Is anyone interested in the  topic of Mega-Mergers and the fact that in 1998
EXXON merged with MOBIL, the 4th largest merger for that year ( and now the
largest oil company in the world) according to the book in front of me
called:
 "CENSORED 1999" News That Didn't Make The News
By: Peter Phillips & Project Censored

----- Original Message -----
From: S Sittservl <Ssittservl@AOL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 1999 9:16 PM
Subject: Re: Mobil Oil and Indonesian massacres?

| >  From:    harald_nancy@EARTHLINK.NET (harald_nancy)
| >
| >  Hi all,
| >  I need to know a good substitute for 15/50 Mobil synthetic
| >  motor oil for my wasserboxer.
| >
| >  After having read the news report about Mobil's possible
| >  involvement in mass killings and disappearances near
| >  Mobil's drilling sites in northern Sumatra, I definitely won't
| >  buy another quart of Mobil oil for a long time,
| >  and just the name makes me feel sick.
| >
| >  Some excerpts from "The Final Call, on-line edition"
| >  titled "Mobil Oil implicated in Indonesian Army massacres",
| >  discussing the "Business Week" article titled "What did Mobil Know?"
| >  http://www.finalcall.com/international/indonesia1-12-99.html
|
| Before anyone starts boycotting Mobil, I think it's worth noting
| the following:
|
|   - "The Final Call" is published by Louis Farrakhan and the Nation
|     of Islam.  I certainly do not wish to provoke any debate in this
mailing
|     list regarding Mr. Farrakhan, so I will confine myself to the facts
|     that:
|         (1) Mr. Farrakhan and his views are extremely controversial, and
|         (2) Since "The Final Call" bills itself as "The official
| communications
|             organ of the Nation of Islam", it reports from a rather
| distinctive
|             point of view.
|
|   - Based on what it says in the "Final Call" article:
|         (1) Mobil is facing "allegations"; that is, it apparently has not
|             at this time been found guilty of any complicity or wrongdoing
|             in the horrifying Indonesian masacres.  If I boycotted every
|             company that had "allegations" of wrongdoing against it, I'd
|             have to stop shopping altogether.
|         (2) The massacres occured near (not on) a drilling site in
|             which Mobil owns a minority share; the majority, controlling
|             share is owned by the Indonesian government, which is
|             accused of the massacres.
|         (3) The only evidence supplied of complicity or wrongdoing
|             by Mobil is the statement of one Mobil employee that
|             "rumors ... and unconfirmed reports" had been discussed
|             at work.
|         (4) There are allegations that Mobil-owned equipment
|             bulldozers, etc.) was used in the massacres, but no
|             clear allegations that Mobil knew about it or authorized it.
|         (5) Mobil provided food and supplies to soldiers who guarded
|             the drilling site.
|
| Now, Mobil may be guilty as can be, or it may be innocent as
| a baby, but based on the rather weakly supported accusations
| in this article, and a personal bias toward "innocent until proven
| guilty", I think I'll wait for more substantial evidence before
| draining the Mobil One out of the ol' crankcase.
|
|                                                 -Steven Sittser
|