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Bush Interior Secretary Investigated
WASHINGTON - The Justice Department is investigating whether a former secretary of the interior, Gale A. Norton, violated the law by granting valuable leases to Royal Dutch Shell around the time she was considering going to work for the company after she left office, officials said Thursday.
Gale A. Norton, who now works for Royal Dutch Shell. (Stephen Crowley/The New York Times) The officials said investigators had recently turned up information suggesting that Ms. Norton had had discussions while in office with Royal Dutch Shell about future career opportunities. In early 2006, Ms. Norton's department awarded three tracts in Colorado to a Shell subsidiary for shale exploration. In December 2006, she joined Shell as the company's general counsel in the United States for unconventional oils, a company spokeswoman said.
The existence of a federal criminal investigation was first reported Thursday by The Los Angeles Times.
Ms. Norton, 55, was President George W. Bush's first interior secretary. In that job, she was an ally of Vice President Dick Cheney in the administration's general approach of opening up more federal lands for energy exploration.
The possibility that Ms. Norton violated the law by seeking employment with a company while she was a federal official in a position to benefit the company stemmed from an investigation of many months by the Interior Department's inspector general. The officials who confirmed the investigation did so on the condition of anonymity, citing the custom to decline to speak publicly on criminal investigations in progress.
Kelly C. op de Weegh, a Shell spokeswoman, said: "We are aware of an investigation. However, we are not in a position to comment." Ms. op de Weegh said Ms. Norton, who works in the company's Denver offices, would not comment as well.
For more than a year, Interior Department investigators have been looking into Ms. Norton's dealings with Shell. They interviewed dozens of department officials about the program to lease tracts for shale exploration.
The officials from the office of inspector general recently turned over their findings to the Justice Department.
The Colorado tracts are part of a program to allow energy companies to experiment with methods of extracting oil from shale, a rocklike substance common in the western United States.
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28 Comments so far
Show AllNorton is running for the Senate seat in Colorado. Support of oil industry will help her run a competitive campaign, unless she's found guilty and has to do some jail time.
Wow, corruption in the Bush administration? I cant brlieve it.
Grant
Maybe Norton will be the first Bush criminal prosecuted.
The oil companies should be prosecuted for poisoning private water wells.
The continuing problem with investigating rich people is they DON'T GO TO JAIL....unless it is some country club-like Fed. prison where life goes on for them in a more constrained way (no trips to the Swiss Alps..yet). Obama has refused to "look back" when all the crimes by our former President Bush and VP Cheney took place. A shame really, because it is impossible to go forward when so much of the present is, anc continues to be contaminated by actions taken in the past.....but that is how the rich stay rich and get away with crime....don't prosecute them.
Yes, and his unwillingness to expose these criminals makes him complicit in their crimes. He is clearly one of 'them.'
I understand from this report that the investigations started "one year ago" that is to say during the Bush administration. Why would President Obama stop it?
The irony is that the revolving door is the corporate equivalent/surrogate for natural cycles. Linear power constructs cannot survive without the dynamic of cycles. This is a cycle that does not regenerate natural life but is quite the opposite.
Ken Salazar was Obama appointment for Interior happens to be Gale Norton in a suit. He has taken the Grey Wolf off of the endangered species list and dished out oil contracts and other corporate perks with the same speed and eagerness as did Norton. Of course, don't tell that to the rest of the Herd with their noses stuck up Obama's rectum.
elohim: you wrote: "the rest of the Herd with their noses stuck up Obama's rectum."
i was wondering what that funny smell was - it certainly isn't magnolias in bloom
i agree with you - obama sucks every bit as much as bushbaby
look at his cabinet and shudder
then look at his policies and check to see if your passport hasn't expired
obama is nwo - no lefty as the corporate media insist
the lefty shit is his cover, simple as that
worse he has brought the country to a level of internal friction that even freaks out pelosi - it brought tears to her eyes the other day but alas her copious botox injections made it impossible for her face to act in concert
danger lurks everywhere in this forsaken country these days...
Have you heard Pelosi speak lately? She sounds like a wreck!
I'm not seeing that he's got much of a herd left behind him. The electorate is stupid but even U.S. citizens catch on to some things eventually.
I'm sure if she's convicted, Obummer will pardon her "in the interest of moving forward" or possibly "national security". Or even with the excuse that "she's suffered enough".
You had to be corrupt to qualify for a position in the President Cheney and snoopy do Bush regime.
I wonder how much souls are going for these days. Clearly it's a booming market.
It is as if former Interior Secretary Gail Norton was asleep in American History class during the section on Teapot Dome. Not all too ironically, that occurred under a Republican administration as well.
Either that or she was very awake.
Meanwhile the Fox News side show - ACORN entrapments, Van Jones, Hannity's purity tests for Obama staffers, socialists under the beds... continues to distract and enrage its noisy tea party faithful about stupid BS.
Ever since she worked for Watt in the Reagan admin, I've detested this weaselly woman. She is like Dick Cheney, all that which they do brings more and more ill upon the state of the world in general and upon humanity in particular.
Anyone who willingly worked for Watt, should automatically be precluded from public service.
I learned about her much later through CounterPunch, but I share your sentiments. She is a missle aimed at honest people who wish to protect the environment.
One can only hope that Dick Cheney's black heart hasn't failed by the time they get up the food chain to him.
FREE AMERICA
REVOLUTIONARY (DIRECT) DEMOCRACY
Any transgressions that might have been made by a few low paid ACORN employees would be eclipsed by the trillions swindled by the money manipulators and the devastating wars against science and environmental reforms waged by Bush's team--who have been treated with kid gloves by FOX et al.
Their stings against ACORN, and their outrageous indictments against health care and environmental reforms are extensions of the misinformation campaigns waged by FOX News, in their quest for diverting public opinion away from the ill conceived policies of their right wing supporters.
Blame for their destructive wars against responsible journalism lies not only with their manipulators, but also with other media members for their complacency, and the audiences for their witlessness.
Shale oil has proven an environmental disaster in Canada. No?
I believe they are called oil sands in Canada and yes they are environmental disasters. Do you know what is even worse than these two and coal? Gold mining. As the speculators push up the price of gold the environment and peoples that live in those areas of the world are really suffering. Do you hear anything about that? I thought not. Wall street has a lot of blood on its hands.
So? It's par for the course, no? That's what they do. Normal.
She must have p*ssed somebody off for something completely different, or, like Spitzer way back, gotten involved in something to threaten the bigger players.
My money's on the threat theory.
You heard it here first.
It's a start--now how about 'Fredo, Rummy, Cheney, and Rice.
Poet
They should save time and money by investigating whether any Bush officials *didn't* violate the law during their time in office.
There might be one or two of them that didn't have enough time...