Monday, October 17, 2016

Who's Investing in the Dakota Access Pipeline? Meet the Banks Financing Attacks on Protesters - Extended Commentary and Links Included


Source - DemocracyNow.com

Published: September 06, 2016

The reality revealed by the ordeal in North Dakota—in which the Standing Rock Sioux along with Native friends from across the continent—are facing off against corporate powers who are attempting to complete the pipeline project at any cost.  The acting authorities in this region, the workers, the engineers, and a handful of mercenaries seem to have abandoned Constitutional law entirely in order to enforce plutocratic control over the property and livelihood of others.


The corporate media has largely ignored the struggle for life of the Standing Rock Sioux.  Hardly any of these media sources have chosen to report the truth of the situation for what appears to be a media blackout.  At the same time, the journalists who have shed light on the situation have been arrested or brought up on trumped up charges for doing so—proving that fascism has a comfortable home in America.



The pleas of these Natives tribes—the historic targets of American "progress"—have been ignored by Washington, ignored and silenced by the banks, ignored and dismissed by the acting authorities who seem to care about little more than their paychecks.

 I do not doubt that many of the acting authorities who are pepper-spraying and pointing loaded guns at unarmed women and children choose to believe they have just cause for doing so. However, such people seem to have little ability to determine proper ethical procedure on their own.

 The national sickness which the ordeal in North Dakota reveals seems to be a repeat of history.  In the early 1930s, the Nationalist Socialist part rose to power in the same subtle way which the current acting governance did.  These historically criminal Nationalists stopped at nothing to achieve their own goals.


 They too cared little or nothing about human rights for those who did not look like them.  They stole, vandalized, brutalized and murdered at will, all while continuing a non-stop campaign of propagandistic hypocrisy.  This propaganda helped to maintain efficiency on the front lines of their rampage across Europe and Northern Africa.

 Much like modern-day America, these Nazis pushed excessive propaganda focused toward national pride and national values.  In reality, the nation was in the process of brutalizing and murdering a large percentage of its population (not to mention thousands of civilians in foreign lands).  Though Nazi Germany had its differences from modern-day America, there are too many similarities to consider ourselves any better.

This is Why the Media Is Silent - Award Winning Journalist To Be Jailed For Covering Dakota Pipeline

The situation at Standing Rock is the same as is everywhere else in this country.  The veneer of equality and freedom are generously glossed over a steadily decreasing regard for human life and prosperity.  It is my belief that the world must know every last detail about the crimes taking place against these Native protectors, who did nothing to deserve the treatment they've received for simply speaking out.  If we do not want to see history repeat itself any longer, it is up to each of us to make these deeds known and to bring them to an end.

 In all of this, it's important to know who was behind the initial violation of human rights in this situation and who willfully continues that violation for the sake of profit.  Here is Democracy Now with the article of interest.







We continue our conversation with Hugh MacMillan on his new investigation revealing the financial institutions backing the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline project.

The investigation, published by research outlet LittleSis, names more than two dozen major banks and financial institutions helping to finance the Dakota Access pipeline. It details how Bank of America, HSBC, UBS, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and other financial institutions have, combined, extended a $3.75 billion credit line to Energy Transfer Partners, the parent company of Dakota Access.

This is Part 2 of our conversation with Hugh MacMillan, a senior researcher with Food & Water Watch. 



TRANSCRIPT


This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.  

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman. In North Dakota, over a thousand people representing more than a hundred tribes are gathered along the Cannonball River by the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation to resist the construction of the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline. It’s been described as the largest unification of Native American tribes in decades.

Well, this past weekend, on September 3rd, Labor Day weekend, the Dakota Access pipeline company attacked Native Americans with dogs and pepper spray as they resisted the construction of the $3.8 billion pipeline on a sacred tribal burial site. Also, Saturday was the first day of a two-week call for actions against the financial institutions that are bankrolling the Dakota Access pipeline project. A new investigation has revealed more than two dozen major banks and financial institutions are helping finance the DAPL, the Dakota Access pipeline. The investigation was published by the research outlet LittleSis. It details how Bank of America, HSBC, UBS, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and other financial institutions have, combined, extended a $3.75 billion credit line to Energy Transfer Partners, the parent company of Dakota Access.

For more, we’re joined by the author of this investigation, Hugh MacMillan, a senior researcher with Food & Water Watch.

Hugh, welcome to Democracy Now! This is Part 2 of our conversation. Tell us what’s most important to understand about the structure of the Dakota Access pipeline company.

HUGH MACMILLAN: Dakota Access, LLC, is a joint venture of Phillips 66 and a joint venture of two members of the Energy Transfer family—Energy Transfer Partners and Sunoco Logistics. Enbridge and Marathon Oil have bought into this, this joint venture. Together, they now have about a 37 percent stake in the pipeline, in the Dakota Access pipeline.

AMY GOODMAN: How are the banks involved?

HUGH MACMILLAN: Well, that’s—they are banking on this company and banking on being able to drill and frack for the oil to send through the pipeline over the coming decades. So they’re providing the capital for the construction of this pipeline.

AMY GOODMAN: And explain what the banks are. Which banks are they? And how are they involved?



HUGH MACMILLAN: Well, I’ve got a list of the 17 banks that are specifically providing financing for this project. And it’s also coupled together with a Energy Transfer—Energy Transfer Partner project to convert an existing pipeline that would connect to the south end of the Dakota Access pipeline and run oil all the way down to the Gulf Coast, where there are refineries and also export infrastructure.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you tell us that list of 17 banks?

HUGH MACMILLAN: I can. Citibank is the bank that’s been running the books on the project, and that’s the bank that beat the bushes and got other banks to join in. So, we have Wells Fargo, BNP Paribas, SunTrust, Royal Bank of Scotland, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Mizuho Bank, TD Securities, ABN AMRO Capital, DNB First Bank—and that’s actually a bank based in Philly; it’s not the DNB Bank based in Norway, which is actually provided several hundred million to the Energy Transfer family separately—and ICBC London, SMBC Nikko Securities and Société Générale.


Visuals from Little Sis Research Project










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