Anatomy of a Conspiracy: WSJ Reviews “Law of the Jungle”

This is not an independent researched book explaining the Chevron in Ecuador case, it’s a pro-Chevron one-sided dump of their legal filings written to give the impression that Barrett actually researched the case. It shamelessly masquerades as “impartial” but the facts do not bear that out.

Peter Maass, author of Crude World: The Violent Twilight of Oil in his review of Barrett’s book in Outside Magazine wrote, “There are two side to the story of the biggest environmental lawsuit ever, but a new book tells only one of them.”

Barrett, did not interview the Ecuadorian legal team, did not read the trial record in Ecuador and spent only a few days there. Many of us who have supported the communities for decades are shocked at the lack of real reporting here. He made it appear as if he interviewed Donziger, even tho he only took from Chevron’s legal filings in their bogus RICO action.

There is no fraud by Donziger nor the Ecuadorians. The only “evidence” of any ghost written judgment was the testimony of a corrupt ex-judge who was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to testify. Chevron either bought off or pressured witnesses, fabricated evidence and spent hundreds of millions all to avoid paying to clean up. Barrett ignores all of these issues in his book. Leaving such facts out is either grossly incompetent or deliberately misleading.

The Sierra Club, Amnesty International, Greenpeace and over 40 other human rights and environmental NGOs have condemned Chevron for its dirty underhanded legal thuggery in this case and for violating the First Amendment. Why is that not a part of Barrett’s “story”?

Barrett avoids the truly scandalous and criminal examples of Chevron’s tactics to hide contamination during the Ecuador trial, like swapping toxic soil samples with clean ones, and avoiding sampling at depths at which Chevron knew contamination existed, at locations Chevron knew were still contaminated, and were downgradient from known contamination. You’d think that a book purportedly covering the largest environmental litigation in history would merit a real review of the evidence, much of which was provided by even the skewed soil and water samples taken by the company.

Three layers of Ecuadorian courts – eight appellate judges – reviewed and upheld the $9 billion verdict, and threw out Chevron’s claims of fraud. But for Barrett, apparently U.S. courts are the only legitimate court system in the world. Barrett lets Judge Kaplan off the hook for his colonial overreach in judging a country’s legal system that he knows nothing about. Kaplan can’t read the native language, nor did he read the trial record.

Worst of all, Barrett is promoting his book under the false headline that the case against Chevron in Ecuador “failed”. This is patently false as enforcement actions are underway in Canada, Argentina and Brazil (which Barrett knows). Barrett unwillingness to correct this misinformation time and again is perhaps the most obvious indication of where he stands on the “truth”.

Learn about Barrett’s ongoing bias here: http://amazonwatch.org/news/2014/0930-business-journalists-rush-to-rescue-chevron-from-its-ecuador-disaster

Here is an excellent point-by-point critique of this book by the Ecuadorian legal team: http://chevrontoxico.com/assets/docs/2014-barrett-critique.pdf

Barrett’s book is so bad that he and his publisher are liable to be sued for defamation letter: http://chevrontoxico.com/assets/docs/2014-09-09-letter-to-barret.pdf

A decent and fair look at the case appeared in Rolling Stone (which also refers to Barrett’s book as pro-Chevron): http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/sludge-match-chevron-legal-battle-ecuador-steven-donziger-20140828

The documents refuting Chevron’s bogus RICO claims, likely to prevail with the federal appeals Court are here:

http://stevendonziger.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/2014-07-02-Donziger-brief.pdf

http://stevendonziger.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/2014-07-01-Ecuadorians-brief.pdf