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Bay Area United Against War Newsletter
Table of Contents:
A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
B. VIDEOS
C. SPECIAL APPEALS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
D. ARTICLES IN FULL
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A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
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Please Distribute Widely - Send to a Friend
Arab Film Festival Presents
The premiere of two powerful documentaries on the attacks on Gaza
GAZA'S WINTER
produced by Najwa Najjar
A variety of short films about Gaza and Operation Cast Lead, a collaboration of 12 International filmmakers.
GAZA-STROPHE, The Day After
directed by Samir Abdallah & Kheredine Mabrouk
"We bring back images of Palestine, this country which is more and more becoming metaphorical. We entered Gaza as soon as the ceasefire of the last war (December 2008-January 2009) was announced and discovered with our friends from the Palestinian Human Rights Centre, the extent of the gaza-strophe. In spite of all this, our Gazaoui friends offered us poems, songs and even jokes and stories to tell" -Samir Abdallah
Films will be followed by discussion with a distinguished panel:
Paul Larudee, Nadeen Elshorafa, and Jess Ghannam. Facilitator: Michel Shehadeh
Buy Tickets Now:
https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/119164
Thursday, July 29th @ 7:00pm
Roxie Theatre, 3116 16th Street, San Francisco
Tickets: $9
After Event Party @ The Pork Store (Across from The Roxie)
Suggested Donation: $10 Students $15 Adults
Co-Sponsors: Al-Awda San Francisco, Middle East Children Alliance (MECA), Break the Silence and Mural Project, ANSWER Coalition, Arab Resource and Organizing Center, South Bay Mobilization, Culture and Conflict Forum, Free Palestine Movement, UC Berkeley Students for Justice in Palestine, Arab Cultural Community Center of Silicon Valley, Bay Area Labor Committee for Peace & Justice (LC4PJ), Palestine Youth Network, US Palestinian Community Network (SF Bay Area USPCN), International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN), American Friend's Service Committee-SF, Free Palestine Alliance, Sunbula: Arab Feminists for Change, Jewish Voice for Peace, Southwest Asian and North African Bay Area Queers (SWANABAQ), Justice for Palestinians-San Jose, SOUL School of Liberty & Liberation...
If you are interested in becoming a co-sponsor, please email: gazaeducationalevent@arabfilmfestival.org
More info at http://arabfilmfestival.org/
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
http://www.ANSWERcoalition.org http://www.answersf.org
answer@answersf.org
2489 Mission St. Rm. 24
San Francisco: 415-821-6545
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SAVE THE DATE: JUSTICE FOR OSCAR GRANT -- SEPTEMBER 15, 2010
ILWU Local 10 Motion on the Verdict in the Oscar Grant Case
Whereas, Oscar Grant's killer, BART police officer Johannes Mehserle received a verdict of involuntary manslaughter on July 8, 2010; and
Whereas, video tapes show clearly that Oscar Grant was lying face down on the Fruitvale BART platform, waiting to be handcuffed with another cop's boot on his neck posing no threat when he was shot in the back and killed in cold blood by Mehserle; and
Whereas, this is just another example in a racist justice system where police officers go free for killing young black men; and
Whereas, the Contra Costa Times reports that police are holding a rally in Walnut Creek on July 19, 2010 to show support for the killer cop so his sentence will only be a slap on the wrist; and
Whereas; the ILWU has always stood for social justice;
Therefore be it resolved that the labor movement organize a mass protest rally September 15, 2010 with participation from community groups, civil rights organizations, civil liberties organizations and all who stand for social justice demand jail for killer cops.
THAT LOCAL 10 DELEGATES TO THE BAY AREA LABOR COUNCILS ARE DIRECTED TO RAISE THE ABOVE MOTION AT THEIR NEXT MEETING
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Education 4 the People!
October 7 Day of Action in Defense of Public Education - California
http://defendcapubliceducation.wordpress.com/
MORE THAN 100 activists from across California gathered in Los Angeles April 24 to debate next steps for the fight against the devastating cutbacks facing public education.
The main achievements of the conference were to set a date and location for the next statewide mass action-October 7-and for the next anti-cuts conference, which will happen October 16 at San Francisco State University. The other key outcome was the first steps toward the formation of an ad hoc volunteer coordinating committee to plan for the fall conference.
These decisions were a crucial step toward deepening and broadening the movement. For example, the fall conference will be the key venue for uniting activists from all sectors of public education, and especially from those schools and campuses which saw action on March 4, but which have yet to plug into the broader movement.
This will be crucial for extending the scope and increasing the strength of our movement, as well as for helping us strategize and prepare for what is certain to be a tough year ahead. Similarly, the fall mass action will be crucial to re-igniting the movement following the summer months.
http://defendcapubliceducation.wordpress.com/
Organizing for the next Statewide Public Education Mobilization Conference at SFSU on OCT 16th
Posted on May 24, 2010 by ooofireballooo
Organizing for the next Statewide Public Education Mobilization Conference
@ San Francisco State University on October 16th
MORE THAN 100 activists from across California gathered in Los Angeles April 24 to debate next steps for the fight against the devastating cutbacks facing public education.
The main achievements of the conference were to set a date and location for the next statewide mass action-October 7-and for the next anti-cuts conference, which will happen October 16 at San Francisco State University. The other key outcome was the first steps toward the formation of an ad hoc volunteer coordinating committee to plan for the fall conference.
These decisions were a crucial step toward deepening and broadening the movement. For example, the fall conference will be the key venue for uniting activists from all sectors of public education, and especially from those schools and campuses which saw action on March 4, but which have yet to plug into the broader movement.
This will be crucial for extending the scope and increasing the strength of our movement, as well as for helping us strategize and prepare for what is certain to be a tough year ahead. Similarly, the fall mass action will be crucial to re-igniting the movement following the summer months.
Proposal: Form a conference organizing listserve immediately!
Please join the google group today.
* Group home page: http://groups.google.com/group/fallconferencesfsu
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NOVEMBER 2010 - CONVERGE ON FORT BENNING, GEORGIA
November 18-21, 2010: Close the SOA and take a stand for justice in the Americas.
www.soaw.org/take-action/november-vigil
The November Vigil to Close the School of the Americas at the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia will be held from November 18-21, 2010. The annual vigil is always held close to the anniversary of the 1989 murders of Celina Ramos, her mother Elba and six Jesuit priests at a the University of Central America in El Salvador.
ORGANIZE YOUR COMMUNITY FOR THE 2010 VIGIL!
November 2010 will mark the 20th anniversary of the vigil that brings together religious communities, students, teachers, veterans, community organizers, musicians, puppetistas and many others. New layers of activists are joining the movement to close the SOA in large numbers, including numerous youth and students from multinational, working-class communities. The movement is strong thanks to the committed work of thousands of organizers and volunteers around the country. They raise funds, spread the word through posters and flyers, organize buses and other transportation to Georgia, and carry out all the work that is needed to make the November vigil a success. Together, we are strong!
VIGIL AND RALLY AT THE GATES, NONVIOLENT DIRECT ACTION, TEACH-IN, CONCERTS, WORKSHOPS AND A ANTI-MILITARIZATION ORGANIZERS CONFERENCE
There will be exciting additions to this year's vigil program. Besides the rally at the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia with inspiring speakers and amazing musicians from across the Americas, the four day convergence will also include an educational teach-in at the Columbus Convention Center, several evening concerts, workshops and for the first time, the Latin America Solidarity Coalition will stage a one-day Anti-Militarization Organizers Conference on Thursday, November 18, 2010.
SHUT DOWN THE SOA AND RESIST U.S. MILITARIZATION IN THE AMERICAS
Our work has unfortunately not gotten any easier and U.S. militarization in Latin America is accelerating. The SOA graduate led military coup in Honduras, the continuing repression against the Honduran pro-democracy resistance and the expansion of U.S. military bases in Colombia and Panama are grim examples of the ongoing threats of a U.S. foreign policy that is relying on the military to exert control over the people and the resources in the Americas. Join the people who are struggling for justice in Honduras, Colombia and throughout the Americas as we organize to push back.
Spread the word - Tell a friend about the November Vigil:
http://www.SOAW.org/tellafriend
For more information, visit:
www.SOAW.org.
See you at the gates of Fort Benning in November 2010
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B. VIDEOS:
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BP OIL SPILL HEALTH EMERGENCY! DIRE! MUST BE WATCHED! Corexit Being Sprayed From Coast Guard Planes!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FxfYqnlQ50&feature=player_embedded
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BP SPRAYING POISONOUS GAS ON PEOPLE IN GULF! MUST SEE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exaGh3SWTLs&feature=player_embedded
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Papantonio: BP's Floating 3rd World Death Trap
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUmkxR6TY_Y&feature=player_embedded
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Mexican kindergarten kids vs racist white minutemen
Little kids stand up for their parents after the minutemen go harass migrants at the Mexican Consulate in the city of Santa Ana.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7YrkpKNB7M&feature=player_embedded
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HEALTH ALERT: Toxic Rain In Miami From Gulf Oil Leak, Plants & Trees Dying
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSvHho90O3g
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Sarah Kruzan: Sentenced to Life Without Parole at Age 16
http://media.causes.com/595178?email=true
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Make A Living With My Own Two Hands/ Hell It's Part of Being Who I Am
by Abby Zimet
July 14, 2010
http://www.commondreams.org/further/2010/07/14
After two days of often emotional testimony from Gulf Coast residents, the White House oil spill commission heard Louisiana native, crawfisherman and singer-songwriter Drew Landry sing it like it is in a newly, sorrowfully minted lament for a way of life he fears has been destroyed. From "The BP Blues": "Kickin mud off up a crawfish hole/ barefooted with a fishin pole/ went to workin in the oil fields/ that's the only way to pay our bills..."
After the song, Landry told the hearing: "It feels like BP is in control of this deal, and the Coast Guard does what they want...More importantly, it feels like the people don't have a voice in this thing. It just sucks. Let's just do the right damn thing. It shouldn't be this hard. It shouldn't take a committee to listen to people."
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The Gulf 20 years from now
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/895.html
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BPMakesMeSick.com
Tell President Obama to demand that BP stop blocking
clean-up workers from using life-saving respirators:
http://bpmakesmesick.com/
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"Corporations don't mind if we repeat history--it's cheaper that way." --Keith Olberman
Gulf's Human Health Crisis Explodes -- Countdown with Keith Olberman
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677//vp/38175715#38175715
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COREXIT is Eating Through Boats in the Gulf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLvNqlVNMh0&feature=player_embedded
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Gulf toxicologist: Shrimpers exposed to Corexit "bleeding from the rectum"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1mI-DJII1U&feature=player_embedded
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BP Makes Me Sick
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m5MeqlETpY
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Tar ball clean up in Cocoa Beach -- East Coast of Central Florida
http://www.myfoxorlando.com/dpp/news/brevard_news/070710-Cocoa-Beach-tar-balls
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Tar ball clean up in Cocoa Beach
Oil/Water samples from Gulf...VERY TOXIC
http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2010/07/08/independent-water-samples-of-the-bp-gulf-oil-spill-contradict-epa-samples-and-found-to-be-highly-toxic/
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YouTube - Obama admin bans press from filming BP oil spill areas in the Gulf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpJBsjKhRTo&feature=player_embedded#!
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Police State Canada
http://tv.globalresearch.ca/content/police-state-canada
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BP Death Clouds Already Onshore! Benzene-3400ppb Hyrdrogen Sulfide-1200ppb TOXIC AIR ALERT.flv
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dngpCYgKxZ0
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Kid with oil stuck on her! Destin Beach, Fl. June 23rd, 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QwsCHd7Lcg&feature=player_embedded#
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Is it raining oil
in Metro New Orleans?
River Ridge, LA
Just south of the airport
[The question mark isn't appropriate in this title. The video clearly shows that it's raining oil in River Ridge--no question about it...bw]
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/874.html
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G20 Police Accused of Rape Threats, Strip-Searches
29 June 2010
http://readersupportednews.org/video/4-video/2323-g20-toronto-police-rape-threats-women-strip-searched
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BP Slick Covers Dolphins and Whales.mov
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxDf-KkMCKQ
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Licence to Spill
Posted on 06.30.10
http://www.youandifilms.com/2010/06/licence-to-spill-full-report/
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Two Pensacola Beach Scenes: Dying Baby Dolphin and Ocean "Water Bubbling "...Like It's Got Acid In It. God Help Us All"
opednews.com
For OpEdNews: theWeb - Writer
Two scenes from Pensacola--one of a dying baby dolphin, the other of water bubbling like there's acid in it.
A dying, oil-covered baby dolphin is taken from Pensacola waters. It died shortly after being discovered.
http://www.youtube.com/user/pcolagregg
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Video-Pensacola-Ocean-Wa-by-the-web-100624-933.html
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THE SHORT FILM BP DOESN'T WANT YOU TO SEE ABOUT WHAT'S REALLY HAPPENING TO THE PEOPLE IN THE GULF
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRl6-o8CpXA
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ROV films oil leak coming from rock cracks on seafloor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2RxIQP0IBU
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Oil Spill Threatens Native American "Water" Village
The town of Grand Bayou, Louisiana, has no streets and no cars, just water and boats. And now the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico threatens the very existence of the Atakapa-Ishak Indians who live there. "We're facing the potential for cultural genocide," says one tribe member.
(c) 2010 National Geographic; videographer and field producer: Fritz Faerber
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/06/100608-us-oil-gulf-indians-video/
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Roger Waters - "We Shall Overcome" for Gaza
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnMMHepfYVc
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Rachel Maddow: Disgraceful response to the oil itself
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#37563648
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It Ain't My Fault by Mos Def & Lenny Kravitz | stupidDOPE.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnR1BrGgRVM
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Gulf Oil Spill?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAHS5z6QKok
Dear Readers,
If you are wondering why an antiwar newsletter is giving full coverage to the oil spill, it's because:
(1) "Supplying the US army with oil is one of BP's biggest markets, and further exploration in the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico is part of its long-term strategy."*
(2) "The Senate on Thursday, [May 27, 2010] approved a nearly $60 billion measure to pay for continuing military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq..."**
The two are inextricably entwined and interdependent.
--Bonnie Weinstein
*The black hole at the bottom of the Gulf
No one seems to know the extent of the BP disaster
By David Randall and Margareta Pagano
Sunday, 23 May 2010
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/the-black-hole-at-the-bottom-of-the-gulf-1980693.html
**Senate Approves Nearly $60 Billion for Wars
By CARL HULSE
May 27, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/28/us/politics/28cong.html?ref=us
Watch BP Live Video Webcam Camera Feed of Gulf Oil Spill Here! (Update 7)
http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2010/05/20/live-video-feed-webcam-gulf-oil-spill/
What BP does not want you to see:
ABC News went underwater in the Gulf with Philippe Cousteau Jr., grandson of famous explorer Jacques Cousteau, and he described what he saw as "one of the most horrible things I've ever seen underwater."
Check out what BP does not want you to see. And please share this widely -- every American should see what's happening under the surface in the Gulf.
http://acp.repoweramerica.org/page/invite/oilspillvideo?source=sprd-fwd&utm_source=crm_email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=oilspillvideo20100527&utm_content=link1
Live BP Gulf Oil Spill Webcam Video Reveals 5 Leaks
http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2010/05/24/live-bp-gulf-oil-spill-webcam-video-reveals-5-leaks/
Stop Shell Oil's Offshore Drilling Plans in the Arctic
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/308597489?z00m=19844689
Sign the Petition to Ban Offshore Drilling Now!
http://na.oceana.org/en/stopthedrill?key=31522015
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C. SPECIAL APPEALS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
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Please forward widely...
Lynne Stewart Sentenced to Ten Years in Prison
By Jeff Mackler
(Jeff Mackler is the West Coast Director of the Lynne Stewart Defense Committee.)
The full force of the U.S. criminal "justice" system came down on innocent political prisoner, 30-year veteran human rights attorney and radical political activist Lynne Stewart today, July 15, 2010.
In an obviously pre-prepared one hour and twenty minute technical tour de force designed to give legitimacy to a reactionary ruling Federal District Court John Koeltl, who in 2005 sentenced Stewart to 28 months in prison following her frame-up trial and jury conviction on four counts of "conspiracy to aid and abet terrorism," re-sentenced Stewart to 120 months or ten years. Koeltl recommended that Stewart serve her sentence in Danbury, Connecticut's minimum security prison. A final decision will be made by the Bureau of Prisons.
Stewart will remain in Manhattan's Metropolitan Correctional Center for 60 days to prepare an appeal.
The jam-packed New York Federal District Court chamber observers where Koeltl held forth let our a gasp of pain and anguish as Lynne's family and friends were stunned - tears flowing down the stricken and somber faces of many. A magnificent Stewart, ever the political fighter and organizer was able to say to her supporters that she felt badly because she had "let them down," a reference to the massive outpouring of solidarity and defiance that was the prime characteristic of Lynne's long fight for freedom.
Judge Koeltl was ordered to revisit his relatively short sentence when it was overturned by a two-judge majority of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Judges Robert D. Sack and Guido Calabresi ruled that Koeltl's sentence was flawed because he had declined to determine whether Stewart committed perjury when she testified at her trial that she believed that she was effectively operating under a "bubble" protecting her from prosecution when she issued a press release on behalf of her also framed-up client, the blind Sheik Omar Abdel Rachman. Rachman was falsely charged with conspiracy to damage New York state buildings.
Dissenting Judge John M. Walker, who called Stewart's sentence, "breathtakingly low" in view of Stewart's "extraordinarily severe criminal conduct" deemed the Second Circuit's majority opinion "substantively unreasonable." Walker essentially sought to impose or demand a 30-year sentence.
The three-judge panel on Dec. 20, 2009 followed its initial ruling with even tougher language demanding that Koeltl revisit his treatment of the "terrorism enhancement" aspects of the law. A cowardly Koeltl, who didn't need this argument to dramatically increase Stewart's sentence, asserted that he had already taken it under consideration in his original deliberations.
Government prosecutors, who in 2005 sought a 30-year sentence, had submitted a 155-page memorandum arguing in support of a 15-30 year sentence. Their arguments demonstrated how twisted logic coupled with vindictive and lying government officials routinely turn the victim into the criminal.
Stewart's attorneys countered with a detailed brief recounting the facts of the case and demonstrating that Stewart's actions in defense of her client were well within the realm of past practice and accepted procedures. They argued that Koeltl properly exercised his discretion in determining that, while the terrorism enhancement provisions of the "law" had to be taken into consideration, the 30-year-prison term associated with it was "dramatically unreasonable," "overstated the seriousness" of Stewart's conduct" and had already been factored into Koeltl's decision.
Stewart's attorneys also argued convincingly in their brief that the Special Administrative Measure (SAM) that Stewart was convicted of violating by releasing a statement from her client to the media was well within the established practice of Stewart's experienced and mentoring co-counsels- former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark and past American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee president Abdeen Jabarra. Both had issued similar statements to the media with no government reprisal. Clark was an observer in Koeltl's courtroom. When he testified in support of Lynne during her trial one overzealous prosecutor suggested that he too be subject to the conspiracy charges. The more discreet team of government lawyers quietly dropped the matter.
At worst, in such matters, government officials refuse defense attorneys client visiting rights until an agreement on a contested interpretation of a SAM is reached. This was the case with Stewart and her visiting rights were eventually restored with no punishment or further action. Indeed, when the matter was brought to then Attorney General Janet Reno, the government declined to prosecute or otherwise take any action against Stewart.
But Koeltl, who had essentially accepted this view in his original sentence, reversed himself entirely and proceeded in his erudite-sounding new rendition of the law to repeatedly charge Stewart with multiple acts of perjury regarding her statements on the SAM during her trial.
Koeltl took the occasion to lecture Stewart regarding the first words she uttered in front of a bevy of media outlets when she joyfully alighted from the courthouse following the judge's original 28-month sentence. Said Stewart at that time, "I can do 28 months standing on my head." A few moments earlier Stewart, with nothing but a plastic bag containing a toothbrush, toothpaste and her various medications, had stood before Koeltl, who had been asked by the government to sentence her to a 30-year term, effectively a death sentence for Lynne, aged 70, a diabetic and recovering breast cancer victim in less than excellent health.
Koeltl dutifully followed the lead of the Second Circuit judges, who feigned outrage that Stewart could possibly appear joyful that her life was spared despite 28 months in prison. Koeltl insisted that Stewart's remark was essentially contemptuous of his sentence and insufficient to convince Stewart of the seriousness of her "crime." Lynne's defense was that while she fully understood that 28 months behind bars, separating from her "family, friends and comrades," as she proudly stated, was a harsh penalty, she was nevertheless "relieved" that she would not die in prison. Koeltl needed a legal brick to throw at Lynne's head and ignored her humanity, honesty and deep feeling of relief when she expressed it to a crowd of two thousand friends, supporters and a good portion of the nation's media.
The same Judge Koeltl who stated in 2005, when he rendered the 28-month jail term, that Lynne was "a credit to her profession and to the nation," clearly heard the voice of institutionalized hate and cruelty and responded in according with its unstated code. "Show no mercy! Thou shall not dissent without grave punishment" in capitalist America.
Lynne was convicted in the post-911 generated climate of political hysteria. Bush appointee, Attorney General John Ashcroft, decided to make an example of her aimed at warning future attorneys that the mere act of defending anyone whom the government charged with "conspiracy to aid and abet terrorism," could trigger terrible consequences.
On July 15 Judge Koeltl made the decision of his career. Known for his meticulous preparation in such matters, and already having enraged the powers that be with his "light" sentence of Stewart, he bent full tilt to the reactionary political pressures exerted on him by the court hierarchy. He had the option to stand tall and reaffirm his original decision. The "law" allowed him to do so. He could have permitted Lynne to leave prison in less than two years, recover her health, and lead a productive life. His massively extended sentence, unless overturned, will likely lead to Lynne's demise behind bars - a brilliant and dedicated fighter sacrificed on the alter of an intolerant class-biased system of repression and war.
Courage is a rare quality in the capitalist judiciary. For every defiant decision made, usually driven by a change in the political climate and pressed forward by the rise of mass social protest movements, there are thousands and more of political appointees that affirm the status quo, including its punishment of all who struggle to challenge capitalist prerogatives and power.
Lynne Stewart stands tall among the latter. We can only hope that the winds of change that are stirring the consciousness of millions today in the context of an American capitalism in economic and moral crisis keeps the movement for her freedom alive and well. The fight is not over! What we do now remains critical. Lynne's expected appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court cannot be written off as absurd and hopeless. What we do collectively to free her and all political prisoners and to fight for freedom and justice on every front counts for everything!
Write to Lynne at:
Lynne Stewart 53504-054
MCC-NY 2-S
150 Park Row
New York, NY 10007
For further information call Lynne's husband, Ralph Poynter, leader of the Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
718-789-0558 or 917-853-9759
Send contributions payable to:
Lynne Stewart Organization
1070 Dean Street
Brooklyn, New York, 11216
---
Listen to Lynne Stewart event, that took place July 8, 2010 at Judson Memorial Church
Excerpts include: Mumia Abu Jamal, Ralph Poynter, Ramsey Clark, Juanita
Young, Fred Hampton Jr., Raging Grannies, Ralph Schoenman
http://www.takingaimradio.com/shows/audio.html
And check out this article (link) too!
http://www.baltimorechronicle.com/2010/062210Lendman.shtml
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Requesting Your Support
By Dahr Jamail
July 12th, 2010
Dear Readers:
This morning we hired a flight out to the well site where the Deepwater Horizon sank. This environmental crime scene is now littered with boats and relief wells flailing to stop the flow of oil that has been gushing into the Gulf of Mexico for almost 3 months. Tomorrow, we are hiring a boat to take us to some of the most devastated coastline, which is still smeared in oil, causing harm to uncountable ecosystems and wildlife.
I have been on the Gulf Coast of Louisiana for two weeks now, and together with my partner, Erika Blumenfeld, we have brought you stories and photographs that document and archive the human and environmental impact of the historic and horrific disaster that is the BP oil catastrophe.
In our story, Fending For Themselves, we wrote about the growing crisis of the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe being displaced by the encroaching oil, and showed you images of their dying marshlands.
We produced an original photo essay for Truthout, Mitigating Annihilation, which clearly depicts the futility of the booming efforts, and the resulting destruction of the local and migratory bird rookeries, along with South Louisiana's fragile and endangered coastline.
Our most recent post, Hell Has Come To South Louisiana, articulates the desperate situation of the shrimpers and fisher-folk whose livelihood that spans generations is threatened by extinction.
The complexity and breadth of this continued crisis is beyond what we could have imagined, and our questions have led us to dynamic and impassioned interviews with environmental philosophers, activists, scientists, sociologists, riverkeepers, bayoukeepers, indigenous tribes, and fisher people.
As a freelance team, we could not have produced this important work without your generous support. We are deeply grateful to those who were able to contribute to our efforts thus far.
Our work here is just beginning, and with so much of our investigation requiring that we be out in the field, I am humbly appealing for your continued support to help us extend our reporting, so that we may continue to bring you the unfolding events of this devastating issue that clearly effects us all.
Please support our work in the Gulf Coast by making a donation. There are several ways you can donate:
If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation, International Media Project (IMP) is providing fiscal sponsorship to Dahr Jamail.
Checks for tax-deductible donations should be made out to "International Media Project." please write"Dahr Jamail" in the memo line and mail to:
International Media Project/Dahr Jamail
1714 Franklin St.
#100-251
Oakland, CA 94612
Online, you can use Paypal to donate HERE.
Donations can also be mailed to:
Dahr Jamail
P.O. Box 970
Marfa, TX 79843
Direct links to our pieces produced thus far:
Living on a dying delta
http://dahrjamailiraq.com/living-on-a-dying-delta
Fending For Themselves
http://dahrjamailiraq.com/fending-for-themselves
No Free Press for BP Oil Disaster
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52082
Mitigating Annihilation
http://www.truth-out.org/mitigating-annihilation61145
Hell Has Come to South Louisiana
http://dahrjamailiraq.com/hell-has-come-to-south-louisiana
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HE WAS MURDERED!
HE WAS MURDERED!
HE WAS MURDERED!
HE WAS MURDERED!
RIP Oscar!
DEMAND JUSTICE FOR OSCAR GRANT
Victory for movement, but justice still needs to be won
Calling on all supporters of justice for Oscar Grant and opponents of racist police brutality:
The jury verdict is not justice for Oscar Grant - it is up to the new movement to use its power to win real justice. THIS IS THE TIME TO ACT.
DEMAND:
The maximum sentence for killer cop Johannes Mehserle.
Jail Officers Pirone and Domenici, the two police who were accomplices to murder.
Disarm and disband the BART Police.
Provide massive funding to Oakland for education and jobs for Oakland's black, Latina/o, Asian, and poor and working-class white youth.
Stop police/ICE racial profiling of Latina/o, black, Asian, and other minority youth with and without papers.
Furthermore, we call on Oakland Mayor Dellums and other governmental authorities in Oakland to declare that this verdict does not render justice to Oscar Grant and to act on the demands of the movement.
If you haven't already done so yet, join the JUSTICE FOR OSCAR GRANT ACTION PAGE on Facebook at: http://www.causes.com/causes/188135
BAMN STATEMENT:
Oscar Grant Verdict Is Victory for the Movement,
But Justice for Oscar Grant Still Needs to Be Won
Today's [THURSDAY, JULY 8, 2010] conviction of Johannes Mehserle is a victory for the movement. Despite all the foot-dragging and machinations of the police, the justice system, the government, and the politicians, the movement secured the first conviction of a California police officer for the killing of a black man. This victory is important and provides some greater protection for black and Latina/o youth. However, this verdict does NOT constitute justice for Oscar Grant.
Tens of millions of people around the world saw the videotape and know that Oscar Grant was murdered in cold blood by Johannes Mehserle. And yet, because of the failure of the prosecutor's office to fight the change in venue, and because of the pro-police bias of the judge, the jury was deprived of even being able to consider convicting Mehserle of first-degree murder. The Los Angeles county jury which heard that case did not include a single black juror.
BAMN salutes the new civil rights movement for this victory. However, achieving justice for Oscar Grant requires that the movement continue to build and grow in determination, drawing in millions more black, Latina/o and other youth.
BAMN also salutes Wanda Johnson, Oscar Grant's mother, for refusing to accept a civil settlement and for fighting to achieve justice for her son. We pledge to Wanda Johnson, Oscar's daughter Tatiana, her mother, and all family and friends that we will not rest until we achieve justice for Oscar.
We call on the movement to maintain the fight for justice for Oscar Grant by raising and fighting to win the following demands:
The maximum sentence for killer cop Johannes Mehserle.
Jail Officers Pirone and Domenici, the two police who were accomplices to murder.
Disarm and disband the BART Police.
Provide massive funding to Oakland for education and jobs for Oakland's black, Latina/o, Asian, and poor and working-class white youth.
Stop police/ICE racial profiling of Latina/o, black, Asian, and other minority youth with and without papers.
Furthermore, we call on Oakland Mayor Dellums and other governmental authorities in Oakland to declare that this verdict does not render justice to Oscar Grant and to act on the demands of the movement.
Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration, and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN)
(510) 502-9072 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (510) 502-9072 end_of_the_skype_highlighting letters@bamn.com BAMN.com
--
Ronald Cruz
BAMN Organizer, www.BAMN.com
& Civil Rights Attorney
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SOME GOOD NEWS FOR TROY ANTHONY DAVIS - INNOCENT MAN ON DEATH ROW:
http://www.troyanthonydavis.org/call-to-action.html
Georgia: Witnesses in Murder Case Recant
By SHAILA DEWAN
June 23, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/24/us/24brfs-WITNESSESINM_BRF.html?ref=us
In an unusual hearing ordered by the Supreme Court that began in Savannah on Wednesday, several witnesses said they had concocted testimony that Troy Anthony Davis killed a police officer, Mark MacPhail, in 1989. Last August, the Supreme Court ordered a federal district court to determine if new evidence "clearly establishes" Mr. Davis's innocence, its first order in an "actual innocence" petition from a state prisoner in nearly 50 years, according to Justice Antonin Scalia, who dissented. Seven of the witnesses who testified against Mr. Davis at his trial have recanted, and some have implicated the chief informer in the case. Mr. Davis's execution has been stayed three times.
For more info: www.iamtroy.com | www.justicefortroy.org | troy@aiusa.org Savannah Branch NAACP: 912-233-4161
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Mumia Abu-Jamal - Legal Update
June 9, 2010
Robert R. Bryan, Lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal
Law Offices of Robert R. Bryan
2088 Union Street, Suite 4
San Francisco, California 94123-4117
www.MumiaLegalDefense.org
Dear All:
There are significant developments on various fronts in the coordinated legal campaign to save & free Mumia Abu-Jamal. The complex court proceedings are moving forward at a fast pace. Mumia's life is on the line.
Court Developments: We are engaged in pivotal litigation in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia. At stake is whether Mumia will be executed or granted a new jury trial on the question of the death penalty. Two years ago we won on that issue, with the federal court finding that the trial judge misled the jury thereby rendering the proceedings constitutionally unfair. Then in January 2010 the U.S. Supreme Court vacated that ruling based upon its decision in another case, & ordered that the case be again reviewed by the Court of Appeals.
The prosecution continues its obsession to kill my client, regardless of the truth as to what happened at the time of the 1981 police shooting. Its opening brief was filed April 26. Our initial brief will be submitted on July 28. At issue is the death penalty.
In separate litigation, we are awaiting a decision in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on prosecutorial abuses, having completed all briefing in April. The focus is on ballistics.
Petition for President Barack Obama: It is crucial for people to sign the petition for President Barack Obama, Mumia Abu-Jamal & the Global Abolition of the Death Penalty, which was initially in 10 languages (Swahili & Turkish have since been added). This is the only petition approved by Mumia & me, & is a vital part of the legal effort to save his life. Please sign the petition & circulate its link:
www.MumiaLegalDefense.org
Nearly 22,000 people from around the globe have signed. These include: Bishop Desmond Tutu, South Africa (Nobel Peace Prize); Günter Grass, Germany (Nobel Prize in Literature); Danielle Mitterrand, Paris (former First Lady of France); Fatima Bhutto, Pakistan (writer); Colin Firth (Academy Award Best-Actor nominee), Noam Chomsky, MIT (philosopher & author); Ed Asner (actor); Mike Farrell (actor); & Michael Radford (director of the Oscar winning film Il Postino); Robert Meeropol (son of Julius & Ethel Rosenberg, executed in 1953); Fatima Bhutto, Pakistan (writer); Noam Chomsky, MIT (philosopher & author); Ed Asner (actor); Mike Farrell (actor); Michael Radford (director of the Oscar winning film Il Postino); members of the European Parliament; members of the German Bundestag; European Association of Lawyers for Democracy & World Human Rights; Reporters Without Borders, Paris.
European Parliament; Rosa Luxemburg Conference; World Congress Against the Death Penalty; Geneva Human Rights Film Festival: We began the year with a major address to the annual Rosa Luxemburg Conference in Berlin, Germany, sponsored by the newspaper junge Welt. The large auditorium was filled with a standing-room audience. Mumia joined me by telephone. We announced the launching of the online petition, Mumia Abu-Jamal & the Global Abolition of the Death Penalty.
A large audience on the concluding night of the World Congress Against the Death Penalty in Geneva, Switzerland, February 25, heard Mumia by telephone. He spoke as a symbolic representative of the over 20,000 men, women & children on death rows around the world. The call came as a surprise, since we thought it had been canceled. Mumia's comments from inside his death-row cell brought to reality the horror of daily life in which death is a common denominator. During an earlier panel discussion I spoke of racism in capital cases around the globe with the case of Mumia as a prime example. A day before the Congress on February 23, I talked at the Geneva Human Rights Film Festival on the power of films in fighting the death penalty & saving Mumia.
On March 2 in the European Parliament, Brussels, Belgium, members Søren Søndergaard (Denmark) & Sabine Lösing (Germany) announced the beginning of a campaign to save Mumia & end executions. They were joined by Sabine Kebir, the noted German author & PEN member, Nicole Bryan, & me. We discussed the online petition which helps not only Mumia, but all the condemned around the globe.
Donations for Mumia's Legal Defense & Online Petition: The complex litigation & investigation that is being pursued on behalf of Mumia is enormously expensive. We are in both the federal & state courts on the issue of the death penalty, prosecutorial wrongdoing, etc. Mumia's life is on the line.
How to Help: For information on how to help, both through donations & signing the Obama petition, please go to Mumia's legal defense website: www.MumiaLegalDefense.org .
Conclusion: Mumia remains on death row under a death judgment. He is in greater danger than at any time since his arrest 28 years ago. The prosecution is pursuing his execution. I win cases, & will not let them kill my client. He must be free.
Yours very truly,
Robert
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Robert R. Bryan
Law Offices of Robert R. Bryan
2088 Union Street, Suite 4
San Francisco, California 94123-4117
Lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal
www.MumiaLegalDefense.org
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Lynne Stewart and the Guantanamo Lawyers: Same Fact Patterns, Same Opponent, Different Endings?
Lynne Stewart will be re-sentenced sometime in July, in NYC.
By Ralph Poynter
(Ralph Poynter is the Life partner of Lynne Stewart. He is presently dedicated 24/7 to her defense, as well as other causes.)
Ralph.Poynter@yahoo.com
In the Spring of 2002, Lynne Stewart was arrested by the FBI, at her home in Brooklyn, for materially aiding terrorism by virtue of making a public press release to Reuters on behalf of her client, Sheik Abdel Omar Rahman of Egypt. This was done after she had signed a Special Administrative Measure issued by the Bureau of Prisons not permitting her to communicate with the media, on his behalf.
In 2006, a number of attorneys appointed and working pro bono for detainees at Guantanamo were discovered to be acting in a manner that disobeyed a Federal Judge's protective court order. The adversary in both cases was the United States Department of Justice. The results in each case were very different.
In March of 2010, a right wing group "Keep America Safe" led by Lynne Cheney, hoping to dilute Guantanamo representation and impugn the reputations and careers of the volunteer lawyers, launched a campaign. Initially they attacked the right of the detainees to be represented at all. This was met with a massive denouncement by Press, other media, Civil rights organizations ,and rightly so, as being a threat to the Constitution and particularly the Sixth Amendment right to counsel.
A second attack on the Gitmo lawyers was made in the Wall Street Journal of March 16. This has been totally ignored in the media and by civil and human rights groups. This latter revelation about the violations, by these lawyers, of the Judge's protective orders and was revealed via litigation and the Freedom of Information Act. These pro bono lawyers serving clients assigned to them at Gitmo used privileged attorney client mail to send banned materials. They carried in news report of US failures in Afghanistan and Iraq . One lawyer drew a map of the prison. Another delivered lists to his client of all the suspects held there. They placed on the internet a facsimile of the badges worn by the Guards. Some lawyers "provided news outlets with 'interviews' of their clients using questions provided in advance by the news organizations." When a partner at one of the large Wall Street law firms sent in multiple copies of an Amnesty International brochure, which her client was to distribute to other prisoners, she was relieved from her representation and barred by the Military Commander from visiting her client.
This case is significant to interpret not because of the right wing line to punish these lawyers and manipulate their corporate clients to stop patronizing such "wayward" firms. Instead it is significant because, Lynne Stewart, a left wing progressive lawyer who had dedicated her thirty year career to defending the poor, the despised, the political prisoner and those ensnared by reason of race, gender, ethnicity, religion , who was dealt with by the same Department of Justice, in such a draconian fashion, confirms our deepest suspicions that she was targeted for prosecution and punishment because of who she is and who she represented so ably and not because of any misdeed.
Let me be very clear, I am not saying that the Gitmo lawyers acted in any "criminal" manner. The great tradition of the defense bar is to be able to make crucial decisions for and with the client without interference by the adversary Government.
I believe that they were acting as zealous attorneys trying to establish rapport and trust with their clients. That said, the moment the Department of Defense and the Department of Justice tried to remove Julia Tarver Mason from her client, the playing field tilted. Ms Tarver Mason was not led out of her home in handcuffs to the full glare of publicity. There was no press conference. The Attorney General did not go on the David Letterman show to gloat about the latest strike in the War on Terror, the purge of the Gitmo lawyer...NO.
Instead an "armada" of corporate lawyers went to Court against the Government. They, in the terms of the litigation trade, papered the US District Courthouse in Washington D.C. They brought to bear the full force of their Money and Power-- derived from the corporate world--and in 2006 "settled" the case with the government, restoring their clients to Guantanamo without any punishment at all, not to say any Indictment. Lynne Stewart, without corporate connections and coming from a working class background, was tried and convicted for issuing, on behalf of her client, a public press release to Reuters. There was no injury, no harm, no attacks, no deaths.
Yet that same Department of Justice that dealt so favorably and capitulated to the Gitmo corporate lawyers, wants to sentence Lynne Stewart to thirty (30) YEARS in prison. It is the equivalent of asking for a death sentence since she is 70 years old.
This vast disparity in treatment between Lynne and the Gitmo lawyers reveals the deep contradictions of the system ---those who derive power from rich and potent corporations, those whose day to day work maintains and increases that power--are treated differently. Is it because the Corporate Power is intertwined with Government Power???
Lynne Stewart deserves Justice... equal justice under law. Her present sentence of 28 months incarceration (she is in Federal Prison) should at least be maintained, if not made equal to the punishment that was meted out to the Gitmo lawyers. The thirty year sentence, assiduously pursued by DOJ under both Bush and Obama, is an obscenity and an affront to fundamental fairness. They wanted to make her career and dedication to individual clients, a warning, to the defense bar that the Government can arrest any lawyer on any pretext. The sharp contrasts between the cases of Lynne and the Gitmo lawyers just confirm that she is getting a raw deal--one that should be protested actively, visibly and with the full force of our righteous resistance.
Write to Lynne:
Lynne Stewart 53504-054
MCC-NY
150 Park Row
New York, New York 10007
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Bernadette McAliskey Quote on Zionists:
"The root cause of conflict in the Middle East is the very nature of the state of Israel. It is a facist state. It is a international bully, which exists not to protect the rights of the Jewish people but to perpetuate a belief of Zionist supremacy. It debases the victims of the holocaust by its own strategy for extermination of Palestine and Palestinians and has become the image and likeness of its own worst enemy, the Third Reich.
"Anyone challenging their position, their crazed self-image is entitled, in the fascist construction of their thinking, to be wiped out. Every humanitarian becomes a terrorist? How long is the reality of the danger Israel poses to world peace going to be denied by the Western powers who created this monster?"
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POEM ON WHAT ISRAEL DOES NOT ALLOW INTO GAZA - FROM THE IRISH TIMES / CARDOMAN AS A BIOLOGICAL WARFARE WEAPON
[ The poem does not mention that the popular herb cardamom is banned from importation into Gaza. Israel probably fears that cardamom can be used as a biological weapon. Rockets with cardamom filled projectiles landing in Israel could cause Israeli soldiers 'guarding' the border to succumb to pangs of hunger, leave their posts to go get something eat, and leave Israel defenseless. - Howard Keylor]
Richard Tillinghast is an American poet who lives in Co Tipperary. He is the author of eight books of poetry, the latest of which is Selected Poems (Dedalus Press, 2010 ), as well as several works of non-fiction
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No tinned meat is allowed, no tomato paste,
no clothing, no shoes, no notebooks.
These will be stored in our warehouses at Kerem Shalom
until further notice.
Bananas, apples, and persimmons are allowed into Gaza,
peaches and dates, and now macaroni
(after the American Senator's visit).
These are vital for daily sustenance.
But no apricots, no plums, no grapes, no avocados, no jam.
These are luxuries and are not allowed.
Paper for textbooks is not allowed.
The terrorists could use it to print seditious material.
And why do you need textbooks
now that your schools are rubble?
No steel is allowed, no building supplies, no plastic pipe.
These the terrorists could use to launch rockets
against us.
Pumpkins and carrots you may have, but no delicacies,
no cherries, no pomegranates, no watermelon, no onions,
no chocolate.
We have a list of three dozen items that are allowed,
but we are not obliged to disclose its contents.
This is the decision arrived at
by Colonel Levi, Colonel Rosenzweig, and Colonel Segal.
Our motto:
'No prosperity, no development, no humanitarian crisis.'
You may fish in the Mediterranean,
but only as far as three km from shore.
Beyond that and we open fire.
It is a great pity the waters are polluted
twenty million gallons of raw sewage dumped into the sea every day
is the figure given.
Our rockets struck the sewage treatments plants,
and at this point spare parts to repair them are not allowed.
As long as Hamas threatens us,
no cement is allowed, no glass, no medical equipment.
We are watching you from our pilotless drones
as you cook your sparse meals over open fires
and bed down
in the ruins of houses destroyed by tank shells.
And if your children can't sleep,
missing the ones who were killed in our incursion,
or cry out in the night, or wet their beds
in your makeshift refugee tents,
or scream, feeling pain in their amputated limbs -
that's the price you pay for harbouring terrorists.
God gave us this land.
A land without a people for a people without a land.
--
Greta Berlin, Co-Founder
+357 99 18 72 75
witnessgaza.com
www.freegaza.org
http://www.flickr.com/photos/freegaza
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Please sign the petition to stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal and
and forward it to all your lists.
"Mumia Abu-Jamal and The Global Abolition of the Death Penalty"
http://www.petitiononline.com/Mumialaw/petition.html
(A Life In the Balance - The Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, at 34, Amnesty Int'l, 2000; www. Amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/001/2000.)
[Note: This petition is approved by Mumia Abu-Jamal and his lead attorney, Robert R. Bryan, San Francisco (E-mail: MumiaLegalDefense@gmail.com; Website: www.MumiaLegalDefense.org).]
Committee To Save Mumia Abu-Jamal
P.O. Box 2012
New York, NY 10159-2012
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Donations for Mumia's Legal Defense in the U.S. Our legal effort is the front line of the battle for Mumia's freedom and life. His legal defense needs help. The costs are substantial for our litigation in the U.S. Supreme Court and at the state level. To help, please make your checks payable to the National Lawyers Guild Foundation indicate "Mumia" on the bottom left). All donations are tax deductible under the Internal Revenue Code, section 501c)3), and should be mailed to:
It is outrageous and a violation of human rights that Mumia remains in prison and on death row. His life hangs in the balance. My career has been marked by successfully representing people facing death in murder cases. I will not rest until we win Mumia's case. Justice requires no less.
With best wishes,
Robert R. Bryan
Lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal
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Short Video About Al-Awda's Work
The following link is to a short video which provides an overview of Al-Awda's work since the founding of our organization in 2000. This video was first shown on Saturday May 23, 2009 at the fundraising banquet of the 7th Annual Int'l Al-Awda Convention in Anaheim California. It was produced from footage collected over the past nine years.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTiAkbB5uC0&eurl
Support Al-Awda, a Great Organization and Cause!
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, depends on your financial support to carry out its work.
To submit your tax-deductible donation to support our work, go to
http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html and follow the simple instructions.
Thank you for your generosity!
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KEVIN COOPER IS INNOCENT!
FLASHPOINTS Interview with Innocent San Quentin Death Row Inmate
Kevin Cooper -- Aired Monday, May 18,2009
http://www.flashpoints.net/#GOOGLE_SEARCH_ENGINE
To learn more about Kevin Cooper go to:
savekevincooper.org
LINKS
San Francisco Chronicle article on the recent ruling:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/13/BAM517J8T3.DTL
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling and dissent:
http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2009/05/11/05-99004o.pdf
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COURAGE TO RESIST!
Support the troops who refuse to fight!
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/
Donate:
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/21/57/
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D. ARTICLES IN FULL
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1) Bernanke Sees No Quick End to High Rate of Joblessness
By SEWELL CHAN
July 21, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/22/business/22fed.html?hp
2) Weather May Delay Work in Gulf
By HENRY FOUNTAIN
July 21, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/22/us/22spill.html?hp
3) Witness Cancellations Thwart Hearings on Oil Spill
By ROBBIE BROWN
July 20, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/21/us/21hearings.html?ref=us
4) With Sale of Assets, BP Bets on More Deep Wells
By JAD MOUAWAD
July 20, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/21/business/21bp.html?ref=us
5) A Smell of Pot and Privilege in the City
"...the chances of getting arrested on pot charges in Brownsville - and nothing else - were 150 times greater than on the Upper East Side of Manhattan."
By JIM DWYER
July 20, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/21/nyregion/21about.html?ref=nyregion
6) Punishing Lynne
By Mumia Abu-Jamal
July 18, 2010
prisonradio.org
7) EPA Whistleblower Accuses Agency of Covering Up Effects of Dispersant in BP Oil Spill Cleanup
DemocracyNow!
July 20, 2010
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/7/20/epa_whistleblower_accuses_agency_of_covering
8) Workers on Doomed Rig Voiced Concern About Safety
"Some workers also voiced concerns about poor equipment reliability, "which they believed was as a result of drilling priorities taking precedence over planned maintenance," according to the survey, one of two Transocean reports obtained by The New York Times."
By IAN URBINA
July 21, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/22/us/22transocean.html?ref=us
9) Rig Worker Was Worried About Safety, Widow Says
"'From Day 1, he deemed this the 'well from hell,' Ms. Roshto told federal investigators at a hearing into the causes of the disaster. 'He said Mother Nature just didn't want to be drilled here.'"
By ROBBIE BROWN
July 22, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/23/us/23hearing.html?ref=us
10) Alaska Wells Halted
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 22, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/22/us/22alaska.html?ref=us
11) Geese Return to Prospect Park. Sort Of.
By ISOLDE RAFTERY
July 22, 2010, 12:43 pm
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/22/geese-return-to-prospect-park-sort-of/
12) Drug War Statement Upstaged at AIDS Gathering
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.
July 22, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/23/health/23aids.html?ref=health
13) Experts: Health Hazards in Gulf Warrant Evacuations
By Rose Aquilar
Thursday, July 22, 2010
http://www.truth-out.org/toxic-dispersants-causing-widespread-illness61604
14) Leading Ocean Scientists Issue Consensus Statement to End Dispersant Use in Gulf, Call for Independent Research
BLUE HILL, Maine, July 22
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/leading-ocean-scientists-issue-consensus-statement-to-end-dispersant-use-in-gulf-call-for-independent-research-99031694.html
15) Oil Rig Alarm Was Not Fully Turned On, Worker Says
"Mr. Williams said Friday that the term "well from hell" was common aboard the rig. He said the phrase was coined by Stephen Curtis, a senior tool pusher, while working on a previous well called Devil's Tower, but he also used it to refer to the failed well. Mr. Curtis died in the disaster."
By ROBBIE BROWN
July 23, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/24/us/24hearings.html?hp
16) State Plans to Eliminate 170,000 Canada Geese
City Room - Blogging From the Five Boroughs
By ISOLDE RAFTERY
July 23, 2010, 11:32 am
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/23/state-plans-to-eliminate-170000-canada-geese/?hp
17) Tropical Storm in Gulf Halts Spill Response Efforts
By HENRY FOUNTAIN
July 23, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/24/us/24spill.html?hp
18) Israeli Forces Kill Unarmed Palestinian
By ISABEL KERSHNER
July 22, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/23/world/middleeast/23mideast.html?ref=world
19) BP's Partners in Well Try to Distance Themselves
By JOHN SCHWARTZ
July 22, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/23/us/23liability.html?ref=us
20) Pet Owners, Squeezed by Oil Spill, Turn to Shelters
By LIZ ROBBINS
July 22, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/23/us/23spillpets.html?ref=us
21) In 2008's Downturn, Some Managed to Eke Out Millions
By FLOYD NORRIS
July 23, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/24/business/economy/24charts.html?ref=business
22) Federal Report Faults Banks on Huge Bonuses
"With the financial system on the verge of collapse in late 2008, a group of troubled banks doled out more than $2 billion in bonuses and other payments to their highest earners"
By ERIC DASH
July 22, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/23/business/23pay.html?ref=business
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1) Bernanke Sees No Quick End to High Rate of Joblessness
By SEWELL CHAN
July 21, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/22/business/22fed.html?hp
WASHINGTON - The unemployment rate in the United States is likely to remain well above 7 percent through the end of 2012 and the duration of President Obama's current term, according to the Federal Reserve.
Ben S. Bernanke, the Fed chairman, told Congress on Wednesday that it would take "a significant amount of time" to restore the 8.5 million jobs lost in the United States in 2008 and 2009, and warned that "the economic outlook remains unusually uncertain." He also warned that financial conditions, particularly the European sovereign debt crisis, had "become less supportive of economic growth in recent months."
In presenting the Fed's semiannual monetary policy report to Congress, Mr. Bernanke struck a more cautious tone than he did when he last submitted the report, in February.
In written testimony to be delivered to the Senate Banking Committee, Mr. Bernanke said that the economic expansion that began in mid-2009 was "proceeding at a moderate pace," though with substantial help from "stimulative monetary and fiscal policies," in the form of easy credit from the Fed and substantial federal spending.
He projected that rising demand from households and businesses should help sustain growth, although fiscal measures by the government and inventory restocking by businesses would account for less stimulus than they had in recent months. And he warned that the housing market "remains weak, with the overhang of vacant or foreclosed houses weighing on home prices and construction."
Mr. Bernanke described the slow recovery of the job market as "an important drag on household spending." Private payrolls grew by about 100,000 jobs a month in the first half of the year - a pace that Mr. Bernanke called "insufficient to reduce the unemployment rate materially." And nearly half of the unemployed have been out of work for more than six months, with serious consequences for their long-term earnings and employment prospects.
Inflation has trended downward in the last two years, Mr. Bernanke said. That development has caused some Fed officials to worry that the economy could be threatened by the prospect of deflation, a fear that Mr. Bernanke did not explicitly address in his written remarks.
At its latest meeting, in June, the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed's top policy-making arm, slightly lowered its growth forecast for the rest of this year, to a range of 3 to 3.5 percent. It expects growth of 3.5 to 4.5 percent in 2011 and 2012, and the unemployment rate to drop to 7 to 7.5 percent by the end of 2012.
"Most participants viewed uncertainty about the outlook for growth and unemployment as greater than normal, and the majority saw the risks to growth as weighted to the downside," Mr. Bernanke said. "Most participants projected that inflation will average only about 1 percent in 2010 and that it will remain low during 2011 and 2012, with the risks to the inflation outlook roughly balanced."
Mr. Bernanke's testimony came hours after President Obama signed into law a far-reaching overhaul of the financial regulatory architecture.
The Fed chief said that "much work remains to be done" to install the legislation through regulations, but added: "I believe the legislation, together with stronger regulatory standards for bank capital and liquidity now being developed, will place our financial system on a sounder foundation and minimize the risk of a repetition of the devastating events of the past three years."
Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut and the chairman of the Banking Committee, said in a prepared statement that "it looks like our economy is in need of additional help." He added that he intended to ask Mr. Bernanke "whether the Fed can do more to help expand output and employment."
A different view was offered by Senator Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, the top Republican on the committee.
"There are questions about whether the Fed has changed its focus from executing an exit strategy to lowering interest rates on reserves and possibly further ballooning its balance sheet with more asset purchases," Mr. Shelby said. "This is especially concerning because the purchase of even more long-term assets may channel credit to favored segments of the markets at the expense of others."
Mr. Bernanke also discussed several steps the Fed could take to use monetary policy to further stimulate the economy, having held short-term interest rates to nearly zero since December 2008 and having amassed a portfolio of mortgage-backed securities and Treasury debt to place downward pressure on long-term interest rates.
First, the Fed could signal to the markets that it intended to keep its benchmark federal funds rate, at which banks lend to one another overnight, at zero to 0.25 percent for even longer than the "extended period" the Fed currently cites.
Second, the Fed could lower the interest rate it pays on excess reserves - that is, deposits that banks keep at the Fed in excess of what they are required to keep - from its current level of 0.25 percent.
Third - and the mostly widely discussed option - the Fed could again expand the size of its balance sheet, which stands at about $2.3 trillion, by buying additional Treasury debt or mortgage-backed securities, or even other classes of assets like municipal bonds.
"We have not come to the point where we can tell you precisely what the leading options are," Mr. Bernanke told Mr. Shelby. "Clearly each of these options has got drawbacks, potential costs. So we're going to continue to monitor the economy closely and continue to evaluate the alternatives that we have, recognizing, as I said, that policy is already quite stimulative."
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2) Weather May Delay Work in Gulf
By HENRY FOUNTAIN
July 21, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/22/us/22spill.html?hp
Bad weather may delay work at BP's well in the Gulf of Mexico, but even if the sea and sky remain relatively calm, additional precautions will be taken before any effort is made to permanently stem the flow of oil, the official overseeing the spill response said on Wednesday.
The official, Thad W. Allen, a retired Coast Guard admiral, said that if an area of low pressure over Puerto Rico developed into a tropical depression or storm and heads into the gulf, all ships at the well site 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana might have to depart for safer waters. Government weather experts are evaluating the situation, he said.
If the forecast is for a storm, "we could be looking at 10 to 14 days" when no work could be done on a relief well that is considered the ultimate way to seal the BP well, Admiral Allen said. Containment projects and other work would have to be suspended as well.
The relief well is expected to intercept the bad well at the end of July and then it would take at least several days, and perhaps several weeks, to permanently shut the flow from the bad well.
No decision has been made yet whether the well, which is now sealed as part of a test to see whether it can hold pressure, would be left in that condition, Admiral Allen said. After nearly three months gushing oil, the well has not leaked since last Thursday, when valves on a cap atop it were closed to start the test. But if officials decided it was too risky to leave the well under pressure during a storm, the valves would be reopened and oil would once again spew into the gulf.
Admiral Allen said it was possible that the well would be left shut but closely monitored by remotely operated submersibles for as long as possible. The submersibles, and their relatively fast-moving support ships, would probably be away from the site for only three or four days, he said.
The admiral said that scientists from the government and BP were still evaluating whether to try a "static kill," in which drilling mud would be pumped into the well from the top and used to force the oil and gas back into the oil reservoir, 13,000 feet below the seabed. If the technique succeeded, then the relief well might only need to confirm that the well was sealed.
But he said that if a decision was made to proceed with the procedure, BP would have to wait until after a final section of steel casing pipe were installed in its relief well. The relief well is currently less than five feet horizontally from the bad well, Admiral Allen said, and "not far away from a place we had concerns about." The fear is that if the static kill damaged the well, it might damage the relief well, too. So having a steel liner affords some protection.
If good weather continues, Admiral Allen said, the casing job could be finished by Thursday or Friday, and the static kill, if approved, could start two days later.
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3) Witness Cancellations Thwart Hearings on Oil Spill
By ROBBIE BROWN
July 20, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/21/us/21hearings.html?ref=us
KENNER, La. - Government investigators looking into the causes of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion are colliding with a frequent obstacle: witnesses canceling their scheduled testimonies.
So far, nine witnesses have withheld or delayed testimony here before a panel of federal government officials. Many were top-ranking officials aboard the rig, with critical roles in decisions that may have contributed to the disaster.
Reasons for cancellation have varied: some cited health problems, one pleaded the Fifth Amendment, and others said their lawyers had not received necessary documentation. And on Tuesday evening, the Coast Guard said that all four witnesses scheduled to testify on Wednesday had canceled, fueling concern that witnesses fear implicating themselves criminally.
"This is a challenge as we make sure we get to the facts," said Mike O'Berry, a spokesman for the Coast Guard, which is running the investigation along with the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement. "The board is trying to get as many witnesses to testify as possible."
Lawyers for the oil companies aboard the rig say the cancellations were thwarting their efforts to assign responsibility.
"It's holding us back a hundred percent," said Edward F. Kohnke IV, a lawyer for Transocean, the rig owner. "These are the guys whose cross-examinations will tell us the story."
Responding in part to those concerns, the Coast Guard announced Tuesday that the next hearings would be held in Houston. That places investigators closer to the many witnesses who live in Texas and within jurisdiction of a district court that can subpoena them. Currently, the hearings are held here in Kenner, a suburb of New Orleans.
The two top-ranked BP officials on board the Deepwater Horizon at the time of the explosion, Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine, the well-site leaders, have each canceled their testimonies twice. Mr. Kaluza pleaded the Fifth Amendment, and Mr. Vidrine cited health problems, which the Coast Guard said it had confirmed through his doctor.
The four officials who canceled their testimonies on Wednesday were all subsea supervisors or superintendents for Transocean. Their lawyers gave different explanations: one cited a possible conflict of interest in representing multiple witnesses, another cited the location of the hearing and a third said he had not received necessary documents.
These delays have not stopped the investigation from unearthing new details about the final days of the rig. In Tuesday's hearings, investigators focused on equipment failures leading up to the explosion.
A BP official, Ronald Sepulvado, a well-site leader, testified that BP continued drilling for oil in the days before the disaster despite internal reports of a leak on a safety device on the rig.
Mr. Sepulvado said he reported the problem to senior company officials and assumed it would be relayed to the Minerals Management Service, the predecessor to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, which regulates offshore drilling. The leak was on a control pod connected to the blowout preventer, an emergency mechanism that failed to activate after the April 20 disaster.
"I assumed everything was O.K., because I reported it to the team leader and he should have reported it to M.M.S.," Mr. Sepulvado said.
He could not explain why the company did not respond to his report. Mr. Sepulvado was not aboard the rig at the time of the explosion because he was on shore for a blowout preventer training program.
Investigators also pressed Mr. Sepulvado about two audits that found problems with other equipment on the rig and the well it was drilling, including the blowout preventer, known as a BOP.
"In both of those audits, it indicated that the BOP was well past" its inspection date, said Jason Mathews, a panel member. Asked whether he realized that the manufacturer of the blowout preventer required that the device undergo specific tests every five years, Mr. Sepulvado said, "No, I did not."
The audits of the rig were conducted by BP in September 2009 and by ModuSpec in April 2010. The company's audit identified problems with the rig's engines, ballast systems, thrusters and drilling equipment, and as a result, BP scheduled the rig for a shipyard visit in early 2011.
A BP subsea well supervisor, Ross Skidmore, testified that the company ordered a device called a lockdown sleeve but did not install it until drilling mud was removed from the site, an untraditional approach. Mr. Skidmore said the device was normally installed in the mud.
"I asked why couldn't we go ahead and do this in mud," he said. "I was told it wasn't going to happen. We were going to go through in the sequence we were given."
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4) With Sale of Assets, BP Bets on More Deep Wells
By JAD MOUAWAD
July 20, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/21/business/21bp.html?ref=us
Despite the April 20 Deepwater Horizon disaster, BP has no plans to leave the Gulf of Mexico or stop drilling for oil in other deep ocean waters.
Just the opposite: with its runaway well apparently under control, the troubled oil giant is now staking its future more than ever on deepwater wells. Although such wells are far riskier than land-based or shallow-water ones, oil fields that are located under a mile or more of water can be extremely lucrative, and BP continues to see them as worth the risks.
Reflecting that strategy, BP announced Tuesday that it had agreed to sell $7 billion of oil and gas fields to the Apache Corporation. The assets being sold - in Texas, New Mexico, western Canada and Egypt - are all on land.
The move goes a long way toward raising the $20 billion that BP pledged to put in escrow by the end of 2013 to pay claims for the gulf oil spill. The company has already suspended its shareholder dividend to come up with some of the money, and it is expected to announce at least $3 billion in additional asset sales in the coming months.
Reflecting BP's urgent need for cash, Apache said it would advance BP $5 billion of the purchase price on July 30, even though the transaction is unlikely to close for several months as regulators in various countries review it.
But the deal is not just about the money. Although BP, based in London, could have raised the funds by selling valuable deepwater assets, it decided to dispose of onshore assets instead.
Analysts say the choice shows that BP is committed to deepwater drilling, despite the prospect of increased global regulation of such wells and an effort in Congress to bar the company from receiving new drilling permits in the gulf.
"The Gulf of Mexico, West Africa, Brazil, Egypt - these offshore areas are where you have significant deposits, and this is what BP will continue to go after," said Bruce Lanni, an energy portfolio strategist at Nollenberger Capital Partners. "BP has an opportunity to become a little leaner and meaner by selling some of its noncore assets on the periphery and emphasize the deepwater production."
On Monday, as optimism grew that the temporary cap put on the Macondo well was holding up against the pressure of the oil below, BP announced an expansion of its offshore portfolio. The company signed a deal with Egypt's government to develop new hydrocarbon deposits in the Mediterranean Sea. BP's chief executive, Tony Hayward, declared, "This agreement unlocks a new phase in realizing the huge potential of the Nile Delta basin."
News of the Apache deal came shortly after Thad W. Allen, the retired Coast Guard admiral in charge of the response to the gulf spill, said Tuesday afternoon that the government would give BP another 24 hours to test the cap on the Macondo well. The cap, which has been fully closed since Thursday, will remain shut while BP and government officials weighed whether to kill the well permanently by pumping heavy mud into it.
In their quest for new supplies, oil companies have gone after oil and gas reserves in ever-deeper waters since the 1990s. But no company has invested as much in deepwater exploration over the last decade as BP, which has often led the way in the industry's push into the deepest reaches of the oceans.
Deepwater production, traditionally defined as wells in more than 1,000 feet of water, now accounts for about a third of BP's 2.5 million barrels of daily oil output - surpassing Royal Dutch Shell or Exxon Mobil.
BP is the top producer in the Gulf of Mexico, with a daily output of 400,000 barrels in 2009. The company operates the world's biggest offshore platform, Thunder Horse, in the gulf. BP is also one of the top investors in Angola, which has turned into the fastest-growing source of oil in Africa thanks to its offshore deposits. Last year, the company made three discoveries in Angola's ultradeepwater Block 31. In addition, BP is also looking for oil off the coasts of Libya and Egypt, and it is the largest foreign investor in Azerbaijan, where it operates two major fields in the Caspian Sea, Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli and Shah Deniz.
With most of the big onshore fields long since discovered or controlled by national governments, major oil companies view the world's oceans as their best opportunity to find vast pools of untapped oil and gas.
But for BP, the increasing dependence on deepwater drilling poses its own risks.
Deepwater projects are challenging under the best of circumstances - much of the work must be done using remote-controlled robotic vehicles, and the intense pressures and temperatures of the ocean depths make everything more difficult.
The Deepwater Horizon accident has gravely damaged BP's reputation. Even if the company can contain the political damage, its growth will be stunted by its need to save cash to pay for the spill. BP has already announced it would not pay a dividend this year and would reduce its capital spending program.
"BP will probably end up a more humble company," said Brian Youngberg, an energy analyst at Edward Jones, a brokerage firm based in St. Louis. "Their future growth will be challenged. Will other companies or countries want BP as an operator? That is a very valid question."
In the United States, where BP has a history of troubled operations in the gulf, its Alaska operations and its refineries, the government has shown increasing frustration with the company.
The House Committee on Natural Resources voted last week to bar BP from obtaining new offshore leases because of its previous safety violations. If the proposed legislation passes, it would hobble BP's growth. Although the company could continue to operate its existing facilities and invest as a minority partner in other companies' projects, it would not be able to drill new wells.
"The ripple effects to their reputation are huge," said John R. Kimberly, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. "This is not the first time that BP has run into trouble. It is now on them to show they are not irresponsible."
Although some analysts and lawyers are concerned about a risk of bankruptcy, BP is likely to survive the crisis. The company will generate $30 billion in free cash flow this year; its operations in the United States are valued at about $100 billion. Its proven oil reserves alone are worth $150 billion, according to analysts at Société Générale.
In the short term, the company needs to raise cash to pay for cleanup costs from the spill and endow the compensation fund. At the same time, it is seeking to avoid any appearance of a fire sale.
The assets sold to Apache represent 2 percent of BP's reserves and 2.3 percent of its production. But the sale price represents 6.4 percent of BP's current market value of $110 billion.
BP had originally discussed selling half of its stake in Alaska's Prudhoe Bay field to Apache, but those talks fell through over the weekend because of complications in sorting out who would run the field, which BP now operates.
BP also confirmed Tuesday that it had recently informed the governments of Pakistan and Vietnam that it intended to sell production assets in both countries. The company's operations in both countries include onshore and offshore fields but have a marginal impact on BP's overall production.
Last week, BP sold some pipeline operations to Magellan Midstream Partners, including its crude oil storage facilities in Cushing, Okla. The $289 million transaction has puzzled analysts because BP's ownership of Cushing, the receiving terminal for West Texas Intermediate crude oil, has long given the company's oil traders precious market information that they could use to their advantage. Some analysts speculated that the sale might signal that BP was considering selling its highly lucrative oil trading unit.
BP is expected to lay out more details of its strategy on July 27, when it reports second-quarter earnings.
The ongoing uncertainty continues to weigh on its share price, which plunged as the impact of the April 20 accident became apparent. After hitting their lowest level since 1996 at the end of June, shares have bounced back in the last three weeks, closing Tuesday at $35.20 in New York.
Under Tuesday's deal, Apache will pay $3.1 billion for 10 natural gas fields in the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico, $3.25 billion for natural gas assets in western Canada and $650 million for BP fields and an exploration concession in western Egypt. Apache, a midsize oil exploration and production company based in Houston, is known for buying underperforming or declining assets and wringing more production out of them.
Clifford Krauss and Michael J. de la Merced contributed reporting.
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5) A Smell of Pot and Privilege in the City
"...the chances of getting arrested on pot charges in Brownsville - and nothing else - were 150 times greater than on the Upper East Side of Manhattan."
By JIM DWYER
July 20, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/21/nyregion/21about.html?ref=nyregion
The Bloomberg administration has quietly been fixing up its sons and daughters with cool summer internships, as reported Tuesday in The New York Times. Which is probably fine: It is hard to see nepotism as much of a sin when it is really just another chapter of Darwinism, the drive possessed by all creatures to finagle a better future for their offspring.
No matter how much Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg preached about meritocracy, no one expected that the laws of nature would be repealed when he was elected.
Sure enough, a Freedom of Information Act request showed that tucked among hundreds of summer interns picked through a competitive process were dozens of the children of City Hall insiders or of Mr. Bloomberg's friends. They reflected the mayor's social and political circles: mostly white, many quite wealthy, coming from private high schools and Ivy League colleges.
In short, these are not residents of Stop and Frisk New York.
Mayor Bloomberg promised to lead a government that looked like the city; in reality, he leads one that looks like his mirror, an administration in which key managers are overwhelmingly white and male. It is one thing if this means the annual crop of interns is heavily salted with young Bloombergians.
It is quite another when those managers are shaping policies that wind up leading to the deprivation of liberty of people who do not look like them.
Among the biggest but least discussed expansions of government power under Mr. Bloomberg has been the explosive increase in arrests for displaying or burning marijuana.
No city in the world arrests more of its citizens for using pot than New York, according to statistics compiled by Harry G. Levine, a Queens College sociologist.
Nearly nine out of ten people charged with violating the law are black or Latino, although national surveys have shown that whites are the heaviest users of pot. Mr. Bloomberg himself acknowledged in 2001 that he had used it, and enjoyed it.
On the Upper East Side of Manhattan where the mayor lives, an average of 20 people for every 100,000 residents were arrested on the lowest-level misdemeanor pot charge in 2007, 2008 and 2009.
During those same years, the marijuana arrest rate in Brownsville, Brooklyn, was 3,109 for every 100,000 residents.
That means the chances of getting arrested on pot charges in Brownsville - and nothing else - were 150 times greater than on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
No doubt this is, in large part, a consequence of the stop-and-frisk practices of the Police Department, which Mr. Bloomberg and his aides say have been an important tool in bringing down crime.
Nowhere in the city is that tactic used more heavily than in Brownsville. On average, the police conducted one stop and frisk a year for every one of the 14,000 people who live there, an analysis by The New York Times found. More than 99 percent of the people were not arrested or charged with any wrongdoing.
Brownsville has the highest marijuana arrest rate in the city. The top 10 precincts for marijuana arrests averaged 2,150 for every 100,000 residents; the populations in those precincts are generally 90 percent or more nonwhite.
Mr. Bloomberg's neighborhood has the lowest rate of marijuana arrests; the 10 precincts with the lowest rates averaged 67 arrests per 100,000 residents. The population in most of those neighborhoods was 80 percent white.
A few weeks ago, Mr. Bloomberg talked about proposals that would allow marijuana to be distributed for putatively medical purposes.
He said it was a Trojan horse for complete legalization.
"I mean, the idea of medical marijuana, we all know what that means: It means everybody is going to qualify," he said. "The worst thing is the hypocrisy of saying it's medical marijuana. If you want to legalize it, let's have that debate, but that's what you're really talking about. It has nothing to do with medicine."
In truth, in New York, the debate was over before it began.
For blacks and Latinos, it is very, very illegal.
But not in Mr. Bloomberg's neighborhood.
E-mail: dwyer@nytimes.com
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6) Punishing Lynne
By Mumia Abu-Jamal
July 18, 2010
prisonradio.org
Lynne Stewart, the activist-lawyer, was recently sentenced to ten years in prison. This outstanding lawyer, a 70-year old grandmother, who is facing the serious threat of breast cancer, was originally sentenced to two years and four months, but the Federal Appeals Court apparently thought that wasn't enough.
The same Appeals Courts that traditionally reverses the convictions of cops who torture or kill Black citizens, who traditionally rely on the judgments of the trial judges, reversed Stewart's sentence as not tough enough, so much for tradition.
For Lynne's tradition wasn't that of the tony "tie and tails" law firms in Manhattan. She didn't represent the rich, the powerful, the well heeled. She represented the poor, the oppressed, the dispossessed, the Black, the Latino, the Arab, the damned, those who Franz Fanon called the wretched of the earth. The juxtaposition-many, many lawyers in the Office of Legal Council, in the White House, in the CIA and the Defense Department violated criminal laws, the military codes, the Geneva Conventions and the Convention Against Torture, to aid and abet violations of law and the Constitution for years. Guess how many of them faced trial? Guess how many of them will in the future? How many of them will ever face prison? None, none, and none, for their crimes were on behalf of the powerful, hence their immunity.
But consider what is known in international law as the supreme crime, wars of aggression. Iraq will be a basket case for generations, thanks to U.S. arrogance and greed. Will anybody be brought to book for this crime that shattered a nation, that sent millions into exile, and killed perhaps a million men, women and children? Don't hold your breath. There are still black sites, secret prisons where tortures happen daily. There are still extraordinary renditions, clear violations of the Convention Against Torture, but politicians are doing it not to protect the Nation, but to secure elections-torture for votes, and a 70-year old grandmother, a lawyer, is sent to prison for ten years for violating a prison rule that is an unconstitutional relic of the so-called war on terror. This is what an empire in decline looks like. From death row, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal.
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7) EPA Whistleblower Accuses Agency of Covering Up Effects of Dispersant in BP Oil Spill Cleanup
DemocracyNow!
July 20, 2010
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/7/20/epa_whistleblower_accuses_agency_of_covering
Guest:
Hugh Kaufman, senior policy analyst at the EPA's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response.
With BP having poured nearly two million gallons of the dispersant known as Corexit into the Gulf of Mexico, many lawmakers and advocacy groups say the Obama administration is not being candid about the lethal effects of dispersants. We speak with Hugh Kaufman, a senior policy analyst at the EPA's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response and a leading critic of the decision to use Corexit.
SHARIF ADBEL KOUDDOUS: The Obama administration has given BP the go-ahead to keep its ruptured well sealed for another day despite worries about the well leaking some oil and methane gas. National Incident Commander Thad Allen said the seep was not cause for alarm.
Meanwhile, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, has released its analysis of BP's data on the exposure of cleanup workers to the chemical dispersants being used in the Gulf. OSHA chief David Michaels told the environmental website Greenwire that, quote, "I think you can say exposures are low for workers. Exposures of workers on shore are virtually nonexistent. There are significant exposures near the source, and that's to be expected given the work being done there. Those workers are given respiratory protection," he said.
But with BP having poured nearly two million gallons of the dispersant known as Corexit into the Gulf, many lawmakers and advocacy groups say the Obama administration is not being candid about the lethal effects of dispersants. At a Senate subcommittee hearing last week, Maryland Democrat Barbara Mikulski grilled administrators from the EPA about Corexit and said she didn't want dispersants to be the Agent Orange of this oil spill.
SEN. BARBARA MIKULSKI: I'm concerned because I feel and I believe, and my reading verifies, that we don't know enough about the impact of dispersants and dispersed oil on people, marine life and water quality. I'm very concerned. And my question is, should we ban them? Should we take a time out from using them? What are the short- and long-term consequences of using them? I don't want dispersants to be the Agent Orange of this oil spill. And I want to be assured, in behalf of the American people, that this is OK to use and OK to use in the amounts that we're talking about.
AMY GOODMAN: Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski.
While concerns over the impact of chemical dispersants continue to grow, Gulf Coast residents are outraged by a recent announcement that the $20 billion government-administered claim fund will subtract money cleanup workers earn by working for the cleanup effort from any future claims. Fund administrator Kenneth Feinberg says the ruling will apply to anyone who participates in the Vessels of Opportunity program, which has employed hundreds of Gulf Coast residents left out of work because of the spill. It's seen as an effort to limit the number of lawsuits against BP.
We're joined now by two guests on these two issues, on Corexit and the workers. Independent journalist Dahr Jamail is joining us from Tampa, Florida. He's been reporting from the Gulf Coast for three weeks. His latest article at Truthout is called "BP's Scheme to Swindle the 'Small People.'" And from Washington, DC, we're joined by Hugh Kaufman, a senior policy analyst at the EPA's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. He's been a leading critic of the decision to use Corexit.
We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Let's begin with Hugh Kaufman. First of all, explain what Corexit is, the company that makes it, what's in it, and your concerns.
HUGH KAUFMAN: Well, Corexit is one of a number of dispersants, that are toxic, that are used to atomize the oil and force it down the water column so that it's invisible to the eye. In this case, these dispersants were used in massive quantities, almost two million gallons so far, to hide the magnitude of the spill and save BP money. And the government-both EPA, NOAA, etc.-have been sock puppets for BP in this cover-up. Now, by hiding the amount of spill, BP is saving hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars in fines, and so, from day one, there was tremendous economic incentive to use these dispersants to hide the magnitude of the gusher that's been going on for almost three months.
Congressman Markey and Nadler, as well as Senator Mikulski, have been heroes in this respect. Congressman Markey made the BP and government put a camera down there to show the public the gusher. And when they did that, experts saw that the amount of material, oil being released, is orders of magnitudes greater than what BP and NOAA and EPA were saying. And the cover-up started to evaporate.
But the use of dispersants has not. Consequently, we have people, wildlife-we have dolphins that are hemorrhaging. People who work near it are hemorrhaging internally. And that's what dispersants are supposed to do. EPA now is taking the position that they really don't know how dangerous it is, even though if you read the label, it tells you how dangerous it is. And, for example, in the Exxon Valdez case, people who worked with dispersants, most of them are dead now. The average death age is around fifty. It's very dangerous, and it's an economic-it's an economic protector of BP, not an environmental protector of the public.
Now, the one thing that I did want to mention to you, Amy, that's occurred in most investigations, back even in the Watergate days, people said, "follow the money." And that's correct. In this case, you've got to follow the money. Who saves money by using these toxic dispersants? Well, it's BP. But then the next question-I've only seen one article that describes it-who owns BP? And I think when you look and see who owns BP, you find that it's the majority ownership, a billion shares, is a company called BlackRock that was created, owned and run by a gentleman named Larry Fink. And Vanity Fair just did recently an article about Mr. Fink and his connections with Mr. Geithner, Mr. Summers and others in the administration. So I think what's needed, we now know that there's a cover-up. Dispersants are being used. Congress, at least three Congress folks-Congressman Markey, Congressman Nadler and Senator Mikulski-are on the case. And I think the media now has to follow the money, just as they did in Watergate, and tell the American people who's getting money for poisoning the millions of people in the Gulf.
AMY GOODMAN: We're talking to Hugh Kaufman, who works at the Environmental Protection Agency. This is an issue we've brought up before, but it's an absolutely critical one, the issue of proprietary information of these companies, in particular, the ingredients of Corexit, even though 1.8 million pounds of it have been dumped into the Gulf. What's in Corexit? Do you know? What is EPA allowed to know, and what is the company allowed to keep private?
HUGH KAUFMAN: EPA has all the information on what's in-the ingredients are. The largest ingredient in Corexit is oil. But there are other materials. And when the ingredients are mixed with oil, the combination of Corexit or any dispersant and oil is more toxic than the oil itself. But EPA has all that information. That's a red herring issue being raised, that we have to somehow know more information. When you look at the label and you look at the toxicity sheets that come with it, the public knows enough to know that it's very dangerous. The National Academy of Science has done work on it. Toxicologists from Exxon that developed it have published on it. So, we know enough to know that it's very dangerous, and to say that we just have to know more about it is a red herring issue. We know plenty. It's very dangerous. And in fact, Congressman Nadler and Senator Lautenberg are working on legislation to ban it.
AMY GOODMAN: And I should correct myself: 1.8 million gallons, I think it is, of Corexit that's been dumped. Sharif?
SHARIF ADBEL KOUDDOUS: And Hugh Kaufman-
HUGH KAUFMAN: Tha's correct, almost two million gallons of-yes, sir.
SHARIF ADBEL KOUDDOUS: So the-
HUGH KAUFMAN: I'm sorry, I'm not-
SHARIF ADBEL KOUDDOUS: No, no, go ahead. The dispersant is-
HUGH KAUFMAN: I'm not hearing you, sir.
SHARIF ADBEL KOUDDOUS: These nearly two million gallons have been dispersed not only on the surface of the water, but also 5,000 feet below the water, as well. Can you talk about that?
HUGH KAUFMAN: Well, not only do you have airplanes flying and dropping them on the Gulf region, like Agent Orange in Vietnam, but a large amount of it is being shot into the water column at 5,000 feet to disperse the oil as it gushers out. And so, you have spread, according to the Associated Press, over perhaps over 44,000 square miles, an oil and dispersant mix. And what's happened is, that makes it impossible to skim the oil out of the water. One of the things that happened is they brought this big boat, Whale, in from Japan to get rid of the oil, and it didn't work because the majority of the oil is spread throughout the water column over thousands of square miles in the Gulf. And so-and there's been a lot of work to show the dispersants, which is true, make it more difficult to clean up the mess than if you didn't use them. The sole purpose in the Gulf for dispersants is to keep a cover-up going for BP to try to hide the volume of oil that has been released and save them hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars of fines. That's the purpose of using the dispersants, not to protect the public health or environment. Quite the opposite.
AMY GOODMAN: You've made comparisons between Corexit, the use of Corexit and hiding BP's liability, and what happened at Ground Zero after the attacks of September 11th, Hugh Kaufman.
HUGH KAUFMAN: Yeah, I was one of the people who-well, I did. I did the ombudsman investigation on Ground Zero, where EPA made false statements about the safety of the air, which has since, of course, been proven to be false. Consequently, you have the heroes, the workers there, a large percentage of them are sick right now, not even ten years later, and most of them will die early because of respitory problems, cancer, etc., because of EPA's false statements.
And you've got the same thing going on in the Gulf, EPA administrators saying the same thing, that the air is safe and the water is safe. And the administrator misled Senator Mikulski on that issue in the hearings you talked about. And basically, the problem is dispersants mixed with oil and air pollution. EPA, like in 9/11-I did that investigation nine years ago-was not doing adequate and proper testing. Same thing with OSHA with the workers, they're using mostly BP's contractor. And BP's contractor for doing air testing is the company that's used by companies to prove they don't have a problem. If you remember the wallboard pollution problem from China, the wallboard from China, this company does that environmental monitoring. It's a massive cover-up. And so far, luckily, we have two members of Congress and one member of the Senate on the case. Hopefully more will join in.
SHARIF ADBEL KOUDDOUS: Let's go to a clip that's been circulating on the internet. It's from an investigation from WKRG News 5 into the toxicity levels of water and sand on public beaches around Mobile, Alabamba. One of the water samples collected near a boom at Dauphin Island Marina just exploded when mixed with an organic solvent separating the oil from the water. This is Bob Naman, the chemist who analyzed the sample, explaining why it might have exploded.
BOB NAMAN: We think that it most likely happened due to the presence of either methanol or methane gas or the presence of the dispersant Corexit.
SHARIF ADBEL KOUDDOUS: Hugh Kaufman, can you talk about this video clip?
HUGH KAUFMAN: Well, yes. I saw that when it first came out, I think on Sunday. And what they documented was that the water-you know, when you're on the sand with your children and they dig, and there's a little water?-they documented there was over 200 parts per million of oil waste in the water, and it's not noticeable to the human eye, that the children were playing with on the beach. On top of it, the contamination in one of the samples was so high that when they put the solvent in, as a first step in identifying how much oil may be in the water, the thing blew up, just as he said, probably because there was too much Corexit in that particular sample.
But what's funny about that is, on Thursday, the administrator of EPA, in answering Senator Mikulski's question at the hearing that you played the clip on, said that EPA has tested the water up to three miles out and onshore and found that it's safe. And then, a few days later, the television station in Pensacola and in Mobile document with their own limited testing that that statement was false, misleading and/or inaccurate by the administrator, under oath, to Senator Mikulski in that hearing.
SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: We want to also bring in Dahr Jamail. He's an independent journalist who's been reporting from the Gulf Coast for the past three weeks.
Dahr, you're joining us from Tampa, Florida, right now. You just drove along the Gulf Coast. But talk about this dispersant, as well. You wrote in article about the effect it had on you personally.
DAHR JAMAIL: Right. About a week and a half ago, my partner and I were down in Barataria talking with shrimpers and fishermen and people affected by the oil disaster. And literally within minutes of driving down there, the air was so chemically laden, you could smell and taste chemicals in the air. And immediately, our eyes began to burn. And everyone that we were talking with there, Tracy Kuhns with the shrimpers' union, Clint Guidry on the board of the Louisiana Shrimp Association, and their spouses and everyone else that we spoke with down there, everyone was complaining of different kinds of health problems-headaches, which, actually, again, within minutes, I personally was starting to experience that; shortness of breath; nausea-all kinds of different symptoms, which I then went home and started to educate myself on the immediate and then longer-term effects of the two Corexit dispersants being used and realized that myself and everyone that we spoke with down there were basically having onset of these symptoms, and people were suffering from it very much.
And another very disturbing thing that I saw down there was I met a charter fisherman named Gene Hickman, who showed me a video he had taken two days prior to my arrival there. He was outside of his house at night, and he had a video of, literally, crabs crawling out of the water at night onto his bulkhead to escape the water. And Tracy Kuhns, who I was also speaking with, said, "Look, we've been watching regularly these huge plumes of dispersant under the surface of the water coming into our canals, sometimes bubbling up to the surface. We've seen marine life fleeing from these." And there have been some reports of this happening throughout the Gulf. But then, I went down to Gene Hickman's house and then saw, just minutes after watching this video of crabs literally crawling out of the water trying to escape from the water, to see basically crabs floating belly up in the water, dead, all in his canal. There was sheen over the top of it, dead fish. And again, the stench of the chemicals was so intense that our eyes were watering.
AMY GOODMAN: Dahr Jamail, your piece in Truthout is called "BP's Scheme to Swindle the 'Small People.'" What is that scheme?
DAHR JAMAIL: Right. Well, the scheme is-let's be really clear, Amy. We all know that context for news reporting is key. And Kenneth Feinberg, who is the Obama-appointed individual in charge of this $20 billion compensation fund for victims of the BP oil disaster, who is he being paid by? He is being paid by BP to do this job. When he was asked recently, just in the last forty-eight hours, how much he's being paid, he said, "That's between me and British Petroleum." So let's be-let's start right there.
And then, to move forward, this story came up because I was talking with Clint Guidry, who I just mentioned, and he was, like all the other fishermen, outraged by how this fund is being handled. And how it's being handled is that these people who join this so-called Vessels of Opportunity program, which are basically fishermen who are now completely put out of work, the shrimping and the fishing industry in Louisiana-and this is spreading across the coast along with the oil, as it travels across the coast-is completely shut down, so these people are forced in to do this work, going out skimming, putting out oil boom, other types of recovery efforts for BP, because it's literally the only way they can make a living now. And so, Feinberg then recently announces, last Friday, as you reported, that, "No, actually now all the money that you're earning, you folks in the Vessels for Opportunity program, any future compensation claims that you make, this money will be deducted from that claim."
And so, upon further investigation, it turns out there's a lawyer in Louisiana named Stephen Herman, and his firm, back on May 2nd, had an email correspondence with a law firm representing BP. And he questioned this very thing, because it had first come up way back at the beginning of this disaster when people were going and looking into joining the Vessels for Opportunity program, but before they could join, they were going to be asked to sign a waiver. Well, this was of course then brought-Stephen Herman brought this to the attention of the BP lawyer, questioned it, challenged it. And then the BP lawyer wrote back and said, "That is not going to happen. We're going to tear up those claims. We're not going to do that."
Stephen Herman also questioned BP's lawyer as to this very thing that we just saw Feinberg do, which was, "I want to make very clear," said Herman, "that any of this work, any of the payment for the work these folks do, will not later be taken out of claims that they may make for future compensation for loss of livelihood, etc." And he was told at that time in a response on May 3rd by BP's lawyer, "Absolutely, that will not happen. That is BP's stated position." And so, then we have Feinberg come out Monday, and every day since then, acting as basically a BP salesman trying to push this new agenda that you have to file your claim within a year, and then, once you do that, you'll get paid, and you will not file any further claims. And then, of course, any work that you've done in this Vessels for Opportunity program, any of that money will be deducted from any future claims. So this directly contradicts what BP said to Stephen Herman's law firm in New Orleans back on May 3rd. And again, we have Kenneth Feinberg running around, clearly accountable to BP, clearly working in the interests of BP, and as he's being accused by Clint Guidry and basically fishermen up and down the Gulf Coast at this point in the Vessels for Opportunity program, is that this a guy who's doing nothing but working to try to limit BP's long-term liability for this disaster.
AMY GOODMAN: Dahr Jamail, we want to thank you very much for being with us, independent journalist. His latest piece in Truthout is called "BP's Scheme to Swindle the 'Small People.'" Special thanks to WEDU, PBS in Tampa. Florida, where he is speaking to us from. And Hugh Kaufman, senior policy analyst at the EPA's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, for joining us from Washington, DC. Of course, we will continue to cover the fallout of the spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
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8) Workers on Doomed Rig Voiced Concern About Safety
"Some workers also voiced concerns about poor equipment reliability, "which they believed was as a result of drilling priorities taking precedence over planned maintenance," according to the survey, one of two Transocean reports obtained by The New York Times."
By IAN URBINA
July 21, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/22/us/22transocean.html?ref=us
WASHINGTON - A confidential survey of workers on the Deepwater Horizon in the weeks before the oil rig exploded showed that many of them were concerned about safety practices and feared reprisals if they reported mistakes or other problems.
In the survey, commissioned by the rig's owner, Transocean, workers said that company plans were not carried out properly and that they "often saw unsafe behaviors on the rig."
Some workers also voiced concerns about poor equipment reliability, "which they believed was as a result of drilling priorities taking precedence over planned maintenance," according to the survey, one of two Transocean reports obtained by The New York Times.
"At nine years old, Deepwater Horizon has never been in dry dock," one worker told investigators. "We can only work around so much."
"Run it, break it, fix it," another worker said. "That's how they work."
According to a separate 112-page equipment assessment also commissioned by Transocean, many key components - including the blowout preventer rams and failsafe valves - had not been fully inspected since 2000, even though guidelines require inspection of the preventer every three to five years.
The report cited at least 26 components and systems on the rig that were in "bad" or "poor" condition.
A spokesman for Transocean, who confirmed the existence of the reports, wrote in an e-mail message that most of the 26 components on the rig found to be in poor condition were minor and that all elements of the blowout preventer had been inspected within the required time frame by its original manufacturer, Cameron. The spokesman, Lou Colasuonno, commenting on the 33-page report about workers' safety concerns, noted that the Deepwater Horizon had seven consecutive years without a single lost-time incident or major environmental event.
The two reports are likely to broaden the discussion of blame for the April 20 explosion, which killed 11 workers and led to the gusher on the seafloor that has been polluting the Gulf of Mexico for months.
Transocean has sought in federal court to limit its liability to $27 million under the limitation of liability act of 1851. Under the law, the limitation of liability is removed if the vessel owner acted negligently.
BP has been under the harshest glare for its role, but the Justice Department has said its criminal investigation of the disaster will look at the role of the many companies involved.
Together, these new reports paint a detailed picture of Transocean's upkeep of the rig, decision-making and its personnel.
BP was leasing the rig from Transocean, and 79 of the 126 people on the rig the day it exploded were Transocean employees.
The first report focused on the its "safety culture" and was conducted by a division of Lloyd's Register Group, a maritime and risk-management organization that dispatched two investigators to inspect the rig March 12 through 16. They conducted focus groups and one-on-one interviews with at least 40 Transocean workers.
The second report, on the status of the rig's equipment, was produced by four investigators from a separate division of Lloyd's Register Group, also on behalf of Transocean.
These investigators were scheduled to inspect the rig in April. While the report described workers' concerns about safety and fears of reprisals, it did say that the rig was "relatively strong in many of the core aspects of safety management." Workers believed teamwork on the rig was effective, and they were mostly worried about the reaction of managers off the rig.
"Almost everyone felt they could raise safety concerns and these issues would be acted upon if this was within the immediate control of the rig," said the report, which also found that more than 97 percent of workers felt encouraged to raise ideas for safety improvements and more than 90 percent felt encouraged to participate in safety-improvement initiatives.
But investigators also said, "It must be stated at this point, however, that the workforce felt that this level of influence was restricted to issues that could be resolved directly on the rig, and that they had little influence at Divisional or Corporate levels."
Only about half of the workers interviewed said they felt they could report actions leading to a potentially "risky" situation without reprisal.
"This fear was seen to be driven by decisions made in Houston, rather than those made by rig based leaders," the report said.
"I'm petrified of dropping anything from heights not because I'm afraid of hurting anyone (the area is barriered off), but because I'm afraid of getting fired," one worker wrote.
"The company is always using fear tactics," another worker said. "All these games and your mind gets tired."
Investigators also said "nearly everyone" among the workers they interviewed believed that Transocean's system for tracking health and safety issues on the rig was "counter productive."
Many workers entered fake data to try to circumvent the system, known as See, Think, Act, Reinforce, Track - or Start. As a result, the company's perception of safety on the rig was distorted, the report concluded.
Even though it was more than a month before the explosion, the rig's safety audit was conducted against the backdrop of what seems to have been a losing battle to control the well.
On the March visit, Lloyd's investigators reported "a high degree of focus and activity relating to well control issues," adding that "specialists were aboard the rig to conduct subsea explosions to help alleviate these well control issues."
The mechanical problems discovered by investigators found problems with the rig's ballast system that they said could directly affect the stability of the ship. They also concluded that at least one of the rig's mud pumps was in "bad condition."
The report also cited the rig's malfunctioning pressure gauge and leaking parts and faulted the decision by workers to use a type of sealant "proven to be a major cause of pump bearing failure."
Federal investigators have been focusing on the role that inadequate mud weight played in the blowout. Shortly before the explosion, workers on the rig replaced the heavy drilling mud with a lighter seawater. Drilling experts have speculated that having chosen a better mud weight could have prevented the disaster.
Transocean's equipment report also may shed new light on why the blowout preventer failed to stop the surging well, which is one of the biggest remaining mysteries of the disaster.
Federal investigators said Tuesday at a panel that continuing to drill despite problems related to the blowout preventer might have been a violation of federal regulations that require a work stoppage if the equipment is found not to work properly.
While the equipment report says the device's control panels were in fair condition, it also cites a range of problems, including a leaking door seal, a diaphragm on the purge air pump needing replacement and several error-response messages.
The device's annulars, which are large valves used to control wellbore fluids, also encountered "extraordinary difficulties" surrounding their maintenance, the report said.
Despite the problems, multiple pressure tests were taken of the blowout preventer's annulars and rams and the results were deemed "acceptable," the report said.
The two Transocean-commissioned reports obtained by The Times echo the findings of a maintenance audit conducted by BP in September 2009. But the Transocean-commissioned reports indicate that maintenance concerns existed just days before the explosion and the rig owner was aware of them. The 2009 BP audit found that Transocean had left 390 maintenance jobs undone, requiring more than 3,500 hours of work. The BP audit also referred to the amount of deferred work as "excessive."
Robbie Brown contributed reporting from New Orleans, and Griffin Palmer from New York.
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9) Rig Worker Was Worried About Safety, Widow Says
"'From Day 1, he deemed this the 'well from hell,' Ms. Roshto told federal investigators at a hearing into the causes of the disaster. 'He said Mother Nature just didn't want to be drilled here.'"
By ROBBIE BROWN
July 22, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/23/us/23hearing.html?ref=us
KENNER, La. - The widow of a Deepwater Horizon worker who was killed in the oil rig explosion testified Thursday that her husband expressed grave concerns about dangerous work conditions before his death.
The widow, Natalie Roshto, said her husband, Shane Roshto, a 22-year-old roustabout for Transocean, and other workers felt pressure to continue drilling despite frequent equipment malfunctions and setbacks.
"From Day 1, he deemed this the 'well from hell,' " Ms. Roshto told federal investigators at a hearing into the causes of the disaster. "He said Mother Nature just didn't want to be drilled here."
Her testimony reinforced a growing perception that rig workers were concerned about personal safety standards on the rig, which caught fire on April 20, killing 11 men and triggering the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Ms. Roshto testified that her husband had not expressed similar concerns about other wells.
A confidential survey of rig workers conducted a month before the disaster showed that many were distressed about safety conditions and feared reprisals if they reported mistakes or other problems. The survey, commissioned by Transocean and obtained by The New York Times, reported that workers "often saw unsafe behaviors on the rig."
In testimony Thursday in this suburb of New Orleans, a BP official who supervised the Deepwater Horizon from shore said the rig had a variety of equipment problems in its final weeks. The official, A. John Guide, the well site leader, said workers were aware of a leak on a critical safety device called the blowout preventer. He said the leak was detected in February and March and was repaired, but the blowout preventer failed to activate after the explosion.
Earlier this week, another BP official testified to a separate leak with equipment connected to the blowout preventer.
Federal investigators pressed Mr. Guide about whether BP took shortcuts to save money. They noted that rig supervisors chose a potentially risky type of well casing over more traditional equipment, saving the company $7 million to $10 million.
"Is it true that decisions were made based on cost savings?" asked Jason Mathews, a member of the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, which is overseeing the hearings along with the Coast Guard.
"The culture is that safety is the priority," Mr. Guide said.
"Culture is one thing," said Hung Nguyen, the Coast Guard official who is chairman of the panel. Enforcement, he added, "is another thing."
Investigators noted that in one year, workers on the rig endured 15 accidents deemed "near hits," in which heavy equipment was dropped or other safety breaches occurred. And they questioned the decision to send workers back to shore without having them conduct a strength test of the cement in the well.
Ms. Roshto, the widow, who has also testified before Congressional investigators, urged the federal government to enforce safety regulations more rigorously.
"For our men to be there drilling and their lives to be put under business interests, that's what I want to stress," she said. "I don't think we need to make any more safety rules. I think they need to be implemented harder for our men who work out there."
Mr. Guide assigned blame for the safety problems on Transocean, the company that leased that rig to BP and employed most of its workers. "We had faith that Transocean was attempting to maintain a safe ship," he said.
Mr. Nguyen dismissed the answer as insufficient. "In the military, we often say hope is not a plan," he said. "It seems like faith is not a very good business decision here."
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10) Alaska Wells Halted
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 22, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/22/us/22alaska.html?ref=us
ANCHORAGE (AP) - A federal judge on Wednesday stopped companies from developing oil and gas wells on leases off Alaska's northwest coast, saying the federal government failed to follow environmental law before it sold the drilling rights.
The 2008 lease sale brought in nearly $2.7 billion for 2.76 million acres of the Chukchi Sea.
The judge, Ralph R. Beistline of Federal District Court, said the Minerals Management Service had failed to analyze the effect of natural gas development and enjoined all activity pending more environmental reviews.
A unit of Royal Dutch Shell PLC had hoped to drill three exploratory wells this summer. Those plans were halted when President Obama decided to delay offshore oil drilling in the Arctic until at least 2011.
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11) Geese Return to Prospect Park. Sort Of.
By ISOLDE RAFTERY
July 22, 2010, 12:43 pm
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/22/geese-return-to-prospect-park-sort-of/
The geese are back. Two weeks after the nearly complete extermination of the Canada goose population at Prospect Park, Brooklyn, 28 geese have been seen meandering along the shore of the lake there.
It has been a slow but steady return. The day after nearly 400 geese from Prospect Park were corralled into crates and gassed to death, four geese were spotted on the lake. Unlike the geese that were caught by wildlife specialists, which were molting, those geese had their flight feathers, which might have helped them to escape.
In the ensuing weeks, out-of-town geese flew in, in groups of 6 to 16.
Ed Bahlman, a Brooklyn resident, counted 28 new geese with his partner, Anne-Katrin Titze, who counted waterfowl for the Department of Environmental Conservation in January.
"They look healthy - they definitely flew in," Mr. Bahlman said. "They had no fishing lines attached - no injuries like the ones before at Prospect Park Lake."
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12) Drug War Statement Upstaged at AIDS Gathering
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.
July 22, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/23/health/23aids.html?ref=health
VIENNA - Some of the world's top AIDS experts issued a radical manifesto this week at the 18th International AIDS Conference: they declared the War on Drugs a 50-year-old failure and called for it to be abandoned.
No one heard.
Officially, the theme of this biannual AIDS meeting, the world's largest public health gathering, is the need to attack the rapidly growing epidemic among addicts in eastern Europe, Russia and Asia. It was held in Vienna because this city is the doorway to the East and, in this German-speaking country, all the conference signs are in English and Russian.
(In a lovely ironic touch, the conference hall is only a few steps from the Ferris wheel in the Orson Welles film noir classic set in post-war Vienna, "The Third Man." On it, a cynical dealer of counterfeit drugs tells his pursuer to look down at the people below and says: "Victims? Don't be melodramatic.... Would you really feel any pity if one of those dots stopped moving forever?")
But the organizers' efforts to get publicity for the Vienna Declaration, which calls for drug users to be spared arrest and offered clean needles, methadone and treatment if they have AIDS, have come to naught. Almost no one here talks about the war on drugs.
Instead, everyone is publicly worrying that the War on AIDS is falling apart. Donor money is evaporating in the recession, and it is looking likely that only about a third of the 33 million infected people in the world will have any hope of treatment.
Frustration is high. Speakers like Bill Gates were interrupted by demonstrators in Sherwood Forest green calling for a "Robin Hood tax" - a tiny fee on the $4 trillion in currency transactions made daily by banks and hedge funds that could raise billions for AIDS.
Many activists blame the Obama administration, which is shifting its priorities to mother-and-child health. The halls are decorated with posters comparing Mr. Obama unfavorably to George W. Bush. On Wednesday, Archbishop Desmond Tutu criticized Mr. Obama in an Op-Ed article in The New York Times.
In his speech here, former President Bill Clinton said Ambassador Eric Goosby, the administration's global AIDS coordinator, "ought to get some kind of Purple Heart for showing up."
However, a new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that the United States still gives more than all other countries put together, accounting for 58 percent of contributions. Its donations are still going up slightly, while those from Europe, Canada, Japan and Australia are flat or falling.
Officials from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria say they fear they will not come close to the $17 billion target they set for their next donors' meeting in September.
The other, more welcome, distraction has been the exciting results of a South African clinical trial in which a vaginal gel with an antiretroviral drug protected 40 percent of the women using it. This is the first good news about microbicides in decades of work. A gel women can use secretly has long been sought, since many men disdain condoms and many women want to get pregnant.
The Vienna Declaration is only the second time the International AIDS Society has issued such a document. The last was the 2000 Durban Declaration, which reaffirmed that H.I.V. was the cause of AIDS. It was a response to the government of South Africa, the conference's host, which at the time denied the virus caused disease and refused to buy medicine for its citizens.
Outside of Africa, almost a third of all H.I.V. infections stem from drug injection.
The declaration argues that arresting drug users forces them into hiding, which spreads the epidemic. It backs "science-based public health approaches" proven in clinical trials, which can include everything from clean needle swaps to 12-step recovery programs to methadone.
Dr. Evan Wood, an AIDS policy expert at the University of British Columbia and the chief author, cited Portugal's approach. According to a 2009 report by the libertarian Cato Institute, in the decade since Portugal legalized possession of up to 10 day's worth of any drug, including cocaine and heroin, its AIDS rate dropped by half, overdose deaths fell, many citizens sought treatment, drug use among young people fell and drug tourism did not develop. The institute called it "a resounding success."
The declaration is largely aimed at countries of the former Soviet Union. Russia, for example, is close to having one percent of its adult population infected.
Nonetheless, it forbids all methadone-type treatments, and the national health plan offers only abrupt detoxification, which has a high failure rate. The most frequent victims - prisoners and people not living in their assigned residence areas - are the least likely to get AIDS drugs, and activists say markups vastly inflate the prices of medications bought cheaply by foreign donors.
"The government says everything is fine, we're even donors to the Global Fund, but we don't have treatment, we don't even have prevention," said Aleksandra Volgina, the 31-year-old leader of Candle, a Russian AIDS organization based in St. Petersburg.
She has stayed off heroin thanks to a 12-step program her family paid for, she said, but every month she worries about whether the government pharmacy will have all three drugs she needs, and some of her friends have died for lack of them.
"What's going on in Russia is being silenced," she said. "You can't even knock on the health ministry's door."
Despite the quasi-Russian cast to the conference, no one from the Russian government attended, sponsors said.
Only two governments reacted to the declaration: Canada, which rejected it, and Georgia, whose First Lady signed it in a public ceremony. The tiny former Soviet republic has a history of brutal treatment of drug addicts, Dr. Wood said. But it also has taken to defying Russia, with which it fought a brief war in 2008.
In the large American delegation here, almost every top official refused to discuss the declaration. Finally, one government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he had just called the White House for guidance and was told no one had read it yet and there was no time to respond.
He did note that Dr. Goosby recently announced that countries getting American help to fight AIDS can use it to buy clean needles for addicts, which is a change from Bush administration policy.
The one exception to the official American silence was Dr. Nora D. Volkow, the normally low-profile director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, who said she personally agreed with the declaration's premise.
"Addiction is a brain disease," she said. "I'm a scientist. The evidence unequivocally shows that criminalizing the drug abuser does not solve the problem. I'm very much against legalization of drugs or drug dealing. But I would not arrest a person addicted to drugs. I'd send them to treatment, not prison."
Asked if she feared being attacked by Congressional conservatives, she said: "I took this job because I want drug users to be recognized as people with a disease. If I don't speak about it, why even bother to gather the data?"
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13) Experts: Health Hazards in Gulf Warrant Evacuations
By Rose Aquilar
Thursday, July 22, 2010
http://www.truth-out.org/toxic-dispersants-causing-widespread-illness61604
When Louisiana residents ask marine toxicologist and community activist Riki Ott what she would do if she lived in the Gulf with children, she tells them she would leave immediately. "It's that bad. We need to start talking about who's going to pay for evacuations."
In 1989, Ott, who lives in Cordova, Alaska, experienced firsthand the devastating effects of the Exxon Valdex oil disaster. For the past two months, she's been traveling back and forth between Louisiana and Florida to gather information about what's really happening and share the lessons she learned about long-term illnesses and deaths of cleanup workers and residents. In late May, she began meeting people in the Gulf with symptoms like headaches, dizziness, sore throats, burning eyes, rashes and blisters that are so deep, they're leaving scars. People are asking, "What's happening to me?"
She says the culprit is almost two million gallons of Corexit, the dispersant BP is using to break up and hide the oil below the ocean's surface. "It's an industrial solvent. It's a degreaser. It's chewing up boat engines off-shore. It's chewing up dive gear on-shore. Of course it's chewing up people's skin. The doctors are saying the solvents are making the oil worse."
In a widely watched YouTube video, from Project Gulf Impact, a project that aims to give Gulf residents a voice, Chris Pincetich, a marine biologist and campaigner with the Sea Turtle Restoration Project, said Coast Guard planes are flying overhead at night spraying Corexit on the water and on land.
Ott says people who are experiencing discomfort of any kind, especially children, pregnant women, cancer survivors, asthma sufferers and African-Americans because they're prone to sickle cell anemia, should wear a respirator and see a doctor that specializes in chemical poisoning immediately. She also recommends contacting the detox specialists at The Environmental Health Center in Dallas, Texas. "People don't have the information to know that the burning sore throat is actually chemical poisoning," she said. "And this isn't getting any attention, but it's very important. There are no vaccinations for chemical poisoning. None."
Because she's gotten to know the locals and has done a number of national media interviews, she's now receiving a barrage of daily phone calls and emails from people who are concerned and don't know where else to turn. She recommends they read this Sciencecorps resource about potential health hazards.
Ott shared these stories on a recent trip to the Bay Area with Diane Wilson, former Texas shrimper turned rabble-rousing activist. Ott was coughing and constantly clearing her throat during our two-hour conversation. "I can still smell the oil," she said.
Media outlets have been reporting on public health concerns and taking water quality samples, but Ott says they've only scratched the surface. "If I were in charge of the media, I would be talking be about public safety and public health every day. They should also be exposing the truth about how our federal standards are outdated and no longer protective of public health or worker safety. We knew in 1989 that OSHA had a loophole in it that's big enough to drive every single sick worker through. It exempts the reporting of colds and flus. That loophole has not been closed since Exxon Valdez."
Ott expressed her concerns during a May meeting with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Lisa Jackson. "I was sitting across from her. She said, quote, 'I am walking a fine line between truth and hysteria. We don't want to create a panic.' This shows you how much our government is beholden to oil and cannot imagine a future without oil. We the people have got to imagine this. We have to. This is way worse than people think."
On Tuesday, Mother Jones' Kate Sheppard reported that Hugh Kaufman, a whistleblower who works as a senior policy analyst in the EPA's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, is accusing the agency of deliberately downplaying public health threats and its own role in regulating the chemicals being dumped into the Gulf "to protect itself from liability and keep the public from getting too alarmed."
The cause for alarm can't be more apparent. In addition to the health problems people are already experiencing, WKRG News 5 reporter Jessica Taloney recently collected samples of water and sand from five Alabama beaches and took them to a local lab to be tested.
Bob Naman, a chemist with nearly 30 years of experience, told Taloney that he wouldn't expect to see more than five parts per million of oil and petroleum in the water. The sample of the water taken in Gulf Shores beach, where adults and kids were swimming and playing, showed 66 parts per million. The sand had 211 parts per million. When Naman began to test the sample collected from Dauphin Island Marina, it exploded. "We think that it mostly likely happened due to the presence of methanol or methane gas or the presence of the dispersant, Corexit."
"What's going on in the Gulf is the same cover-up that was going with the 9/11 environmental issue," the EPA's Kaufman told Sheppard. "The Bush White House ordered EPA to lie about the environmental and public health situation at the World Trade Center because of economic ramifications. So they did."
On Democracy Now!, Kaufman accused the EPA of being "sock puppets for BP in this cover-up."
I called Kaufman to find out if he agrees with Ott's decision to sound the alarm about evacuations. The short answer? Yes. "If you're getting sick, it's because you're being poisoned," he said. "Those chemicals can cause cancer 20 years down the line and that's why Riki Ott is saying some areas have to be evacuated. That's true. We don't know how bad it is because the EPA is not doing adequate air testing. They're taking some measurements so they can tell the public that everything is safe [when in fact the public has] an increased risk of getting cancer and dying early. They're pawns in a money game."
Kaufman and Ott both say the media need to follow the money. The reason why the EPA is covering this up, they say, is because the cost to BP would be astronomical. "The dispersants hide the oil," said Ott. "If you put dispersants in the water, you don't know how much oil was really spilled. Oil fines are based on how much oil was spilled, so it's all about money."
If a group listed as a terrorist organization had caused the oil disaster, Kaufman says their assets would be seized immediately and their members would be arrested. So, why hasn't the US government seized BP's assets? Kaufman points to an April Vanity Fair article about Larry Fink, one of the most powerful men on Wall Street. Fink's BlackRock money-management firm controls or monitors more than $12 trillion worldwide, including a billion shares of BP. According to the article, BlackRock "has effectively become the leading manager of Washington's bailout of Wall Street," thanks to Fink's close relationship with former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
"It's all about money," says Kaufman. "Follow the money."
So, where does this leave the people whose lives have been destroyed by this disaster? Where does this leave the people who will face long-term health problems? Where does this leave our oceans, wildlife and environment? What's next?
"The more the public knows, the more the media cover it, the more the people tell officials to help, the better it is," says Kaufman. "It's a game of momentum."
Ott says she plans to stay in the area to assist where she can (getting respirators for workers is near the top of her list), get the truth out and continue the conversations and community meetings she's having with self-described Tea Partiers, evangelicals and fifth and sixth generation fisherman. "Here's something positive for you," she said. "I'm starting to hear, 'We all live on one planet and there really is a climate crisis here. This can't continue.' I'm having conversations with the Christian Right. I'm staying in an oilman's camper. Oilmen are starting to see that we need alternatives. I'm having tea party people come up to me and say, 'How can I help?' Corporations want to divide the nation into red and blue, Democrat and Republican. I'm seeing that crashing down. The frames are dissolving. The South is rising. I'm talking about the Deep South. This is the most hopeful sign I'm seeing."
Former shrimper Diane Wilson hopes to see more direct action. "This is a crisis. If this oil gusher does not move people to force a change in Washington, then it will never happen. We are seeing the end of the United States as we know it. If people hold their planet dear, they better be out there. Folks are too well behaved. We need to be unreasonable."
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14) Leading Ocean Scientists Issue Consensus Statement to End Dispersant Use in Gulf, Call for Independent Research
BLUE HILL, Maine, July 22
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/leading-ocean-scientists-issue-consensus-statement-to-end-dispersant-use-in-gulf-call-for-independent-research-99031694.html
To break up crude oil unleashed by the Deepwater Horizon rig, BP has injected nearly two million gallons of Corexit chemical dispersants into the Gulf of Mexico. The massive volume of dispersants and the way they have been applied -- both on the surface and 5,000 feet beneath it -- is unprecedented. Once oil is dispersed in deep water, it cannot be recovered.
Although the gusher is currently capped, deep concern about negative impacts the dispersant/crude oil mix will have on both the marine ecosystem and human health has prompted leading ocean scientists to issue a consensus statement that urges a halt to any further dispersant use in the Gulf.
The statement, authored by Dr. Susan Shaw, Director of the Marine Environmental Research Institute, stands on a large body of research indicating that crude oil and dispersants are more toxic when they are combined than either oil or dispersants alone. The statement also calls for:
* Full public disclosure of all the chemical ingredients in the Corexit formulations and full toxicity data on these chemicals in combination with oil.
* Full public disclosure of information about adverse health effects and all monitoring and testing data collected by government agencies.
* Immediate funding for independent research to fully assess toxic impacts on the ecosystem and human health. The scientists believe the worst impacts of the disaster are yet to come, and without deliberate, independent scientific tracking and assessment, they could remain hidden.
Marine scientists and conservation organizations are invited to add their signatures to the document. It can be found on the website of the Marine Environmental Research Institute, www.meriresearch.org.
Initial signatories include:
* Sylvia A. Earle, PhD, Ocean Explorer-in-Residence, National Geographic Society; Advisory Council Chairman, Harte Research Institute
* Susan D. Shaw, DrPH, Marine Toxicologist, Director, Marine Environmental Research Institute
* Carl Safina, PhD, President, Blue Ocean Institute
* David Gallo, PhD, Oceanographer, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
* David Guggenheim, PhD, Marine Biologist/Conservationist, President, 1planet1ocean - a project of The Ocean Foundation
* Edith Widder, PhD, President and Senior Scientist, Ocean Research & Conservation Association
* Wallace J. Nichols, PhD, Research Associate, California Academy of Sciences
Inquiries from the press should be directed to:
Karen Coker, Marine Environmental Research Institute, kcoker@meriresearch.org, 207-374-2135
SOURCE Marine Environmental Research Institute
http://www.meriresearch.org
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15) Oil Rig Alarm Was Not Fully Turned On, Worker Says
"Mr. Williams said Friday that the term "well from hell" was common aboard the rig. He said the phrase was coined by Stephen Curtis, a senior tool pusher, while working on a previous well called Devil's Tower, but he also used it to refer to the failed well. Mr. Curtis died in the disaster."
By ROBBIE BROWN
July 23, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/24/us/24hearings.html?hp
KENNER, La. - The emergency alarm on the Deepwater Horizon was not fully activated on the day the oil rig caught fire and exploded, triggering the massive spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a rig worker on Friday told a government panel investigating the accident.
The worker, Mike Williams, chief electronics technician aboard the Transocean rig, said the general safety alarm was habitually set to "inhibited" to avoid waking up the crew with late-night sirens.
"They did not want people woke up at 3 a.m. from false alarms," Mr. Williams told the federal panel of investigators in this New Orleans suburb. Consequently, the alarm did not sound during the emergency, leaving workers to relay information through the loudspeaker system.
A six-member panel is investigating the April 20 disaster that killed 11 people and unleashed the largest oil spill in United States history. At hearings this week, crew members have described repeated failures in the weeks before the disaster, including power losses, computer crashes and leaking emergency equipment.
On Friday, Mr. Williams added several new details about the equipment on the vessel, testifying that another Transocean official turned a critical system for removing dangerous gas from the drilling shack to "bypass mode." When he questioned that decision, Mr. Williams said, he was reprimanded.
"No, the damn thing's been in bypass for five years," he recalled being told by Mark Hay, the subsea supervisor. "Why'd you even mess with it?"
He recalled that Mr. Hay added: "The entire fleet runs them in 'bypass.' "
Problems existed from the beginning of drilling the well, Mr. Williams said. For months, the computer system had been locking up, producing what the crew deemed the "blue screen of death."
"It would just turn blue," he said. "You'd have no data coming through."
Replacement hardware had been ordered but not yet installed by the time of the disaster, he said.
At Thursday's hearings, government investigators pressed a BP official who supervised the rig about whether the company took shortcuts to save money and time by selecting riskier equipment.
The official, John Guide, the well team leader, denied that BP had chosen a potentially risky type of well casing over more traditional equipment because it would save the company three days and $7 million to $10 million.
"It just happened to be a case where it also saved money," Mr. Guide said. The casing's lower cost played no role in the decision, he said, even though the company considered it the "best economic case."
The panel has focused this week on whether financial calculations may have trumped safety considerations in the weeks before the disaster. When the rig exploded April 20, BP was 43 days behind schedule, costing the company about $1 million a day in rig rental rates, company officials say.
The federal investigators announced Thursday that two BP officials had been named "parties of interest," making them potential targets of the investigation. The two men, Robert Kaluza, the well site manager on the rig, and Patrick O'Bryan, the vice president for drilling and completions, are the first individuals to be named from BP. They could not be reached for comment.
Also on Thursday, the widow of one of the 11 rig workers killed in the explosion testified that her husband had felt pressure to continue drilling for oil despite frequent equipment malfunctions and setbacks. The widow, Natalie Roshto, said her husband, Shane Roshto, a 22-year-old roustabout for Transocean, the rig's owner, expressed grave concerns about work conditions before his death.
"From Day 1, he deemed this the well from hell," Ms. Roshto said. "He said Mother Nature just didn't want to be drilled here."
Mr. Williams said Friday that the term "well from hell" was common aboard the rig. He said the phrase was coined by Stephen Curtis, a senior tool pusher, while working on a previous well called Devil's Tower, but he also used it to refer to the failed well. Mr. Curtis died in the disaster.
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16) State Plans to Eliminate 170,000 Canada Geese
City Room - Blogging From the Five Boroughs
By ISOLDE RAFTERY
July 23, 2010, 11:32 am
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/23/state-plans-to-eliminate-170000-canada-geese/?hp
The 2009 plan that state and local authorities have been following to reduce the number of Canada geese living in New York State by two-thirds.
It's a doomsday plan for New York's geese.
A nine-page report put together by a variety of national, state and city agencies shows that officials hope to reduce the number of Canada geese in New York to 85,000 from 250,000.
That means that roughly 170,000 geese - two-thirds of the population - will be killed.
The nearly 400 geese gassed to death this month after being rounded up in Prospect Park in Brooklyn - as well as an unknown number of other geese killed in New York City in recent weeks - were but a small part of the ambitious overall goal outlined in the document, which was obtained by City Room.
"The state of New York has close to 250,000 resident Canada geese, which is more than three times the state's population goal of 85,000," the report states. It is unknown how many have been killed so far.
The plan, according to a high-level official at the United States Department of Agriculture, was a result of five months of meetings between February and June 2009, after the crash of US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River. Canada geese hit both of the jet's engines, causing the splashdown.
Those attending the meetings that yielded the plan included officials from the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, the National Park Service and key staff members from Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's office, the official said.
He said that politicians peppered officials from the Department of Agriculture with questions about the science and asked how many goose strikes had occurred and the danger they posed. They learned that there have been 78 Canada goose strikes over 10 years in New York, and that those strikes caused more than $2.2 million in aircraft damage.
The plan was written with the approval of everyone at that table, the official said, including this paragraph:
"The captured geese are placed alive in commercial turkey crates. The geese would be brought to a secure location and euthanized with methods approved by the American Veterinary Medical Association. Euthanized geese would be buried."
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17) Tropical Storm in Gulf Halts Spill Response Efforts
By HENRY FOUNTAIN
July 23, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/24/us/24spill.html?hp
A tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico has forced the evacuation of response vessels at the site of BP's blown-out oil well, further stalling efforts to permanently seal the well.
Tropical Storm Bonnie, with winds of 40 miles an hour, was about 80 miles south-southeast of Miami and moving west-northwest at 19 miles an hour, the United States National Hurricane Center said Friday morning. The agency projected that the storm would approach the northern Gulf coast late Saturday or early Sunday.
Among the vessels forced to flee the well site, 50 miles off the Louisiana coast, was a drill rig that was working on a relief well, which is considered the ultimate way to seal the well. Thad W. Allen, the retired Coast Guard admiral who leads the federal response effort, said late Thursday evening that it was beginning the process of disconnecting a riser pipe from the rig to the seabed and pulling it up, a process expected to take up to 12 hours.
"While this is not a hurricane, it's a storm that will have some significant impacts," Admiral Allen said.
Kent Wells, a senior vice president of BP, said in a conference call with reporters in Houston on Thursday that the storm would delay operations 10 to 12 days, depending on its severity and how close it passed by the site. That would push back completion of a relief well to the middle of August, he said.
Despite the evacuation of the ships involved in the response, the government said Thursday that the well would be left closed off and unattended.
The decision to leave the well capped, which was made at the recommendation of Energy Secretary Steven Chu, means that scientists with the government and with BP think that the well is undamaged and that there is little risk it would deteriorate if kept under pressure, as it has been since valves on a new cap were closed a week ago. Reopening the valves would mean that oil, which has not flowed since they were closed, would once again pour into the gulf.
"We have enough confidence to leave the well shut in," Kent Wells, a senior vice president of BP, said in a conference call with reporters in Houston.
The drill rig that was working on the relief well was most likely to be among the first to leave because it travels very slowly. Other ships that are better able to handle higher seas and travel faster would leave later, Admiral Allen said. Support ships for submersibles that have been monitoring the well would be among the last to leave, so the well would probably be unattended for only a few days, he said.
The relief well has been temporarily plugged because of the weather worries, Admiral Allen said. Once the decision was made that the rig evacuate, he said, it would take 8 to 12 hours to detach a riser pipe from the seafloor and pull it back up so the rig could move.
Once the storm has passed, officials can resume their work on drilling the relief wells.
And when the rig is back in place and operating, about two days of work are needed to install and cement a last section of steel casing pipe in the relief well. After that, BP plans to first try another well-sealing procedure, called a static kill, in which heavy drilling mud would be pumped into the well in an effort to permanently stop the flow of oil and gas.
If the static kill is successful, the only need for the relief well may be to confirm that the well is permanently sealed. If the results from the static kill are ambiguous, though, it would then take at least several days, and perhaps several weeks, to permanently shut the flow from the bad well by pumping mud down the relief well.
On Thursday, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency, telling reporters that some low-lying coastal communities might need to be evacuated. But did not order a mandatory state evacuation.
By Thursday afternoon, though, BP and the Coast Guard had already started moving some surplus materials and equipment from low-lying areas into secure staging areas in Louisiana, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi, Rear Adm. Paul Zukunft, the federal on-scene coordinator, said at a news conference in New Orleans on Thursday.
Admiral Zukunft said that officials were "re-positioning and re-anchoring" the protective boom in some areas. Only the boom that was staged and waiting to be used would be moved to higher ground, he said.
But this actions prompted heated debate in some of Louisiana's coastal parishes.
Kevin Davis, the president of St. Tammany Parish, was upset that the Coast Guard told him it was planning to move inland barges that had blocked oil from entering Lake Pontchartrain. He issued an executive order saying that anybody who would move such equipment could be arrested.
In St. Bernard Parish, officials worried about whether the protective boom would be moved too far away to be re-deployed quickly after the storm passes. Admiral Zukunft said that moving supplies and equipment was necessary to protect resources so they can quickly be re-deployed after the storm. "We don't want to lose this material," he said.
Liz Robbins contributed reporting from New Orleans and Campbell Robertson contributed from Hopedale, La.
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18) Israeli Forces Kill Unarmed Palestinian
By ISABEL KERSHNER
July 22, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/23/world/middleeast/23mideast.html?ref=world
JERUSALEM - Israeli forces shot to death an unarmed Palestinian man early on Thursday at the edge of a Jewish settlement in the northern West Bank, Israeli military and Palestinian officials said. The Palestinian Authority government condemned the killing, calling it a "breach of the rule of law."
The Israeli military said that soldiers saw three Palestinians approaching the settlement of Barkan before dawn. Suspecting that one was armed, the military said, the soldiers opened fire, killing one man. The two others fled. It initially reported that there had been only one other man.
In a statement, the military said that it had set up a night watch by the settlement because there had been numerous attempts to infiltrate it in recent weeks, and settlers had complained of a rise in thefts.
Ghassan Khatib, a spokesman for the Palestinian Authority, criticized the shooting of the man the man killed, identified as Bilal Abu Libdeh from the West Bank city of Qalqilya. .
"Israel must hold its soldiers accountable for illegal and unjustified killings," he said.
He continued, "The Israeli practice of shooting first and asking questions later has become the norm when dealing with Palestinians" in the West Bank.
There has been a sharp reduction in violence in the West Bank over the last few years, with greater cooperation between the Israeli army and Palestinian security forces, but the relative calm is occasionally punctuated by attacks on Israelis, vandalism or attacks against Palestinian property or fatal encounters between Israeli forces and Palestinians. Such episodes deepen tensions and complicate the environment for peace talks.
Four Palestinian youths were killed by Israeli forces in two separate episodes in March in the northern West Bank. After investigating the shootings, the military said operational mistakes were made and the deaths could have been prevented.
The military said on Thursday it had called on the Palestinian authorities to conduct a joint investigation into the latest death and a Palestinian representative had visited the site.
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19) BP's Partners in Well Try to Distance Themselves
By JOHN SCHWARTZ
July 22, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/23/us/23liability.html?ref=us
BP's partners in the blown-out Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico distanced themselves from the oil giant in a Senate subcommittee hearing on Thursday, though their arguments encountered a skeptical audience.
"Our view is that this accident was preventable," said James T. Hackett, chief executive of the Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, a part owner in the well.
The well is owned jointly by BP and its investment partners, Anadarko and a subsidiary of the Mitsui Oil Exploration Corporation known as MOEX Offshore 2007.
BP, listed in the contracts as the operator of the well, owns 65 percent; Anadarko owns 25 percent; MOEX, 10 percent. By the terms of the companies' joint operating agreement, their legal liability for the well corresponds to their share of ownership.
The joint ownership is distinct from the legal relationships with the contractors involved in the drilling, like Transocean, the owner of the rig. Transocean and the other contractors argue that under their own operating agreements, BP has broadly shielded them from liability.
BP has already billed the partners more than $1 billion for their share of expenses so far, but the companies have declined to pay.
Anadarko has said that publicly available information suggests that BP may have been grossly negligent or engaged in willful misconduct, which could release Anadarko from any obligation to contribute. MOEX has said that it is awaiting the results of investigations before making decisions about payments.
In Thursday's hearing of the Senate subcommittee on federal financial management, the chief executives of Anadarko and MOEX said they were ready to pay if obligated.
But they said the common procedure in such cases calls for the operating partner to pay for cleanup and other costs up front and then seek contributions from the non-operating partners.
"BP is paying the federal government," and so taxpayers are not being harmed, Mr. Hackett of Anadarko told the subcommittee.
Naoki Ishii, the president of MOEX, said: "There is a contract in place among the partners. It says BP, as the operator, would make payments in the first instance."
Such comments did not sit well with members of the subcommittee, who said that Anadarko and MOEX should at least create escrow funds to prove they are ready and able to contribute.
Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, noted that the federal government had named Anadarko and MOEX as being among the "responsible parties" for the spill under the Oil Pollution Act.
"Right now my understanding of the law is, responsible parties have got to pay," he said. "But you're not paying. Is that right?"
Mr. Hackett began a response, but Mr. McCain cut him off.
"Are you paying, or are you not paying?" he asked, testily.
"We are not paying," Mr. Hackett said.
"And you have not set any money aside?" the senator asked.
"We have not set any money aside," Mr. Hackett acknowledged, but added that "we have substantial assets" and would be able to pay.
Mr. Hackett said that the company, in fact, had "a strong balance sheet," with $5 billion in annual cash flow, $3 billion in cash on hand and enormous credit resources that it could tap.
Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat of Missouri, said the decision to defer payment made the companies look bad.
"Obviously, the lawyer department won out over the P.R. department," she said.
The executives said that as non-operating partners, they were not involved in the day-to-day operations of the well.
In response to questions from Senator Thomas R. Carper, Democrat of Delaware and chairman of the subcommittee, Mr. Hackett said his company did not receive enough detailed information about the drilling in the weeks before the disaster to recognize that a crisis was imminent.
There was nothing in BP's reports, he said, "that would have been a red flag for us."
Drilling had already started and the government had approved the plan before MOEX bought in, Mr. Ishii said. "We were not involved in any direct decision making," he said.
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20) Pet Owners, Squeezed by Oil Spill, Turn to Shelters
By LIZ ROBBINS
July 22, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/23/us/23spillpets.html?ref=us
VIOLET, La. - The trail of oil has invaded the marshes of St. Bernard Parish, seeping into the psyche of fishermen and flowing into the overcrowded shelter at the St. Bernard Parish Animal Services where Sasha, Melodie and Benny pace their cages awaiting adoption.
Here, the outcry over the spill - barking, whimpering and mewing - amounts to little more than muted protest.
Since the BP oil disaster began, overwhelmed pet owners in coastal parishes, notably St. Bernard, and to a lesser degree, Plaquemines, have been dropping off their pets in droves. Some hand them over tearfully, others matter of factly.
"I think about how one day these animals are happy and go to sleep, and then the next day they wake up in a cage wondering, 'Hey, what's going on?' " said Mary Gambill, 54, of Luling, La., who drove an hour south to St. Bernard to adopt Andrea, a yellow Lab whose ribs poked through her sickly coat.
"These aren't just scroungy dogs on the side of the road," Ms. Gambill said. "These are pets."
Some owners told the shelter's director, Beth Brewster, that they had to downsize to apartments that do not accept animals. Others said they were too busy cleaning the spill to properly care for them. Few people, however, are willing to admit that they cannot feed both family and pet.
"I think it's the uncertainty of the future," Ms. Brewster said. "It's more logistics than it is poverty."
In a proud parish where three dollar stores operate between shopping centers shuttered five years after Katrina, and where residents wait six hours for $100 food cards distributed weekly by Catholic Charities, the animal shelter's statistics reflect the jarring anxiety of the oil-ravaged economy.
In June 2009, owners brought 17 pets in to the shelter; last month, owners relinquished more than 100 pets, Ms. Brewster said. To make room in the kennels, the sickest animals and those most unlikely to be adopted - primarily feral cats and aggressive dogs - have been euthanized, she said.
The situation is different than after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when owners abandoned their pets in haste, and later out of necessity when they themselves had no homes. Then, overcrowded shelters focused on rescue and reunion missions.
Now agencies like the Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Humane Society of the United States are trying to ease the overcrowding by arranging adoptions with shelters throughout the country and by offering free veterinary services and pet food so owners can keep their pets.
"Once they get through our door, they've already gone through the emotions of grief in giving up their pet," said Jacob Stroman, director for the Plaquemines Animal Welfare Society, which has a policy of noneuthanization.
The mission, he said, is to reach owners before they turn to shelters as a last resort.
At St. Bernard Catholic Church on Tuesday, Thomas Lopez, 65, and his companion, Vera Kerschner, 48, carried away a 17.6-pound bag of Kibbles 'n Bits for their Chihuahua, Shelby.
"She's eating better than we are," Mr. Lopez, an unemployed fisherman, said with a laugh.
The couple was taking advantage of the Louisiana S.P.C.A.'s Gulf Coast Companion Animal Relief Program, which in its first week gave out 377 bags of dog food to owners who could prove a connection to the fishing industry, said Ana Zorrilla, the group's chief executive.
The program received a $100,000 grant from the A.S.P.C.A. and approximately $100,000 in private donations, while Del Monte donated 41,000 pounds of dog food.
On Thursday, Catholic Charities' distribution day in Plaquemines Parish, James Bennett, 43, a commercial fisherman now mowing lawns, signed up for veterinary services offered by the S.P.C.A. in New Orleans.
He will bring his whole brood - six cats and seven dogs - the 75 miles north from Venice, La., for their appointments next month. Mr. Bennett, who said he easily spends $350 a month on pet food, wonders, however, whether the oil spill has given owners a convenient excuse.
"I don't buy that - they're giving up their dogs because they can't feed them?" Mr. Bennett said at St. Patrick Church in Port Sulphur, La. "I just think they are trying to get rid of them."
Billy Nungesser, the outspoken president of Plaquemines Parish who owns seven dogs, including one he rescued from Katrina, instituted a parish pet food giveaway every two weeks.
"With all the stress and frustration and worrying about getting your job back, that pet keeps you sane and can help you get through that," Mr. Nungesser said in an interview.
Nonetheless, he said some owners had confided in him that they have had "to choose between their kids and their pets."
For Lena Nguyen, holding her 14-year-old Husky-Shepherd mix, Keno, by the leash, there is no choice.
"I'm broke," Ms. Nguyen said at St. Patrick Church on Wednesday, "but if you give me $100,000, a million dollars, and tell me to trade Keno, thank you very much, I'll be poor, but I'll be happy.
"Keno is my heart, my everything."
In the beginning of the disaster, animal shelter directors along the coast gathered in Port Sulphur for BP training on how to treat oily birds; no one expected cats and dogs to feel the brunt of the spill, too.
Ms. Brewster and Mr. Stroman, the shelter directors, have been encouraged by the response to the plight. One California woman last week mailed six cans of cat food to Mr. Stroman's shelter.
A couple from Hopedale (they declined to give their name) were delighted to adopt two azure-eyed Siamese kittens at St. Bernard. The woman, who said she had just been diagnosed with lymphoma, wanted company while her husband was out skimming oil for BP.
The St. Bernard shelter had a temporary reprieve this week after 30 small- and medium-sized dogs were taken to be transported to a shelter in Houston on Friday. Another five dogs, including Sasha, a retriever mix, were flown to a shelter in Lakeland, Fla., also on Friday.
The uglier, larger or heartworm-positive dogs, like the Labrador brothers, Rock and Rocker, were left behind. Again.
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21) In 2008's Downturn, Some Managed to Eke Out Millions
By FLOYD NORRIS
July 23, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/24/business/economy/24charts.html?ref=business
Even in a bad year, some people can get very lucky.
A newly released report by the Internal Revenue Service shows that, for Americans as a group, total income fell at the fastest pace in decades in 2008, and that the number of tax returns reporting at least $1 million in income plunged by 22 percent as the Great Recession took hold.
But even with all the bad news, there were still 13,480 tax returns that reported income of more than $10 million in the year.
Among them were 462 returns that reported some income from gambling. Their total income from that source was $2.6 billion, for an average of $5.6 million per return.
The report, based on a survey of tax returns for 2008, states that Americans reported $8.4 trillion in total income, down 4.6 percent from the previous year. After considering inflation, the real decline was 8.4 percent, the sharpest decline in total American income since at least 1990.
That decline was largely caused by falls in investment income and sharp drops in capital gains. Despite the recession, total wage and salary income in the United States rose by 1.9 percent in 2008, the I.R.S. said. But after adjusting for inflation, that became a decline of 1.9 percent. The real decline in wage and salary incomes was also the largest since 1990, which was as far back as the I.R.S. report covered.
For some Americans, that decline was partly offset by the availability of unemployment insurance benefits. The number of tax returns reporting such benefits was 9.5 million, up 25 percent from the year before, and the total of reported unemployment benefits was $43.7 billion, up 48 percent.
Most of those benefits were reported on tax returns showing total income of less than $40,000 a year, and 90 percent of it was reported on returns that showed total income under $100,000.
The number of tax returns that reported at least $1 million in annual income fell by 22 percent, to 321,294, while the subset of that group reporting at least $10 million in income was 36 percent smaller.
On the other end of the spectrum, the number of tax returns on which taxpayers reported negative income - because their realized losses were greater than their total income - leaped 31 percent, to 2.5 million.
The report reflects the number of tax returns, not the number of people. Most returns are filed by individuals, but nearly a third are joint returns filed by married couples.
While there were fewer returns reporting $1 million incomes, they collectively still reported income of $1.08 trillion. Those returns accounted for just 0.2 percent of the returns filed, but reported taking in 13 percent of all income.
That proportion was down from 16.1 percent in 2007, however, and was the lowest since 2004, reflecting the impact of the collapse in asset values on those who owned the most assets.
The I.R.S. disclosure of combined tax return information for the wealthiest taxpayers - those with annual incomes of $10 million or more - provides glimpses into the lives of the super-rich.
Some of them, it turns out, know what it is like to stand in line at the unemployment office. Seventeen of those returns included income from unemployment benefits, averaging $5,765 each. The service had not broken out that detail in previous years.
Of those tax returns of $10 million or more, 20 reported receiving alimony payments, averaging about $5 million, while 455 reported paying alimony averaging $455,588.
Most people in that rarefied group are there because of their investments, not their work. Of the $400 billion in income reported on those 13,480 returns, only 19 percent of it came from wages and salaries, much less than came from capital gains, even in such a bad year for stocks.
It turns out that there were fewer superlucky people in 2008 as well. In the previous year, 546 returns showing total income of at least $10 million reported gambling income, and those returns showed average gambling income of $6.6 million.
Floyd Norris comments on finance and economics on his blog at nytimes.com/norris.
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22) Federal Report Faults Banks on Huge Bonuses
"With the financial system on the verge of collapse in late 2008, a group of troubled banks doled out more than $2 billion in bonuses and other payments to their highest earners"
By ERIC DASH
July 22, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/23/business/23pay.html?ref=business
With the financial system on the verge of collapse in late 2008, a group of troubled banks doled out more than $2 billion in bonuses and other payments to their highest earners. Now, the federal authority on banker pay says that nearly 80 percent of that sum was unmerited.
In a report to be released on Friday, Kenneth R. Feinberg, the Obama administration's special master for executive compensation, is expected to name 17 financial companies that made questionable payouts totaling $1.58 billion immediately after accepting billions of dollars of taxpayer aid, according to two government officials with knowledge of his findings who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the report.
The group includes Wall Street giants like Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and the American International Group as well as small lenders like Boston Private Financial Holdings. Mr. Feinberg's report points to companies that he says paid eye-popping amounts or used haphazard criteria for awarding bonuses, the people with knowledge of his findings said, and he has singled out Citigroup as the biggest offender.
Even so, Mr. Feinberg has very limited power to reclaim any money. He can use his status as President Obama's point man on pay to jawbone the companies into reimbursing the government, but he has no legal authority to claw back excessive payouts.
Mr. Feinberg's political leverage has been weakened by the banks' speedy repayment of their bailout funds. Eleven of the 17 companies that received criticism in the report have repaid the government with interest, so they have no outstanding obligations to reimburse.
As a result, Mr. Feinberg will merely propose that the banks voluntarily adopt a "brake provision" that would allow their boards to nullify or alter any bonus payouts or employment contracts in the event of a future financial crisis. All 17 companies have told Mr. Feinberg that they will consider adopting the provision, though none has committed to do so.
Mr. Feinberg is expected to call the payouts ill advised but not unlawful or contrary to the public interest, the people with knowledge of his report said.
On Wall Street, meanwhile, profits and pay have already rebounded. Goldman Sachs is on pace to hand out an average of $544,000 per worker in salary and bonuses, though many could earn several times that amount. JPMorgan Chase's investment bank is on track to pay its workers, on average, about $425,000, while the average Morgan Stanley employee could collect about $260,000.
If the second half of 2010 plays out like the first half, Wall Street bonuses will be paid out at about the same level as last year and similar to 2007 levels, when the crisis had just started to unfold.
"It's healthier than I would have ever expected a year ago," said Alan Johnson, a longtime compensation consultant who specializes in financial services.
Mr. Feinberg was named last month as the independent administrator for claims tied to the BP oil spill, making it likely that the release of his findings on the financial firms will be his final act as the overseer of banker pay.
The review, mandated by the 2009 economic stimulus bill, broadened the scope of Mr. Feinberg's duties to include examining the pay packages of top earners at 419 companies that accepted bailout funds. However, it did not give him the power to demand changes to the compensation arrangements, as he did in each of the last two years at seven companies that received multiple bailouts.
Mr. Feinberg spent five months reviewing compensation paid to each company's 25 highest earners between October 2008, when the first bailouts were dispensed, and February 2009, when the stimulus bill took effect. He narrowed his scrutiny to about 600 executives at 17 banks, with payouts totaling $2.03 billion.
Mr. Feinberg's criteria for identifying the worst offenders were large payouts, in aggregate or to specific individuals; overly generous exit packages; or a failure to provide clear performance criteria or other rationale for extra pay.
Mr. Feinberg then approached each of the 17 companies with his proposed remedy during conference calls over the last two weeks. The 11 companies that have fully repaid their bailout money are American Express, Bank of America, Bank of New York Mellon, Boston Private, Capital One Financial, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, PNC Financial, US Bancorp and Wells Fargo.
The six companies that have not fully repaid their bailout funds are A.I.G, Citigroup, the CIT Group, M&T Bank, Regions Financial and SunTrust Banks.
Among the banks that have not fully repaid the government, Citigroup was identified by Mr. Feinberg as having the most egregious compensation packages during the bailout period, according to officials with knowledge of his report. The bank handed out several hundred million dollars in pay in 2008 as it struggled to stay afloat.
Roughly two-thirds of the outsize payouts were from bonuses awarded to Andrew Hall and another trader who were part of the bank's Phibro energy trading unit. Citigroup sold that business to Occidental Petroleum last fall, under pressure from Mr. Feinberg, after the disclosure that Mr. Hall had received a $100 million payout.
Mr. Feinberg is not expected to name individual executives who received the highest awards.
His review is among several compensation initiatives scrutinizing banker pay. In June, the Federal Reserve ordered about two dozen of the biggest banks to address several pay practices that, even after the crisis, it said encouraged excessive risk-taking.
European banking regulators introduced tough new standards for bonus payments earlier this month. And the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is developing a plan that would partly tie bank insurance premiums to the perceived risk of their executive pay packages. That proposal could be reviewed by the agency's board as early as next month.
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