2010-06-17

BP Is Destroying Evidence and Censoring Journalists

Vatic Note:  We keep asking " Why are they censoring and prohibiting independant confirmation of their admitted big blow out problem?"   Its not because of the wildlife as is always the case, rather its because they are hiding something we DO NOT KNOW and they don't want us to find out about.  The so called "extinction" event nature of the so called blow out is not only being admitted by BP, but is being constantly shoved into our faces with lots of FEAR about it, so that is not what they are hiding, since that press is owned by the same owners of BP.   So WHY AND WHAT ARE THEY HIDING????  Could it be there was no oil blow out and thus NO LEGITIMATE REASON TO POUR 1 MILLION GALLONS OF TOXIC DISBURSEMENT INTO THE GULF????  Or to use the CIA EVERGREEN DRUG RUNNING AIRLINES TO DISBURSE MORE IN THE AIR OVER COASTAL LAND AREAS???  Is it because they in fact are conducting CHEMICAL WARFARE AGAINST THE PEOPLE???   Killing our food supply during growing season?  That chemical turns to gas and forms clouds that then move over land and its doing that right now and killing all plant life.   IS THAT WHAT THEY ARE HIDING, IS MURDER, DESTRUCTION OF LIFE,  intentionally making people ill or killing the weak and unproductive???  What is the reason they are hiding all of this and why did our military spokesperson say BP was "the governments partner" in all of this????  The first act by the President of the United States was a military response to protect BP's oil rigs from someone attacking them.  Why???  What are they planning that would make people want to attack their oil rigs???  Would it be on the off chance that we found out about the chemical warfare against us????  That would make sense and its the only explanationt that makes sense.  

BP Is Destroying Evidence and Censoring Journalists


By Riki Ott, provided to Vatic Project by Jim Kirwan,
AlterNet, June 14, 2010
http://www.alternet.org/story/147185/

Orange Beach, Alabama -- While President Obama insists that the federal government is firmly in control of the response to BP's spill in the Gulf, people in coastal communities where I visited last week in Louisiana and Alabama know an inconvenient truth: BP -- not our president -- controls the response. In fact, people on the ground say things are out of control in the gulf.

Even worse, as my latest week of adventures illustrate, BP is using federal agencies to shield itself from public accountability.

For example, while flying on a small plane from New Orleans to Orange Beach, the pilot suddenly exclaimed, "Look at that!"

The thin red line marking the federal flight restrictions of 3,000 feet over the oiled Gulf region had just jumped to include the coastal barrier islands off Alabama.

"There's only one reason for that," the pilot said. "BP doesn't want the media taking pictures of oil on the beaches. You should see the oil that's about six miles off the coast," he said grimly. We looked down at the wavy orange boom surrounding the islands below us. The pilot shook his head. "There's no way those booms are going to stop what's offshore from hitting those beaches."



BP knows this as well -- boom can only deflect oil under the calmest of sea conditions, not barricade it -- so they have stepped up their already aggressive effort to control what the public sees.

At the same time I was en route to Orange Beach, Clint Guidry with the Louisiana Shrimp Association and Dean Blanchard, who owns the largest shrimp processor in Louisiana, were in Grand Isle taking Anderson Cooper out in a small boat to see the oiled beaches. The U.S. Coast Guard held up the boat for 20 minutes - an intimidation tactic intended to stop the cameras from recording BP's damage. Luckily for Cooper and the viewing public, Dean Blanchard is not easily intimidated.

A few days later, the jig was up with the booms. Oil was making landfall in four states and even BP can't be everywhere at once. CBS 60 Minutes Australia found entire sections of boom hung up in marsh grasses two feet above the water off Venice. On the same day on the other side of Barataria Bay, Louisiana Bayoukeeper documented pools of oil and oiled pelicans inside the boom - on the supposedly protected landward side - of Queen Bess Island off Grand Isle.

With oil undisputedly hitting the beaches and the number of dead wildlife mounting, BP is switching tactics. In Orange Beach, people told me BP wouldn't let them collect carcasses. Instead, the company was raking up carcasses of oiled seabirds.

"The heads separate from the bodies," one upset resident told me. "There's no way those birds are going to be autopsied. BP is destroying evidence!"(VN:  it maybe they don't want you to know its the chemicals that are killing the birds instead of the oil.  Remember, birds can recover from oil as we found out, but not from the chemicals.  We have a serious problem with intentional murder and destruction through chemical warfare by the bankers on BP's board WHO ALSO OWN THE CHEMICAL DISBURSEMENT COMPANY).

The body count of affected wildlife is crucial to prove the harm caused by the spill, and also serves as an invaluable tool to evaluate damages to public property - the dolphins, sea turtles, whales, sea birds, fish, and more, that are owned by the American public. Disappeared body counts means disappeared damages - and disappeared liability for BP. BP should not be collecting carcasses. The job should be given to NOAA, a federal agency, and volunteers, as was done during the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.

NOAA should also be conducting carcass drift studies. Only one percent of the dead sea birds made landfall in the Gulf of Alaska, for example. That means for every one bird that was found, another 99 were carried out to sea by currents. Further, NOAA should be conducting aerial surveys to look for carcasses in the offshore rips where the currents converge. That's where the carcasses will pile up--a fact we learned during the Exxon Valdez spill.

Maybe that's another reason for BP's "no camera" policy and the flight restrictions.

On Saturday June 12, people across America will stand up and speak out with one voice to protest BP's treatment of the Gulf, neglect for the response workers, and their response to government authority. President Obama needs to hear and see the people waving cameras and respirators. Until the media is allowed unrestricted access to the Gulf and impacted beaches, BP - not the President of United States - will remain in charge of the Gulf response.

For more information on community rallies, please visit HERE.

Riki Ott, PhD, is a community activist, a former fisherm'am, and has a degree in marine toxicology with a specialty in oil pollution. She is also the author of Sound Truth and Corporate Myth$: The Legacy of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill.

:: Article nr. 67030 sent on 15-jun-2010 05:17 ECT

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=67030

:: The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website.




The article is reproduced in accordance with Section 107 of title 17 of the Copyright Law of the United States relating to fair-use and is for the purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.

2 comments:

msavage12 said...

How about, Bottom Line…supply respirators for workers!! Please learn from my experience and do not end this spill cleanup with workers as BP's Collateral Damaged.

My letter to Gulf residents.
http://www.urbanconservancy.org/letters/gulf-coast-cleanup-caution-urged

The crude oil is toxic, and anyone who cleans the oily Gulf beaches needs to know the danger.
http://www.lvrj.com/news/exxon-valdez-oil-risks-spur-warning-for-gulf-cleanup-crews-93258964.html

My name is Merle Savage, a female general foreman during the Exxon Valdez oil spill (EVOS) beach cleanup in 1989. I am one of the 11,000+ cleanup workers, who is suffering from health issues from that toxic cleanup, without compensation from Exxon.

Dr. Riki Ott visited me in 2007 to explain about the toxic spraying on the beaches, and informed me that Exxon's medical records that surfaced in litigation by sick workers in 1994, had been sealed from the public, making it impossible to hold Exxon responsible for their actions. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5632208859935499100

Beach crews breathed in crude oil that splashed off the rocks and into the air -- the toxic exposure turned into chronic breathing conditions, central nervous system problems, neurological impairment, chronic respiratory disease, leukemia, lymphoma, brain tumors, liver damage, and blood disease. http://www.silenceinthesound.com/stories.shtml

My web site is devoted to searching for EVOS cleanup workers who were exposed to the toxic spraying, and are suffering from the same illnesses that I have. Our summer employment turned into a death sentence for many — and a life of unending medical conditions for the rest of Exxon’s Collateral Damaged.

Vatic said...

Thank you, Merle Savage and I would like to put this up on its own blog with live links so everyone can follow up on it, especially our followers in the gulf area. They need all the advice and help we can give them.

Let me know at vatic2010@gmail.com if I may use your name on the commentary? Thanks for what you did and for the high price you paid to do it.