By Ryan Mallett-Outtrim, July 5, 2013. Source: Venezuelanalysis.com
Romero was an iconic advocate for indigenous land rights in Venezuela. Photo: Panorama
A suspect in the murder of Yukpa chief Sabino Romero was arrested in Caracas on Wednesday, but according to interior minister Miguel Rodriguez Torres, more arrests could be made.
Speaking to state broadcaster VTV, Rodriguez stated that the suspect, identified as Angel Romero Bracho, may have been hired by ranchers to assassinate the indigenous land rights activist.
“According to the information we are handling, 400,000 bolivars were offered for the murder of the Chief Sabino Romero,” the minister told VTV on Thursday. Rodriguez also stated that six suspected collaborators in the murder are currently under investigation by the criminal investigation body CICPC and the national intelligence agency SEBIN.
An outspoken advocate for land rights for the indigenous Yukpa people, Romero had, prior to his death, been involved in an unresolved land dispute with cattle ranchers in the Sierra de Perijá, a mountainous region in the west of Venezuela.
In 2009, the government moved to settle the dispute by declaring the nationalisation of 25 ranches in the region. Despite handing Yukpa communities land titles for nationalised land in October 2009, the government repeatedly delayed compensation payments that had been promised to ranchers, many of which refused to surrender their holdings.
In November 2012, Romero and other Yukpa activists protested in Caracas, demanding the government resolve the dispute and take action against alleged violence from ranchers in the Sierra de Perijá. Romero’s father was one of a number of Yukpa involved in the dispute who were killed in recent years.
On March 3 Romero was gunned down in Zulia state by alleged assailants riding a motorcycle, according to authorities. His wife was also injured.
A joint investigation by SEBIN and CICPC previously detained two suspects, who were released due to a lack of evidence.
Rodriguez stated that the suspect was still being questioned on Thursday, and a forensic investigation into his role in the shooting is ongoing. However, the minister indicated that it is likely the case will go to trial.
“This was a murder that caused great sadness throughout the country, as this Yukpa chief dedicated his life to the defence of indigenous peoples and ancestral territories of Venezuelan native ethnic groups,” he said.
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Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog
By Ryan Mallett-Outtrim, July 5, 2013. Source: Venezuelanalysis.com
Romero was an iconic advocate for indigenous land rights in Venezuela. Photo: Panorama
A suspect in the murder of Yukpa chief Sabino Romero was arrested in Caracas on Wednesday, but according to interior minister Miguel Rodriguez Torres, more arrests could be made.
Speaking to state broadcaster VTV, Rodriguez stated that the suspect, identified as Angel Romero Bracho, may have been hired by ranchers to assassinate the indigenous land rights activist.
“According to the information we are handling, 400,000 bolivars were offered for the murder of the Chief Sabino Romero,” the minister told VTV on Thursday. Rodriguez also stated that six suspected collaborators in the murder are currently under investigation by the criminal investigation body CICPC and the national intelligence agency SEBIN.
An outspoken advocate for land rights for the indigenous Yukpa people, Romero had, prior to his death, been involved in an unresolved land dispute with cattle ranchers in the Sierra de Perijá, a mountainous region in the west of Venezuela.
In 2009, the government moved to settle the dispute by declaring the nationalisation of 25 ranches in the region. Despite handing Yukpa communities land titles for nationalised land in October 2009, the government repeatedly delayed compensation payments that had been promised to ranchers, many of which refused to surrender their holdings.
In November 2012, Romero and other Yukpa activists protested in Caracas, demanding the government resolve the dispute and take action against alleged violence from ranchers in the Sierra de Perijá. Romero’s father was one of a number of Yukpa involved in the dispute who were killed in recent years.
On March 3 Romero was gunned down in Zulia state by alleged assailants riding a motorcycle, according to authorities. His wife was also injured.
A joint investigation by SEBIN and CICPC previously detained two suspects, who were released due to a lack of evidence.
Rodriguez stated that the suspect was still being questioned on Thursday, and a forensic investigation into his role in the shooting is ongoing. However, the minister indicated that it is likely the case will go to trial.
“This was a murder that caused great sadness throughout the country, as this Yukpa chief dedicated his life to the defence of indigenous peoples and ancestral territories of Venezuelan native ethnic groups,” he said.
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Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog
KPFK Sojourner Truth Earth Minute: Quebec oil spill highlights dangers of ‘fracked’ oil from Bakken Shale
Filed under Climate Change, Ending the Era of Extreme Energy, Hydrofracking, Oil, Pollution, Tar Sands
Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog
KPFK Sojourner Truth Earth Minute: Quebec oil spill highlights dangers of ‘fracked’ oil from Bakken Shale
Filed under Climate Change, Ending the Era of Extreme Energy, Hydrofracking, Oil, Pollution, Tar Sands
Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog
By David Hasemyer, July 9, 2013. Source: Inside Climate News
Damaged pipe from Enbridge’s 6B pipeline project. The pipe was recently removed near the home of Michigan landowner Jeffrey Insko after hydrostatic testing detected flaws. The flaws were caused when the pipe was pushed through a hole dug under a road. Photo: Jeffrey Insk
An oil pipeline being built across the southern part of Michigan is drawing new scrutiny from state regulators who recently cited the pipeline’s operator—Canadian-owned Enbridge, Inc.—for violating laws that protect Michigan’s waterways.
The violations occurred when Enbridge allowed nearly all the water it was using to test the pipeline’s strength to escape into a creek instead of capturing some of it for treatment—and when the company did not self-report the violationto the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), as required by law.
MDEQ officials told InsideClimate News they will now re-examine reports Enbridge filed after conducting similar tests on two other sections of the line. The new pipeline is supposed to replace Line 6B, which ruptured in 2010 and poured more than a million gallons of heavy Canadian crude oil into the Kalamazoo River.
The reports are important because the agency relies on pipeline operators to follow regulations and to inform officials when things go wrong. Enbridge violated that trust, the state said, when it failed to abide by at least 11 terms of the permit that allowed the company to conduct the test. The violations included not having a qualified operator at the site to supervise the procedure and not properly analyzing the water it put back into the creek.
“We have to rely on all of our permitees to do the reporting correctly and in accordance with their permits,” said Carla Davidson, a senior environment analyst with the MDEQ’s Water Resources Division who signed the citation.
The incident occurred last month when water dirtied with oil, grease and other residue from inside the pipeline flowed unchecked into North Ore Creek in Tyrone Township, a community of less than 10,000 people about 50 miles from Detroit. A nearby landowner saw rust-colored water in the creek and notified pipeline opponents. Their video of the discolored water spraying into the creek was sent to MDEQ.
The company has until July 31 to submit a written plan to the department explaining how it will avoid future violations and ensure that properly trained staff are monitoring operations. In the meantime, analysts in the MDEQ’s water quality division are checking past reports to determine if other violations may have occurred and gone unreported.
Although the MDEQ said the tainted water probably didn’t harm the creek, the incident has upset landowners and local officials who were already leery of the company’s record. After the 2010 spill, Enbridge was fined $3.7 million for breaking as many as two dozen federal pipeline safety rules, and the National Transportation Safety Board reprimanded the company for “a complete breakdown of safety.”
“They think they can come in and do it their way without regard to the local and state rules,” said Tyrone Township Supervisor Mike Cunningham. “But they have to follow the rules.”
The township and Cunningham have butted heads with Enbridge for a year over whether the company should be required to follow local zoning regulations.
“They sometime take for granted they can do what they want,” Cunningham said. “They’ve dropped the ball so many times and they dropped the ball on this one.”
Enbridge spokesman Larry Springer said in an email that “Enbridge takes this matter seriously.” He did not dispute the MDEQ’s findings, but emphasized that no harm had been done to the creek and that the water has already returned to normal. No cleanup has been ordered by MDEQ.
A Glitch in the Test
The problems occurred on June 12 and 13, when Enbridge was testing a newly laid section of Line 6b in Tyrone Township.
The permit allowed Enbridge to withdraw 4.3 million gallons of water a day from the creek so it could conduct a hydrostatic test, which simulates the pressure that will be generated later when the pipe is filled with oil. The goal is to detect any flaws that could cause a rupture, according to information Springer provided.
Enbridge was given permission to discharge 95 percent of the water it used back into the creek. The final 5 percent was supposed to be collected and treated, because it was expected to contain traces of grease and oil from inside the new pipe.
But the operation didn’t go smoothly.
A device called a pig—an apparatus inserted into the pipeline and pushed along by the water to check for flaws—got stuck, so Enbridge pumped air into the line to dislodge it. According to the MDEQ’s Davidson, this procedure could have dislodged additional deposits from inside the pipeline.
On June 12, the amount of oil and grease that spewed into the creek was more than five times the amount allowed by the permit, according to information Enbridge provided later to the MDEQ. Michigan officials believe Enbridge captured less than 2 percent of the water that it was required to treat.
Enbridge was also cited for failing to perform some water quality tests, for improperly conducting other tests and for not having a properly trained supervisor on site.
The company didn’t respond to questions about why trained personnel weren’t on hand or why some of the required tests weren’t performed.
The section of pipe that was tested is part of first phase of Enbridge’s plan to replace the entire 210-mile length of Line 6b from Griffith, Ind. to Ontario, Canada, at a cost of $1.3 billion.
This phase, which involves 75 miles of pipe in Michigan and Indiana, has been delayed nearly a year by property owners angry about the prices Enbridge is paying them for the land it needs for the project.
The new line will be capable of pumping up to 21 million gallons of oil per day—almost double 6B’s pre-spill daily capacity of 11.3 million gallons.
A Geyser of Water
Davidson and her office became aware of the violations after a resident saw the water being discharged into the creek and contacted a lawyer who has represented landowners in their disputes with Enbridge. The attorney then asked environment activist Jake McGraw to take a look.
In an interview, McGraw said he saw a geyser of water spraying about 15 feet into the air.
“The immediate thing I noticed was the color of the water—reddish orange—and how much downstream was that color,” McGraw said. “You couldn’t see any of the usual color of the water because the rust color wasn’t dissipating. It went on downstream for as far as the eye could see.”
The video McGraw shot of the scene was eventually sent to the MDEQ. Davidson said the fact that the water was spewing into the air wasn’t a problem. It was released that way on purpose, she said, to avoid discharging the water into the creek at pressure high enough to scour the river bottom. The real problem, she said, was that the discolored water mixed with oil and grease shouldn’t have gone back into the creek at all, because it was the 5 percent of the test water that Enbridge was supposed to capture.
The MDEQ’s June 28 citation describes the creek banks as being fouled with a red stain and the clear creek water as having turned a muddy color. Although Davidson doesn’t believe the spill created a threat to human health or any permanent damage to North Ore Creek, she said “the rusty water should not have been discharged.”
Springer, the Enbridge spokesman, acknowledged in his email that the last portion of water used in hydrostatic tests typically contains some sediment and rust.
“As a result, the ‘tail end’ of the discharge where the sediment and rust typically accumulates is supposed to be treated separately or taken to an offsite location for treatment and disposal,” he said.
Springer did not explain why that didn’t happen in this case.
Because of the issues raised in the citation issued by Davidson’s regional office, Deborah Quinn and Ken Leanin—senior environment analysts in two other regional offices—are now reviewing reports Enbridge submitted in connection with similar hydrostatic tests.
The first test was done in January and the water discharged into the Kalamazoo River near the town of Marshall, where the 2010 pipeline spill occurred. The second test was in March and the water discharged into the Portage River in St. Joseph County.
“It will take some time, but we intend to thoroughly review the reports for any discrepancies,” Quinn said.
New Worries for Landowners
The news that Enbridge had been cited for violating Michigan environmental laws made David Gallagher even more worried about the Line 6B replacement project, which will come within 12 feet of his house in Ceresco, Mich.
“When you hear something like this it erodes the confidence in Enbridge’s promises,” Gallagher said. “They ask us to trust them and then they have these violations.
“It makes you think in terms of their long-term concern for the environment and the people who have to live with their pipeline in their backyards.”
Carl Weimer, executive director of the Pipeline Safety Trust, a nonprofit watchdog organization based in Bellingham, Wash., said the incident signals a disconnect between the public image pipeline operators try to promote and the reality of their conduct.
“It doesn’t take many times hearing their PR people say ‘We are going above and beyond the regulations’ and come to find out they aren’t,” Weimer said. “It doesn’t take many of those instances when the reality is different from the promises to undermine the public’s trust.”
Weimer said the nation’s pipeline regulations aren’t that onerous and companies like Enbridge can easily afford to comply with them.
“They keep messing up on things they should be doing right,” he said. “It’s one of my frustrations that the industry has the resources and the technology to comply and they choose not to do so.”
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Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog
By David Hasemyer, July 9, 2013. Source: Inside Climate News
Damaged pipe from Enbridge’s 6B pipeline project. The pipe was recently removed near the home of Michigan landowner Jeffrey Insko after hydrostatic testing detected flaws. The flaws were caused when the pipe was pushed through a hole dug under a road. Photo: Jeffrey Insk
An oil pipeline being built across the southern part of Michigan is drawing new scrutiny from state regulators who recently cited the pipeline’s operator—Canadian-owned Enbridge, Inc.—for violating laws that protect Michigan’s waterways.
The violations occurred when Enbridge allowed nearly all the water it was using to test the pipeline’s strength to escape into a creek instead of capturing some of it for treatment—and when the company did not self-report the violationto the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), as required by law.
MDEQ officials told InsideClimate News they will now re-examine reports Enbridge filed after conducting similar tests on two other sections of the line. The new pipeline is supposed to replace Line 6B, which ruptured in 2010 and poured more than a million gallons of heavy Canadian crude oil into the Kalamazoo River.
The reports are important because the agency relies on pipeline operators to follow regulations and to inform officials when things go wrong. Enbridge violated that trust, the state said, when it failed to abide by at least 11 terms of the permit that allowed the company to conduct the test. The violations included not having a qualified operator at the site to supervise the procedure and not properly analyzing the water it put back into the creek.
“We have to rely on all of our permitees to do the reporting correctly and in accordance with their permits,” said Carla Davidson, a senior environment analyst with the MDEQ’s Water Resources Division who signed the citation.
The incident occurred last month when water dirtied with oil, grease and other residue from inside the pipeline flowed unchecked into North Ore Creek in Tyrone Township, a community of less than 10,000 people about 50 miles from Detroit. A nearby landowner saw rust-colored water in the creek and notified pipeline opponents. Their video of the discolored water spraying into the creek was sent to MDEQ.
The company has until July 31 to submit a written plan to the department explaining how it will avoid future violations and ensure that properly trained staff are monitoring operations. In the meantime, analysts in the MDEQ’s water quality division are checking past reports to determine if other violations may have occurred and gone unreported.
Although the MDEQ said the tainted water probably didn’t harm the creek, the incident has upset landowners and local officials who were already leery of the company’s record. After the 2010 spill, Enbridge was fined $3.7 million for breaking as many as two dozen federal pipeline safety rules, and the National Transportation Safety Board reprimanded the company for “a complete breakdown of safety.”
“They think they can come in and do it their way without regard to the local and state rules,” said Tyrone Township Supervisor Mike Cunningham. “But they have to follow the rules.”
The township and Cunningham have butted heads with Enbridge for a year over whether the company should be required to follow local zoning regulations.
“They sometime take for granted they can do what they want,” Cunningham said. “They’ve dropped the ball so many times and they dropped the ball on this one.”
Enbridge spokesman Larry Springer said in an email that “Enbridge takes this matter seriously.” He did not dispute the MDEQ’s findings, but emphasized that no harm had been done to the creek and that the water has already returned to normal. No cleanup has been ordered by MDEQ.
A Glitch in the Test
The problems occurred on June 12 and 13, when Enbridge was testing a newly laid section of Line 6b in Tyrone Township.
The permit allowed Enbridge to withdraw 4.3 million gallons of water a day from the creek so it could conduct a hydrostatic test, which simulates the pressure that will be generated later when the pipe is filled with oil. The goal is to detect any flaws that could cause a rupture, according to information Springer provided.
Enbridge was given permission to discharge 95 percent of the water it used back into the creek. The final 5 percent was supposed to be collected and treated, because it was expected to contain traces of grease and oil from inside the new pipe.
But the operation didn’t go smoothly.
A device called a pig—an apparatus inserted into the pipeline and pushed along by the water to check for flaws—got stuck, so Enbridge pumped air into the line to dislodge it. According to the MDEQ’s Davidson, this procedure could have dislodged additional deposits from inside the pipeline.
On June 12, the amount of oil and grease that spewed into the creek was more than five times the amount allowed by the permit, according to information Enbridge provided later to the MDEQ. Michigan officials believe Enbridge captured less than 2 percent of the water that it was required to treat.
Enbridge was also cited for failing to perform some water quality tests, for improperly conducting other tests and for not having a properly trained supervisor on site.
The company didn’t respond to questions about why trained personnel weren’t on hand or why some of the required tests weren’t performed.
The section of pipe that was tested is part of first phase of Enbridge’s plan to replace the entire 210-mile length of Line 6b from Griffith, Ind. to Ontario, Canada, at a cost of $1.3 billion.
This phase, which involves 75 miles of pipe in Michigan and Indiana, has been delayed nearly a year by property owners angry about the prices Enbridge is paying them for the land it needs for the project.
The new line will be capable of pumping up to 21 million gallons of oil per day—almost double 6B’s pre-spill daily capacity of 11.3 million gallons.
A Geyser of Water
Davidson and her office became aware of the violations after a resident saw the water being discharged into the creek and contacted a lawyer who has represented landowners in their disputes with Enbridge. The attorney then asked environment activist Jake McGraw to take a look.
In an interview, McGraw said he saw a geyser of water spraying about 15 feet into the air.
“The immediate thing I noticed was the color of the water—reddish orange—and how much downstream was that color,” McGraw said. “You couldn’t see any of the usual color of the water because the rust color wasn’t dissipating. It went on downstream for as far as the eye could see.”
The video McGraw shot of the scene was eventually sent to the MDEQ. Davidson said the fact that the water was spewing into the air wasn’t a problem. It was released that way on purpose, she said, to avoid discharging the water into the creek at pressure high enough to scour the river bottom. The real problem, she said, was that the discolored water mixed with oil and grease shouldn’t have gone back into the creek at all, because it was the 5 percent of the test water that Enbridge was supposed to capture.
The MDEQ’s June 28 citation describes the creek banks as being fouled with a red stain and the clear creek water as having turned a muddy color. Although Davidson doesn’t believe the spill created a threat to human health or any permanent damage to North Ore Creek, she said “the rusty water should not have been discharged.”
Springer, the Enbridge spokesman, acknowledged in his email that the last portion of water used in hydrostatic tests typically contains some sediment and rust.
“As a result, the ‘tail end’ of the discharge where the sediment and rust typically accumulates is supposed to be treated separately or taken to an offsite location for treatment and disposal,” he said.
Springer did not explain why that didn’t happen in this case.
Because of the issues raised in the citation issued by Davidson’s regional office, Deborah Quinn and Ken Leanin—senior environment analysts in two other regional offices—are now reviewing reports Enbridge submitted in connection with similar hydrostatic tests.
The first test was done in January and the water discharged into the Kalamazoo River near the town of Marshall, where the 2010 pipeline spill occurred. The second test was in March and the water discharged into the Portage River in St. Joseph County.
“It will take some time, but we intend to thoroughly review the reports for any discrepancies,” Quinn said.
New Worries for Landowners
The news that Enbridge had been cited for violating Michigan environmental laws made David Gallagher even more worried about the Line 6B replacement project, which will come within 12 feet of his house in Ceresco, Mich.
“When you hear something like this it erodes the confidence in Enbridge’s promises,” Gallagher said. “They ask us to trust them and then they have these violations.
“It makes you think in terms of their long-term concern for the environment and the people who have to live with their pipeline in their backyards.”
Carl Weimer, executive director of the Pipeline Safety Trust, a nonprofit watchdog organization based in Bellingham, Wash., said the incident signals a disconnect between the public image pipeline operators try to promote and the reality of their conduct.
“It doesn’t take many times hearing their PR people say ‘We are going above and beyond the regulations’ and come to find out they aren’t,” Weimer said. “It doesn’t take many of those instances when the reality is different from the promises to undermine the public’s trust.”
Weimer said the nation’s pipeline regulations aren’t that onerous and companies like Enbridge can easily afford to comply with them.
“They keep messing up on things they should be doing right,” he said. “It’s one of my frustrations that the industry has the resources and the technology to comply and they choose not to do so.”
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Peru: Police fire on Cajamarca protestors…again
By Bill Weinberg, July 8, 2013. Source: World War 4 Report
National Police troops in Peru’s Cajamarca region opened fire July 6 on campesinos attempting to attend the public presentation of an environmental impact statement on the Chadín II hydro-electric project at the highland town of Celendín, witnesses said. According to a statement from the group Tierra y Libertad, nine were wounded when the troops fired on the opponents of the project who were trying to gain access to the public building where the meeting was being held. Marle Libaque Tasilla, a leader of the local ronda,or peasant self-defense patrol, and an organizer for Tierra y Libertad, said that among the injured is the noted Peruvian environmentalist Nicanor Alvarado Carrasco.
The Chadín II project is conceived to speed the development of mining projects in Cajamarca, and is slated to provide energy to the Yanacocha company which is developing the controversial Conga project. Thousands of local residents stand to be displaced by the Chadín II project, which would flood some 3,000 hectares along the Río Marañon, a major tributary of the Amazon. Protests against the hydro project were held in the affected communities late last year. (Tierra y Libertad via Kaos en La Red, July 7; NoticiasSER, Dec. 12)
The shooting incident occurred three days after Celendín held official commemorations for thefive campesinos killed by National Police last July during protests against the Conga project. A special mass was held at Celendín’s church, followed by a public procession to the cemetery where the martyrs lie bured. (Celendin Libre, July 4)
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By Steve Horn, July 8, 2013. Source: DeSmog Blog
Neither Secretary of State John Kerry nor President Barack Obama could tell you the exact route that the pipeline would travel through countless neighborhoods, farms, waterways and scenic areas between Alberta’s tar sands and oil refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast.
A letter from the State Department denying an information request to a California man confirms that the exact route of the Keystone XL export pipeline remains a mystery, as DeSmog recently revealed.
Generic maps exist on both the State Department and TransCanada websites, but maps with precise GIS data remain the proprietary information of TransCanada and its chosen oil industry contractors.
Thomas Bachand, a San Francisco-based photographer, author, and web developer discovered this the hard way. A year and a half after he first filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking the GIS data for his Keystone Mapping Project, Mr. Bachand received a troubling response from the State Department denying his request.
In the letter, the State Department admits that it doesn’t have any idea about the exact pipeline route – and that it never asked for the basic mapping data to evaluate the potential impacts of the pipeline.
Where will KXL intersect rivers or cross ponds that provide drinking water? What prized hunting grounds and fishing holes might be ruined by a spill? How can communities prepare for possible incidents?
The U.S. State Department seems confident in letting the tar sands industry – led in this instance by TransCanada, whose notorious track record with Keystone 1 includes more than a dozen spills in its first year of operation - place its pipeline wherever it wishes.
“[State] does not have copies of records responsive to your request because the Environmental Impact Statement for the Keystone pipeline project was created by Cardno ENTRIX under a contract financed by TransCanada Keystone Pipeline LP, and not the U.S. government,” reads the State Department’s letter denying Bachand’s information request.
“Neither Cardno ENTRIX nor TransCanada ever submitted GIS information to the Department of State, nor was either corporation required to do so. The information that you request, if it exists, is therefore neither physically nor constructively under the control of the Department of State and we are therefore unable to comply with your FOIA request.”
As Mr. Bachand pointed out in a July 3 blog post: ”Without this digital mapping information, the Keystone XL’s Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) and Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) are incomplete and cannot be evaluated for environmental impacts.”
When Mr. Bachand asked TransCanada for GIS data, the company said it couldn’t supply it due to “national security” concerns.
Mr. Bachand’s failed attempt to obtain basic information on the pipeline route exemplifies the recurring problems with the Obama State Department’s botched review of the environmental and climate impacts of the Keystone XL pipeline: huge information gaps, conflicts of interest, industry lobbying muscle and bureaucratic bungling of the process.
As it turns out, TransCanada and its contractors have complete control over critical aspects of the review process, calling into question what else we don’t know thanks to the Obama administration’s poor handling of the most controversial pipeline decision in recent history.
API Dues-Paying Member Did Latest SEIS
The State Department handed over responsibility for preparing the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) to an American Petroleum Institute (API) dues-paying member, Environmental Resources Management, Inc. (ERM Group) – a firm with historic ties to Big Tobacco, as well as two other Big Oil-tied contractors.
State originally redacted the biography of one of the co-authors of the environmental study, Andrew Bielakowski, who had worked on three previous TransCanada-sponsored studies for ERM Group. Adding to the scandal, ERM has a history of rubber-stamping ecologically hazardous pipelines, including two high-profile projects in the Caspian Sea and in Peru.
Since TransCanada’s June 2008 Keystone XL proposal, API has spent over $22 million lobbying at the federal level for the pipeline and tar sands expansion. Furthermore, two of API’s lobbyists tasked to do KXL influence peddling also have close ties to the Obama Administration.
Marty Durbin, the nephew of U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), formerly lobbied for API on behalf of Keystone XL. Durbin was President Obama’s former U.S. Senate colleague from Illinois before Obama won the presidency in 2008.
API also hired Ogilvy Government Relations to lobby for Keystone XL in 2012, andone of Ogilvy’s key hired guns lobbying on behalf of API on KXL is Moses Mercado. In addition to serving as a key aide to Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign and as a super delegate representing Texas for the 2008 Democratic National Convention, Mercado also served as campaign director in New Mexico for Secretary of State John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign.
Unresolved Questions Plague State Department Review
Thomas Bachand asked all the right questions in his blog post reacting to the denial of his FOIA requesting the GIS route data.
“Did the DOS, TransCanada, and Cardno ENTRIX all fail to perform due diligence in this case only – or is this standard operating procedure?,” he asked. “Why hasn’t TransCanada supplied, Cardno ENTRIX seen fit to include, or the DOS requested, electronic data of such national importance? How does the DOS evaluate such national security, economic, and environmental interests without the electronic data?”
These are important questions that Secretary Kerry, and ultimately President Obama, must answer. The fact that neither man has any clue where TransCanada intends to place the Keystone XL pipeline is a troubling revelation that demands immediate and thorough scrutiny.
Without this basic information on where the pipeline would be located, how can the State Department and the White House form an educated analysis of the potential impacts of a tar sands dilbit spill in a neighborhood like Mayflower, Arkansas?
How many schools, backyards, drinking water sources and treasured fishing and hunting spots might be in danger of being ruined by a spill? The answer is, nobody knows, except the oil industry.
Imagine that concerned citizens in northern states hadn’t raised their voices to question TransCanada’s intention to run the pipeline across the heart of the Ogallala Aquifer, their drinking water supply and the spigot for huge swaths of American agriculture. What else wouldn’t we learn about the potentially devastating impacts of the Keystone XL pipeline?
Keystone XL is not only a dangerous gamble with our health and climate, it is also turning out to be a great example of the oil industry’s iron grip on our democracy.
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Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog
By Steve Horn, July 8, 2013. Source: DeSmog Blog
Neither Secretary of State John Kerry nor President Barack Obama could tell you the exact route that the pipeline would travel through countless neighborhoods, farms, waterways and scenic areas between Alberta’s tar sands and oil refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast.
A letter from the State Department denying an information request to a California man confirms that the exact route of the Keystone XL export pipeline remains a mystery, as DeSmog recently revealed.
Generic maps exist on both the State Department and TransCanada websites, but maps with precise GIS data remain the proprietary information of TransCanada and its chosen oil industry contractors.
Thomas Bachand, a San Francisco-based photographer, author, and web developer discovered this the hard way. A year and a half after he first filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking the GIS data for his Keystone Mapping Project, Mr. Bachand received a troubling response from the State Department denying his request.
In the letter, the State Department admits that it doesn’t have any idea about the exact pipeline route – and that it never asked for the basic mapping data to evaluate the potential impacts of the pipeline.
Where will KXL intersect rivers or cross ponds that provide drinking water? What prized hunting grounds and fishing holes might be ruined by a spill? How can communities prepare for possible incidents?
The U.S. State Department seems confident in letting the tar sands industry – led in this instance by TransCanada, whose notorious track record with Keystone 1 includes more than a dozen spills in its first year of operation - place its pipeline wherever it wishes.
“[State] does not have copies of records responsive to your request because the Environmental Impact Statement for the Keystone pipeline project was created by Cardno ENTRIX under a contract financed by TransCanada Keystone Pipeline LP, and not the U.S. government,” reads the State Department’s letter denying Bachand’s information request.
“Neither Cardno ENTRIX nor TransCanada ever submitted GIS information to the Department of State, nor was either corporation required to do so. The information that you request, if it exists, is therefore neither physically nor constructively under the control of the Department of State and we are therefore unable to comply with your FOIA request.”
As Mr. Bachand pointed out in a July 3 blog post: ”Without this digital mapping information, the Keystone XL’s Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) and Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) are incomplete and cannot be evaluated for environmental impacts.”
When Mr. Bachand asked TransCanada for GIS data, the company said it couldn’t supply it due to “national security” concerns.
Mr. Bachand’s failed attempt to obtain basic information on the pipeline route exemplifies the recurring problems with the Obama State Department’s botched review of the environmental and climate impacts of the Keystone XL pipeline: huge information gaps, conflicts of interest, industry lobbying muscle and bureaucratic bungling of the process.
As it turns out, TransCanada and its contractors have complete control over critical aspects of the review process, calling into question what else we don’t know thanks to the Obama administration’s poor handling of the most controversial pipeline decision in recent history.
API Dues-Paying Member Did Latest SEIS
The State Department handed over responsibility for preparing the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) to an American Petroleum Institute (API) dues-paying member, Environmental Resources Management, Inc. (ERM Group) – a firm with historic ties to Big Tobacco, as well as two other Big Oil-tied contractors.
State originally redacted the biography of one of the co-authors of the environmental study, Andrew Bielakowski, who had worked on three previous TransCanada-sponsored studies for ERM Group. Adding to the scandal, ERM has a history of rubber-stamping ecologically hazardous pipelines, including two high-profile projects in the Caspian Sea and in Peru.
Since TransCanada’s June 2008 Keystone XL proposal, API has spent over $22 million lobbying at the federal level for the pipeline and tar sands expansion. Furthermore, two of API’s lobbyists tasked to do KXL influence peddling also have close ties to the Obama Administration.
Marty Durbin, the nephew of U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), formerly lobbied for API on behalf of Keystone XL. Durbin was President Obama’s former U.S. Senate colleague from Illinois before Obama won the presidency in 2008.
API also hired Ogilvy Government Relations to lobby for Keystone XL in 2012, andone of Ogilvy’s key hired guns lobbying on behalf of API on KXL is Moses Mercado. In addition to serving as a key aide to Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign and as a super delegate representing Texas for the 2008 Democratic National Convention, Mercado also served as campaign director in New Mexico for Secretary of State John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign.
Unresolved Questions Plague State Department Review
Thomas Bachand asked all the right questions in his blog post reacting to the denial of his FOIA requesting the GIS route data.
“Did the DOS, TransCanada, and Cardno ENTRIX all fail to perform due diligence in this case only – or is this standard operating procedure?,” he asked. “Why hasn’t TransCanada supplied, Cardno ENTRIX seen fit to include, or the DOS requested, electronic data of such national importance? How does the DOS evaluate such national security, economic, and environmental interests without the electronic data?”
These are important questions that Secretary Kerry, and ultimately President Obama, must answer. The fact that neither man has any clue where TransCanada intends to place the Keystone XL pipeline is a troubling revelation that demands immediate and thorough scrutiny.
Without this basic information on where the pipeline would be located, how can the State Department and the White House form an educated analysis of the potential impacts of a tar sands dilbit spill in a neighborhood like Mayflower, Arkansas?
How many schools, backyards, drinking water sources and treasured fishing and hunting spots might be in danger of being ruined by a spill? The answer is, nobody knows, except the oil industry.
Imagine that concerned citizens in northern states hadn’t raised their voices to question TransCanada’s intention to run the pipeline across the heart of the Ogallala Aquifer, their drinking water supply and the spigot for huge swaths of American agriculture. What else wouldn’t we learn about the potentially devastating impacts of the Keystone XL pipeline?
Keystone XL is not only a dangerous gamble with our health and climate, it is also turning out to be a great example of the oil industry’s iron grip on our democracy.
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Rapper Mos Def undergoes Guantánomo Bay-style force feeding
Note: The following video is extremely graphic and difficult to watch. However, Global Justice Ecology Project believes it is essential to understanding the inhumane torture being inflicted upon innocent hunger-strikers, many of whom have been accused of no specific crimes and are being detained indefinitely, at Guantánmo Bay.
The hunger strikers who are being tortured are victims of the American Empire. The US has a despicable history of ‘liberating’ peoples from oppressive regimes ,while simultaneously torturing innocent civilians within its own prisons, at home and abroad, all in the name of the ill-conceived ‘War on Terror.’ In the ‘War on Terror’ the American Empire is responsible for more death, more suffering, and more destruction than all the other supposed terrorists combined.
-The GJEP Team
By Ben Ferguson, July 9, 2013. Source: The Guardian
Yasiin Bey, formerly known as Mos Def, had agreed to submit his body and fame to a form of torture. The body bit would involve being chained to a feeding chair while doctors inserted more than a metre of rubber tubing up his nose, down his throat and into his stomach. His fame would hopefully draw attention to that fact that this is happening daily to 45 hunger strikers in Guantánamo Bay.
Reprieve has always been well aware that in its fight against human rights abuses there is no substitute for the court of public opinion. Clive Stafford Smith, the organisation’s founder, is often the first to volunteer himself for some sort of extreme treatment but, in his words, “nobody has the faintest clue who I am”. Which was why I had agreed to ask Bey.
We met at his hotel. David Morrissey, a patron of Reprieve, had brought in Asif Kapadia (the documentary maker behind Senna) to direct the film and together they discussed its style and aims. Meanwhile Kat Craig, legal director of Reprieve’s Guantánamo team, had called on Dr Adeeb Husain to perform the medical procedure and talk Bey through what was going to happen the next day.
Having volunteered to fast that day, Bey was tired and by now it was late. Despite this, he was attentive. His only request to the doctors was that they manipulate nothing and reproduce the experience of the detainees as accurately as possible. He hung on every word as Craig related the testimonies of Reprieve’s clients.
She read from the account of Samir Mokbel, who said to his lawyers: “I will never forget the first time they passed the feeding tube up my nose. I can’t describe how painful it is to be force-fed this way. As it was thrust in, it made me feel like throwing up. I wanted to vomit, but I couldn’t. There was agony in my chest, throat and stomach. I had never experienced such pain before. I would not wish this cruel punishment on anyone.”
I collected Bey from his hotel at 10am the next day. His mood was upbeat, his focus firmly on what was about to happen. The stories he had read of Shaker Aamer, whose detainment came before the birth of his child, seemed to strike the strongest chord. He texted his own wife and sent his family love as we arrived at our destination.
Hunger-strikers at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba are being force in this room at the detention center. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
There was no rehearsal: after all, no acting would be required. He swapped his black leather jacket, jeans and designer shoes for an orange jumpsuit. In an instant, he was no longer Mos Def – rapper and Hollywood star – but a powerless prisoner. Morrissey and I were to be the “guards”. We shackled his wrists and legs. Then we chained them tighter and tighter, to be sure he couldn’t get loose.
We were already oblivious to the cameras. The doctor lubricated the tubing and without warning began feeding it up Bey’s nose. He squirmed and spluttered. A second doctor held Bey’s face in place as he began to yell out. Morrissey adjusted his grip and locked his forearm around Bey’s brow. The fight continued and grew in intensity. Bey freed one arm and writhed so hard the tubes fell out.
By now the doctors were shaking. But there was a job to be done. I pinned down the loose arm so the “detainee” couldn’t interfere with the tubes while Morrissey pushed down on his chest in an attempt to give the doctors some space. They lubricated the tube once more and went in for a second attempt.
“Stop, stop, Asif, please stop!” Bey screamed. In that moment it was clear there was nothing “pretend” about what was happening. We were instantly shocked out of our assigned roles. “I can’t do it, I’m so sorry,” Bey spluttered. “I’m so sorry.”
What had we done? Was this a stunt too far? He wept as Morrissey gently rubbed his back. “It’s OK,” he said, “it’s over now.” Still chained, this famous artist had become in an instant so small. He seemed overwhelmed by his own brief glimpse at the humiliation that his country inflicts on its prisoners.
As the room calmed, we smoked cigarettes and talked about the US’s decision to hold these men, some of whom have been cleared for release. “How is continuing to hold them politically expedient?” he asked. “This isn’t embarrassing?”
Safe in the car as we drove away, he turned the music up. “These people have no idea,” he remarked as we sped through the West End of London, busy with shoppers, and we continued in silence until we reached his hotel
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Note: Predisposition to explosion aside, the resounding answer to the question, “Can we safely transport tar sands” is, “of course not.” If tar sands are being transported, it means they are being extracted at one end, refined and burned on the other. That means First Nations in Alberta are being poisoned, and their land base destroyed. And it means communities in places like the ‘Toxic East End’ of Houston, Tx. are being poisoned, essentially trapped into breathing a chemical cocktail due to decades of environmental racism.
The oil and pipeline industries will surely to use this event to justify building more pipelines. But let us not be distracted by the issue at hand: we oppose pipelines – and transporting oil via rail, ship, truck, or any other means – because we oppose its extraction and consumption. There is NO safe way to extract, transport or burn oil, especially tar sands.
-The GJEP Team
By Jonathan Flanders, July 8, 2013. Source: Counterpunch
My last years working as a railroad machinist were spent working on locomotive air brakes. In most situations, the system is fail safe. I always chuckle when I see a movie where a train separates, as it did in the latest James Bond thriller, and both ends of the train keep going. This is close to impossible in real life, the air brake system automatically will go into emergency braking if there is a break in two. When a locomotive engineer applies the brakes to a train, he or she makes a “reduction”of the equalizing or control air, which then triggers a brake application. This reduction of equalizing air, in the case of a break is the key to emergency brake applications. There is much more to the system, of course as it was refined over time, but its all based on this concept.
What we know so far in Quebec, is that the oil train was parked on a grade. The brakes were set by the crew, at some point the brakes came off, and the train rolled into the little town of Lac-Megantic, derailed and exploded, leaving many dead and the town devastated.
Why would the brakes come off? After all, I seriously question that this was the first train parked on this grade, it must have been a routine practice for a crew, they must have felt that this was not a big risk. And most of the time it probably wasn’t.
But where you have compressed air running through valves and pipes you have the possibility of leaks. On my job, the locomotive generally was considered OK for service if it had a leak of less than three pounds per minute. As I remember, the passing score for an entire train, which is tested before departure, is eight pounds per minute. Hopefully of course it will be much less than that. When I was working, I always tried to achieve no leaks on the locomotive itself before it left the shop.
An entire train, however, is another matter. You have train line hoses linked between every car, and piping from the small reservoir on each car, all potential leak sites. Given this I have to wonder why it was routine to park a heavy oil train on a grade. You just have to do some simple math to figure out how long it would take for a leaking pipe to drain the air from the system. Air is stored in the locomotive reservoirs at 130 psi, the train line is 90 psi. And remember, you are allowed 3lbs per minute for the locomotive and a bit more for the train.
So this train, part of the massively growing “pipeline on rails”, which takes advantage of the lack of sufficient pipeline capacity, was pulling more than 70 cars, loaded with crude oil. If it was only crude oil, you would have to wonder why the explosion? Crude is more like tar than the gasoline we put in our cars. In order to ship crude by rail or pipeline however, it has to be diluted for it to flow easily. Dilbit, which I guess must be short hand for “diluted bitumen”, is the standard substance used. According to Wikipedia, dilbit is made up of bitumen diluted with “natural gas condensate.” And guess what, this condensate is sometimes called “natural gasoline.” Gasoline? No wonder the town of Lac-Megantic blew up.
So there you have it, whether its being transported by the “pipeline on rails” or the Keystone pipeline, you have not only the possibility of spills, but also massive explosions as in Quebec.
The debate needs to move from mode of transport to whether this tar sands muck can be safely transported at all.
Jonathan Flanders spent 25 years as a Railroad Machinist, member and past President of IAM 1145. Steering committee member of Railroad Workers United. Retired.
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Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog
Note: Predisposition to explosion aside, the resounding answer to the question, “Can we safely transport tar sands” is, “of course not.” If tar sands are being transported, it means they are being extracted at one end, refined and burned on the other. That means First Nations in Alberta are being poisoned, and their land base destroyed. And it means communities in places like the ‘Toxic East End’ of Houston, Tx. are being poisoned, essentially trapped into breathing a chemical cocktail due to decades of environmental racism.
The oil and pipeline industries will surely to use this event to justify building more pipelines. But let us not be distracted by the issue at hand: we oppose pipelines – and transporting oil via rail, ship, truck, or any other means – because we oppose its extraction and consumption. There is NO safe way to extract, transport or burn oil, especially tar sands.
-The GJEP Team
By Jonathan Flanders, July 8, 2013. Source: Counterpunch
My last years working as a railroad machinist were spent working on locomotive air brakes. In most situations, the system is fail safe. I always chuckle when I see a movie where a train separates, as it did in the latest James Bond thriller, and both ends of the train keep going. This is close to impossible in real life, the air brake system automatically will go into emergency braking if there is a break in two. When a locomotive engineer applies the brakes to a train, he or she makes a “reduction”of the equalizing or control air, which then triggers a brake application. This reduction of equalizing air, in the case of a break is the key to emergency brake applications. There is much more to the system, of course as it was refined over time, but its all based on this concept.
What we know so far in Quebec, is that the oil train was parked on a grade. The brakes were set by the crew, at some point the brakes came off, and the train rolled into the little town of Lac-Megantic, derailed and exploded, leaving many dead and the town devastated.
Why would the brakes come off? After all, I seriously question that this was the first train parked on this grade, it must have been a routine practice for a crew, they must have felt that this was not a big risk. And most of the time it probably wasn’t.
But where you have compressed air running through valves and pipes you have the possibility of leaks. On my job, the locomotive generally was considered OK for service if it had a leak of less than three pounds per minute. As I remember, the passing score for an entire train, which is tested before departure, is eight pounds per minute. Hopefully of course it will be much less than that. When I was working, I always tried to achieve no leaks on the locomotive itself before it left the shop.
An entire train, however, is another matter. You have train line hoses linked between every car, and piping from the small reservoir on each car, all potential leak sites. Given this I have to wonder why it was routine to park a heavy oil train on a grade. You just have to do some simple math to figure out how long it would take for a leaking pipe to drain the air from the system. Air is stored in the locomotive reservoirs at 130 psi, the train line is 90 psi. And remember, you are allowed 3lbs per minute for the locomotive and a bit more for the train.
So this train, part of the massively growing “pipeline on rails”, which takes advantage of the lack of sufficient pipeline capacity, was pulling more than 70 cars, loaded with crude oil. If it was only crude oil, you would have to wonder why the explosion? Crude is more like tar than the gasoline we put in our cars. In order to ship crude by rail or pipeline however, it has to be diluted for it to flow easily. Dilbit, which I guess must be short hand for “diluted bitumen”, is the standard substance used. According to Wikipedia, dilbit is made up of bitumen diluted with “natural gas condensate.” And guess what, this condensate is sometimes called “natural gasoline.” Gasoline? No wonder the town of Lac-Megantic blew up.
So there you have it, whether its being transported by the “pipeline on rails” or the Keystone pipeline, you have not only the possibility of spills, but also massive explosions as in Quebec.
The debate needs to move from mode of transport to whether this tar sands muck can be safely transported at all.
Jonathan Flanders spent 25 years as a Railroad Machinist, member and past President of IAM 1145. Steering committee member of Railroad Workers United. Retired.
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Whistleblowers blast NSA programs, award Snowden
July 8, 2013. Source: Institute for Public Accuracy
Edward Snowden has been named recipient of this year’s “award for truth telling” given by Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence. The following are members of the group or past recipients of the award. The group’s statement is below.
DANIEL ELLSBERG
Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971. He wrote an op-ed that was published today in theWashington Post, which notes that “for the whole two years I was under indictment, I was free to speak to the media and at rallies and public lectures. I was, after all, part of a movement against an ongoing war. … There is no chance that experience could be reproduced today, let alone that a trial could be terminated by the revelation of White House actions against a defendant that were clearly criminal in Richard Nixon’s era … There is zero chance that [Snowden] would be allowed out on bail if he returned now and close to no chance that, had he not left the country, he would have been granted bail. Instead, he would be in a prison cell like Bradley Manning, incommunicado….”
Ellsberg concludes: “What [Snowden] has given us is our best chance — if we respond to his information and his challenge — to rescue ourselves from out-of-control surveillance that shifts all practical power to the executive branch and its intelligence agencies: a United Stasi of America.”
RAY McGOVERN, rrmcgovern at gmail.com
McGovern is a veteran CIA analyst. He wrote an op-ed that was published today in the Baltimore Sun: “There is a way out for President Barack Obama as he attempts to cope with Edward Snowden’s disclosures about the National Security Agency’s overreaching eavesdropping, the turbulent world reaction, and the lack of truthfulness shown by National Intelligence Director James Clapper and NSA Director Keith Alexander. The President should seize the initiative by suggesting to both that they ‘spend more time with their families.’”
COLEEN ROWLEY, rowleyclan at earthlink.net
Rowley is a former FBI special agent and division counsel whose May 2002 memo described some of the FBI’s pre-9/11 failures and was named one of Time magazine’s “Persons of the Year” in 2002. She recently appeared on CNN and wrote a piece for their website, “Massive Spying on Americans is Outrageous.”
BILL BINNEY, williambinney0802 at comcast.net
Binney was with the NSA for decades and resigned shortly after 9/11. He was recently interviewed by “Democracy Now!”
DAVID MacMICHAEL
MacMichael is a former analyst for the CIA. See his “Former Commander of Headquarters Company at Quantico Objects to Treatment of Bradley Manning.”
THOMAS DRAKE
Drake was a senior executive of the U.S. National Security Agency.
The following statement was released today by Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence:
Edward Snowden has been named recipient of this year’s award for truth telling given by Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence, the group announced today.
Most of the Sam Adams Associates are former senior national security officials who, with the other members, understand fully the need to keep legitimate secrets. Each of the U.S. members took a solemn oath “to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
When secrecy is misused to hide unconstitutional activities, fealty to that oath — and higher duty as citizens of conscience — dictate support for truth tellers who summon the courage to blow the whistle. Edward Snowden’s disclosures fit the classic definition of whistle blowing.
Former senior NSA executive Thomas Drake, who won the Sam Adams award in 2011, has called what Snowden did “an amazingly brave act of civil disobedience.” Drake knows whereof he speaks. As a whistleblower he reported waste, fraud, and abuse — as well as serious violations of the Fourth Amendment — through official channels and, subsequently, to a reporter. He wound up indicted under the Espionage Act.
After a lengthy, grueling pre-trial proceeding, he was exonerated of all ten felony charges and pleaded out to the misdemeanor of “exceeding authorized use of a government computer.” The presiding judge branded the four years of prosecutorial conduct against Drake “unconscionable.”
The invective hurled at Snowden by the corporate and government influenced media reflects understandable embarrassment that he would dare expose the collusion of all three branches of government in perpetrating and then covering up their abuse of the Constitution. This same collusion has thwarted all attempts to pass laws that would protect genuine truth tellers like Snowden who see and wish to stop unconstitutional activities.
“These are the times that try men’s souls,” warned Thomas Paine in 1776, adding that “The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
It is in this spirit that Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence are proud to confer on Edward Snowden the Sam Adams Award for 2013.
The Sam Adams Award has been given in previous years to truth tellers Coleen Rowley of the FBI; Katharine Gun of British Intelligence; Sibel Edmonds of the FBI; Craig Murray, former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan; Sam Provance; former US Army Sgt. at Abu Ghraib; Maj. Frank Grevil of Danish Army Intelligence; Larry Wilkerson, Col., US Army (ret.), former chief of staff to Colin Powell at State; Julian Assange of WikiLeaks; Thomas Drake, former senior NSA official; Jesselyn Radack, Director of National Security and Human Rights, Government Accountability Project; and Thomas Fingar, former Assistant Secretary of State and Director, National Intelligence Council.
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Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog
Whistleblowers blast NSA programs, award Snowden
July 8, 2013. Source: Institute for Public Accuracy
Edward Snowden has been named recipient of this year’s “award for truth telling” given by Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence. The following are members of the group or past recipients of the award. The group’s statement is below.
DANIEL ELLSBERG
Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971. He wrote an op-ed that was published today in theWashington Post, which notes that “for the whole two years I was under indictment, I was free to speak to the media and at rallies and public lectures. I was, after all, part of a movement against an ongoing war. … There is no chance that experience could be reproduced today, let alone that a trial could be terminated by the revelation of White House actions against a defendant that were clearly criminal in Richard Nixon’s era … There is zero chance that [Snowden] would be allowed out on bail if he returned now and close to no chance that, had he not left the country, he would have been granted bail. Instead, he would be in a prison cell like Bradley Manning, incommunicado….”
Ellsberg concludes: “What [Snowden] has given us is our best chance — if we respond to his information and his challenge — to rescue ourselves from out-of-control surveillance that shifts all practical power to the executive branch and its intelligence agencies: a United Stasi of America.”
RAY McGOVERN, rrmcgovern at gmail.com
McGovern is a veteran CIA analyst. He wrote an op-ed that was published today in the Baltimore Sun: “There is a way out for President Barack Obama as he attempts to cope with Edward Snowden’s disclosures about the National Security Agency’s overreaching eavesdropping, the turbulent world reaction, and the lack of truthfulness shown by National Intelligence Director James Clapper and NSA Director Keith Alexander. The President should seize the initiative by suggesting to both that they ‘spend more time with their families.’”
COLEEN ROWLEY, rowleyclan at earthlink.net
Rowley is a former FBI special agent and division counsel whose May 2002 memo described some of the FBI’s pre-9/11 failures and was named one of Time magazine’s “Persons of the Year” in 2002. She recently appeared on CNN and wrote a piece for their website, “Massive Spying on Americans is Outrageous.”
BILL BINNEY, williambinney0802 at comcast.net
Binney was with the NSA for decades and resigned shortly after 9/11. He was recently interviewed by “Democracy Now!”
DAVID MacMICHAEL
MacMichael is a former analyst for the CIA. See his “Former Commander of Headquarters Company at Quantico Objects to Treatment of Bradley Manning.”
THOMAS DRAKE
Drake was a senior executive of the U.S. National Security Agency.
The following statement was released today by Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence:
Edward Snowden has been named recipient of this year’s award for truth telling given by Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence, the group announced today.
Most of the Sam Adams Associates are former senior national security officials who, with the other members, understand fully the need to keep legitimate secrets. Each of the U.S. members took a solemn oath “to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
When secrecy is misused to hide unconstitutional activities, fealty to that oath — and higher duty as citizens of conscience — dictate support for truth tellers who summon the courage to blow the whistle. Edward Snowden’s disclosures fit the classic definition of whistle blowing.
Former senior NSA executive Thomas Drake, who won the Sam Adams award in 2011, has called what Snowden did “an amazingly brave act of civil disobedience.” Drake knows whereof he speaks. As a whistleblower he reported waste, fraud, and abuse — as well as serious violations of the Fourth Amendment — through official channels and, subsequently, to a reporter. He wound up indicted under the Espionage Act.
After a lengthy, grueling pre-trial proceeding, he was exonerated of all ten felony charges and pleaded out to the misdemeanor of “exceeding authorized use of a government computer.” The presiding judge branded the four years of prosecutorial conduct against Drake “unconscionable.”
The invective hurled at Snowden by the corporate and government influenced media reflects understandable embarrassment that he would dare expose the collusion of all three branches of government in perpetrating and then covering up their abuse of the Constitution. This same collusion has thwarted all attempts to pass laws that would protect genuine truth tellers like Snowden who see and wish to stop unconstitutional activities.
“These are the times that try men’s souls,” warned Thomas Paine in 1776, adding that “The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
It is in this spirit that Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence are proud to confer on Edward Snowden the Sam Adams Award for 2013.
The Sam Adams Award has been given in previous years to truth tellers Coleen Rowley of the FBI; Katharine Gun of British Intelligence; Sibel Edmonds of the FBI; Craig Murray, former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan; Sam Provance; former US Army Sgt. at Abu Ghraib; Maj. Frank Grevil of Danish Army Intelligence; Larry Wilkerson, Col., US Army (ret.), former chief of staff to Colin Powell at State; Julian Assange of WikiLeaks; Thomas Drake, former senior NSA official; Jesselyn Radack, Director of National Security and Human Rights, Government Accountability Project; and Thomas Fingar, former Assistant Secretary of State and Director, National Intelligence Council.
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By Tracy Barnett, July 7, 2013. Source: Intercontinental Cry
Photo: Frente en Defensa de Wirikuta
Against a backdrop of heightened tensions in the region and other worrisome developments, Wixarika leaders have filed an injunction to stop the illegal drilling in exploration for gold and silver in their ancestral sacred lands of Wirikuta.
Since March 1 of this year, the Wixarika Regional Council for the Defense of Wirikuta has been petitioning the Mexican government to intervene to stop the current exploration that is occurring in the region without the required permits, but they have received no response to date, prompting them to file the injunction in a federal court. The drilling and excavation is occurring on a wide and destructive scale, the Council said, in the sacred desert where the Wixarika or Huichol people have conducted their pilgrimages since the beginning of their history.
“We reaffirm our opposition to the mining concessions that various companies intend to develop extractive megaprojects within the sacred territory we have occupied for millennia, which is inhabited by our deities and in which we conduct our pilgrimages to recreate the origin of the world,” the Wixarika Regional Council wrote in a June 25 declaration. “Today Wirikuta is threatened by the greed for money and the remiss and illegal actions of the Mexican state.”
Also last week, Wixarika leaders decried the appointment of Hector Moreno, current mayor of the town of Real de Catorce, as president of the Board of Directors of the Wirikuta Ecological Reserve. The appointment represents “an aggression against our people and the people of the region, given the scientific evidence, which makes any new mining projects prohibitive due to the extreme overexploitation of aquifers,” the Wixarika Regional Council wrote in a June 25 bulletin.
Moreno’s financial ties to First Majestic Silver present a serious conflict of interest for a body whose aim is to protect the ecology of the region, they argued. They further accused Moreno of generating animosity against the Wixarika people, promoting rumors that the indigenous group is aspiring to gain financially by taking over the livestock and lands of the local inhabitants, an assertion they claim is entirely false and is generating a dangerous atmosphere of hostility and harassment against the Huichol people. Additionally, some Wixarika visiting the region have been threatened that they will be denied access to the lands where they have traveled to pray, leave offerings, and ceremonially hunt their sacred peyote, or hikuri, since time immemorial. These pilgrimages to Wirikuta and the use of their sacred cactus are essential to their continued cultural survival – and indeed, to the continued equilibrium of the forces of nature on the planet, according to their beliefs.
“We reject the continued tolerance of aggression against our indigenous people, threatening our traditions in the attempts to limit our consumption of hikuri if we don’t agree to the mining and agribusiness industries, as well as the threats that have been circulating that we will be refused the right to carry out our pilgrimages that we have conducted from time immemorial and that are now recognized under many national and international legal jurisdictions, as well as by our own regulatory systems.,” the Council wrote. “As we have previously denounced, in the region of Wirikuta there is a disinformation campaign waged from the Municipal Presidency of Real de Catorce, which seems aimed to create an atmosphere of confrontation and harassment against the traditional access our people have exercised from time immemorial in the sacred desert of Wirikuta.”
The Council further denounced the government’s failure to consult with the Wixárika people in the ways in which they traditionally make their decisions, through their Community Assemblies. In a regional assembly convoked on June 28 by the Wixarika Regional Council for the Defense of Wirikuta “Tamatsima Wahaa” and attended by representatives from the far-flung and remote communities of Santa Catarina Cuexcomatitlán, San Andres Cohamiata, San Sebastian Teponahuaxtlán and Tuxpan, Jalisco, and Bancos de San Hipólito, Durango, and the Wixarika Union of Ceremonial Centers of Jalisco, Durango and Nayarit, the group ratified the previous statements and further demanded that the government hold a binding consultation with the Wixarika community assemblies in the matter of another key sacred site, Haramara, where their ceremonial grounds on the Pacific Coast of Nayarit are being privatized and commercialized for a tourism project.
“We call on the federal government and in particular the President in his capacity as chief of the Mexican State to monitor and not criminalize our ancient tradition,” wrote the Council, “and to instead monitor the dangerous actions of the Municipal President of Catorce, who is inciting local people against our people and trying to limit our right to ancestral pilgrimage to the home of our ancestors, upon which depends the fundamental equilibrium of the world.”
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Article source: GJEP Climate Connections Blog