<nettime> gone fishing

[brian carroll <human@architexturez.com>]

 since this is open communications, i would
 like to make it known that every time i have
 written of Halliburton Oil company and-or
 Enron Energy Corp, within 24 hours of posting
 to nettime about any aspect of their relation
 to larger cultural and social issues, i catch
 their URLs in my web logs. often the URLs are
 either intentionally or unintentionally obscured,
 sometimes they ride in on other URLs, piggy-back
 like. i can usually tell Halliburton's been around
 my site because their IP is a non-working domain
 (at least they sometimes won't let me load their
 website) and is represented as 122.123, often
 making it stand out from the rest of the domains
 logged, often at the top of the alphabetical list.
 here is the IP: 34.63.122.123 that i noticed in
 the last 24 hours. if you go to: http://swhois.net/
 and search using the IP address you will get the
 following DNS information:

==============================================================

Halliburton Company (NET-HALLIBURTON)
   5151 San Felipe
   Houston, TX 77056

   Netname: HALLIBURTON
   Netblock: 34.0.0.0 - 34.255.255.255

   Coordinator:
      Harrison, Richard  (RH766-ARIN)  rharrison@HALNET.COM
      281-596-6646 (FAX) 281-596-6659

==============================================================
 
 at first this got me a bit concerned, being
 that i could not imagine why energy companies
 would be hitting my architectural research
 and theory site within hours of posting to
 nettime about their companies as a part of
 the text. while reassured this was not an
 abnormal occurrence, i am not convinced in
 the benign aspects of this voicing of free
 speech in a democracy, while the larger forces
 are keeping tabs of who says what. for when
 times turn darker, this type of critique could
 have severe consequences for those who are now
 speaking up, not ideologically, but with ideas.

 'the silence' online regarding the global issues
 that undergird the movements of the supposedly
 dead nation-state and whatnot is a great part
 of the problem. in a totally public forum, any
 speech that is not within the prevailing set of
 reason can have severely detrimental effects upon
 one's livelihood, in business, in academics, in
 communities. if more people spoke up, then it would
 not feel like such an isolated phenomenon. funnily,
 the Department of Defense also has a keen interest
 in architecture, as does Boeing and lots of other
 aerospace companies and trans-military/industrial
 companies. if indeed it was true they were listening,
 to listen, to hear, to think, to think about what
 is going on, what is being discussed, in the sense
 that there may be some truth (and of course some
 hyperbole) in the texts- what i can only call a
 necessary purging of corrupted intellectual data
 about the forces that move things around- how can
 we work together, in a realistic world, to enact
 changes needed, and agreed upon, by a large sector
 of humanity..?

 for example, the pitting of public against private
 interests, or class warfare, or military versus
 civilian, or theorists versus everything (!), or
 culture against culture, or ideas against ideas,
 seems to me a predictable story of past failures,
 maybe stated too simply as examples of 'failures
 to communicate'. wars, deaths, purges, exterminations,
 genocide, euthanasia, ... whether it is of the mind
 or the body or both, it just continues the long
 death-mill of tradition, and its consequences.

 at any point the issues involved can be discussed,
 in part, such as in the 'human story of technology',
 and its dual edge.

 to say i'm not afraid is to lie. but these companies
 snooping on a 3x college dropout's internet website
 at a statistically odd rate gets me beyond paranoia,
 which i consider a base state for dealing with the
 Real, and into speculation of the best of worst of
 this paradoxical reality.

 best case: some resolution could be established, or
 a mechanism, a program, an idea, organic and other,
 meshing together differences by their similarities,
 beyond a dictionary, but merging lexicons into one
 larger project, an Internet Translation project, not
 for separate languages, but for language, not for
 theories per se, but for ideas, as they are founded
 on their keywords. thus, i believe, or at least still
 hold some hope, that ideas like public and private,
 and capital and its social dimensions, even socialism,
 will not be mutually exclusive, `till death we unite.'
 as for corporations and the globalism debate. fascism,
 american imperialism, etc. if discourse were to be
 productive in its de(con)struction, it seems clear
 to me that we need to find a way to speak a common
 language, though our lexicons may vary. how can we
 speak a similar language, and come to understandings
 beyond the paradoxes of 'for and against', verses
 versus 'other' verses.

 [never thought of it in this sense, but the same
 idea could happen if the following project was made
 public, and automated and autonmous, it indexes words
 and cross-references their meanings and authors...
 http://www.architexturez.com/glossslalia
 a glossalalia could structurally make nettime keywords
 into structural relationships. or paradoxical or
 contradictory or all of the above. there are 1,000
 words i can estimate that recur frequently enough.
 what if their structural connections could be brought
 out of the private languages and specific definitions
 into meta-words, or words with generic definitions,
 that can then refer to more specific words. every has
 created their own internet-langauge, it seems. just an
 idea though. but a structure/program will be needed to
 break the looping of similarly themed thought, in order
 to build ideas... the nettime-glossalalia/encyclopedia.]

 the conspiracy card can be played, easily, especially
 if it is insulated from the reality of its effect and
 a group exists to fetishize it and make it an oc/cult
 knowledge. nothing wrong with fringes, but when the
 thinking stays static in a fringe-sort-of-way and the
 issues sit here, like a big fish in the nettime pool,
 and the choice is between silence and saying, and in
 either way, the fool wins on both sides, in the multi-
 spectral event that plays out in the public forum.

 i write about these URLs publicly because i need to
 express my concern in both public forums, with no
 privacy, and these logs have me wanting to go private
 in communications such as these, when i think that is
 the exact wrong thing to do. as ideas need to be aired
 and thought out and heard out and - i'm not sure what
 else happens, as nothing happens. and nothing is happening.

 the second choice is the Bad Choice (here is my moral
 lessons from gradeschool). that is to continue with
 something that is wrong, when one knows it is wrong.
 how can language, or theory, or corporations, or basic
 citizens all interrelate and get beyond some of these
 barriers... is it only through totalitarian guidance,
 and issues of control and surveillance (not that they
 have ever been far off-stage). the public-private state,
 encompassing the local community to continents and all
 nations of the Earth, has become one state, complex
 and fiercely diverse, and yet with long-standing dreams.

 the questions seem to be, at least for me, are you a
 human being, that is a public citizen, or a private
 individual, a man or woman, firstly? the story of
 the past so far has been mostly the story of mankind
 told as his story. with feminism and civil rights
 we now have his|her-story and many wo|man-kinds,
 and lots of fe|males with different perspectives
 on this whole. 

 if corporations are people, and presidents and
 administrations are people, are they public or
 primary private people, when making their `public'
 or 'human' decision making..?

 as humans we are one group, as wo|men we are many.
 we are both, yet sometimes one predominates, and its
 dynamic tendencies can pre-determine future outcomes.
 
 what are the chances that Halliburton Oil and Enron
 Energy, working with President George Bush's new
 energy secretary (and the 'high cabinet officials'
 such as VP Dick Cheney), will do with their newly
 realized power. they will continue to do the same,
 build the same old centrally controlled, economies
 of scale, nuclear-even, powerplants, gold-mining
 the countries resources, while undermining whatever
 Democracy is surviving the Millennial purge.

 my computer smokes, Power to Burn, as Apple computer
 soon will be saying to millions of Californian's during
 a summertime power crisis that will be resolved by the
 former executives of oil and gas companies that will
 push the forward back into the industrial past in order
 to keep things put, while the world prepares for III.

 Halliburton, as a company, is acting in its best interests,
 which are said to be those of the Country it so dearly
 regards and symbolizes its virtues. Yet, could these same
 powers use their inheritance to 'taketh away' democracy
 by acting as primary 'private citizens' when given the
 trust of the United States energy planning? how objective
 can Enron be about alternative energy. it is not a 3-5%
 market. it is a 80+% marketplace. instead it is folly.
 more centeralized pipelines. more coal mines. more
 wilderness gone. much more pollution, though compassionate.
 and lots of power plants, big ones, with "HIT ME" signs
 plastered all over their centralized facilities, given
 any strategic missiles that happen to see to take out
 whole states of the US by lobbing several dozen nuclear
 warheads onto these plants. big plants go down, so goes
 the internet. little plants, resilience. resistance.
 self-sufficiency, somewhat. it can still be public-
 private. nothing inherently wrong with that, as some
 seem to have said before. what is wrong is the undemocratic
 control of these issues by those in power, and weighting
 whatever science, whatever statistics, to beyond the
 lowest common denominator. a hugely complex task such as
 redesigning the energy grid could have a simple result:
 destroying democracy by making it impossible to survive
 in the extensions of the same limiting system.

 if Halliburton and Enron are listening, or someone, whom-
 ever, is sending them mails, i would like to take this
 chance to try to convey a personal feeling i've had...
 
 when companies, in America, become the enemy, the basic
 foundations of Americanism are dissolved. the entrepreneur
 is no longer free to invent, the private is no longer in
 a world extinct of all but self-interest and pursuit, but
 carries us all along with it. The companies that bring us
 far are often unnoticed, as they are of the past. they
 connect worlds, from the industrial to the technological.
 these worlds, realities, need to be merged, and optimized.
 the purge needs to happen on the level of expertise, to open
 up channels of communications, to truly enact freedoms of
 speech through debating the issues as they really do exist,
 not in private clean-room versions of what is.

 but power corrupts perception, power corrupts reason, so
 that it is much easier for one to believe their own lies.
 this happens mainly when people no longer fear, themselves.
 they have no doubts, they have a firewall around their
 philosophies. like a medieval moat. drawbridge is up, and
 king and queen are inside within their castle with their
 subjects, the corporation, the university, the clergy,
 the football team, the music scene, whatnot.

 the world is so much bigger in both ideas and potential
 than what is being aired today online. it is a power to
 be able to say, see, and think. and yet to feel some sense
 of threat by the hypersensitivity of connections makes this
 one wonder if it is possible to declare that the 2-sided
 sword has a good and bad side, on both sides. and to work
 forward from there. not in a traditional moderate-way. but
 through the facilitation of change. changing ways. changing
 ways changes paradigms by changing paradoxes, and breaking
 myths by breaking new ground.

 the corporations, engines of the centuries, will always
 be around in some form, but probably with a different name.
 they are an organization. a belief. a concept. is this concept
 and its goals and ideals always in opposition with the public
 interest, when it faces dire challenges with such uncreative
 and traditional approaches to solutions to all but signal the
 death knell for America and the state of the world? Enron and
 Halliburton are isolated in a mono-cult-ure of thinking and
 doing. they're experts at certain ways of doing things. but
 we need our new solutions to be based on totally different
 ways of doing things. will insider connections forge the
 new America, and leave it to die for its suicidal exploitation
 of its natural, artificial, and virtual resources in order
 to profit in the short term, and end the dreams with centuries
 more burdens, when democracy may all but be gone, because of
 poor planning, poor design, and poor consulting by the Department
 of Defense and the 20th century Industrials as to 'what America
 needs'. at some point it will be decided you are the enemy,
 of democracy, of people. issues such as war, pollution,
 energy inefficiency are all tied with energy issues. what
 if your companies took a stand and moved into a wholly different
 paradigm of thinking- and maybe this is where discourse really
 does work best- and converse with the other side about the
 future of America. i've heard of newpaper polls saying majorities
 want localized small alternative power plants. (recently in Mpls,MN).

 it is time for industries to take up the challenge. to state a
 shared goal. to stop ideological politics. and to retool or
 reengineer, and also redesign and reconceptual the question,
 what is at state in its answer, and what would be good for a
 democracy. there must be some way, between revolution and
 evolution, between death and life, to make something happen.
 especially given that there's 5 billion humans on the planet.
 clean air is not going to hurt anyone. good design will not
 hurt anyone. cultural investment will not hurt anyone. it is
 what cultures are made of, not business, but shared beliefs
 and ideas. not gods, but understandings. there will be a big
 story some day hence, either a success or failture, and it will
 showcase your companies are large players at this most unusual
 time in the human story. the judge will be the people and whether
 or not your companies worked for the people or against the people.
 it is not that simple, but War is. and War is what we are heading
 for. unless we change. by changing, we might be able to have a
 chance to influence the larger realm to change also.

 opening dialog. opening control. less secrecy. more transparency.
 you exploit in nettime, but you hide your own. for example, attached
 below is an article about a former Halliburton Employee. Now Vice
 President, breaking the law in the 2000 in the Oil Business in Iran.
 that's open communications- how is that going to play out- deniability?
 purging? and of whom? people whom believe in democratic society, or the
 totalitarian culture inherent in privatized and economically capitalized
 democracy?  as this is an open letter, of sort, i'd appreciate any
 feedback you could give, or a representive whom might start a discussion
 on issues of energy and power and representation in society and the need
 to have public missions that are publicly defined, and not privately
 crafted, and privately agreed upon in backgrooms. we control the texts
 now. the word is out, it is free. your surveillance is the friction,
 and it could be put to use by making it help things rather than hurt.

 article attached. silence kills. so does dignity and honor.

-human


----------
From: today@american-politics.com
Subject: American Politics Journal -- Feb. 26, 2001 --

The Latest Golden Lawbreaker: Dick Cheney

Date: Mon, Feb 26, 2001, 7:16 AM


GWB's Latest Golden Lawbreaker: Dick Cheney!
When Will Burton Hold Hearings on THIS?
by Tamara Baker

Feb. 26, 2001 -- SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA -- When I first started my "Golden
Lawbreaker" series, even I didn't realize where it would lead.

As you know, the "Golden Lawbreakers" are those friends and donors of GW
Bush
who, if President Clinton's regulations had not been undone by Usurper Boy
and his Prince Regent Cheney, would be barred from receiving Federal
Government contracts because of their habitual lawbreaking.  As expected,
the
pro-Bush US Chamber of Commerce raised a stink (now, what was this about
conservatives and businessmen respecting "the rule of law"?), thus giving
Shrub's minders the cover they needed to zap the regulations within hours of
their gaining control of the Oval Office.

It turns out that a company very near and dear to Dick Cheney's heart is one
of these Golden Lawbreakers.

Yes, folks -- I'm speaking of Halliburton.

Here's the scoop:

We all know that one of the two counts Rudy Giuliani filed against Marc
Rich,
way back when, concerned Rich's buying oil from Iran.

However, it also seems that Halliburton has been caught violating President
Clinton's 1995 executive order forbidding US companies/individuals from
doing
business with Iran:
(http://www.smartmoney.com/news/ON/index.cfm?story=ON-20010201-000010-0036)

- - - - -
Halliburton Co., the U.S. oil-services giant until recently headed by Vice
President Richard Cheney, has opened an office in Tehran and operated in
Iran in possible violation of U.S. sanctions, Thursday's Wall Street Journal
reported.

Since 1995, U.S. laws have banned most American commerce with Iran.
Halliburton Products and Services Ltd. works behind an unmarked door on
the ninth floor of a new north Tehran tower block. A brochure declares that
the company was registered in 1975 in the Cayman Islands, is based in the
Persian Gulf sheikdom of Dubai and is "non-American." But, like the sign
over the receptionist's head, the brochure bears the Dallas company's
name and red emblem, and offers services from Halliburton units around the
world.
- - - - -

Ooops!

You know, I think that the 5th Federal Judiciary Circuit's Northern Texas
District (http://www.txnd.uscourts.gov/Right.asp) might find this rather
interesting, don't you?  Perhaps someone should bring this to their
attention.

Ah, but it gets even better:

- - - - -
.. a U.S. official said a Halliburton (HAL) office in Tehran would violate
at least the spirit of American law. The Treasury Department's Office of
Foreign Assets Control declined to comment on a specific company, referring
inquiries to a Web site summary of Iran sanctions that bans almost all
U.S. trade and investment with Iran, specifically in oil services. The Web
site adds: "No U.S. person may approve or facilitate the entry into or
performance of transactions or contracts with Iran by a foreign subsidiary
of a U.S. firm that the U.S. person is precluded from performing directly.
Similarly, no U.S. person may facilitate such transactions by unaffiliated
foreign persons."
- - - - -

Got that?  The law was written so that certain attempts to foil it, such as
the transparent attempts by companies like Halliburton to create fake
foreign
"shell" (or "Potemkin") companies for that very purpose, would be thwarted.

Even out of the Oval Office, our last elected President is still going to
give Cheney and Bush fits:

- - - - -
An executive order signed by President Clinton in March 1995 prohibits "new
investments [in Iran] by U.S. persons, including commitment of funds or
other assets." It also bars U.S. companies from performing services
"that would benefit the Iranian oil industry." Violation of the order can
result in fines of as much as $500,000 for companies and up to 10 years in
jail for individuals.
- - - - -

And guess what:

- - - - -
The Halliburton brochure in Tehran says the company has performed
oil-drilling services on two offshore drilling contracts in the Iranian
sector of the Persian Gulf. One is the Sirri field, being developed by
France's TotalFinaElf SA, and the other is Phase 1 of the South Pars
field, being developed by an Iranian company.
- - - - -

The Halliburton brochure continues: "We are committed to position
ourselves in a market that offers huge growth potential."

Obviously.

So, we know that Halliburton has already given its drilling services to two
Iranian projects: the Sirri Field and Phase 1 of the South Pars field.

I Googled for Sirri Field and here's part of what I found:

http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:www.totalfinaelf.com/us/html/bi/cp/2000
/0003293.
htm+Sirri+field,+TotalFinaElf+SA+.+&hl=en

- - - - -
In the Middle East, the Sirri E field (TotalFinaElf 60%) in Iran started
production in February 1999 and rose to a level of 90 mb/d by year end.
- - - - -

Hmmm. Now remember, Cheney didn't leave Halliburton until July of 2000.
Sounds like he may have been around when both the Sirri and South Pars
fields
were drilled by the company he led, and he certainly was around when the
drilling deals were negotiated.

I next did a Google on "South Pars Phase 1 Halliburton". At the very end of
the Google cached version of the July 2000 Menas oil newsletter
(http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:www.alberta-canada.com/export/pdf/Iran
_Energy_J
uly12000.pdf+Phase+1+of+the+South+Pars+field+Halliburton&hl=en),
we find this:

- - - - -
5.0 Facts and Figures

5.1. Quotes


*  The former US Defence Secretary Dick Cheney, who is currently Chief
Executive of Halliburton, labelled present Iran-US relation as a "tragedy"
and said that it is time to set the past crises aside. Speaking at the World
Petroleum Congress in Calgary,
Cheney said: "I hope we can find ways to improve mutual ties.  I think one
of
those ways is to allow American firms to do the same works as other firms
from other parts of the world are able to do now."  He further added: "We
are
kept out of there primarily by our own government," noting that the US
policy
aims to prevent its companies from making large investments in Iran and that
this policy is a "mistake."  "While American companies have to sit on the
sidelines, oil companies from the rest of the world have invested in Iran's
energy sector, sometimes without operating the same high standards."  He
also
remarked that unilateral economic sanctions were not effective in achieving
political and even human rights goals.
- - - - -

Now, again, remember, here's the story as I understand it:

Marc Rich is allegedly Satan Incarnate because he bought some oil from Iran
over twenty years ago.

But Dick Cheney presided over his company's, Halliburton's, setting up a
fake
shell company so it could drill oil wells in Iranian waters, in direct
violation of US law -- and THAT is somehow just peachy-keen?

Please, do me and yourselves a favor, and fax this to your Democratic
legislators, as well as the 5th Circuit.  Forward this by e-mail to your
local and national media contacts.  We have to do something about this.

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