BP and Feds Withheld Videos Showing Massive Scope of Oil Spill [View All]

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Source: ABC News

BP and Feds Withheld Videos Showing Massive Scope of Oil Spill
Coast Guard Told Public Not to 'Fixate' On Rate of Spill While Sitting On Video


New videos show more clearly than ever how BP, with little resistance from the Coast Guard or other federal agencies, kept the public in the dark about just how bad things were beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico.

With an apparently complicit Coast Guard, BP held oil spill videos for weeks.

On May 1, 11 days after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, and nine days after oil began spilling into the Gulf, the Coast Guard had still only released a single image of oil leaking a mile beneath the surface -- a fuzzy photograph of a broken pipe spewing oil.

But inside the unified command center, where BP and federal agencies were orchestrating the spill response, video monitors had already displayed hours of footage they did not make public. The images showed a far more dire situation unfolding underwater. The footage filmed by submarines showed three separate leaks, including one that was unleashing a torrent of oil into the Gulf.



Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/bp-feds-withheld-videos-showing-massive-scope-oil/story?id=10819367