"THE DARK SIDE" - TERROR - HARASSMENT-RACKETERING.

In end October 1978 FALK International's president Ole C. Ostlund resigned from his employment with Aker, where he since spring 1977 had acted in capacity as Division Manager for Business Development & Contracts within Brownaker Offshore A/S, a 50/50 joint venture between Aker Group of Oslo and Brown & Root Inc., of Houston, Texas. Brownaker undertook at the time hook-up work for Phillips Petroleum Company on the Ekofisk field and hook-up of the Statfjord A platform for Mobil/Statoil.

The reasons for Mr. Ostlund resignment was several. One main issue was his devotion to rowing and determination to make a last attempt to make it to the Olympic Games. Due to his growing age of 32 in 1980 he considered 1980 to be his last chance to possible make it.

Another reason was his long time objective of doing business by himself - his own Company. His plan included leaving Stavanger and setting up a Company in his home town Trondheim preparing for the oil activity to move north. In the meantime he would consentrate on tyding up some old matters and getting back into competitive rowing. The latter would require him to get back into Oslo - the capital of rowing in Norway.

CV for Mr. Ole C. Ostlund

Timing:
In end October 1978 Mr. Ostlund felt he had fulfilled his obligation as representative for Aker within Brownaker Offshore. The renegotiation of terms and conditions for the transfere of B&R's hook-up contracts on Ekofisk and Statfjord to Brownaker Offshore was sucessfully fulfilled. As a result the Norwegian labour content on the Statfjord hook-up increased during fall 1978 to more than 70%. Mr. Ostlund felt his job was done and he could leave Aker without bad feelings. As division manager of Business & Contracts he had limited influence on the day to day operation in the field. Others were in charge of the daily operations offshore. Mr. Ostlund had from one of his prior assignments with Aker, as Project Manager for the electrical and mechanical hook-up on Brent D for Shell/Esso in fall 1976 gained experience about how to improve efficiency on the Statfjord A hook up. The inefficiency of the Statfjord A hook up was obvious to an extent that also outsiders in the Nowegian Parliament strongly reacted, as the cost of the Statfjord development escalated far beyond budgets. Not having authority or being heard by the people in charge of the Hook-up Division within Brownaker, it was restricted what Mr. Ostlund could achieve from his position. In October 1978 Aker also lost the bid for the Statfjord B deck construction to Kvaerner, resulting in the suicide of former Technical Director in Statoil Kåre Frank. The loss of the Statfjord B deck also resulted in replacement of Carsten Schanke as managing Director of Aker. Timing for mr. Ostlund to make a change in his life was as good as ever.

Destiny:
Four days after his resignment Mr. Ostlund's fiance told him she was pregnant with their first child.
Plans had to be altered. Although Mr. Ostlund had not planned to become a father at this time, in no way he would run away from his responsibility. If such information had come to his mind four days earlier his resignation fom Aker would probably not have taken place. The act of withdrawing his resignation was, however, not an option. The decision was made, the problem was that he would have to cope with supporting a family instead of only himself. Marriage had to be organized and he could'nt sell his house in Stavanger as this was needed for housing his soon growing family. He had to focus on getting his consulting Company going and securing financial income to support his family.

Within four days in end of October 1978 everything changed, not once - but twice. The decision of setting up his Company in Trondheim, was altered to Stavanger with possible later activity in Trondheim. He had to start looking for consulting work to secure income, instead of selling the house and focus on getting back into serious training. He still had his recreational single scull on lake Stokkavatnet in Stavanger. A sculler he in 1976 acquired from his rowing club in Oslo, NSR, in exchange for his more fragile competitive sculler obtained for his prior attempt to make it back in time to qualify for the 1976 Olympics. An attempt which he abbandoned due to injury (head fracture) during training in Nordmarka in the spring of 1976.

The first consulting assignment.
As result of the loss of the Statfjord B deck contract Aker Stord was in a bad need for other work.
Mr. Ostlund offered to assist Aker Stord in bidding for the construction of the first jacket to be placed on the Valhall field. In understanding with his superior in Brownaker Managing Director Thad Smith III, his superior in Aker Managing Director Kristian Rambjor, Mr Ostlund undertook the task of assisting Stord Verfts Managing Director Arne van der Hagen in bidding for construction of the Valhall A jacket. This was the first ever jacket to be constructed at Stord. The task was successfully completed by Stord Verft becomming the succesful bidder. This was highly appreciated at Stord in an otherwise very difficult time for Stord Verft. Several working places at Stord was secured as well as continuity in the workshop.

What's next?
In order to secure his personal income Mr. Ostlund offered to lease out the second floor in his house on Stokka. Leaseholder become Brown & Root Norge. Resident was one of B&R's electrical engineers from Britain working on the Ekofisk f ield hook-up project for Phillips.

In fall 1978 the Conservatives put forward a strong complain against the ruling Labour Government for lack of cost control in Statoil due to the escalating Costs of the Statfjord development. Labours Minister in charge at the time, Mr. Bjartmar Gjerde, averted a likely cabinet crises by getting the Parliaments majority vote for a general investigation of cost increases on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.

On December 15th 1978 Mr. Ostlund wrote a letter to Mr. Manshaus in the Department of Oil and Energy offering his service in performing such a study, ref:. Letter to OED of 15.12.1978.

Mr. Ostlund and his comming wife celebrated New Years Eve together with Mr. Ostlund's parents and family in Trondheim. Marriage was set to end January in Stavanger, guest list and invitations beeing prepared. The day after returning to Stavanger mr. Ostlund arived home experiencing that water was running down from the ceilings in the first floor, hall, kitchen, living room and further down into the floors. Running upstairs he found water spraying from the shower cabinet and onto the floor in the appartment on the second floor. The hot water fittings were broken and a jet of water pured out besides the curtain on the only open side of the shower cabinet.

Fortunately the basement of the house on Stokka was made up of a former German bunker from world war II. The flooding water did not run down into the basement, but was diverted by the concrete top of the bunker supporting the first floor, forcing the water to escape over the side and down the concrete walls of the basement were it froze to ice.

When buying the house mr Ostlund and his fiance had made thoughts of renovating and possible extention of the living room. Timing was, however, completely wrong. Mr. Ostlund's financial situation at the time was not such that he could undertake any major alterations to the house. At the same time it would be vaste of money to just put it back as it was. The struggle with the insurance Company and details of the reconstruction belongs to a longer story. Mr. Ostlund made the arrangement of moving down into the basement, keeping the bed room in the first floor. It would take more than one winter before the family could move back into a renovated first floor in time for the birth of his second daughter Beate, July 15th 1980.

Marriage took place as planned in end January 1979. Business wise Mr. Ostlund made a non exclusive arrangement with the Stavanger Division of Consulting Company R.Bjerck A/S and their representative Jon Bostad about project cooperation. Several presentations were made to different clients, Moss Rosenberg Verft, and others including a proposed Cost Study to Statoil on Statfjord A.

In March 1979 mr. Ostlund receives response on his approach to the Norwegian Oil and Energy Department concerning the Cost Study, ref; OED letter of 21.03.1979. In May 1979 mr. Ostlund commences his work for the Cost Committe led by its chairman Professor and Director of Sintef mr. Johannes Moe, PhD. The study is to be performed from offices in Oslo and to be completed early 1980. The contract with the Cost Study gives Mr Ostlund a certain relief. Income is secured for the rest of 1979 and first part of 1980, allowing him to start work on the house in Stavanger. At the same time the Cost Study will be performed out of offices in Oslo allowing him to pick up rowing in Oslo during summer 1979. He still has his rowing machine in use from 1975 in his basement in Stavanger. There might still be a possibility. During his stay in Oslo he rents a room in the basement of one of the other Group Leaders on the Cost Study, mr. Inge Utbøen from Habberstad. Mr. Utbøens house is situated in Holmenkollåsen with good up-hill running conditions for aerobic training and skiing during wintertime. Combined with outdoor rowing from Solodden, Kalvøya, and the weight training and indoor rowing basin facility at the rowing club, NSR at Bygdøy, he gets back into systematical training. Back in Stavanger during weekends he got his rowing machine and sculler at Stokkavatnet. Life is again for some period of time getting somewhat "organized". Work on the house in Stavanger is commencing, money to pay the bills at hand, and its still a year to 1980 Olympics. He needs to be back in competitive shape in spring 1980 in order to show off.

On July 13th 1979, the first child of mr. Ostlund is born. Next morning he is informed that the child, a girl, is born with a heart failure. The newborn baby is baptised Märtha Elise, before she is moved to a hospital in Oslo where she dies four days later on July 17th. A year later mr. Ostlund becomes the father of another lovely girl being christened Beate. Mr. Ostlund himself would have prefared waiting having a new child until other parts of his life was under control, however, his wife wanted to have another baby right away. Beate was born July 15th 1980. In someway life seemed a lot more controled, house repair and extension was beeing finalized, Olympics 1980 was out of the question due to Norwegian boycot of the Moscow games, and as part of his new cooperation with Petcon he had undertaken what seemed to be a long term consultant job for Statoil. However, in the back of his head was pressing the thoughts that something seriously wrong had taken place on the Ekofisk feld on March 27, 1980 when the "Alexander L. Kielland" offshore accomodation platform capsized and 123 people perished. From then on this feeling, this grip on his heart, has controlled mr. Ostlund beings and still does. The thought that there was a connection between "Kielland" and his work for the Cost Committee grew stronger as he observed the different players involved in the later uprighting attempts and sinking of the uprighted platform in Nedstrandsfjorden late 1983.

Four years earlier during the Cost Committes Summit meeting at Norcems facility in Brevik, in December 1979, Committee chairman mr. Johannes Moe had strongly advocated to mr. Ostlund that he had to divulge all his knowledge about critical matters, as this was what the Committee was paying for. Mr. Ostlund told mr. Moe about his knowledge about what seemed to be serious corruption within Statoil. No names where mentioned at the time, however, mr. Ostlund had expected to be contacted again on this matter and being further questioned about details, names etc. Such approach never occured. In January 1980 the Group Leaders of the Cost Analysis Project task force was informed that all their work, reports was to be finished by February 15th, whereafter the Committee by the Committee Secretary Mr. Asbjørn Rolstadås, at the present time professor in Project Management at NTNUI, would put the official report into writing and printing for official presentation in April 1980. The day before Easter Holiday that year, on March 27th 1980, Kielland capsized. Discussions taking place based on the disaster were requirements for increased safety, lifesaving equipment, and stronger platforms. More money had to be spent on making stronger structures. On April 14th 1980 PAX publishing presented the first paperback on Kielland "Nordsjøtragedien". The book contained pictures of the fatigue crack in bracing D6 claiming this to be the cause of the disaster. This at a time were other bracings still were laying at the bottom of the Ekofisk field. The specialist engaged in writing the technical part was dosent, later professor at NTNUI , mr. Carl Martin Larsen (CML). In 1984 the Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) reporter mr. Bjorn Nilsen divulged to mr. Ostlund that CML had been writing the technical part of the paperback working at the publishing company's office and in close contact with his superior at the time professor at NTNUI, and technical expert at the official investigation committee, mr.Torgeir Moan, ref; Note from NRK, 25.04.1984 .

As Mr Ostlund's engagement in the "Kielland" case became more public harassment increased. Mr Ostlund had made technical inventions related to competitive oil and gas exploration involving several patent applications. It seemed that his devotion for truth on Kielland at the same time hampered his own business oportunities. All this and more is a long time story over several years. It would take more than a few pages to cover every possible incident in a brief introduction...

Nevertheless some highlights are given for your consideration:
"Irene 6" - As the conflict arose mr. Ostlund would not accept to be screwed for money. Risør Trebåtbyggeri A/S could have saved themself further expenditure by just launching the hull back into the water, unless they wanted to cover up their misbehaviour. As the bled keel already was taken off., the wood itself would have carying capacity to keep the penetrated hull from sinking, ref, Seilas/Båtliv nr. 3/83 side 9. How could mr Ostlund defend critiscizing others for bad cost control if he didn't manage to control cost on his own project(s)?

Document Safe
Mr Ostlund's private documentary safe was imported German made. The safe contained documents related to his inventions, patents as well as corespondance related to the "Kielland" case including with H.M.King Olav V. Was the brake in of the safe standing in mr. Ostlund's office at Ila Stlindustri A/S in Trondheim related to industrial espionage, or steel samples from the explosion area in bracing D4 on "Kielland". The latter being recovered by mr. Ostlund's during his inspection of the D4 cut off piece at Dusavika.after uprighting late 1983, ref; Document safe1 and doc 2 . Ref; Material testing of bracing D4 upper breaking point.

Most indications pont in the direction of the break in of the documnet safe to be an inside operation, although this was never confirmed by the police. If the object was to allocate and destroy the samples from the D4 bracing on "Kielland" the operation failed.

In 1985 mr Ostlund had moved his office in Trondheim from Ila Stålindustri A/S to Idungården i Olav Tryggvasons gate 24. This downtown office building was owned by Storebrand, the same company headining up the Insurance pool on "Kielland". It was during his stay in Idungården that mr. Ostlund got clean proof that he was under surveillance, something he had felt for a long time. The operator from the telephone company installing his private phone divulged that his office phones where connected to a freelance journalist located on the other side of the office square, and working for Aftenposten, the newspaper mr Ostlund had presented the explossion theory to after uprighting and inspection in fall 1983. The same newspaper owner who during world war II participated in the norwegian resistance movement under Jens Chr. Hauge, the first chairman of the Board of Directors in Statoil, and close related to Håkon Lie which during the war spent a lot of time securing USA support for the Norwegian resistance. Håkon Lie was a former secretary of LO, the main labor union in Norway. He resides in an age of 98 in Florida. The following day the main shopsteward for the telephone operators in Trondheim fulfilled the installation of mr. Ostlund's private phone without any comments.

Car squeeze
In summer 1987 mr. Ostlund spent several weeks in Houston, Texas. This was after he had filed his complain for a new investigation of "Kielland" to take place with the Attorney General. In the spring of 1987 he had been given the honor of presenting the case for H.M.King Olav V in audience at the Royal castle in Oslo, which strengthened him in his belief that truth had to come forward in the best interest of the future for Norway. As the Attorney General did not persue his responsibility mr.Oslund filed a complain before prime minister Gro Harlem Bruntland, requesting her to present the case before the King in Cabinet, giving the King an opportunity to instruct the Attorney General to perform his job according to Norwegian Constitution. During his stay in Houston mr. Ostlund kept in close contact with Norway. As nothing happened, and Prime Minister Bruntland neglected to present the case before the King mr Ostlund decided to return to Norwy in order to make right things happen. On his way to Houston International Airport his rent a car was squeezed of the road by a truck carrying a long load. ref; car squeeze 1, car squeeze 2 and car squeeze 3.

Door-notes and computer misuse (bugging?)
Obvious someone was very interested in mr Ostlunds doings. Several times he found notes sticked on to his office door:
Door-note 1
Door-note 2
Door-note 3
He also was notified that someone had been visiting his office and used his Personal Computer. The person in question had dropped a magasine named "International Construction" on the office floor.
This was reporetd to the police. Nothing was divulge, however, the local nwespaper brought a short note on 02 April 1985. Computer violation

There are more story's to be told. Most of them could be related to a SOAP STORY on TV.
For instance the possibility of mr. Ostlund during his stay in California in summer 1986 being framed with narcotis placed in his rental car while playing tennis with Erik Tiller at a tennis court in the neighbourhood of California Luthern University. The norwegian student Erik Tiller was during his summer leave in Trondheim employed by mr Ostlund to assist in developing mr Ostlund's business plan for setting up his company OCO International Inc., USA. As summer holiday was comming to an end mr. Ostlund decided to come over to Los Angeles to finish his Business Outline together with Erik Tiller's assosciate mr. Jean Paul Fredsti. At the same time mr Ostlund had planned to consult professors Liepmann and Roscoe at Caltech about the explossion in bracing D4 on Kielland. The consultation at Caltech took place in fall of 1986, shortly before the Iran-Contra case became public. The work performed by doctor Sturtevant on Caltech outruled the possibility of a gas explossion having taken place in bracing D4 on "Kielland".

During his stay in L.A. and visiting Erik Tiller at the campus of Luthern University, mr Ostlund discovered there was drug abuse among the students putting pressure also on the Norwegians. Mr Ostlund came hard down on the American student pushing the drugs within the building Erik resided, stating he would not accept this behaviour, and if it did not stop he would have to notify school authorities resulting in likely expel from campus.

After finishing the Business Outline for OCO International Inc., USA, Mr Ostlund and Mr. Fredsti left for New York.

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Link to Kostnadsanalysen

Added on May 20th 2005.
During his stay with Mr. Fredsti in the USA in fall 1986 Mr. Ostlund felt he was under surveillance. The feeling became more than just a feeling. Asking Mr Fredsti for advice on countersurveillance equipment, Mr. Ostlund ended up visiting CCS - Communication Control System office in beverly Hills, LA.

He was not surprised when it during the meeting was obvious that the person talking to in CCS knew more about Mr. Ostlund and his operations in Stavanger, Norway, than just talking to him at the meeting.

Arriving New York together Mr Fredsti they during their stay at The Sheraton, "occasionally" ran into Mr. Ostlunds third coussin from Trondheim, Christian Østereng, who was visting New York on computer business for his insurance company in Norway.

Link to Surveillance - avlytting - overvåkning

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