BP Oil Spill Coverup: Fishermen Speak Up

The Daily Beast:

While officials claim most of the oil from America's worst-ever spill has disappeared, fishermen hired by BP are still finding tar balls--and being instructed to hide their discoveries.

Two weeks ago, as federal officials prepared to declare that some three-quarters of the estimated 5 million barrels of oil released into the Gulf over three months had disappeared, Mark Williams, a fishing boat captain hired by BP to help with the spill cleanup, encountered tar balls as large as three inches wide floating off the Florida coast.

Read the whole story: The Daily Beast

Comments

[Bill Wagner]

04:26 PM on 09/20/2010

This event is purposeful. The evil involved here is very hard to conceive. The solution is bioremediation. The only group that is doing something pro-active about this is The Earth Organization. You can read about bioremediation here: http://www.earthorganization.org/articles/News/GULF_OIL_RELIEF_CAMPAIGN/default.aspx

[Truth-Seeker]

02:08 PM on 08/19/2010

Thad Allen was on Charlie Rose last night and his "performance" was as expected - all smoke and mirrors. When asked what could have been done better, his answer was basically not much.

[Papa Swamp]

07:14 PM on 08/18/2010

...and in related news...the WH oil spill commission will push for the oil industry to do more SELF regulation...isn't that what the GWB administration did?...wow there really is no difference.
"(Reuters) - The White House oil spill commission could push for the oil industry to create a self-regulating agency that would fill a gap in the sector's oversight exposed by BP's massive oil spill, a co-chair of the panel said on Wednesday."
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67H5OP20100818

[ThatGuyisaGirl]

09:46 PM on 08/18/2010

From your own article:

"He stressed that any self-regulating agency would not be a substitute for a strong federal regulator, but instead would act as supplement to those rules."

[catcancook]

04:30 PM on 08/18/2010

Any person with a brain would not believe the Gov about the oil being 75% gone. This is such a sham perpetrated on the Gulf coast. Why are those states Governors not hollering about this lie? Letting BP pull the clean up operations is insane.

I am so disappointed in Obama right now. He knows better than to believe this garbage.

[Telemachus]

03:56 PM on 08/18/2010

It's underwater, suspended and moving laterally with currents that may or may not coincide with surface currents. To expect it to stay in one place, or just dissipate, is wishful thinking. You might as well click your heels together and repeat, "There's no place like home ... there's no place like home ... "

[g-moi]

02:20 PM on 08/18/2010

Of course they did and they will continue to find oil. BP is lying to protect themselves and their money. It's all about the Benjamins

[mrJJ]

01:23 PM on 08/18/2010

OT: US probes Transocean over ties to Burmese drug lords

US-Swiss drilling company Tranoscean has admitted it is under investigation by the US Treasury over its “operations in Myanmar ”. The probe comes amid intense public scrutiny since its rig blew up in the Gulf of Mexico.

Since the explosion on Tranoscean’s rig in April caused America’s worst oil spill, the company hired by BP has acknowledged in its latest regulatory 10-Q filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) it had “recently received an administrative subpoena” from the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) regarding its “operations in Myanmar ”. The filing was submitted on August 4.
-snip-
The subpoena from the US government’s sanctions enforcement division came after Mizzima first reported in May, that Transocean’s US regulatory filings showed the firm was hired late last year to do drilling work in Burmese waters co-owned by a company controlled by Stephen Law, a junta crony businessman alleged by the US government and analysts to be a major drug-money launderer.
-snip-
Mizzima’s report of Transocean’s ties with a blacklisted Burmese narcotics-trafficking clan was picked up in a front page story in The New York Times, which also detailed the firm’s questionable practices in Iran, Norway and Syria.
-long snip-

http://www.mizzima.com/news/world/4248-us-probes-transocean-over-ties-to-burmese-drug-lords-.html

[Telemachus]

03:58 PM on 08/18/2010

It would probably be wise to investigate Cheney's ties to drug lords and other undesirables as well.

Besides the undesirables at Halliburton, I mean.

[BannedNBoston]

01:12 PM on 08/18/2010

Kassandra Was the Google news Florida?
I think that is the issue.

[Kassandra]

12:44 PM on 08/18/2010

Carol Browner Says 75% of Spilled BP Oil Is Gone, Georgia Sea Grant Scientists Say 70-79% Remains in Gulf
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/65731

[Kassandra]

12:40 PM on 08/18/2010

Why aren't "they" testing all those dead fish that have washed up on New England beaches in the last week? if the dead fish are there, I bet the COREXIT is too.

[Kassandra]

12:38 PM on 08/18/2010

The FDA Won’t Test For Corexit In Seafood, Unless 300 Children Die From it Next Week
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/65805

[BannedNBoston]

12:30 PM on 08/18/2010

HMMM Coast Guard says no spraying in FL yet this happens.

Mayor: Reports of “Mystery Dispersant” in Florida; Sprayed workers ...
Aug 12, 2010 ... NEWER: ANOTHER cleanup worker sprayed: “Made his leg swell like a balloon”; ... activity” related to “using dispersants in state waters.” ...
www.floridaoilspilllaw.com/mayor-reports-of-mystery-dispersant-in-florida-sprayed-workers-sent-to-hospital-then-blood-testing

[BannedNBoston]

12:26 PM on 08/18/2010

COREXIT SPRAYED UNDER DIRECT AUTHORITY OF THE PRESIDENT!

An article by the 910th Airlift Wing Public Affairs Office, based in Youngstown, Ohio, states that C-130H Hercules aircraft started aerial spray operations Saturday, May 1, under the direction of the president of the United States and secretary of defense. "The objective of the aerial spray operation is to neutralize the oil spill with oil dispersing agents," it says.

Joseph Yerkes, along with other Florida commercial fishermen and Florida residents, have seen C-130s spraying dispersants on oil floating off the coast of Florida numerous times.

But the Coast Guard denies it.

At a VOO meeting in Destin on August 3, Lt. Cmdr. Dale Vogelsang, a liaison officer with the United States Coast Guard said, "I can state, there is no dispersant being used in Florida waters."

http://www.truth-out.org/uncovering-lies-that-are-sinking-oil62345

[Kassandra]

12:39 PM on 08/18/2010

Hell I saw a picture of one on Google news about a month ago. Now they're denying it?

[concerned joe]

11:53 AM on 08/18/2010

Why is it that the state governments are not all over the media on this issue? Is there a conspiracy on the part of BP, the federal government and the Gulf States to keep quiet in the hopes of diverting media attention elsewhere?

If I were a Gulf state governor I would be on the national news daily to keep this issue from being swept under the rug.

[concerned joe]

11:35 AM on 08/18/2010

I think it's time for the fisherman and people of the gulf to organize and sue BP and the federal government for oh about 20 billion dollars. If the states won't do it then the people need to.

I no longer believe anything the federal government says regarding the gulf spill. If the government won't bring in independent groups to verify that the oil is gone or that gulf fish are safe to eat then I think the people of the gulf and Gulf States should do so to protect their own interests. I would be happy to donate funds to cover the costs of doing so and I don't even live anywhere near the gulf. I do however eat seafood from the gulf when it's available.

Why is our government going out of their way to try and hide information from the public? Why is our government treating this as a PR campaign instead of the worst disaster our country has ever seen?

[banker67]

01:46 PM on 08/18/2010

I'm upset about this too. Under Cheney, Washington public servants had every incentive to shill for the oil companies, and almost certainly did most of the time (at public expense).
But I hoped for something different with the Democrats in the White House. It's perfectly possible that our regulatory agencies became so profoundly corrupt under the GOP that it will take a decade or more to weed out all the crooks. More likely, Obama will lose the next election and the few crooks he managed to fire will be rehired and promoted, but that's another matter.
Why would government agencies now try to mislead the public? Now, after all the disgraces traced directly back to the top GOP appointees in the major regulatory agencies, would the same agencies continue to act as if they are employees of the companies they are paid to regulate?
It seems that little has changed, and I must say I hoped for more.