Save The Gulf Advocacy: BP Misrepresented Gulf Oil Spill

Gulf Rescue Alliance (GRA) has just sent a briefing package to the Attorney Generals of Alabama and Louisiana, which presents evidence they believe has never seen the light of day concerning how and why of the Deepwater Horizon Disaster and subsequent release of toxic oil into the Gulf, oil that is still gushing from various seabed fractures and fissures. The evidence provided therein clearly indicates: The unmentioned existence of a 3rd Macondo well (the real source of the explosion, DWH sinking and ensuing oil spill.) The current condition of this well being such that it can never be properly capped. The compromised condition of the seabed floor, being such that there are multiple unnatural sources of gushers continuing to pour into the Gulf, with Corexit dispersant still suppressing its visibility. That the highly publicized capped well (Well A) never occurred as reported, and in fact was an abandoned well, hence it was never the source of the millions of gallons released into the Gulf. GRA's special report (a comprehensive compilation of research released by insiders and experts through confidential internet sources) has been forwarded to Congress in advance of BP's upcoming trial on Monday, February 27th in New Orleans, LA. Entitled An Expert's Analysis of ROV Film Footage Taken at the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Disaster Site, it has also been submitted to the appropriate federal, state and county authorities, plaintiff attorneys, and environmental and health advocacy groups, who have a stake in the outcome of the trial.   

Veterans Today: Physicist Dr Paolo Scampa and Fukushima

Widely known Physicist Dr Paolo Scampa, the publisher of the EU AIPRI Blog and an eminent chemical physicist, announced his latest calculations of deadly radioactivity in Tokyo itself. Both the nuclear regulatory and media responses have been missing in action. However, the outrageous statement of a Japanese politician pretty well sum up the level of understanding of the parasitic political class "Smile, and the radiation won't hurt you." The Tokyo suburbs are about 100 miles or 160 km South of the six destroyed, deteriorating and badly leaking nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Station for Nuclear Reactors. Dr Scampa stated: An absorbed dose of 2,94 microSievert/hour at 1 meter of soil means an average deposit of 9,065E5 Bq/m2 of Cs137-0,661MeV-. This amount for 1 meter is in fact situated between a maximum deposit of 5,439E6 Bq/m2 for low level gamma rays from radioactive elements such as U238 (0,0495 MeV) and a minimum deposit of 2,176E5 Bq/m2 of very energetic gamma rays from radioactive elements such as Co60 (2,55 MeV). This dose corresponds to 25 times the maximum permissible "artificial" hour dose (0,114 microSievert/h-1) and five times the maximum permissible total, natural and artificial hour dose (0,571 microSievert/h-1). This is a tragedy of huge proportions. There are 30 Plus Million People in Greater Tokyo. It is brought home personally to each person who sees the work of Fukushima Dairy by Mochizuki. There are thousands of US troops stationed with their families in Japan. American politicians must remove all US troops stationed with their families in Japan!     

Cain Burdeau: BP Faces Billions in Fines as Spill Trial Nears

On the cusp of trial over the catastrophic 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, phalanxes of lawyers, executives and public officials have spent the waning days in settlement talks. Holed up in small groups inside law offices, war rooms and hotel suites in New Orleans and Washington, they are trying to put a number on what BP and its partners in the doomed Macondo well project should pay to make up for the worst offshore spill in US history. It is a complex equation, and the answer is proving elusive. The federal government, Gulf states, plaintiffs' attorneys, BP PLC rig owner Transocean Ltd. and cementer Halliburton Energy Services Inc. have been in simultaneous and separate negotiations in New Orleans, according to a person with direct knowledge of the talks, and others who had been briefed on them. Trial is set for Monday, and by Friday, no deal had been reached, several people familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The biggest stumbling block appeared to be the sheer size and sprawling uncertainty over the unprecedented dollar amounts at stake. Financial analysts estimate BP's potential settlement payout at $15 billion in the weeks after the explosion to account for all its costs, including cleanup, compensating businesses, and paying fines and ecological damage. "This one is off the charts in terms of size and significance," said Eric Schaeffer, the director of the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Regulatory Enforcement. BP has to weigh its chances of getting off cheaper by piecing together a sweeping settlement or put its fate in the handsof one man, a federal judge who will hear testimony in lieu of a jury. 

Allison Weir: Israeli Assassinations and American Presidents

On January 13, the Atlanta Jewish Times featured a column by its owner-publisher suggesting that Israel might someday need to "order a hit" on the president of the United States. In the column, publisher Andrew Adler describes a scenario in which Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu would need to "give the go-ahead for US based Mossad agents to take out a president deemed unfriendly to Israel." The purpose? So that the vice president could then take office and dictate US policies that would help the Jewish state "obliterate its enemies." Adler wrote that it is highly likely that the idea "has been discussed in Israel's most inner circles." Numerous Jewish leaders quickly condemned Adler, who has now apologized for the column, resigned, and put the newspaper up for sale. An Israeli columnist noted that the hatred being stirred up against Obama is similar to conditions in Israel that led to the murder of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by a Jewish extremist. Many of those criticizing Adler claim that he defamed Israel by suggesting that it would never do such a thing. Abe Foxman, head of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), proclaimed: "There is absolutely no excuse, no justification, no rationalization for this kind of rhetoric. It doesn't even belong in fiction." In reality, however, Adler's expectation that Israel's inner circles explored such a course of action, and would be willing to undertake it, may be entirely accurate. The fact is that Israel has killed and plotted to assassinate people throughout the world, a number have been Americans. One alleged was chillingly similar to Adler's suggestion.     

Ken Dilanian: Iran is Pursuing Research, But has not sought to build a nuclear weapon.

As US and Israeli officials talk publicly about the prospect of a military strike against Iran's nuclear program, one fact is often overlooked: US intelligence agencies don't believe Iran is actively trying to build a nuclear bomb. A highly classified US intelligence assessment circulated to policymakers early last year largely affirms that view, originally made in 2007. Both reports, or national intelligence estimates, conclude that Teheran halted efforts to develop and build a nuclear warhead in 2003. The most recent report, which represents the consensus of 16 US intelligence agencies, indicates that Iran is pursuing research that could put it in a position to build a weapon, but that it has not sought to do so. Although Iran continues to enrich uranium at low levels, US officials say they have not seen evidence that has caused them to significantly revise that judgment. Senior US officials say Israel does not dispute the basic intelligence or analysis, but Israel appears to have a lower threshold for action than Washington. It regards Iran as a threat to its existence, and says it will not allow Iran to become capable of building and delivering a nuclear weapon. Some Israeli officials have raised the prospect of a military strike to stop Iran before it's too late. It's unclear how much access US intelligence has in Iran, a problem that bedeviled efforts to determine whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction before the US led invasion in 2003.   

LA Times: Iran and Israel: Who's the Bigger Threat?

Several readers responding to Israeli historian Benny Morris' Feb 14 Op-Ed article calling for a military attack to stop Iran's nuclear program noted that Morris did not acknowledge the Middle East's lone nuclear power: Israel. Some said the doctrine of mutually assured destruction worked for the United States and the Soviet Union, so the likelihood of two nuclear-armed states in the Mideast wiping each other out is minimal. But others who discussed Israel's status as a nuclear power said it, and not Iran, presented the greater threat to peace. Reader Jon Williams of Goleta, California wrote: "Benny Morris' logic goes: Because Tehran is intent on building a nuclear weapon it will undoubtedly use against Israel, the United States, or possibly Russia, must launch a massive preemptive strike against Iran, or else Israel will itself attack Iran with a nuclear weapon. "Talk about holding a gun to the world's head." "Iran does not have a nuclear device, claims not to be building one, and hasn't even talked about striking Israel militarily. Israel, on the other hand, has the bomb now. Who's the greater danger to both Israel and world peace? Israel is dragging the rest of us along into a world of hurt." My logic is simple: Diplomacy and sanctions have not stopped Iran's nuclear program. If it isn't stopped militarily, Iran will have nuclear weapons in the near future. There is a vital difference between a nuclear-armed Israel and a nuclear-armed Iran: The Iranian regime is bad. It assaulted and murdered its own people following President Mahmoud Amadinejad's fraudulent reelection in 2009. It supports terrorists beyond its own borders, including against Israel, and has threatened Israel's destruction.

Ron Paul: The Goernment Intervention in our Economy Will Go Badly

Any number of pundits claim that we have now passed the worst of the recession. Green shoots of recovery are supposedly popping up all around the country, and the economy is expected to resume growing at an annual rate of 3% to 4%. Many of these are the same people who insisted that the economy would continue growing last year, even while it was clear that we were already in the beginning stages of a recession. A false recovery is under way. I am reminded of the outlook in 1930, when the experts were certain that the worst of the depression was over and that recovery was just around the corner. The economy and stock market seemed to be recovering, and there was optimism that the recession, like many of those before it, would be over in a year or less. Instead, the interventionist policies of Hoover and Roosevelt caused the Depression to worsen, and the Dow Jones Industrial average did not recover to 1929 levels until 1954. I fear that our stimulus and bailout programs have already done too much to prevent the economy from recovering in a natural manner, and will result in yet another asset bubble. The only remaining option is to have the Fed create new money out of thin air. This is inflation. Higher prices lead to a devalued dollar and a lower standard of living for Americans. The Fed has already overseen a 95% loss in the dollar's purchasing power since 1913. If we do not stop this profligate spending soon, we risk hyperinflation and seeing a 95% devaluation every year.