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The report explained that contact with the offloaded compounds could lead to eye damage, lung damage, skin burns, headaches, breathing difficulty, permanent skin ulceration, coma and death. The report also states that the chemical compounds would have a "severe and negative effect" on the environment.
As recently as 2016, residents were complaining about the smell of the waste, headaches, breathing problems and skin problems.
Wikileaks published the classified report in 2009, the first time the public could see the company's true negligence.
3. Gates Foundation sees environmental activists as a threat
In 2008, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation hired an intelligence firm called Stratfor to put together a "threat assessment report" and determine current and future threats to the foundation.
Stratfor's report saw environmental activists, indigenous farming groups, and peasant political parties in Asia and South America, as "potential threats" to the foundation.
"Threats to the foundation are likely to be directly related to the public association between the foundation and a controversial issue such as GMOs, animal testing, clinical trials and reproductive rights," the report reads.
Stating that the primary threat to the foundation's agriculture program comes from its work promoting GMOs, the report notes the rise of anti-GMO campaigning in developing countries, including a "staunch opposition to GMOs in India." It even names specific activists, such as the U.S.-based anti-GMO campaigner Jeffrey Smith.
The report also mentions the work of large organizations like Greenpeace and PETA as well as alternative media outlets like the Center for Public Integrity, Mother Jones, AlterNet and the LA Times, which had just published a series accusing the foundation of "reap[ing] vast financial gains from investments in companies that contribute to the human suffering in health, housing and social welfare."
Wikileaks published the threat assessment as part of its release of more than 5 million Stratfor emails in 2012.
4. Pharma intel and espionage operation
In 1996, Pfizer, one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies, conducted clinical trials in Nigeria for an antibiotic called Trovan. The results were devastating, as Nigerian officials reported more than 50 children died in the experiment and dozens became disabled.
In 2006, a Nigerian government panel concluded that Pfizer violated international law and called the experiment "an illegal trial of an unregistered drug." In 2007, Nigerian state and federal authorities sued Pfizer for $7 billion, alleging the company did not have proper consent from the children's parents.
A 2009 U.S. diplomatic cable published by Wikileaks revealed that while the case was in federal court, Pfizer had hired a private intelligence firm to get blackmail on Nigerian Attorney General Michael Aondoakaa.
According to the cable, "Pfizer's investigators were passing this information to local media," who published articles on the attorney general's "alleged" corruption. "Aondoakaa's cronies were pressuring him to drop the suit for fear of further negative articles," it reads.
A few months after the negative articles, the Nigerian ministry of justice signed a settlement with Pfizer.
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