L'Autre Monde 6 mai 2010: Le Tchernobyl pétrolier dans le Golfe du Mexique et l'hégémonie militaire et corporatiste en Asie

.

L'Autre Monde 6 mai 2010: Le Tchernobyl pétrolier dans le Golfe du Mexique et l'hégémonie militaire et corporatiste en Asie


Pour écouter, ou pour télécharger, simplement cliquer sur le lien ici:

L'Autre Monde 6 mai 2010
90 min / Radio de l'UQAM, CHOQ FM

Au programme cette semaine, 6 mai 2010:

- Nous parlons du militarisme américain qui sert les intérêts corporatistes en Asie et partout dans le monde; d'économie; du Tchernobyl pétrolier dans le Golfe du Mexique, des médias de papier qui sont en chute et beaucoup plus!

Soyez de la partie les jeudis dès 11h sur les ondes de CHOQ FM, la radio officielle de l'UQÀM, l'alternative à Montréal et dans le monde!

***Hyperliens vers les sources des informations discutées sur l'émission d'aujourd'hui:

Actualité:

PA Tax Amnesty TV ad "We Know Who You Are"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ybcu2itqvEQ&feature=player_embedded

Webmaster's Commentary:

If this doesn't convince you that government rules by terror, nothing will!

There is no freedom without the freedom to say "no!"

Newspaper Circulation Falls Nearly 9%

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/business/media/27audit.html?emc=eta1

The reality facing many American newspaper publishers continues to look stark, as figures released Monday show deep circulation declines, with average weekday sales down almost 9 percent since the same time last year.

USA Today had a 13.6 percent weekday decline. It held the top spot before losing it to The Wall Street Journal last fall.

In the six-month period ending March 31, the Audit Bureau of Circulations reported Sunday sales dropping 6.5 percent and weekday sales 8.7 percent compared with the same six-month period a year ago. The figures are based on reports filed by hundreds of individual papers.

The decline was widespread, as nearly all of the major newspapers and many of the smaller ones lost circulation. Among the 25 largest papers, The San Francisco Chronicle suffered the most, losing 22.7 percent of its weekday sales.

Among the 25 largest circulation newspapers, 10 had declines in weekday circulation of more than 10 percent. The Sunday circulation figures were slightly higher, though far from a bright spot, as five of the 25 largest papers reported double-digit declines.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Nobody likes a liar!

Viacom's Redstone: All Newspapers Dead In Two Years

Sumner Redstone, the boss of Viacom and CBS, has gazed into his crystal ball, and what he sees may not cheer up anyone in the newspaper business -- though it may, conveniently, be good news for broadcasters. According to Redstone, "there won't be any newspapers in two years."

Tony Blair, Very Close to being Indicted for War Crimes

by Prof. Michel Chossudovsky

While on a speaking engagement in Malaysia organized by "Success Resources Company", former British Prime Minister Tony Blair was the object of an articulate protest movement demanding his indictment for war crimes.

This was no ordinary protest. Tony Blair has been accused of war crimes in a legal initiative led by the country's former Prime Minister, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad.

The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission stated that this is only the beginning of a global campaign to ostracise war criminals like Blair and Bush and urge people the world over to adopt similar campaigns against Bush and Blair. No Where to Hide: Fears of Arrest and Prosecution by Tony Blair on Charges of War Crimes, Global Research, April 24, 2010)

While these unfolding events have been acknowledged by the Malaysian press, Tony Blair's visit to Malaysia has passed virtually unnoticed in the United Kingdom. In fact, outside of Malaysia, the issue has not received press coverage.

Deafening silence and complicity of the British media? One would expect that people in Britain would want to know what happened to Tony Blair in Kuala Lumpur.

Japanese Military Joins U.S. And NATO In Horn Of Africa

Japanese navy commander Keizo Kitagawa recently spoke with Agence France-Presse and disclosed that his nation was opening its first overseas military base – at any rate since the Second World War – in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa.

Global Warfare: U.S. Consolidates Military Network In Asia-Pacific Region

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=18906

VOIR ARTICLE

U.S. fast strike and first strike global missile and space strategy and its expansion of military alliances and networks in the Asia-Pacific area are rightly seen as threats to China and Russia. And to international security and peace.

How Wars Are Born: China versus the U.S.

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=18921

VOIR ARTICLE

The fact that China is now declaring itself master of its own zones is intolerable for U.S. corporations, which will stop at nothing — including war — to maintain U.S. military dominance over the globe.

Behind the military jockeying for power are economic interests. Controlling the U.S. economy are powerful corporations, who rely on the U.S. military to ensure them super profits overseas, including domination over whole regions — the Middle East, Latin America, the Pacific — that are viewed as the “exclusive economic zones” of U.S. corporations. The fact that China is now declaring itself master of its own zones is intolerable for U.S. corporations, which will stop at nothing — including war — to maintain U.S. military dominance over the globe.

Military Dominance: Obama's Fake Nuclear Disarmament Initiative allows the U.S. to Assert its Global Military Hegemony

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=18962

Hardly had Russia and the United States signed a nuclear arms reduction treaty, New START, the U.S. pushed ahead with the development of new conventional weapon systems that threaten to stall nuclear disarmament and discredit U.S. non-proliferation efforts at the NPT Review Conference opening in New York on Monday.

Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee Strategic Forces Subcommittee on April 15 Lieutenant General Patrick J. O'Reilly, U.S. Missile Defence Agency Director, said that his agency was going full steam with development of “advanced capability” anti-missile systems.

It is precisely this type of capability in missile defence that Russia said would force it to walk away from the New START treaty.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Unflipping believable.

CIA Director Says Cyber Attack Could Be Next Pearl Harbor

Central Intelligence Agency director Leon Panetta told 300Sacramento Metro Chamber Cap-to-Cap delegates that the next “Pearl Harbor” is likely to be an attack on the United States’ power, financial, military and other Internet systems.

“The next Pearl Harbor is likely to be a cyber attacking going after our grid…and that can literally cripple this country,” Panetta said. “This is a whole new area of threat.”

Webmaster's Commentary:

Memo to CIA Director Panetta: I don't know if I would run so quickly with that particular analogy, sir. As reported at:

http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/pearl.html

""...everything that the Japanese were planning to do was known to the United States..." ARMY BOARD, 1944"

"President Roosevelt (FDR) provoked the attack, knew about it in advance and covered up his failure to warn the Hawaiian commanders. FDR needed the attack to sucker Hitler to declare war, since the public and Congress were overwhelmingly against entering the war in Europe. It was his backdoor to war."

Creating this linkage, unfortunately, could lead a thinking person to wonder if just such a "false flag cyber-attack" could be in the works, courtesy of our own government, either to be blamed on the "adversary du jour" (like, perhaps, Iran), or used as an excuse to declare martial law in the US.

Puerto Rico – the 51st State? Congress to move fast on this one.

There is a bill to make Puerto Rico a state. Again, they are trying to pull one over on us and on Puerto Ricans, who have consistently said they do not want to become a state.

Webmaster's Commentary:

The US Government steals other peoples' lands and makes them states without their permission. Here is just one example.

For $10 Billion of "Promises" Haiti Surrenders its Sovereignty

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=18847

In other words, the U.S. and other "agricultural powers" would provide Haiti food, "freeing up"Haitian farmers to go work in U.S.-owned sweatshops, thereby ushering in "an industrial era," as if the cinder-block shells of assembly plants represent organic industrialization.

U.S.-Trained Somali Troops Defect to Insurgency

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=18904

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Hundreds of Somali troops trained with millions of U.S. tax dollars have deserted because they are not being paid their $100 monthly wage, and some have even joined the al-Qaida-linked militants they are supposed to be fighting, The Associated Press has learned.

The desertions raise fears that a new U.S.-backed effort beginning next month to build up Somalia’s army may only increase the ranks of the insurgency.

Somalia’s besieged U.N.-backed government holds only a few blocks of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, while Islamic insurgents control the rest of the city and most of the country. That turmoil — and the lawless East African nation’s proximity to Yemen, where al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula is based — has fed fears that Somalia could be used to launch attacks on the West.

In an effort to rebuild the tattered Somali military, the United States spent $6.8 million supporting training programs for nearly 1,000 soldiers in neighboring Djibouti last year, and about 1,100 soldiers in Uganda last year and earlier this year, the State Department and Western diplomats told AP. The troops were supposed to earn $100 a month, but about half of those trained in Djibouti deserted because they were not paid, Somali army Col. Ahmed Aden Dhayow said.

“Some gave up the army and returned to their ordinary life, and others joined the rebels,” he said.

Somalia’s state minister for defense, Yusuf Mohamed Siyad, confirmed some trainees had joined the al-Shabab militants, but he declined to specify the number of deserters.

Thirty dead in Somalia mosque bombings

At least 30 people have been killed after two bombs exploded at a mosque in the Somalian capital Mogadishu on Saturday.

A high-ranking member of Somalia's most powerful militia, who was inside the mosque during the blast, is believed to be the target of the attack.

Webmaster's Commentary:

This proxy war, where the "transitional government" is supported by the US and the UN, is all about who will ultimately get access to Somalia's oil.

Jewish groups: Boycott Ahmadinejad in NYC

http://www.jta.org/news/article/2010/04/30/2394597/jewish-groups-boycott-ahmadinejad-in-nyc

Jewish groups are calling on U.N. member representatives to walk out in protest when Iran's president speaks next week at the United Nations.

"We call on all countries, particularly those that value democracy and freedom, to leave the United Nations hall when Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, rises to speak," the president and executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations said in a statement. “Iran’s pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability poses a threat to the region and the entire Western world. To have President Ahmadinejad address this review conference makes a mockery of the efforts of many countries to prevent nuclear weapons and nuclear terrorism from becoming the gravest global threats of this century."

Webmaster's Commentary:

Israel appears to be in a total panic over Ahmadinejad's speech to the UN next week.

And notice how Israel screams "anti-Semite" when anyone suggests boycotting Israel, yet never hesitates to demand that others boycott Israel's enemies.

US lawmakers denounce Ahmadinejad visit to New York

US lawmakers on Friday denounced Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's plans to join a major UN nuclear disarmament summit next week in New York and urged he not be given a visa to attend.

"This is preposterous, and allowing it to happen will make a mockery of the effort to stop the spread of nuclear weapons to rogue states and terrorist groups," 14 Republican senators wrote to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Right on cue, just like Pavlov's dogs, salivating at the sound of a bell, here you have the US's "Israel-first" Congress members barking and snarling at the very thought of Iran's president addressing the UN.

And why are they barking and snarling, pray tell?!?

Because as surely as the sun rises, Ahmedinejad is going to honestly point out the obvious; that Israel has nuclear weapons, but refuses to join the NNPT or allow inspections of their nuclear facilities, which Iran has done and is continuing to do.

Rep. Israel wants Ahmadinejad arrested

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad should be arrested and tried with war crimes while he's in the United States, Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) said Monday.

Webmaster's Commentary:

1. Ahmadinejad has never incited to commit genocide against the Jewish people.

2. The IAEA has not accused Iran of non-compliance under the status of its being a signatory to the NNPT.

The US and Israel have accused Iran of having a nuclear weapons program, evidence of which all the IAEA inspections have not found to date.

US walkout on speech by Ahmadinejad 'shows West biased against Iran'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH3B0InZuhI&feature=player_embedded

Ahmadinejad speaks at UN nuclear conference May 3, 2010 (FULL VIDEO)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4__ZZy-3IQs&feature=player_embedded

No US visas for Iran press

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=125154&sectionid=351020101

An Iranian press delegation slated to accompany President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during his upcoming visit to New York have been denied US visas.

The US government has refused to issue visas for the Iranian press delegation that was scheduled to cover the president's trip to New York and his participation in a nuclear conference, Mehr News Agency reported on Sunday.

Webmaster's Commentary:

How churlishly petty of the US government!

What are they afraid of, except the very real possibility that they might report Ahmadinejad mentioning the fact that although Israel has nuclear weapons, it refuses to sign the NNPT?!?

US issues Iran delegates late visas

The last-minute issuance came on Saturday, after officials in Tehran condemned Washington’s delay in conferring visas to several members of Iran’s delegation. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki had warned the US administration against taking the Unites Nations hostage.

US, UK, France, Italy walk out of UN nuclear conference in war propaganda theater to attack Iran

*hyperlinks and videos live at source*

The “emperor has no clothes” fact is that the new face of unlawful global imperialism is the old face of 20th Century imperialists. As critical mass of public recognition builds, this time, the public will reject their loveless and mass-murderous empire-building.

The two paper-thin lies the 21st Century fascists use to promote unlawful war is that Iran threatens to destroy Israel and Iran has a nuclear weapons program. Both are quickly proven as lies.

As documented in the links here (and from other viewpoints here, here, and here), Iran’s President Ahmadinejad never physically threatened Israel and all inspections of Iran’s legal nuclear energy and medicine has verified all nuclear material is accounted for.

Former Nazi Bank To Rule The Global Economy

The global elite has chosen the Bank For International Settlements, which financed Hitler’s war machine, to boss the financial arm of the new world order

European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet’s announcement that the Bank for International Settlements is to become the primary engine for global governance is a shocking admission given the fact that this ultra-secretive menagerie of international bankers was once controlled by top Nazis who, in collusion with global central banks, funneled money through the institution which directly financed Hitler’s war machine.

During a speech to the elitist CFR organization earlier this week, ECB head Trichet said that the Global Economy Meeting (GEM), which regularly meets at the BIS headquarters in Basel, “Has become the prime group for global governance among central banks”.

The GEM is basically a policy steering committee under the umbrella of the Bank for International Settlements. In its current form, the BIS, which itself is not accountable to any national government, is comprised of banking chiefs from global central banks, most of which are private and also have no responsibility to their nation states or their citizens.

The board of directors who control the BIS include Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke and Bank of England head Mervyn King, as well as Trichet himself.

Now It's a European Banking Crisis

For months the top leaders of the European Union resisted the idea of a bailout for Greece, wringing their hands over the estimated $61 billion cost. While the jawboning continued, the infection took hold. Bond vigilantes drove the Greeks' borrowing costs into the double digits. Investors, fearing a contagion in Europe's southern tier, dumped the stocks and bonds of Portugal and Spain. As it spread, markets started to pummel European banks and insurers for their exposure to what could prove to be one of the worst sovereign debt disasters ever. A bank crisis and a debt crisis rolled into one—the medical bills for this extreme case will make Europe long for the modest $61 billion of just a few weeks past.

Webmaster's Commentary:

This is the trap of a private central bank issuing the public currency at interest. The moment that first note goes into circulation, more money is owed to the private central bank than is actually in existence. Repayment of the debt is impossible. That is the trap.

The founders of the United States saw the trap clearly, which is why they set up a Treasury Department that issued the public currency interest free, to prevent private bankers from enslaving the public labor.

“The refusal of King George 3rd to allow the colonies to operate an honest money system, which freed the ordinary man from the clutches of the money manipulators, was probably the prime cause of the revolution.” – Benjamin Franklin, Founding Father

Sadly, greed by politicians sold this nation back into the same private bankers' trap in 1913. There can be only one outcome and because people who have spent their lifetimes addicted to other peoples' money would rather die than surrender their wealth, the path we were placed on ultimately ends with the bankers and their politician lackeys hanging from the streetlamps.

New call for massive UK tax increase: 'Britain needs extra 6p in the pound to tackle ballooning national debt'

Taxes could rise by six pence in the pound over the next 10 years to slash public borrowing, an economic forecaster warned today.

Although cuts and a public sector pay clampdown will halve the UK's deficit over the next five years, the National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR) said more action is needed to reduce borrowing to below 3 per cent of GDP by 2020.

'We assume it is achieved through income taxes rising by an equivalent of six pence in the pound on the basic rate,' NIESR said.

Obama administration defies congressional subpoena on Fort Hood documents

The Obama administration said Tuesday it would provide more information to Congress about the Fort Hood shootings but continued to defy a subpoena request for witness statements and other documents.

Webmaster's Commentary:

At the time of the shooting, inside sources at Fort Hood reported that what actually happened was that enraged soldiers, informed they were to be deployed yet again to Iraq after having already served their enlistment commitments, rebelled and went on a shooting spree. The US Government decided that admitting there was rebellion in the ranks was probably a good way to inspire other soldiers fed up with the wars to quit shooting themselves and start shooting the politicians. So a plan was quickly improvised to blame the deaths on a crazed long nut assassin (Copyright 1963 CIA) and of course the villain de jour is always going to be a nasty mean ol' Muslim.

With the White House defying a subpoena to provide witness statements, one thing that we now know for a fact is that the story of Fort Hood spoon-fed to us all by ABCNNBBCBS is likely not true.

Al-Qaeda Terror Tape Proven Fraudulent Once Again

The announcement by New York authorities that there is no evidence to support an apparent claim of responsibility for Saturday’s attempted car bombing by a Pakistani based Taliban group underscores once again how Pentagon front groups are releasing fake and misleading “Al-Qaeda videotapes” in crass PR stunts to justify the expansion of the “war on terror” under Obama.

As soon as Fox News reported that “the Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for the bomb plot,” we smelled a rat, especially as the so-called video claiming complicity was released by the Pentagon front group SITE, founded by the daughter of an Israeli Mossad spy.

Indeed, the original Fox News story has now been significantly watered down after New York police, as well as Mayor Bloomberg, publicly dismissed foreign complicity in the botched bombing.

“Although a Taliban bomb maker has claimed on the Internet… we have no evidence to support this claim,” Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

Everything about SITE indicates that it is nothing more than a dummy organization being used by the military-industrial complex to release staged Al-Qaeda videotapes as part of the ongoing propaganda offensive to justify the brutal, pointless and manufactured war on terror.

SITE miraculously were able to obtain the highly suspicious September 2007 Bin Laden video tape before it was released by the so-called Al-Qaeda group who had made it. A month before the release of this tape, SITE’s sister organization IntelCenter was caught adding its logo to a tape at the same time as Al-Qaeda’s so-called media arm As-Sahab added its logo, proving the two organizations were one and the same.

SITE has been positively endorsed by Blackwater USA, the infamous military contractor co-founded by former Navy Seal Erik Prince that was found to have been involved in several massacres of innocent Iraqi civilians.

New York police interview owner of SUV in failed car bombing

The SUV was parked near offices of Viacom Inc., which owns Comedy Central. The network recently aired an episode of the animated show "South Park" that the group Revolution Muslim had complained insulted the Prophet Muhammad by depicting him in a bear costume.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Given that Revolution Muslim is a hoax website pretending to be Muslim extremists but actually created and run by Joseph Cohen, and given that the now discredited claim of a Pakistan Taliban group taking credit for the bombing attempt came from another Israeli propaganda operation run by the daughter of an executed Israeli spy, I think we can safely guess who staged this fizzled bombing attempt, and more to the point, who was supposed to be framed for it.

NY Bomb suspect lost Conn. home to foreclosure

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36934331/ns/us_news-security

The suspect in the Times Square bombing attempt defaulted on a $200,000 mortgage on his Connecticut home and the Shelton property is now in foreclosure, according to court records.

The foreclosure records show Faisal Shahzad took out the mortgage on a home in Shelton, Conn., in 2004, and he co-owned the home with a woman named Huma Mian.

Webmaster's Commentary:

While SITE and the US Government are trying to blame Pakistan or Iran or "Al Qaeda" for the failed NY bombing attempt, this is starting to look more like a repeat of the Joe Stack affair, in which a victim of the US economy strikes back.

This isn't politics; this is economics. This isn't terror, it is desperation and revenge.

On that last one, can someone at ABCNNBBCBS please explain why a fizzled bomb in New York is an act of terror, but US drones killing civilians in Pakistan is not?

NY bomber confesses in terrorism plot: officials

A Pakistani-American man arrested as he tried to flee the country has confessed to the failed bomb in New York's Times Square.

Webmaster's Commentary:

"And we only had to waterboard him 48 times, so it MUST be true!

The Hutaree Militia Case Falls Apart

While federal prosecutors have provided ample evidence that members of the Hutaree are passionately anti-government — what decent person isn’t? — they haven’t been able to demonstrate that the group did anything more than engage in survivalist training and indulge in apocalyptic rhetoric.

Judge Roberts didn’t find the government’s case compelling.

“Discussions about killing local law enforcement officers — and even discussions about killing members of the judicial branch of government — do not translate to conspiring to overthrow, or levy war against, the United States government,” she wrote, ordering that the Hutaree suspects be released on bail.

Since the federal case against the Hutaree rests entirely on what was said by the suspects, rather than anything specific that was done by them, it’s difficult to see what’s left of it.

US youngsters are too fat to fight, warn generals

Rising rates of obesity among young Americans could undermine the future of the US military, two retired generals have warned.

More than a quarter of young Americans are now too fat to fight, they said.

Writing in the Washington Post, the ex-commanders said the fat crisis ruled out more potential military service recruits than any other medical factor.

They want Congress to introduce laws to give US children better nutrition in schools, with less sugar, salt and fat.

Expert Views on the Deepwater Horizon Incident and Aftermath

The leading hypothesis is that the cement plugs failed.

The Oil Spill, How Bad?

Independent scientists estimate that the renegade wellhead at the bottom of the Gulf could be spewing up to 25,000 barrels a day. If chokeholds on the riser pipe break down further, up to 50,000 barrels a day could be released, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration memo obtained by the Mobile, Ala., Press-Register.

CNN quotes the lead government official responding to the spill - the commandant of the Coast Guard, Admiral Thad Allen - as stating:

If we lost a total well head, it could be 100,000 barrels or more a day.

Oil Spill seems to have spread over entire Gulf

“The enormity of this slick began to sink in to me,” Wathen says on the video. “It seems as if the thing was spreading out over the entire Gulf of Mexico.”

Gulf of Mexico oil spill begins to wash ashore in Louisiana while engineers attempt to contain the leak

Gulf of Mexico oil spill begins to wash ashore in Louisiana while engineers attempt to contain the leak
Attempts to contain and clean up the oil slick created by the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig continue. The slick continues to grow by the day and move perilously close to the shore of the US's southern states. In this photo, shrimp boats are used to collect oil with booms in the waters of Chandeleur Sound, Louisiana

Drilling Process Attracts Scrutiny in Rig Explosion

The scrutiny on cementing will focus attention on Halliburton Co., the oilfield-services firm that was handling the cementing process on the rig, which burned and sank last week. The disaster, which killed 11, has left a gusher of oil streaming into the Gulf from a mile under the surface.

According to Transocean Ltd., the operator of the drilling rig, Halliburton had finished cementing the 18,000-foot well shortly before the explosion. Houston-based Halliburton is the largest company in the global cementing business, which accounted for $1.7 billion, or about 11%, of the company's revenue in 2009, according to consultant Spears & Associates.

Louisiana oil spill may be five times bigger than previously thought

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/7664907/Louisiana-oil-spill-may-be-five-times-bigger-than-previously-thought.html

BP, which leased the rig and owned the oil rights, had downplayed the possible danger of any spill - predicting "no significant adverse impact" - when it submitted its exploration plan last year.

Another political embarrassment for Mr Obama is that he had only recently announced White House approval for a controversial expansion of offshore oil exploration.

The policy has been enthusiastically pushed by Republicans such as former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin - who litters speeches with the phrase "drill, baby drill" - and has also been backed by a majority of Americans since fuel prices soared.

The view from space indicates that the oil may be leaking at a rate of 25,000 barrels a day, dwarfing the figure of 5,000 barrels that US officials and the British oil giant BP have used in recent days.

That would mean that some nine million gallons may already have escaped from the underwater well following the April 20 explosion that killed 11 rig workers. It suggests the disaster will almost certainly prove greater than the Exxon Valdez tanker spill off Alaska in 1989, which released 11 million gallons and was the worst previous spill at sea.

BP documents show it did not plan for oil spill disaster at Gulf Coast rig

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1270241/BP-US-oil-slick.html

BP is facing a £3billion fine for the oil spill on America’s Gulf Coast which is threatening to become the worst ecological disaster in history - and is now under fire for not foreseeing the catastrophe.

Documents emerged yesterday showing BP had previously downplayed the possibility of a catastrophic accident at the rig.

It suggested in a 2009 exploration plan and environmental impact analysis for the well that an accident leading to a giant oil spill – and damage to beaches, fish and animals – was unlikely or virtually impossible.

Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Captured by NASA Satellite

BP Fought Safety Measures at Deepwater Oil Rigs

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/bp-fought-safety-measures-deepwater-oil-rigs/story?id=10521078

BP, the company that owned the Louisiana oil rig that exploded last week, spent years battling federal regulators over how many layers of safeguards would be needed to prevent a deepwater well from this type of accident.

One area of immediate concern, industry experts said, was the lack of a remote system that would have allowed workers to clamp shut Deepwater Horizon's wellhead so it would not continue to gush oil. The rig is now spilling 210,000 gallons of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico.

In a letter sent last year to the Department of the Interior, BP objected to what it called "extensive, prescriptive regulations" proposed in new rules to toughen safety standards. "We believe industry's current safety and environmental statistics demonstrate that the voluntary programs…continue to be very successful."

BP using toxic chemicals to ‘disperse’ spilled oil

http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0501/bp-relying-toxic-chemicals-disperse-oil-spilled-gulf-mexico/

Even if the materials, called dispersants, are effective, BP has already bought up more than a third of the world’s supply. If the leak from 5,000 feet beneath the surface continues for weeks, or months, that stockpile could run out.

On Thursday BP began using the chemical compounds to dissolve the crude oil, both on the surface and deep below, deploying an estimated 100,000 gallons. Dispersing the oil is considered one of the best ways to protect birds and keep the slick from making landfall. But the dispersants contain harmful toxins of their own and can concentrate leftover oil toxins in the water, where they can kill fish and migrate great distances.

Webmaster's Commentary:

I just found an article on line regarding biomediation of oil slicks published in English by the Indian Coast Guard, written by one Dr. Pradeep Kumar, located at:

http://www.indiancoastguard.nic.in/indiancoastguard/NOSDCP/NOSDCP%202006/Bio_remed_Oil_spills.pdf

If India understands the critical importance of using bioremediation for oil spills, why doesn't BP and the US government?!?

That is more than a little scary, in terms of the long-term potential toxic effects of these dispersants.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bduSwEtxIgc&feature=player_embedded

It's the big story.

And not surprisingly it's almost impossible to get
basic facts about it from the mainstream news media.

The New York Times recently characterized the
oil spill as a "natural disaster." They've got to
be kidding...

Bottom line on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill:

1. It didn't need to happen in the first place
2. The damage could have been fully contained on the first day
3. Government (and media) corruption made the whole
economic and ecological catastrophe possible.

Video and more details:

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/838.html

Gulf of Mexico oil spill shows disastrous legacy of Halliburton and the real cost of the oil era

Nearly 50% of the seafood consumed by Americans comes from the Gulf of Mexico, by the way. That explains why seafood contains such an alarmingly high concentration of mercury as well as industrial chemicals -- because the Gulf of Mexico is America's toilet where every toxic chemical, heavy metal and pharmaceutical that's flushed down the drain ends up getting dumped. No wonder the Gulf of Mexico is home to one of the planet's largest ocean "dead zones" -- over 6,000 square miles of dead water where fish can't even survive.

And that was before the oil spill.

Oil spill disaster is now 'out of control'

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7113708.ece

The oil is gushing from BP's sunken Deepwater Horizon rig at 25,000 barrels a day and could reach 50,000 barrels a day, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Earlier estimates had put the leak at 5,000 barrels a day.

Professor Ian MacDonald, an ocean specialist at Florida State University, said the new estimate suggested that the leak had already spread 9 million gallons of heavy crude oil across the Gulf. This compares with 11 million that leaked from the Exxon Valdez tanker when it hit a reef off Alaska in 1989.

Hans Gruber, a Miami University researcher, said that satellite images of the slick on Friday showed that it was three time bigger than estimated, covering an area of 3,500 sq miles (9,000 sq km), similar in size to Puerto Rico.

At the current estimated rate of leakage, it would take less than eight weeks for the huge spill to surpass the Exxon Valdez disaster.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that deteriorating conditions on the sea bed could result in a flow of 50,000 barrels a day, sufficient to produce one of America’s worst ecological disasters

The British oil giant faces questions over how much it knew about previous problems with “blowout preventers”, the giant underwater valves designed to shut down oil flow in the event of accidents.

The valves on the rig failed to work after it exploded on April 20. BP technicians have been unable to activate them even though they appear to be undamaged by the blast.

BP has calculated that it might take up to three months to sink a new well that could cut off the flow of the Deepwater Horizon’s oil.

The worst oil spill affecting US waters was caused by a 1979 blowout aboard the Ixtoc, a Mexican rig that discharged at least 130 million gallons, 600 miles south of the Texas coast. It took nine months to plug the leak.

Transocean Deepwater Horizon Explosion-A Discussion of What Actually Happened?

Deep-water drilling is a high-stakes game. It's not exactly a "casino," in that there's a heck of a lot of settled science, engineering and technology involved. But we're sure finding out the hard way what all the risks are. And it's becoming more and more clear how the totality of risk is a moving target. There's geologic risk, technical risk, engineering risk, environmental risk, capital risk and market risk.

With each deep well, these risks all come together over one very tiny spot at the bottom of the ocean.

Animation: Gulf of Mexico oil spill growth and movement

This animation of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill was created using actual overflight information and forecast models from the NOAA and Unified Command.

The red dot is the location of the Deepwater Horizon oil well, which exploded on April 20, releasing oil into the Gulf near the Louisiana coast that has yet to be contained. Eleven rig workers are missing and are presumed to have died in the explosion.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Setting aside the obvious nonsense about North Korean mini-subs, there is a lot of conflicting information, complicated by finger-pointing.

But what seems to have happened is ...

Deep Horizon was, as the name implied, seeking a deep oil field. The well head is 5000 feet down in the Gulf of Mexico. The well itself drilled down another 30,000 feet, for a total depth of almost 7 miles. That is the current limit of drilling and pumping technology.

The drill appears to have hit a very high pressure deposit of oil and gas. It's like the old joke of a mosquito that hits an artery and explodes. In the case of Deepwater Horizon, it appears that high pressure natural gas flowed back up the drill pipe, and being gas rather than oil, arrived back at the well head at high pressure, more than was expected, and blew out the control valves. Gas escaped above the oil rig and the first spark set it off. Attempts to close the "pinchers" have failed so far, and yesterday a classified NOAA report was leaked reporting that there are three distinct points of leakage, suggesting that the cement well cover built by Halliburton may have failed.

Already there are indications of inadequate safety precautions. Records are missing.

Estimates of how much oil is leaking vary wildly from the media reports of 5000 barrels a day up to 200,000 barrels a day. From the above animation it appears that the rate of flow is increasing.

The situation 5000 feet down at the well head is that of ruptured pipes, cracked concrete well cover, and the wreckage of the Deepwater Horizon sitting on top of it all, making access to the wellhead all but impossible.

Frankly, I doubt even a nuclear bomb could close off this vent, and we may be on our way to seeing the oil underneath the Gulf of Mexico, become the Gulf of Mexico.

The oil companies are facing their own Chernobyl disaster. But they will never admit responsibility, nor will the US politicians who shirked their duty to take care of the US infrastructure, especially in an election year. The race is on to find someone to blame for it all. Hence the stories about North Korean mini-subs, and sooner or later, "Al Qaeda!" The oil companies and the US Government are off the hook if they can claim this was a terrorist attack.

Mother of all gushers could kill Earth's oceans

Imagine a pipe 5 feet wide spewing crude oil like a fire hose from what could be the planets' largest, high-pressure oil and gas reserve. With the best technology available to man, the Deepwater Horizon rig popped a hole into that reserve and was overwhelmed. If this isn't contained, it could poison all the oceans of the world.

Webmaster's Commentary:

This is Big Oil's Chernobyl disaster. Maybe now we can get free of the oil lobby and see some serious research into alternative energy sources like hydrogen, fusion (hot and cold), and distributed solar.

Oil Spill TRIPLED In Size In 3 Days

BP is preparing a system never tried nearly a mile under water to siphon away the geyser of crude from a blown-out well a mile under Gulf of Mexico waters. However, the plan to lower 74-ton, concrete-and-metal boxes being built to capture the oil and siphon it to a barge waiting at the surface will need at least another six to eight days to get it in place.

Current timeline to shut down Gulf of Mexico oil spill: three months

Federal officials speaking about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill Sunday morning appeared to be steeling the Louisiana coast – and the nation – for consequences that could be “catastrophic.”

The officials, who run the agencies charged with mitigating the impact of the spill on America's Gulf coast, used unusually stark words to describe the situation and the difficulties of the remedy.

Gulf Oil Slick Just Miles From Louisiana Coast Line

BP Offering 5000 Dollars To Gulf Residents If They Agree Not To Sue!

I am not kidding. The oil companies and the US Government plan to claim that the oil rig disaster was an attack and drop the costs on you.

Webmaster's Commentary:

We are seeing these trial balloons all over, from Sorcha Faal's North Korean mini-sub to Pills Limbaugh's suggestion that eco-terrorists might have blown up the Deepwater Horizon.

BP/Transoceanic/Halliburton are looking at the most expensive accident in history, with billions of dollars in lawsuits already being filed by residents of the gulf coast states. The oil disaster, coming just weeks after Obama approved new coastal drilling, is a major political embarrassment heading into an election season. The US Government as a whole is looking incompetent with what appears to the public as the latest in a long line of infrastructure failures brought on by neglect. Both the oil companies and the US Government are off the hook if the public can be tricked into believing this disaster was an attack by North Korea, Eco-terrorists, or “Al Qaeda.”

Given that official US economic policy has been to protect corporate profits while dropping the losses onto the people, I fully expect a push to find a way to stick the taxpayer with the costs of this mess. Claiming that the oil rig was destroyed in a deliberate attack paves the way for the public to get stuck with the bill, and for the oil companies to get the lawsuits thrown out of court.

Obama is biggest recipient of BP’s political action cash in the last 20 years

http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0505/obama-biggest-recipient-bp-political-action-money-20-years/

President Barack Obama is the biggest recipient of BP political action committee donations of any political candidate in the last 20 years, according to the Center for Responsive Politics and an analysis published Wednesday by Politico.

Obama's take from the company whose drilling site is leaking tens of thousands of gallons of day into the Gulf of Mexico: $77,051.

His massive take from the company responsible for an ever-growing oil spill off the Louisiana coast is sure to raise eyebrows among those who question the Administration's response to the spill.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Presidents, Senators, and Congressional Representatives are all simply "acquisitions" of those powerful corporations which will have need of their services at some point. We the People are of absolutely no consequence to them, save as an allegedly endless pool of money to be taxed.

This is simply the reality of the political beast in the US.

It will truly be interesting, in light of Obama's having been "acquired" by BP, to see the extent to which BP will be made financially responsible for the massive cleanup of the Gulf.

U.S. exempted BP's Gulf of Mexico drilling from environmental impact study

The Interior Department exempted BP's calamitous Gulf of Mexico drilling operation from a detailed environmental impact analysis last year, according to government documents, after three reviews of the area concluded that a massive oil spill was unlikely.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Obviously, those three reviews were flat-out wrong. Of course, the fact that BP was a major donor to Obama might have had something to do with the lenient treatment.

Mark’s Exclusive Interview with a Survivor from the Oil Rig Explosion

"James" - who was on the oil rig that blew in the Gulf - calls the Mark Levin Show and explains what occurred.

Webmaster's Commentary:

The last minute or so he makes it very clear "it was not terrorism."

BP CEO: ‘It wasn’t our accident’ but we’ll clean spill; Liability waivers were ‘misstep’

The CEO of British Petroleum told NBC's Meredith Vieira that his company wasn't responsible for creating the oil spill but they are responsible for cleaning it up. And he told ABC that liability waivers that fishermen were being asked to sign was an "early misstep."

"BP Says It’ll Pay For This Mess. Baloney." BP Liability Currently Capped at Only $75 MILLION ... Menendez Bill Would Raise Liability to $10 Billion

As the New York Times reported Saturday, BP's liability for is capped at $75 million:

Under the law that established the reserve, called the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, the operators of the offshore rig face no more than $75 million in liability for the damages that might be claimed by individuals, companies or the government.

The fund was set up by Congress in 1986 but not financed until after the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Alaska in 1989. In exchange for the limits on liability, the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 imposed a tax on oil companies, currently 8 cents for every barrel they produce in this country or import.

Despite plan, not a single fire boom on hand on Gulf Coast at time of oil spill

If U.S. officials had followed up on a 1994 response plan for a major Gulf oil spill, it is possible that the spill could have been kept under control and far from land.

The problem: The federal government did not have a single fire boom on hand.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Okay, now this lays the blame for the destruction form the oil squarely on the Federal Government.

Oil Spill: One Well Capped, but Crude Still Leaking Freely in Gulf Disaster

Webmaster's Commentary:

The smallest (by far) of the three leaks has been closed off, but that may not really mean anything as the system is under pressure from below, and closing off one hole may just increase pressure and flow at the others.

Iran offers to help contain US oil spill

Iran offers to help contain US oil spill
Mon, 03 May 2010
The National Iranian Drilling Company (NIDC) has offered to assist the US in efforts to prevent an ecological disaster caused by the spreading oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
"NIDC managing director Heidar Bahmani announced the firm's readiness to use its decades-long expertise to fight the oil slick, the company's public relations office told Press TV.
"Our oil industry experts in the field of drilling can contain the rig leakage in the Gulf of Mexico and prevent an ecological disaster in that part of the world," Bahmani said."

Palin promotes offshore drilling in the middle of oil spill

As an oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico grows larger by the hour, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin continues to stick to "drill, baby, drill."