Oil firms' taxes spur arguments
As Bay Area refinery owners fight for reduction of assessments, some want levy on windfall profits
By Rick Jurgens
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
Governments vigorously tax oil companies for the same reason legendary criminal Willie Sutton robbed banks: “Because that's where the money is.”
Take the owners of the five East Bay refineries. As a group, Chevron, Shell, ConocoPhillips, Valero and Tesoro posted 2005 profits of more than $58 billion, as soaring fuel prices boosted their total sales to $859 billion.
A portion of that money went to finance the operations of governments. The five companies paid $41 billion in income taxes in the United States and other nations during 2005, according to company financial filings.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
