BP and Feds Withheld Videos Showing Massive Scope of Oil Spill

[kpete]

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

[fascisthunter]

1. we knew it too...

I love this place. There are some very very fine posters here who seem wayyy ahead of the curve.

[RKP5637]

3. +1000 +++ Yep, agree so much, DU is an incredible place. Lots of good info and

discussions.

[woodsprite]

18. If I had a will, I'd leave DU some of it.

Guess I should fix that, huh!

This is about the ONLY place I go for news, and my daughter has picked up on it and actually uses links posted here to begin some of her school research. She said it's much better than hunt/peck on the sites her teacher points her to (like wikipedia). Not to mention, she feels she has 150K virtual liberal family members, where in physical reality, she has none except her Dad and I. It is also my link to sanity throughout the day when I work next to a cubby full of 5 gun-toting freepers.

[RKP5637]

23. Yep, I use it for my link to sanity too. And I find a breath of information on DU. I've

told a number of my friends about DU and that it goes far beyond just politics. I always find a wealth of information on DU and the people are nice. The Moderators also do an excellent job of getting rid of persistent blatant A-Holes. In my daydreaming I often wish there were a country of DU.

I find the discussions on DU so interesting. Sometimes I read the OP and think one thing, and then as I read the postings I see far better ideas and comments than mine. I've also been corrected before in some of my postings and the replies made a lot of sense. What a great place Du is... I've learned a lot and hopefully have shared some good info from time to time.

[slay]

66. Agreed. This is the best place to find out what's really going on

because a story will easily be debunked by many other posters if it's not true. They can't censor real news here on the internet - yet........

[harun]

37. Damn right we knew it. We also knew the Corporate Media would use

every chance it could to dampen the impact. Telling us how it isn't so bad, it is natural, Ocean's leak oil all the time, the sheen is beautiful, the layer of oil is less thick than a piece of paper, etc. etc.

[closeupready]

58. lol, it's not funny, but you hit all the deflection points right there, meaning

the MSM's lies are so predictable and scripted.

[RKP5637]

2. People will never learn that being upfront and honest yields more calm and

better solutions than covering up disasters... but yet the same thing goes on over and over. I also wonder how much the WH was kept in the dark during the initial days... I would love to see BP go under and more responsible corporations (if any) take the assets.

[John Q. Citizen]

12. Corporations exist to limit personal liability. Being responsible is antithical of that. I write

this because people are always imagining that there is some mythical "responsible" corporation out there. There isn't.

Corporations don't function to be responsible. They function to shield personal wealth from the demands of responsibility.

[RKP5637]

15. Well Said! I would also add the bottom line goal is also maximization of

profits which trumps responsibility.

[gateley]

33. In all fairness, they are required by law to best serve their shareholders. But it

seems as though they succumb to pure greed, the pressure to be the biggest, and any ethics fly out the window.

On paper, a company that operates responsibly and is able to give profit to its shareholders sounds like a good idea. I don't know if it's possible in the real world, though. And it's getting worse it seems.

[RKP5637]

36. IMO the greed factor has grown significantly, as well as shady and outright criminal

practices. Many of these corps. today operate like organized crime IMO. And the CEO salaries have become outrageous. To me really strong regulation is required to make it all work for the benefit of the country, but the corporate revolving doors between corps. and congress work to eliminate effective regulation. Business ethics, integrity and honesty have been written out of many corporate cultures. And now our supreme court thinks corporations are just citizens. The system is stacked against business ethics, integrity and honesty. Greed and bribery now rule...

[gateley]

38. Well said! And the comparison to organized crime is perfect. It seems as though

it's acceptable in that strata to cheat, lie and steal, as evidenced by the recent actions on Wall Street. I think these days with all our resources, we're able to uncover the truth much more easily, and that may eventually lead to public awareness and pressure, and ultimately to change.

[pscot]

40. What about the Feds?

I thought we were the shareholders there. Just how is this transparency thingy supposed to work?

[MissDeeds]

62. Ditto

I was wondering about the transparency in government thingy too. Didn't someone once say that we'd have that with this administration?

[liberation]

47. My main beef is that the definition of what's best for the shareholders is rather iffy

And in most corporations, the largest shareholders are the people in charge of the board. So it seems that the charter of a corporation exist solely to deflect responsibility for the people in charge of the corporation as they seek what is in the best of their interests.


If the mafia was half as smart as these MBAs, they would have incorporated and paid their taxes long ago, and the cops would then actually protect them. In fact, you don't even have to pay corporate taxes now, you can either pay some creative accountants to find some truck sized loopholes put there by your friendly corporate lobbying group, or just incorporate in some tax heaven and voila.

I honestly believe that people should start incorporating themselves as individual corporations, or establishing corporations made up of friends.

[kenfrequed]

52. Err...

Yes and the interests of the shareholder are most commonly expressed as maximization of quarterly rate of return on investment.

On paper a corporation is merely a legal device to limit liability and create profit. That is it. Anything else is corporate spin.

[primavera]

70. Yes, required by laws they wrote

Any "law" bearing on corporate conduct you can safely bet has been re-written over the decades to best serve the corporation.

[hay rick]

73. Lip service.

The board rooms have been taken over by looters and the shareholders are being taken along for a ride. Over the last 10 years, the S&P 500, with dividends reinvested, has offered negative returns. Handy calculator here: http://politicalcalculations.blogspot.com/2006/12/sp-500-at-your-fingertips.html

I plugged in the most recent available 10-year period (April, 2000- April 2010) and the calculator showed returns of -0.17%...-2.55% when adjusted for inflation. The S&P has lost about 10% since then...

Meanwhile, compensation for top company officers has gone through the roof.

[Lorien]

53. +1. nt

[truedelphi]

64. So in a CorpoRATe Controlled government, like ours, the President has

Few powers other than to collect a pay check, entertain people from all over the world, and offer to help the CorpoRATions in any way he or she can.

Unless they want to be November 22nd-ed, I guess...

[truedelphi]

65. So in our society with its a CorpoRATe Controlled government, the President has

Few powers other than to collect a pay check, entertain people from all over the world, and offer to help the CorpoRATions in any way he or she can.

Unless they want to be November 22nd-ed, I guess...

[primavera]

71. Bravo!

+1! :applause:

[charlesg]

4. Shocking, as usual

[meow mix]

5. traitor thad

picking BP over the american public

[joanmj]

7. Right on....

he's doing that right now on CNN with an embedded reporter...more spin to come when the Prez gets there!

[backtomn]

49. Why Thad.....???

I know this may not be popular, but if "THE GOVERNMENT" is siding with BP, why is Obama not challenged??? His speeches may have criticized BP, but what about his actions?? Come on Barack, we want more that words......here is your chance.

[captain jack]

6. Not sure why such things are withheld from the public. What's to fear? n/t

[DURHAM D]

9. market crash

[SOS]

27. 1990 law fines the offender per barrel

That's why BP is trying to cover up and minimize.

[Lost4words]

75. Its about control. nt

[pattmarty]

8. This may just be the "straw" that will break the back of most liberal............

..........support for Obama. With this on top of all the other "timid" responses of the administration on all matters, his chances in 2012 are getting dimmer and dimmer. This is just another "stupid" thing this administration has done that they didn't have to do or could been handled in a much better way. This country may in fact be fucking doomed.

[RoccoR5955]

11. That all depends on who runs against him in '12

Personally, I would like to see a Sanders/Kucinich or Kucinich/Sanders ticket, but I know that it will never happen.

Wait and see if the CONs run a Palin/Bachman ticket, or something equally appalling, and then see how much support Obama has.

[joeybee12]

13. We are doomed...we expcect complicity and lies from repukes...and

it's more sickening when it comes from dems.

[JCMach1]

54. and may unleash a 2010 backlash of epic proportion...

:(

[pattmarty]

63. Yep. Potentially could be worse than 1994. I still at this point...........

........don't think they will lose either the House or Senate in Nov, I believe they will lose seats in both. 2012 will be worse if Obama still has not accomplished much and the economy is still in the shitter. If the Republicans can shut up their crazy fucking extreme RW and nominate a candidate that appears "reasonable" and looks good and is somewhat intelligent the Dems I believe will be in deep shit in 2012.

[FlyByNight]

10. Both "sides" have mutual interests

B(ought) P(oliticians) wants to minimize, as much as possible, the PR nightmare. In so doing, the administration (and the Rs too) wants to keep that corporate money flowing. Coming down especially hard on BP will make other corporations wary about buying - oops, I meant contributing to - Dem candidates and/or the administration when '12 rolls around. Makes me wonder who's really in charge (not really).

Chris Hedges described the current state of the republic as an inverted fascist state (economics supersedes politics when it's usually the other way around). Hard to argue with him.

I think we're doomed.

:scared:

[Skink]

14. Presumably it wasn't being withheld in court?

[John Q. Citizen]

16. Presumably it was being withheld from the public. The court of public opinion isn't amused.

[Moochy]

17. Transparency you can believe in

[CountAllVotes]

19. hiding the truth from the public

it works most of the time but not around this place!

:thumbsup: to the Democratic Underground!!

[bdamomma]

21. yea for sure we are definitely abreast of the situation.

[bdamomma]

20. crap I hope this bites them all back to keep this kind of disaster

away from the public, in the meantime our environment and all what's being affected is dying. Damn pitchforks and torches time yet??

[BakedAtAMileHigh]

22. I hope no one is actually shocked to hear it

Is anyone here really surprised? Did you expect anything different?

[RKP5637]

24. Really no, but I had hopes... n/t

[defendandprotect]

25. Wow -- and on top of denying there was any leak for a week or more ...!!

What can they say now that would be believable at all?

Btw, Olberman was questioning the video the other night -- didn't hear what

he was suspicious or concerned about, however. Just, generally, that he was

questioning reliability of the video???

[florida08]

26. imagine that

Bush has another brother. Bye bye Obama

[No Elephants]

30. And here I'd ought Bubba Bill was the last one.

[florida08]

42. lol

mama Bush adopted him but I don't think she will Obama. This isn't chess he's playing it's tiddlywinks

[chrisa]

28. Nothing changed.

Corporations still call the shots. The government is still willing to get people sick or killed for corporate interests, and there is very little regulation.

[ShamelessHussy]

29. The evidence of a PR collusion between BP and the Feds has been OVERWHELMING

though many right here can't see the forest through their politics, and continue to cover for them... "it's a crime/health scene, thats why they are denying access" :shakes-head:

[MisterP]

43. it's this whole bright-sided emphasize-the-positive gambit that only tells 25-50% of the story

like how Kagan's "socially liberal record" is brought up without reference to her unabashed, caudillo-like unitary executive theories. The AEI's Howard Penniman in 1967-71 NEVER mentioned fragging, desertions, media "negativism," mass noncombatant deaths, the NLF's broad support, Diem's lack of any Vietnamese base, Saigon's terrorism (coming before VC action)--or even that Saigon ever killed anyone besides VC and on the field of battle, the NLF's policies and bases and extent of support, Saigon's informants, crushing of Buddhists, official political murder, and torture. Thus Penniman could say that the US "has generally kept hands off internal Vietnamese politics." (From Edward S. Herman and Frank Brodhead, "Demonstration Elections")

tl,dr: loyalists and born sycophants just don't click on thread titles like "The evidence of a PR collusion between BP and the Feds has been OVERWHELMING" because 1) they don't want to read the OP (as opposed to those who killfile controversial topics--Bev Harris and a priest walking into a Gaza bar with a pit bull and a baby--because they don't want to read the 200 vituperative, half-baked posts), or 2) they don't care because they see their "duty" as covering for the Party, so "we can at least get SOMETHING done, because McCain wouldn't ever do anything good"

since party comes before policy, form comes before function--just as Cold-War "democracy" meant an election favoring the US, not one favoring voters (and the Cold War liberals are the warmongering, civilization-clashing, neolib/Thatcherite DLCers of our post-1989 era). Just as Gehlen, Pol Pot, the Somozas, ibn Ladin, the Sauds, Marcos, and Diem became Allies of Freedom, so too was MBNA Joe's record of putting his foot up America's ass washed clean when he squealed "It's a big fucking deal" about some Daschle-written enserfment-and-insurer-protection law.

[Mojorabbit]

74. + 100 nt

[No Elephants]

31. "The most transparent admin. ever" tells us everything it wants us to know (even if it isn't true).

[Lerkfish]

32. hmm.. where are all the DU people that told us to trust Obama and BP?

amazingly silent in this thread.

[kenfrequed]

55. Yeah

I saw a few of those threads the other day. I told them they were wrong and many other people told them in great and painful detail percisely how wrong they were and why they were wrong.

Strangely when the dust settles and the facts come out these people are nowhere to be seen.

Examples:


Promises by the seeming conservadem posters that somehow we will get a public option.

Promises that it will be easier to prosecute Bush after he isn't president and that an impeachment would be a waste of time.

That somehow Union activists, gays, and environmentalists are whiners for actually wanting something down and that we would somehow get more by making less noise.



And of course...
The various conservative Democrats in congress did stupid things like support the war in Iraq despite ovrewhelming evidence that it was wrong.

It is all maddening

[City Lights]

34. That's just swell.

I'm beyond infuriated.

:argh:

[Uncle Joe]

35. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, kpete.

[KansDem]

39. If this isn't fascism...

...what is?

[IndianaGreen]

41. I sure hope that Obama does a complete housecleaning!

This symbiotic relationship between industry and officials sworn to protect the public interest must come to an end. It has been going on for far too long!

[Javaman]

45. Let's all start holding our breath now! nt

[fatbuckel]

44. I have to laugh at people complaining about losing rights.

[Iowa]

59. WTF?

[liberation]

46. Out of curiosity, what is the thought process that led whoever is in charge of this operation

... to think that such a massive spill would be kept "under wraps?"

Are they so used to control the message, that they are this disconnected from reality? This is a massive gusher of oil, which is going to possibly hit large areas of our coast, and will affect hundreds of thousands of people (if not millions) living by those areas, never mind what's going to happen if hurricane season picks up. They truly think they can keep it under wraps?

Either they have little respect for our intellects, or lying is such second nature to them... that it is always their first response regardless of the magnitude of what needs to be covered up.

[madmax]

48. K & R

[slay]

50. So, we can't trust corporations, we can't trust the government, and often can't trust the media

sounds like the oil disaster is exposing critical problems with our society - of which there are many. As well as how totally powerless we are as citizens. If anything, the corporations and government should be afraid of US, not the other way around. We are a beaten people. :(

[Altoid_Cyclist]

51. I'm certainly not the first one to offer this possible scenario.

Since Thad Allen was due to retire anyway, I wonder if he's trying to parlay this time spent with BP to gain an "advisory" position in return for his complicity.

I'd be interested in the workings of his bank account recently and in the future. I hope that I'm just being overly cynical, but after seeing the wildlife, human lives and livelihoods and the food supply being destroyed while the country is lied to, I'm just pretty pissed.

BTW I agree with all of the posters upstream who rightly praised this site and its' users for being the true place for true news.

[northoftheborder]

60. airport workers complicity

I'd like for someone to investigate WHY the local airport in one of those towns in Louisiana was telling reporters that they could not fly out over the oil covered areas to photograph and report; said it was against FAA rules; the FAA said that was not correct - no rules like that. So who paid off who to make and execute that "rule"?????? BP?????

[xchrom]

56. let me repeat this part -- 'and Feds Withheld Videos Showing Massive Scope of Oil Spill' nt

[Doctor_J]

57. BP IS the federal government.

They decide who can visit the area, who can take pictures, who can fly over, who works on the problem, etc. There was no conspiracy, collusion, or discussion on this. BP said, "this is what we're going to do", and that's what was done.

[Raster]

61. Golly gee, who would have thought that BP would have withheld evidence of their disaster, and that

the US government would have aided BP in their deception? The tentacles of the Petroleum Mafia are long.

[Liberty Belle]

67. Grassroots group photographing spill with kites and balloons

This group is training people how to send up their own aerial photography units to get images out to the world. I hope everyone down there will participate.

I am seeking public domain images of oil-soaked birds, beaches, etc. I'm doing an article about a group of inner-city young people from San Diego who just got jobs to go help with Gulf Coast oil spill cleanup. If anyone knows where I can find some, especially of the wildlife, that I can reprint free please let me know at [e-mail] or post here.

[liberation]

69. Still, it is kind of pathetic that in XXI century America we have to resort to kites and balloons

to get information being blocked by our ever so open and super duper democratic government.

WTF?

[katty]

68. of course they withheld them-they don't give a shit

[chill_wind]

72. ABC was the first to try to visit and interview officials at the Joint Command Center

in the very beginning days (before Wackenhut). The closest they got to seeing any part of the operation was that it was already becoming furtively secret, with the control room's glass windows plastered over with copy machine paper. ABC tried to give us a clue from the beginning.

Then we had the reports of the CBSNEWS crew threatened with arrest for trying to access the area.
Washington Independent asking why BP was controlling local law enforcement and safety officials at The Elmer's Island Refuge. The reports of new security fortifications bringing in Wackehut. The cleanup workers gagged by BP and their subcontractors from discussing the cleanup or anything, anything at all.

The slick shiny BPUSCG website spewing the daily talking points with all the candor of a daily CentCom briefing keeping the embeds informed. USCG Stanton playing aw shucks I'm just slow and dumb. A crazed Tony Hayward, florid and lurching in the bright of the cameras, terrified of losing control of the message. An MMS that can't write down critical policy for a month, for fear of having to explain and enforce it. An EPA that is told to go piss up a rope, and it obliges. We could go on at length-
It suffices to say, we're in trouble. They knew it. We knew it and know it.

[lib_wit_it]

76. Rec'd and here's the kick.

[garybeck]

77. this deserves a Monday kick because

Friday news stories often don't get the attention they need

[WinkyDink]

78. Conspiracies: They're Not Just for Breakfast Anymore.