Rex Tillerson is a lot of things however, he is not a politician. Trump’s nomination for Secretary of State said at first, that he didn’t want the job. He conducts his appointed position in secrecy. He was the first Secretary of State to make a foreign trip without any reporters. Tillerson spends more time dodging reporters than meeting State department employees.
“What I’m told is that there’s this long tradition that the Secretary spends time on the plane with the press. I don’t know that I’ll do a lot of that. I’m just not … that’s not the way I tend to work,” Tillerson said. BusinessInsider article
Even more alarming, has been Tillerson’s decision to keep hundreds of State Department positions vacant. Considering that Senate confirmation process in filling these positions takes months, the State Department will remain empty for a year. NYTimes artice
Remember all of that business about “draining the swamps”? Without a doubt, the Trump administration has been more secret and less transparent than any other administration in history. Transparency is the most important characteristic of a democracy. Democracy needs clarity. Democracy falters when there is no access.
Essentially, Tillerson can do whatever he wants, and no one will know. Tillerson strives to keep his activity shrouded in secrecy.
Why do you think a former ExxonMobil CEO would not want the public seeing what they are doing as Secretary of State?
And the few emails and letters and photographs that belong to Tillerson, he has destroyed. Previous New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman requested Rex Tillerson’s emails for his investigation. While Tillerson was the CEO of Exxon, he misled shareholders about the risks Exxon posed to climate change. However, Exxon attorneys explained to a judge that a year of Secretary of State’s emails had vanished. NewRepublic
Lunch time yesterday, I watched Rex Tillerson at a news briefing with Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir. Tillerson said President Hassan Rouhani now has the opportunity to end Iran’s role in supporting “destabilizing forces that exist in this region.” Stop supporting terrorists. It all makes for some great headlines. DailyMail article
It had been weeks since I saw our Secretary of State. Ironically, the news briefing took place in Saudi Arabia, that has the second largest reserve of oil in the world, Oil and Finance. Make a note of this, but the only times you do see Tillerson, is in an oil-rich country.
Take Venezuela, for example. The US wants nothing more than to stifle the legacy of late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. After all, Venezuela’s socialist government enraged America. Venezuela has their own energy and hence, has not been as easy to colonize than other South American countries. In addition, Venezuela’s allies are Russia, China and Iran, American’s dark triad.
Venezuela has erupted into chaos. The government has collapsed. Many political analysts suggest this anarchy is orchestrated by Rex Tillerson.
Tillerson represents perhaps the perfect embodiment of U.S. government attitudes toward Venezuela. A slick oil man through and through, Tillerson has long sought to destabilize Venezuela in an attempt to reassert ExxonMobil’s supremacy in the country….
…None have been more potent than Venezuela’s border dispute with Guyana. At the heart of this border dispute is energy and the billions of dollars in profits likely to be extracted from the offshore territory. According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), “The Guyana Suriname Basin [is] 2nd in the world for prospectivity among the world’s unexplored basins and 12th for oil among all the world’s basins — explored and unexplored.” The basin, which stretches from eastern Venezuela to the shores of northern Brazil, is one of the major prizes in the world for energy corporations and governments alike.
Indeed, the USGS estimates that roughly 15 billion barrels of undiscovered oil and 42 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves lie under the basin, just waiting to be extracted. Such staggering economic potential has made the territorial waters off Venezuela and Guyana highly sought after, especially since contesting border claims make legal obstacles to exploration far more surmountable, as they allow companies to deal with a compliant government in Georgetown, rather than an independent one in Caracas.
So it should come as no surprise that Tillerson and ExxonMobil have been backing the Guyanese government. Venezuelan officials say their support has included providing financial support to Guyanese President David Granger’s election campaign in 2015. Of course, ExxonMobil has denied these claims. MintPressNews article
Whoever owns the oil owns the power. For example, when Russia loaned Venezuela $1.5 billion, there was a stipulation in the loan agreement. Russia would loan Venezuela the money only if PDVSA, the Venezuelan state oil company, pledge 49.9 percent stake in US based CITGO.
Since Russia is loaning Venezuela this money, suddenly Rosneft, Russia’s state run oil company, has leverage against the US. MintPressNews article
No one has a better relationship with Russia than Rex Tillerson. Putin is confidant that Rex will lift the crippling Russian sanctions. Why wouldn’t he? Him and Putin go way back. Recently it was revealed that Rex was a long-time director of US-Russian oil firm based conveniently in the Bahama tax haven. TheGuardian article
Such ownership breaks no laws, but it was never reported. The ownership only came to light, because it was revealed in leaked documents by an anonymous source. Also, using offshore accounts sort of conflicts with Trump’s “America first” motto.
“America first” is only a pitch, that uneducated Trumpkins bought. Oil is first.
