Dirty Oil Deals and The Italian Connection

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/mar/05/the-oil-deal-the-disgraced-minister-and-800m-paid-via-a-uk-bank

This is a link to a remarkable if incomplete story regarding oil corruption and money laundering. What is of particular import is that it points to the overlap between the corporate and finance sectors and strategic interests.  

Getting a hold of the Nigerian oil field was less about a Western need and more about excluding China and Russia from gaining access to it.

And so once again we're granted a quick peek into the nature of the great game. This time it's not a reference to intrigue and machinations over Eurasia, Africa or some other lands falling prey to colonial or neo-colonial aspirations.

Instead this is the great game taking place within Liberal Democracy. The powers that be cannot trust their power and thus security to the whims of the disheveled uneducated masses, democratic impulse and the rule of law. They skirt the law in order to achieve their strategic goals. And let's be honest, money and power play no small part.

And so we're constantly left with these scenarios in which Western law enforcement and investigative officials are chasing and hunting down people associated with their own intelligence agencies, or that of their allies. This is further confused by the overlap and collusion between these agencies and the business and finance sector. We might also add government bureaucracies have also been compromised. There are many working within government that are there to push the agenda of the Deep State which in some cases can be obstructing the judiciary and law enforcement.

It's pure schizophrenia, a madness wherein people flip and turn, betray and backstab. People go to jail and people die. And others ride off into the sunset with suitcases full of laundered cash.

Italy has so often been the hub of these activities. This captivating land of beauty and secrets is the home to the Italian Mafia with its connections to the Americas and the Vatican with its worldwide intelligence network that operates alongside a substantial financial and spiritual empire. Italy is also connected to shipping, South American business, it possesses a large American expatriate community and since the end of World War II its government has been largely funded and controlled by the US Deep State.

Filling a role similar to Panama in the Americas, Italy has often functioned as the place where all the dark deeds can be hidden. Consequently it is no great surprise that it is Italian investigators who continue to uncover the machinations of the Western Establishment and the many roads which tend to lead back to Langley. They often detour through Naples, Sicily, the Vatican, Wall Street, London, Buenos Aires and other locales but I don't doubt that not a few of these investigators sense they're at war with Washington.

Not a few of them turn up dead.