Does a Senior Obama Official Have Unseemly Ties to Notorious Human-Rights Abuser Chevron?

By Jeremy Scahill, AlterNet. Posted July 10, 2009.

In 2006, then-Sen. Obama, along with Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., wrote a letter to then-U.S. trade representative Rob Portman, calling on him not to interfere in the case. They wrote: "While we are not prejudging the outcome of the case, we do believe the 30,000 indigenous residents of Ecuador deserve their day in court." Just prior to the November election, an Obama aide said that was still Obama's position. What's more, Donziger is an old basketball buddy of Obama's from Harvard and briefed Obama on the case when Obama was in the Senate. Donziger says that at the time he briefed Obama, the senator was "offended" by Chevron's attempt to subvert the Ecuadoran judicial process.

In a report to Congress on June 30, signed by Obama, the White House announced it was not canceling Ecuador's preferred status, which Donziger characterized as a "major, major defeat for Chevron."

Still, the company's lobbying efforts did appear to pay off. The White House report did weigh in on the Chevron case: "Concerns have been raised that statements by top Ecuadorian officials in favor of the plaintiffs have politicized the proceedings. The U.S. government has encouraged Ecuadorian government officials to refrain from commenting on ongoing judicial cases."

Donziger calls that "the $10 million paragraph," suggesting it was the meager end-product of the massive amount of money Chevron has spent lobbying the administration. "That one paragraph is a complete manipulation by Chevron of the facts, and it was wholly inappropriate for the U.S. trade representative to include it in this report."

Brune also said the U.S. government telling "Ecuadorian officials not to comment on this case is just silly," adding, "Obama and federal officials comment on judicial proceedings all the time. It's very common for political officials to offer a perspective on major issues in front of courts."

Despite its recent setbacks, Chevron undoubtedly will continue its intense lobbying on this issue on Capitol Hill, as well as the administration, including the State Department. Whether Chevron officials discussed their Ecuador problem with Holbrooke directly, we don't know. But for the State Department to allow Chevron to receive the Richard C. Holbrooke Award for Business Excellence at a ceremony which Holbrooke personally attended at a time when Chevron is fighting desperately to persuade members of the Obama administration and Congress to take Chevron's side in a high-stakes legal case is worthy of a congressional inquiry.

"Even if it is not intended to, [the use of Holbrooke's name] suggests the award has the imprimatur of the U.S. government when it doesn't," says Melanie Sloan, a former federal prosecutor and the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "Few people will know about Holbrooke's former job [as president of GBC], but they'll know he now works for the U.S. government. That's the problem."

In a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Brune and the Rainforest Action Network called on Clinton to "direct ... Ambassador Holbrooke to remove his name from its association" with the award, pointing out to Clinton that Chevron "spends considerable resources lobbying the agency which you lead."

Brune wrote: "Whether inadvertent or not, the fact [that] Ambassador Holbrooke has allowed his name to be associated with an award presented to a company that is lobbying the State Department and other government agencies is both an actual and apparent conflict of interest that besmirches the good reputation of our country and appears to run contrary to the spirit (if not the letter) of lobbying rules promulgated by the Obama administration."

The group asked for a commitment from Clinton that "neither Ambassador Holbrooke, nor any other person who serves your agency in an official capacity, be allowed to permit their name to be used by a private entity with business before the State Department or the U.S. government more generally."

As of this writing, the State Department had not responded to the letter. When asked about the potential ethical issues raised by Holbrooke's affiliation with the Chevron award, a State Department spokesperson told AlterNet the Department did not have a comment at this time.

See more stories tagged with: ecuador, big oil, michael isikoff, hillary clinton, condoleezza rice, chevron, william haynes, nigeria, richard holbrooke, andrew cuomo, steve kretzmann, steven donziger, fareed zakaria

Jeremy Scahill, an independent journalist who reports frequently for the national radio and TV program Democracy Now, has spent extensive time reporting from Iraq and Yugoslavia. He is currently a Puffin Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute. Scahill is the author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army. His writing and reporting is available at Rebel Reports.

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