Follow the Money

A handful of protesters disrupted a Senate vote last night when they stood in the visitors' gallery, held up red flags and chanted antiwar slogans like "No money for war" and "Our taxes are not for bombing nations."

Is it all about money? Is it all about oil? Well, perhaps...

From Mark Steyn via Instapundit:

The Western oil company with the closest ties to the late Saddam is France's TotalFinaElf. That's not the curious fact, that's just business as usual in the Fifth Republic. This is the curious fact: As Diane wrote in February and again last week, "Total's biggest shareholder is Montreal's Paul Desmarais, whose youngest son is married to Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's daughter."

Paul Jr.

Let's see if I've got this straight: TotalFinaElf's largest shareholder is a subsidiary of Montreal's Power Corp, whose co-chief executive is Jean Chrétien's son-in-law, Andre Desmarais. Mr. Desmarais' brother, Paul Desmarais Jr., sits on the Total board.

André

For months, the anti-war crowd has insisted that "it's all about oil," that the only reason the Iraqi people were being "liberated" was so that the second biggest oil reserves in the world could be annexed in perpetuity by Dick Cheney and Halliburton and the rest of Bush's Texas oilpatch gang. Instead, it turns out that, if it is all about oil, then the principal North American beneficiary of the continued enslavement of the Iraqi people is the family of the Canadian Prime Minister -- that's to say, his daughter, France Chrétien, and his grandchildren.

From Imagine Canada: André Desmarais, President and co-CEO The Power Corporation of Canada

While the first responsibility of business must be to be profitable, it must also contribute to the well-being of the larger society. We have responsibilities which extend beyond our immediate businesses, and for business to prosper it must have a strong and healthy social climate.

Unless, of course, the business ties you to the second largest oil reserve and the evil dictatorship of Saddam Hussein.

The Belgium Connection is here.

So, yes, maybe it is about money and oil, but the evil Capitalists in this case aren't Americans.

What a tangled web we weave.