17 big questions about the handling of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill

Saturday, June 19, 2010
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com
(NaturalNews) What's clear about the BP oil catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico is that the independent journalists are doing a better job of asking the really tough questions than the mainstream media. Sure, CNN, Fox and others are bringing some attention to the matter, and they've done some solid reporting on it, but they haven't yet found a way to ask the deeper questions like why the U.S. government seems to be colluding with BP to cover up the truth about the spill.

Just the other day, I found an article entitled, "16 Burning Questions About The Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill" on the TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com site (http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/...). It was a really insightful collection of important questions, so I've repeated them below. The author of these questions wasn't mentioned on the page, so I regret I cannot properly attribute the list, but I do think they're worth reviewing, so I've included my own commentary and an extra question below.

Here are the 16 questions:

#1) Barack Obama has authorized the deployment of more than 17,000 National Guard members along the Gulf coast to be used "as needed" by state governors. So what are all of these National Guard troops going to be doing exactly? Are the troops going to be used to stop the oil or to control the public?

Mike's comment: Good question. Much of the response activity to the spill seems to be about controlling the public's perception and limiting media access to the spill site rather than actually cleaning up the mess.

#2) Barack Obama has also announced the creation of a "Gulf recovery czar" who will be in charge of overseeing the restoration of the Gulf of Mexico region following the oil spill. So is appointing a "czar" Obama's idea of taking charge of a situation?

#3) Because it is so incredibly toxic, the UK's Marine Management Organization has completely banned Corexit 9500, so if there was a major oil spill in the UK's North Sea, BP would not be able to use it. So why is BP being allowed to use Corexit 9500 in the Gulf of Mexico?

Mike's answer: Because Corexit kills sea animals and makes them sink and disappear rather than allowing them to wash up on shore where the emotional outcry would be even worse than it is already.

#4) It is being reported that 2.61 parts per million of Corexit 9500 (mixed with oil at a ratio of 1:1o) is lethal to 50% of fish exposed to it within 96 hours. That means that 1 gallon of Corexit 9500/oil mixture is capable of rendering 383,141 gallons of water highly toxic to fish. So why was BP allowed to dump 1,021,000 gallons of Corexit 9500 and Corexit 9527 into the Gulf of Mexico, and why aren't they being stopped from dumping another 805,000 gallons of these dispersants that they have on order into the Gulf?

Mike's answer: Sadly, BP is running the show in the Gulf, not the government! The U.S. government has sold out to private corporations who now think they own the gulf and can run operations there however they see fit.

#5) If these dispersants are so incredibly toxic to fish, what are they going to do to crops? What are they going to do to people?

Mike's answer: They're obviously going to poison the entire Gulf Coast region if hurricanes whip up these chemicals and deposit them on land. We could be looking at a complete wipeout of the Florida citrus industry, for example, if all the worst conditions converge.

#6) If the smell of the oil on some Gulf beaches is already so strong that it burns your nostrils, then what in the world is this oil doing to wildlife that encounter it?

#7) Is it a bad sign that birds from the Gulf region are flocking north by the thousands?

Mike answer: Remember the Tsunami in the Indian ocean a few years back? The animals fled first, while the clueless people stayed behind and got clobbered by the deadly wave. I think a similar thing could be happening in the Gulf. All it takes is one hurricane to turn the entire region into a toxic stew of chemical poison.

#8) Why is BP being allowed to use private security contractors to keep the American people away from the oil cleanup sites?

Mike's answer: Yes, this is the real question. BP is running security in the Gulf the same way Halliburton runs security in the Middle East. The corporate contractors are now the police force in the area, and they're running the Gulf as if they owned it! This is a clear indication that the corporations have taken over our government.

#9) Why is BP openly attempting to manipulate the search results on sites like Google and Yahoo?

#10) Why has the FAA shut down the airspace above the Gulf of Mexico oil spill? What don't they want the American people to see?

Mike's answer: There are lots of answer to this one: The feds probably don't want people in small airplanes taking aerial photos and posting them online (because the Obama administration is working overtime to cover up the truth here, much like the Bush administration did with the flag-draped coffins coming home from war in the Middle East). It could also be that they are planning something really crazy like a deep ocean nuke to collapse the well, and they don't want civilians falling out of the sky when the mushroom cloud appears.

#11) Senator Bill Nelson of Florida says there are reports that there are additional ruptures in the sea floor from which oil is leaking. If there are quite a few of these additional ruptures, then how in the world does BP expect to completely stop this oil leak?

Mike's answer: BP actually doesn't expect to stop this leak anytime soon. They are clearly in full-on spin mode, just trying to deny the truth and spin the words to buy themselves more time to offload stock shares before the whole thing comes tumbling down.

#12) Why are scientists finding concentrations of methane at up to 10,000 times normal background levels in Gulf waters?

Mike's answer: Because BP broke the ocean floor, and now huge volumes of gas hydrates (which contain methane) are bubbling up from places that were previously trapped safely underground.

#13) At some testing stations in the Gulf of Mexico, levels of benzene have been detected at over 3000 parts per billion, and levels of hydrogen sulfide have been detected as high as 1192 parts per billion. Considering that these levels would be highly toxic to humans, why hasn't the general public been warned?

#14) Why are so many Gulf oil spill disaster workers showing up at local hospitals complaining of a "mysterious illness"?

Mike's answer: This is going to be the Gulf War Syndrome of the Gulf Coast. Or the 9/11 asbestos question affecting firefighters. There will be a wave of toxic side effects from the use of chemicals in the Gulf, and both BP and the federal government will predictably deny any link between the chemicals and the health effects for years to come.

#15) If "70% or 80%" of the protective booms are doing absolutely nothing at all to stop the oil, then what is going to stop the millions of gallons of oil in the Gulf from eventually reaching shore?

Mike's answer: Nothing, of course. The oil is going to reach the shore, and there's nothing BP or the feds can do to stop in. In fact, it seems as if they are trying to interfere with the cleanup by halting the barges that were supposed to be vacuuming oil just off the beaches.

#16) It is being reported that the deep sea oil plumes are creating huge "dead zones" where all creatures are dying as they are deprived of oxygen. If this oil spill continues to grow could the vast majority of the Gulf of Mexico become one gigantic "dead zone"?

Mike's answer: Indeed, that is precisely what looks likely to happen. The Gulf of Mexico could become a massive dead zone, adding to the long list of humanity's crimes against the planet. See my related CounterThink cartoon at: http://www.naturalnews.com/029015_a...

I've also added one more question of my own:

#17) Why is our government colluding with BP to cover up the truth about the spill?

Remember the BP press conferences on cable news? A U.S. Coast Guard representative was standing right there beside the BP spokesperson, almost as if she were a subordinate of BP. This is insane! If anything, the US Coast Guard should be telling BP what to do, not the other way around.

And why is the US Coast Guard restricting reporters' access to the spill areas, threatening them with arrest if they "trespass." Trespass into PUBLIC waters? Doesn't anybody realize that BP does not own the Gulf of Mexico and if we want to take our boats out into the Gulf to get some video of what's really happening there, that's our right! But the U.S. government is now working for BP, it seems, and they're trying to protect BP's image by restricting the freedoms of ordinary Americans.

Sound familiar? That's why I think this Gulf of Mexico disaster is another 9/11 reactionary freedom squasher in the works. Just wait... you'll see what kind of freedom-destroying ideas are put forth by our lawmakers in response to this catastrophe. When it's all said and done, it won't only be British Petroleum that loses; it will be all of us.

The Corporatocracy and government collusion
What we're really witnessing here with the BP disaster is our own government colluding with the powerful corporatocracy to cover up the truth all while making it worse by interfering with legitimate cleanup efforts.

It's almost as if the federal government were actively working to worsen the problem and expand the impact of the disaster. But that brings up the question: Why?

Why would our own government worsen a catastrophe? The answer, of course, is right in front of you. Just visit ground zero in New York City and remind yourself of all the various ways the U.S. government expanded its power following the collapse of the twin towers. "Never waste a good crisis" is the mantra of Big Government today, and the easiest way to steal even more power away from the people is to turn a small disaster into a big disaster, then leap in with a "government solution" that enacts some large, oppressive new act that never would have been possible before the disaster.

So what kind of oppressive new laws does the Obama administration want to put in place in response to this disaster? Perhaps government control over all oceans, or government control over all seafood. Maybe they want to outlaw oil over the next 25 years and force everybody to transition to some other form of energy (which may not actually be a bad idea from an ecological perspective, but at what price to freedom?).

There are a thousand other conspiracy theories that try to guess at what the government's true agenda might be in this moment. While it's hard to say which of them (if any) might be true, one thing is crystal clear: The government does not seem interested in solving the problem in the Gulf of Mexico. It is covering up the truth, threatening mainstream journalists who try to photograph the region, restricting air travel over the well site, restricting boat travel anywhere near the spill, and basically lying to the public on a daily basis about what's really happening there.

That alone should make any thinking person suspicious. If the situation were really under control, why would they have to lie about it?

US government poisons its own citizens
There is precedent for believing that the U.S. government might try to poison its own citizens in order to achieve a political goal. During Prohibition, the U.S. government actually released poisoned alcohol in order to harm (or kill) those who were defying the law and drinking liquor.

That story is published today here on NaturalNews.com. Read it to learn more about what our own government may be capable of doing when it wishes to exercise power of the People.

read more

Benzene And Hydrogen Sulfide: The Real Dangers From The Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill?

While most of the attention so far has been on the millions of gallons of oil that have escaped from the damaged BP rig in the Gulf of Mexico, many environmentalists are now wondering if the real danger to humans from this whole crisis may be the massive amounts of benzene and hydrogen sulfide that are escaping into the air. Hydrogen sulfide is a chemical asphyxiant, similar to carbon monoxide and cyanide gases. It causes "biochemical suffocation" by inhibiting cellular respiration and the uptake of oxygen. Benzene is a highly carcinogenic gas that can cause death if inhaled at high enough concentrations. Not only that, benzene has been shown to cause leukemia in all its forms. High levels of both gases have been detected at testing stations in the Gulf of Mexico. In addition, it is being reported that many fishermen in the Gulf that have been assisting with cleanup efforts have been getting seriously ill from breathing that air. There have been reports of symptoms including headaches, nausea, dizziness, burning eyes, coughing, sore throats, and stuffy sinuses. So as this oil spill continues and even more of these gases are released, are people across the southeast United States about to start breathing air that is filled with highly toxic gases? Are we about to see the American Dream turned into a total nightmare for tens of millions of Americans? What some scientists are now telling us about the release of these gases is truly frightening.

At some testing stations in the Gulf of Mexico, levels of benzene have been detected at over 3000 parts per billion (over 3 parts per million). The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration
has set a maximum workplace exposure limit of 1 part of benzene per million parts of air during an 8 hour workday. So already some testing stations in the Gulf of Mexico have detected levels of benzene that are three times higher than what the OSHA considers to be safe.

Not only that, but WWLTV in New Orleans is reporting that hydrogen sulfide has been detected in the Gulf of Mexico at levels as high as 1,192 parts per billion. The concentration threshold at which humans begin to experience physical symptoms from hydrogen sulfide is about 5 to 10 parts per billion.

Needless to say, this is beyond alarming.
read more

BP Death Clouds Already Onshore! Benzene-3400ppb & Hyrdrogen Sulfide-1200ppb TOXIC AIR ALERT

June 14, 2010 — BP Oil Spill:Toxic Gases Spreading Inland, Scientist Says Move Out of Gulf...EVACUATIONS OF THE GULF REGION ARE COMING, FEMA WILL OPEN ITS ONE-WAY DOORS.
Gases such as Hydrogen Sulfide, Benzene, Methylene Chloride, and other toxic gases pose a greater risk to human health than the presence of oil washing up on Gulf of Mexico beaches. The allowable levels of Hydrogen Sulfide and Benzene according to the EPA are 5-10 parts per billion and 0 respectively.The EPA reported the level detected in the Gulf at almost 1,200 PPB for hydrogen sulfide and 3400 PPB for Benzene during the month of May. The amounts pose a serious and even fatal health risk to people and animals.
For some official level reports on these deadly gases click below
http://www.infowars.com/may-levels-of...

As oil washes ashore, Bhopal's lesson is clear Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/washes+ashore+Bhopal+lesson+clear/3148425/story.html#ix

Twenty-five years ago, the world watched in horror as the death toll mounted and mounted in the aftermath of the release of toxic gas from a Union Carbide chemical plant at Bhopal, in north-central India.

The Gazette June 13, 2010 4:05 AM

Death-toll numbers in the disaster will never be better than approximate, but about 3,000 people are believed to have died at once, and another 15,000 since. Others were sickened with permanent consequences. The victim total is believed to be around 25,000 in what is still the world's worst industrial accident.

Back then, the legal issues looked pretty straightforward: How could such careless handling of dangerous chemicals not involve criminal liability? What level of compensation would be reasonable for those affected?

Incredibly, it has taken until this month for the wheels of the Indian justice system to grind to a verdict -and it is not one anybody could call fine.

Eight Indian nationals, former plant managers, were found guilty of causing death by negligence, one posthumously. The district court in Bhopal sentenced the remaining seven to two years in jail, but all are out on bail, pending an appeal. The 4.5-hectare site, deeded to India by the now-defunct Union Carbide, remains strewn with contaminated debris; winds still occasionally send poisonous gases out over nearby neighbourhoods.

Five years after the accident, U.S.-based Union Carbide paid India $450 million in "full and final compensation." Victims received about $550 each. Warren Anderson, the U.S. head of Union Carbide, refused to return to India to face charges; the U.S. has ignored extradition requests.

The lessons from this debacle are painfully obvious, starting with the inexcusable slowness of India's judicial system. According to the Economist, India's courts have a backlog of more than 20 million cases, which by one judge's estimate would take 320 years to clear.

The Bhopal case was unusually slow because of India's insistence on dealing with compensation first. The criminal case did not start until a full three years after the accident, on charges of "culpable homicide not amounting to murder."

Allegedly under political pressure from the Indian government, in 1996 India's Supreme Court reduced the charges and a new trial started.

Indian commentators gave full vent to their outrage last week, accusing their government of putting the interests of foreign investors ahead of the safety and well-being of Indians, especially poor ones. "It's terrible," Rachna Dhingra, of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action, told the Irish Independent. "This is what comes after 25,000 deaths. This is an open invitation to multinational corporations to come and pollute and then leave without (responsibility)."

This is, of course, what people living on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico fear today, as BP and its subcontractors try to push responsibility for the oil spill onto one another's shoulders, as well as onto U.S. regulatory agencies. As the Gulf braces itself for a long cleanup, it should remember the lessons from Bhopal.

BP Oil Rig Explosion - Lindsey Williams - Parts 1 thru 4 of 4

I really don't know. We'll see.
Ming
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June 11, 2010 — A MUST HEAR! Lindsey Williams talks on the Alex Jones Show about the Deepwater Horizon oil well explosion. He states the oil is not the major problem, even though that is a disaster. It gets even worse!