BP covers oil with sand on Orange Beach as the Coast Guard looks on

[roxiejules]

Run time: 03:55 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaHl_WCCnYE   Posted on YouTube: July 05, 2010 By YouTube Member: SaveOurShoresFlorida Views on YouTube: 318   Posted on DU: July 06, 2010 By DU Member: roxiejules Views on DU: 3421

 
John Wathen of Save Our Gulf:

US Coast Guard issued a press release claiming that no covering of oiled beach was occurring. I sat in my motel room in Orange Beach and watched as multiple pieces of heavy equipment excavated sand and hauled it up the beach and used it to cover oiled sections of beach.

While contractors drove bulldozers, front end loaders, screening tractors and various kinds of equipment on beaches known for Turtle nesting.

I watched them from about 11:00 P.M 07/02/10 until about lunch the next day excavating the beach under cover of darkness. There was a stand of ponded water with oil and so called "Tar Balls" which was covered with sand from another area.

U. S. Coast Guard issued a press release stating that this is not happening. USCG uniformed men sat in ATV buggies and watched. I saw them and photographed them.

Why is our Coast Guard playing toady to BP? Are they nothing more than oil lackeys?

http://bpoilslick.blogspot.com/2010/07/bp-covers-oil-with-sand-on-orange-beach.html

[MrMickeysMom]

1. I'm cross posting this one, just for the phone numbers...

Curious Americans want to know, so... I called the CG on another concern of how they're being used.

I called the local number of the CG and got another number for the National Response Center. I talked to someone at the center, but I never got an answer, just some more phone numbers.

You see, when you call them, they have several numbers for the asking of how you may converse through the "Joint Coast Guard Information Center".

I asked under whose control this "Joint" agency functioned, and when it repeatedly went unanswered, I became more insistent and assertive. Finally, the young man who answered me announced to someone on his end, "She won't shut up". Hearing that, I agreed with, "Yes, I WILL NOT shut up!" This gave way to that question being handled by some superior. She admitted that the Joint Coast Guard Info Center falls under "several governmental cabinets in conjunction with the operations of Deep Water Horizon".

So, this is how you find out what the Coast Guard is doing?

I am a bit steamed right now. When I'm calmer (probably tomorrow) I will call the following numbers (should you be as curious, they're below) given to me for this Joint Information Center. The Coast Guard is obviously acting in conjunction with the private enterprise of BP, which I find interesting, as I now realize first hand that the CG personnel are also outside of the loop just as you and I are outside the loop. Here are the numbers I was given to probe what is going on here. Oh, I was told I'd probably be on hold a very, very long time.

1-866-448-5816
1-281-366-5511
1-985-902-5231
1-985-902-5240

[roxiejules]

2. Thank you for the contact numbers!

[MrMickeysMom]

3. Not at all...

Please pass them on. Just be prepared to be on hold...

[flyarm]

4. Not just coast guard..but Homeland security and local police as well

Why has the Obama admin turned over so much power to a Foreign oil corp..that should be a question each and every American asks..it is what many of us on the Gulf have been asking from day one..

BP has been controlling our beaches..the air we breahe ..the media , the Coast Guard, homeland security, and our public roads...why..Why has Obama turned over so much power to a foreign Corporation??????

why??????????????????????

http://fieldnotes.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/07/04/4611161-photographer-detained-by-police-bp-employee-near-refinery

Photographer detained by police, BP employee near refinery
A photographer taking pictures of a BP refinery in Texas was detained by a BP security official, local police and a man who said he was from the Department of Homeland Security, according to ProPublica, a non-profit news organization in the U.S.

snip:


BP gave ProPublica the following statement after the incident:

"BP Security followed the industry practice that is required by federal law. The photographer was released with his photographs after those photos were viewed by a representative of the Joint Terrorism Task Force who determined that the photographer's actions did not pose a threat to public safety."

In response to BP, ProPublica's editor-in-chief Paul Steiger said:

"We certainly appreciate the need to secure the nation's refineries. But we're deeply troubled by BP's conduct here, especially when they knew we were working on deadline on critical stories about this very facility. And we see no reason why, if law enforcement needed to review the unpublished photographs, that should have included sharing them with a representative of a private company."

When msnbc.com contacted BP, spokeswoman Sheila Williams said there was nothing the firm wanted to add to its earlier comment.

[bulloney]

10. Between the corporations owning our elected officials and de-fanging regulatory agencies,

this is what you get: an impotent government that cannot respond to emergencies because they have been gutted by funding cuts or neglect by past administrations. Or, they are run by former employees of the corporations they are supposed to regulate. A classic case of foxes guarding the henhouses.

When you think about it, this should be a conservative's wet dream. We are letting the private sector take care of things and government intervention has been minimized.

You can make a similar case for the Wall Street bailout.

I would also like to hear these same conservatives' response to the denial of access by the media to these sites. I think there's a First Amendment issue here.

[KansDem]

12. "Why has the Obama admin turned over so much power to a Foreign oil corp..."

Perhaps because Goldman Sachs is now a player in the Gulf?


Can’t Make It Up: BP Hires Goldman Sachs

By: Michael Whitney Tuesday June 15, 2010 7:24 am


Slipped into this Reuters piece is the news that BP has hired Goldman Sachs as "advisers" for unknown purposes, in addition to Pete Peterson’s Blackstone Group and Credit Suisse Group. (Tip o’ the hat to Brad Johnson)

'BP has hired investment banks Blackstone Group, Goldman Sachs Group and Credit Suisse Group as advisers, a source familiar with the matter said, without identifying the purpose of the advice.'

It’s funny because if the Vampire Squid lived in the Gulf of Mexico, it’d be choking to death on BP’s oil. Assuming, of course, it doesn’t actually thrive on crude oil.

As for the advice Goldman & Co. might give to BP, there’s one thing the MOTUs seem to be quite good at doing: limiting liability, being giant corporate assholes, screwing the country, and still turning a tidy profit. BP’s chances on the latter may be slim as their liability goes up with each gallon of crude gushing into the Gulf.

But if anyone can get BP through this sea of sludge, it’s Goldman Sachs. What have they got to lose?

http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/54760

And we all know how much influence Goldman Sachs has with the US Government...

[Divine Discontent]

5. glad to be rec #5 - please, I hope the rest of DU pays attention to what is going on. we should not

be ignorant on this subject. we need to be united and informed - this is disgustingly "corporate" what is occurring and they're being allowed to shit all over the people and the land... WHY???

[HDPaulG]

6. When is sunrise?

"I watched them from about 11:00 P.M 07/02/10 until about lunch the next day excavating the beach under cover of darkness."

You have vampires too? at the cover of darkness at lunch?

Such BS

[sce56]

14. From 11PM to O'Dark Thirty is cover of darkness! At least 6 Hours of night!

Sure does not sound like BS to me!

[PatrynXX]

7. Yeah I don't think the tourists will be coming too much.

Sometimes tourists are smarter than they look. Although I think he's the same guy who did the aerial video's last week and some of the idiots swimming in oil sheen waters off florida. O_O X_X


Which I suppose I could switch the sunscreen with some icy hot cream and pour some down the ears around around their nuts and maybe someone might wake up with a jolt.. Although the ears are quite nice. :P Does that feel better or do you need an ice pick in yer ear.


Because eventually it's gonna burn, your gonna get a rash from swimming in that. Might be better swimming in liquid shit as George Carlin once put it.

[PatrynXX]

8. only good thing about digital camera's

they are sometimes really good with night shots. Although the best method for me to get night shots is with the Sepia Tone setting but whatever. (without the flash) Using a flash would be like...... Kevin Costner in Dances with wolves setting a fire that wes studi notices. :P

[valerief]

9. A resounding YES. nt

[Uncle Joe]

11. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, roxiejules.

[roxiejules]

19. Welcome

[waronbanks]

13. The one silver lining in all this is that it has exposed

our government as completely controlled by the corporation. Now whether Americans decide to do anything about the final, horrible truth is another question. But let there be NO DOUBT...our government and its many agencies including the Coast Guard are working in cooperation with BP to limit the public view of the damage. Our government and BP have conspired to hide the damage being done by this disaster. And they are continuing the coverup as we speak. Even after all that has been exposed of the relationship, they continue in brazen defiance of all that is moral and right. The use of dispersants has turned this into double the disaster and it is all in an attempt to cover it up. Again with the clear support from our government.

If we get anything from this let it be a revolt against the corporate class. Let it be the final straw that turns the average hard working American (or laid off American!) against the clear fascist relationship that has developed between our government and the giant, blood sucking vampire squids we call corporations. If that happens maybe...just maybe the Gulf disaster will at least have some positive meaning to our history.

If not we are all doomed to a world polluted, damaged, wrecked and raped by these monsters.

[sce56]

15. The only problem with all that is they controll the media also.

And now they want to be able to pull the plug on the internets also!



By Mike Zapler

[email protected]
Posted: 07/05/2010 02:52:23 PM PDT
Updated: 07/06/2010 03:12:41 AM PDT

WASHINGTON — Amid amplifying alarms that the U.S. is unprepared for a cyberattack that could cripple electricity grids, shut down water and sewage systems or freeze up the financial system, momentum is building in Congress to pass major legislation to boost the country's cyber defenses.

But as lawmakers appear poised to act within months, privacy advocates are concerned about how much control a new law would vest in the federal government to monitor communications over private networks or to control the Internet in the event of an attack. Yet with CIA Director Leon Panetta recently calling a potential cyberattack one of the most underappreciated national security dangers, the need to do something is not in dispute.

"A full-scale cyberattack," Sen. Joe Lieberman, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said at a June hearing, "could lead to the death and injury of thousands of people, and could cost our economy billions of dollars."

Counterterrorism experts warn that sophisticated cyberattacks could disable aviation systems, force subways to crash, create massive blackouts and cause dams to fail.

After years of discussions about the nation's vulnerabilities, the debate in Washington has gathered steam in recent months, driven in part by the December cyberattack originating from China on Google and dozens of other companies. The fundamental worry is this: With so much of the nation's critical
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infrastructure — from electricity grids to financial systems — run by computers over the Internet, there is no coordinated plan in place to monitor cyber threats or respond to a major attack. Exacerbating the challenge, experts say, is that the vast majority of that infrastructure is controlled by private companies, all having different cybersecurity measures of varying effectiveness.

[Roland99]

16. Um...wtf are they gonna do when MORE oil from the STILL SPEWING GUSHER reaches the shore again?

fucking MORANS!!!

[suzanner]

17. Looks like the kind of cheap, small-thinking fix you'd expect

from people who just don't get how huge this is and are accustomed to cheating. It appears that big corporate America doesn't even consider cheating and chincing wrong anymore, but something to be proud of.

[jimmil]

18. No surprise here....

They did the same thing in Alaska, THE VERY SAME THING!. Watch what I say as it comes true. The locals are being hired so you won't hear anything from them. They need money down there as much as we need it. The oil will be covered up in more ways than one. Once the beaches show no sign of oil that is the signal to BP to pack the rigs and head out of Dodge. The only reason that BP is still around trying to stop the "leak" is that the beaches are being soiled and summer vacation is in full swing. People are pissed that their income is being outsourced to other beaches less oil friendly. Once the oil is buried a few inches BP will point to the southern Gulf and say how beautiful the sunset is with its multi-hues reflecting off the oil and declare their job done. The US government will keep a couple billion dollars as a "fund" for any payoffs that may come up in the future and the public will be holding a huge, dead, greasy Gulf of Mexico that hundreds of millions used to call home and a way of life.

[roxiejules]

20. Well said, jimmil

[shagsak]

21. I have questions

1. Why is there no video footage?
2. Why are there people in close proximity to heavy equipment in the middle of the night - Usually when you go to the beach at night you steer clear of heavy equipment...
3. Why are all of these pictures in photoshop?
4. I cannot distinguish who those people are in the buggy, is this the best documentation we have? Are we just taking the man in the video's word for it?
5. If there are some nighttime and some daytime pictures, why do they all look the same (color, quality, etc.)? That's very difficult to do and an unnecessary step in photo editing.

[roxiejules]

22. Good questions, shagsak

I don't have the answers, but here are a few thoughts:

John Wathen seems to be respected and has been interviewed several times by MSM. He is a photographer and it appears his work is primarily in this medium. Did he photoshop the pictures and make them look like something they're not? I don't know.

Others are also reporting the oil is being covered over with sand and Dr. Riki Ott who mentioned that the same thing happened in Alaska after the Exxon disaster.

I found the "official" explanation from BP about what they are doing to the sand ~ it goes like this:

"There is a long-term treatment plan for Grand Isle which includes the collection and washing of oiled sand including buried oil. Part of this plan includes collecting and storing oiled sand in piles for later cleaning. At no time has clean sand been used to cover or bury oil or oiled sand."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/allison-kilkenny/allegations-emerge-bp-is_b_632954.html

BP's track record on telling us the truth speaks for itself. For right now, I would believe whichever method is cheapest is what they are doing.

[Kitchenchef]

23. I bet this is a made up story

Did you notice the guy didn't go down to the beach and take a picture of the oil? I think this film is fake.

[bertman]

25. New Rules: here's what anyone who wants to photograph or film the

"cleanup" is up against, Kitchenchef.

This is from a recent video by Anderson Cooper of CNN:

"Well, the Coast Guard today announced new rules keeping photographers and reporters and anyone else from coming within 65 feet of any response vessel or booms out on the water or on beaches -- 65 feet.

Now, in order to get closer, you have to get direct permission from the Coast Guard captain of the Port of New Orleans. You have to call up the guy. What this means is that oil-soaked birds on islands surrounded by boom, you can't get close enough to take that picture.

Shots of oil on beaches with booms, stay 65 feet away. Pictures of oil-soaked booms uselessly laying in the water because they haven't been collected like they should, you can't get close enough to see that. And, believe me, that is out there.

But you only know that if you get close to it, and now you can't without permission. Violators could face a fine of $40,000 and Class D felony charges.

What's even more extraordinary is that the Coast Guard tried to make the exclusion zone 300 feet, before scaling it back to 65 feet."



Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2010/07/03/white-house-enacts-rules-inhibiting-media-covering-oil-spill#ixzz0sxWIlJLT


This fellow, John Waffen, is an advocate for the people of the Gulf Coast and is exposing BP and our government's perfidy daily. Do you think they would give him a permit to photograph a beach where they are covering up the oil with fresh beach sand?

[flyarm]

28. Many of us in the Gulf states Know John Wathen..he is well respected by most of the environ folks, .

this is not fake ..nor is the work of John Wathen!!!!!!!!!

The cover ups have been going on by BP and our government from the get go!

From a Fla Gulf Coast resident...and a formerly elected Dem ...

Just because you don't know him and his work does not make you an expert ..nor does it give you any credibility to call someone who has enormous credibility in the Gulf States a fake!

[CrispyQ]

24. BP & our government don't want us to know how bad this is. -nt

[Imagevision]

26. Obama states BP is responsible - even if they have to physically cover it up..

[roxiejules]

27. Latest news: WKRG does story on crews dumping sand on oil

Environmental investigator Watches Crews Dump Sand Over Oil

http://www.wkrg.com/news/article/environmental-engineer-watches-crews-dump-sand-over-oil/903988/Jul-06-2010_11-01-pm/

ORANGE BEACH, Alabama - John Wathen of Tuscaloosa, has been investigating environmental complaints for 15 years. He recently documented crews on the beach burying oil with new sand. It happened at Orange Beach, although Wathen suspects it may be happening at beaches all along the coast.

Wathen works for Hurricane Creekkeepers, in association with Waterkeepers Alliance and several other environmental groups, including Mobile Baykeeper. He has been documenting the oil spill for those groups since right after the spill started.

He found his latest work as crews reported to work just after dark on July 3rd, when big lights went up, and heavy equipment moved in. He says he watched as those crews moved sand from big piles and shoved it toward the beach in an effort to cover up oil stains.

He also believes much of the beach being buried are nesting areas for sea turtles. "They are doing it in an attempt to appease the tourists," he says.

Wathen's pictures have been posted on a couple of websites, including a Facebook page maintained by the Florida group 'Save Our Shores.'

Even before Wathen documented the activity on Orange Beach, the Coast Guard issued a press release which denied such activity. That could be in response to allegations by 'Save Our Shores' that the same type of sand cover-up was also happening at Grand Isle, Louisiana.