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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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We are 50,000 strong!
We are Hotel Workers Rising!
BIG HISTORIC
MARCH AND RALLY
JULY 22, Thursday, 4:00pm
Local 2 Plaza, San Francisco
(Market and 4th Streets, next to Four Seasons Hotel)
On July 22, UNITE HERE! Local 2 and our supporters will join locals from 13 cities nationwide and in Canada in a historic coordinated protest to fight for dignity and respect for nearly 50,000 hotel workers. Some are engaged in contract campaigns and others are organizing non-union hotels.
We are at a crucial moment in our struggle against big greedy multi-national hotel corporations, and standing together with our locals across the country and Canada will bring us victory. Like the wealthy Pritzker family who run Hyatt, these corporations are taking unfair advantage, but we shall not be moved! Join us in this historic rally!
www.hotelworkersrising.org
SIGN THE HOTEL BOYCOTT PLEDGE!
https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dE9US3YwVmZyZFpLcVFUOFozWk4tZEE6MA
Click here for details and figures showing why these corporations have no excuse not to provide hotel workers affordable quality health care:
https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0BzaUbolMBN98NTZmZGU3MGUtM2NjMy00ZjgxLWFjYzgtYTcyOTRmZTA1NDgy&hl=en
UNITE HERE! Local 2 - Hotel Workers Struggle for a Contract in San Francisco:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVOzfbb08_0
Check our Websites:
www.unitehere2.org
www.unitehere.org
We are always on the look out for committed volunteers to drive the hotel boycotts and reach out to the community. Let us learn together, and fight together. Join Local 2's awesome Boycott Team.
For volunteer opportunities, please contact:
Powell DeGange, pdegange@unitehere.org
415-864-8770 ext. 759
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United National
Peace Conference
July 23 - 25, 2010, Albany, NY
Unac2010@aol.com or UNAC at P.O. Box 21675, Cleveland, OH 44121
518-227-6947 www.nationalpeaceconference.org
Call to Action!
United National Antiwar Conference (UNAC)
Join us in Albany, New York!
July 23-25, 2010
The National Conference to Bring the Troops Home Now will take place against the backdrop of major developments in the U.S. and throughout the world.
Our planet is aflame with unending wars, threats of new wars and horrendous sanctions against Iran, atrocious attacks on innocent Freedom Flotillas bringing humanitarian aid to the beleaguered Palestinians of Gaza, and with an unprecedented corporate-driven environmental catastrophe.
With U.S. acquiescence, a humanitarian flotilla in international waters, carrying 10,000 tons of food, medical, construction and educational supplies and toys for children, has been brutally attacked by the Israeli military - nine killed and six others missing and/or presumed dead. The 750 peace activists aboard, including NGO members, pacifists, journalists, and members of the European Parliament, were kidnapped, then arrested - their cargo seized. As we write, Iranian and Turkish ships, also loaded with humanitarian supplies, have announced plans to head for beleaguered Gaza to challenge the illegal blockade and Israeli siege. Will the Israeli government once again attack with deadly force bringing the world closer to yet another war?
We are witness to seven years of war against Iraq, a war whose every pretext has been discredited and whose people demand U.S. withdrawal. War for oil, occupation and plunder does not sit well with Iraqis who have suffered 1.4 million dead. "Phased withdrawal" is designed to assuage the U.S. public, and Iraqi majority opposition notwithstanding, there is no end in sight.
Meanwhile, 60,000 barrels of oil daily for the past two months, barely impeded, pour into the Gulf of Mexico, wreaking death, destruction and massive loss of income in adjacent states and north to the Atlantic and beyond. Corporate greed and the absence of a semblance of serious government regulation threaten long-term destruction of the ocean's ecosystem. British Petroleum, the Transocean corporation, and subcontractor Halliburton Industries demonstrate once again that oil profits, whether in the Persian Gulf or the Gulf of Mexico, trump human life and indeed life on earth in all forms. The insatiable drive for "black gold," the very resource that with continued use threatens all life, has brought us to the brink of what Mother Earth and its inhabitants can endure.
At the same time, our movement has registered some impressive gains while the government is registering important setbacks.
• Public opposition to the Afghanistan War is on the rise!
• The "victory" in Marja has proven ephemeral!
• The economic and political crises have awakened millions to the government's twisted priorities!
• Congressional debates reflect doubts about the war's objectives and costs!
• 24 Guantanamo torture protesters have been acquitted!
History demonstrates time and again that united, democratic and principled mass movements open the door to fundamental social change. That is the lesson of the fight against the Vietnam War, the broad civil rights movements, the struggles for equal rights for women and gays, and labor's struggle to unionize and advance the well-being of tens of millions.
And that's why the Albany conference is so timely. One hundred and twenty-five plenary and workshop speakers are scheduled! They include national and international leaders in the fight against war and for social justice. Twenty-nine national organizations are equal co-sponsors. (See nationalpeaceconference.org). For the first time in many years, a broad and diverse range of U.S. antiwar forces will be in the same room. Joined by social activists across the country and from around the world, they will lay plans to mobilize the American people to Bring the Troops and War Dollars Home Now! and to Fund Human Needs Not War!
The time to act is now! All antiwar and social justice activists welcome! One person one vote! See Draft Action Program online. Related amendments and resolutions are welcome.
The need now is to find common ground in the fight for life itself. The crisis-ridden system cries out for a challenge the world over. Let us be among the first to chart a winning course for the U.S. and for all humanity.
We say, "Massive funds for jobs, education, housing, pensions, the environment and health care! Bring the Troops, Mercenaries, War Profiteers and War Dollars Home Now! Close the 860 Military Bases! Bail Out the People, Not the Banks!"
United we can change the world!
JOIN US IN ALBANY, NEW YORK, JULY 23-25, 2010!
For more information: www.nationalpeaceconference.org or call 518-227-6947. A registration form is attached. Brochures announcing the conference can be ordered by writing UNAC2010@aol.com
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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.
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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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
---------
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
*
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) Arizona: Immigrant Deaths Are on Pace to Hit Record
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 16, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/17/us/17brfs-IMMIGRANTDEA_BRF.html?ref=us
2) After Oil Spills, Hidden Damage Can Last for Years
"In 1969, a barge hit the rocks off the coast of West Falmouth, Mass., spilling 189,000 gallons of fuel oil into Buzzards Bay. Today, the fiddler crabs at nearby Wild Harbor still act drunk, moving erratically and reacting slowly to predators."
By JUSTIN GILLIS and LESLIE KAUFMAN
July 17, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/science/earth/18enviro.html?hp
3) Changing Stance, Administration Now Defends Insurance Mandate as a Tax
By ROBERT PEAR
July 16, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/health/policy/18health.html?ref=us
4) Militia With Neo-Nazi Ties Patrols Arizona Desert
[Lynne Stewart gets ten years in jail while these heavily-armed Nazis are allowed to roam the Arizona Desert with impunity!...bw]
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 17, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/us/18militia.html?ref=us
5) The Source of Our Despair in the Gulf
By Dahr Jamail and Erika Blumenfeld
(Photos By Erika Blumenfeld)
t r u t h o u t | Photo Essay
[This is the text. I encourage you to go to TRUTHOUT to see the powerful photographs taken by Erika Blumenfeld that make this catastrophic act of profit-driven greed all the more real and tragic....bw]
Sunday, July 18, 2010
http://www.truth-out.org/the-source-our-despair-gulf61459
6) Independent Water Samples Again Contradict EPA Statements; Explodes When Tested For Oil, Most Likely Due To Methane Or Corexit
Posted by Alexander Higgins
July 17, 2010 at 7:17 pm - Permalink
[Scroll down to bottom of page to watch the video at this site:]
http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2010/07/17/independent-water-samples-contradict-epa-statements-explodes-tested-oil-due-methane-corexit/
7) U.S. Allows BP to Keep Well Closed for Another Day
By HENRY FOUNTAIN
July 19, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/20/us/20oilspill.html?hp
8) Difficult Births: Laboring And Delivering In Shackles
by Andrea Hsu
July 16, 2010
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128563037
9) BP's Scheme to Swindle the "Small People"
Monday 19 July 2010
by: Dahr Jamail, t r u t h o u t | Report
http://www.truth-out.org/bps-scheme-swindle-small-people61509
10) A hidden world, growing beyond control [THIS IS A REAL-LIVE HORROR STORY...BW]
"The U.S. intelligence budget is vast, publicly announced last year as $75 billion, 21/2 times the size it was on Sept. 10, 2001. But the figure doesn't include many military activities or domestic counterterrorism programs."
BY DANA PRIEST AND WILLIAM M. ARKIN
Monday, July 19, 2010; 4:50 PM
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/articles/a-hidden-world-growing-beyond-control/
11) Oil seep near BP well could mean trouble for relief well plans
Mark Seibel | McClatchy Newspapers
McClatchy Washington Bureau
Posted on Sun, Jul. 18, 2010
http://www.readersupportednews.org/off-site-news-section/49-49/2462-oil-seep-near-bp-well-could-mean-trouble-for-relief-well-plans
12) Elderly and Disabled Put at Risk by Cuts in Home Care
By JOHN LELAND
July 16, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/21/us/21aging.html?hp
13) BP Failed to Fix Device Before Blast, Worker Says
By ROBBIE BROWN
July 20, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/21/us/21hearings.html?hp
14) Communist Teacher Blamed for Improper Cuba Trip
By SHARON OTTERMAN
July 20, 2010, 12:58 pm
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/20/communist-teacher-blamed-for-improper-trip-to-cuba/?hp
15) Troops to Go to Mexican Border Aug. 1
By DAN FROSCH
July 19, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/20/us/20border.html?ref=world
16) Israel: Anti-Rocket System Is Ready for Deployment
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 19, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/20/world/middleeast/20briefs-ISRAEL.html?ref=world
17) BP Considers New Plan to Permanently Seal Well
By HENRY FOUNTAIN
July 19, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/20/us/20oilspill.html?ref=us
18) Liability at Issue in Oil Flow Rate in Gulf
By JOHN SCHWARTZ
July 19, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/20/us/20flow.html?ref=us
19) 7,000 U.S. Marines Landing on the Beaches of Costa Rica
By Costa Rica Blogger , Global Blogger
Published: July 12, 2010 10:29 ET in The Americas
http://www.globalpost.com/webblog/costa-rica/7000-us-marines-landing-the-beaches-costa-rica
20) Resolution of California Labor Federation
(Adopted July 14, 2010 at the 28th Biennial Convention)
[Please excuse duplicate postings!]
21) 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
22) Weather May Delay Work in Gulf
By HENRY FOUNTAIN
July 21, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/22/us/22spill.html?hp
23) 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
24) 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
25) 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
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1) Arizona: Immigrant Deaths Are on Pace to Hit Record
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 16, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/17/us/17brfs-IMMIGRANTDEA_BRF.html?ref=us
The number of deaths among illegal immigrants crossing the Arizona desert from Mexico could reach a new monthly high, a county medical examiner said Friday. Since July 1, the bodies of 40 illegal immigrants have been taken to the office of Dr. Bruce Parks, the Pima County medical examiner. At that rate, Dr. Parks said, the deaths could top the single-month record of 68 in July 2005. His office began tracking such deaths in 2000. Dr. Parks said his office, which handles immigrants' bodies from three counties, was currently storing about 250 bodies and had to start using a refrigerated truck because of the recent increase. The authorities believe that the high number of deaths are likely due to above-average and unrelenting heat in southern Arizona this month and tighter border security that pushes immigrants to more remote, rugged and dangerous terrain.
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2) After Oil Spills, Hidden Damage Can Last for Years
"In 1969, a barge hit the rocks off the coast of West Falmouth, Mass., spilling 189,000 gallons of fuel oil into Buzzards Bay. Today, the fiddler crabs at nearby Wild Harbor still act drunk, moving erratically and reacting slowly to predators."
By JUSTIN GILLIS and LESLIE KAUFMAN
July 17, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/science/earth/18enviro.html?hp
On the rocky beaches of Alaska, scientists plunged shovels and picks into the ground and dug 6,775 holes, repeatedly striking oil - still pungent and dangerous a dozen years after the Exxon Valdez infamously spilled its cargo.
More than an ocean away, on the Breton coast of France, scientists surveying the damage after another huge oil spill found that disturbances in the food chain persisted for more than a decade.
And on the southern gulf coast in Mexico, an American researcher peering into a mangrove swamp spotted lingering damage 30 years after that shore was struck by an enormous spill.
These far-flung shorelines hit by oil in the past offer clues to what people living along the Gulf Coast can expect now that the great oil calamity of 2010 may be nearing an end.
Every oil spill is different, but the thread that unites these disparate scenes is a growing scientific awareness of the persistent damage that spills can do - and of just how long oil can linger in the environment, hidden in out-of-the-way spots.
At the same time, scientists who have worked to survey and counteract the damage from spills say the picture in the gulf is far from hopeless.
"Thoughts that this is going to kill the Gulf of Mexico are just wild overreactions," said Jeffrey W. Short, a scientist who led some of the most important research after the Exxon Valdez spill and now works for an environmental advocacy group called Oceana. "It's going to go away, the oil is. It's not going to last forever."
But how long will it last?
Only 20 years ago, the conventional wisdom was that oil spills did almost all their damage in the first weeks, as fresh oil loaded with toxic substances hit wildlife and marsh grasses, washed onto beaches and killed fish and turtles in the deep sea.
But disasters like the Valdez in 1989, the Ixtoc 1 in Mexico in 1979, the Amoco Cadiz in France in 1978 and two Cape Cod spills, including the Bouchard 65 barge in 1974 - all studied over decades with the improved techniques of modern chemistry and biology - have allowed scientists to paint a more complex portrait of what happens after a spill.
It is still clear that the bulk of the damage happens quickly, and that nature then begins to recuperate. After a few years, a casual observer visiting a hard-hit location might see nothing amiss. Birds and fish are likely to have rebounded, and the oil will seem to be gone.
But often, as Dr. Short and his team found in Alaska, some of it has merely gone underground, hiding in pockets where it can still do low-level damage to wildlife over many years. And the human response to a spill can mitigate - or intensify - its long-term effects. Oddly enough, some of the worst damage to occur from spills in recent decades has come from people trying too hard to clean them up.
It is hard for scientists to offer predictions about the present spill, for two reasons.
The ecology of the Gulf of Mexico is specially adapted to break down oil, more so than any other body of water in the world - though how rapidly and completely it can break down an amount this size is essentially unknown.
And because this spill is emerging a mile under the surface and many of the toxic components of the oil are dissolving into deep water and spreading far and wide, scientists simply do not know what the effects in the deep ocean are likely to be.
Still, many aspects of the spill resemble spills past, especially at the shoreline, and that gives researchers some confidence in predicting how events will unfold.
Remarkable Persistence
In 1969, a barge hit the rocks off the coast of West Falmouth, Mass., spilling 189,000 gallons of fuel oil into Buzzards Bay. Today, the fiddler crabs at nearby Wild Harbor still act drunk, moving erratically and reacting slowly to predators.
The odd behavior is consistent with a growing body of research showing how oil spills of many types have remarkably persistent effects, often at levels low enough to escape routine notice.
Jennifer Culbertson was a graduate student at Boston University in 2005 when she made plaster casts of crab burrows. She discovered that instead of drilling straight down, like normal crabs, the ones at Wild Harbor were going only a few inches deep and then turning sideways, repelled by an oily layer still lingering below the surface.
Other researchers established that the crabs were suffering from a kind of narcosis induced by hydrocarbon poisoning. Their troubles had serious implications for the marsh.
"Fiddler crabs normally play a crucial role in tilling the salt marsh, which helps provide oxygen to the roots of salt marsh grasses," Dr. Culbertson said about her study.
In Alaska, the Exxon Valdez spill dumped nearly 11 million gallons of oil into Prince William Sound, and it spread down the Alaska coast, ultimately oiling 1,200 miles of shoreline. By the late 1990s, the oil seemed to be largely gone, but liver tests on ducks and sea otters showed that they were still being exposed to hydrocarbons, chemical compounds contained in crude.
Dr. Short, then working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, mounted a series of excavations to figure out what had happened, with his team ultimately digging thousands of holes in Alaska's beaches. Oil was found in about 8 percent of them, usually in places with too little oxygen for microbes to break it down.
Exactly how much damage continues from the oil is a matter of dispute, with Exxon commissioning its own studies that challenge the government's findings on the extent of the impact. But it is clear that otters dig for food in areas containing oil, and that they, like nearly a dozen other species of animals, have still not entirely recovered from the 1989 spill.
At the rate the oil is breaking down, Dr. Short estimates that some of it could still be there a century from now.
Increasing the Stress
Perhaps the greatest single hazard from the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the gulf is the long-term erosion of delicate coastal wetlands it could cause. At another spill site on the Massachusetts coast, not far from the West Falmouth spill, the legacy of oil contamination is evident in the difference between two marshes on either side of a pebbly shoreline road.
On one side, where the marshes were suffused in 1974 when the grounded Bouchard 65 barge dumped 11,000 to 37,000 gallons of fuel oil into the sea, the grasses are stunted and sparse. They cling tentatively to the edge of the sandy beach. But the grasses on the other side, untouched by oil, rise tall and thick.
Louisiana's coastline contains some of the most productive marshes in the world, delivering an abundance of shrimp and oysters and providing critical habitat and breeding ground for birds and fish.
But even before the spill, the land was under enormous environmental stress, largely due to human activity. Dams on the Mississippi River and its tributaries have slowed the flow of sediment to the marshes, and global warming has caused sea level to rise.
The Louisiana marshes are eroding at an extraordinary rate - a football field's worth sinks into the Gulf of Mexico every 38 minutes, according to the Louisiana Office of Coastal Management - and the worry now is that the oil spill will accelerate that erosion.
The Bouchard shows how that could happen. When the barge ran aground, thousands of gallons of a particularly toxic fuel oil spilled into the icy water and were swept to shore by the strong tides.
The oil made landfall just two miles north of where the West Falmouth oil spill had washed up only five years earlier. Winsor Cove, a classic New England bay surrounded by bluffs and stately homes, bore the brunt. Razor clams suffocated and rose to the surface by the hundreds to die.
But the lasting damage of the spill, severe erosion of the shoreline, took months longer to unfold.
George Hampson, now retired, was on the scientific team at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution that studied a series of spills in the area. He recalled that after the 1974 spill the beach grasses, called spartina, which had grown like luxuriant matting along the shore, died.
"The first year it was just like a moonscape," Mr. Hampson said.
Spartina, a common beach grass that fills the marshes along the North Atlantic and in the Gulf of Mexico, is a crucial factor in keeping marshlands from eroding into the sea. Its roots act as a vast net keeping soil in place.
But the oil in Winsor Cove set off a vicious downward spiral. "It was a race between how much peat was eroding and how quickly the grass was coming back," Mr. Hampson said.
Over the course of the next several winters, six feet of shore eroded, including a sand berm that stood above the rest of the beach. And as the view from the pebbled road indicates, the vegetation still struggles for a foothold today.
"It's been 35 years, and I'd say the grasses are just beginning to grow back," Mr. Hampson said.
It is certain that some of the heavily oiled spartina in Louisiana will die. For now, heavy oiling is limited to just the marsh fringes, but a strong surge in front of a hurricane could change that.
Bad Choices
Oil spills produce a powerful impulse to clean up the oil and restore as much of the environment as possible. But that impulse can itself be a source of destruction.
No case illustrates that point more starkly than the 1978 spill of the Amoco Cadiz tanker. Caught in a gale, it was propelled against rocks near the shore of northwestern France, spilling 67 million gallons of crude oil that washed over 200 miles of the coast of Brittany.
The immediate damage was bad enough: at least 20,000 seabirds found dead, thousands of tons of oysters lost and fish ridden with ulcers and tumors. But then the French authorities made it worse.
The area had marshes, and they were hit hard by oil that sank deep into the sediments. The authorities felt they needed to act aggressively.
Using bulldozers and tractors, they scraped close to 20 inches of oiled sediment from the top in the most polluted marshes and also straightened and deepened some natural tidal channels, to improve flushing.
Over time, these proved to have been disastrous judgments.
In areas that were not bulldozed, nature ultimately broke down most of the oil and the vegetation came back. But marsh plants turned out to be highly sensitive to the depth of the sediment, and more than a decade after the spill, the bulldozed marshes are still missing as much as 40 percent of their vegetation.
"In the case of Amoco Cadiz, the cleanup operations were more deadly than the pollution itself," said Jean-Claude Dauvin, a professor of marine biology and ecosystems at the University of Lille in northern France.
Much the same dynamic played out in Alaska after the Exxon Valdez spill. In some areas, Exxon power-washed oiled beaches with high-pressure, hot-water sprayers. It made for dramatic television images, with the company seemingly working hard against the spill. But scientists ultimately determined that it was a disaster for the tidal ecology, with clams and other organisms showing greatly delayed recovery on the laundered beaches, compared with oiled beaches that were not cleaned.
The lesson, scientists say, is not that people should never try to clean up an oil spill. It is possible to do too little as well as too much. But the calculation of how much to do is tricky, demanding deep scientific understanding of an area's ecology. Applying supposed common sense has repeatedly led to mistakes.
Already in Louisiana, battles have erupted between the Army Corps of Engineers and local residents, led by Gov. Bobby Jindal, over proposals to build sand and rock barriers to block the oil from coming into the marshes. The corps has been cautious on approval permits and recently rejected a plan to build a rock barrier outside Barataria Bay, arguing that such structures would change water-flow patterns to the possible detriment of the marsh ecology.
No matter how that battle plays out, a tough and potentially contentious issue in Louisiana in coming months may be the question of whether the marshes should be burned.
If the top layer of grasses and the clinging oil are burned off, the roots should survive and allow healthier grasses to sprout back. But scientists say that can be done only if there is no chance of new oil coming in, since burning might expose the roots buried in the sediment, making them vulnerable to absorbing the oil. Given the immensity of the spill, it is not clear when that hazard will have passed.
"If you consider the volume," said Ronald J. Kendall, chairman of environmental toxicology at Texas Tech University, "we could see re-oiling for years to come."
Natural Resilience
The other day, a Mexican fishing boat threaded its way deep into a coastal mangrove swamp on the Bay of Campeche. It carried two scientists, an American, Wes Tunnell, and a Mexican, Julio Sánchez.
They were looking for remnants of an oil spill that happened 30 years earlier, when the Ixtoc 1 well in the bay exploded and gushed oil for 10 months. It has stood for decades as the worst accidental release of oil in any ocean. (It may or may not have been surpassed by the BP spill; estimates vary.)
Mangroves are vital coastal plants, providing rich habitat for many types of creatures and serving as a nursery for many marine species. To the untrained eye, the ones in Mexico appeared healthy, billowing up from the shoreline in shades of green, balanced on a gray carpet of roots that protruded from the water.
But Dr. Tunnell pointed out subtle signs of damage. There were clearings in the foliage, instead of an unbroken tangle of roots and mangrove trees. The branches of the outer layer of red mangroves seemed stunted.
"For a mangrove swamp, this should be much denser," Dr. Tunnell said. "We shouldn't even be able to see in here."
The scientists scrambled out of the boats to a small clearing. Dr. Sanchez bent down, sliced out a layer of sediment and broke it to reveal gooey tar in the middle.
Dr. Tunnell sniffed. "It smells like a newly paved road," he said.
They could not be sure it was oil from the Ixtoc well, since smaller spills have hit the area too, but the scientists agree with local fishermen that much of the damage to the mangroves goes back to Ixtoc.
They sent the sample to a laboratory. The fishermen also said that oysters that used to be found clinging to the mangrove roots seemed to have vanished after the spill and never returned.
The Ixtoc blowout of 1979-80 is the closest analogy to the BP spill, even though it happened in much shallower water. Ixtoc soiled hundreds of miles of beaches, all the way to Texas.
Dr. Tunnell, of the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M, Corpus Christi, was early in his career then. He was dismayed to see the oil kill 50 percent to 80 percent of the bottom-dwelling creatures in some areas near the Texas shore.
"As a young scientist, I thought, 'Oh, no, this is wiping out our beaches,' " Dr. Tunnell said.
But then he watched in amazement as the recuperative powers of the gulf kicked in.
Because oil constantly seeps into the gulf from natural fissures, the water is teeming with microbes adapted to break oil down and use it as food. The breakdown happens faster there than in colder bodies of water, and the warm water helps some species recover faster, too.
Along the Texas coast, within a few years after the Ixtoc spill ended in 1980, it was hard to tell that anything had gone wrong. Creatures repopulated the areas that had been wiped out.
No one can be sure that the recovery from the BP spill will be a replay of Ixtoc. But the greatest reason for optimism is nature's demonstrated capacity to handle the assaults on it.
"Thirty years ago, that 140 million gallons of oil went somewhere," Dr. Tunnell said. "The gulf recovered and became very productive again. My concern is: Is it as resilient today as it was 30 years ago?"
Elisabeth Malkin contributed reporting from Isla Arena, Mexico, and Dheepthi Namasivayam from Roscoff, France.
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3) Changing Stance, Administration Now Defends Insurance Mandate as a Tax
By ROBERT PEAR
July 16, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/health/policy/18health.html?ref=us
WASHINGTON - When Congress required most Americans to obtain health insurance or pay a penalty, Democrats denied that they were creating a new tax. But in court, the Obama administration and its allies now defend the requirement as an exercise of the government's "power to lay and collect taxes."
And that power, they say, is even more sweeping than the federal power to regulate interstate commerce.
Administration officials say the tax argument is a linchpin of their legal case in defense of the health care overhaul and its individual mandate, now being challenged in court by more than 20 states and several private organizations.
Under the legislation signed by President Obama in March, most Americans will have to maintain "minimum essential coverage" starting in 2014. Many people will be eligible for federal subsidies to help them pay premiums.
In a brief defending the law, the Justice Department says the requirement for people to carry insurance or pay the penalty is "a valid exercise" of Congress's power to impose taxes.
Congress can use its taxing power "even for purposes that would exceed its powers under other provisions" of the Constitution, the department said. For more than a century, it added, the Supreme Court has held that Congress can tax activities that it could not reach by using its power to regulate commerce.
While Congress was working on the health care legislation, Mr. Obama refused to accept the argument that a mandate to buy insurance, enforced by financial penalties, was equivalent to a tax.
"For us to say that you've got to take a responsibility to get health insurance is absolutely not a tax increase," the president said last September, in a spirited exchange with George Stephanopoulos on the ABC News program "This Week."
When Mr. Stephanopoulos said the penalty appeared to fit the dictionary definition of a tax, Mr. Obama replied, "I absolutely reject that notion."
Congress anticipated a constitutional challenge to the individual mandate. Accordingly, the law includes 10 detailed findings meant to show that the mandate regulates commercial activity important to the nation's economy. Nowhere does Congress cite its taxing power as a source of authority.
Under the Constitution, Congress can exercise its taxing power to provide for the "general welfare." It is for Congress, not courts, to decide which taxes are "conducive to the general welfare," the Supreme Court said 73 years ago in upholding the Social Security Act.
Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director, described the tax power as an alternative source of authority.
"The Commerce Clause supplies sufficient authority for the shared-responsibility requirements in the new health reform law," Mr. Pfeiffer said. "To the extent that there is any question of additional authority - and we don't believe there is - it would be available through the General Welfare Clause."
The law describes the levy on the uninsured as a "penalty" rather than a tax. The Justice Department brushes aside the distinction, saying "the statutory label" does not matter. The constitutionality of a tax law depends on "its practical operation," not the precise form of words used to describe it, the department says, citing a long line of Supreme Court cases.
Moreover, the department says the penalty is a tax because it will raise substantial revenue: $4 billion a year by 2017, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
In addition, the department notes, the penalty is imposed and collected under the Internal Revenue Code, and people must report it on their tax returns "as an addition to income tax liability."
Because the penalty is a tax, the department says, no one can challenge it in court before paying it and seeking a refund.
Jack M. Balkin, a professor at Yale Law School who supports the new law, said, "The tax argument is the strongest argument for upholding" the individual-coverage requirement.
Mr. Obama "has not been honest with the American people about the nature of this bill," Mr. Balkin said last month at a meeting of the American Constitution Society, a progressive legal organization. "This bill is a tax. Because it's a tax, it's completely constitutional."
Mr. Balkin and other law professors pressed that argument in a friend-of-the-court brief filed in one of the pending cases.
Opponents contend that the "minimum coverage provision" is unconstitutional because it exceeds Congress's power to regulate commerce.
"This is the first time that Congress has ever ordered Americans to use their own money to purchase a particular good or service," said Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah.
In their lawsuit, Florida and other states say: "Congress is attempting to regulate and penalize Americans for choosing not to engage in economic activity. If Congress can do this much, there will be virtually no sphere of private decision-making beyond the reach of federal power."
In reply, the administration and its allies say that a person who goes without insurance is simply choosing to pay for health care out of pocket at a later date. In the aggregate, they say, these decisions have a substantial effect on the interstate market for health care and health insurance.
In its legal briefs, the Obama administration points to a famous New Deal case, Wickard v. Filburn, in which the Supreme Court upheld a penalty imposed on an Ohio farmer who had grown a small amount of wheat, in excess of his production quota, purely for his own use.
The wheat grown by Roscoe Filburn "may be trivial by itself," the court said, but when combined with the output of other small farmers, it significantly affected interstate commerce and could therefore be regulated by the government as part of a broad scheme regulating interstate commerce.
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4) Militia With Neo-Nazi Ties Patrols Arizona Desert
[Lynne Stewart gets ten years in jail while these heavily-armed Nazis are allowed to roam the Arizona Desert with impunity!...bw]
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 17, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/us/18militia.html?ref=us
PHOENIX (AP) - Minutemen groups, a surge in Border Patrol agents and a tough new immigration law are not enough for a reputed neo-Nazi who is now leading a militia in the Arizona desert.
Jason Ready is taking matters into his own hands, declaring war on what he calls "narco-terrorists" and keeping an eye out for illegal immigrants. So far, he said, his patrols have found only a few border crossers, who were given water and handed over to the Border Patrol. Once, they found a decaying body in a wash, and alerted the authorities.
But local law enforcement officials are worried, given that Mr. Ready's group is heavily armed and identifies with the National Socialist Movement, an organization that believes that only non-Jewish, white heterosexual people should be American citizens and that everyone who is not white should leave the country - "peacefully or by force."
"We're not going to sit around and wait for the government anymore," Mr. Ready said. "This is what our founding fathers did."
An escalation of civilian border watches has taken root in Arizona in recent years. Various groups patrol the desert and report suspicious activity to the Border Patrol, and generally they have not caused problems.
But Mr. Ready, a 37-year-old ex-Marine, is different. He and his friends are outfitted with military fatigues, body armor and assault rifles. Mr. Ready takes offense at the term "neo-Nazi," but admits he identifies with the National Socialist Movement.
"These are explicit Nazis," said Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project. "These are people who wear swastikas on their sleeves."
Mr. Ready is a reflection of the anger over illegal immigration in Arizona. Gov. Jan Brewer signed a new immigration law in April that requires police officers, while enforcing other laws, to question a person's immigration status if officers have a reasonable suspicion that the person is in the country illegally.
Sheriff Paul Babeu of Pinal County said there had not been any episodes with the group in his jurisdiction. But he said he was concerned because an untrained group acting without the authority of the law could cause "extreme problems" and put itself and others in danger.
"I'm not inviting them. And in fact, I'd rather they not come," Sheriff Babeu said. "Especially those who espouse hatred or bigotry such as his," he said of Mr. Ready.
Mr. Ready said he is planning patrols throughout the summer.
"If they don't want my people out there, then there's an easy way to send us home: secure the border," he said. "We'll put our guns back on the shelf, and that'll be the end of that."
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5) The Source of Our Despair in the Gulf
By Dahr Jamail and Erika Blumenfeld
(Photos By Erika Blumenfeld)
t r u t h o u t | Photo Essay
[This is the text. I encourage you to go to TRUTHOUT to see the powerful photographs taken by Erika Blumenfeld that make this catastrophic act of profit-driven greed all the more real and tragic....bw]
Sunday, July 18, 2010
http://www.truth-out.org/the-source-our-despair-gulf61459
For the first time in 87 days, little or no oil could be escaping into the Gulf of Mexico from BP's Macondo well. The new capping stack was deployed on July 11 from onboard the Transocean Discoverer Inspiration.
With a new containment cap atop the damaged well, many are hopeful.
But all is not well, after all.
National Incident Commander Thad Allen said Friday that the pressure within the cap is not increasing, as was expected.
The idea is that the pressure (in pounds per square inch [PSI]) within the cap should balance out between 8-9,000 PSI, which would show the well has maintained integrity. BP hoped to reach 9,000 PSI, but stated that well integrity would be maintained with 7,500+ PSI. Unfortunately for BP, if the pressure tops out below that level, as it is now at 6,720 PSI, this could be an indication of a sub-sea leak somewhere deeper inside the well casing, meaning the well has failed. One concern associated with this lower pressure is that it may indicate that the well has been breached, and that oil and gas are leaking out at other undetermined points.
Given BP's proven propensity towards lying, skeptics - who are consistently needed to keep BP's rhetoric in check - are also pointing toward other factors that could mean oil is continuing to spew into the Gulf near the well.
"With the pressure now virtually level at 6,700 [psi], it's at the lower end of the ambiguity range, so it seems there is a good chance there is leak-off," writes the Daily Hurricane. "That makes a lot of sense to me since there [are] 1,200 feet of open hole from the bottom of the 9 /7/8" liner to TD at about 18,300 feet. That's not to mention possible casing damage up hole. Think of it like a garden hose with a nozzle on the end. As long as the nozzle is open, the hose looks fine. As soon as you close the nozzle, the hose will leak through any pinholes or around the faucet as pressure builds inside. In his statement late yesterday, Admiral Allen indicated they were probably going to go back to containment, which means they'll be flowing the well to the various ships they have on station."
Like virtually every other aspect of BP's oil catastrophe in the Gulf, we'll have to wait and see how bad this really is.
On Monday, we took a flight out to what is referred to now as "the source": the former site of the Deepwater Horizon rig. It's taken me this long to be able to write about what we saw, because it was, frankly, traumatizing.
Oil sheen and sub-surface plumes of oil were visible long before we arrived at the source, located approximately 45 miles off the southeast coast of Louisiana.
In what has been a consistently maddening theme of our trip, flying out to the source found us viewing countless oil platforms, and in some cases, drilling rigs, all of which comprised the oily backdrop of BP's disaster.
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The stench of the oil began to infiltrate my nose and burn my eyes long before they arrived at the source. Black oil clouds lurked below choppy blue seas in every direction as a virtual cityscape of ships and drill rigs loomed on the horizon. They appeared to rise out of the Gulf as we approached.
We were cleared to fly at 1,500', well below the FAA mandated 3,000'. My stomach sank as we began to bank to our right, starting the first of countless clockwise circles around the war-like scene.
A giant flame - the burning off of methane and benzene - roared off the side of a rig, leaving a chemical gas floating lazily to the south as it rose.
Cory, our young pilot, flew us directly through this cloud. The plane shuddered in the turbulence. I felt sick and dizzy after one breath, and with each future pass I held my breath, all through the entirety of the southern portion of the circle, to avoid chemical exposure.
The scene felt like death - an epic example of manmade destruction, damage, and mayhem let loose upon the earth.
It is as unnatural a scene as one can imagine. That the Gulf, its marine life, ecosystems, and all the life that depend upon it are not under constant assault from this catastrophe is unthinkable.
As our small plane perpetually banked to the right, Erika shot hundreds upon hundreds of photos of this terrible scene.
While staring at the appalling scene scudding by below us, I scribbled notes like:
Death in the blue
Oil makes blue Gulf appear like cancer-ridden areas
Couldn't look more unnatural
Burning eyes
Trouble breathing
Gulf looks bruised
The thick, humid, chemical-laden air astounded me. I wondered about the health of the hundreds of people down in the ships, working around the clock to try to stop the volcano of oil.
After we'd taken as many photos as we could, our eyes sufficiently burning, we all agreed to head back towards the coast. The flight was long enough, hovering over countless wells and platforms, for me to ponder what our dependence on oil is costing the planet.
We diverted our journey to fly over the Chandeleur Islands, to see yet more chaotic booming, oil-burnt marsh, sheen and threatened birds.
Adm. Thad Allen warned of too much optimism towards the cap. "It remains likely that we will return to the containment process using this new stacking cap connected to the risers to attempt to collect up to 80,000 barrels of oil per day until the relief well is completed," he said.
I find it interesting that he, BP and President Obama have all cited this capacity to collect up to 80,000 barrels of oil per day, despite the fact that the high-end government estimate of daily flow is 60,000 barrels.
Yet the disaster continues. So far, approximately 1.82 million gallons of total chemical dispersant have been applied, 348 controlled oil burns have been conducted, and if daily flow estimates of 100,000 barrels per day, provided by independent scientists, are correct, 34 Exxon Valdezes worth of oil have already been injected into the Gulf of Mexico.
As of July 14, approximately 572 miles of Gulf Coast shoreline were oiled, a number which does not include cumulative impacts. While most of the oil remains submerged (for now), we already have vast areas of coastline oiled: 328 miles in Louisiana, 108 miles in Mississippi (nearly their entire coastline), 67 miles in Alabama and 69 miles in Florida.
I hope others are as enraged as I am by the ongoing ticker tape of BP's stock price in news reports about the disaster, like this one (hyperlink 'this one' with
http://www.theage.com.au/world/gulf-states-wait-in-hope-as-cap-stifles-disastrous-flow-20100716-10ea5.html) from Friday: "News of the development just before Wall Street's close lifted BP shares. They added $US2.74, or 7.6 per cent, to close at $US38.92, still well below the $US60.48 they fetched before the rig explosion."
Why should we give a damn about the value of BP's stock while their criminal negligence is annihilating the Gulf of Mexico?
While the cap-praising, and BP stock value glee continues, biologists recently reported the finding of at least another 300-400 oiled pelicans and hundreds of terns in the largest seabird nesting area along the Louisiana coast.
his finding underscores the fact that the official tallies of oiled wildlife significantly underestimate the broad scope of the destruction. So far, roughly 3,000 oiled birds have been collected across the Gulf, so this finding alone is a significant percent increase.
"This is not like Exxon Valdez, where you had tens of thousands of birds killed all at once," said Ken Rosenberg, director of conservation science at the Cornell laboratory. "It's more insidious because it is literally happening in waves and it's happening over and over again as the birds are moving around."
Friday, Louisiana's St. Bernard Parish government reported that there have been at least 31 oil sightings in parish waters and on shorelines in just the past 48 hours. More oil-soaked birds, both dead and alive, have been reported, and the oil continues to spread. Much of this is happening around the Chandeleur Islands, where we'd already logged the futile booming.
Already, scientists are reporting how BP's oil disaster is altering the food web in the Gulf. On July 14, the Associated Press reported, "Scientists are reporting early signs that the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is altering the marine food web by killing or tainting some creatures and spurring the growth of others more suited to a fouled environment. Near the spill site, researchers have documented a massive die-off of pyrosomes - cucumber-shaped, gelatinous organisms fed on by endangered sea turtles."
The scope and scale of this disaster are impossible to communicate. While flying in giant, arcing circles around the source, I saw nothing but oil in every direction. Jonathan Henderson works for the Gulf Restoration Network. While looking out at the literal sea of oil beneath us, he reminded us that, at the moment, 75,000 square miles of the Gulf are covered in oil.
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6) Independent Water Samples Again Contradict EPA Statements; Explodes When Tested For Oil, Most Likely Due To Methane Or Corexit
Posted by Alexander Higgins
July 17, 2010 at 7:17 pm - Permalink
[Scroll down to bottom of page to watch the video at this site:]
http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2010/07/17/independent-water-samples-contradict-epa-statements-explodes-tested-oil-due-methane-corexit/
Despite the massive amount of oil in the Gulf of Mexico the EPA claims it has not found any areas where oil or the toxic dispersant Corexit has exceeded threshold levels.
INFORMATION FROM LATEST DATA: EPA surface water samples collected on June 19, July 7 & 9 2010, along the Gulf Coast found no compounds exceeding chronic water benchmarks. These results include data for compounds found in dispersants in samples from June 19.
Surface water results collected May 21 through July 6, 2010 along the coast of Louisiana were measured for two of the chemicals associated with dispersants (2-Butoxyethanol and 2-Ethylhexyl Alcohol) but did not detect either one.
That isn't reassuring since we already have one instance of independent tests contradicting EPA samples by finding high levels of the chemicals in Corexit in Louisiana waters.
Independent scientists have also confirmed a massive dead zone has been created off the Alabama coast from the BP Oil Spill yet the EPA still claims no findings of oil above threshold levels.
With the amount of the neurotoxin pesticide Corexit sprayed by BP now approaching 2 million gallons it makes the EPA claim that it has not found any Corexit in the water even more alarming.
The latest round of independent testing of Gulf Coast waters comes from a local Alabama news station WKRG 5.
Just like before the independent water samples once again contradicts the information that the EPA is giving to the public.
The tests found astoundingly high levels of oil in both the sand and water where kids were playing along the Alabama coast even though the water appeared to be clear to the naked eye.
One of the water samples actually exploded when the chemist tested for oil. The chemists said the explosion was most likely due to methane or Corexit.
[Another] sample was a spot in Orange Beach, where again, we found kids playing. and we found our highest content of oil and petroleum. 221 parts per million. ...
When Naman added an organic solvent to separate the oil from the water [collected at Dauphin Island Marina, near some boom], just like he did with all the other samples, this sample exploded right in his lab. "It was almost instantaneous. Actually, maybe one second. that's just weird." The result surprised even our chemist.
"We think it most likely happened, either due to the presence of methanol, or methane gas, or the presence of the dispersant, Corexit."
WKRG.com News
MOBILE, Alabama - More than a week has passed since Alabama's beaches have seen significant oil, and despite warnings along the Gulf Coast, some swimmers are taking their chances.
News Five collected samples of water and sand from Orange Beach, Gulf Shores, Katrina Key and Dauphin Island. To our eyes, the samples appeared normal, until we took them to a local lab to be tested.
Water and sand along Alabama's coast should contain no more than five parts per million of oil or petroleum, according to Bob Naman, an analytical chemist. But, the samples we collected tested much higher.
From 16 ppm to 221 ppm, our results are concerning. Even more disturbing is what happened to a sample collected from the Dauphin Island Marina near oil containment boom.
[To watch News Five Investigates: Testing The Waters click on the video box located at this site listed above...bw.]
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7) U.S. Allows BP to Keep Well Closed for Another Day
By HENRY FOUNTAIN
July 19, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/20/us/20oilspill.html?hp
A pressure test of BP's undersea well that has kept fresh oil from gushing into the Gulf of Mexico will be allowed to continue for another day, despite concerns about potential new problems near the well, the government official overseeing the spill response said Monday.
The government ordered BP to step up monitoring of the well after "undetermined anomalies" were discovered on the seafloor nearby. The government's top official in the Gulf response, retired Coast Guard admiral Thad W. Allen, said that government scientists had talked late Sunday with BP about a seep and the possible detection of methane around the well.
A seep - usually a flow of hydrocarbons from the seafloor - could be evidence that oil, gas or both are escaping from the well up to the seafloor, which could prompt the government to order BP to remove the cap and resume oil collection.
But seeps also occur naturally, and in a briefing for reporters Monday afternoon, BP said that government and company scientists were coming to the conclusion that the seep was probably of natural origin and unrelated to the well.
In a statement on Monday morning, Admiral Allen said that in authorizing BP to continue the integrity test for another 24 hours, he "restated our firm position that this test will only continue if they continue to meet their obligations to rigorously monitor for any signs that this test could worsen the overall situation."
On Sunday, after three days of encouraging pressure tests, a senior BP official said that the company's recently capped well in the Gulf of Mexico was holding up and that BP now hoped to keep the well closed until it could be permanently plugged. BP's plan differs sharply from the one the company and the federal government had suggested only a day earlier, to eventually allow the flow of oil to resume temporarily, collecting it through pipes to surface ships.
If BP succeeds in keeping the cap atop the well closed until a relief well is finished, that would mean the gusher would effectively be over, three months - and tens of millions of gallons of oil - after it began. It would be a major turnaround after weeks of failure for the oil giant, which had been harshly criticized as being unprepared for such a disaster.
"We're hopeful," Doug Suttles, the company's chief operating officer for exploration and production, said in a conference call with reporters Sunday morning.
"Right now we do not have a target to return the well to flow," he said.
The federal government was more cautious, saying Sunday in a letter to the company that BP needed to "marshal resources, quickly investigate" and report back to the government within four hours of detecting any seeps - a signal that the well could be damaged and that it could have to be reopened soon to avoid making the situation worse.
The pressure testing, which began Thursday with the closing of valves on the cap and is designed to assess the condition of the well, was originally expected to last 48 hours. Because it has spooled on longer, the government ordered BP on Sunday to provide a written update of its plans within 24 hours.
If a problem crops up, Mr. Suttles said, collection systems could be restarted, some within a few hours. In a few weeks there should be enough capacity to collect more than the high estimate of 60,000 barrels a day. But Mr. Suttles said that if valves on the cap were reopened to restart collection, oil would pour anew into the gulf for up to three days.
If the well is not reopened, it could mean that the precise volume of oil that leaked - the well has been estimated to be flowing at a rate of 35,000 to 60,000 barrels a day - may never be known. That raises the question of whether the company might escape some liability for the spill.
It has been an encouraging several days for BP, but it comes after many engineering efforts that produced little but a lexicon of strange terms, all defining failure: containment dome, junk shot and top kill among them.
Even the good news about the test and the new cap, which was installed last week, left many wondering why the project could not have happened earlier.
BP has pointed out that the concept - essentially, putting a new blowout preventer atop the existing one that failed when the Deepwater Horizon drill rig exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers - had been in the works since shortly after the disaster occurred. They have said, and diaries and other documents tend to bear out, that ideas were worked on in parallel, with those that were easier to accomplish and had a greater chance of succeeding being tried first.
In a discussion with a reporter in mid-May, Kent Wells, a senior BP vice president in charge of the subsea work, and others described in broad terms an option to install a second preventer if the top kill, in which heavy drilling mud was to be pumped into the well to stop oil and gas from coming up, did not work.
The top kill failed and one proposed explanation at the time was that the well was damaged. That put a halt, for a while, to talk of putting another blowout preventer or other tight-sealing cap on the well, out of concern that a buildup of pressure could further damage the well.
But the idea was revived, and in June BP considered using the blowout preventer from the Development Driller II rig, which was working on the second relief well, for the job. The company halted drilling of the well, aiming to bring the blowout preventer to the surface. But the federal government intervened and ordered BP to continue drilling the well as a backup in case anything went wrong with the first relief well.
The cap that was eventually used was designed and built more or less from scratch, although off-the-shelf valves and rams were used. And as with any engineering project, particularly one being conducted by remotely operated submersibles a mile underwater, installation procedures had to be devised and practiced.
That practice appeared to pay off last week when the cap was installed. It was by far the smoothest operation of the many that had been undertaken in the three-month disaster.
With the valves on the cap closed and the gulf still free of fresh oil on Sunday, Mr. Suttles said that skimming ships near the site were collecting far less oily water. Only one controlled burn was conducted Saturday, compared with 19 the day before, he said. And there were no new reports of oil reaching the shore.
"There is less and less oil to recover," he said.
Barring bad weather, the relief well, which will be used to pump heavy mud, followed by cement, into the blown-out well to seal it permanently, may be ready by the end of July, although it may take several more weeks for the process to be completed, Mr. Suttles said.
Jack Healy contributed reporting from New York.
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8) Difficult Births: Laboring And Delivering In Shackles
by Andrea Hsu
July 16, 2010
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128563037
STOP THIS TORTURE OF WOMEN!!
via: Diana Block
------------------
From Legal Services for Prisoners With Children:
Shawanna Lumsey lives in Arkansas and was pregnant while in prison there.
She gave birth in shackles and sued the state and won. This was a really
important lawsuit stating that shackling people during labor is
unconstitutional. The state appealed and this week lost the appeal. In
the meantime, Shawanna got a job where they didn't ask for her criminal
background. There was publicity about her lawsuit this week and she was
immediately fired.
Below is her statement...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am very grateful to all of the support that each and every one gave me
in support of the Lawsuit about the shackles. I live this traumatizing
event over and over of the childbirth of my son. I am very clear on the
details because this is an experience that I will never forget. I
thank-you from the bottom of my heart for every kind word and every
heartfelt expression that was personally given to me. This issue was not
only about me it was about every woman that had to go through the same
traumatic experience that I encountered.
On the other had, the termination of my job-that really wasn't a big
shocker to me! Considering the fact that our state considers that it is
"OK" to put women in shackles during labor. It is so amazing that until
someone finds out about my criminial past, it is so upsetting to them
because they feel I am not deserving of anything. It is really no
difference to my job that I have fought every barrier and defeated every
obstacle to reform into a positive fate in society. Instead, I have been
ridiculed, fought against, kicked down, beat up, and whatever else you
want to call it just by trying to accomplish the mission of the
Corrections Institution mission to Correct my negative behavior. Here I am
getting up going to work every day performing with my team the best of my
knowledge and abilities and I still get terminated because of something
that happened in my past. I realize that there are consequences that will
always follow me because of my criminal history. How in the world is a
person allowed an opportunity to reform back into society-without the
risk of society having such a negative attitude towards them. Society
deems that I an "not worthy" or do not deserve to have a "good job"
because I was ONCE incarcerated. All of the money that the federal
government has allocated for re-entry has an important missing component,
that is training the employers not to be bias against the former
convicted felon." But, I am going to keep my head held high and move on.
God has not put me through all of this turmoil without something great
happening in the end!
==========
Difficult Births: Laboring And Delivering In Shackles
by Andrea Hsu
July 16, 2010
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128563037
Andrea Hsu/NPR Jennifer Farrar gave birth to her daughter, Breanna, in January 2009. She says she labored with her feet shackled together, and delivered with one hand cuffed to the bed.
It's a practice so hidden, many don't realize it exists: the shackling of incarcerated women during childbirth.
Across the U.S., there are stories of women going from jails or prisons to hospitals, where they labor and sometimes even deliver while restrained with handcuffs, leg shackles or both.
In recent years, a growing number of states have moved to ban the practice. Ten states now have anti-shackling legislation: California, Colorado, Illinois, New Mexico, New York, Texas, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia - and as of two weeks ago, Pennsylvania.
There have also been lawsuits in a number of states. On Thursday, a jury in rural Arkansas found that a guard had violated the constitutional rights of a woman by shackling her while she was in labor, though they awarded her just $1. In May, a shackling case was settled in Washington state for $125,000. And in Illinois, there's a class action lawsuit against Cook County and its sheriff, Tom Dart.
Legs Chained, Handcuffed To The Bed
Chicago attorneys Tom Morrissey and Ken Flaxman believe there could be as many as 100 to 150 women included in the class action suit, with cases dating back to late 2006. They're seeking an end to the shackling of inmates during childbirth, and compensation for their clients, including Jennifer Farrar, 25.
Here I am, a mother giving birth. It should be a happy time in my life. I know that I did something wrong, and you have to take the responsibility for what you do. But it wasn't like I was a murderer.
- Jennifer Farrar
In November 2008, Farrar was arrested for cashing fake payroll checks. She was charged with forgery, and booked into the Cook County Jail, a sprawling complex on the southwest side of Chicago, and one of the largest jails in the country. She was almost seven months pregnant at the time.
One day the following January, Farrar went to court for a hearing, and there the pains began. An ambulance was called. Farrar says officers cuffed her hands and chained her legs together. Another chain was placed around her belly, connecting her hands to her feet. When she got to the hospital, she says, the belly chain was removed, but her legs were still chained, and one hand was cuffed to the bed.
"The doctor and the nurse," Farrar says, "they were telling the officer, is this necessary, you know? Where is she going to go? She's in labor you know."
She says she remained that way for eight or nine hours, until it came time to push. At that point, the correctional officer unlocked the leg restraints, but left one arm cuffed to the bed. An hour later, Jennifer Farrar delivered her baby girl.
"Here I am, a mother giving birth," Farrar says. "It should be a happy time in my life. I know that I did something wrong, and you have to take the responsibility for what you do. But it wasn't like I was a murderer."
"Tantamount To Torture"
Another plaintiff, Cora Fletcher, was 17 years old in 2006 when she was charged with retail theft. A year later, she missed a court date, and a warrant was issued for her arrest. A year after that, officers showed up at her house, and took her in when she was eight months pregnant.
It was difficult to try to have a baby like that. Especially by this being my first baby. It was so painful ... and you can't move around like how you want to.
- Cora Fletcher
A couple weeks later, in a prenatal checkup at the jail, it was discovered that Fletcher's baby had no heartbeat. She was taken to the county hospital, where her arms and her legs were shackled to opposite sides of the bed.
Doctors tried to induce her, but it wasn't until three days later that she went into labor. Even then, Fletcher says, she was left with one hand and one leg shackled to the bed. "It was difficult to try to have a baby like that," Fletcher says. "Especially by this being my first baby. It was so painful ... and you can't move around like how you want to."
After delivering her stillborn child, Fletcher was allowed to hold the baby for 20 minutes.
Gail Smith, executive director of the group Chicago Legal Advocacy for Incarcerated Mothers, has worked in Illinois jails and prisons for 25 years and says shackling female inmates during labor is tantamount to torture. "I think that there is a general attitude on the part of some people that they don't deserve to be treated with full human rights," Smith says. "And I find that appalling."
Growth In Female Inmates
The U.S. female prison population has grown eightfold since 1977, according to the Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics. Approximately two-thirds are in for nonviolent offenses. And yet, says Malika Saada Saar of the Rebecca Project for Human Rights, departments of corrections have not put enough thought into how treatment for women should be different from that for men.
"If a man behind bars has a broken arm, or needs to have his appendix taken out, that individual is put into restraints, into shackles during medical transport," Saada Saar says. "So essentially what is done for those men has been extended to women. And part of what's different is that we have babies."
Labor is the crux of the issue, says Steve Patterson, spokesman for the Cook County Sheriff's Office. "A correctional officer working on a tier on the midnight shift, or any other shift, is not trained to know when a woman is in labor or not," Patterson says.
States Prohibit Shackles On Pregnant Women
Ten states now have anti-shackling legislation: California, Colorado, Illinois, New Mexico, New York, Texas, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia - and as of two weeks ago, Pennsylvania.
Illinois, which passed anti-shackling legislation in 1999, requires that "when a pregnant female prisoner is brought to a hospital from a county jail for the purpose of delivering her baby, no handcuffs, shackles, or restraints of any kind may be used during her transport to a medical facility for the purpose of delivering her baby. Under no circumstances may leg irons or shackles or waist shackles be used on any pregnant female prisoner who is in labor."
In June 2010, the American Medical Association House of Delegates voted to develop model state legislation prohibiting the use of shackles on pregnant women.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has testified that physical restraints have "made the labor and delivery process more difficult than it needs to be; thus overall putting the health and lives of the women and unborn children at risk."
-Andrea Hsu
Therefore, he says, correctional officers rely on medical personnel, either at the jail or at an outside hospital, to make the determination. Only when labor has been determined are all restraints removed. Patterson says that policy is consistent with state law and is necessary in a public hospital.
"We have to bring inmates to the same area that the general public comes to," Patterson says. "So, if you're laying in hospital bed, and in the next hospital bed is a woman who's in on a double murder charge, because she's pregnant she shouldn't be handcuffed to the side of the bed - I think if you're the person laying in bed next to her you might disagree."
Patterson says in 1998, a pregnant inmate did escape during a medical visit. She was caught just off the hospital grounds. He knows of no escape attempts by pregnant inmates since 1999.
Leg Irons, Belly Chains And Handcuffs
No one is sure just how many incarcerated women give birth each year; Saada Saar estimates it to be about 1,300. Nor does anyone know how widespread shackling is.
Ginette Ferszt, associate professor and psychiatric clinical nurse specialist from the University of Rhode Island College of Nursing, recently conducted a survey of state prisons to learn more about what practices are in place for pregnant inmates.
She and a physician at the Rhode Island Women's State Correctional Facility sent out questionnaires to wardens in all 50 states. The wardens were promised anonymity, and 19 replied. The survey asked about many issues related to pregnancy, including prenatal care, nutritional needs and shackling.
Ferszt says she was quite surprised to find that two facilities continue to use leg irons, belly chains and handcuffs during transport to prenatal visits.
She also learned that among the 19 prisons that responded, six of them cuff either a woman's hands or her ankle when labor begins. During the delivery of the baby, one prison says that handcuffs stay on, and four reported back that an ankle shackle remains on.
While disturbed by the findings, Ferszt did find hope in conversations with two wardens, when she realized their shackling policies weren't something they'd thought much about.
"For many rules and policies whether for women or men, they've existed for them a long time," Ferszt says. "It hadn't really occurred to these two wardens that this could potentially be a health problem, a health issue."
She says the two wardens have since said they'll sit down and make changes.
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9) BP's Scheme to Swindle the "Small People"
Monday 19 July 2010
by: Dahr Jamail, t r u t h o u t | Report
http://www.truth-out.org/bps-scheme-swindle-small-people61509
Gulf Coast fishermen and others with lost income claims against BP are outraged by a recent announcement that the $20 billion government-administered claim fund will subtract money they earn by working on the cleanup effort from any future damage claims against BP. This move, according to lawyers in Louisiana working on behalf of Louisiana fishermen and others affected by the BP oil disaster, contradicts an earlier BP statement in which the company promised it would do no such thing.
Kenneth Feinberg, who was appointed by President Obama as the independent administrator of the Gulf Claims Facility for the $20 billion BP Deepwater Horizon oil disaster compensation fund, said yesterday that the wages earned by people working on BP's cleanup will be deducted from their claims against the company.
He said the fund is designed to compensate fishermen and others for their lost income, and if BP is already paying someone to help skim oil and perform other cleanup work, those wages will be subtracted from the amount they're eligible to claim from the fund.
Attorney Stephen Herman, one of two interim liaison counsel for cases pending in the eastern district of Louisiana before Judge Carl J. Barbier, told Truthout he has spoken with Feinberg and that this recent announcement contradicts an earlier statement made by BP, in which the company clearly said it would not do this.
A letter dated May 2, 2010, from Herman's firm, Herman, Herman, Katz & Cotlar LLP, in New Orleans, sent to Murray Greene in BP's Legal Department, asked Greene to confirm in writing that BP agreed to destroy voluntary waiver and release forms issued to response workers at a meeting in Venice, Louisiana, and stated:
"Lastly, we inquired as to BP's position with respect to any future claim of credit or set-off due to payments made to individuals who are assisting BP in mitigating its exposure to individuals and others for the unprecedented environmental and human losses as a result of this incident. It is our position that since my clients are effectively helping BP minimize its own future exposure as well as attempting to preserve the wetlands and the environment that BP ought not to seek any offset or reduction of claims as a result of any payments made to these individuals who courageously take on the dirty work of cleaning up BP's mess."
The next day, May 3, A.T. Chenault, a lawyer representing BP, responded in writing via letter stating, "We have no personal knowledge of the presentation of a Voluntary Waiver and Release to numerous people from Plaquemines Parish in Venice, Louisiana. However, it is the position of BP that any such documents will be rescinded and not binding on anyone signing same."
Chenault's letter concluded with a statement that directly contradicts Feinberg's recent announcement.
"Lastly, we confirm that BP will not offset payments to vessel owners or other volunteers against claims they might have," wrote Cheault, who is with the firm Fowler, Rodriguez, Valdes-Fauli.
Today, during a speech at the Economics Club in Washington, Feinberg appeared to be attempting to dissuade claimants from filing lawsuits against BP.
"You're crazy to do so, though," Feiberg said. "Because under this program, you will receive, if you're eligible, compensation without having to go to court for years, without the uncertainty of going to court, since I'll be much more generous than any court will be. And at the same time, you won't need to pay lawyers and costs."
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The move is being seen by many as an attempt by Feinberg to sell the compensation fund to victims, so as to prevent more lawsuits against BP.
Herman told Truthout that he believes Feinberg has said things that "are not consistent," and that Feinberg "may not have been familiar" with the aforementioned agreement by BP to "not offset payments to vessel owners or other volunteers against claims they might have."
Herman, who has already met with Feinberg on several occasions, said he expects to meet up with Feinberg's law partner, Michael Rozen, "very soon."
Attorney Robert Wiygul in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, represents many fishermen involved in BP's oil response program, and told Truthout he "finds it very troubling" that BP and Feingold appear to be trying to position themselves to avoid future compensation claims from fishermen, as opposed to handling it on a year-to-year basis.
Clint Guidry is a Louisiana fisherman, and is on the board of directors of the Louisiana Shrimp Association. He is also the shrimp harvester representative on the Louisiana Shrimp Task Force created by executive order of Gov. Bobby Jindal.
Guidry told Truthout that he believes Feinberg is "trying to limit BP's liability," adding that "every time Feinberg announces something he changes what he said before."
According to Guidry, Feinberg first proposed a partial claim settlement that would provide settlement checks for up to three years. This would have allowed fishermen to determine if there were "holes in the ecosystem."
If the oil disaster kills off enough shrimp, for example, there would be no shrimping season next year, and no way for shrimpers to earn a living.
"But now his new plan is to do away with that by having folks take a settlement," Guidry added. "There's not much of his program I like. It appears he is protecting BP."
On May 24, in Galliano, Louisiana, Guidry testified to a delegation of US senators, congressmen and various Obama administration departments and agencies. He said:
"BP committed fraud in furnishing oil-spill-response data required to obtain a permit to enable them to drill the MC 252 location. The reality is they were not prepared to handle or control a blowout and resulting oil spill of this magnitude. Simply put, they lied.
"BP, in their haste to cut corners and save money in the completion process on the well location at MC 252, exhibited willful neglect in their duties to complete the well safely, which led to the blowout and explosion that killed 11 people. Eleven souls that will never come back. Eleven families with mothers and fathers and wives and children. Children who will never see their fathers again.
"This neglect and loss of life constitutes negligent homicide and all involved should be arrested and charged as such."
Guidry told Truthout he believes, "There has been a BP cover-up from day one," and "the US government, OSHA [Occupational Safety and Health Administration], the Coast Guard, NIOSH [National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health], all of them are in on it."
Guidry is very concerned about the health of the fishermen he represents, of which there are approximately 600, who are working on the oil response for BP.
"These people are putting their health at risk by working for them, and now look at how they are being treated," Gui
This morning, Herman sent this letter to Rozen and Feinberg:
"Dear Mr. Rozen and Mr. Feinberg,
"It was reported in the local media last night that BP (presumably thru the Claims Facility) was going to take a credit or offset for payments to fishermen and others engaged in the Vessels of Opportunity and/or other clean-up/remediation efforts against what is owed to them for lost profits and/or diminished earning capacity.
"Please note that BP very early on agreed not to do this. (See Letter from BP Counsel A.T. Chenault to my partner Jim Klick dated May 3, 2010.)"
Herman also provided Truthout with an email he sent to persons concerned with BP's and Feinberg's recent moves, in which he expressed concern with the procedures of the Claims Facility. While Herman stated that Feinberg and Rozen "have attempted to answer some of these questions, (with perhaps some inconsistency), no one -- it seems -- has ever seen a document signed off on by BP."
Herman asked, "What, specifically, has BP committed to do? What, specifically, has BP given Mr. Feinberg (as an "independent" agent or administrator) the authority to agree to on behalf of BP? The attached letter was sent to BP's local counsel here in New Orleans on July 3rd. We have still not received a formal response, and, to my knowledge, no one (including Mr. Feinberg) has seen a formal written document (other than a White House Press Release) that purports to be authored by, signed by, agreed to or otherwise binding on BP. So, it would seem to be time to start asking BP (and/or the administration) : Where is BP? Or, perhaps stated another way: Where's the beef?"
On June 1, BP Board Chairman Henric Svanberg stated, "[President Obama] is frustrated because he cares about the small people, and we care about the small people. I hear comments sometimes that large oil companies are greedy companies or don't care, but that is not the case in BP. We care about the small people."
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10) A hidden world, growing beyond control
"The U.S. intelligence budget is vast, publicly announced last year as $75 billion, 21/2 times the size it was on Sept. 10, 2001. But the figure doesn't include many military activities or domestic counterterrorism programs."
BY DANA PRIEST AND WILLIAM M. ARKIN
Monday, July 19, 2010; 4:50 PM
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/articles/a-hidden-world-growing-beyond-control/
The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work.
These are some of the findings of a two-year investigation by The Washington Post that discovered what amounts to an alternative geography of the United States, a Top Secret America hidden from public view and lacking in thorough oversight. After nine years of unprecedented spending and growth, the result is that the system put in place to keep the United States safe is so massive that its effectiveness is impossible to determine.
The investigation's other findings include:
* Some 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the United States.
* An estimated 854,000 people, nearly 1.5 times as many people as live in Washington, D.C., hold top-secret security clearances.
* In Washington and the surrounding area, 33 building complexes for top-secret intelligence work are under construction or have been built since September 2001. Together they occupy the equivalent of almost three Pentagons or 22 U.S. Capitol buildings - about 17 million square feet of space.
* Many security and intelligence agencies do the same work, creating redundancy and waste. For example, 51 federal organizations and military commands, operating in 15 U.S. cities, track the flow of money to and from terrorist networks.
* Analysts who make sense of documents and conversations obtained by foreign and domestic spying share their judgment by publishing 50,000 intelligence reports each year - a volume so large that many are routinely ignored.
An alternative geography
Since Sept. 11, 2001, the top-secret world created to respond to the terrorist attacks has grown into an unwieldy enterprise spread over 10,000 U.S. locations.
These are not academic issues; lack of focus, not lack of resources, was at the heart of the Fort Hood shooting that left 13 dead, as well as the Christmas Day bomb attempt thwarted not by the thousands of analysts employed to find lone terrorists but by an alert airline passenger who saw smoke coming from his seatmate.
They are also issues that greatly concern some of the people in charge of the nation's security.
"There has been so much growth since 9/11 that getting your arms around that - not just for the CIA, for the secretary of defense - is a challenge," Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said in an interview with The Post last week.
In the Department of Defense, where more than two-thirds of the intelligence programs reside, only a handful of senior officials - called Super Users - have the ability to even know about all the department's activities. But as two of the Super Users indicated in interviews, there is simply no way they can keep up with the nation's most sensitive work.
"I'm not going to live long enough to be briefed on everything" was how one Super User put it. The other recounted that for his initial briefing, he was escorted into a tiny, dark room, seated at a small table and told he couldn't take notes. Program after program began flashing on a screen, he said, until he yelled ''Stop!" in frustration.
"I wasn't remembering any of it," he said.
Underscoring the seriousness of these issues are the conclusions of retired Army Lt. Gen. John R. Vines, who was asked last year to review the method for tracking the Defense Department's most sensitive programs. Vines, who once commanded 145,000 troops in Iraq and is familiar with complex problems, was stunned by what he discovered.
"I'm not aware of any agency with the authority, responsibility or a process in place to coordinate all these interagency and commercial activities," he said in an interview. "The complexity of this system defies description."
The result, he added, is that it's impossible to tell whether the country is safer because of all this spending and all these activities. "Because it lacks a synchronizing process, it inevitably results in message dissonance, reduced effectiveness and waste," Vines said. "We consequently can't effectively assess whether it is making us more safe."
The Post's investigation is based on government documents and contracts, job descriptions, property records, corporate and social networking Web sites, additional records, and hundreds of interviews with intelligence, military and corporate officials and former officials. Most requested anonymity either because they are prohibited from speaking publicly or because, they said, they feared retaliation at work for describing their concerns.
The Post's online database of government organizations and private companies was built entirely on public records. The investigation focused on top-secret work because the amount classified at the secret level is too large to accurately track.
Today's article describes the government's role in this expanding enterprise. Tuesday's article describes the government's dependence on private contractors. Wednesday's is a portrait of one Top Secret America community. On the Web, an extensive, searchable database built by The Post about Top Secret America is available at washingtonpost.com/topsecretamerica.
Defense Secretary Gates, in his interview with The Post, said that he does not believe the system has become too big to manage but that getting precise data is sometimes difficult. Singling out the growth of intelligence units in the Defense Department, he said he intends to review those programs for waste. "Nine years after 9/11, it makes a lot of sense to sort of take a look at this and say, 'Okay, we've built tremendous capability, but do we have more than we need?' " he said.
CIA Director Leon Panetta, who was also interviewed by The Post last week, said he's begun mapping out a five-year plan for his agency because the levels of spending since 9/11 are not sustainable. "Particularly with these deficits, we're going to hit the wall. I want to be prepared for that," he said. "Frankly, I think everyone in intelligence ought to be doing that."
In an interview before he resigned as the director of national intelligence in May, retired Adm. Dennis C. Blair said he did not believe there was overlap and redundancy in the intelligence world. "Much of what appears to be redundancy is, in fact, providing tailored intelligence for many different customers," he said.
Blair also expressed confidence that subordinates told him what he needed to know. "I have visibility on all the important intelligence programs across the community, and there are processes in place to ensure the different intelligence capabilities are working together where they need to," he said.
Weeks later, as he sat in the corner of a ballroom at the Willard Hotel waiting to give a speech, he mused about The Post's findings. "After 9/11, when we decided to attack violent extremism, we did as we so often do in this country," he said. "The attitude was, if it's worth doing, it's probably worth overdoing."
Outside a gated subdivision of mansions in McLean, a line of cars idles every weekday morning as a new day in Top Secret America gets underway. The drivers wait patiently to turn left, then crawl up a hill and around a bend to a destination that is not on any public map and not announced by any street sign.
Liberty Crossing tries hard to hide from view. But in the winter, leafless trees can't conceal a mountain of cement and windows the size of five Wal-Mart stores stacked on top of one another rising behind a grassy berm. One step too close without the right badge, and men in black jump out of nowhere, guns at the ready.
Past the armed guards and the hydraulic steel barriers, at least 1,700 federal employees and 1,200 private contractors work at Liberty Crossing, the nickname for the two headquarters of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and its National Counterterrorism Center. The two share a police force, a canine unit and thousands of parking spaces.
Liberty Crossing is at the center of the collection of U.S. government agencies and corporate contractors that mushroomed after the 2001 attacks. But it is not nearly the biggest, the most costly or even the most secretive part of the 9/11 enterprise.
In an Arlington County office building, the lobby directory doesn't include the Air Force's mysteriously named XOIWS unit, but there's a big "Welcome!" sign in the hallway greeting visitors who know to step off the elevator on the third floor. In Elkridge, Md., a clandestine program hides in a tall concrete structure fitted with false windows to look like a normal office building. In Arnold, Mo., the location is across the street from a Target and a Home Depot. In St. Petersburg, Fla., it's in a modest brick bungalow in a run-down business park.
Every day across the United States, 854,000 civil servants, military personnel and private contractors with top-secret security clearances are scanned into offices protected by electromagnetic locks, retinal cameras and fortified walls that eavesdropping equipment cannot penetrate.
This is not exactly President Dwight D. Eisenhower's "military-industrial complex," which emerged with the Cold War and centered on building nuclear weapons to deter the Soviet Union. This is a national security enterprise with a more amorphous mission: defeating transnational violent extremists.
Much of the information about this mission is classified. That is the reason it is so difficult to gauge the success and identify the problems of Top Secret America, including whether money is being spent wisely. The U.S. intelligence budget is vast, publicly announced last year as $75 billion, 21/2 times the size it was on Sept. 10, 2001. But the figure doesn't include many military activities or domestic counterterrorism programs.
At least 20 percent of the government organizations that exist to fend off terrorist threats were established or refashioned in the wake of 9/11. Many that existed before the attacks grew to historic proportions as the Bush administration and Congress gave agencies more money than they were capable of responsibly spending.
The Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency, for example, has gone from 7,500 employees in 2002 to 16,500 today. The budget of the National Security Agency, which conducts electronic eavesdropping, doubled. Thirty-five FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces became 106. It was phenomenal growth that began almost as soon as the Sept. 11 attacks ended.
Nine days after the attacks, Congress committed $40 billion beyond what was in the federal budget to fortify domestic defenses and to launch a global offensive against al-Qaeda. It followed that up with an additional $36.5 billion in 2002 and $44 billion in 2003. That was only a beginning.
With the quick infusion of money, military and intelligence agencies multiplied. Twenty-four organizations were created by the end of 2001, including the Office of Homeland Security and the Foreign Terrorist Asset Tracking Task Force. In 2002, 37 more were created to track weapons of mass destruction, collect threat tips and coordinate the new focus on counterterrorism. That was followed the next year by 36 new organizations; and 26 after that; and 31 more; and 32 more; and 20 or more each in 2007, 2008 and 2009.
In all, at least 263 organizations have been created or reorganized as a response to 9/11. Each has required more people, and those people have required more administrative and logistic support: phone operators, secretaries, librarians, architects, carpenters, construction workers, air-conditioning mechanics and, because of where they work, even janitors with top-secret clearances.
With so many more employees, units and organizations, the lines of responsibility began to blur. To remedy this, at the recommendation of the bipartisan 9/11 Commission, the George W. Bush administration and Congress decided to create an agency in 2004 with overarching responsibilities called the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) to bring the colossal effort under control.
While that was the idea, Washington has its own ways.
The first problem was that the law passed by Congress did not give the director clear legal or budgetary authority over intelligence matters, which meant he wouldn't have power over the individual agencies he was supposed to control.
The second problem: Even before the first director, Ambassador John D. Negroponte, was on the job, the turf battles began. The Defense Department shifted billions of dollars out of one budget and into another so that the ODNI could not touch it, according to two senior officials who watched the process. The CIA reclassified some of its most sensitive information at a higher level so the National Counterterrorism Center staff, part of the ODNI, would not be allowed to see it, said former intelligence officers involved.
And then came a problem that continues to this day, which has to do with the ODNI's rapid expansion.
When it opened in the spring of 2005, Negroponte's office was all of 11 people stuffed into a secure vault with closet-size rooms a block from the White House. A year later, the budding agency moved to two floors of another building. In April 2008, it moved into its huge permanent home, Liberty Crossing.
Today, many officials who work in the intelligence agencies say they remain unclear about what the ODNI is in charge of. To be sure, the ODNI has made some progress, especially in intelligence-sharing, information technology and budget reform. The DNI and his managers hold interagency meetings every day to promote collaboration. The last director, Blair, doggedly pursued such nitty-gritty issues as procurement reform, compatible computer networks, tradecraft standards and collegiality.
But improvements have been overtaken by volume at the ODNI, as the increased flow of intelligence data overwhelms the system's ability to analyze and use it. Every day, collection systems at the National Security Agency intercept and store 1.7 billion e-mails, phone calls and other types of communications. The NSA sorts a fraction of those into 70 separate databases. The same problem bedevils every other intelligence agency, none of which have enough analysts and translators for all this work.
The practical effect of this unwieldiness is visible, on a much smaller scale, in the office of Michael Leiter, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center. Leiter spends much of his day flipping among four computer monitors lined up on his desk. Six hard drives sit at his feet. The data flow is enormous, with dozens of databases feeding separate computer networks that cannot interact with one another.
There is a long explanation for why these databases are still not connected, and it amounts to this: It's too hard, and some agency heads don't really want to give up the systems they have. But there's some progress: "All my e-mail on one computer now," Leiter says. "That's a big deal."
To get another view of how sprawling Top Secret America has become, just head west on the toll road toward Dulles International Airport.
As a Michaels craft store and a Books-A-Million give way to the military intelligence giants Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin, find the off-ramp and turn left. Those two shimmering-blue five-story ice cubes belong to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which analyzes images and mapping data of the Earth's geography. A small sign obscured by a boxwood hedge says so.
Across the street, in the chocolate-brown blocks, is Carahsoft, an intelligence agency contractor specializing in mapping, speech analysis and data harvesting. Nearby is the government's Underground Facility Analysis Center. It identifies overseas underground command centers associated with weapons of mass destruction and terrorist groups, and advises the military on how to destroy them.
Clusters of top-secret work exist throughout the country, but the Washington region is the capital of Top Secret America.
About half of the post-9/11 enterprise is anchored in an arc stretching from Leesburg south to Quantico, back north through Washington and curving northeast to Linthicum, just north of the Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport. Many buildings sit within off-limits government compounds or military bases.
Others occupy business parks or are intermingled with neighborhoods, schools and shopping centers and go unnoticed by most people who live or play nearby.
Many of the newest buildings are not just utilitarian offices but also edifices "on the order of the pyramids," in the words of one senior military intelligence officer.
Not far from the Dulles Toll Road, the CIA has expanded into two buildings that will increase the agency's office space by one-third. To the south, Springfield is becoming home to the new $1.8 billion National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency headquarters, which will be the fourth-largest federal building in the area and home to 8,500 employees. Economic stimulus money is paying hundreds of millions of dollars for this kind of federal construction across the region.
It's not only the number of buildings that suggests the size and cost of this expansion, it's also what is inside: banks of television monitors. "Escort-required" badges. X-ray machines and lockers to store cellphones and pagers. Keypad door locks that open special rooms encased in metal or permanent dry wall, impenetrable to eavesdropping tools and protected by alarms and a security force capable of responding within 15 minutes. Every one of these buildings has at least one of these rooms, known as a SCIF, for sensitive compartmented information facility. Some are as small as a closet; others are four times the size of a football field.
SCIF size has become a measure of status in Top Secret America, or at least in the Washington region of it. "In D.C., everyone talks SCIF, SCIF, SCIF," said Bruce Paquin, who moved to Florida from the Washington region several years ago to start a SCIF construction business. "They've got the penis envy thing going. You can't be a big boy unless you're a three-letter agency and you have a big SCIF."
SCIFs are not the only must-have items people pay attention to. Command centers, internal television networks, video walls, armored SUVs and personal security guards have also become the bling of national security.
"You can't find a four-star general without a security detail," said one three-star general now posted in Washington after years abroad. "Fear has caused everyone to have stuff. Then comes, 'If he has one, then I have to have one.' It's become a status symbol."
Among the most important people inside the SCIFs are the low-paid employees carrying their lunches to work to save money. They are the analysts, the 20- and 30-year-olds making $41,000 to $65,000 a year, whose job is at the core of everything Top Secret America tries to do.
At its best, analysis melds cultural understanding with snippets of conversations, coded dialogue, anonymous tips, even scraps of trash, turning them into clues that lead to individuals and groups trying to harm the United States.
Their work is greatly enhanced by computers that sort through and categorize data. But in the end, analysis requires human judgment, and half the analysts are relatively inexperienced, having been hired in the past several years, said a senior ODNI official. Contract analysts are often straight out of college and trained at corporate headquarters.
When hired, a typical analyst knows very little about the priority countries - Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan - and is not fluent in their languages. Still, the number of intelligence reports they produce on these key countries is overwhelming, say current and former intelligence officials who try to cull them every day. The ODNI doesn't know exactly how many reports are issued each year, but in the process of trying to find out, the chief of analysis discovered 60 classified analytic Web sites still in operation that were supposed to have been closed down for lack of usefulness. "Like a zombie, it keeps on living" is how one official describes the sites.
The problem with many intelligence reports, say officers who read them, is that they simply re-slice the same facts already in circulation. "It's the soccer ball syndrome. Something happens, and they want to rush to cover it," said Richard H. Immerman, who was the ODNI's assistant deputy director of national intelligence for analytic integrity and standards until early 2009. "I saw tremendous overlap."
Even the analysts at the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), which is supposed to be where the most sensitive, most difficult-to-obtain nuggets of information are fused together, get low marks from intelligence officials for not producing reports that are original, or at least better than the reports already written by the CIA, FBI, National Security Agency or Defense Intelligence Agency.
When Maj. Gen. John M. Custer was the director of intelligence at U.S. Central Command, he grew angry at how little helpful information came out of the NCTC. In 2007, he visited its director at the time, retired Vice Adm. John Scott Redd, to tell him so. "I told him that after 41/2 years, this organization had never produced one shred of information that helped me prosecute three wars!" he said loudly, leaning over the table during an interview.
Two years later, Custer, now head of the Army's intelligence school at Fort Huachuca, Ariz., still gets red-faced recalling that day, which reminds him of his frustration with Washington's bureaucracy. "Who has the mission of reducing redundancy and ensuring everybody doesn't gravitate to the lowest-hanging fruit?" he said. "Who orchestrates what is produced so that everybody doesn't produce the same thing?"
He's hardly the only one irritated. In a secure office in Washington, a senior intelligence officer was dealing with his own frustration. Seated at his computer, he began scrolling through some of the classified information he is expected to read every day: CIA World Intelligence Review, WIRe-CIA, Spot Intelligence Report, Daily Intelligence Summary, Weekly Intelligence Forecast, Weekly Warning Forecast, IC Terrorist Threat Assessments, NCTC Terrorism Dispatch, NCTC Spotlight . . .
It's too much, he complained. The inbox on his desk was full, too. He threw up his arms, picked up a thick, glossy intelligence report and waved it around, yelling.
"Jesus! Why does it take so long to produce?"
"Why does it have to be so bulky?"
"Why isn't it online?"
The overload of hourly, daily, weekly, monthly and annual reports is actually counterproductive, say people who receive them. Some policymakers and senior officials don't dare delve into the backup clogging their computers. They rely instead on personal briefers, and those briefers usually rely on their own agency's analysis, re-creating the very problem identified as a main cause of the failure to thwart the attacks: a lack of information-sharing.
The ODNI's analysis office knows this is a problem. Yet its solution was another publication, this one a daily online newspaper, Intelligence Today. Every day, a staff of 22 culls more than two dozen agencies' reports and 63 Web sites, selects the best information and packages it by originality, topic and region.
Analysis is not the only area where serious overlap appears to be gumming up the national security machinery and blurring the lines of responsibility.
Within the Defense Department alone, 18 commands and agencies conduct information operations, which aspire to manage foreign audiences' perceptions of U.S. policy and military activities overseas.
And all the major intelligence agencies and at least two major military commands claim a major role in cyber-warfare, the newest and least-defined frontier.
"Frankly, it hasn't been brought together in a unified approach," CIA Director Panetta said of the many agencies now involved in cyber-warfare.
"Cyber is tremendously difficult" to coordinate, said Benjamin A. Powell, who served as general counsel for three directors of national intelligence until he left the government last year. "Sometimes there was an unfortunate attitude of bring your knives, your guns, your fists and be fully prepared to defend your turf." Why? "Because it's funded, it's hot and it's sexy."
Anti-Deception Technologies
From avatars and lasers to thermal cameras and fidget meters, this multimedia gallery takes a look at some of the latest technologies being developed by the government and private companies to thwart terrorists. Launch Gallery »
Last fall, U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan allegedly opened fire at Fort Hood, Tex., killing 13 people and wounding 30. In the days after the shootings, information emerged about Hasan's increasingly strange behavior at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he had trained as a psychiatrist and warned commanders that they should allow Muslims to leave the Army or risk "adverse events." He had also exchanged e-mails with a well-known radical cleric in Yemen being monitored by U.S. intelligence.
But none of this reached the one organization charged with handling counterintelligence investigations within the Army. Just 25 miles up the road from Walter Reed, the Army's 902nd Military Intelligence Group had been doing little to search the ranks for potential threats. Instead, the 902's commander had decided to turn the unit's attention to assessing general terrorist affiliations in the United States, even though the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI's 106 Joint Terrorism Task Forces were already doing this work in great depth.
The 902nd, working on a program the commander named RITA, for Radical Islamic Threat to the Army, had quietly been gathering information on Hezbollah, Iranian Republican Guard and al-Qaeda student organizations in the United States. The assessment "didn't tell us anything we didn't know already," said the Army's senior counterintelligence officer at the Pentagon.
Secrecy and lack of coordination have allowed organizations, such as the 902nd in this case, to work on issues others were already tackling rather than take on the much more challenging job of trying to identify potential jihadist sympathizers within the Army itself.
Beyond redundancy, secrecy within the intelligence world hampers effectiveness in other ways, say defense and intelligence officers. For the Defense Department, the root of this problem goes back to an ultra-secret group of programs for which access is extremely limited and monitored by specially trained security officers.
These are called Special Access Programs - or SAPs - and the Pentagon's list of code names for them runs 300 pages. The intelligence community has hundreds more of its own, and those hundreds have thousands of sub-programs with their own limits on the number of people authorized to know anything about them. All this means that very few people have a complete sense of what's going on.
"There's only one entity in the entire universe that has visibility on all SAPs - that's God," said James R. Clapper, undersecretary of defense for intelligence and the Obama administration's nominee to be the next director of national intelligence.
Such secrecy can undermine the normal chain of command when senior officials use it to cut out rivals or when subordinates are ordered to keep secrets from their commanders.
One military officer involved in one such program said he was ordered to sign a document prohibiting him from disclosing it to his four-star commander, with whom he worked closely every day, because the commander was not authorized to know about it. Another senior defense official recalls the day he tried to find out about a program in his budget, only to be rebuffed by a peer. "What do you mean you can't tell me? I pay for the program," he recalled saying in a heated exchange.
Another senior intelligence official with wide access to many programs said that secrecy is sometimes used to protect ineffective projects. "I think the secretary of defense ought to direct a look at every single thing to see if it still has value," he said. "The DNI ought to do something similar."
The ODNI hasn't done that yet. The best it can do at the moment is maintain a database of the names of the most sensitive programs in the intelligence community. But the database does not include many important and relevant Pentagon projects.
Because so much is classified, illustrations of what goes on every day in Top Secret America can be hard to ferret out. But every so often, examples emerge. A recent one shows the post-9/11 system at its best and its worst.
Last fall, after eight years of growth and hirings, the enterprise was at full throttle when word emerged that something was seriously amiss inside Yemen. In response, President Obama signed an order sending dozens of secret commandos to that country to target and kill the leaders of an al-Qaeda affiliate.
In Yemen, the commandos set up a joint operations center packed with hard drives, forensic kits and communications gear. They exchanged thousands of intercepts, agent reports, photographic evidence and real-time video surveillance with dozens of top-secret organizations in the United States.
That was the system as it was intended. But when the information reached the National Counterterrorism Center in Washington for analysis, it arrived buried within the 5,000 pieces of general terrorist-related data that are reviewed each day. Analysts had to switch from database to database, from hard drive to hard drive, from screen to screen, just to locate what might be interesting to study further.
As military operations in Yemen intensified and the chatter about a possible terrorist strike increased, the intelligence agencies ramped up their effort. The flood of information into the NCTC became a torrent.
Somewhere in that deluge was even more vital data. Partial names of someone in Yemen. A reference to a Nigerian radical who had gone to Yemen. A report of a father in Nigeria worried about a son who had become interested in radical teachings and had disappeared inside Yemen.
These were all clues to what would happen when a Nigerian named Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab left Yemen and eventually boarded a plane in Amsterdam bound for Detroit. But nobody put them together because, as officials would testify later, the system had gotten so big that the lines of responsibility had become hopelessly blurred.
"There are so many people involved here," NCTC Director Leiter told Congress.
"Everyone had the dots to connect," DNI Blair explained to the lawmakers. "But I hadn't made it clear exactly who had primary responsibility."
And so Abdulmutallab was able to step aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253. As it descended toward Detroit, he allegedly tried to ignite explosives hidden in his underwear. It wasn't the very expensive, very large 9/11 enterprise that prevented disaster. It was a passenger who saw what he was doing and tackled him. "We didn't follow up and prioritize the stream of intelligence," White House counterterrorism adviser John O. Brennan explained afterward. "Because no one intelligence entity, or team or task force was assigned responsibility for doing that follow-up investigation."
Blair acknowledged the problem. His solution: Create yet another team to run down every important lead. But he also told Congress he needed more money and more analysts to prevent another mistake.
More is often the solution proposed by the leaders of the 9/11 enterprise. After the Christmas Day bombing attempt, Leiter also pleaded for more - more analysts to join the 300 or so he already had.
The Department of Homeland Security asked for more air marshals, more body scanners and more analysts, too, even though it can't find nearly enough qualified people to fill its intelligence unit now. Obama has said he will not freeze spending on national security, making it likely that those requests will be funded.
More building, more expansion of offices continues across the country. A $1.7 billion NSA data-processing center will be under construction soon near Salt Lake City. In Tampa, the U.S. Central Command's new 270,000-square-foot intelligence office will be matched next year by an equally large headquarters building, and then, the year after that, by a 51,000-square-foot office just for its special operations section.
Just north of Charlottesville, the new Joint-Use Intelligence Analysis Facility will consolidate 1,000 defense intelligence analysts on a secure campus.
Meanwhile, five miles southeast of the White House, the DHS has broken ground for its new headquarters, to be shared with the Coast Guard. DHS, in existence for only seven years, already has its own Special Access Programs, its own research arm, its own command center, its own fleet of armored cars and its own 230,000-person workforce, the third-largest after the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs.
Soon, on the grounds of the former St. Elizabeths mental hospital in Anacostia, a $3.4 billion showcase of security will rise from the crumbling brick wards. The new headquarters will be the largest government complex built since the Pentagon, a major landmark in the alternative geography of Top Secret America and four times as big as Liberty Crossing.
Staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.
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11) Oil seep near BP well could mean trouble for relief well plans
Mark Seibel | McClatchy Newspapers
McClatchy Washington Bureau
Posted on Sun, Jul. 18, 2010
http://www.readersupportednews.org/off-site-news-section/49-49/2462-oil-seep-near-bp-well-could-mean-trouble-for-relief-well-plans
last updated: July 19, 2010 05:25:24 PM
WASHINGTON - Scientists have detected oil or natural gas seeping from the seafloor near BP's unstable Deepwater Horizon oil well and have also found "undetermined anomalies" near the wellhead that scientists fear might also be leaking oil - possible signs that the well may have suffered damage that will complicate technicians' abilities to shut off the flow permanently.
No details were given on the size or exact location of the seep, or what it was made of - crude oil, methane, natural gases or hydrocarbons. But the prospect is ominous. If oil is entering from areas distant from the well bore, it suggests that areas of the seafloor and substrata are allowing oil to escape.
If this scenario is accurate, the well cap will likely be reopened to prevent the existing environmental disaster from becoming even worse and even harder to fix. Once the valves are open, oil would gush once again into the ocean, cutting the pressure on the well system for the first time in three days.
It is possible, too, that monitors have sensed naturally occurring seeps, which are a common phenomenon in the Gulf.
Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the Obama administration's point man on the Gulf of Mexico oil catastrophe, revealed the findings Sunday in a letter to BP managing director Bob Dudley.
Allen demanded that the oil giant step up monitoring efforts and report any additional seafloor leaks to the government within four hours of their discovery.
Allen also raised the possibility that he would order an end to what BP and government officials call the well integrity test - the closing of valves in the well's most recent containment cap that has kept oil from flowing into the Gulf since Thursday. Allen demanded that BP provide a plan for allowing oil to resume flowing from the well and into ships waiting to capture it on the surface.
"I direct you to provide me a written procedure for opening the choke valve as quickly as possible without damaging the well should hydrocarbon seepage near the well head be confirmed," Allen said.
Allen's letter, which was distributed to reporters at 8:40 p.m. EDT, was the first indication of problems with the test. During a conference call with reporters 12 hours earlier, BP's cheif operating officer Doug Suttles said the "extensive monitoring" of the site had given officials no reason for concern.
"All of that data continues to show encouraging signs," Suttles said. "We're not seeing any problems at this point or any issues with the shut in."
Suttles said BP wants to keep the well sealed until the relief well is completed. "We're hopeful that if the encouraging signs continue we'll be able to continue the integrity tests all the way to the point that we get the well killed," he said. "Right now there is no target set to open the well back up to flow."
Just when the seepage mentioned in Allen's later letter was discovered wasn't clear. The letter, however, left no doubt that government officials were alarmed by the discovery - and perhaps startled by BP's plans to keep the well sealed.
"Given the current observations from the test, including the detected seep a distance from the well and undetermined anomalies at the well head, monitoring of the seabed is of paramount importance during the test period," Allen wrote.
He added, "Now that source control" - an apparent reference to the sealing of the containment cap - "has evolved into a period beyond the expected 48-hour interval of the well integrity test, I am requiring that you provide me a written update within 24 hours of your intentions going forward."
The ability of BP to seal off the well for the past few days and seemingly prevent any oil from leaking into the Gulf had been hailed as the first bright spot in the three-month ordeal that began April 20 when a giant gas bubble surged up the well's drill pipe, engulfing the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in a cloud of methane gas that exploded into flames. Eleven people were killed in the initial explosion. The rig burned for more than 36 hours, before sinking into the Gulf, taking a mile of pipe down with it.
Since then, attention has been focused largely on the tens of thousands of barrels of crude that had been spewing daily from the broken pipes atop the well's failed blowout preventer, a gusher that ended on Thursday with the installation of a new containment cap.
Oil seeping from the well into the rocks and up through the seafloor, however, would pose a new problem because it would be difficult to locate the many paths it might be taking to the surface. BP currently hopes to seal the well permanently by intercepting it with a relief well. Heavy drilling mud would then be pumped into the Deepwater Horizon well, filling the well bore and drill pipe and stopping the oil from flowing by its sheer weight. A leak from the well bore through rock and to the seafloor, however, might defy such efforts.
Scientists have been concerned that such leaks could be one reason pressure in the new containment cap has not reached the levels they had expected. A pressure reading of over 7,500 psi, or pounds per square inch, would indicate the well casing is intact. A lower reading could suggest a leak. On Sunday, pressure had reached 6,775 psi, BP said. Officials have said the low pressures might be caused either by a leak in the well or depletion of the oil reservoir during the past three months.
The relief well is still 100 vertical feet from the point where engineers hope to intersect the Deepwater Horizon well. Drilling that distance will take until the week of July 27, Suttles said Sunday.
(Miami Herald reporter Jaweed Kaleem contributed to this report.)
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12) Elderly and Disabled Put at Risk by Cuts in Home Care
By JOHN LELAND
July 16, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/21/us/21aging.html?hp
HILLSBORO, Ore. - As states face severe budget shortfalls, many have cut home-care services for the elderly or the disabled, programs that have been shown to save states money in the long run because they keep people out of nursing homes.
Since the start of the recession, at least 25 states and the District of Columbia have curtailed programs that include meal deliveries, housekeeping aid and assistance for family caregivers, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a research organization. That threatens to reverse a long-term trend of enabling people to stay in their homes longer.
For Afton England, who lives in a trailer home here, the news came in a letter last week: Oregon, facing a $577 million deficit, was cutting home aides to more than 4,500 low-income residents, including her. Ms. England, 65, has diabetes, spinal stenosis, degenerative disc disease, arthritis and other health problems that prevent her from walking or standing for more than a few minutes at a time.
Through a state program, she has received 45 hours of assistance a month to help her bathe, prepare meals, clean her house and shop. The program had helped make Oregon a model for helping older and disabled people remain in their homes.
But state legislators say that home care is a service the state can no longer afford. Cuts affecting an additional 10,500 people are scheduled for Oct. 1.
"They yanked the rug out from underneath us," said Ms. Afton, who lives on $802 a month from Social Security. "I'm scared. I'm petrified. I can't function on my own. I took care of my husband for eight years. Already I've given up many of my freedoms. Now they've taken our dignity. I'd like them to try living in my body for a week."
Her case manager, Brandi Lemke, shook her head. "This is not saving any money," she said.
Ms. Lemke said she feared that Ms. Afton would "end up in the hospital because of the diabetes" and be in assisted living by the end of the year. "If she takes a fall," Ms. Lemke said, "she may require more than assisted living can handle."
Nursing homes here cost the state an average of $5,900 a month; home and community-based services cost $1,500 a month.
Other states have made similar cuts:
¶Florida placed 69,000 people on waiting lists for home or community services last year, and more than 5,700 of them ended up in Medicaid nursing homes.
¶Alabama cut housekeeping services - useful for people who can no longer do some cleaning tasks - for more than 1,000 elderly.
¶Arizona sliced independent living supports and respite programs for family caregivers.
¶And Kansas, with a $131 million shortfall, will cut independent living services for 2,800 people with disabilities in the next year.
In Illinois, providers of Meals on Wheels have stopped adding clients because the state was not reimbursing them.
"I'm not getting a cost-of-living adjustment, and now I'm not getting food," said Joyce Plennert, 83, who is on a waiting list for Meals on Wheels in Palatine, Ill. "Now I'm worried my home services will be cut. Without that, I'd be in a nursing home, if I could find one with room."
She said: "I get $16 a month in food stamps. The Meals on Wheels would help so much."
Colorado, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New York and Texas have all made cuts or frozen spending at a time when the elderly population - and the need for services - is growing.
In California, which faces a budget shortfall of $19.1 billion for the 2010-11 fiscal year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office proposed eliminating adult day health care centers that serve 45,000 people and in-home supportive services that help more than 400,000 elderly, disabled or blind residents. The Legislature rejected these cuts but has not yet produced an alternative budget. The state already cut Alzheimer's day care centers and assistance for caregivers.
Because Medicaid regulations require states to provide nursing home care to receive federal Medicaid money, legislators often have more leeway to cut from home services. Advocates for the elderly and the disabled worry that these cuts are just the beginning, because state ledgers tend to recover more slowly than the national economy.
"The situation is grim, and it's safe to say that present trends are expected to continue," said JoAnn Lamphere, the director of state government relations for health and long term care for AARP. "Nearly every state has proposed cuts of some sort to Medicaid. Some might seem small, but it's death by a thousand slashes."
The cuts in Oregon have been particularly painful to people who work with the elderly, because for more than three decades the state has been a leader in rebalancing long-term care away from nursing facilities and toward the home. The cuts here indicate how fragile these services can be against states' need to slash spending.
"I'm seeing in a matter of months 30 years of work go down the drain," said Donald Bruland, the director of senior and disability services for the Rogue Valley Council of Governments.
The state spends more than half its Medicaid long-term care dollars on home care, and has a separate $13 million program for people who do not qualify for Medicaid; on average, states spend just 25 percent of their long-term care budgets on home and community-based care.
Bruce Goldberg, director of Oregon's Department of Human Services, said the agency did not have an estimate for how many of the people losing home care would end up in assisted living facilities or in nursing homes - or, if they did, how the state would pay for them.
"We're in new territory," Dr. Goldberg said. "Long-term care is a cobbled-together system with many holes, and they just got deeper."
Last week, the state Legislature's emergency board scheduled a session for Thursday to reconsider some of the cuts.
In Portland, Ken Poe, 66, requires assistance because of polio, which he got when he was 9. He has little muscle strength and requires oxygen constantly. The state provides 20 hours of care a month in his home.
Mr. Poe, a former pilot and flight instructor, lives as independently as he can, he said - he still drives, though he needs help getting to and from his car - but said he could not afford to pay his aides on the $1,300 a month he gets from Social Security. He often borrows money from a home credit line at the end of the month. Because of severe osteoporosis, he worries about falling in the shower without an aide.
"There are times when I'm struggling to get to the kitchen when I wonder how much longer I can do this," he said. "But this is my comfort zone. It may look like a mess" - he gestured to cardboard boxes filling the living room - "but the boxes are my system for getting around. Moving to an assisted living facility would bring on a depression."
For states, having to cut the Medicaid programs is a double loss, because they come with matching dollars from the federal government. This creates state jobs and much-needed revenue.
Without these, said James A. Davis, a gerontologist at Marylhurst University and executive director of United Seniors of Oregon, "it really is a death spiral."
"So often the programs to go are the early interventions that save money and keep people healthy," Professor Davis said. "That comes back to bite you."
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13) BP Failed to Fix Device Before Blast, Worker Says
By ROBBIE BROWN
July 20, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/21/us/21hearings.html?hp
KENNER, La. - In the days before the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, BP continued to drill despite internal reports that a critical safety device was leaking, a company official testified on Tuesday.
The official, Robert Sepulvado, a BP well site leader, said that he reported the problem to senior company officials and assumed that it would be relayed to the Minerals Management Service, the federal agency that 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.
His testimony came at an investigative hearing in this New Orleans suburb conducted by the Coast Guard and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, the new name of the minerals service.
Investigators also pressed Mr. Sepulvado about two audits that found problems with other equipment on the Deepwater Horizon 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 the American Petroleum Institute 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.
The minerals agency's own regulations seem to suggest that BP should have halted drilling when the leak occurred. The recommendation when the "pod does not function properly" is to "suspend further drilling operation until that station or pod is operable," according to the regulations.
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14) Communist Teacher Blamed for Improper Cuba Trip
By SHARON OTTERMAN
July 20, 2010, 12:58 pm
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/20/communist-teacher-blamed-for-improper-trip-to-cuba/?hp
Yes, the history teacher with the pictures of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro on his classroom walls really was a communist.
After three years of investigation, the New York City special investigator for schools released a report (also see below) on Tuesday about a 2007 spring break trip to Cuba taken by public-school students from the selective Beacon High School on the Upper West Side that violated federal restrictions on travel to Cuba.
The report exonerates the school's principal, Ruth Lacey, and places full blame on the history teacher, Nathan Turner, for organizing the trip on his own. Mr. Turner resigned in 2008, and the report recommended that he should never be permitted to work in city schools again.
Ms. Lacey, according to the report, told Mr. Turner not to take the 10-day April trip. But Mr. Turner, who had led other such trips for Beacon students in the past, told her that he had to go to Cuba to see Mr. Castro one more time before he died.
"You know, Ms. Lacey, I'm a communist," he told her, the report said.
Mr. Turner organized the trip anyway, through a religious community organization, and informed parents of the 30 participating students that it was not an official Department of Education excursion. Mr. Turner, who is in his late 30s, resigned a year later.
Educational trips are permitted between the United States and Cuba, but only for students of college age or older. Some of the Beacon students traveling in 2007 were briefly detained in the Bahamas by United States Customs officials upon their return.
Beacon students had gone to Cuba in 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2005, apparently with permission from the school and the Department of Education. Gov. David A. Paterson's stepdaughter went on the 2005 trip, and he had placed a call to school officials in 2007, urging them to approve the trip that year as well.
Ms. Lacey, a co-founder of the school who became principal in 2004, told investigators that she had not been aware of the restrictions on high school travel to Cuba. (She said she became fully aware of the 2007 trip only after the students' return, though she had heard rumors that it was still being organized.)
On the trip, the students, among other things, interviewed a 15-year-old prostitute and a homeless man in Havana and jammed with musicians at a renowned Afro-Cuban jazz club.
The sponsoring agency of the excursion, Pastors for Peace, part of a nonprofit called The Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization, refused to release documents related to the trip, but did so in June after extensive litigation, the special commissioner's office said.
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15) Troops to Go to Mexican Border Aug. 1
By DAN FROSCH
July 19, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/20/us/20border.html?ref=world
Hundreds of National Guard troops will begin deployment to the United States-Mexico border on Aug. 1, part of the Obama administration's effort to increase security and stem the flow of weapons, cash and people into the United States, the administration announced Monday.
In May, President Obama pledged the deployment of 1,200 troops. More than 500 of the soldiers will go to Arizona, and the rest will go to New Mexico, Texas and California.
The announcement of a firm date comes as the debate over illegal immigration intensifies throughout the country. The White House is facing pressure to overhaul federal immigration policy after Arizona enacted a law requiring the police to question the immigration status of anyone they stop for other reasons if they suspect that the person is in the country illegally.
"These troops will provide direct support to federal law enforcement officers and agents working in high-risk areas to disrupt criminal organizations seeking to move people and goods illegally across the southwest border," Janet Napolitano, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement.
In a guest column published Monday in The Arizona Republic, Ms. Napolitano, a former Arizona governor, said special security technology like thermal-imaging binoculars and observation aircraft would be used to focus on an area around Tucson that has been widely used by smugglers.
In addition to the National Guard effort, 300 agents and officers from United States Customs and Border Protection will also head to the border to assist in the security efforts, Alan Bersin, Customs and Border Protection commissioner, said at a news conference.
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16) Israel: Anti-Rocket System Is Ready for Deployment
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 19, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/20/world/middleeast/20briefs-ISRAEL.html?ref=world
A system that can shoot down approaching rockets has passed its last tests and will be ready for deployment by November outside Sderot, near the Gaza border, Israel's Defense Ministry said Monday. The "iron dome" system uses sophisticated radar to track, intercept and destroy rockets that are still far from their targets. The iron dome system was developed to protect Israel from rockets fired by Palestinian militants.
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17) BP Considers New Plan to Permanently Seal Well
By HENRY FOUNTAIN
July 19, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/20/us/20oilspill.html?ref=us
As scientists on Monday allayed concerns that BP's well in the Gulf of Mexico was damaged, the company said it was considering an alternative plan that could permanently seal the gusher sooner than had been anticipated.
Kent Wells, a senior vice president for BP, said the company was studying the possibility of a "static kill," in which heavy mud would be pumped into the recently capped well. Also known as bullheading, the procedure would force the oil and gas back down into the reservoir.
"The static kill does give us a new option," he said at a briefing in Houston. A decision to proceed could be made in several days, Mr. Wells said.
He said that the procedure could speed the process of sealing the well and that the digging of a relief well, which has been seen as the ultimate solution and could be completed by August, might be needed only to confirm that the technique had worked.
The flow of oil into the gulf has been shut off since BP installed a cap on the well and closed its valves last Thursday.
On Monday morning, BP and the government said scientists had determined that methane gas seeping from the seafloor nearly two miles from the well was a natural occurrence and not related to a pressure test to assess the well's condition. The test was extended to a fifth day on Monday.
The seeping was discovered on Sunday and raised concerns that the test had shown that the well was damaged and was allowing gas to escape into surrounding rock and up through the seabed.
Thad W. Allen, the retired Coast Guard admiral who commands the spill response, said small numbers of gas bubbles that had appeared much closer to the well were not a problem, either. "It's the collective opinion of folks that these small seepages do not indicate there is any threat to the well bore," he said at a briefing in Washington.
Admiral Allen said that the need to extend the tests was being evaluated day to day, and that it was possible the well would remain shut indefinitely. He dismissed concerns that if it was not reopened and collection of oil restarted, the precise flow rate of the oil might never be determined. "I think we're going to know enough about this well that by the time we're done we're going to be able to do that," he said.
Mr. Wells said the idea of a static kill had arisen because the pressure test so far had shown that the well was not damaged and that the pressure of oil and gas coming from the reservoir was lower than expected. If the procedure was carried out, he said, it could use the same deep-sea plumbing used for the failed "top kill" procedure in late May.
In the top kill, heavy mud was pumped into the flowing well, but engineers could not pump it fast enough or long enough to counter the flow of oil. The static kill would be much more likely to succeed because with the new cap on top and the valves closed, the well is completely sealed and the oil and gas are not moving.
Jack Healy contributed reporting from New York.
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18) Liability at Issue in Oil Flow Rate in Gulf
By JOHN SCHWARTZ
July 19, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/20/us/20flow.html?ref=us
When BP suggested over the weekend that it might leave the Gulf of Mexico well capped until it completed the relief wells, Representative Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, suggested that the company might have an ulterior motive - to limit its own spiraling legal liability.
Mr. Markey said reopening the well would allow the first accurate measure of the flow and accused the company of trying to forestall a reckoning of the spill.
Until now, the actual flow rate of oil gushing into the gulf has been based on estimates. With the well tightly capped, any efforts to collect the oil to ships on the surface would provide a better reading of the oil flow. BP's ultimate liability for damages from the spill will be based in part on that flow.
"BP has a stake in lowering its liability," Mr. Markey said in an interview, since fines are assessed by the barrel. The company, he said, has consistently underestimated the flow out of its runaway well.
"Initially, they said it was only 1,000 barrels per day that was going into the gulf, then 5,000 barrels a day," he said. "It's obvious in retrospect that they were either lying or grossly incompetent in making those representations to the U.S. government and to the American people."
The fines could be staggering, even for a company as wealthy as BP. The Clean Water Act sets a civil fine of $1,100 for every barrel of oil released in a spill, in addition to responsibility for paying for environmental cleanup and economic loss.
If the government determines that the spill was the result of gross negligence, the fine jumps to $4,300 a barrel.
On Wednesday, Mr. Markey demanded a "full flow-rate test" on the well; official estimates have put the flow rate at as much as 60,000 barrels a day. Considering such vast amounts, a disagreement over the number of barrels spilled each day could amount to enormous sums: a 10,000-barrel-a-day difference over the three months of the spill could mean $3.7 billion in fines.
Mark Salt, a BP spokesman, said the goal in retaining the cap was not to minimize the liability or give a low estimate of flow rate, but to shut off the flow of oil effectively and safely.
"The number is whatever the number will be," Mr. Salt said. "But that doesn't change what we want to do - which is to stop the leak."
The decision whether to keep the well capped or resume drawing off the oil, Mr. Salt said, lies with the federal government's incident commander, Thad W. Allen, a retired Coast Guard admiral. "We're completely aligned with Admiral Allen," he added.
In many cases, disputed factual issues are left to others - like a jury or a special master appointed by a judge - to determine after hearing from experts for each side.
But experts in environmental litigation do not expect the government's case to actually go to trial. BP will almost surely settle its civil and criminal cases, said David M. Uhlmann, a professor of environmental law at the University of Michigan. "BP has nothing to be gained and a lot to lose by reliving this tragedy in an American courtroom a year or two from now," he said.
Mr. Uhlmann, a former chief of the environmental crimes section at the Department of Justice, said he doubted that BP was trying to manipulate the well to low-ball flow estimates, since that could lead to felony charges of obstruction of justice.
"Congressman Markey's concern is understandable, and his skepticism is understandable," the professor said, "but it's not in BP's interest to proceed as he's been suggesting."
Mr. Uhlmann predicted that the government would seek, and get, the largest civil and criminal penalties in American history - sums in the billions of dollars "that will be adequate to punish BP and deter such behavior into the future," he said.
He added, however, that he doubted that the government would seek the highest possible penalty for every ounce of oil spilled. "That's just not the way life works - that's not the way negotiations work," he said. "The maximum penalties here, if they imposed them, would probably wipe out the company."
Federal prosecutorial guidelines require weighing factors like the interests of a company's shareholders, the financial security of the company's employees, and the need for the company to survive in a way that allows it to meet its obligations to pay for the spill.
Mr. Markey said that however liability was assessed, the oil needed to be measured - accurately, and soon.
"BP's defense lawyers will flourish in an atmosphere of ambiguity," he said. "The federal taxpayer will flourish, legally, if the number is established with precision right now."
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19) 7,000 U.S. Marines Landing on the Beaches of Costa Rica
By Costa Rica Blogger , Global Blogger
Published: July 12, 2010 10:29 ET in The Americas
http://www.globalpost.com/webblog/costa-rica/7000-us-marines-landing-the-beaches-costa-rica
Costa Rica doesn't 'officially' have an army - but apparently it will be home to one for the rest of 2010.
U.S. Navy military warships steam toward Costa Rica, Central AmericaA flotilla of 46 United States Navy warships capable of carrying 200 helicopters, along with 10 Harrier vertical take-off and landing fighter jets, and 7,000 combat ready marines available for land based operations is on its way to this Central American country with no standing army.
On July 1, 2010 the Costa Rica Legislative Assembly voted 31-8 to grant the U.S. military full in-country access through the end of 2010 to help fight drug trafficking.
As of this writing the new administration of President Laura Chinchilla -- who was previously Costa Rica's Vice-President, Justice Minister and Minister of Public Security -- has not commented in great detail as to what the U.S. troops will be trying to accomplish with their new right of entry other than to say there will be a combination of anti-drug and humanitarian operations.
This type of deal is a growing trend in Latin American countries.
Columbia has for the last decade been increasing its commitment to full-time anti-narcotic U.S. support.
In September 2009, ten years after the last U.S. troops had 'officially' left Panama soil due to the canal treaties, the United States entered into a new agreement to open 2 new U.S. military bases on their Pacific coast in exchange for $7 million to fight organized crime associated with illicit drugs.
April 2009 Honduras opened a new Navy base near the border of Nicaragua with $2 million from the U.S. and most recently announced July 10, 2010 another new military base will be constructed on the Caribbean with U.S. funding to help fight drug trafficking.
The Switzerland of Central America
As for Costa Rica, it has prided itself as the first country in the world to formally abolish military forces while being known for its stability in a region where other countries often struggle both politically and economically.
And although Costa Rica continues to earn high rankings both regionally and worldwide in areas of health care, education, public safety and equality; the geographic location that makes it so uniquely beautiful is also causing some major security concerns - often from outside sources.
Illicit drug producers from South America seeking paths of least resistance have found running shipments of cocaine along un-enforced or under-patrolled shorelines, air and land routes of sovereign Central American nations very effective in getting shipments through to their North American customers.
The spread of these drug-trafficking cartels has affected all of the Americas in terms of increased violent crime. In Costa Rica, the murder rate nearly doubled between 2004 and 2008 with mostly foreign drug gangs being attributed to a majority of this increase.
During the 2009-2010 presidential campaign 'security' consistently polled as the number one concern of the Costa Rica people. Then candidate Laura Chinchilla ran on a platform of being tough on crime proposing the hiring of more police, professionalizing the various law enforcement agencies with improved training and increased salaries, and eradicating corruption throughout all levels of government. In one of her first acts, then President-elect Chinchilla created the first Costa Rica anti-drug czar as part of her incoming cabinet.
Show Me the Money
But it takes money to fight a war on drugs, gangs, violence and corruption.
With a large debt burden due to previous president Oscar Arias' borrowing heavily to insulate Costa Rica from a worldwide recession, tourism revenues being down due to reduced discretionary spending by potential travelers and the fruition of aggressive free-trade agreements that exchanged immediate import tariff income for supposed longer-term benefits ... Costa Rica finds itself cash-strapped for even the most necessary of infrastructure improvements, let alone another country's "war on drugs".
In 1999 a U.S.-Costa Rica Counter-Narcotics Maritime Agreement or "Joint Patrol" accord began the alliance between the two countries in anti-drug enforcement efforts. As part of the arrangement the U.S. donated a retiring Coast Guard ship to the Costa Rica Ministry of Security toward formally establishing the Costa Rica Coast Guard in the year 2000.
Since then both the U.S. Coast Guard and Costa Rica Coast Guard (Guardacostas de Costa Rica) have been publicly working together to patrol Costa Rica waters and airways. Pacific and Caribbean international waters off the coast of Costa Rica have less formally been under the supervision of the United States Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM).
Operational funds for the various Costa Rica law enforcement agencies involved in fighting drug trafficking and its associated organized crime come from a variety of sources, with the largest contributor being the United States via direct funding for Costa Rica's Public Security Ministry (Ministerio Seguridad Pública - MSP) who in-turn reallocates funds as needed to its divisions of Coast Guard, Drug Control Police (PolicÃa de Control de Drogas - PCD) and National Public Police (Fuerza Pública ). Other funds provided to the Costa Rica Judiciary (Poder Judicial) are allocated to investigate drug related crimes by the Judicial Investigation Organization (Organismo de Investigación Judicial - OIJ) and prosecute alleged criminals within the judicial system.
Annual, semi-annual and special need requests for additional monies are made by Costa Rica to the U.S. for continued and increased police narcotics interdiction activities. Although regular requests are made openly, it would be naive to think all resources asked for and received are a matter of public record.
Fact, Conspiracy, or Just Plain B!tching
News of this very public vote by the Costa Rica legislature to invite the United States military into its territory was a bomb unto itself for many, prompting viral Internet coverage and even an anti-military rally or "Gran Manifestación contra la Presencia Militar en Costa Rica" in front of the former San José military fortress (Cuartel Bellavista) that is now the National Museum (Museo Nacional de Costa Rica).
Even though Costa Rica's own democratically elected government from the president on down chose this course of action by an almost unanimous vote, the citizens and foreign residents had a lot to say and constitutional court challenges are more than likely to follow.
As a matter of fact, Costa Rica abolished its military in 1949 with constitutional Article 12:
English translation: "Military forces may only be organized under a continental agreement or for the national defense; in either case, they shall always be subordinate to the civil power: they may not deliberate or make statements or representations individually or collectively."
But does this prohibit the elected representatives of the Costa Rican people from entering into agreements with foreign militaries for defense or support of internal security problems? Probably not. The 1999 to present U.S.-Costa Rica "Joint Agreement" is standing proof that such security force treaties will most likely withstand a court challenge whether it is in its current form or a modified version after court review.
Conspiracies are only theories until they come true ... especially when history teaches us that governmental decisions too often are not made in the best interests of the public as a whole. That said, some of the conspiracy theories floating around this 'military invasion' are fairly interesting:
* Costa Rica is re-instituting their military to keep out Rush Limbaugh. [aka: The OxyContin Theory]
* The U.S. in maintaining the appearance of combating the flow of drugs is actually protecting established CIA drug trade routes by cracking-down on competing freelance operations that don't pay the expected cuts or protection fees.
* The electricity went out again at Jurassic Park. [aka: The Jurassic Park was Really Filmed in Costa Rica Theory]
* The U.S. is borrowing money from China to fund military operations. China is an ally of North Korea and bedfellows with Russia, Iran, Cuba and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. China is attempting to influence Central American countries with financial advantages like Costa Rica's 200 free police cars and new National Stadium. The U.S. has a large military presence sitting in the Pacific looking at China. Do the math. [aka: The "Renminbi" or "Yuan" Theory]
* The ever imperialistic United States is putting itself in a position to take over countries throughout the Americas one-by-one using anti-drug trafficking as an excuse for military bases and troops.
* They're gonna nuke the gulf oil spill so they're moving all the ships South. As for the coastal population, they're gonna study the effects. Nothing to worry about.
* NATO has ordered the forces relocated away from the Gulf of Mexico for fear the BP oil disaster is about to rupture the fracture zone between the North American and Caribbean plates potentially unleashing a catastrophic methane earthquake/tsunami. [aka: The Big Fart Theory]
* The U.S. is either getting ready to invade Venezuela to remove Hugo Chavez from power or just make him "behave" while an Iran offensive is launched.
* After conducting its successful coup d'état in Honduras against President Manuel Zelaya, the Obama administration is now bent on ousting Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and Costa Rican Vice President Luis Lieberman, a noted Zionist, has arranged for Israeli special forces to participate in operations directed against the Sandinista government of Nicaragua.
* Costa Rica President Laura Chinchilla was heard saying the influx of Marines is to "provide a boost to lagging sex tourism" in this country where prostitution is legal. [aka: The U.S. Economic Stimulus Package Theory]
Or one could go with a theory much less fun but a little more rational:
"There is not going to be any convoy of 46 warships. There will be small groups of 4 to 5 ships rotating through the area on both coasts for a month or two at a time. They will do training and drug intervention while they are down there. As one group rotates down another group will return to the U.S. With the water of the northern Gulf of Mexico restricted due to the oil spill they cannot train there. There are a number of small cargo and fishing boats down there that never seem to transport enough cargo or even carry fishing gear but always have the money to pay for fuel. The DEA has agents in every port down there and have been watching these ships for years. That is the target." -ANNED
As for points of view, these too are subjective.
With Cost Rica promoting itself as a peaceful, green paradise to tourists and investors ... a large U.S. military presence can send the wrong signals to potential vacationers and those that relocated or are considering making the move to a country that is supposedly conflict free.
While some are comforted in knowing their beach is protected by the occasional Navy or Coast Guard ship manned by highly trained personnel. Others get sick to their stomachs if a boat in the distance resembles anything other than a Carnival Cruise ship.
Business owners benefiting from several thousand sailors and marines on shore leave might not have the same opinion as a yoga/raw food retreat that doesn't appreciate the new low flying helicopter interruptions.
Some peace activists that feel "where there is an army, there is violence" will never like this situation.
But please keep this in mind regardless of any opinion on U.S. political policy or Costa Rica's decision to allow U.S. military forces within its territory; those in uniform are part of a brave, volunteer, highly trained force that unselfishly go anyplace in the world where they are needed - whether it is for disaster responses, humanitarian missions or conflict resolutions.
These men and women deserve respect and will hopefully find Costa Rica a hospitable destination during their deployment.
¡Pura Flota!
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20) Resolution of California Labor Federation
(Adopted July 14, 2010 at the 28th Biennial Convention)
[Please excuse duplicate postings!]
"In this 75th anniversary year of the WPA. ...We need the same kind of bold, sweeping public jobs program today! Put America Back to Work!"
Whereas, 75 years ago, on April 8, 1935, Congress passed legislation creating the largest public works program in U.S. history. On May 6, 1935 President Franklin Roosevelt issued an executive order founding the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which created 8.5 million jobs during the Depression of the 1930s; and
Whereas, the WPA didn't just happen because of the kindness and concern of President Roosevelt. It was a response to a tremendous mass movement in the streets and workplaces all over the U.S. -- from the Bonus March and Ford Hunger March of 1932; to the San Francisco general strike and large industrial actions in Toledo and Minneapolis in 1934; to later sit-downs in the auto plants of Michigan; to militant actions by Unemployed Councils in hundreds of cities. It was this pressure from below that got us the WPA which put millions of people back to work, Social Security and other New Deal programs; and
Whereas, today's crisis is nearly as bad as it was back then. Unemployment in manufacturing is almost at Great Depression levels. What we have now is an economy based on permanent high unemployment and low wages ... a political and economic system that provides trillions of $ in bailouts for Wall Street, and trillions of $ for war, but nothing for large numbers of workers and the poor, who are facing growing joblessness, foreclosures, evictions, layoffs, low wages, hunger and homelessness; and
Whereas, the AFL-CIO has a worthy 5-point Jobs Plan, but without a massive amount of "street heat" its implementation is far from assured. Proposals from many local and state unions for a labor-led Solidarity Day III march on Washington, in the tradition of past AFL-CIO Solidarity Day marches, have not yet been acted upon; and
Whereas, our infrastructure is falling apart, our schools and health care facilities understaffed. We need the same kind of bold, sweeping jobs program that people demanded -- and got -- in the 1930s. There are between 20 and 30 million unemployed and underemployed people in the country today. We need a real WPA-type program that is big enough to ensure that those who need work get work -- work that is socially useful and paying union wages and benefits -- a real jobs program fully funded by the government; and
Whereas, Martin Luther King Jr. dedicated the final months of his life to starting a movement for the right of everyone to a job or a guaranteed income -- and we need a movement like that now. The issue of jobs is on the front burner: all it needs is a flame. But as in the 1930s, only a massive movement in the streets and workplaces will bring about a real public jobs program like the WPA.
Therefore be it resolved, that in this 75th anniversary year of the WPA, which created 8.5 million public jobs during the Depression of the 1930s, that the California Labor Federation urge the AFL-CIO and all of organized labor to do two things:
1) Fight for a real WPA-type program that is big enough to ensure that those who need work get work -- work that is socially useful and paying union wages and benefits -- a real jobs program fully funded by the government;
2) Get behind and urge that we support the October 2nd march called by the NAACP, SEIU Local 1199, other civil rights groups and supported by the AFL-CIO for JOBS, JOBS, JOBS.
(Resolution adopted July 14, 2010 by the 28th Biennial Convention of the California Labor Federation (AFL-CIO), meeting in San Diego, California.)
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21) 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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22) 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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23) 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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24) 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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25) 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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