Greg Palast - Vultures Picnic: In Pursuit of Petroleum Pigs, Power Pirates, and High-Finance Carnivores

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Table of Contents

In Pursuit of Petroleum Pigs, Power Pirates, and High-Finance Carnivores

ALSO BY GREG PALAST

The Best Democracy Money Can Buy

Armed Madhouse

DUTTON
Published by Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada
(a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.); Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL,
England; Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephens Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd);
Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of
Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd); Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park,
New Delhi110 017, India; Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auck land 0632, New Zealand
(a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd); Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue,
Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

Published by Dutton, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

First printing, November 2011

Copyright 2011 by Greg Palast

Art care of Matt Pascarella
Photos on pages 232, 242, 247 by James Macalpine
All rights reserved

REGISTERED TRADEMARKMARCA REGISTRADA

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Palast, Greg.

Vultures picnic : in pursuit of petroleum pigs, power pirates, and high-finance carnivores / by Greg Palast.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN : 978-1-101-55862-1

1. Petroleum industry and tradeCorrupt practices. 2. BP (Firm)Moral and ethical aspects.

3. Banks and banking, InternationalMoral and ethical aspects. 4. International financeMoral and ethical aspects. I. Title

HD9560.5.P236 2011

338.76655dc23 2011032687

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication maybe reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the authors rights is appreciated.

While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers and Internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors, or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.

http://us.penguingroup.com

A cross between SEYMOUR HERSH and JACK KEROUAC.

BuzzFlash.com

THE REAL SAM SPADE.

JIM HIGHTOWER, THE NATION

Book of the Year : Greg Palasts Armed Madhouse , incendiary... virtuosic... had me cheering on my feet.

New Statesman

GREAT FUN. PALAST, DETECTIVE STYLE,
PROVIDES... PIECES OF THE SECRET PUZZLE.

THE NEW YORKER

The last true investigative reporter in America....
The story is like a spy thriller.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

WE HATE THAT SONOVABITCH.

White House spokesman

Based on the reports for BBC Television Newsnight, for Channel 4 Dispatches , for ARTE, and for Democracy Now!

Portions of this story have appeared in SuicideGirls.com, Hustler , Harpers Magazine , BuzzFlash.com, New Statesman , Rolling Stone , Dazed and Confused , Radar , Truthout.com, The Raw Story, AlterNet, The Guardian , The Shadow , Red Pepper, In These Times , Top Shelf Comix, The Observer (London), and one story, forgive me, in The New York Times.

Theres always an excuse to be a prick.

C. Bukowski

Theres a man by my side walkin.
Theres a voice within me talkin.
There are words that need a-sayin.

For Frank Rosen
United Electrical and Machine Workers Union
Carry it on.

Pete Seeger, with his permission

Everything that happens here, happened.

CHAPTER 1

Goldfinger

ROLLING HILLS, OUTSI DE NEW YORK CITY

I ts all my fault, because Im such a cheap bastard. I was told to rent a white van, something nondescript that painters or a handyman might use and wouldnt be noticed parked at dawn on a road where only BMWs and Car-rera 95s play.

But I was afraid BBC wouldnt pay for the van rental (I was right about that) and so here I was in the Red Menace, my fourteen-year-old busted-up Honda with the brakes idiot light on.

Anyway, I wont move. I can wait you out.

Well, maybe I can. Its freezing insane cold and the Dunkin Donuts coffee is cold, and I have to urinate out the last three cups I killed waiting on The Vulture to drive through his estates electronic gate to his work so I can somehow tail him unseen in my ridiculous red car.

And now God is snowing on me. Thick, nasty, wet, heavy predawn snow, so everything turns white except my red beater. I might as well stick a flashing sign on the hood: I AM ON A STAKEOUT. I AM LOOKING FOR YOU.

We started at four A.M. It looks really glamorous on-screen when we broadcast these stories: the dramatic long-lens footage, then the jump and the confrontation. But after four horridly cold hours, there is nothing glamorous, just my bladder screaming at me.

Badpenny calls from our Toyota, staked out in front of Vultures office building. Same issueshe and Jacquie have to pee. So now they could blow the whole story because God forbid they should just squat behind a tree and make some yellow snow. The women insist on porcelain and have to leave their post. All right, damn it, find a gas station but dont let them see you .

Ricardo is cuddling his camera. His baby. Ricardo is calm. Ricardo is always calm. Hes just back from Iraq, where calm kept him alive. Ricardo is never hungry; Ricardo is never cold and never needs to urinate. Whatever drug hes on, I want it.

I tell Ricardo, We stay. Why? If God doesnt give a rats ass about The Vulture and what he does for a living, what hes done to Africa, why should I? Well, fuck God.

If I were a psychologist, Id say Im here because my father worked in a furniture store in the barrio in Los Angeles, selling pure crap on layaway to Mexicans; then later on, he sold fancier crap to fancier people in Beverly Hills and he hated furniture, and I hated the undeserving pricks and their trophy wives who bought it. I could smell their cash and the smell of the corpses they stole it from. They were all vultures, and the rest of us were just food.

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