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Kennedy Clan Profiting from Hugo Chavez's Oil?
A prominent member of the Kennedy family is joining forces with one of President George Bush’s most ardent foes – Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez. A subsidiary of Venezuela’s national oil company will ship 12 million gallons of discounted home-heating oil to Massachusetts in a deal that former U.S. representative Joseph P. Kennedy II helped to arrange. The $9 million worth of oil will go to 45,000 low-income families and institutions that serve the poor, such as homeless shelters, said officials from Citizens Energy, an organization founded by Kennedy in 1979. When the oil arrives next month, Citizens Energy will help screen recipients, according to the Boston Globe.
Story Continues Below Home-heating oil prices are expected to rise significantly this winter because of higher crude oil prices. But "some foreign-policy analysts said Chavez helped broker the deal in part as a jab at President Bush,” according to the Globe. Chavez has frequently criticized the Bush administration, saying it is not doing enough to help the poor. He has called Bush an "assassin,” "Mr. Danger," and a "crazy man.” "It is a slap in the face,” to the Bush administration, said Larry Birns, executive director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs. "Chavez is involved in petro-diplomacy.”
Human rights groups have accused Chavez of curtailing press freedoms and criticized his treatment of political foes. But Kennedy told the Globe he was not concerned about Chavez’s politics: "You start parsing which countries’ politics we’re going to feel comfortable with, and only buying oil from them, then there are going to be a lot of people not driving their cars and not staying warm this winter.” Citizens Energy Corp. is a nonprofit organization. But the Kennedy family has extensive oil interests, author Peter Schweizer reveals in his best-selling new book "Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy." According to Schweizer, "oil deposits have generated tens of millions in profits for the Kennedy clan … In total, family revenue from crude oil and natural gas is more than $1 million a year.”
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