AF-SOOMAALI

The Conoco – So­ma­lia De­clas­si­fi­ca­tion Pro­ject # 3


A Tem­po­rary With­drawal – Se­cu­rity Con­cerns

1. “Up­date of Threat As­sess­ment – So­ma­lia.” Ca­ble from US Em­bassy in Mo­gadishu to State De­part­ment Head­quar­ters. 7 Sep­tem­ber 1989. Ca­ble Num­ber: Mo­gadishu 09512. Source: Free­dom of In­for­ma­tion Act re­lease (2006-01-288) to Keith Year­man. “So­ma­lia re­mains in a medium to high threat cat­e­gory with a po­ten­tial for be­com­ing crit­i­cal with lit­tle or no warn­ing…” Conoco “has not re­ported any in­ci­dents.”

2. “[Ex­cised] Se­cu­rity in North­ern So­ma­lia.” Ca­ble from State De­part­ment Head­quar­ters to US Em­bassy in Mo­gadishu. 19 July 1990. Ca­ble Num­ber: State 236961. Source: Free­dom of In­for­ma­tion Act re­lease (2006-01-288) to Keith Year­man. “Amoco, Conoco, Phillips, and Pecten have all con­tacted us re­cently about the se­cu­rity sit­u­a­tion. Amoco said it may take out de­pen­dents per­ma­nently and ex­pats tem­porar­ily un­til the drill site in Brava is ready. The ex­pats will prob­a­bly re­turn if, as Amoco ex­pects, the So­mali gov­ern­ment agrees to let them fly di­rectly be­tween Brava and Kenya.”

3. “Oil Com­pa­nies are Wor­ried.” Ca­ble from State De­part­ment Head­quar­ters to US Em­bassy in Mo­gadishu. 30 July 1990. Ca­ble Num­ber: State 249168. Source: Free­dom of In­for­ma­tion Act re­lease (2005-05-183) to Keith Year­man. Conoco told rep­re­sen­ta­tives of State’s African/​Near East­ern Af­fairs Bu­reau that they were “sus­pend­ing op­er­a­tions in So­ma­lia as of to­day (7/​27) be­cause of de­te­ri­o­rat­ing se­cu­rity in Mo­gadishu and up­coun­try…The So­mali gov­ern­ment gave Conoco a let­ter re­leas­ing Conoco of oblig­a­tions to con­tinue ex­plo­ration at this time…Amoco tells us Amer­i­can oil com­pa­nies will meet in Hous­ton the mid­dle of next week to dis­cuss the sit­u­a­tion in So­ma­lia.”

4. “Conoco Shut­ting Down.” Ca­ble from US Em­bassy in Mo­gadishu to State De­part­ment Head­quar­ters. 1 Au­gust 1990. Ca­ble Num­ber: Mo­gadishu 06900. Source: Free­dom of In­for­ma­tion Act re­lease (2005-05-183) to Keith Year­man. In this heav­ily-ex­cised ca­ble, Deputy Chief of Mis­sion Joseph J. Borich re­ports on Cono­co’s sus­pen­sion of op­er­a­tions “fol­low­ing the ap­par­ent as­sas­si­na­tion of their se­cu­rity de­tach­ment com­man­der and the killing of a truck dri­ver.” Of pos­si­ble im­por­tance, note the dis­tri­b­u­tion list of this ca­ble – it went to the Com­man­der in Chief of the U.S. Cen­tral Com­mand, MacDill Air Force Base, as well as the De­fense In­tel­li­gence Agency.

Conoco and State – A Cozy Re­la­tion­ship

1. “Pri­vate Courier Ser­vice.” Ca­ble from US Em­bassy in Mo­gadishu to State De­part­ment Head­quar­ters. 10 De­cem­ber 1989. Ca­ble Num­ber: Mo­gadishu 13536. Source: Free­dom of In­for­ma­tion Act re­lease (2006-01-288) to Keith Year­man. In this ca­ble, Am­bas­sador Frank Crigler de­scribes how de­pen­dents of State De­part­ment per­son­nel pro­vided courier ser­vices for Amoco, Chevron and Conoco. An anony­mous com­plaint brought an in­ves­ti­ga­tion by the In­spec­tor Gen­eral, which “found no wrong­do­ing.”

2. “Conoco on How to Pay Our Em­ploy­ees.” Ca­ble from US Em­bassy in Nairobi to State De­part­ment Head­quar­ters. 21 May 1991. Ca­ble Num­ber: Nairobi 12692. Source: Free­dom of In­for­ma­tion Act re­lease (2005-05-183) to Keith Year­man. With the em­bassy in So­ma­lia closed, the State De­part­ment was con­cerned with pay­ing its For­eign Ser­vice Na­tion­als in So­ma­lia. A con­sul­ta­tion was held with Conoco (ap­par­ently Marc­hand), in which he ad­vised State on how to pro­ceed – from set­ting up ac­counts with the Cen­tral Bank to the amount of time State De­part­ment per­son­nel should ex­pect to spend. Of im­por­tance in this ca­ble – “Two [US gov­ern­ment] em­ploy­ees would travel to Mo­gadishu sev­eral days af­ter Conoco re-oc­cu­pies its of­fices on June 4..USG em­ploy­ees would be wel­come to stay with Conoco and would be pro­tected through­out their stay by Cono­co’s pri­vate guard ser­vice…USG em­ploy­ees could travel to Mo­gadishu ei­ther on the [Red Cross] air­craft…or by the Conoco air­craft…Conoco would prob­a­bly not charge us for tak­ing one of its reg­u­lar flights…A fi­nal note: In ad­di­tion to be­ing help­ful to us in every other way pos­si­ble, Conoco has been giv­ing rice, spaghetti, and pow­dered milk to out FS­N’s when they come to the Conoco of­fice. Conoco re­fuses to ac­cept pay­ment from us for this ser­vice.” [Note: See ca­bles from May 20, 1992 and June 3, 1992 for fur­ther de­tails on pay­ing State De­part­men­t’s So­mali em­ploy­ees].

3. “Mo­gadishu Se­cu­rity As­sess­ment.” Ca­ble from US Em­bassy in Nairobi to State De­part­ment Head­quar­ters. 9 Oc­to­ber 1991. Ca­ble Num­ber: Nairobi 24780. Source: Free­dom of In­for­ma­tion Act re­lease (2005-05-183) to Keith Year­man. “Em­bassy is in daily con­tact with Conoco (So­ma­lia), Ltd…Dur­ing four vis­its by [US gov­ern­ment] of­fi­cials to Mo­gadishu over the past sev­eral months, Conoco (So­ma­lia), Ltd. has pro­vided the fol­low­ing se­cu­rity: USG of­fi­cials are met at the air­port by armed guards and es­corted via con­voy to the Conoco res­i­dence. This res­i­dence lies in the cen­ter of a blocked-off, two square-block se­cu­rity zone…This zone is con­trolled by Conoco and is heav­ily for­ti­fied. USG of­fi­cials move about Mo­gadishu as lit­tle as nec­es­sary. When they do, they are pro­vided with armed guards. USG of­fi­cials sleep and take their meals at the Conoco com­pound. When they leave Mo­gadishu, they are again es­corted to the air­port via con­voy un­der armed guard. The air­craft, leased from ‘Rent-A-Plane,’ is in con­stant con­tact with the Conoco com­pound while in flight, which fur­ther fa­cil­i­tates se­cu­rity dur­ing take-offs and land­ings and al­lows last-minute changes in plan, if nec­es­sary.”

4. “Conoco Phas­ing Out Mo­gadishu Of­fice, Will Work From Garoe.” Ca­ble from US Em­bassy in Nairobi to State De­part­ment Head­quar­ters. 18 Feb­ru­ary 1992. Ca­ble Num­ber: Nairobi 03944. Source: Free­dom of In­for­ma­tion Act re­lease (2004-04-554) to Keith Year­man. Conoco “has ceased staffing its Mo­gadishu of­fice with ex­pa­tri­ates, ac­cord­ing to Ray­mond Marc­hand, pres­i­dent of Conoco (So­ma­lia)…Conoco, the only U.S. firm that kept its Mo­gadishu of­fice open dur­ing the tur­bu­lent past year, fi­nally de­spaired of sta­bil­ity and gov­ern­ment re­turn­ing to the cap­i­tal any­time soon…All USG em­ploy­ees trav­el­ling to Mo­gadishu in the past year have stayed with and been pro­tected by Conoco.” This is was also re­leased as Doc­u­ment R01, from the De­part­ment of State’s Bu­reau of African Af­fairs.

5. “Re­quest for Travel to Mo­gadishu to Pay FSN Em­ploy­ees.” Ca­ble from US Em­bassy in Nairobi to State De­part­ment Head­quar­ters. 20 May 1992. Ca­ble Num­ber: Nairobi 11635. Source: Free­dom of In­for­ma­tion Act re­lease (2004-04-554) to Keith Year­man. Dis­cusses ef­forts of State De­part­ment to pay So­mali na­tion­als who were em­ployed by the US gov­ern­ment. The po­lit­i­cal of­fi­cer, John Fox, “would travel into Mo­gadishu aboard ei­ther a Conoco air­craft or a re­lief flight. He would stay at the well-guarded com­pound of Conoco (So­ma­lia), Ltd.” See “Ap­proval on Fox Travel to Mo­gadishu to Pay FSNs” (3 June 1992) for re­sponse.

6. “Ap­proval on Fox Travel to Mo­gadishu to Pay FSNs.” Ca­ble from State De­part­ment Head­quar­ters to US Em­bassy in Nairobi. 3 June 1992. Ca­ble Num­ber: State 175303. Source: Free­dom of In­for­ma­tion Act re­lease (2004-04-554) to Keith Year­man. Wash­ing­ton ap­proves Fox’s travel to Mo­gadishu for June 8-11, 1992. See “Re­quest for Travel to Mo­gadishu to Pay FSN Em­ploy­ees” (20 May 1992) for ini­tial re­quest.

7. “For­mer FSNs Paid in Mo­gadishu.” Ca­ble from US Em­bassy in Nairobi to State De­part­ment Head­quar­ters. 12 June 1992. Ca­ble Num­ber: Nairobi 13356. Source: Free­dom of In­for­ma­tion Act re­lease (2004-04-554) to Keith Year­man. Dis­cusses Fox’s trip to Mo­gadishu, de­scribes Os­man Atto at be­ing “most help­ful.” See Lon­don 00133 ( “TF­S001: More on So­mali Per­cep­tions vs. the Facts of Op­er­a­tion Re­store Hope,” 5 Jan­u­ary 1993) for more on Atto.

8. “So­ma­lia Se­cu­rity As­sess­ment.” Ca­ble from US Em­bassy in Nairobi to State De­part­ment Head­quar­ters. 2 Oc­to­ber 1992. Ca­ble Num­ber: Nairobi 22214. Source: Free­dom of In­for­ma­tion Act re­lease (2004-04-554) to Keith Year­man. Dis­cusses de­brief­ing of Fox con­ducted 28 Sep­tem­ber. Fox “ob­served no anti-Amer­i­can sen­ti­ment…U.S. per­son­nel have the abil­ity to com­mu­nicta (sic) via satelite tele­phones pro­vided by Conoco…There is some thought be­ing given in the de­part­ment to open­ing an of­fice in Mo­gadishu for the co­or­di­na­tion of U.S. re­lief ef­forts. The of­fice would prob­a­bly be leased from Conoco.”

9. “Open­ing of U.S. Li­ai­son Of­fice in So­ma­lia.” Ca­ble from U.S. Em­bassy in Nairobi (Re­gional In­for­ma­tion Man­age­ment Cen­ter) to State De­part­ment Head­quar­ters. 4 De­cem­ber 1992. Ca­ble Num­ber: Nairobi 26851. Source: Free­dom of In­for­ma­tion Act re­lease (2004-04-554) to Keith Year­man. An­nounces cre­ation of a U.S. li­ai­son of­fice in Mo­gadishu, and that a “tem­po­rary of­fice may be es­tab­lished at the Conoco com­pound if pos­si­ble.” [The US leased the Conoco com­pound, a villa, and had in­ter­est in an apart­ment com­plex known as K-7.]

10. “So­ma­lia: De­ploy­ment In­struc­tions for Am­bas­sador Oak­ley.” Ca­ble from State De­part­ment Head­quar­ters. 8 De­cem­ber 1992. Ca­ble Num­ber: State 390758. Source: Free­dom of In­for­ma­tion Act re­lease (2004-04-554) to Keith Year­man. Copy of ca­ble orig­i­nally sent 4 De­cem­ber 1992 to US Em­bassy, Ad­dis Ababa. Gives or­ders to Robert Oak­ley to “pro­ceed im­me­di­ately to Mo­gadishu to es­tab­lish your­self as the chief United States gov­ern­ment rep­re­sen­ta­tive in So­ma­lia. Your es­tab­lish­ment will be called the United States Li­ai­son Of­fice.” Also note, “De­part­ment is work­ing with Conoco. Rene Marc­hand, to se­cure their com­pound for your use. Conoco is will­ing but there may be some dif­fi­cul­ties in ac­tu­ally get­ting set up right way.” This ca­ble was for­warded to U.S. Cen­tral Com­mand Head­quar­ters at MacDill Air Force Base.

11. “Fi­nan­cial Sup­port for Mo­gadishu – Up­date No. 1.” Ca­ble from State De­part­ment Head­quar­ters to U.S. Em­bassy in Nairobi. 11 De­cem­ber 1992. Ca­ble Num­ber: State 399037. Source: Free­dom of In­for­ma­tion Act re­lease (2004-04-554) to Keith Year­man. “Our ini­tial thought is to es­tab­lish a con­tract with Conoco at some fixed amount per per­son for lodg­ing and food.”

12. “FBO Fund­ing for Mo­gadishu – 2562.” Ca­ble from US Em­bassy in Nairobi to State De­part­ment Head­quar­ters. 24 De­cem­ber 1992. Ca­ble Num­ber: Nairobi 28472. Source: Free­dom of In­for­ma­tion Act re­lease (2004-04-554) to Keith Year­man.“Ad­min­is­tra­tive of­fi­cer in Mo­gadishu has neo­ti­ated a lease for the Conoco com­pound for six months at dols 41,260.” A villa was also leased for $36,000.