NEITHER BP, NOR ALL THE OTHERS INVOLVED ARE WITHOUT SERIOUS GUILT

It seems that neither those that caused the oil disaster ,nor the current administration, seem to want the public to fully understand the vast devastation caused by the deep-sea "oil-volcano".

...A Gulf pelican covered in BP oil.

Up to this point, I have stayed away from commenting on the BP / Gulf oil disaster. The reason for this has been that I wanted to see how the Obama Administration dealt with those that brought on the disaster including; BP, Transocean and Halliburton, and to see how these companies handled it from their side.

As of today, I´m thoroughly disgusted with those on both sides of the issue.

And the government side has been less than appropriately responsive.

In a recent attempt by a major broadcast network to record the effects of the disaster beneath the ocean´s surface, their boats were turned away in international waters by a US Coast Guard vessel. In fact, they were told that if they didn´t leave, they would be arrested. When the Captain of the US Coast Guard ship was questioned, he stated that "These are not our rules, these rules are based on the authority of the BP oil company."

Since when does a multi-national oil company, with its world headquarters in a foreign country (Great Britain), have any authority to tell an official US government marine vessel what they must do in international waters within a few miles of our own shores?

As to those that brought on the actual disaster, we have heard nothing but a list of those issues where there is a direct conflict of interest on how the investigation is going….?



For some examples: BP is the organization that is deciding on, and is hiring the companies, that are compiling the data to determine what BP´s responsibility is for the disaster. BP is involved in everything from chemical analysis of the pollution to the actual amount of oil that is being released by the "oil volcano". This information will of course be used to determine the extent of BP´s billions of dollars in oil-pollution fines. (Example: Today, BP says today that 5000 barrels per day are escaping from the "oil volcano", while other experts estimate 70,000 barrels a day. So, which is it?)

BP is also the ones that are paying the fishing fleets to disperse the pontoons and oil barriers. However, in order to receive their pay checks, BP is requiring that the fishermen sign waivers that would prevent the fisherman from suing BP later. The government has told BP to remove the waivers, but BP is still using the same contract forms unchanged.

BP and the US government have both been holding up the states´ applications to get permits for building coastal "buffer dams" to prevent the oil slick from getting directly on the states´ beaches and into their marshes….why is that? President Obama could fix this issue with one signature on an executive order.

Now, why would BP and the government want to do all this? It is because, these false "buffer dams" would show up all of the oil very clearly to the world on TV. This would also show just how much oil has been, and is being released, and it would show the public that BP was lying when they said that they had a way of dealing with this kind of disaster.

On the government´s side, it could also show how both the Bush, and the Obama Departments of the Interior, were in collusion with the oil companies by giving them waivers from installing the appropriate oil-drilling safety equipment.

BP, Transocean and Halliburton are also staying away from any claims for the responsibility for the deaths of the 11 oil rig workers. Had any single person driven a car into a crowded sidewalk and killed 11 people, today that person would be sitting in jail with 11 manslaughter charges against them.

But when this is all over, I guarantee you that not one of these three company´s executives will spend one day in jail for these 11 deaths. In addition, none of them will do jail time for their negligent decisions that caused this disaster that will negatively and seriously affect at least 5 coastal states´ shore lines. And of course, the many square miles of ocean floor and marine habitat that will be devastated for decades to come. (And as a side note, this lack of jail time will probably be the final result for those corporate executives whose negligent deecisions caused the 29 deaths in the West Virginia mining disaster.)

Unfortunately, it was the very activist and conservative US Supreme Court that decided that corporations are "Persons" and that their "corporate –coffers full of US dollars" was their version of a corporate-person´s "free speech". But based on that decision, it doesn´t appear that these corporations will be given the "corporate death penalty" for being forced to pay with the life of the corporation as would a real "living person".

And, just what kind of effect will this disaster have on the average American that depends on their lively hood from working in the Gulf of Mexico? Well, here is Mr. John Blanchard, a Gulf oyster fisherman whose life has been upended by this monstrous oil spill. Mr. Blanchard had this to say: "It is fouling an enormous swath of the Gulf of Mexico." [The smell is so bad] "You can´t sleep. That´s how bad it is." He then shook his head and said; "My wife and I have got two kids, 2 and 7. We could lose everything we´ve been working for all of our lives."

What has also been disturbing is that based on their appearances so far, the administration seems to be in line with BP and the others in not wanting the American public, and the rest of the world, to see the devastating effects of this disaster first hand.

And then there are all these questions……

>>> Why is a US Coast Guard vessel following orders from the company that caused the disaster?

>>> Why are BP and the others allowed to become involved in collecting the evidence that could, and should be used against them?

>>> Why is there such a difference with what BP estimates is the amount of released oil and those other estimate from the non-biased experts? And who is correct?

>>> Why is the main-stream broadcast, print and cable media being kept out of the affected areas and are not being allowed to do underwater videos?

As the GOP has said from the beginning, and I am also now beginning to wonder; Is this going to be Obama´s Katrina?

Copyright; G.Ater 2010

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