- On August 14, Obama did what he does best, deceiving
and betraying the public. Again it was on the Gulf disaster, saying:
-
- "Today, the well is capped, oil is no longer flowing
into the Gulf, and it has not been flowing for a month....I also want to
point out that as a result of the cleanup effort, beaches all along the
Gulf Coast are clean and safe and open for business....But I won't be satisfied
until the environment has been restored, no matter how long it takes."
-
- False on all counts. The Macondo well was capped, but
video and other evidence show continued leakage, an organization called
Concerned Citizens of Florida (CCF), saying:
-
- "....government cannot be relied upon to impart
all the information that we need to make informed and necessary decisions.
We know that they will not (and have not) respond(ed) quickly (and adequately)
enough to this unfolding disaster or perform to the standard that is required
to meet it head on." Nor will the major media, "act(ing) as a
mouthpiece for both government and industry."
-
- On November 14, CCF headlined an article, "Oil and
Gas Leaks Continue Unabated at Macondo: Photos document oily fluid all
over the seafloor," saying:
-
- BP's announcing Macondo shut last July, was "just
empty rhetoric and part of (its) elaborate Mass Deception Act. First of
all....the oil leak....was never (fully) killed and could never be killed."
In fact, experts say the Gulf seabed is fractured. Even BP confirmed damage
inside Macondo, well below the seafloor. Why else would much of the Gulf
sea floor be covered with two-inch thick oil layers. More as well showing
up in giant plumes, and reports confirming "fresh oil coming ashore."
-
- Though unverified, a report by Anatoly Sagalevich, director
of Deepwater Submersibles Laboratory at Russia's Shirshov Institute of
Oceanology, said the Gulf seabed is fractured "beyond all repair,"
a potentially disastrous condition he called "beyond comprehension."
Using one of the Institute's Deep Submergence Vehicles, his analysis was
based on close-up seabed observation and analysis.
-
- Besides Macondo, he claimed at least 18 other sites were
leaking oil, the largest seven miles from where Deepwater Horizon sank,
gushing an estimated two million gallons daily. Several times on CNBC and
MSNBC, oil expert Matthew Simmons was firm in reporting another giant Gulf
leak, miles from Macondo. Last August, he mysteriously drowned in his bath
tub - the purported cause, a heart attack. Unanswered questions remain.
-
- On November 13, CCF said:
-
- "We have been lied to, through and through....The
gas-oil spill continues unabated (to) this day. (The well-capping) was
just a 'dog & pony show' to fool the world. There is a constant need
to spray" dispersants. It's ongoing daily, mainly at night but brazenly
during daytime as well, according to fishermen and coastal residents.
-
- On November 12, CCF headlined, "Mounting Evidence
Points to 2 Wellheads at Macondo," saying:
-
- Rumors suggested that "BP had drilled two wells,"
side by side. "Lately, (based on video evidence) we have also seen
the corrosive effects of the 'potent mixture' that is pouring out not only
from the broken wells but also through the crevices in the seafloor."
-
- More Evidence of A Far Greater Disaster
-
- Dr. Gianluigi Zangari is a theoretical physicist at Italy's
National Institute of Nuclear Physics at Frascati National Laboratories.
A climate research and analysis expert, he said massive amounts of Gulf
oil, much on the seabed, caused a disruption of the Gulf's Loop Current.
It caused a dramatic weakening in the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Current's
vorticity (a mass of whirling water or air) as well as a 10C drop in North
Atlantic water temperatures.
-
- The oil/dispersants combination is causing the warm Gulf
and Caribbean to die, he believes. Contaminated oil covers half the Gulf
seafloor. No effective cleanup method is possible. It's also flowed up
America's East Coast, into the North Atlantic, and beyond - the North Atlantic
Current becoming the Norway and Canary Currents.
-
- As a result, global waters and weather patterns have
been affected. The Obama administration's irresponsible handling of the
disaster may cause catastrophic fallout later on - to millions of people
and the environment, including long-term (perhaps permanent) Gulf contamination.
-
- Zangari said the Loop Current broke down around mid-May,
generating "a clock wise eddy, which is still active. (Currently),
the situation has deteriorated up to the point in which the eddy has detached
itself completely from the main stream, therefore destroying completely
the Loop Current....It is reasonable to foresee the threat that the breaking
of a crucial warm stream (like) the Loop Current may generate a chain reaction
of unpredictable critical phenomena and instabilities due to strong non-
linearities which may have serious consequences on the dynamics of the
Gulf Stream thermoregulation activity of the Global Climate."
-
- He added that the Loop Current affects "all life
on the planet. The Gulf Stream is a strong interlinked component of the
global network of ocean conveyor currents, which drive" planetary
weather. That, in turn, may cause droughts, floods, crop failures, and
global food shortages.
-
- His main worry is that there's "no historical precedent
for the sudden replacement of a natural system, with a dysfunction man-made
(one). That is, except for" nuclear bomb blasts, widespread radiation,
nuclear waste contamination, and events like Chernobyl. As a result, he
worries what this new phenomenon portends for the future, suggesting potentially
dire planetary consequences will follow.
-
- Other Disturbing Evidence
-
- Experts and local residents express concern about a combination
of widespread contamination, growing illnesses, and environment destruction.
Besides the above, it's a lethal mixture, impacting the lives of growing
millions, but government officials and media reports won't explain it.
-
- For example, independent lab tests confirmed that Gulf
seafood contains high levels toxic compounds, a combination of oil, dispersants,
and other substances. After conducting tests on Gulf shrimp, Robert Naman,
a chemist at Mobile, AL's ACT Labs said:
-
- "I wouldn't eat shrimp or crab caught in the Gulf."
His tests showed unusually high levels of digestive tract oil and grease
at 193 parts-per-million. According to Dr. William Sawyer, a researcher
at Florida's Sanibel Toxicology Consultants & Assessment Specialists:
-
- "Once oil enters (a living organism), it can damage
every organ, every system in the body. There is no safe level of exposure
to this oil, because it contains carcinogens, mutagens that can damage
DNA and cause cancer and other chronic health problems."
-
- Oil/Dispersant Contaminants Killing Coral Reefs
-
- Scientists have confirmed that Gulf coral reefs near
the Macondo well site are dying, clearly from toxic contaminants. On November
5, writing for National Geographic News, Kathleen Jones (a National Geographic
TV producer) said:
-
- "Large communities of several types of bottom-dwelling
coral were found covered with a dark substance at depths of about 4,600
feet near the damaged Deepwater Horizon wellhead, according to a scientific
team on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) ship
Ronald H. Brown."
-
- Team member Timothy Shank of Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution said:
-
- "The coral were either dead or dying, and in some
cases they were simply exposed skeletons. I've never seen that before.
And when we tried to take samples of the coral, this black - I don't know
how to describe it - black, fluffylike substance fell off of them."
-
- According to onboard researchers, about 90% of 40 large
groups of severely damaged soft coral were discolored, dead or dying. At
another site, about 1,300 feet away, a hard coral colony was also partly
covered with the same substance.
-
- Penn State University's Dr. Charles Fisher, the ship's
lead scientist, said:
-
- "Corals do die, but you don't see them die all at
once. This....indicates a recent catastrophic event," clearly connected
to the Macondo disaster. "The proximity of the site to the disaster,
the depth of the site, the clear evidence of recent impact, and the uniqueness
of the observations all suggest that the impact we have found is linked
to the exposure of this community to either oil, dispersant(s), extremely
depleted oxygen, or some combination of these or other water-borne effects
resulting from the spill....We were looking for subtle changes....What
we saw was not subtle."
-
- For months, scientists said oil isn't degrading, its
toxic ingredients to have long-term dire effects on marine life, vegetation,
and humans. In August, University of South Florida (USF) oceanographer
David Hollander discovered "deep-sea creatures....showing a strong
toxic response to hydrocarbons..."
-
- Hollander's USF colleague, John Paul, told National Geographic
News that the coral die-off is a "smoking cannon. It doesn't surprise
me. It could be the tip of the iceberg of all kinds of weird things we're
going to see in the Gulf of Mexico in the next three to five years."
Maybe much longer.
-
- Dying Gulf Wildlife
-
- For months throughout the Gulf region, reports confirmed
massive fish kills, a September 14 one on a Louisiana waterway showing
a picture looking more like a gravel road. In fact, it was a water surface
covered with dead sea life, "a mishmash of species of fish, crabs,
stingray and eel." Other accounts reported dead sea turtles, dolphins
and a whale along a stretch of coastal Louisiana. In summer, fish kills
are common, the result of dead zones, but nothing comparable to what's
been seen, all species affected.
-
- On November 6, the Detroit Free Press said wildlife keeps
dying in the Gulf. An earlier September 14 Travel & Nature report said
the Mississippi River was "brimming with dead fish near the Gulf of
Mexico." Found were pogies, redfish, drum, crabs, shrimp, freshwater
eel, and other species. Numerous other reports are just as disturbing,
some suggesting all Gulf wildlife is threatened, and that virtually all
of it is contaminated and unsafe.
-
- Obama's Gulf Disaster Whitewash Commission
-
- On May 22, Obama established a commission to investigate
the disaster, the seven-person team headed by former EPA administrator,
William Reilly and former Florida governor/senator Bob Graham. At the time,
Obama said:
-
- "We need to take a comprehensive look at how the
oil and gas industry operates and how regulate them. The purpose of this
commission is to consider both the root causes of the disaster and offer
options on what safety and environmental precautions we need to take to
prevent similar disasters from happening again."
-
- Newly released commission findings confirm he lied. An
earlier article foresaw the whitewash, accessed through the following link:
-
- http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/05/obamas-gulf-commission-distortion.html
-
- On November 8, in the wake of the greatest ever environmental
crime, Fred Bartlit, the National Commission's general counsel said:
-
- "To date, we have not seen a single instance where
a human being made a conscious decision to favor dollars over safety."
This about a company Public Citizen's Tyson Slocum said has "the worst
safety and environmental record of any oil company operating in America."
An earlier article documented it, accessed through the following link:
-
- http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/05/lessons-from-gulf.html
-
- To settle federal, state, and civil lawsuits, it's paid
out hundreds of millions in fines as well as penalties for manipulating
energy markets. BP is a criminal enterprise, profits its sole concern,
its rap sheet showing a disturbing pattern of willful neglect, unfulfilled
promises, and utter disregard for personal or environmental safety.
-
- Yet from day one, the Obama administration covered for
its crimes, complicit in coverup, distortion, lies, and total disregard
for the environment, wildlife, personal safety, and way of life for thousands,
let alone permanent damage to a vital ecosystem. It showed in his commission's
findings, a brazen whitewash of criminal negligence.
-
- Daniel Becnel, a Louisiana lawyer suing BP, called the
findings "absolutely absurd....pasting over (the truth) because they
know the government is going to be a defendant sooner or later in this
litigation."
-
- Retired University of Alaska scientist Rick Steiner is
an outspoken critic of oil industry practices. He's also a prominent member
of the Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy (CEESP),
its agenda being:
-
- "(a) world where equity is at the root of a dynamic
harmony between people and nature, as well as among peoples, (promoting
policies in accord with) livelihoods, human rights and responsibilities,
human development, security, equity, and the fair and effective governance
of natural resources."
-
- Steiner was appalled at the commission's findings, calling
them "the most colossally ignorant conclusion anyone could draw. (They)
destroyed any credibility the commission may have had....The people and
companies that run these rigs (think only of) cut(ting) costs....enhanc(ing)
production and....generat(ing) more revenue in less time. Every decision
they make has to do with that. The Deepwater Horizon rig was 43 days behind
schedule, at about a million dollars a day. Don't tell me that this was
not a persistent pressure on everybody on the rig."
-
- "BP has had an unwritten rule here in Alaska called
'run-to-failure.' If your equipment is starting to fail, you continue to
run it till it does fail, instead of stopping the operation, upgrading
it, maintaining it, putting in a new gas compressor pump or piping section.
There's a stigma associated with safety consciousness, and there's certainly
a stigma associated with stopping work if you detect a safety lapse or
problem."
-
- Steiner added that the Macondo well was trouble-plagued
from the start. Rig employees called it "the well from hell"
and "nightmare well," saying "this well didn't want to be
drilled." They should have plugged and abandoned it, he added. Instead
they cut corners, assuring trouble. For the commission to deny this is
"absurd" and criminally negligent.
-
- The only part of its report Steiner agreed with was that
a mere 3% of spilled oil was recovered. Now the media spotlight is off.
Business as usual continues, "and the environment of the Gulf of Mexico
(was) sacrificed for nothing."
-
- Shockingly, Bartlit, a BP stooge, said the commission
agreed with "90%" of its own internal investigation, saying:
-
- "We see no instance where a decision-making person
or group of people sat there aware of safety risks, aware of costs and
opted to give up safety for costs. I've been on a lot of rigs, and I don't
believe people sit there and say, 'This is really dangerous, but the guys
in London will make more money.' We do not say everything done was perfectly
safe. We're saying that people (didn't trade) safety for dollars. We studied
the hell out of this. We welcome anybody who gives us something we missed."
-
- The commission, in fact, missed everything, running cover
for BP and the administration, its report replete with willful lies.
-
- BP is a serial scofflaw. Yet, despite its criminal neglect
history, it's allowed to conduct business as usual because of government
complicity, regulatory laxity, and whitewashed commission reports. Bartlit,
in fact, has long served industry interests, including the 1988 North Sea
Piper Alpha disaster, drafting a 1990 inquiry that assured Occidental Petroleum
faced no criminal charges. He also represented George Bush in the stolen
2000 election.
-
- Supporting high crime pays well. Defending truth, environmental
concerns, public safety and welfare is scorned and ignored at a time profits
alone, not people, matter.
-
- Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com
and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the
Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays
at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs
are archived for easy listening.
-
- http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
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