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Cover Story

Kissinger advisor for Unocal and CNOOC

Toronto-- Tomorrow is D-Day for the People's Republic of China gaining a toehold in the American business world.

Thursday is the day when the battle between Chevron corp. and CNOOC over Unocal Corp. is set to come to a head with the U.S. company's board due to decide whether to back the Chinese group's US$18.5-billion bid and withdraw support for Chevron's US$16.6-billion cash-and-share offer, says the Financial Times.

"The Unocal board's decision is crucial to the outcome of CNOOC's attempt to challenge Chevron–a move that has sparked a barrage of opposition from U.S. politicians."

CNOOC's offer will be the subject of a hearing in Washington today before the house armed services committee.

Missing from the takeover battle–the first of this scale by a communist Chinese company--is the due diligence of the mainline media.

Unreported conflicts of interest in the CNOOC/Chevron Corp. battle royale over Unocal Corp. are rife. They're right up there with Paul Volcker's conflicts of interest as team leader of the "independent" investigation into the UN oil-for-food scandal.

It starts but doesn't finish with Dr. Henry Kissinger, former U.S. Secretary of State. Kissinger was an advisor for Unocal. Kissinger is also on the advisory board for CNOOC.

Coincidentally enough, Kissinger was the one who convinced President Richard Nixon to forge the opening to China when it was being run by mass murderer Chairman Mao, and the rest, as they say, is history. Indeed it could be said that all of this is happening because of him.

Going a little deeper into this conflict of interest story, (www.crai.com) is another noted CNOOC advisor. As noted on their website, they advised Chevron Corp and Texaco–the now merged rivals to CNOOC.

They also advise CSX–the mammoth U.S. rail company that was headed by John Snow. Snow now heads the U.S. Treasury Department that must approve CNOOC's hostile bid to take over Unocal.

"If Unocal decided to entertain the CNOOC offer, the deal would have to pass scrutiny of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, headed by Treasury Secretary John Snow." (Joe McDonald, Associated Press, June 30, 2005).

Conflicts of interest run even deeper. CRA International represents Liberty Media, NBC, General Electric and Universal. Employed by them as a subsidiary of General Electric/NBC/Liberty Media is David Kissinger, son of Dr. Henry Kissinger.

Kissinger Jr. worked for the USA Television Production Group. He now works for Universal, also a client of CRA, International.

CRA also represents Crestco, who counts Neil Bush as a lobbyist, and they also represent the World Bank, which stood, shoulder to shoulder with Unocal in their dealings with the Taliban over the pipeline from the Caspian gas fields.

Standing behind this conflict of interest-fraught deal in the shadows is the Rothschild bank, and more noteworthy JP Morgan Chase, also helping CNOOC.

As Canada Free Press's savvy letter writer Peter Herberg points out: "The People's Republic of China is not "rising", it is being lifted."

Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com