and local government has already been growing faster than nearly any other six-month period in the last decade. Once constraints in these hard-hit sectors loosen, overall job recovery is likely to pick up pace."

Source: So Where are the Jobs? For the U.S. Economy, Bouncing Back is Hard to Do

Executive Action No. 349

The Conference Board

About The Conference Board

The Conference Board is a global, independent business membership and research association working in the public interest. Our mission is unique: To provide the world's leading organizations with the practical knowledge they need to improve their performance and better serve society. The Conference Board is a non-advocacy, not-for-profit entity holding 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status in the United States. www.conference-board.org

Follow The Conference Board

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SOURCE The Conference Board

CONTACT: Carol Courter, +1-212-339-0232, carol.courter@conference-board.org, or Jonathan Liu, +1-212-339-0257, jonathan.liu@conference-board.org

Web Site: http://www.conference-board.org



Thursday, May 5, 2011

Chevron fights justice in Ecuador on two fronts, but needs to win everywhere

~ By Marco Simon, Legal Director, Earth Rights International



Since February, Chevron has been facing what is probably the largest environmental judgment in history-- an $8 billion award from an Ecuadorian court for contaminating the Ecuadorian Amazon. (That judgment is now available in English, below, courtesy of Chevron.) They've gone on the offensive against this judgment on two fronts. But they need to win not just these cases, but every other one that the plaintiffs might file.

The plaintiffs' strategy has become known through the release of the so-called "Invictus" memo. That memo, drafted by law firm Patton Boggs for the Ecuadorian plaintiffs, outlines a global enforcement strategy. The Ecuadorians can go after Chevron in the US, but they can also try to enforce the judgment in Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, and dozens of other countries where Chevron operates or has assets. Not surprisingly, Chevron is working hard to prevent that.

Chevron's first assault on the Ecuadorian case was an international arbitration against Ecuador, filed in September 2009. (Although such arbitrations are typically secret, Chevron posted its complaint to its website.) Under the guise of international investment law, Chevron wants to have the Ecuadorian government interfere in its own court system, to tell the courts that Chevron's not responsible for the pollution in the Amazon.

I think Chevron's case in the arbitration is thin. Working with the International Institute for Sustainable Development and the Ecuadorian indigenous rights group Fundacion Pachamama, ERI filed an amicus brief with the arbitration tribunal last fall, arguing that the tribunal shouldn't even hear the case. We learned last week that the arbitration tribunal rejected our brief, unfortunately--but it still hasn't decided whether it will hear Chevron's case.

(The amicus process in arbitrations is far from transparent. Both Chevron and Ecuador apparently made several submissions to the arbtirators concerning whether our brief should be accepted, but we were not able to see or respond to any of them. Chevron even claimed that ERI has "a longstanding record of asserting baseless claims against Chevron." Note to Chevron: just because you keep getting accused of environmental and human rights abuses does not mean the charges are baseless.)

Chevron's second attack is in its lawsuit against the Ecuadorian plaintiffs and their lawyers in New York. So far they've had some success--federal district court judge Lewis Kaplan has issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting the Ecuadorians and their lawyers from taking steps to enforce the Ecuadorian judgment. But that success may not last.


As a preliminary injunction, Judge Kaplan's order is subject to immediate appeal to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, and the plaintiffs' lawyers have already filed their notice of appeal. At this stage of the case, Chevron is entitled to some presumptions in its favor, so even if they ultimately have no grounds to attack the Ecuadorian judgment, it is possible that a preliminary injunction will stand. But Chevron's entire case is premised on the notion that Judge Kaplan has jurisdiction over the Ecuadorian plaintiffs and other members of the plaintiffs' class action. That is a highly questionable position, and one that will receive considerable scrutiny from the Second Circuit. Even if Judge Kaplan can prevent the American lawyers from proceeding to enforce the judgment, if he doesn't have jurisdiction over the Ecuadorians, he cannot prevent them from going to other countries to seek enforcement (as outlined in the "Invictus" memo).

The Second Circuit may also be concerned with the propriety of interfering with foreign countries' judicial processes. I'm not aware of any case where a court has ever even tried to restrain foreign plaintiffs from enforcing a foreign judgment in foreign jurisdictions. Chevron has every opportunity to challenge the judgment in the Ecuadorian courts; Chevron chose to litigate in Ecuador over the plaintiffs' objection, and the Second Circuit may well hold them to that choice. In fact, in a recent decision in a related case, the Second Circuit said that Chevron was bound by its original promise "to satisfy any judgments in Plaintiffs' favor, reserving its right to contest their validity only in the limited circumstances permitted by New York's Recognition of Foreign Country Money Judgments Act.

Chevron argued, and Judge Kaplan accepted, that the judgment is unenforceable under that law for two reasons: because Ecuador does not provide due process, and because the judgment was obtained by fraud. But Chevron's own predecessor, Texaco, argued that the case should be sent to Ecuadorian courts in the first place, even though the plaintiffs then objected that those courts did not provide due process; Chevron may not be able to complain about that now. And what Chevron calls "fraud" was fully aired in the Ecuadorian court--all of the supposedly fraudulent evidence that Chevron is now presenting to Judge Kaplan was also presented in Ecuador, so Chevron can't really say that the plaintiffs defrauded the court.

Ultimately, even if Chevron wins the enforcement battle in the US, that doesn't end the matter, because the plaintiffs will go to other countries to enforce the judgment. The plaintiffs only need to win once or a few times, while Chevron needs to win everywhere. Even Chevron wins twenty cases, just one loss could cost the company hundreds of millions or billions of dollars.



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