Clinton emails - The struggle of Italy to follow the Western neo-colonial race over the Libyan corpse
On March 16, 2016 WikiLeaks
launched a searchable archive for 30,322 emails & email
attachments sent to and from Hillary Clinton's private email server
while she was Secretary of State. The 50,547 pages of documents span
from 30 June 2010 to 12 August 2014. 7,570 of the documents were sent
by Hillary Clinton. The emails were made available in the form of
thousands of PDFs by the US State Department as a result of a Freedom
of Information Act request. The final PDFs were made available on
February 29, 2016.
A
letter from Clintons'
top advisor Sidney Blumenthal
to Hillary Clinton in early January, 2013, shows that Italy was
struggling to remain in the cruel race for the Libyan resources,
which had started already two years ago by the other key Western neo-colonial players, over the Libyan corpse, as the same series of
emails reveal.
The
most characteristic parts of the letter, concerning Italy, reveal
that:
Paolo
Scaroni, CEO of the Italian oil firm ENI, was extremely anxious to
develop a new, special relationship with the post-revolutionary
Libyan government and intended to gain an advantage on other Western
firms looking to do business in the country.
Scaroni
had the full backing of the Italian government in this matter, under
Mario Monti, the puppet technocrat who replaced the democratically
elected, Silvio Berlusconi, through an ECB silent coup.
Scaroni
proposed a plan calling for an $8.5 billion investment in both
ongoing production and new exploration spread over 10 years. The
Monti administration believed that this investment could help them
deal with the long term economic problems they were facing due to the
European debt crisis.
In
other words, Italy was hoping to fix its economy through a privileged
position on Libya's resources. The most remarkable here, is that
Libya was destroyed through direct intervention from the Western
neo-colonial powers, while Italy was facing an economic war through
failed neoliberal policies imposed by Berlin and by some of these
powers. This is a good example of how the neoliberal dictatorship
puts entire countries into an arena of brutal fighting for survival.
It
was revealed that the new Libyan administration, despite any serious
disagreements between the Prime Minister and the President, was fully
determined to utilize the Army and police forces, to protect Western
interests throughout the country.
Specific
parts concerning Italy:
- ... in December Zidan, Oil Minister Abdulbari al-Arusi and Italian oil firm ENI's CEO Paolo Scaroni met at the Prime Minister's office to discuss ENI plans for developing new operations in Libya. According to an extremely sensitive source, these talks went very well. After the meeting Zidan noted that Scaroni was obviously extremely anxious to develop a new, special relationship with the post-revolutionary Libyan government and intended to gain an advantage on other Western firms looking to do business in the country. This source added that, according to Zidan's staff, Scaroni proposed a plan calling for an $8.5 billion investment in both ongoing production and new exploration spread over 10 years. Later, in discussing the meeting, Zidan and his aides agreed that Scaroni had the full backing of the Italian government in this matter. Zidan added that his contacts in Rome report that the Italian administration believes this investment in Libya will help them deal with the long term economic problems they are facing during the current European debt crisis.
- According to this sensitive source, the Libyans and Scaroni worked out a rough draft of an initial Memorandum of Understanding, covering an initial investment of approximately $420 million, which will be finalized before Zidan's planned visit to Rome in late January 2013. Before the Tripoli meeting ended the Prime Minister requested that Scaroni consider committing ENI to work on additional operations in the downstream sector under a new office of the Libyan National Oil Corporation, which the Oil Ministry plans to establish in Benghazi. Zidan noted that ENI began working in Libya in 1958, and, in his opinion remains the most important international oil company operating in the country. When Zidan briefed Magariaf on the meeting with Scaroni, the President agreed that the ENI proposal is an important matter for the new Libyan government, however; he cautioned that the recent resignation of Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti might complicate the affair. Zidan stated that his contacts in Rome assure him that the importance of the new ENI proposal for Libya transcends the ongoing political infighting in Rome. Both the Prime Minister and President agreed that with the prospect of new ENI operations and personnel in Libya, the Army and police forces must be able to improve security conditions for Western interests throughout the country.
Full
letter:
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