The Irish Times – Monday, August 20, 2012
FRANK McDONALD, Environment Editor
THE GOVERNMENT would “become the shoeshine boy of the [shale gas] industry” if it allowed fracking to take place anywhere in Ireland, according to the Nigerian human rights activist who heads Friends of the Earth International.
Nnimmo Bassey said Ministers “should not be allowed to sacrifice the environment on the altar of corporate greed” – as they had done for decades in his own country, where “the entire nation was Shell’s concession”.
Over the weekend, Mr Bassey addressed public meetings in Manorhamilton, Co Leitrim, where he spoke of the dangers of fracking in the Lough Allen Basin, and Glenamoy, Co Mayo, where Shell’s Corrib Gas project has long been the focus of bitter opposition.
“This struggle over the gas pipeline has been going on for a decade and the harassment of local activists is globally known,” he told The Irish Times. “I’m focusing on what communities are struggling on and standing with people confronting impunity.”
Mr Bassey blamed an “unwillingness to have dialogue with local communities” for causing most of the conflicts.
There were plans to carry out fracking – the hydraulic fracturing of rock to extract shale gas – in the Karoo, an arid area of South Africa’s eastern Cape, where the wells would be up to 5km deep, and there was “no indication where the water would come from”, he said.
“The most dangerous thing about fracking is that the drill holes have to go through the water table, and there’s a huge cocktail of chemicals used in the process. Thus, there were two levels of contamination – from fracking itself and then the handling of the waste water.”
He believed fracking “should not be allowed anywhere” and that it would “lock us into further dependence on fossil fuels for the foreseeable future, which is exactly what the industry wants”.
It was necessary to press the Government “not to give licences, because the damage we’re going to face may not be reversible”.
He believed oil companies “thrive in dictatorships, which Nigeria was for 30 years, where they can do things without people asking too many questions. If people here have doubts about trusting Shell, they should look at its record in other places, especially Nigeria.”
Mr Bassey will speak at a public meeting in Dublin’s Liberty Hall at 7pm tonight. He will be joined by Pat “the Chief” O’Donnell from Shell to Sea and Leah Doherty from No Fracking Ireland.
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
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.
