Date:         Thu, 9 Sep 1999 00:16:44 EDT
Reply-To:     Ssittservl@AOL.COM
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         S Sittservl <Ssittservl@AOL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Mobil Oil and Indonesian massacres?
Comments: To: harald_nancy@earthlink.net
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

>  From:    harald_nancy@EARTHLINK.NET (harald_nancy)
>
>  Hi all,
>  I need to know a good substitute for 15/50 Mobil synthetic
>  motor oil for my wasserboxer.
>
>  After having read the news report about Mobil's possible
>  involvement in mass killings and disappearances near
>  Mobil's drilling sites in northern Sumatra, I definitely won't
>  buy another quart of Mobil oil for a long time,
>  and just the name makes me feel sick.
>
>  Some excerpts from "The Final Call, on-line edition"
>  titled "Mobil Oil implicated in Indonesian Army massacres",
>  discussing the "Business Week" article titled "What did Mobil Know?"
>  http://www.finalcall.com/international/indonesia1-12-99.html

Before anyone starts boycotting Mobil, I think it's worth noting
the following:

  - "The Final Call" is published by Louis Farrakhan and the Nation
    of Islam.  I certainly do not wish to provoke any debate in this mailing
    list regarding Mr. Farrakhan, so I will confine myself to the facts
    that:
        (1) Mr. Farrakhan and his views are extremely controversial, and
        (2) Since "The Final Call" bills itself as "The official
communications
            organ of the Nation of Islam", it reports from a rather
distinctive
            point of view.

  - Based on what it says in the "Final Call" article:
        (1) Mobil is facing "allegations"; that is, it apparently has not
            at this time been found guilty of any complicity or wrongdoing
            in the horrifying Indonesian masacres.  If I boycotted every
            company that had "allegations" of wrongdoing against it, I'd
            have to stop shopping altogether.
        (2) The massacres occured near (not on) a drilling site in
            which Mobil owns a minority share; the majority, controlling
            share is owned by the Indonesian government, which is
            accused of the massacres.
        (3) The only evidence supplied of complicity or wrongdoing
            by Mobil is the statement of one Mobil employee that
            "rumors ... and unconfirmed reports" had been discussed
            at work.
        (4) There are allegations that Mobil-owned equipment
            bulldozers, etc.) was used in the massacres, but no
            clear allegations that Mobil knew about it or authorized it.
        (5) Mobil provided food and supplies to soldiers who guarded
            the drilling site.

Now, Mobil may be guilty as can be, or it may be innocent as
a baby, but based on the rather weakly supported accusations
in this article, and a personal bias toward "innocent until proven
guilty", I think I'll wait for more substantial evidence before
draining the Mobil One out of the ol' crankcase.

                                                -Steven Sittser