Articles
July 27th, 2010 | T r u t h o u t
Story by Dahr Jamail, Photography by Erika Blumenfeld, t r u t h o u t | Report
Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010
BP Oil Disaster response workers are reporting endemic problems, such as not being paid on time, low morale, rampant sickness, equipment failures, and being lied to regularly.
“Yesterday was a catastrophe,” one worker, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Truthout, “People are waiting 2-3 hours for their paychecks to be brought to them, and I know for a fact three people that didn’t get paid, and no reason was given.”
The woman has been working as a clerk for Gulf Asphalt Contractors (GAC), a company that describes itself as “the leading provider of sitework (sic) and building construction services in the Florida Panhandle.” The company, based in Panama City, Florida, is a BP contractor.
While she said she had never been ordered not to talk to the media, she admitted to working amidst a climate of fear and believed she would lose her job if her company found out she had done so. “When GAC finds people who have talked to the media, they fire them.” [Read more →]
July 20th, 2010 | Inter Press Service
Story by Dahr Jamail, Photography by Erika Blumenfeld, Inter Press Service | Report
Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010
NEW ORLEANS – Environmental experts warn that the eco-systems and food chain in the Gulf of Mexico and surrounding region already deeply harmed and toxified by the ongoing British Petroleum (BP) oil disaster likely face much greater damage.
“You know how the pelicans die of oil,” Dean Wilson, the Executive Director of Atchafalaya Basinkeeper asked IPS, “They open their wings, thinking they are drying them in the sun, and they just cook in the sun. Thousands of birds are dying like that because of the greed of a foreign company.”
The organization Wilson heads is dedicated to preserving the ecosystems of the Atchafalaya Basin on the Louisiana Coast. He is incensed at the catastrophic impact the BP oil disaster, which has been ongoing for nearly three months, is having on the Gulf region.
Wilson is equally angry about what he perceives as a lack of willingness on the part of BP to implement measures necessary to adequately protect wildlife, including BP not rescuing the chicks of oiled adult birds, as well as not allowing local environmentalists, like himself, to go out and participate in animal rescue efforts.
[Read more →]
July 19th, 2010 | T r u t h o u t
Story by Dahr Jamail, Photography by Erika Blumenfeld, t r u t h o u t | Report
Clint Guidry, the Louisiana Shrimp Harvester Representative on the Louisiana Shrimp Task Force created by Executive Order of Gov. Bobby Jindal, has called BP "liars" and "killers." (Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010)
Gulf Coast fishermen and others with lost income claims against British Petroleum (BP) are outraged by a recent announcement that the $20 billion government-administered claim fund will subtract money they earn by working on the cleanup effort from any future damages claims against BP. But this move, according to lawyers in Louisiana working on behalf of Louisiana fishermen and others affected by the BP oil disaster, contradicts an earlier BP statement where the company promised it would do no such thing.
Kenneth Feinberg, who was appointed by President Barack Obama as the Independent Administrator of the Gulf Claims Facility for the $20 billion BP Deepwater Horizon oil disaster compensation fund, said yesterday that the wages earned by people working on BP’s cleanup will be deducted from their claims against the company.
He said the fund is designed to compensate fishermen and others for their lost income, and if BP is already paying someone to help skim oil and perform other clean up work, those wages will be subtracted from the amount they’re eligible to claim from the fund.
Attorney Stephen Herman, one of two Interim Liaison Counsel for cases pending in the eastern district of Louisiana before Judge Barbier, told Truthout he has spoken with Feinberg and that this recent announcement contradicts an earlier statement made by BP, when the company clearly said it would not do this.
[Read more →]
July 18th, 2010 | T r u t h o u t
by: Dahr Jamail and Erika Blumenfeld | Photo Essay
Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010
For the first time in 87 days, little or no oil could be escaping into the Gulf of Mexico from BP’s Macondo well. The new Capping Stack was deployed on July 11 from onboard the Transocean Discoverer Inspiration.
Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010
With a new containment cap atop the damaged well, many are hopeful.
But all is not well, after all.
National Incident Commander Thad Allen said Friday that the pressure within the cap is not increasing, as was expected.
The idea is that the pressure (pounds per square inch (PSI)) within the cap should balance out between 8-9,000 PSI, which would show the well has maintained integrity. BP hoped to reach 9,000 PSI, but stated that there would still be well integrity with 7,500+ PSI. Unfortunately for BP, if the pressure tops out below that level, as it is now at 6,720 PSI, this could be an indication of a sub-sea leak somewhere deeper inside the well casing, meaning-the well has failed. One concern associated with this lower pressure is that it may well indicate that the well has been breached and that oil and gas are leaking out at other undetermined points.
Given BP’s proven propensity towards lying, skeptics, which are consistently needed to keep BP’s rhetoric in check, are also pointing towards other factors that could mean oil is continuing to spew into the Gulf near the well.
[Read more →]
July 13th, 2010 | T r u t h o u t
by: Dahr Jamail and Erika Blumenfeld | Photo Essay
Photos by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010
My eyes are burning as I type this. We’ve just returned from spending the day down in Barataria, located about an hour drive south of New Orleans. The community of fishermen is swimming in oil. Within minutes of arriving, our eyes begin to burn and we begin to feel dizzy from airborne chemicals from the oil and dispersant.
Like most of the rest of the Louisiana Estuary, the further south one drives the more one enters a culture that lives/eats/breaths/loves the water. Moss-laden oak trees, some with trunks more than four feet in diameter line the road in places, before quickly giving way to canals, bayous, and swamps that lap against the pavement.
We went to Barataria to meet with Tracy Kuhns, the executive director of Louisiana Bayoukeeper, a group whose goal is “To engage and empower coastal communities for the purpose of promoting sustainable management of Coastal Louisiana’s Bayou Country and it’s natural resources for the benefit of all citizens.” Tracy, who is also a member of the Louisiana Shrimp Association, is talking rapidly before I can get my recorder started.
Tracy is concerned about the dispersant BP has been using on the oil. [Read more →]
by Dahr Jamail
July 12th, 2010 |
Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010
Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010
Dear Readers:
This morning we hired a flight out to the well site where the Deepwater Horizon sank. This environmental crime scene is now littered with boats and relief wells flailing to stop the flow of oil that has been gushing into the Gulf of Mexico for almost 3 months. Tomorrow, we are hiring a boat to take us to some of the most devastated coastline, which is still smeared in oil, causing harm to uncountable ecosystems and wildlife.
I have been on the Gulf Coast of Louisiana for two weeks now, and together with my partner, Erika Blumenfeld, we have brought you stories and photographs that document and archive the human and environmental impact of the historic and horrific disaster that is the BP oil catastrophe.
In our story, Fending For Themselves, we wrote about the growing crisis of the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe being displaced by the encroaching oil, and showed you images of their dying marshlands.
We produced an original photo essay for Truthout, Mitigating Annihilation, which clearly depicts the futility of the booming efforts, and the resulting destruction of the local and migratory bird rookeries, along with South Louisiana’s fragile and endangered coastline.
Our most recent post, Hell Has Come To South Louisiana, articulates the desperate situation of the shrimpers and fisher-folk whose livelihood that spans generations is threatened by extinction.
The complexity and breadth of this continued crisis is beyond what we could have imagined, and our questions have led us to dynamic and impassioned interviews with environmental philosophers, activists, scientists, sociologists, riverkeepers, bayoukeepers, indigenous tribes, and fisher people.
As a freelance team, we could not have produced this important work without your generous support. We are deeply grateful to those who were able to contribute to our efforts thus far.
Our work here is just beginning, and with so much of our investigation requiring that we be out in the field, I am humbly appealing for your continued support to help us extend our reporting, so that we may continue to bring you the unfolding events of this devastating issue that clearly effects us all.
Please support our work in the Gulf Coast by making a donation. There are several ways you can donate:
If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation, International Media Project (IMP) is providing fiscal sponsorship to Dahr Jamail.
Checks for tax-deductible donations should be made out to “International Media Project.” please write”Dahr Jamail” in the memo line and mail to:
International Media Project/Dahr Jamail
1714 Franklin St.
#100-251
Oakland, CA 94612
Online, you can use Paypal to donate HERE.
Donations can also be mailed to:
Dahr Jamail
P.O. Box 970
Marfa, TX 79843
Direct links to our pieces produced thus far:
Living on a Dying Delta (June 29)
Fending for Themselves (July 4)
No Free Press for BP Oil Disaster (July 7)
Mitigating Annihilation (July 7)
Hell Has Come to South Louisiana (July 11)
July 7th, 2010 | T r u t h o u t
Story by Dahr Jamail
Photography by Erika Blumenfeld
Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010
From the air, the area north of Grand Isle, Louisiana, much of it around Barataria Bay, looks like scorched earth. This area has been and is heavily afflicted by BP’s oil. The so-called clean up efforts, including laying out booms to supposedly prevent oil from destroying more marsh and killing more wildlife, are a farce.
Opaque multi-color sheen stains much of the bay, and is visible in countless inlets that snake their way into the marsh. The contrast between the green marsh area yet to be soiled and the marsh already blackened by the oil and the sheen covered Gulf water is stark. The afflicted water appears as a lifeless, dull, silvery fluid.
[Read more →]
by Dahr Jamail
July 7th, 2010 | Inter Press Service
An oiled brown pelican receives treatment at Fort Jackson Bird Rehabilitation Center in Buras, Louisiana. Credit:Courtesy of International Bird Rescue Research Center (IBRRC)
NEW ORLEANS - Last week, the U.S. Coast Guard, working in concert with oil giant BP, instituted new restrictions across the U.S. Gulf Coast that prevent the media from coming within 20 metres of booms or response vessels on beaches or water. But the insidiousness of the restrictions runs even deeper.
“You can’t come in here,” Don, the security guard hired by BP, told IPS at the Oiled Wildlife Rehabilitation Center at Fort Jackson, Louisiana.
Inside, the International Bird Rescue Research Center, one of the companies hired by BP to clean wildlife, works to wash oiled birds before returning them to the wild.
The centre has limited access to the media, and had been open Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for two hours at a time. IPS arrived at the centre on a Wednesday, only to learn that it had just reduced its media days from three to two, and was no longer open to the media on Wednesdays.
When asked who he worked for, the private security guard informed IPS, “I work for HUB, a security company hired by BP.”
[Read more →]
by Dahr Jamail
June 9th, 2010 | T r u t h o u t
(Image: Lance Page / t r u t h o u t; Adapted: AfghanistanMatters, assbach)
At least 50 soldiers from Fort Hood who have medical profiles that should prohibit them from military training have been sent to the National Training Center (NTC) at Fort Irwin, California, regardless of their conditions.
Truthout spoke with some of these soldiers on June 7, before they were to fly back to Fort Hood the next day.
“We were brought out here to NTC after being told we would be given some of the best medical treatment out here,” a soldier who is an Iraq war veteran diagnosed with post-traumatic-stress disorder (PTSD), speaking on condition of anonymity because he feared military reprisals, told Truthout. “But when we were here at Ft. Irwin, nobody would see us. It took my wife calling the Chaplain to get my medication refilled. We’ve gone a month without seeing a psychiatrist. Some of us see them weekly, some twice a week and we haven’t been able to receive any of this.”
This, despite the soldier having been given his PTSD diagnosis by the military itself.
He admitted to Truthout that he needs the medication because of anxiety, depression and homicidal thoughts.
“There’re people out here who’ve had to cancel 17 psychiatric appointments to be out here,” the soldier added. “There are people needing physical treatment that have thrown out their backs.”
[Read more →]
by Dahr Jamail
June 4th, 2010 | T r u t h o u t
Iraq war veteran Eric Jasinski, after seeking treatment for his post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), is being punished by the Army.
Jasinski turned himself in to the Army late last year, after having gone absent without leave (AWOL) in order to seek help for his PTSD. Help, he told Truthout, he was not receiving from the Army, even after requesting assistance on multiple occasions.
He was court-martialed and jailed for 25 days for having gone AWOL, during which time he was escorted in shackles to therapy sessions for his PTSD. After being released from prison, he was informed that he would be given an other-than-honorable discharge, which means he is likely ineligible for full PTSD treatment from the Veterans’ Administration (VA) after he leaves the service.
Jasinski enlisted in the military in 2005, and deployed to Iraq in October 2006 as an intelligence analyst with the U.S. Army. He collected intelligence in order to put together strike packets - where air strikes would take place.
Upon his return to the U.S. after his tour, Jasinski was suffering from severe PTSD due to what he did and saw in Iraq, along with remorse and guilt for the work he did that he knows contributed to the loss of life in Iraq.
“What I saw and what I did in Iraq caused my PTSD,” Jasinski, 23-years-old, told Truthout during a phone interview. “Also, I lost a good friend in Iraq, and I went through a divorce - she left right before I deployed - and my grandmother passed away when I was over there, so it was all super rough on me.”
[Read more →]
