The Natural Resources Defense Council, a Washington D.C.-based environmental group, accused Bush of acting on the behalf of Exxon Mobil by trying to remove global warming expert Robert Watson as the head of the International Panel of Climate Change. The NRDC acquired a February memo from Exxon Mobil, to the White House's Council on Environmental quality, that states: "Can Watson be replaced now at the request of the U.S?" The memo also urged that the administration "restructure the U.S. attendance at the upcoming IPCC meetings to assure none of the Clinton/Gore proponents are involved in any decisional activities." The State Department, apparently taking the advice of their cohorts at Exxon Mobil, announced on Wednesday that it would support Rajendra Pachauri, the Indian government's nominee to become the next chair of the IPCC. This is eerily similar to how Enron's Ken Lay pressured FERC Chair Curtis Hebert to resign.

Despite heroic efforts to clean up the mess left when the infamous Exxon Valdez spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound off the Alaskan Coast, contamination persists and is widespread. When researchers recently tested thousands of sites on some 50 beaches on the sound, over 1 in 10 contained surface or subsurface oil, some of it trapped below the surface and just as volatile as the day it washed ashore. "It's there," says Mandy Lindenberg, field chief from the National Marine Fisheries Service. "And it's not going away." So far, tests have found 7-8 times more oil than predicted. Meanwhile, Exxon and its "scientists" (well-paid hacks, in reality) have long claimed the Sound has "recovered" from the spill. But just one good storm, and all those trapped pits of oil will recreate the disaster all over again. Welcome to Bush World.

"Exxon is a dirty company. It is environmentally dirty and it is politically dirty. It is interested in only one thing - profits. And it does not care what it has to destroy in the process of making them. It will buy your government officials, it will violate clean air standards, it will exploit your fellow citizens, and it will leave a raped and devastated planet in its wake. Instead of taking the lead in the development of renewable energy sources - which it certainly has the cold, hard cash to do - it chooses to systematically and literally scorch the earth by dissolving the protective ozone layer in our atmosphere. Do not give them one cent of your hard-earned income until they stop. Make them accountable." Visit the site below to send this letter to ExxonMobil CEO L.R. Raymond.

On June 22, the International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF) representing 11 Acehnese villagers filed a lawsuit in Washington against ExxonMobil oil company (which often trades under the name Esso), accusing the giant company of actively abetting human rights abuses in the northern Sumatran region. The suit is being taken under the US Alien Tort Claims Act, which allows jurisdiction over acts committed outside the United States. Finally, there is a chance that Exxon (ExxonMobil) will be brought to justice for the systematic torture, murder and devastation it directly and indirectly inflicted on the natives living around its Arun liquid natural gas facility in the Aceh province of Indonesia. Here with Dems.com's own Cheryl Seal is an overview of "ExxonMobil's Dirty Little War." Congratulations to the "Malaysiakini" website for its continuing courageous and tireless efforts in the cause of human rights.

July 11 is International Action Against ExxonMobil Day. In the spirit of justice on this occasion, we present a report by Robert Jereski, exec. director of the International Forum for Aceh which details the conflict in the embattled oil and natural gas rich province of Aceh in Indonesia. The report, available on the website of the Harvard University Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Studies Program, details how ExxonMobil's "security" arrangements with the Indonesian armed forces have not only caused grievous human rights violations, but have also violated U.S. law and undermined foreign policy goals. The report calls for the U.S. Congress and Justice Department to investigate alleged crimes by ExxonMobil - crimes for which there is a growing body of evidence.

To keep its billion-dollar natural gas operation going - on land that was originally snatched from Indonesian native peoples - Exxon not only looked the other way, but also aided and abetted in the systematic torture, murder, and extreme brutality against the Acehnese people. The Acehnese have continually protested the presence of Exxon. Although Exxon's operation pulled in as much as ONE-FOURTH of the company's revenue at its height (the field is diminishing now), it failed to insure that the Acehnese receive fair treatment in any way, financial or otherwise. If you want to get an idea of just how hideously the Acehnese were treated, check out: http:/www.smh.com.au/news/0105/14/pageone/pageone5.html

This week, it was announced that human rights activists are suing Exxon for a long history of horrendous human rights abuses, both direct and indirect, which have occurred in Indonesia in the Aceh region where the company has operated a liquid natural gas plant for decades. Here is a chilling commentary on the background of this case and how the brutal modus operandi of the big fuel corporations is now, in a diluted form, beginning to take root, through the Bush administration, on our own soil.

Bush buddy Exxon must pay $3.4 billion in punitive damages for trying to defraud Alabama of at least $1 billion in natural gas royalties. The fine - the biggest levied by a jury in the state's history - was necessary, ruled Circuit Court Judge Tracy McCooey, because the company has neither expressed any remorse nor changed its way of calculating royalties. Only a slam to the wallet can get this profit-bloated boa constrictor's attention! Yet this is the same bunch Shrub wants to reward with billions in tax breaks and the last of our unspoiled wildlands. Sure, why not? Why don't we just all throw our firstborn into the deal while we're at it?