Militants say they’ve attacked Nigerian oil rig, kidnapped one foreign worker
LAGOS, Nigeria The most powerful militant group in Nigeria said it launched a rare attack early Thursday against an offshore oil rig but failed to cripple the installation far from shore.
A leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta told The Associated Press that several open-hulled boats filled with militant fighters traveled through heavy seas to the Bonga oil field and launched an attack against a rig there.
But the fighters weren’t able to enter a computer control room, which they had hoped to destroy with the aim of shutting down all production from the oil field more than 100 kilometres from land.
The militant leader spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid punishment by authorities. The account couldn’t be immediately verified.
Officials for Royal Dutch Shell PLC, which is a main operator in that oil field, had no immediate comment.
The militants also said they kidnapped a foreign worker from a supply vessel ferrying crew and supplies in the area, but there was no immediate confirmation. Hostages are normally released unharmed after a ransom is paid.
Attacks against offshore facilities are exceedingly rare.
Oil industry officials consider their operations on the high seas much safer than those in the creeks and swamps of Nigeria’s southern Niger Delta, where most of the attacks during two years of stepped-up violence have taken place.
Militant attacks on oil infrastructure have trimmed about one quarter of total oil production in Nigeria, which is Africa’s biggest producer.
The turmoil in Nigeria’s south has helped send oil prices to historical heights, which give the militants more leverage in their drive to force the federal government to send more oil profits to their areas.
Despite being home to almost all of Nigeria’s petroleum reserves, the country’s south is as desperately poor as the rest of the country, which boasts Africa’s biggest population of 140 million people.
Criminality and militancy are closely linked, with many of the militant groups accused of stealing crude oil from wells and pipelines for sale in overseas markets and helping politicians rig elections.
Copyright © 2008 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved. 
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.
