Donald Trump's Secretary Of State Pick Rex Tillerson Forged Ties With Putin Over Decades

December 14, 2016

Dec 14: When ExxonMobil chief executive Rex Tillerson showed up in June at the annual St. Petersburg international economic forum that is dubbed Russia's Davos, he was asked about the impact international sanctions on Russia were having on his company, which had abandoned ambitious drilling plans there.

Rex

"It's a question for the government - if you find anyone from the U.S. government who's willing to answer this question," he replied to laughter from the audience of Western executives, who had been lavishing praise on their Russian hosts.

It was the first time in three years that Tillerson or most other chief executives had attended the confab, for the moment laying aside friction over Russia's abrupt annexation of Crimea and its backing of violent separatist forces in eastern Ukraine. Back in Washington, the State Department was not amused. State Department spokesman John Kirby commented that "most American companies understand" that taking part in the forum "sends the wrong message about the acceptability of Russia's actions."

Six months later, Tillerson's relationships with autocrats remain a source of friction after his surprise appointment by President-elect Donald Trump to be secretary of state. The ExxonMobil chief's ties to Russia have alarmed hawks in Congress, who vow to scrutinize Tillerson's good working relationship with President Putin and the latter's longtime confidante Igor Sechin, the chairman of the Russian petroleum giant Rosneft.

With his nomination, the 64-year-old Tillerson has been thrust into the long-standing U.S. foreign-policy divide separating those who value pragmatism and dealmaking, and those who attach greater importance to principles, human rights and democracy. This is a divide that cuts across both parties.

Should he be confirmed, Tillerson will no longer answer to the more than 93,000 shareholders of ExxonMobil but primarily to a single shareholder named Trump. And he will draw on views refined in industry, not diplomacy.

To fans of Tillerson, his relationship with Putin is a sign of his pragmatism, seeking advantage for his company with a blunt, straightforward style that has won respect abroad. Speaking to students from the Texas Tech business school last year, Tillerson said the reason "why I've been able to gain Vladimir Putin's trust" is "because throughout my career I've wanted people to view me as an honest person."

To his critics, however, Tillerson and ExxonMobil come across as arrogant and indifferent to Russia's record in Ukraine or Putin's harsh suppression of domestic opposition. The oil giant's vast enterprise spanning six continents and more than 50 nations has embraced a varied cast of national leaders, including the Saudi oil ministers, Equatorial Guinea's corrupt Teodoro Obiang Nguema, the autocratic government of Kazakhstan and the emir of Qatar.

These contrary views are in some ways connected. Edward Verona, who worked for ExxonMobil for two years and spent several more working in Moscow, said one reason Tillerson was respected in Moscow was because of the way the company dealt with Venezuela's then-president, the voluble Hugo Chávez. In 2007, Chávez had wanted to rewrite contract terms for companies operating in the country's vast, oil-rich Orinoco belt. Exxon said no, abandoning 2 percent of its worldwide reserves and winning arbitration court orders to freeze Venezuelan assets.

In the same way, Exxon exited Nigeria's Niger Delta after insurgents disputed operations there.

"You have to be willing to say, 'No, we aren't going to do it that way, we are going to do it this way; if we can't do it this way, we won't be here,' " Tillerson said about the company's strategy of keeping its Nigerian exploration to offshore areas, where it was safer.

"Rex Tillerson gained the respect of Russians, particularly Sechin and Putin, because he was prepared to stand up and push back when he felt his company was being treated unfairly," said Verona, now a senior adviser to McLarty Associates.

The fight coincided with efforts by Russia's Gazprom, a state-owned company, to horn its way into a Sakhalin Island project off eastern Russia that Tillerson had helped negotiate years earlier. ExxonMobil was able to navigate the dispute with help from Putin and Sechin. The project, built in extremely harsh conditions, remains one of the company's most lucrative, Tillerson has said.

Some of Exxon's perceived arrogance is rooted in the company's history as the largest of the corporations split off from the Standard Oil Trust, the enterprise built by John D. Rockefeller.

Tillerson was born in Wichita Falls, Texas, the son of a Boy Scout administrator. He still lists the rank of Eagle Scout on his resume; and has remained active in the organization. In 2012, he was instrumental in pushing the Boy Scouts board to admit openly gay youths.

His experience as a scout fit well into the company, which insisted on rules that were more detailed than most other oil companies.

In 1997, Exxon sent Tillerson, then a promising executive who had been in Yemen, to Moscow to "pick up the relationship and repair it," Tillerson later recalled. His predecessor had been kicked out of the country. Tillerson met six different prime ministers over the course of 14 months.

The last of those was Putin.

Nearly 15 years later in Sochi, Putin provided the blessing for what could become Exxon's largest Russian deal, a joint exploration agreement with Rosneft covering almost 190 million acres, almost halfway across the Arctic shoreline and covering nine time zones.

Speaking later at Texas Tech, Tillerson cited the Boy Scout motto and urged students to have honor and integrity.

"Those words mean a lot to me," Tillerson said. "And I can tell you they mean a lot in any culture." He added that "integrity is recognized by every government, every leader. It's the most valuable asset you have, your personal integrity."

But while Tillerson preaches the value of honesty and integrity, ExxonMobil has not shied away from doing what is good for its bottom line, which has made environmental groups and others suspicious of its aims.

While Tillerson has acknowledged human involvement in the warming of the globe and backed a carbon tax to deal with it, the oil giant has continued to fund groups such as the American Legislative Exchange Council, whose leading members have cast doubt on climate change or its urgency. The relationship contrasted with that of Shell, which also acknowledges climate change but dropped its membership of ALEC last year citing differences over the issue.

The company is also in the midst of a bitter fight with the attorneys general of New York and Massachusetts and with more than a dozen nongovernmental organizations that are looking at whether the oil giant failed to disclose what it knew 40 years ago about the damage fossil fuels were doing to the Earth's climate. The attorneys general issued broad subpoenas for internal Exxon documents, and the NGOs have encouraged them to consider bringing a fraud case similar to the one that extracted billions of dollars from tobacco companies years ago.

ExxonMobil has fought back, going to a Texas federal court near its headquarters and winning the judge's highly unusual backing for discovery on the attorneys general, including with regard to internal emails, to determine whether they were acting "in good faith."

The company also is scrutinizing individuals and organizations. The day after the presidential election, for example, the company hand-delivered a subpoena to Carroll Muffett, the head of the Center for International Environmental Law, a nonprofit organization focused on environmental and human rights issues.

"The subpoena is in fact a fishing expedition that goes far beyond any issue arguably before the Texas court," Muffett said in an email. "It is clear that Exxon is trying to leverage this case, outrageous as it is, to intimidate and silence its critics."

Another important piece of Tillerson's background is his engineering background. ExxonMobil has been widely seen as a place with a higher "EQ," for engineering quotient, than IQ, or intelligence quotient.

Even the EQ has failed from time to time. The Exxon Valdez oil-tanker accident spilled crude off the pristine coast of Alaska in 1989, and more recently company pipelines leaked in Montana's Yellowstone River and in Mayflower, Arkansas. The company has taken tough legal strategies in those instances, too, and it litigated the Valdez spill for 20 years.

Still, Tillerson draws on that engineering construct and has applied it to the problem of climate change.

"It's an engineering problem, and it has engineering solutions," he said at an event sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations in 2012.

As he looked back on his career during the Texas Tech event, Tillerson said that he views the company's oil and gas operation on Sakhalin Island - an area beset by poverty, seismic instability, long icebound winters and 100-foot waves in the summer - as one of his crowning achievements.

It might look easy compared to being secretary of state.

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July 14,2020

Washington, Jul 14: Florida on Sunday reported a record 15,300 new coronavirus cases, the most by any state in a single day even as the coronavirus cases in the country have surged to 3,363,056.

The Washington Post reported that the huge number was result of both increased testing and widespread community transmission. The numbers shattered previous highs of 11,694 reported by California last week and 11,571 reported by New York on April 15.

Natalie E. Dean, an assistant professor of biostatistics at the University of Florida wrote that with Florida largely open for business, he doesn't expect this surge to slow.

Nationally, the conversation over reopening has become increasingly fraught amid the newly soaring case numbers, with much of the debate centering on whether schools should open their doors in the fall, reported the Post.

The Health workers in California and Texas too are facing an influx of COVID-19 patients where officials reported seven day averages for new cases - 8,664 and 9060 respectively.

According to the report, Florida has reported nearly 70,000 cases in last week alone, the most of any state.

Even though the COVID-19 cases are surging, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has stuck to an aggressive reopening plan with state officials recently ordering schools to reopen five days a week in the new academic year.

The state is also set to hold the Republican National Convention next month in Jacksonville's VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena, an indoor facility that seats about 15,000, reported Washington Post.

Seven-day averages for new cases -- considered a more reliable indicator of the virus's impact than single-day totals -- hit new highs in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Puerto Rico.

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News Network
April 27,2020

Seoul/South Korea, Apr 27: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is "alive and well", a top security adviser to the South's President Moon Jae-in said, downplaying rumours over Kim's health following his absence from a key anniversary.
"Our government position is firm," said Moon's special adviser on national security Moon Chung-in, in an interview with CNN on Sunday. "Kim Jong Un is alive and well."

The adviser said that Kim had been staying in Wonsan -- a resort town in the country's east -- since April 13, adding: "No suspicious movements have so far been detected."

Conjecture about Kim's health has grown since his conspicuous absence from the April 15 celebrations for the birthday of his grandfather Kim Il Sung, the North's founder -- the most important day in the country's political calendar.

Kim has not made a public appearance since presiding over a Workers' Party politburo meeting on April 11, and the following day state media reported him inspecting fighter jets at an air defence unit.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was not gravely ill, two South Korean government sources said on Tuesday, following reports he had undergone a cardiovascular procedure and was now in "grave danger."

His absence unleashed a series of unconfirmed media reports over his condition, which officials in Seoul previously poured cold water on.

"We have nothing to confirm and no special movement has been detected inside North Korea as of now," the South's presidential office said in a statement last week.

South Korea's unification minister Kim Yeon-chul reiterated Monday that remained the case, adding the "confident" conclusion was drawn from "a complex process of intelligence gathering and assessment".

'Grave danger'

Daily NK, an online media outlet run mostly by North Korean defectors, has reported Kim was undergoing treatment after a cardiovascular procedure earlier this month.

Citing an unidentified source inside the country, it said Kim, who is in his mid-30s, had needed urgent treatment due to heavy smoking, obesity and fatigue.

Soon afterwards, CNN reported that Washington was "monitoring intelligence" that Kim was in "grave danger" after undergoing surgery, quoting what it said was an anonymous US official.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday rejected reports that Kim was ailing but declined to state when he was last in touch with him.

On Monday, the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper reported that Kim had sent a message of thanks to workers on the giant Wonsan Kalma coastal tourism project.

It was the latest in a series of reports in recent days of statements issued or actions taken in Kim's name, although none has carried any pictures of him.

Satellite images reviewed by 38North, a US-based think tank, showed a train probably belonging to Kim at a station in Wonsan last week.

It cautioned that the train's presence did not "indicate anything about his health" but did "lend weight" to reports he was staying on the country's eastern coast.

Reporting from inside the isolated North is notoriously difficult, especially regarding anything to do with its leadership, which is among its most closely guarded secrets.

Previous absences from the public eye on Kim's part have prompted speculation about his health.

In 2014 he dropped out of sight for nearly six weeks before reappearing with a cane. Days later, the South's spy agency said he had undergone surgery to remove a cyst from his ankle.

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May 25,2020

Islamabad/Dhaka, May 25: The coronavirus pandemic and lockdowns coupled with travel restrictions and social distancing norms have muted the Eid celebrations in Pakistan and Bangladesh as worshippers in the two Muslim-majority countries marked the end of Ramzan in strictly-regulated prayer congregations.

A large number of people in the two countries were forced to stay indoors on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of the fasting month of Ramzan, due to the fears of contracting the novel coronavirus which has killed nearly 3.5 lakh people and infected over 5.4 million across the world.

In Pakistan, the government has issued strict instructions to observe social distancing while offering Eid prayers and asked people to avoid visiting relatives and hosting parties.

As the railways remained closed, many people could not travel to their hometowns for the most important festival.

Eid congregations were held at open places, mosques and Eidgahs in all major cities and towns while following strict standard operating procedures (SOPs) of social distancing and other precautionary measures. But in some areas, the people did not adhere to the SOPs and were seen thronging to their favourite shops to celebrate Eid.

Pakistan Prime Minister's Special Assistant on Health Zafar Mirza on Friday said the deadly infection would continue to multiply if precautions are not taken.

Earlier this month, the government announced the lifting of the countrywide lockdown imposed to curb the spread of the COVID-19 in phases, even as infections continued to rise in the country.

Pakistan's coronavirus cases on Monday reached 56,349 with 1,748 new patients while the death toll climbed to 1,167 after 34 people lost their lives in the last 24 hours.

The trajectory showed that the number was steadily going up with authorities fearing a rise in cases in the wake of the easing of lockdown before Eid.

But Prime Minister Imran Khan cited the economic havoc the virus restrictions had wreaked on citizens as the reason behind the decision to ease the restrictions.

He urged Pakistanis to forgo the traditional Eid festivity in view of the hundreds of fatalities caused by the coronavirus and the lives lost in Friday's plane crash in Karachi.

Ninety-seven people, including nine children, were killed and two passengers miraculously survived a fiery crash when a Pakistan International Airlines plane with 99 travellers on board plunged into a densely populated residential area near the Jinnah International Airport.

Most of the victims were travelling home to celebrate Eid.

In Bangladesh, millions of Muslims joined the strictly-regulated prayer congregations across the country.

Thousands of worshippers attended the prayer services at the Baitul Mukarram National Mosque in Dhaka while following the health and social distancing protocols to limit the spread of the coronavirus, bdnews24.com reported.

Despite the government directive for children and senior citizens not to participate in Eid prayers, many children and people aged over 60 attended the Eid prayers. Although social distancing rules were maintained to a large extent, people were seen flouting the norms, the report said.

As per the government order, no Eid congregation will be held in an open space, but people can perform the Eid prayers in mosques. However, everyone coming to the mosques for prayer must wear a mask, follow social distancing and other hygiene rules, said Islamic Foundation Secretary Kazi Nurul Islam.

On Sunday, Bangladesh reported 28 new fatalities, the highest single-day increase, bringing the death toll to 480.

The number of coronavirus cases in the country rose to 33,610 after 1,532 people tested positive on Sunday.

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