U.S. controlled IMF installs one of its own as leader of Ivory Coast

Tensions in the African country Ivory Coast are escalating and many countries are advising their people to leave the country. The U.S. and Canadian media are blaming the tensions on the refusal of its leader, Laurent Gbagbo, to concede defeat in an election that was plagued with vote tampering and outright fraud.  The U.S., Canada, the IMF, the UN and other states and international organization all recogize the UN declared winner Alassane Dramane Ouattara.  Europe and the US is now working to strangle Laurent Gbagbo financially to force him to quit as Côte d’Ivoire’s president after an election they claim was won by his rival Alassane Ouattara.  On December 2, 2010, after a series of delays, the Independent Electoral Commission of Côte d’Ivoire (CEI) declared Alassane Ouattara winner of the second round of the country’s presidential elections without presenting the results to the Constitutional Council for confirmation and validation.  The CEI claimed without providing any proof that Alassane Ouattara was the new leader of Ivory Coast.  Why call an election without providing proof of claim?  It all has to do with who Alassane Ouattara is and who he works for and the U.S.’s insatiable need for oil.  A major crude oil-induced border dispute has been going on for over a year now between Ivory Coast and its eastern neighbor Ghana.  The election is being used to distract the World from what is really happening in Ivory Coast – another dispute over oil rights.

Who is Alassane Ouattara?  To make a long story short Alassane Ouattara works for the IMF which works for the United States.  Say what?

Ouattara was born on January 1, 1942, in Dimbokro, Ivory Coast. He received a bachelor’s of science degree in 1965 from the Drexel Institute of Technology, which is now called Drexel University, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.. Ouattara then obtained both his master’s degree in economics in 1967 and a doctorate in economics in 1972 from the University of Pennsylvania.

He was an economist for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington, D.C. from 1968 to 1973, and afterwards he was the BCEAO’s (Central Bank of West African States) Chargé de Mission in Paris from 1973 to 1975. With the BCEAO, he was then Special Advisor to the Governor and Director of Research from February 1975 to December 1982 and Vice Governor from January 1983 to October 1984. From November 1984 to October 1988 he was Director of the African Department at the IMF, and in May 1987 he additionally became Counsellor to the Managing Director at the IMF. On October 28, 1988 he was appointed as Governor of the BCEAO (Central Bank of West African States), and he was sworn in on December 22, 1988.

In April 1990, Ivorian President Félix Houphouët-Boigny appointed Ouattara as Chairman of the Interministerial Committee for Coordination of the Stabilization and Economic Recovery Programme of Côte d’Ivoire; while holding that position, Ouattara also remained in his post as BCEAO Governor. He subsequently became Prime Minister of Côte d’Ivoire on November 7, 1990.  While serving as Prime Minister, Ouattara also carried out presidential duties for a total of 18 months, including the period from March 1993 to December 1993, when Houphouët-Boigny was ill.  Houphouët-Boigny died on December 7, 1993, and Ouattara announced his death to the nation, saying that “Côte d’Ivoire is orphaned”.  A brief power struggle ensued between Ouattara and Henri Konan Bédié, the President of the National Assembly, over the presidential succession; Bédié prevailed and Ouattara resigned as Prime Minister on December 9.  Ouattara then returned to the IMF as Deputy Managing Director, holding that post from July 1, 1994 to July 31, 1999.

Prior to the October 1995 presidential election, in a move that was viewed as being intended to prevent Ouattara’s potential presidential candidacy, the National Assembly of Côte d’Ivoire approved an electoral code which barred candidates if either of their parents were of a foreign nationality and if they had not lived in Côte d’Ivoire for the preceding five years. The Rally of the Republicans (RDR), an opposition party formed as a split from the ruling Democratic Party of Côte d’Ivoire (PDCI) in 1994, sought for Ouattara to be its presidential candidate contrary to electoral law.  The government would not change the electoral code and Ouattara withdrew the nomination.

While serving as Deputy Managing Director at the IMF, in March 1998 Ouattara expressed his intention to return to Côte d’Ivoire and take part in politics again. After leaving the IMF in July 1999, he was elected President of the RDR on August 1, 1999 at an extraordinary congress of the party, as well as being chosen as its candidate for the next presidential election.  Ouattara’s nationality certificate, issued in late September 1999, was annulled by a court on October 27. An arrest warrant for Ouattara was issued on November 29, although he was out of the country at the time.  Ouattara wasn’t arrested because on December 24, the military seized power in a U.S. backed coup. Ouattara returned to Côte d’Ivoire after three months in France on December 29, hailing Bédié’s ouster as “not a coup d’état”, but “a revolution supported by all the Ivorian people”.

A new constitution, approved by referendum in July 2000, again barred presidential candidates unless both of their parents were Ivorian, disqulaifying Ouattara from the 2000 presidential election. The issues surrounding this electoral law were major factors in the Civil war in Côte d’Ivoire, which broke out in 2002.

On December 2, 2010, after a series of delays, the Independent Electoral Commission of Côte d’Ivoire (CEI) declared Alassane Ouattara the winner of the second round of the country’s presidential elections without presenting the results to the Constitutional Council for confirmation and validation. The head of the Constitutional Council (contradicted the CEI claim that Alassane Ouattara had won the election.  Mr Gbagbo was sworn in at a midday ceremony by the President of the Constitutional Council (the highest constitutional authority in Ivory Coast whose duty is to ensure that the principles and rules of the constitution are upheld) on Saturday December 4, 2010. Hours later, IMF groomed Ouattara simply declared himself to be president of Ivory Coast.  Since then foreign organizations have been meddling into and violating the sovereignty of Ivory Coast by rejecting Gbagbo’s presidency and endorsing one of their own as president.  The African Union, the European Union, ECOWAS, the United Nations, the United States, and France are among the nations and international organizations that rejected Gbagbo’s presidency. The U.S. controlled International Monetary Fund (IMF) stated they would only work with a government recognized by the U.S. created and controlled United Nations which was assigned by the United States government the duty of certifying presidential results as part of a 2007 peace deal. On 8 December, the U.S. controlled United Nations Security Council formally recognized Ouattara as the winner, and, in a statement, asked “all stakeholders to respect the outcome of the election.”

Without ever seeing the election results and contrary to Ivory Coast election law that barred presidential candidates unless both of their parents were Ivorian (years earlier an investigation determined Ouattara’s nationality certificate as invalid and even issued an arrest warrant for Ouattara), a U.S. created and controlled organization declared an agent of the United States government as president of Ivory Coast.  Why?  Again it  is all about oil.

In May of 2010 Global Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE:GNR) announced another big oil discovery offshore Cote d’Ivoire in West Africa.  In May of 2003 Tullow Oil plc announced an oil discovery on the Acajou prospect in Ivory Coast, confirming the hydrocarbon potential of the area, southeast of the Espoir field.

The well on licence CI-26 was drilled on the Acajou South prospect approximately 24 km off the coast of Côte d’Ivoire in a water depth of 3,050ft. The well is located some 9km from the Espoir facilities.

Well Acajou-1x was operated by Canadian Natural Resources (“CNR”) using the Sovereign Explorer rig. It reached a total depth of 8,027ft and encountered a gross oil column of over 250ft. A 45ft interval of sands at the top of the oil column was tested at an average rate of 3,500 bopd oil. The oil was of good quality 33° API, similar to that found in the Espoir field.

Brian O’Cathain, Managing Director of Tullow Oil International Ltd., commented, “We are pleased with the success of this exploration well, as it underlines the potential of the Acajou area. The test rate is encouraging for the economic development of the discovery. The well also encountered a significant sand section below the oil water contact, which holds potential in the northern part of the structure.

In September of 2010 Tullow made another discovery off the coast of Ivory Coast and Ghana.  Tullow said it had found what could be among the largest recent oil discoveries in Africa off the coast of Ivory Coast and Ghana, with the field holding a potential 550 million barrels.  The recent oil discovery has however sparked a row between Ivory Coast and Ghana over the maritime border.   Last year, Ghana appealed to the United Nations to extend its maritime boundary by 200 nautical miles.  Ivory Coast also has made a submission to the United Nations laying claim to portions of Ghana’s oil find that they say is in Ivory Coast waters.  It is this conflict over oil that the United States controlled IMF installed one of their own to be president of Ivory Coast.  1.8 billion barrels of crude is at stake and the U.S. wants control of iallt .  What could be the outcome?  Just look at what happened in Afghanistan when the Taliban gave the Trans-Afghan natural gas and oil pipeline contract to a non-U.S. company.

Oil and control of oil rights always = war.  Oil was the reason for the United States war of aggression against Iraq.  Oil and natural gas was the reason for the United States war of aggression aginst Afghanistan.  Oil is the reason why the United States is imposing unilateral sanctions against Iran in prparation for a war there.  Oil was the spark that ignited the Nigerian Civil War.  Oil is sparking an IMF sponsored civil war in Ivory Coast.

“The policies of the U.S. , since the end of the Cold War are complicated and vast. They involve an intent to dominate and the use of international organizations to advance U.S. economic and geopolitical interests. They also include the conversion of NATO into a surrogate military police force for globalization and U.S. world economic domination.” – Ramsey Clark, 66th United States Attorney-General (October 6, 2000) The UN, the IMF, NATO and the WHO are the international organizations that advance U.S. economic and geopolitical interests.

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