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19 June 2010 By Stephen Lendman
Since taking office, Obama proved
himself a machine politician, not a man of the people,
an earlier article explaining it this way:
He promised peace and delivered
war; real health and financial reform, not same old,
same old; help for millions losing jobs, homes, hope
and futures, not handouts to Wall Street and other
industry favorites; regulatory oversight, not the
usual incestuous government-industry ties, making
disasters like in the Gulf possible, and when they
happen conspiring with offenders in coverup,
distortion, lies, and a total disregard for the
environment, wildlife, and way of life for thousands -
let alone permanent damage to a vital ecosystem.
At the same time, Big Oil gets
billions in subsidies, special tax breaks and other
financial benefits, besides being free to operate
recklessly in a regulatory-free environment. Little
wonder that a disaster now threatens to become the
greatest ecological one ever, gushing oil that's
potentially unstoppably from multiple sea floor
ruptures, worsened apparently by BP fix attempts done
as PR stunts, the company and administration knowing
they wouldn't work but used them anyway as a charade
to fool the public.
In addition, for nearly two
months, company officials:
-- obstructed cleanup efforts and
hasn't provided proper equipment to do it;
-- suppressed vital information;
-- told cleanup workers they'd be
fired if spoke to the media;
-- lied from day one about what
happened and its severity;
-- denied adequate compensation
to Gulf victims;
-- withheld respirators and other
protective gear from cleanup workers, many now ill
from flu-like symptoms, including severe headaches,
dizziness, nosebleeds, chest pains, and trouble
breathing that may persist, become worse and for many
be long-lasting or permanent;
-- ordered workers showing up
with respirators and other protective gear to remove
it or be fired; and
-- on June 17, BP CEO Tony
Haywood stonewalled the House Energy and Commerce
Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation by
refusing to provide information he knows as chief
operating officer.
Yet BP got White House, cabinet,
and congressional backing from the start,
collaborating in a likely trillion or multi-trillion
dollar crime, affecting the entire regional economy as
well as the lives, health and welfare of tens of
thousands of its residents, on their own and out of
luck, like millions of others nationwide facing
enormous hardships from job losses, home foreclosures,
growing poverty, hunger, and unaffordable illnesses
because of Washington's indifference during the
gravest economic crisis since the Great Depression.
One of Many
Disturbing Views
On June 12, theOilDrum.com
assessed the crisis as follows:
"First of all....set aside all
your thoughts of plugging the well and stopping it
from blowing out oil using any method from the top
down. Plugs, big valves to just shut it off, pinching
the pipe closed, installing a new (blowout protector)
or (lower marine riser package), shooting any epoxy in
it, top kills with mud etc etc etc....forget that, it
won't be happening....In fact, (it) actually open(s)
up the well at the subsea source and allow(s) it to
gush more."
"It's really an inescapable
conclusion at this point (based on expert oil and gas
professional opinions) that "The well bore structure
is compromised 'Down hole.' That is something which is
a 'Worst nightmare' conclusion to reach....It means
they will never cap the gusher (at) the wellhead. They
cannot (and) the more they try and restrict the oil
gushing out the top, the more it will transfer to the
leaks below."
"The down hole leak will
undermine the foundation of the seabed in and around
the well area. (In fact), we are beginning to (see)
the well's total integrity beginning to fail....I am
convinced (that) the entire system is accelerating and
attacking more key structural areas of the well."
After enough damage is done, "the casing will buckle
and the (blowout preventer) will collapse the well."
BP and Washington know it but
conceal it from the public and residents most
affected.
At some point, "the worst things
you can think of" will happen. "The well may come
completely apart as the inner liners fail....the least
damaging outcome (being) that we are stuck with a wide
open gusher blowing out 150,000 barrels a day of raw
oil or more."
The longer the oil gushes, the
worse things will get, and in the end every fix tried
will fail, including relief wells to relieve pressure.
At that point, "the system will collapse or fail
substantially....and the worst is yet to come,"
increasing the magnitude of the disaster
"exponentially."
Response from
The New York Times
The paper of record largely
supported Obama's address, including his supposed
humbling BP with a $20 billion escrow fund for claims,
saying in an editorial headlined, "From the Oval
Office" that:
"Americans have been anxiously
waiting for President Obama to take full charge of the
gulf oil catastrophe," and he did by "vow(ing) to
'fight this spill with everything we've got for as
long as it takes' and declared that 'we will make BP
pay for the damage their company has caused.' "
Agreeing that follow through is
essential "with more energy and dedication than they
have shown so far," and that his speech "was short on
specifics and devoid of self-criticism," The Times was
hopeful that "Obama was right when he predicted that
in 'coming weeks and days,' up to 90 per cent of the
oil leaking....will be captured and the well finally
capped by this summer" - a virtual impossibility for
either to happen, something the "newspaper of record"
should know and report.
The Times also endorsed the
Senate's "long-stalled comprehensive energy and
climate bill, a necessary first step to reducing this
country's dependence on fossil fuels and tackling the
problem of global warming," when, in fact, it's a
scheme to raise energy prices and create a huge new
bubble through carbon trading derivatives speculation,
and has nothing to do with the environment except
increase pollution.
Yet the editorial says "Time is
quickly running out for Congress to act before the
midterm elections. There is no chance at all (for
passage) unless Mr. Obama takes full charge of that
fight as well," typical irresponsible misinformation,
backing powerful corporate interests, a longstanding
Times tradition, why nothing it reports can be
believed in editorials or news coverage, why most of
what it publishes isn't "fit to print" or read, for
sure not believe.
Gulf Gas Bubble
Danger Alert
On June 14, author Richard C.
Hoagland, citing insider BP and US government sources,
told the BBC that "a gas bubble approximately 15 - 20
miles across 10+ feet high near (BP's) well
head....had formed that that it may cause a massive
explosion within weeks or months."
He said the pressure is enormous,
around 100,000 pounds per square inch, so if it
happens it will be an underwater volcanic eruption,
creating a huge tsunami, traveling at 400 - 600 miles
per hour, sinking all vessels in its path, besides
causing vast shoreline damage and deaths, driving up
oil prices, and spreading hazardous dispersants and
gasses well inland.
Florida, he believes, will be
hardest hit, but the entire region will be affected. A
mass evacuation will be ordered, affecting about 40
million people, what Jane Burgermeister reported on
her birdflu.666 site, saying under "martial law:"
"The US military is preparing to
'evacuate' 40 million people in the (Gulf)
region....under the pretext of toxicity, according to
sources," taking them to "notorious FEMA camps, built
around the country and resembling concentration camps
or prisons...."
Citing sources she calls
reliable, she adds that "if the seabed is fractured,
then all gulf drilling will be suspended (and) will
force the price of energy and gas to double worldwide
within a few months." Only time will confirm if true,
but already the situation is grim, with nothing in
prospect for improvement, according to some reliable
oil experts.
In readiness, Hoagland said the
Coast Guard is calling up former officers and seamen,
"offering enticements to come back into service
quickly," and that "measurements at Venice and (New
Iberia), LA are (already) showing health endangering
levels of toxic hydrogen sulfides and benzene gasses."
He believes evacuation will likely come or millions
may die or suffer severe health consequences, because
of toxicity in large amounts being emitted.
Again, whether or not true
remains to be seen, but better to know the
possibilities (even if exaggerated or proved false)
than remain uninformed and unprepared for the worst.
Under the best case scenario, this is an unprecedented
environmental catastrophe, criminally covered up by
Washington and BP.
Oval Office
Cover and Capitulation to Corporate Predation
Obama's June 15 address was
disingenuous, shameless, hypocritical and supportive
of Big Oil interests, much like his backing for the
Israeli Lobby, Wall Street bandits, Big Pharma, the
insurance lobby, auto giants, agribusiness, defense
contractors, and other corporate favorites, while
endorsing big cuts in vital public benefits and
services to show fiscal restraint.
Playing front man for BP, he
didn't explain the cause or severity of the crisis in
terms of its effects on the economy, ecosystem, and
lives, welfare and health of Gulf state residents. Nor
did he demand accountability for perhaps the greatest
ever environmental crime, as a result of
government-corporate complicity that neither this or
any other disaster will change, and unless it does,
profits will always supersede public welfare and
ecological safety, externalities indifferently
sacrificed without concern, no matter how severe.
Obama, of course, is a front man for a human and
environmentally destructive system, his pious rhetoric
and brave face a shameless lie.
To a nationwide audience, he said
nothing about regulatory laxity, BP's disregard for
worker safety, its shoddy history of dangerous
practices, the disrepair of its equipment by cutting
corners on maintenance and proper controls, years of
manager warnings to top officials ignored about safety
concerns risking serious accidents, employees
pressured to be silent, say nothing, or be fired, and
the company's single-minded pursuit of bottom-line
issues, everything else be damned - to such an extreme
that it got former EPA debarment attorney, Jeanne
Pascal, to say after investigating company practices:
"They are a recurring
environmental criminal and they do not follow US
health safety and environmental policy. At what point
are we going to say we are not going to do business
with you any more, bye? None of the other supermajors
have an environmental criminal record like they do."
So why did Obama provide BP cover
from day one, and in his 18 minute nationwide address?
Why hasn't he held a corporate scofflaw accountable,
run the cleanup from the start, demand BP provide full
information on the problem and cooperate with
Washington in charge or face criminal prosecution,
huge fines, and nationalization? Why hasn't the public
been fully informed? Why do the administration, its
officials, the Congress and Coast Guard work for BP
instead of the other way around?
Why has he unquestioningly
accepted all BP pronouncements on faith, including
deliberately falsifying gush estimates - first, 1,000
barrels a day, then 5,000, then 25,000 - 40,000, and
now 30,000 - 60,000 when reliable evaluations are
double these numbers or higher and explain a problem
that may turn the entire gulf and beyond into dead
zones, as well as contaminate the entire Atlantic
coast and waters well beyond?
Why hasn't he explained Coast
Guard Admiral Thad Allen's offhand comment that most
oil isn't flowing up BP's pipe but is "in
communication" with the sea floor and surrounding
formations, meaning it's gushing from multiple
ruptures, perhaps more to come because of the enormous
pressure eroding the well's walls? Why hasn't he
announced that perhaps nothing can stop them short of
technologies that don't exist, other than perhaps a
nuclear option that might fail and magnify the problem
as well as irradiate the Gulf and regional
shorelines?
Why did he said nothing about
noxious air and toxic rain if one or more hurricanes
hit the Gulf? Why isn't he warning residents and
providing help in case of the worst? Why doesn't he
use the military for cleanup, restoration and other
aid, and bring home US forces from Iraq and
Afghanistan to do it?
Why does he repeat BP's lies,
censor the media, conspire to destroy evidence, and
keep the public in the dark when they have every right
to know anytime, let alone when there's an
unprecedented disaster affecting this and other
nations?
Why hasn't his Justice Department
indicted BP officials, ordered their arrest, and
imprisoned them where they belong? Why did he deliver
shameless boilerplate to a nationwide TV audience,
instead of a detailed action plan, with facts and hard
numbers, including seizing BP's assets, mandating all
be used to cover recovery and restoration costs, even
if it bankrupts the company? Why hasn't BP, and
perhaps the entire industry been nationalized - one
responsible for global environmental disasters, mostly
where victims aren't compensated and get shot if they
complain?
After a choreographed White House
meeting with top BP officials, why did he let them off
easy with a bogus $20 billion escrow fund, amounting
to two quarters of dividends, affecting only company
shareholders, that's way less than needed to
compensate affected residents, who'll be trashed in
deference to Big Oil interests? Why did he appoint
Kenneth Feinberg as overseer, a notorious Washington
fixer who'll protect BP and the administration, not
affected Gulf residents?
Why didn't he announce a complete
halt to offshore drilling, especially in dangerous
deep waters? Why didn't he (belatedly) order immediate
environmental impact studies on all current and future
drilling operations as well as mandated safety
regulations, placing worker and ecological issues
above bottom line ones?
Why isn't he our president,
instead of BP's front man, stooge, shill, willing
agent, betrayer of the public trust, like he's been in
all ways since taking office? When will the public
realize they've been fooled again, scammed, betrayed,
Obama no different from the rest, and, in fact, worse,
by fiddling, lying, obfuscating, and concealing the
truth while America and other nations face a
potentially catastrophic disaster? When will they
understand that only grassroots activism brings change
when it's determined enough to demand nothing less -
and what better time to try than now?
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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