Nicholas Mockford, ExxonMobil Executive, Shot And Killed In Belgium

[Jumping John]

Source: Associated Press

A British oil executive gunned down in front of his wife in the Belgian capital of Brussels. Helmeted assailants escaping on a motorcycle. No arrests. A driver of a white van who has not been found. A court order for police not to reveal the details.

Was the killing of Nicholas Mockford, a 60-year-old executive for ExxonMobil, the world's largest oil company, a car-jacking gone wrong? A muffed purse-snatching? Or was it a cold-blooded professional hit for reasons yet unknown?

Mockford, a British national living in Belgium, was shot dead on Oct. 14 as he left an Italian restaurant in Neder-over-Heembeek — a village in medieval days that has since been swallowed up by the expanding capital. He died in the street as his wife cradled him in her arms and a neighbor tried to resuscitate him.

In the beginning, the investigating judge imposed an order on police preventing them from releasing any detail on the case, which police said was not unusual in a serious murder case. As a result, initial news reports were sparse. But on Thursday, authorities switched course and decided to enlist the public's help, releasing a brief description of the crime.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/26/nicholas-mockford-exxonmobil-executive-killed-belgium_n_2021845.html?utm_hp_ref=business

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Looks like a botched robbery that went bad.

[Drale]

1. It would not surprise me if it was a hit

He's part of a company that hurts billions of people by artificially raising oil prices even when they are making record profits. He's hurt alot of people and the more you push someone the sooner they are going to snap.

[Javaman]

13. That was exactly my first thought. nt

[Blue_Tires]

18. if this was a "hit", then it certainly would have come from

a fellow exec, corporate rival or someone who stands to profit from his death...

the telegraph is saying he was in charge of developing green fuel alternatives...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20101979

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/belgium/9635407/Police-hunt-two-men-after-oil-chief-assassinated-in-Brussels-street.html

[naaman fletcher]

33. Sounds like a hit, but probably not Exxon related

If Exxon related, why him? He works in the chemicals division in europe.

It's much more likely that he owed someone money, or farked someones wife, or screwed someone over somehow.

[jsr]

2. I always mourn for high-ranking oil company executives

[Kelvin Mace]

5. No man is an island

Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.

I mourn for his wife who cradled him as he died, and I try to fathom the emotional agony that would entail.

Let us not become emotionally hardened to any person's death, for if we do, we are lost.

[toby jo]

9. +1

[The Stranger]

10. Too late.

We are lost.

But the emotional hardening may lead us to something better.

Some day.

[Kelvin Mace]

12. i can't see how becoming insensitive to the suffering of others

will make us better.

[The Stranger]

42. Some have suffered so much more than others.

And some have remained indifferent or -- worse -- have profited on the suffering of others.

Someone somewhere referred to it as the struggle.

[coalition_unwilling]

14. The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions of men (Iraq and

Afghanistan) a statistic.

~ variously attributed to Joseph Stalin

[Kelvin Mace]

16. To me, it is all a tragedy

That we spend so much on death and destruction is even more tragic.

[coalition_unwilling]

20. I find myself strangely drawn to Stalin's (admittedly very black)

sense of humor.

If you're an executive for Exxon Mobil, you're part of a market structure that at least indirectly caused the deaths and wounds of many countless 1,000s of people. So I'm not going to mourn much the death of any of those executives. I'll save my mourning reserves for the victims of the Abu Ghraib and Bagram black holes.

[Kelvin Mace]

22. You are proposing that one cannot do both?

Also, if I am to write off this man's life because he is an oil executive and thus complicit in the death of others, cannot others write off my death as warranted since I am an American, and thus complicit in the death of others?

[lsewpershad]

27. Food for thought...

Isn't it??

[coalition_unwilling]

37. Yes, unfortunately every American bears a huge karmic debt to the rest of the

planet. The souls of 2-3 million Southeast Asians still await our abject apologies for the shit we pulled in Vietnam 1954-74.

[lsewpershad]

26. Justice?????

[Warren DeMontague]

19. Yeah. Gunned down in front of his wife. Yay. (Sarcasm)

I'm no fan of the petroleum industry, either, but jesus fucking christ. That's a human being.

And if you use electricity, or drive a car, you're using this man's product. Celebrating the death of an oil industry executive while enjoying the benefits of technology which require an oil industy and, by extension, oil industry executives, is the height of hypocrisy.

[Kelvin Mace]

23. Yeah, seems a bit short-sighted

and glib.

Once we start writing off entire classes of individuals based on who they work for, where do we draw the line?

[The Stranger]

43. Exactly.

Where do we draw the line?

Probably not here.

[jsr]

24. Who 'celebrated' his death?

[Warren DeMontague]

30. C'mon.

You know exactly what you were saying, up there.

[jsr]

31. I don't care about oil company executives.

No further extrapolation.

[ChillZilla]

34. It's nice to see such disregard for human life

based on one's employment. I know a few ExxonMobil executives, it's nice to hear their lives are so worthless because they've been successful in their chosen field.

I don't know what brand of Liberalism you subscribe to, but please leave me out of it.

[jsr]

38. Reading comprehension FAIL

Where does it say I have disregard for human life?

"I know a few ExxonMobil executives"?

Good for you. Have a nice life.

[ChillZilla]

46. A guy got murdered

and you said "I don't care about Oil Company Executives"

I thought it was pretty clear. Last I checked, they're human.

[LanternWaste]

45. Twain wrote that what we disregard often illustrates our character more so than what we do regard

Twain wrote that what we disregard often illustrates our character more so than what we do regard.

No further extrapolation...

[NV Whino]

3. I wouldn't go so far as to say it was a hit, but

I bet the other execs are shaking in their collective boots.

[Angry Dragon]

4. Is it starting??

[L0oniX]

6. Paybacks are hell ...the rich will be creating more jobs ....security jobs.

[valerief]

7. Maybe!!!! nt

[Solly Mack]

8. Sounds like a hit.

[firehorse]

15. I'm more surprised this doesn't happen all the time...

Corporate power is taking over the world and diminishing the power of regular people. I remember in the 70's and 80's executives would get kidnapped and held for ransom in places like Italy and Mexico. Anywhere there is a big wealth disparity things like this will happen.

[raccoon]

32. Watch the movie "Manda Bala." nt

[QUALITYCONTRoll]

17. The great Equalizer............

[musiclawyer]

21. I am suprised this does not happen more often

There are righty nuts and then there are some on the other side who go nuts from desperation. Who knows why this happened. But if I was a plutocrat who made a living economically harming people, I would have full time security shadowing me. Just saying

[WilliamPitt]

25. A motorcycle *and* a van?

Failed kidnapping.

[ChillZilla]

35. Could be

An ExxonMobil was kidnapped and murdered about 15 years ago. Although I didn't think Belgium was know for that sort of tactic. In South America bodyguards would be mandatory.

[The Straight Story]

28. What is interesting is that it took 12 days to get to the news (nt)

[GeorgeGist]

29. Mockford, a British national living in Belgium, was shot dead on Oct. 14

It's Oct 26 where I live.

[daleo]

36. If it is terrorism

Will predator drones be flying through the skies of Europe, taking out people, as they do now in other parts of the world?

[Peace Patriot]

39. Botched kidnapping seems unlikely. Seems like botched robbery, but...

...who knows? The attempt to grab his wife's purse (that apparently started the incident) could have been designed to misdirect police, if it was an assassination.

The article says that the assailants, after trying to grab her purse, shot Mockford FOUR times. That seems excessive for a mere street robbery with panicked (stupid or addled) robbers. Points to: making sure he was dead.

The white van may well have been a coincidence. The van crossed the Mockfords' path as they went to their car. May have been unrelated. Police are asking the van drivers to come forward. If unrelated, then they have two guys on foot, perpetrating this crime, and running to a motorcycle to escape afterwards. Did they get her purse? Article doesn't say. Did they get his wallet after shooting him? Unknown. If the object was robbery, and he resisted (defending his wife) and they shot him, what did they gain? The article is not enlightening.

In either case--botched kidnapping, or botched robbery--why shoot him? Very foolish kidnappers. Very foolish robbers. Kidnappers: You're not going to collect a ransom on a dead body. Robbers: Foiled or not, why escalate your crime? The police will double-down on a murder, especially such a high profile murder. If it was robbery, this indicates rank amateurs or first-time criminals (or maybe crazy or drug-addled criminals).

Anything can go wrong during the course of such a crime--including panicked criminals--whatever the motive. Considering who he was, I hope that the police are considering a sophisticated assassination that was designed to look like a street crime. I'd sure like to know if they got away with her purse or his wallet. It wouldn't be definitive (even sophisticated assassins or their operatives could have forgotten to complete the false narrative by making off with purse or wallet or jewelry) but it would help in understanding the crime.

On current information, kidnapping seems very unlikely. Robbery seems most likely (robbery by stupid, amateur and/or addled robbers). And sophisticated assassination is a possibility, considering who he was. On the latter, possible motives range very wide, and include personal motives (business or private).

Not enough known. And I would certainly not buy into an Associated Pukes narrative (or any of its details or quotes) until there are some independent, non-corporate sources on this crime. I've learned not to trust AP--and I'm so distrustful that I've given them that insulting new name. They are major disinformationists for the transglobal corporations and war profiteers who rule over us.

As for Mockford being an Exxon Mobil exec, I've learned, during my life, that there can be very good people caught up in very bad corporations and other entities. Life's circumstances don't always allow people to make an innocent living, and there can be a huge spectrum of knowledge, blindness and personal growth, in any individual case of anybody working in a corporation or other entity that is doing ill. Mockford, for all we know, was a whistleblower and was targeted by his own corporation. Don't judge people on their employment or other labels. And don't believe everything you read (or see on TV).

[cali]

40. Yeah,let's execute all oil company executives. Fuck, let's torture the hell out of them first

some of the responses in this thread make me ill.

[ChazII]

44. Agree 100%

One of the few times I have been ashamed of DU.

[byeya]

41. Tough one to solve with billions of suspects