A quick glance at Harper's Ken Silverstein columns this week brings news that the world press has ignored the arrest and detention of Dr. Sarah Wykes, an investigator for Global Witness. See www.globalwitness.org. She was arrested on February 17, 2007 and has been unable to leave Angola since that date. Virtually no coverage has been given to this story, not in the U.S. and not in the world media.
Dr. Wykes, according to Global Witness'fact sheet, is a Senior campaigner for them working on investigating corruption and mismanagement in the oil industry. She has worked for several non-governmental organizations including Amnesty International and Oxfam. Mr. Silverstein's column on Friday, March 2, mentions her arrest and detention, noting that the Angolan government, under Jose Eduardo dos Santos, has largely facilitated the wholesale theft of the country's oil revenues leaving Angoloan's out of the oil production and income management process.
Who is Angola's good friend, none other than that democracy driven, moral kingpen, our president, George Bush. Angola being that bastian of civil rights, free and open elections, and obviously supporting freedom of the press.
Nope, GW is protecting his friends, both that great democrat dos Santos and, you guessed it, the American Oil industry which is heavily involved in Angola's oil production.
According to Mr. Silverstein, Dr. Wykes was investigating the Angolan government and the local oil industry's conduct relative to their lack of accurately accounting for Angola's oil revenues. See was initially just detained, then arrested and jailed on espionage charges. She was bailed out of prison on February 21, 2007 but ordered to remain in Cabinda, Angola until February 28, 2007. She was allowed to leave Cabinda but not Angola where she has remained without her passport or her possessions. Cabinda is the oil haven for oil production in Angola. She has been denied access to an attorney of her choosing, instead, an Angolan government lawyer has been appointed to represent her.
SourceWatch, www.sourcewatch.com, reports that by 2015 the U.S. will import more oil from Angola than from Kuwait. The U.S. is setting its oil import strategy to import largely from Africa and decrease it's dependency on Arab oil production.
Back to Dr. Wykes. Her capture and detention have not been reported in the world media. We are left with many questions, as discussed by Ken Silverstein. If she were detained in Cuba or Venezuala, would her detention be silent? Or, would our feckless President rush to the press and demand her release? Apparently our friends, a/k/a oil rich despots outside the reach of the foreign press, can do what they darn well want.
Several Senators have voiced their opposition to her capture: Senators Biden, Leahy, Levin, Durbin, Dodd, Obama and Feingold have all participated in sending letters for her release.
We need to get this story out!!!!!!!!!!!