VAN ROMPUY COULD BECOME THE WORLD DICTATOR HE WAS NOT KNOWN IN THE EU AND SUDDENLY POPS ON THE POLITICAL SCENE AND THEY GAVE HIM JOB AS FIRST PERMANANT PRESIDENT AND HE IS MOST LIKELY A MEMBER OF THE BILDERBERGS SINCE HE ATTENDED MEETINGS ALREADY IN THE PAST.
BARRY SOETORO AKA BARACK OBAMA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FFQ15fo75E&feature=player_embedded
Commission denies Barroso Bilderberg claims
02.06.2010 @ 13:08 CET
The EU commission has rejected claims by an Italian MEP that Jose Manuel Barroso is to attend a meeting of the secretive Bilderberg group in Spain on Wednesday. There are no plans to attend the meeting, a spokeswoman said. EU Council chief Van Rompuy has attended Bilderberg events in the past.
A LOT OF THE BILDERBERG MEMBERS ARE STARTING TO GET SCARED AND ARE AFRAID TO BE SEEN AT BILDERBERG-THEY WANT TO AVOID BEING SEEN THERE.THE NUTCASES CONTROL FREAKS ARE FINALLY ON THE RUN AND KNOW THEY ARE BEING WATCHED VERY CLOSELY OF THEIR DEMONIC DEEDS AGAINST THE WORLDS CITIZENS.THIS IS PRETTY GOOD FOR BEING A RACIST AND IMAGINING THAT THE BILDERBERGS EXIST AND CONTROL WORLD EVENTS WITH THEIR BIG MONEY THEY ROBBED THE WORLD CITIZENS OF.THE BILDERBERGS WANT THE IMF AS THE TREASURY OF THE WORLD JUST LIKE I FIGURED WOULD BE SAID THERE.THE IMF BANK OF THE WORLD TO PAY CAP & TRADE-CLIMATE CHANGE TAXES TO WORLDWIDE BY EVERY CITIZEN.THE GLOBAL BANK OF THE WORLD GOVERNMENT.
THE BILDERBERGS ARE AFFRAID THEIR CLIMATE CHANGE SCAM IS BEING DESTROYED,JIM TUCKER SAID THE NEW WORLD ORDER WILL BE IN FULL PROPAGANDA GEAR TO GET THIS CLIMATE CHANGE CAP & TRADE TREATY PASSED.OBAMA WILL BE PUSHING FOR IT TUCKER SAYS OBAMAS OUR BOY.NOW WE KNOW WHY OBAMAS PUTTING CLIMATE CHANGERS ON THE BP SPILL JUST AS I FIGURED AGAIN.GAS WILL BE WELL PRICED TILL NOVEMBER WHEN IT WILL GO TO $4.00 A GALLON.THIS MAKES SENSE TO AS IN AUGUST THEY SAY BP WILL HAVE THE SPILL CAPPED.SEE HOW EVERYTHING IS COMING TOGETHER AS THE NEW WORLD ORDER BILDERBERG NUTCASES WANT A TREATY TO BAN GUNS ALSO WORLDWIDE.THEY REALLY ARE SCARED.GET READY FOLKS BIBLE PROPHECY IS COMING TOGETHER QUICK NOW.
Eugenicist Bill Gates To Attend 2010 Bilderberg Conference
Paul Joseph Watson & Steve Watson Prison Planet.com Friday, June 4, 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WQtRI7A064&feature=player_embedded
Microsoft founder Bill Gates will join fellow elitists for the first time at the 2010Bilderberg conference currently taking place in Sitges Spain, after he apparently attempted to pull a bait and switch by pretending to attend another event before being forced to admit to journalists that he will give a speech at the globalist confab.Gates let slip that he would make his debut at Bilderberg after being asked by journalists from 20 Minutos, a free Spanish newspaper which is published daily in numerous Spanish cities as well as others around the world.According to the report, Gates told reporters,I’m one of those who will be present,adding that he will take part in a debate with fellow globalists on the subjects of energy and the needs of the poorest,as well as climate change, renewable energy and the economic crisis.
Indicating that he will also give a speech to the Bilderberg elitists, Gates said, I hope not to bore.It appears as though Gates initially tried to throw reporters off the scent by claiming he was in Barcelona to attend a Global Health Institute conference which was then mysteriously cancelled.The translation of the Spanish report can be read here.Gates’ presence at the elite confab was also confirmed by the German news agency DPA.The Spanish report also confirms that Spain’s Prime Minister José Luis RodrÃguez Zapatero will attend the conference this afternoon, where he will be joined by Queen Beatrix of Holland, ECB Chairman Jean Claude Trichet as well as former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.Rumsfeld has sporadically attended Bilderberg meetings in the past but he is not a regular visitor to the annual gatherings. For Gates, this is his first time at the conference although his wife Melinda is a regular attendee.Both Gates and Rumsfeld’s presence at this year’s event indicates that some very important developments are set to unfold over the course of the next 12 months, particularly with regard to Iran as well as the global warming agenda, which has been on the ropes since the Climategate scandal and the failed Copenhagen summit in December.Gates’ Bilderberg presentation will also likely include information about his eugenicist projects to lower global population figures.During a recent TED conference, an organization which is sponsored by one of the largest toxic waste polluters on the planet, Gates told the audience that vaccines need to be used to reduce world population figures in order to solve global warming and lower CO2 emissions to almost zero.
Stating that the global population was heading towards 9 billion, Gates said,If we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services (abortion), we could lower that by perhaps 10 or 15 per cent.Quite how an improvement in health care and vaccines that supposedly save lives would lead to a lowering in global population is an oxymoron, unless Gates is referring to vaccines that sterilize people, which is precisely the same method advocated in White House science advisor John P. Holdren’s 1977 textbook Ecoscience, which calls for a dictatorial planetary regime to enforce draconian measures of population reduction via all manner of oppressive techniques, including sterilization.Gates’ eugenicist zeal is shared by his fellow Bilderberg elitists, many of whom have advocated draconian policies of population control in their own public speeches and writings. Indeed, the Rockefeller family funded eugenics research in Germany through the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institutes in Berlin and Munich. The Rockefeller Foundation praised Hitler’s sterilization program in Nazi Germany. David Rockefeller attended the first Bilderberg meeting in 1954 and is now the head of Bilderberg’s steering committee.
A joint World Health Organization-Rockefeller inoculation program against tetanus in Nicaragua, Mexico and the Philippines in the early 1990’s was in fact a covert trial on using vaccines to medically abort women’s babies.Comite Pro Vida de Mexico, a Roman Catholic lay organization, became suspicious of the motives behind the WHO program and decided to test numerous vials of the vaccine and found them to contain human Chorionic Gonadotrophin, or hCG,writes historian F. William Engdahl in his article, Bill Gates And Neo-Eugenics: Vaccines To Reduce Population.That was a curious component for a vaccine designed to protect people against lock-jaw arising from infection with rusty nail wounds or other contact with certain bacteria found in soil. The tetanus disease was indeed, also rather rare. It was also curious because hCG was a natural hormone needed to maintain a pregnancy. However, when combined with a tetanus toxoid carrier, it stimulated formation of antibodies against hCG, rendering a woman incapable of maintaining a pregnancy, a form of concealed abortion. Similar reports of vaccines laced with hCG hormones came from the Philippines and Nicaragua.Gates recently announced that he would be funding a sterilization program that would use sharp blasts of ultrasound directed against a man’s scrotum to render him infertile for six months. The foundation has funded a new sweat-triggered vaccine delivery program based on nanoparticles penetrating human skin. The technology is described as a way to …develop nanoparticles that penetrate the skin through hair follicles and burst upon contact with human sweat to release vaccines,writes health researcher Mike Adams.
Gates is likely to be asked by other Bilderbergers how to get the global warming carbon tax agenda back on track after a drastic plummet in the credibility of climate change alarmists since the Climategate scandal broke.Part of Bilderberg’s agenda to usher in a post-industrial revolution revolves around mandating western countries to adopt disastrous green economy initiatives, which as Spain has painfully experienced at first hand, cost over 2.2 jobs for every green job created.
The carbon tax agenda is also about enforcing a consumption tax which will drastically reduce living standards and leave people more concerned about feeding their families with little time to worry about Bilderberg’s undemocratic scheming, something the Bilderberg hierarchy are keen to oversee in an effort to squash the growing global awareness of Bilderberg and the new world order, because they view people with income as a threat to their plans for world government.
PRESS RELEASE 04.06.10 :: BREAKING NEWS :: Photographers arrested and hunted down in the hills.
Photographers are being harrassed, followed by choppers and motorcycles by police in the hills around the Dolce Sitges. Two photographers in the hills had their rucksacks taken by police on motorbikes who'd been informed of their whereabouts by choppers. Two more photographers were detained for four hours. Another was told to delete pictures or face 32 hours detention. Over 300 police have been deployed at great cost to the Spanish tax-payer.Military catamarans patrol the sea outside Sitges, there are choppers in the sky and a no-fly zone has been imposed forcing local hang-gliders out of the air.
The Road to Sitges Part I: The Prussian Prince
Jurriaan Maessen April 14, 2010 Infowars.com
It is difficult to re-educate people who have been brought up on nationalism to the idea of relinquishing part of their sovereignty to a supra-national body.Bernhard von Lippe-Biesterfeld, Founder of Bilderberg.At the upcoming Bilderberg-conference scheduled for June 3-6 to take place in the resort-town of Sitges, Spain, we will once again see representatives from finance, military, government, media and academia climb out of their limousines to plot their next move against the free peoples of the world. We will not hear about it from the vast majority of mainstream media outlets. Those who sit on the board of directors of huge media-conglomerates are usually present at the meetings. In an attempt to retrieve some information from the memory hole, I will set out to provide some background on one of the founders of this annual crime-fest and the longtime agenda he endeavored to accomplish.When Bernhard Leopold Friedrich Eberhard Julius Kurt Karl Gottfried Peter Graf von Biesterfeld got himself married to princess Juliana in 1936, the vast majority of the Dutch were not really surprised. The few who were, can be considered as equivalents of modern-day Glenn Beck- worshipers, willing to eat everything out of anybody’s hand as long as the bite is sweet. It had become quite a tradition with the family Van Orange-Nassau to invite members of German nobility into its ranks. In fact, this tradition dated back to the late middle-ages, when the family had cunningly nestled itself into powerful Prussian bloodlines: a union from which both parties would profit immensely in the centuries to come: the former had gained access to all kinds of trading privileges through membership of the German Hanseatic League (a medieval trade organization, considered by historians to be a sort of rudimentary European Union), while the latter seized control of the river Rhine as it flowed into the Netherlands and more westward, into the north sea. As a result the Germans continued to tighten their grip on the fragile Dutch Republic and practiced the problem-reaction-solution game with zest to undermine its success. Completely in line with this age-old tradition, just like in the old days, the marriage of Juliana and Bernhard was arranged to push the Teutonic agenda further out into the West.
At first glance, the Dutch people were not quite sure about this latest acquisition. The whole affair made them feel somewhat uncomfortable; the guy seemed a bit too flamboyant for the Calvinistic masses of the Netherlands to digest. In the beginning the Dutch considered him to be nothing more than a corrupt German who had dared to court ‘their’ princess. Indeed, the suspicion of corruption was not far off – but as for the courting, well, that was completely arranged of course and had nothing whatsoever to do with the romantic image of courtly love Europeans are so foolishly attached to. With the help of some very shrewd propaganda on the part of the elite, the initial image of the playboy prince (as he was dubbed) was quickly traded in for a very friendly picture-postcard of the noble young prince, very friendly indeed. The anti-Orange minority, who considered the initial controversy to be the perfect opportunity to bring down the royals in favor of the Republic, was soon to be silenced by the majority of people, mindlessly drooling all over the royal draperies. As usual, all the people’s representatives in The Hague would bring themselves to do was nod their heads in quiet indignation before returning to their daily businesses. Bernhard’s real dealings were held back in fear of a Dutch populist uprising. In the end, the corruption was even blacker than the dark in which it lay hidden.In the years proceeding the wedding a charismatic Austrian, backed up by national and international bankers, had taken control of battered, post WW1 Germany. The Dutch looked on in self-proclaimed neutrality as this new, destructive force in the east came into being. The false flag operation known as the Reichstag-fire tightened Hitler’s grip on the country, effectively giving him dictatorial carte-blanche. Now he set out to conquer Europe, Napoleon-style. Meanwhile the Dutch royal family had hauled in a cunning serpent: the Prussian prince was a member of Hitler’s party as well as a devoted cavalry officer in the Reiter SS; he also enjoyed marching with Hitler’s street fighters (the SA) in his spare time. And as if this criminal track record wasn’t bad enough, he also began working as a part-time secretary of the board of directors of IG Farben, the German corporation that would later supply the infamous chemical which was used to systematically gas millions of Jews and other victims of the Nazi-regime. But -as usual- only a very soft sound of protest could be distinguished amidst the hysterical cries of the Dutch, as they continued to wave their flags to their princess (later to become queen) and her Nazi husband. Meanwhile, the Republic- or what was left of it- was strangled by the very people they cheered on. The prince remained a loyal Nazi and even visited once or twice with the Fuehrer himself. It’s well known, by the way, that Hitler didn’t think much of Bernhard. After one meeting the German dictator was heard to remark that he never wanted to see that complete idiot again. Not only did the German dictator increasingly place bad bets in regards to military affairs, he was evenly mistaken about the prince: Bernhard turned out to be everything but an idiot. To illustrate his cunning, the following example will suffice: when the second world war broke out in 1939, Bernhard flipped sides very quickly. In the blink of an eye he had changed from an outright Nazi to an allied air-force hero.
The Dutch hope of neutrality was altogether shattered by the German invasion of the Netherlands in may of 1940. The family members fled to England in a hurry, along with most of their treasure and fortune, leaving their subjects to starve on the mainland. In London, Bernhard immediately made himself useful: he must have realized that it wouldn’t do to side with the Nazis in the long run, as they were destined to be crushed between the two rising giants, the United States and the Soviet Union: the world’s foremost future management teams. He knew all too well that Hitler was set up from the very beginning to create the problem that the globalists would later solve. Bernhard inherently sided with his friends who moved around the pieces on both sides of the chessboard. It’s almost routine: first they fund a tyrant into power, creating the problem, after which they generously arm the opposing side. And as soon as the conflict is raging in full swing, they let it play out for a while until they deem the time ripe to bring out the solution – in favor of their global agenda of course. Finally, the outcome is being presented as some random historical phenomenon: as if it had naturally evolved out of the situation.Hitler came and went. And the royal family returned to the weakened Netherlands they had cowardly fled just five years earlier. You would think its reputation would have been tarnished for good this time. But with the help of the media this fate was cleverly averted. In a cunning series of news articles the members of the royal family in general (and Bernhard in particular) were greeted as war heroes who supposedly had supported the home-grown Dutch resistance from abroad. It was the perfect spin: they weren’t cowards, they were actually heroes! Once again the people’s initial hesitations subsided to make room for blind idolatry: he had been magically transformed from a dubious German prince into a long lost relative they pressed tightly to their chests.The contacts Bernhard had established in London during the war would prove to be priceless and lasting. We don’t have to fast-forward too far up the time-line to encounter the prince again, this time setting up the first Bilderberg conference in 1954. According to the official narrative, Bernhard was approached by a man named Joseph Retinger a few years earlier, a lifetime friend of the prince and a Polish (read: east-Prussian) political adviser. He was also the founder of the so-called European Movement as well as the Council of Europe – two bodies that would later merge to become the European Union. Retinger had been playing with the idea of creating a global organization where the members could share thoughts in perfect impunity, and approached Bernhard to help him start up the project. They soon went to work to gather their powerful contacts together in one room, officially to strengthen ties between Europe and the US; in reality for the specific purpose of bringing in global government. Bernhard’s ambitions didn’t end with Bilderberg: just seven years after its founding, Bernhard forced into being the World Wildlife Fund, a global organization claiming to stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment, and building a future in which humans live in harmony with nature.A mouthful of pure nonsense, covering up the true face of the WWF- in reality nothing more than just another globally funded laundry-machine- as indeed was almost every project the prince was involved in. As can be learned via any search engine, Bernhard served on over 300 corporate boards worldwide by the 1970s. Regrettably, just a fraction of the corruption actually managed to pierce through the Dutch media grid. One that did manage to trickle through was a bribing scandal known as the Lockheed affair- named after the airplane- and arms-manufacturer company handing out the bribes. Ironically, the affair came to light in a hearing organized by the US Senate, where Bernhard’s name was mentioned in connection to the bribes. This information proved a lot harder to spin. So hard in fact, that for the first time in history a Dutch newspaper would break with the tradition of worship and decide to actually run with the story. The resulting publication in 1976 triggered an outburst of spontaneous rage in the Netherlands. Not surprising, for the article in question exposed the fact that Bernhard had accepted a million dollar bribe (which is mere pocket change) from Lockheed after which he laundered it through his World Wildlife Fund. It was out in the open and some Dutch members of parliament actually thought about starting a serious criminal investigation. But it wasn’t to be. When his wife, queen Juliana, threatened to resign if they were going to press on with the investigation, the ruling socialist party buckled under the pressure as it backed away in a decidedly rat-like fashion. The media quickly followed the party’s example as did the people’s representatives in the state capitol.
Today the royal family still enjoys full immunity as they secretly move through the international halls of power. It should be pointed out that, despite the before mentioned ‘revelations’ (and there are so much more), the actual influence the Dutch royal family exercises is kept locked away in a platinum framed closet, not to be touched. The Dutch media complies like a good lackey, restricting itself to the families skiing-trips and cocktail parties. Meanwhile, Bernhard’s daughter, the current queen Beatrix of Orange-Nassau, continues to uphold her father’s legacy as she extends her dark tentacles even further into the twenty-first century, pushing forward the globalist agenda.
DOCTOR DOCTORIAN FROM ANGEL OF GOD
then the angel said, Financial crisis will come to Asia. I will shake the world.
JAMES 5:1-3
1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.
REVELATION 18:10,17,19
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.
EZEKIEL 7:19
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.
REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all,(WORLD SOCIALISM) both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM
WORLD MARKET RESULTS
http://money.cnn.com/data/world_markets/
CNBC VIDEOS
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15839263/site/14081545/?tabid=15839796&tabheader=false
HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS FRI JUNE 04,2010
09:30 AM -3.25
10:00 AM -162.34
10:30 AM -169.97
11:00 AM -193.60
11:30 AM -233.75
12:00 PM -235.79
12:30 PM -239.19
01:00 PM -222.41
01:30 PM -260.13
02:00 PM -251.66
02:30 PM -267.31
03:00 PM -333.22
03:30 PM -331.70
04:00 PM -324.06 9,931.22
S&P 500 1064.88 -37.95
NASDAQ 2219.17 -83.86
GOLD 1,221.00 +11.00
OIL 71.08 -3.52
TSE 300 11,576.80 -235.10
CDNX 1465.87 -17.30
S&P/TSX/60 680.51 -14.78
MORNING,NEWS,STATS
YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow -161 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow -239 points at low today.
Dow -1 points at high today so far.
GOLD opens at $1,208.00.OIL opens at $73.08 today.
AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow -362 points at low today so far.
Dow -1 points at high today so far.
WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow -362 points at low today.
Dow -1 points at high today.
GOLD ALLTIME HIGH $1,248.20
THE TERRORISTS ON ACTIVIST SHIP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV6DVk04HkM&feature=player_embedded
New aid ship heads to Gaza, Israel vows to stop it By MENELAOS HADJICOSTIS and DAVID RISING, Associated Press Writers - JUNE 4,10
ISTANBUL – An aid ship trying to break the blockade of Gaza could reach Israel's 20-mile (32-kilometer) exclusion zone late Friday, an activist said, but Israel's prime minister has vowed the ship will not reach land.The dueling comments suggest a potential new clash over Israel's three-year-old blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip — and come only four days after an Israeli commando raid on a larger aid flotilla left nine activists dead.Greta Berlin, a spokesman for the Free Gaza group, said in Nicosia the 1,200-ton Rachel Corrie is heading directly to Gaza and will not stop in any port on the way. It is trying to deliver hundreds of tons of aid, including wheelchairs, medical supplies and concrete.By Friday afternoon, the ship was 150 miles (240 kilometers) from the coast of Gaza in international waters, the group said on its website. Irish Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead McGuire and the former head of the U.N. Oil-for-Food program in Iraq, Denis Halliday, were among the 11 passengers on board.The Irish vessel is named after an American college student crushed to death by an Israeli army bulldozer while protesting house demolitions in Gaza.Israel will not allow the aid ship to reach Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told senior Cabinet ministers late Thursday. According to a participant in the meeting, he said Israel made several offers to direct the ship to an Israeli port, where the aid supplies would be unloaded, inspected and transferred to Gaza by land, but the offers were rejected.Netanyahu has hotly rejected calls to lift the blockade on Gaza, insisting that it prevents missile attacks on Israel. The Rachel Corrie's cargo of concrete is also a problem, because Israel considers that to have military uses.
Netanyahu has instructed the military to act with sensitivity in preventing the Rachel Corrie from landing and avoid harming those on board, the participant said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the meeting was closed.Israel has rejected demands for an international panel to probe Monday's deadly commando raid on the aid ships, saying it can conduct a professional, impartial investigation on its own.Activists say Israel sabotaged the previous aid flotilla, and Israeli defense officials said Friday only that unspecified actions were taken when the boats were still far from Gaza that delayed the flotilla. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the information was classified.The Turkish activists' deaths on the aid ship increased tensions in the Mideast, especially with Turkey, an important ally of Israel. On Thursday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Israel's actions a historic mistake.His deputy on Friday announced that Turkey was reducing its economic and defense cooperation with Israel. Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said all deals with Israel are being evaluated.We are serious on this issue. New cooperation will not start and relations with Israel will be reduced,he said.Israel says its commandos opened fire Monday as a last resort after they were attacked, and released a video showing soldiers in riot gear descending from a helicopter into a crowd of men with clubs. Three or four activists overpowered each soldier as he landed.Returning activists admitted fighting with the Israeli commandos but insisted their actions were in self defense because the ships were being boarded in international waters by a military force.In Istanbul on Friday, 20,000 people waved Turkish, Palestinian and Hezbollah flags in a memorial service outside the Beyazit mosque for a member of the IHH charity group who the activists say was killed while taking pictures of the Israeli commando raid.
The youngest of the nine activists killed, 19-year-old Furkan Dogan, was being buried Friday in his family's hometown in Kayseri in central Turkey. Another 10,000 people attended the funeral service for Dogan ahead of his burial, chanting down with Israel,but Dogan's father, Ahmet Dogan, was stoic.Neither I nor his mother or brother have any grief,he told the AP as he arranged flowers on his son's coffin before prayers started. We believe he became a martyr and God accepts martyrs to paradise.Dogan, who was born in Troy, New York, moved to Turkey when he was two. The other eight slain activists were all Turkish nationals. In Istanbul, three members of an anti-Zionist Jewish sect called a news conference to blast Israel's actions. We are totally opposed and condemn this atrocity that has been perpetrated against Turkey, against the ships of the human rights activists, Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss, a leader of the radical Neturei Karta, told reporters. We all pray for the speedy and peaceful total dismantlement of the state of Israel and for a free Gaza ... so we can live together — Jews, Muslims and Christians.Hadjicostis reported from Nicosia. Associated Press writers Mark Lavie and Matti Friedman in Jerusalem, Selcan Hacaoglu in Istanbul and Burhan Ozbilici in Kayseri also contributed to this report.
EUROPEAN UNION ARMY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytWmPqY8TE0&feature=player_embedded
DANIEL 7:23-25
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast (EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADING BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings(10 NATIONS) that shall arise: and another shall rise after them;(#11 SPAIN) and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.( BE HEAD OF 3 NATIONS)
25 And he (EU PRESIDENT) shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.(3 1/2 YRS)
DANIEL 8:23-25
23 And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king (EU DICTATOR) of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences,(FROM THE OCCULT) shall stand up.
24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power:(SATANS POWER) and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.
25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes;(JESUS) but he shall be broken without hand.
DANIEL 11:36-39
36 And the king (EU DICTATOR) shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers,(THIS EU DICTATOR IS JEWISH) nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.(CLAIM TO BE GOD)
38 But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces:(WAR) and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.
39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god,(DESTROY TERROR GROUPS) whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many,(HIS ARMY LEADERS) and shall divide the land for gain.
REVELATION 19:19
19 And I saw the beast,(EU LEADER) and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse,(JESUS) and against his army.(THE RAPTURED CHRISTIANS)
Ukraine drops Nato membership bid
VALENTINA POP Today JUNE 4,10 @ 09:28 CET
The Ukrainian Parliament on Thursday (3 June) approved a bill barring the country from joining Nato, a move seen as a further concession to Moscow by the new government in Kiev, which was quick in reversing the pro-Western policies pursued by its predecessor.The draft law, which is expected to sail through the remaining parliamentary readings and be signed by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich in the coming weeks, excludes the goal of integration into Euro-Atlantic security and Nato membership from the national security strategy.Submitted by the president himself, the bill commits Ukraine to a non-bloc policy which means non-participation in military-political alliances.Nato membership was one of the main goals of Mr Yanukovich's pro-Western predecessor, Viktor Yushchenko. But the prospect of Nato enlargement to former Soviet republics has irked Russia, which claims this poses a threat to its national security. At a Nato summit in 2008, when both Ukraine and Georgia expected to be granted formal candidate status, the US failed to rally enough support for the move, with countries such as Germany and France opposing it. Still, the two countries were promised they would join in the future, after meeting all criteria.A special mechanism – the Nato-Ukraine and Nato-Georgia commissions – were established to try to prepare the countries at a technical level for when the political decision of joining might meet with less hostility.Those plans are now on ice, although the Yanukovich bill does not exclude co-operation with the military alliance. It also keeps the goal of European integration.But opposition voices said such a position is disingenous, as Nato and EU enlargement have always gone hand-in-hand in former Communist countries.The only guarantee of Ukraine's national security is membership in the system of collective security of Nato, Borys Tarasyuk, who had served as foreign minister in the previous government, told Associated Press.Serhiy Sobolev, an opposition member from the bloc of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said the new pro-Russia policies are a direct course away from European values and European integration,according to Radio Free Europe.
Since coming to power Mr Yanukovich has sought to mend ties with Moscow, a relationship which was strained by the previous government. His first gesture of goodwill was to extend a lease allowing the Russian fleet to be stationed for another 25 years in the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Sevastopol. The same one-page deal included a deep discount on Russian gas, which prompted the opposition to accuse Mr Yanukovich of selling the country's security interests for cheap energy.
Critics also point to the fact he has made no moves on economic liberalisation or on restarting talks with the International Monetary Fund, which last year froze a multi-billion bail-out. The talks stalled over disagreements on social spending and changes to the gas market.
Parliament to probe eurozone bail-out deal
ANDREW WILLIS 03.06.2010 @ 17:52 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - An influential member of the European Parliament has questioned the way in which EU leaders and finance minsters rapidly cobbled together a €750 billion eurozone rescue mechanism at the beginning of last month, referring to the process as highly undemocratic.The comments, made by centre-right MEP Wolf Klinz on Thursday (3 June), refer in particular to the new balance-of-payments facility for eurozone states that makes up part of the support mechanism. Under the facility, the European Commission can raise up to €60 billion on capital markets and then lend the money to euro-area states that are struggling to meet their debt obligations. This is something that we are going to follow up, said Mr Klinz, who chairs parliament's special committee on the financial crisis, when asked whether parliament should have been consulted beforehand. It's the first step towards eurobonds,added the German deputy.Personally I am against eurobonds to finance member-state debts.Others have also questioned the legitimacy of the new tool, under which the commission can raise money at low interest rates by issuing bonds, backed by the bloc's roughly €140 billion annual budget. However, officials say Article 122 of the EU treaties, which allows financial support to be given to member states struggling due to exceptional circumstances, provides a firm legal basis.We are facing such exceptional circumstance today and the mechanism will stay in place as long as needed to safeguard financial stability, finance ministers said last month in justifying their decision. The other components of the euro area rescue mechanism include €440 billion in government-backed loan guarantees and bilateral loans on an intergovernmental basis, and €250 billion in IMF money. Sources say EU leaders meeting in Brussels on the fateful Friday, 7 May, were presented with a doomsday scenario, with analysts predicting skyrocketing borrowing rates for several peripheral eurozone states the following week. As part of the resulting deal to protect these states and the eurozone as a whole, the European Central Bank was also forced to throw standard practices out the window as policy makers rushed to agree measures before markets opened on Monday morning.The bank's decision to commence sovereign bond purchases on the secondary market was previously seen as strictly taboo.
Greater budget sanctions not for the UK, says Hague
ANDREW WILLIS Today JUNE 4,10 @ 09:14 CET
The UK's foreign secretary, William Hague, has said London should not be subject to greater budgetary sanctions inside the EU.Speaking in front of national MPs on Thursday (3 June), Mr Hague said the current drive to toughen up the bloc's budgetary rules - known as the Stability and Growth Pact - may be appropriate for countries sharing the euro, but not those outside the single currency. They should never apply to those countries which retain their own currencies, and this country will retain its own currency,he said. The eurozone's ongoing sovereign debt crisis has sent shock waves through Europe's political establishment, leading to multiple calls for the EU's budgetary rules limiting deficit and debt levels to be more strictly applied in the future. A European Commission ideas paper last month said national budgets should be subject to EU peer review before being passed on to national parliaments for approval, a suggestion that attracted immediate criticism from several capitals.While we recognise the importance of maintaining a dialogue on deficit reduction across the euro zone and the wider EU, we are absolutely firm in our view that our national budget must always be presented first to our national parliament, Mr Hague told national parliamentarians. The commission also floated the idea of withholding EU funding for member states that repeatedly breach the pact's rules, while Germany has suggested that runaway spenders should have their voting rights in the council curtailed. Chancellor Angela Merkel has also said EU treaty changes will be necessary to bring about meaningful changes to the bloc's rules, a move that the UK and others oppose. Meeting in Brussels last month, EU finance ministers did however reach a broad agreement that both financial and non-financial sanctions were needed, although the exact details have yet to be worked out.
Swedish support for euro falls
Separately, Swedish support for joining the euro currency appears to have fallen dramatically over the past year. A recent poll conducted by the Novus Opinion institute revealed that 61 percent of those questioned opposed membership of the eurozone, with only 25 percent in favour and 14 percent having no opinion.A similar questionnaire carried out in May 2009 showed a much larger 49 percent of respondents to be in favour of euro adoption, with 44 percent opposed and nine percent expressing no opinion.The sharp turnaround suggests Swedish citizens see their krona as a shield against the current economic turmoil. The northern EU state has recovered better than most, with growth returning in the second quarter of 2009 and the economy expanding a stronger than expected 1.4 percent in the first quarter of 2010.
EP projects new confidence in Washington office
HONOR MAHONY 03.06.2010 @ 17:42 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - From the brand-new European Parliament office in Washington, Polish national Piotr Nowina-Konopka is seeking to increase co-operation between the US and EU legislatures, moving from the current formulaic contacts to practical exchanges between the law-makers representing 800 million people between them.
Although the EU and US jointly account for around half of the world economy and have the biggest bilateral trading relationship, the two chambers on both sides have so far, in legislative terms, broadly ignored one another.The European Parliament's growing confidence in recent years, and now its power boost under the new Lisbon Treaty, in place since 1 December, has given its virtually the same stature as the US Congress in many areas and Washington has begun to notice.According to Mr Nowina-Konopka, the catalyst for the change in the US capital's mindset was the parliament's decision earlier this year to reject, on data privacy grounds, a deal allowing US access to Europeans banking data to screen for terrorist activity. Few people really paid attention until Swift (the data deal) exploded. Then suddenly people saw this European parliament, who is able to say Yes or No, not conciliation, just Yes or No. So this wake call seems to be very healthy. I no longer have to explain from scratch how important the European Parliament is.The liaison office - the first of its kind - was formally opened in April by the parliament's president, Jerzy Buzek, and has a small staff of three administrators.
Mr Nowina-Konopka admits there is still a way to go in terms of getting access to Congress but sees his daily tasks as to keep law-makers on both sides of the Atlantic informed of what the other is doing. With the Swift saga not yet over - another deal is now in the making - future possible flashpoints include US demands for extensive air passenger data while both sides are carefully watching how the other seeks to regulate the financial sector.In his new home city for around three months now, Mr Nowina-Konopka says he is struck by how distant relations have been in the past.
Getting to know one another
I learn more and more with every week of my stay here how distant we used to be - how little our American counterparts know about the European Union and the European Parliament in particular. And this applies also to ourselves.His chief goal is to make the ties more binding. There have been 12 visits by EU parliamentarians to Washington in the last half year, but the visits tend to be high on fanfare - or parliamentary diplomacy - and rather low on usefulness.I believe we are now entering another stage. Which should be much more down-to-earth, much more precise and detailed.The Pole, a former activist with Poland's anti-Communist Solidarity movement, wants more exchange at committee level and at staff level - the simple act of getting to know the name and number of who is working on a particular issue. This kind of network can take years to build up, he admits. He wants working groups spanning both legislatures at staffer level and contact re-inforced through regular video conferences.What we encourage now in the European Parliament is to plan and design missions to US Congress with a very, very precise agenda with a legislative nature. We want to develop committee to committee relationships. My concern is that after each such visit, something remains on the ground - for instance working groups composed of staffers from both sides.His goal is to have our American partners know more and appreciate more the need for closer co-operation on precise issues.Speaking of the delegation visits he oversees, the talks in Washington's numerous think-tanks and academic institutions as well as the day-to-day monitoring of the two legislatures, Mr Nowina-Konopka notes he is unlikely to be jobless in the near future.
NOTICE SINCE EVERYBODY HAS BEEN AGAINST ISRAEL FOR BOARDING THE SHIP TO LOOK FOR WEAPONS THE OIL SPILL IS GETTING WORSE AND WORSE INSTEAD OF STOPPED.YOU CAN EXPECT STUFF LIKE THIS TO HAPPEN AS THE WORLD HATES ISRAEL,GOD DESTROYS THE EARTH WITH THE EARTH AS REVENGE.
Report: 3 Soldiers Kidnapped Briefly in Ship Takeover
by Maayana Miskin JUNE 4,10
An internal IDF review of the takeover of the Gaza-bound ship Mavi Marmara revealed that three soldiers were briefly kidnapped while aboard the vessel. The three were beaten when they boarded the ship and then, when they were wounded and groggy, were dragged to a room within the ship and held there.A short time later, dozens of their fellow soldiers began searching the ship. When the attacking passengers saw that soldiers had successfully seized control of the Marmara, they released the three captives, the report stated.The captive soldiers had recovered from their initial disorientation during their time below deck, and once released hurried to join their unit.IDF commanders reacted to the report with concern. As similar ships continue to make their way to Gaza, there could be a situation in which a soldier is held captive in order to give passengers a bargaining chip, they said, and that must be prevented.Reuters has published an eyewitness account that backs the IDF report. Andre Abu Khalil, a Lebanese cameraman for the pan-Arab Al-Jazeera network, was aboard the Mavi Marmara as IDF soldiers boarded. He told Reuters that four soldiers who were among the first aboard were injured and were taken below deck.
A second wave of troops then attempted to board, he said.Twenty Turkish men formed a human shield to prevent the Israeli soldiers from scaling the ship. They had slingshots, water pipes and sticks, he recalled. After a brief standoff, after the first wave had been attacked violently, the Israelis opened fire, he claimed.IDF troops say they opened fire only after being attacked themselves when they boarded the ship.A second passenger who spoke to Reuters admitted that passengers on the ship had seized soldiers' weapons before shooting broke out. He denied that the passengers had then tried to turn the guns on the soldiers. However, soldiers claimed they were shot at and examination showed they were wounded by those pistols. (IsraelNationalNews.com)
EU Jews Work to Prevent Second Clash; SA Recalls Ambassador
by Maayana Miskin JUNE 4,10
As Israel deals with the repercussions of the bloody clash between IDF soldiers and armed passengers on a Gaza-bound ship, Jews all over the world are rallying along with Israeli citizens to support the blockade and the IDF operatin. The Knesset's Jewish members, coalition and opposition, stood by the IDF operation as well. The press is mixed, with some editorials reminding readers of the unequal treatment Israeli operations received in comparison to other countries' similar actions and others criticizing Israel.European Jews, however, are trying to ensure that the incident does not repeat itself. The European Jewish Congress is pushing the European Union to ban terrorist-linked human rights groups such as the group that organized the Gaza flotilla.The ship on which the clash occurred, the Mavi Marmara, was sent through the Turkish group Insani Yardim Vakfi (IHH), which has been linked to al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups. The Turkish government found concrete evidence of IHH participation in terrorism as early as the 1990s, the EJC noted.
Organizations affiliated with and used as front for terrorist groups like Hamas and Al-Qaeda have to be outlawed with immediate effect, EJC President Moshe Kantor told the European Jewish Press. Such organizations need to be immediately exposed so Europeans will not be deceived into believing that they are a legitimate humanitarian organization, he added. IHH clearly was not on a humanitarian mission, as evidenced by the fact that the group refused to allow its cargo to be taken to Gaza via Israel or Egypt, the EJC stated. Israel has received some support following the clash at sea, including US Vice-President Joe Biden's Wednesday statement that Israel has a right to know what goods enter Gaza.However, Israel has been widely blamed for the incident throughout the Arab and Muslim world and beyond. On Thursday, South Africa joined the ranks of those condemning the IDF action, recalling Ambassador Ishmael Coovadia.The recall is to show our strongest condemnation of the attack, said deputy International Relations Minister Ibrahim Ibrahim. He referred to the incident as “Israeli aggression of attacking the aid flotilla.Despite its condemnation, South Africa does not plan to expel Israel's ambassador, or to cut diplomatic ties. (IsraelNationalNews.com)
Pray for Injured IDF Navy Commando Soldiers this Sabbath
by Rachel Sylvetsky JUNE 4,10
Shayetet (Navy commando) soldiers injured by pacifist flotilla passengers:Daniel Lazar ben Tina Taabel Lea One of the soldiers badly injured on the flotilla boat is from Alon Shvut in Gush Etzion.. He had his ear cut off by a knife, it was just holding by a scrap of skin, was shot in the leg and has a very badly injured arm. He is, thank G-d, recovering and the ear has been re-attached but it is going to be a very long and painful road to recovery.The names of the rest of those injured in the recent flotilla incident , June 2010, are listed below. It is customary, in Jewish practice, to pray for an individual using his given name and the name of his mother. IDF commandos are not identified by first and last names for security reasons.
Dean Ben Svetlana
Roee Ben Shulamit
Yotam Ben Dorit
Ido Ben Ilana
Boris Ben Eelaina
Below is the prayer for the welfare of IDF soldiers, as brought in translation by the Council of Young Israel who also publicized the list of wounded.
He Who blessed our forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - may He
bless the fighters of the Israel Defense Force, who stand guard over
our land and the cities of our G-d from the border of the Lebanon to
the desert of Egypt, and from the Great Sea unto the approach of the
Aravah, on the land, in the air, and on the sea.
May the Almight cause the enemies who rise up against us to be struck down
before them. May the Holy One, Blessed is He, preserve and rescue our
fighting men from every trouble and distress and from every plague
and illness, and may He send blessing and success in their every
endeavor.
May He lead our enemies under their sway and may He grant them
salvation and crown them with victory. And may there be fulfilled for
them the verse: For it is the Lord, your G-d, Who goes with you to
battle your enemies for you in order to save you.
Now let us respond: Amen.(IsraelNationalNews.com)
No Ships to Gaza, Netanyahu Tells Top Ministers
by Gil Ronen JUNE 3,10
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told the Septet of leading ministers Thursday evening that the Gaza-bound Irish ship Rachel Corrie,and all other vessels, will not break Israel's blockade of Gaza, not now and not in the future.He said that the Rachel Corrie boat, now in Libyan waters about 400 miles from Israel and headed for Gaza, will be re-directed to the Ashdod port, where any humanitarian aid on board will be transferred overland to Gaza.Several news outlets said that Netanyahu would suggest creative ideas for inspecting ships claiming to carry aid for Gaza. These ideas would reportedly involve the participation of United Nations crews in the inspection process. Inspections would take place in Ashdod harbor.Earlier this week, IDF commandos' takeover of a Gaza-bound ship ended in a bloodbath, because the soldiers had been equipped and mentally prepared to deal with peace activists and were surprised to find a group of armed thugs in their stead.IDF sources said the ships in the convoy intercepted Monday were carrying spotted camouflage material, of the kind used to make military uniforms and to mask military positions. (IsraelNationalNews.com)
STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES
LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
Death toll from China landslides rises to 38
Thu Jun 3, 3:37 am ET
BEIJING (AFP) – The death toll from flooding and landslides in southern China climbed to 38 on Thursday, state media reported, as torrential rains moved further west in the country.Rain storm-triggered landslides struck five counties in Guangxi region on Wednesday, leaving 38 dead and another 14 people missing, the official Xinhua news agency reported.Heavy rainstorms started pounding the region on Monday, triggering the deadly landslides and forcing the evacuation of nearly 80,000 people, it quoted the local government as saying.According to a previous notice on the Ministry of Civil Affairs website, more than 2.1 million people in Guangxi were affected by the disaster and more than 4,200 homes had been damaged.But China's national meteorological centre said Thursday that heavy rainfall over the region was gradually coming to an end and was moving further west.Summer rain storms annually deluge the region, often with devastating results leading to hundreds of fatalities.
Central America faces huge bill after storm damage By JUAN CARLOS LLORCA, Associated Press Writer – Wed Jun 2, 4:29 pm ET
GUATEMALA CITY – Three Central American countries battered by landslides and flooding are reassigning aid loans to help offset millions of dollars in damage caused by the season's first tropical storm, which killed 184 people.Authorities in Guatemala — the hardest hit by Tropical Storm Agatha — said Wednesday that $190 million in loans will be used to rebuild dozens of bridges and renovate homes for nearly 25,000 families.The amount includes $85 million that the World Bank had slated for disaster preparedness, while other loans, including those designated to improve education, will be used to repair schools and other buildings, government spokesman Ronaldo Robles told The Associated Press.
He also warned of huge losses in the agriculture sector.The country's association of exporters reported a 75 percent drop in production in the vegetable and shrimp industries, while the National Coffee Association forecast a loss of 122,000 bags this season.In Honduras, the government estimated the storm caused $90 million worth of damage, including $25 million in agricultural losses. Vice Livestock Minister Juan Carlos Ordonez predicted those figures will increase, saying inspection teams had barely started to report on damage across the country, which is the fourth poorest in the Western Hemisphere.El Salvador's transportation minister, Gerson Martinez, said reconstruction efforts there could reach $20 million. Officials expected to release further details later.Agatha made landfall Saturday near the Guatemala-Mexico border with tropical storm winds of up to 45 mph (75 kph). It dissipated the following day after causing landslides and floods that killed 184 people and left tens of thousands homeless.Pope Benedict XVI issued a statement Wednesday urging the international community to provide humanitarian aid.The European Union pledged $3.9 million, while the U.S. sent helicopters to Guatemala to help with rescue efforts and Japan promised Honduras more than $100,000 worth of emergency supplies.Guatemalan Vice Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Ibarra said his country also would seek a temporary halt in deportations by the U.S. of Guatemalan migrants.Associated Press Writer Freddy Cuevas in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, contributed to this report.
Three killed in C.Europe floods, hundreds moved
Wed Jun 2, 3:27 pm ET
PRAGUE (AFP) – Three people were killed and hundreds evacuated after days of heavy rain in central Europe caused flooding that cut off villages and threatened to burst dykes, authorities said Wednesday.Two men drowned in swollen rivers in the Czech Republic where a 19-year-old man died when his car hit a truck after skidding on a road that was suddenly flooded, authorities said.In neighbouring Hungary, about 2,000 people had to be evacuated from their homes in the northern towns of Paszto and Hasznos after flooding and because a dyke threatened to burst.In the northeast of the country, about 60 roads were closed and 18 towns were temporarily cut off, according to a spokesman for the emergency services.A level-three alert, the highest, was declared because of the high water level.In the south, near the Serbian border, a forest of some 20 hectares (50 acres) was almost entirely uprooted in recent days due to the floods, Hungarian news agency MTI reported.The emergency services were fully deployed to reinforce dykes that were threatening to burst in the affected regions, officials said.
We have received over 1,600 calls in the last 24 hours alone, to pump water out of houses and cellars,emergency services spokesman Gyorgy Szentez told klubradio station.Hundreds more people were evacuated in eastern Slovakia where transport was disrupted on Tuesday night as floods rose after several days of heavy rainfall, rescuers said.About 500 residents of a Roma settlement had to be evacuated late Tuesday along with 150 people from the country's largest Roma settlement near the village of Jarovnice, where floods killed 58 people in 1998.Meteorologists said on their website www.shmu.sk they had declared the highest level of flood alert in several regions in eastern and southern Slovakia.Ground in the region was still saturated after floods around two weeks ago that killed one person in Slovakia and another in the Czech Republic.
2010 hurricane season seen more active than feared By Pascal Fletcher – Wed Jun 2, 3:18 pm ET
MIAMI (Reuters) – The 2010 Atlantic hurricane season will be even more active than feared, leading U.S. forecasters said on Wednesday as they predicted 10 hurricanes, five of them major, with a 76 percent likelihood that a major hurricane would hit the U.S. coastline.The outlook from the Colorado State University team follows predictions by U.S. government scientists for an intense season that could disrupt efforts to contain a huge Gulf of Mexico oil spill and also batter earthquake-ravaged Haiti.Increasing a previous estimate for a very active season, the leading CSU storm research team founded by hurricane forecast pioneer William Gray said the six-month season beginning on June 1 would likely see 18 named tropical storms.Of these, CSU saw 10 becoming hurricanes, with five becoming major Category 3 or higher hurricanes with winds above 110 miles per hour (177 km per hour).The CSU scientists increased their forecast from an April 7 prediction of 15 named storms, eight hurricanes and four major hurricanes.The probability of a major hurricane making landfall along the U.S. coastline is 76 percent compared with the last-century average of 52 percent, said forecaster Phil Klotzbach, who works with Gray.
The CSU team saw a 51 percent chance that a major hurricane would make landfall on the U.S. East Coast, including the Florida Peninsula, and a 51 percent chance that one would hit the Gulf Coast, from the Florida Panhandle to Brownsville, Texas.It put the chance of a major hurricane tracking into the Caribbean at 65 percent.The expected extreme hurricane season this year is seen posing a threat to efforts to control and clean up oil spewing from a ruptured Gulf of Mexico well owned by BP Plc, described by President Barack Obama's administration as the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.Experts warn that a storm surge in the Gulf of Mexico -- an abnormal rise in sea level created by a hurricane -- could whip the oil slick and chemicals used in trying to disperse it out of the Gulf and ashore on beaches, vegetation and even homes.
HAITI QUAKE SURVIVORS SEEN VULNERABLE
If the storm tracks to the west of the oil, there is the potential that the counter-clockwise circulation of the hurricane could drive some of the oil further toward the U.S. Gulf Coast, Klotzbach said.But he added the forecasters did not see the huge, fragmented oil slick itself having much of an impact on any tropical storm or hurricane passing over the area.There are fears too about how a major hurricane sweeping through the Caribbean over Haiti would affect around 1.5 million homeless survivors of the January 12 earthquake who are camping out in the streets under tents and tarpaulins.Quake survivors living in the makeshift camps are seen as highly vulnerable to the tropical rains, flooding and landslides which have killed thousands of Haitians in the past.Detailing weather conditions seen favoring the formation of hurricanes, Gray said the CSU team increased its forecast due to a combination of a transition from El Nino to current neutral conditions and the continuation of unusually warm tropical Atlantic sea surface temperatures.Warmer waters contribute to the development of hurricanes and dissipation of the El Nino weather phenomenon over the Pacific Ocean reduces the probability of wind shear -- caused by a clash between prevailing upper-levels winds out of the west and lower-level easterly winds out of Africa -- that can tear apart hurricanes or break up their circulation.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration last week predicted one of the more active hurricane seasons on record, forecasting 14 to 23 named storms, with eight to 14 becoming hurricanes, nearly matching 2005's record of 15. The Gulf Coast may see a repeat of the 2005 season when a record 28 storms formed, which killed nearly 4,000 people and caused an estimated $130 billion in damages. The list included Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans.(Editing by Tom Brown and Mohammad Zargham)
I WRITE NEWS ABOUT AND PUT NEWS ARTICLES ABOUT ISRAEL AND JERUSALEM PERTAINING TO BIBLE PROPHESY HAPPENINGS.JOEL 3:20 But Judah (ISRAEL) shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.(THATS ISRAEL-JERUSALEM WILL NEVER BE DESTROYED AGAIN)-WE CHRISTIANS ARE ALL WAITING PATIENTLY FOR THE PRE-TRIBULATION RAPTURE TO OCCUR.SO WE CAN GO TO JESUS AND GET OUR NEVER DYING BODIES.SO WE CAN RULE OVER CITIES OURSELVES.WHILE JESUS RULES FROM DAVIDS THRONE FOREVER IN JERUSALEM.
IMPORTANT LINKS
- 2-STRONG MAN BEHIND THE SPIRIT.
- 2024 CANADA PREDICTIONS.
- ABORTION IS MURDER OF A GENERATION OF CHILDREN.
- BEHOLD ISRAEL-AMIR TSARFATI
- BIOLOGICAL WEAPON COVID STARTED IN 1965.
- BRENT MEIDINGER, SINGER
- CBN NEWS
- DESTINY OF NATIONS.
- ELIJAH & MOSES PREACH 3 1/2 YEARS
- EU'S 10 POINT PEACE PLAN.
- FOX NEWS
- FROM NEBUCHADNEZZAR TO TODAY.
- HOLY TEMPLE MYTH 1
- HOLY TEMPLE MYTH 2
- HOLY TEMPLE MYTH 3
- I ASKED AI LEADER QUESTIONS.
- ISRAEL AND EUS HISTORY TO END OF TRIBULATION.
- ISRAEL BIRD MIGRATION 2
- ISRAEL BIRD MIGRATION 3
- ISRAEL BIRD MIGRATION.
- ISRAEL DEFEATES ALL ENEMIES.
- ISRAEL RADIO
- ISRAEL-JERUSALEM TOGETHER FOREVER
- ISRAEL365 NEWS
- ISRAELI CITIES CAMERA
- J D FARAG
- JACK VAN IMPE
- JAN MARKELL
- JERUSALEM LIVE
- JERUSALEM POST NEWS
- JERUSALEM WESTERN WALL LIVE
- JEWISH FEASTS - HOLIDAYS - HOLY DAYS.
- LATEST MUSLIM SCAM READERS DIGEST
- LAURA-LYNN TYLER THOMPSON
- MARK LEVIN (TRUTHS)
- MY 12 YR BAN ON GAY FLAG IN OWENSOUND
- MY 7 YR PEACE TREATY SITE
- MY END TIME SCENARIO.
- MY MOHAWK HARNESS PREDICTIONS
- MY NHL HOCKEY STATS SITE
- MY TWITTER SITE
- MY YOUTUBE SITE
- NEW WORLD ORDER BY ME
- NTEB
- REBEL NEWS
- SHOTS ARE GENE THERAPY.
- SHROUD OF TURIN
- THE GATEWAY PUNDIT
- THE LAST GENERATION
- TIMES OF ISRAEL NEWSFEED
- WAR IN HEAVEN REV 12
- WERE ISLAM WILL BE BURIED 300 MILLION.
- WHOS LAND IS IT (2)
- WHOS LAND IS IT (3)
- WHOS LAND IS IT? (1)
- WHOS LAND IS IT? (4)
- WHOS LAND IS IT? (5)
- WHOS LAND IS IT? (6)
- WOKE CULTURE IS MAOISM IN CANADAS CHARACTERISTICS
- WW3 THE WAVES.
Friday, June 04, 2010
Thursday, June 03, 2010
P-3 OIL SPILL NEWS UPDATE
PESTILENCES (CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS)
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences;(CHEMICAL,BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS) and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
POISONED WATERS
REVELATION 8:8-11
8 And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;
9 And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.
10 And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;
11 And the name of the star is called Wormwood:(bitter,Poisoned) and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.(poisoned)
REVELATION 16:3-7
3 And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.(enviromentalists won't like this result)
4 And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.
5 And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.
6 For they(False World Church and Dictator) have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.
LIVE BP OIL FEED
http://interactive.foxnews.com/livestream/live.html?chanId=2&openAIR=true
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/26/bp-oil-spill-live-feed-vi_n_590635.html
http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/
homepage/STAGING/local_assets/bp_homepage/html/rov_stream.html
OBAMA ON OIL SPILL-VIDEO
http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/deepwater-bp-oil-spill-presidential-press-conference
PART 1-OIL SPILL
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2010/05/oil-still-gushing-as-of-645pm.html
PART 2-OIL SPILL
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2010/05/p-2-oil-slick-news-nay-29.html
ITS 11:45AM JUNE 1,10 AND BP IS CUTTING THE PIPE TO TRY TO CAP IT.ITS DAY 43 AND COUNTING.
ITS 2:45PM JUNE 1,10 AND THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION WILL NOT DO ANY MORE PRESS CONFERENCES WITH BP.INSTEAD OF GETTING CLOSER TO THE OIL SPILL,OBAMA IS COWARING AND HIDING AND HOPING THE SPILL GOES AWAY.OBAMAS NOT INTERESTED IN THE POISONING OF THE WATERS AND SEA ANIMALS,HES JUST THINKING OF DOLLAR SIGNS FROM A BIG FAT BAILOUT SO HE CAN FUND HIS COVERUP OF HIS BIRTH SCANDLE.
ITS 4:20PM JUNE 1,10. 1/3RD OF THE GULF IS NOW UNFISHABLE,BIBLE PROPHECY HAS BEEN PARTIALLY FULFILLED.WHICH MEANS 1/3RD OF THE SHIPS WILL BE DESTROYED,THEY LOSE THEIR JOBS AND LIVELYHOODS.AND THE WATER IS POISONED LIKE THE BIBLE SAYS AND LOOKS LIKE THE BLOOD OF A DEAD MAN.THE COST ESTIMATED TO BP WILL RANGE FROM $2.5 BILLION TO $22 BILLION.IN THE LAST 5 WEEKS BP IS DOWN 38% THE STOCKS.
ITS 10:10AM JUNE 2,10 THEY CLAIM THE SAW IS STUCK IN THE PIPE THEY WERE CUTTING AND THE OIL STILL GUSHES...THE INTERESTING SAGA CONTINUES WHILE WATERS GET POISONED AND DEATH OF ALL THE SEA ANIMALS AND SEA LIFE OCCURS.
ITS 4:05PM JUNE 2,10 ALREADY OBAMA IS TALKING NEW ENERGY MEASURES.THE SWEET TALK FOR BAILOUTS IS ON AGAIN.DAY 44 IS ALMOST COMPLETE.OH PROPHECY IS FULFILLED 37% OF THE GULF IS NOW POISONED.GOD(KING JESUS TOLD US WHAT WOULD BE COMING IN THE LAST DAYS.FOR GODLESS SKEPTICS...YOU BETTER GET SAVED QUICK....THE WORST IS YET TO COME.
ITS 10:25PM JUNE 2,10-CNNS ANDERSON COOPER IS SPREADING THE HAYWARD PROPAGANDA OF THE ILL PEOPLE BEING SICK FROM FOOD POISON.WHAT HOGWASH..BILLY THE MARSH GUY SAID AFTER A PLANE SPRAYED SOMETHING ONE GUY STARTING GETTING NASEAU AND VOMITING AND WAS TAKEN TO HOSPITAL.DR SANJAY GUPTA AT LEAST IS SAYING YOU CAN GET SICK AND RESPIRATORY SYSTEM PROBLEMS FROM INHALING THE GAS FUMES AND CHEMICALS BP IS SPRAYNG IN THE WATER TO BREAK UP THE OIL.THE BIBLE CLEARLY SAYS MANY WILL DIE FROM THE POISONED WATERS SO EXPECT EFFECTS AND DEATHS FROM THIS SPILL IN THE SHORT AND LONG TERM.
WHAT IS AN OIL PLUME? WELL ITS THE MIXTURE OF THE OIL AND GAS COMING OUT OF THE SPILL AND ADD ON TO THAT THE CHEMICALS BPS IS USING THAT COMES OUT ALSO TO BREAK UP THE OIL AND YOU GET AN INVISBLE PLUME OF THE 3 POISON MIXTURES COMBINED TO MAKE A PLUME.THE BIGGEST PLUME THEY BELIEVE IS 22 MILES LONG BY FIVE MILES WIDE AND VARIOUS OTHER SIZE PLUMES ARE DESTROYING ALL THE ANIMALS AND PLANKTAN IN THE GULF.THESE PLUMES KILL OFF ALL THE OXIGEN AND KILLS WHAT EVERS IN THE AREA WERE THE PLUME IS.
8:15AM JUNE 3,10 DAY 45 OF OIL SPILL.SEE WHAT TODAY BRINGS.I HEARD THERES SOMETHING TO DO WITH OYSTERS THIS WEEKEND.I WOULD BE STAYING CLEAR OF ANYTHING EATIN FROM THE GULF IN THE LAST 45 DAYS.THESE OYSTERS MIGHT HAVE BEEN POISONED EARLY AND THE COMPANY MAY HAVE STILL LET THEM THROUGH SO BE AVOIDING ALL THE GULF SEA FISH AND ANIMALS WOULD BE MY ADVICE.
ITS 1:45PM JUNE 3,10 AND OBAMA WANTS TO PUT CLIMATE CHANGE EXPERTS ON THE OIL SPILL COMMITTEE.HERE WE GO CAP & TRADE AND BIGTIME TAXES ARE COMING AMERICA BE PREPARED.OBAMA MUST BE TELLING HIS ADMINISTRATION OF THUGS THAT THIS IS THE WAY WE CAN GET TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO BP THROUGH BAILOUTS AND TRILLIONS TO PAY FOR THEM BY TAXES AND SHUTING DOWN MAIN CITIZEN ORGANIZATIONS AS WELL AS SKY ROCKETING FOOD PRICES.OBAMA SAYS TO HIS ADMINISTRATION,THESE SHEEPLE OF FOOLS WILL WORSHIP US THROUGH TAXES AND HIGH PRICES AND OUR THUG DICTATORSHIP AND EUGENICS PROGRAM.
OH AND ONE VERY IMPORTANT HAPPENNING,ON APRIL 18,10 GOLDMAN SACHS DUMPED THEIR BP STOCKS THEY HAD...COINCIDENCE OR PAYOUT OR WORSE...I CAN ONLY IMAGINE.2 DAYS BEFORE THE EXPLOSION.THE CONNECTION ONCE AGAIN TO THE WHITE HOUSE AND GOLDMAN SACHS CONNECTION.NOW WE UNDERSTAND WHY OBAMAS NOT INTERESTED IN THE OIL SPILL ANYMORE.
Goldman Sachs sold $250 million of BP stock before spill
By John Byrne Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010 -- 10:12 am
Firm's stock sale nearly twice as large as any other institution; Represented 44 percent of total BP investment.The brokerage firm that's faced the most scrutiny from regulators in the past year over the shorting of mortgage related securities seems to have had good timing when it came to something else: the stock of British oil giant BP.According to regulatory filings, RawStory.com has found that Goldman Sachs sold 4,680,822 shares of BP in the first quarter of 2010. Goldman's sales were the largest of any firm during that time. Goldman would have pocketed slightly more than $266 million if their holdings were sold at the average price of BP's stock during the quarter.If Goldman had sold these shares today, their investment would have lost 36 percent its value, or $96 million. The share sales represented 44 percent of Goldman's holdings -- meaning that Goldman's remaining holdings have still lost tens of millions in value.The sale and its size itself isn't unusual for a large asset management firm. Wall Street brokerages routinely buy and sell huge blocks of shares for themselves and their clients. In light of a recent SEC lawsuit arguing that Goldman kept information about a product they sold from their clients, however, the stock sale may raise fresh concern among Goldman's critics. Goldman is also a frequent target of liberals and journalists, including Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi, who famously dubbed the firm a vampire squid.Two calls placed to Goldman Sachs' media office in New York Wednesday morning after US markets opened were not immediately returned, though Raw Story decided to publish the story quickly after the calls since the stock sale had been already noted online.
Others also sold stock
Other asset management firms also sold huge blocks of BP stock in the first quarter -- but their sales were a fraction of Goldman's. Wachovia, which is owned by Wells Fargo, sold 2,667,419 shares; UBS, the Swiss bank, sold 2,125,566 shares.Wachovia and UBS also sold much larger percentages of their BP stock, at 98 percently and 97 percent respectively.Wachova parent Wells Fargo, however, bought 2.3 million shares in the quarter, largely discounting Wachovia's sales.Those reported buying BP's stock included Wellington Management, a large asset firm, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.BP is struggling to cap a massive oil leak at one of its drill sites in the Gulf of Mexico. The firm's myriad safety violations over the years have come to light in lieu of the Gulf disaster.BP traded on average at $56.86 in the first quarter, according to GuruFocus, a site that monitors the major trading moves of prominent investors. A list of major institutions' sales of BP stock are available at the market research website Morningstar.It's certainly unknown as to why the firms sold their holdings. In its analysis of the company in mid-March, Morningstar, the market research site, gave the company an average rating of three out of a possible five stars.
BP's valuation carries more uncertainty than ExxonMobil's or Shell's because the firm is less integrated, with more of its earnings coming from the [exploration and production] business than from potentially offsetting refining operations, the site's analyst wrote. Like its peers, a sustained drop in oil and gas prices can hurt upstream earnings. Lower crude-oil feedstock costs could help refining margins, but refined product pricing lags could quickly swing refining profits to losses. BP's global business faces potential disruptions caused by political risks, particularly with its heavy exposure to Russia. Disruptions caused by environmental and operational constraints could further limit earnings potential.The transnational oil company, like other energy giants, was hit with lower oil and gas prices in the past year after the price of oil surged in 2008.BP's fourth quarter marked another quarter of year-over-year production gains, with a 3% increase thanks to new field startups,Morningstar's analyst wrote in another note, after BP turned in better than expected fourth quarter results in February. BP reported fourth-quarter replacement cost profit of $3.4 billion, up 33% from year-ago earnings of $2.6 billion, as upstream earnings growth was more than enough to offset downstream weakness. For the full year, BP's earnings of $14 billion were 45% below year-ago earnings of $26 billion, in part because of lower oil prices earlier in the year. We're encouraged by BP's sequential earnings gains as new projects and cost-cutting efforts drive upstream results.The SEC filed a civil lawsuit against Goldman Sachs and one of its vice presidents in April, asserting that the firm had committed fraud by misrepresenting a mortgage-investment product inherently designed to fail. The company helped a hedge fund trader create a mortgage investment that gained value as mortgage borrowers defaulted en masse.In response, Goldman said the SEC's charges were completely unfounded in law and fact and averred that it would vigorously contest them and defend the firm and its reputation.The firm has also faced criticism over giant bonuses paid to staff amidst the US financial crisis. Goldman reduced the sizes of its staff bonuses this year to $16.9 billion, and said it would pay its chief executive $9 million, far less than the previous year.Goldman also announced it would create a $500 million program to help small businesses. Critics noted that the figure represented just 3% of the bonus pool.
BP cuts pipe, plans to lower cap over Gulf spill By GREG BLUESTEIN, Associated Press Writers - JUNE 3,10 1:45PM
METAIRIE, La. – BP sliced off a pipe with giant shears Thursday in the latest bid to curtail the worst spill in U.S. history, but the cut was jagged and placing a cap over the gusher will now be more challenging.BP turned to the shears after a diamond-tipped saw became stuck in the pipe halfway through the job, yet another frustrating delay in the six-week-old Gulf of Mexico spill.The cap will be lowered and sealed over the next couple of hours, said Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the government's point man for the disaster. It won't be known how much oil BP can siphon to a tanker on the surface until the cap is fitted, but the irregular cut means it won't fit as snugly as officials hoped.We'll have to see when we get the containment cap on it just how effective it is, Allen said. It will be a test and adapt phase as we move ahead, but it's a significant step forward.Even if it works, BP engineers expect oil to continue leaking into the ocean.The next chance to stop the flow won't come until two relief wells meant to plug the reservoir for good are finished in August.This latest attempt to control the spill, the so-called cut-and-cap method, is considered risky because slicing away a section of the 20-inch-wide riser removed a kink in the pipe, and could temporarily increase the flow of oil by as much as 20 percent.Live video footage showed oil spewing uninterrupted out of the top of the blowout preventer, but Allen said it was unclear whether the flow had increased.I don't think we'll know until the containment cap is seated on there, he said. We'll have to wait and see.
President Barack Obama will return to the Louisiana coast Friday to assess the latest efforts, his third trip to the region since the April 20 disaster. It's also his second visit in a week.BP's top executive acknowledged Thursday the global oil giant was unprepared to fight a catastrophic deepwater oil spill. Chief executive Tony Hayward told The Financial Times it was an entirely fair criticism to say the company had not been fully prepared for a deepwater oil leak. Hayward called it low-probability, high-impact accident.What is undoubtedly true is that we did not have the tools you would want in your tool-kit, Hayward said in an interview published in Thursday's edition of the London-based newspaper.Oil drifted six miles from the Florida Panhandle's popular sugar-white beaches, and crews on the mainland were doing everything possible to limit the catastrophe.The Coast Guard's Allen directed BP to pay for five additional sand barrier projects in Louisiana. BP said Thursday the project will cost it about $360 million, on top of about $990 million it had spent on response and clean up, grants to four Gulf coast states and claims from people and companies hurt by the spill.Mark Johnecheck, a 68-year-old retired Navy captain from Pensacola, sat on a black folding chair as rough surf crashed ashore at Pensacola Beach and children splashed in the water. Johnecheck has lived in the Pensacola area since the 1960s, but doesn't come to the beach very often.The reason I'm here now is because I'm afraid it's going to be gone, he said. I'm really afraid that the next time I come out here it's not going to look like this.He said the arrival of the oil seems foregone: I don't know what else they can do, he said.It just makes you feel helpless.His wife walks up and becomes emotional thinking about the oil. It's like grieving somebody on their dying bed, said Marjorie Johnecheck, 62. Next to her chair is a small white pail full of sugary Panhandle sand. She will take it home and put it in a decorative jar.
I'm taking it home before it gets black, she said. Forecasters said the oil would probably wash up by Friday, threatening a delicate network of islands, bays and beaches that are a haven for wildlife and a major tourist destination dubbed the Redneck Riviera. Officials said the slick sighted offshore consisted in part of "tar mats about 500 feet by 2,000 feet in size. County officials set up the booms to block oil from reaching inland waterways but planned to leave beaches unprotected because they are too difficult to defend against the action of the waves and because they are easier to clean up. Anne Wilson, a 62-year-old retired teachers aide who has lived in Pensacola Beach for the last year and a half, felt helpless. There's nothing more you can do,said Wilson, who lived in Valdez, Alaska, near the Exxon spill in 1989.It's up to Mother Nature to take care of things. Humans can only do so much.Florida's beaches play a crucial role in the state's tourism industry. At least 60 percent of vacation spending in the state during 2008 was in beachfront cities. Worried that reports of oil would scare tourists away, state officials are promoting interactive Web maps and Twitter feeds to show travelers — particularly those from overseas — how large the state is and how distant their destinations may be from the spill.
The effect on wildlife has grown, too. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported 522 dead birds — at least 38 of them oiled — along the Gulf coast states, and more than 80 oiled birds have been rescued. It's not clear exactly how many of the deaths can be attributed to the spill. Dead birds and animals found during spills are kept as evidence in locked freezers until investigations and damage assessments are complete, according to Teri Frady, a spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This includes strict chain-of-custody procedures and long-term locked storage until the investigative and damage assessment phases of the spill are complete,she wrote in an e-mail.Associated Press writers Adam Geller and Janet McConnaughey in New Orleans, Melissa Nelson and Matt Sedensky in Pensacola and Travis Reed in Miami also contributed to this report.
Once again, BP experiment in Gulf spill hits snag By MELISSA NELSON and ADAM GELLER, Associated Press Writers – Thu Jun 3, 4:30 am ET
PENSACOLA, Fla. – BP fumbled its latest underwater experiment with the wild Gulf gusher — just like every other endeavor the company has tried to fix the nation's worst oil spill and BP's chief executive said the company wasn't fully prepared for the disaster.First, a 100-ton, four-story box couldn't contain the spill because icelike crystals clogged the top. Then, a straw-like device that actually did capture crude was inconsistent at best. The supposed top kill — shooting heavy mud and junk into the well — couldn't overcome the pressure of the oil. And the most recent risky gambit ran into trouble a mile under the sea Wednesday when a diamond-tipped saw became stuck after slicing through about half of the blown-out well.It took BP 12 hours to free the saw, and the company hopes to use giant shears similar to an oversized garden tool to snip off the pipe. However, the cut won't be as clean if successful, and a looser fitting cap will have to be placed over the spill.No timetable was given for when that might start, a familiar refrain in this six-week-old disaster.The Financial Times on Thursday quoted BP CEO Tony Hayward as saying it was entirely fair to criticize the company's preparations.The newspaper quotes Hayward as saying: What is undoubtedly true is that we did not have the tools you would want in your tool kit.However, Hayward said BP had been successful so far in keeping most of the oil away from the southeastern U.S. coast.Considering how big this has been, very little has got away from us,Hayward was quoted as saying.
So far, each novel attempt to stop more oil from spewing into the Gulf has dragged on and misfired. All along, the company has been drilling a relief well, the best option at stopping the gusher — but it's still two months away.Since the biggest oil spill in U.S. history began to unfold April 20 with an explosion that killed 11 workers aboard an offshore drilling rig, crude has fouled some 125 miles of Louisiana coastline and washed up in Alabama and Mississippi. The well has leaked anywhere from 21 million to 45 million gallons by the government's estimate.The latest attempt to stop it, the so-called cut-and-cap method, is considered risky because slicing away a section of the 20-inch-wide riser could remove kinks in the pipe and temporarily increase the flow of oil by as much as 20 percent.
And the situation on the water's surface becomes more dire with each day.
Oil drifted perilously close to the Florida Panhandle's famous sugar-white beaches, and crews on the mainland were doing everything possible to limit the catastrophe. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the nation's point man for the spill, directed BP to pay for five additional sand barrier projects in Louisiana. Boats were also sent packing east, along with four helicopters to help skimmers spot oil threatening Alabama, Mississippi and the Florida coast.As the edge of the slick drifted within seven miles of Pensacola's beaches, emergency workers rushed to link the last in a miles-long chain of booms designed to fend off the oil. They were slowed by thunderstorms and wind before the weather cleared in the afternoon.Forecasters said the oil would probably wash up by Friday, threatening a delicate network of islands, bays and white-sand beaches that are a haven for wildlife and a major tourist destination dubbed the Redneck Riviera.We are doing what we can do, but we cannot change what has happened,said John Dosh, emergency director for Escambia County, which includes Pensacola.
The effect on wildlife has grown, too.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported 522 dead birds — at least 38 of them oiled — along the Gulf coast states, and more than 80 oiled birds have been rescued. It's not clear exactly how many of the deaths can be attributed to the spill. Dead birds and animals found during spills are kept as evidence in locked freezers until investigations and damage assessments are complete, according to Teri Frady, a spokeswoman for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. This includes strict chain-of-custody procedures and long-term locked storage until the investigative and damage assessment phases of the spill are complete,she wrote in an e-mail. As the oil drifted closer to Florida, beachgoers in Pensacola waded into the gentle waves, cast fishing lines and sunbathed, even as a two-man crew took water samples. One of the men said they were hired by BP to collect samples to be analyzed for tar and other pollutants. A few feet away, Martha Feinstein, 65, of Milton, Fla., pondered the fate of the beach she has been visiting for years. You sit on the edge of your seat and you wonder where it's going, she said. It's the saddest thing.
Officials said the slick sighted offshore consisted in part of tar mats about 500 feet by 2,000 feet in size. County officials set up the booms to block oil from reaching inland waterways but planned to leave beaches unprotected because they are too difficult to defend against the action of the waves and because they are easier to clean up. It's inevitable that we will see it on the beaches,said Keith Wilkins, deputy chief of neighborhood and community services for Escambia County. Florida's beaches play a crucial role in the state's tourism industry. At least 60 percent of vacation spending in the state during 2008 was in beachfront cities. Worried that reports of oil would scare tourists away, state officials are promoting interactive Web maps and Twitter feeds to show travelers — particularly those from overseas — how large the state is and how distant their destinations may be from the spill.
Melissa Nelson reported from Pensacola, Fla., and Adam Geller from New Orleans. Associated Press writers Greg Bluestein in Covington, La., Matt Sedensky in Pensacola, Travis Reed in Miami, Kevin McGill over the Gulf of Mexico, Darlene Superville and Pete Yost in Washington, Brian Skoloff in Port Fourchon, La., Mary Foster in Boothville, La., and Michael Kunzelman in New Orleans also contributed to this report.
BP has another setback as oil slick threatens Fla. By MELISSA NELSON and ADAM GELLER, Associated Press Writers 9PM JUNE 2,10
PENSACOLA, Fla. – The BP oil slick drifted perilously close to the Florida Panhandle's famous sugar-white beaches Wednesday as a risky gambit to contain the leak by shearing off the well pipe ran into trouble a mile under the sea when the diamond-tipped saw became stuck.The saw had sliced through about half of the pipe when it snagged, and it took BP 12 hours to free it. The company said preparations were being made to resume cutting, but didn't give a timetable on when it might start.The plan is to fit a cap on the blown-out well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico to capture most of the spewing oil; the twisted, broken pipe must be sliced first to allow a snug fit.I don't think the issue is whether or not we can make the second cut. It's about how fine we can make it, how smooth we can make it, said Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the government's point man for the crisis.As the edge of the slick drifted within seven miles of Pensacola's beaches, emergency workers rushed to link the last in a miles-long chain of booms designed to fend off the oil. They were slowed by thunderstorms and wind before the weather cleared in the afternoon.Forecasters said the oil would probably wash up by Friday, threatening a delicate network of islands, bays and white-sand beaches that are a haven for wildlife and a major tourist destination dubbed the Redneck Riviera.We are doing what we can do, but we cannot change what has happened, said John Dosh, emergency director for Escambia County, which includes Pensacola.
Allen said more staff, boats and helicopters were sent to the eastern Gulf Coast as the slick spread, including a cutter in Mobile Bay, Ala., and one off Pensacola. The boats will help skim oil and add more boom to collect it. Four helicopters would help skimmers spot threatening oil.Since the biggest oil spill in U.S. history began to unfold April 20 with an explosion that killed 11 workers aboard an offshore drilling rig, crude has fouled some 125 miles of Louisiana coastline and washed up in Alabama and Mississippi as well. Over the past six weeks, the well has leaked anywhere from 21 million to 45 million gallons by the government's estimate.The latest attempt to control the leak is considered risky because slicing away a section of the 20-inch-wide riser could remove kinks in the pipe and temporarily increase the flow of oil by as much as 20 percent. The cap could be placed over the spill as early as Wednesday.If the strategy fails — like every other attempt to control the leak 5,000 feet underwater — the best hope is probably a relief well, which is at least two months from completion.As the oil drifted closer to Florida, beachgoers in Pensacola waded into the gentle waves, cast fishing lines and sunbathed, even as a two-man crew took water samples. One of the men said they were hired by BP to collect samples to be analyzed for tar and other pollutants.A few feet away, Martha Feinstein, 65, of Milton, Fla., pondered the fate of the beach she has been visiting for years. You sit on the edge of your seat and you wonder where it's going,she said. It's the saddest thing.Officials said the slick sighted offshore consisted in part of tar mats about 500 feet by 2,000 feet in size.
County officials set up the booms to block oil from reaching inland waterways but planned to leave beaches unprotected because they are too difficult to defend against the action of the waves and because they are easier to clean up.It's inevitable that we will see it on the beaches, said Keith Wilkins, deputy chief of neighborhood and community services for Escambia County.Florida's beaches play a crucial role in the state's tourism industry. At least 60 percent of vacation spending in the state during 2008 was in beachfront cities. Worried that reports of oil would scare tourists away, state officials are promoting interactive Web maps and Twitter feeds to show travelers — particularly those from overseas — how large the state is and how distant their destinations may be from the spill.
In other developments:
- Investors ran from BP's stock for a second day, fearful of the potential cleanup costs, lawsuits, penalties and damage to the company's reputation.
- President Barack Obama said it is time to roll back billions of dollars in tax breaks for oil companies and use the money for clean energy research and development.
- A pair of Democratic senators pressed BP to delay plans to pay shareholder dividends worth $10 billion or more. They called it unfathomable that BP would pay out a dividend before the total cost of the cleanup is known. BP had no comment.
- More fishing grounds were closed. More than one-third of federal waters in the Gulf are now off-limits to fishing, along with hundreds of square miles of state waters.
I'm going to be bankrupt very soon, said fisherman Hong Le, who came to the U.S. from Vietnam and rebuilt his home and business after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 wiped him out. Everything is financed. How can I pay? No fishing, no welding. I weld on commercial fishing boats and they aren't going out now, so nothing breaks.Melissa Nelson reported from Pensacola, Fla., and Adam Geller from New Orleans. Associated Press writers Greg Bluestein in Covington, La., Matt Sedensky in Pensacola, Travis Reed in Miami, Kevin McGill over the Gulf of Mexico, Darlene Superville and Pete Yost in Washington, Brian Skoloff in Port Fourchon, La., Mary Foster in Boothville, La., and Michael Kunzelman in New Orleans also contributed to this report.
In oil spill shadow, Obama pledges energy bill push
By Alister Bull JUNE 2,10
PITTSBURGH (Reuters) – President Barack Obama pledged on Wednesday to find support in the Senate for a bill to overhaul U.S. energy policy, using the Gulf of Mexico oil spill to hasten production of cleaner renewable fuels.Obama, in remarks at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, also said he expected to see strong job growth reflected in the May jobs report to be released on Friday.The president had planned to focus his year on boosting jobs in the United States, where unemployment is hovering near 10 percent, but other issues -- healthcare reform, changes to financial regulation, and now the Gulf of Mexico oil spill -- have distracted attention from that.Obama, a Democrat, accused Republicans of sitting on the sidelines while his administration worked to rescue the economy. But he also said he would seek their support to pass energy legislation in the U.S. Senate despite strong resistance ahead of November congressional elections.The votes may not be there right now, but I intend to find them in the coming months, Obama said, referring to a bill that is languishing in the Senate.I will continue to make the case for a clean energy future wherever and whenever I can. I will work with anyone to get this done. And we will get it done, he said to applause.The House of Representatives has already passed a bill that would put limits on greenhouse gas emissions, but a similar effort has stalled in the Senate.Obama said the oil spill should prompt Americans to acknowledge that the United States could not depend solely on fossil fuels in the future.That meant tapping into U.S. reserves of natural gas, increasing the number of nuclear power plants, and rolling back billions of dollars of tax breaks to oil companies so we can prioritize investments in clean energy research and development.
SHORT TERM SOLUTION
He said the United States could only pursue offshore drilling as a short-term solution to its energy needs and said U.S. dependence on fossil fuels threatened its security while putting the economy and the environment at risk.Obama also pushed his case for a system that would limit greenhouse gas emissions from industry, a key ingredient for the United States in a still elusive global agreement to fight climate change.The only way the transition to clean energy will ultimately succeed is if the private sector is fully invested in this future -- if capital comes off the sidelines and the ingenuity of our entrepreneurs is unleashed, he said.And the only way to do that is by finally putting a price on carbon pollution.In the coming weeks Democrats in the Senate are expected to plot strategy for dealing with energy and environment legislation. Prior to Obama's remarks on Wednesday there was little evidence the Senate would take up a comprehensive measure this year.Nevertheless, Democratic Senator John Kerry has been hoping the full Senate would debate and vote on a bill in late June or early July, leaving enough time in September or October to work out a final bill with the House.An Environmental Protection Agency economic analysis of the a climate and energy bill written by Kerry and independent Senator Joseph Lieberman is expected sometime in June.(Writing by Jeff Mason; additional reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Effort to contain Gulf oil stalls with stuck saw By KEVIN MCGILL, Associated Press Writer - WED JUNE 2,10 10:10AM
SCHRIEVER, La. – Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen is saying that a saw has become stuck as it was cutting through a pipe on a busted well, stalling the latest attempt to contain the Gulf oil gusher.Allen said Wednesday the goal is to free the saw and finish the cut later in the day. This is the second major cut in the effort to contain — not plug — the nation's worst spill.Allen says the first cut with giant shears was successful overnight.The best chance at plugging the leak involves a relief well that is at least two months from completion.
Oil closes in on Fla. as BP tries risky cap move By GREG BLUESTEIN and BRIAN SKOLOFF, Associated Press Writers - JUNE 2,10
PORT FOURCHON, La. – As submersible robots made another risky attempt to control the underwater Gulf oil gusher, the crude on the surface spread, closing in on Florida. BP's stock plummeted and took much of the market down with it, and the federal government announced criminal and civil investigations into the spill.
The stakes couldn't be higher.After six weeks of failures to block the well or divert the oil, the latest mission involved using a set of tools akin to an oversized deli slicer and garden shears to break away the broken riser pipe so engineers can then position a cap over the well's opening.But it's a big gamble: Even if it succeeds, it will temporarily increase the flow of an already massive leak by 20 percent — at least 100,000 gallons more a day. That's on top of the estimated 500,000 to 1 million gallons gushing out already.In Florida, officials confirmed an oil sheen about nine miles from the famous white sands of Pensacola beach. Crews shored up miles of boom and prepared for the mess to make landfall as early as Wednesday.It's inevitable that we will see it on the beaches, said Keith Wilkins, deputy chief of neighborhood and community services for Escambia County.
Florida would be the fourth state hit. Crude has already been reported along barrier islands in Alabama and Mississippi, and it has impacted some 125 miles of Louisiana coastline.More federal fishing waters were closed, too, another setback for one of the region's most important industries. More than one-third of federal waters were off-limits for fishing, along with hundreds of square miles of state waters.Fisherman Hong Le, who came to the U.S. from Vietnam, had rebuilt his home and business after Hurricane Katrina wiped him out. Now he's facing a similiar situation.I'm going to be bankrupt very soon," Le, 53, said as he attended a meeting for fishermen hoping for help. Everything is financed, how can I pay? No fishing, no welding. I weld on commercial fishing boats and they aren't going out now, so nothing breaks.Le, like other of the fishermen, received $5,000 from BP PLC, but it was quickly gone.I call that Shut your mouth money,said Murray Volk, 46, of Empire, who's been fishing for nearly 30 years. That won't pay the insurance on my boat and house. They say there'll be more later, but do you think the electric company will wait for that?
BP may have bigger problems, though.Attorney General Eric Holder, who visited the Gulf on Tuesday to survey the fragile coastline and meet with state and federal prosecutors, would not say who might be targeted in the probes into the largest oil spill in U.S. history.We will closely examine the actions of those involved in the spill. If we find evidence of illegal behavior, we will be extremely forceful in our response,Holder said in New Orleans.The federal government also ramped up its response to the spill with President Barack Obama ordering the co-chairmen of an independent commission investigating the spill to thoroughly examine the disaster, to follow the facts wherever they lead, without fear or favor.The president said that if laws are insufficient, they'll be changed. He said that if government oversight wasn't tough enough, that will change, too.BP's stock nose-dived on Tuesday, losing nearly 15 percent of its value on the first trading day since the previous best option — the so-called top kill — failed and was aborted at the government's direction. It dipped steeply with Holder's late-afternoon announcement, which also sent other energy stocks tumbling, ultimately causing the Dow Jones industrial average to tumble 112. If BP's new effort to contain the leak fails, the procedure will have made the biggest oil spill in U.S. history even worse. It is an engineer's nightmare,said Ed Overton, a Louisiana State University professor of environmental sciences.They're trying to fit a 21-inch cap over a 20-inch pipe a mile away. That's just horrendously hard to do. It's not like you and I standing on the ground pushing — they're using little robots to do this.Since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20, eventually collapsing into the Gulf of Mexico, an estimated 20 million to 40 million gallons of oil has spewed, eclipsing the 11 million that leaked from the Exxon Valdez disaster. BP PLC's Doug Suttles said that although there's no guarantee the company's latest cut-and-cap effort to close off the leak will work, he remained hopeful, but wouldn't guarantee success.
Engineers have put underwater robots and equipment in place this week after a bold attempt to plug the well by force-feeding it heavy mud and cement — called a top kill — was aborted over the weekend. Crews pumped thousands of gallons of the mud into the well but were unable to overcome the pressure of the oil. The company said if the small dome is successful it could capture and siphon a majority of the gushing oil to the surface. But the cut and cap will not halt the oil flow, just capture some of it and funnel it to vessels waiting at the surface. The British oil giant has tried and failed repeatedly to halt the flow of the oil, and this attempt like others has never been tried before a mile beneath the ocean. Experts warned it could be even riskier than the others because slicing open the 20-inch riser could unleash more oil if there was a kink in the pipe that restricted some of the flow.
Eric Smith, an associate director of the Tulane Energy Institute, likened the procedure to trying to place a tiny cap on a fire hydrant that's blowing straight up. Will they have enough weight to overcome the force of the flow? he said.It could create a lot of turbulence, but I do think they'll have enough weight.But BP's best chance to actually plug the leak rests with a pair of relief wells but those won't likely be completed until August. The company has carefully prepared the next phase, knowing that another failure could mean millions more gallons spew into the ocean and lead to even more public pressure. And they say they have learned valuable lessons from the failure of a bigger version of the containment cap last month that was clogged with icelike slush.Bluestein reported from Covington, La. Associated Press writers Darlene Superville and Pete Yost from Washington, Curt Anderson from Miami, Brian Skoloff from Port Fourchon, Mary Foster in Boothville, and Michael Kunzelman also contributed to this report.
Red-brown oil washes up on Dauphin Island, Ala., 3 weeks after tar balls found Published June 01, 2010| Associated Press
DAUPHIN ISLAND, Ala. (AP) — Red-brown oil is making its first appearance on an Alabama island near the mouth of Mobile Bay, three weeks after tar balls were found there.Donald Williamson, director of the state Department of Public Health, said weathered patches of oil washed up on Dauphin Island's east end Tuesday, prompting officials to close some state waters to fishing and post warnings urging beachgoers to stay out of the water.Dauphin Island is a popular tourist destination.
Pam Anderson Calls Gulf Oil Spill End of the World.Does Rest of Hollywood Agree? By Hollie McKay Published June 01, 2010| FOXNews.com
LOS ANGELES-Pamela Anderson says she’s doing what she can to combat the catastrophic oil spill that continues to pollute the Gulf of Mexico and threaten America's southern shores. But is she one of the few stars stepping up to play a role in the clean-up? It’s terrible, it’s awful. It feels like it is the end of the world to me, the actress/animal rights activist told Pop Tarts at last week’s Big Bluff Online Trivia Game launch. I’m working with international bird rescue, they’re expecting (it to get a lot worse) which is unbelievable. It’s the worst thing that could happen, and we won’t know what the effects are until later.And as thousands of gallons of oil continue to spill every day, it seems the majority of Hollywood, a community often given to preaching on green issues, is staying away. Granted, there were some celebrities like Conan O’Brien and Jimmy Fallon who took to Twitter to express their thoughts on the issue, but unlike the tragedy in Haiti in January, there hasn’t been an outpouring of donations, large-scale fund-raisers, contribution-driven websites and hotlines, or PSAs encouraging Americans to do all they can to help out.Hollywood stars have a romance with saving foreign countries, they see America as this rich and powerful country that should fix problems on its own,said media expert Michael Levine. Celebrities feel heroic in saving people from other places. Patriotism isn’t of interest, sometimes Hollywood forgets that America needs care and consideration too.
Hollywood’s heavyweights are certainly not afraid to dig very deep into their pockets in times of global disaster. It was well-documented in the press that celebrities including Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Sandra Bullock and Madonna collectively donated millions to the earthquake relief. Actor George Clooney used his star status to raise over $57 million in his Hope For Haiti telethon. Queen Latifah, Sean Diddy Combs and Pharrell Williams hosted another telethon in conjunction with BET, and Sean Penn even hightailed it to the poverty-stricken country to personally lend his hand with refugee efforts.But according to other entertainment industry experts, it’s not a case of celebrities only wanting to help out foreign countries: it’s a case of this being a man-made disaster as opposed to a natural one.It's politically safer when its victims on one side and a catastrophic event on the other. In that case, there is only one side to be on. Man-made catastrophes are not as clear-cut. This one is filled with politically loaded issues of off-shore oil drilling, dependence on foreign oil and the environment, explained Glenn Selig, founder of The Publicity Agency. Plus BP employees died. You don't want to make those victims part of an evil oil company that created the mess. It's complicated, which makes it a very tough issue to rally around.
Media expert Dana Livingston Ward echoed Selig's sentiments.We're all referring to this environmental mishap as the BP oil spill, which automatically places blame on BP, therefore no one - Hollywood included - feels the need to pay for a problem caused by someone else,said Ward. In the end, the Gulf oil spill is an issue that does indeed affect our people, so celebs and the rest of Americans should be just as quick to help create a solution for this latest disaster... even if it's simply speaking up to raise awareness and thus force the guilty party to remedy the situation in more timely manner.Still, there are some stars that aren’t afraid to bypass the politics to do what they can for the sake of the environment and those affected.Waterworld star Kevin Costner, who 15 years ago began funding the work of Louisiana-based firm Ocean Therapy solutions, has offered up his multi-million dollar machines which function like a vacuum to separate water and oil, purifying both in the process. Director James Cameron has loaned the submersibles used to shoot Titanic to the crews trying to stop the underwater geyser, and Robert Redford appeared in a commercial encouraging Americans to Call For Clean Energy Now.In addition Lenny Kravitz, John Legend, and Mos Def recently performed at a benefit for the Gulf Relief Foundation in New Orleans to raise funds for fisherman affected by the disaster, and 90’s pop sensation Sophie B. Hawkins is donating 100 percent of the net proceeds from her new song The Land, the Sea & the Sky to the Waterkeeper Alliance’s clean-up efforts in the region.But despite her concern over the wildlife affected by the spill, Anderson has faith that President Obama, despite the harsh criticism he has been under for not doing enough.I (totally blame) the oil people. They made a big mistake of not having a back-up plan,Anderson added.I would definitely like to see Obama do more, but I also want to support him and what he stands for. I think he’s a good president and he’s very compassionate, and we have to just trust that he knows best.Additional reporting by Deidre Behar
Feds open criminal probe of Gulf oil spill By BEN NUCKOLS and JANE WARDELL, Associated Press Writers - JUNE 1,10 4:25PM
PORT FOURCHON, La. – Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday that federal authorities have opened criminal and civil investigations into the nation's worst oil spill, and BP lost billions in market value when shares dropped in the first trading day since the company failed yet again to plug the gusher.Investors presumably realized the best chance to stop the leak was months away and there was no end in sight to the cleanup. As BP settled in for the long-term, Holder announced the criminal probe, though he would not specify the companies or individuals that might be targeted.We will closely examine the actions of those involved in the spill. If we find evidence of illegal behavior, we will be extremely forceful in our response, Holder said in New Orleans.With the ambitious top kill abandoned over the weekend, BP's hope to stanch the leak lies with two relief wells that won't be finished until at least August. The company is, however, trying another risky temporary fix to contain the oil and siphon it to the surface by sawing through the leaking pipe and putting a cap over the spill.Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the national incident commander, said Tuesday that BP was making its first major cut with super shears that weigh 46,000 pounds and resemble a giant garden tool. The company will also use a powerful diamond-edged cutter the resembles a deli slicer to try to make a clean cut above the blowout preventer, then will lower a cap over it with a rubber seal.After several failed attempts to divert or block the well, BP's latest attempt involves cutting the broken riser pipe, making it spew as much as 20 percent more oil into the water for days while engineers try to position a cap over the opening.
Eric Smith, an associate director of the Tulane Energy Institute, said the strategy had about a 50 to 70 percent chance to succeed. He likened it to trying to place a tiny cap on a fire hydrant.Will they have enough weight to overcome the force of the flow? he said. It could create a lot of turbulence, but I do think they'll have enough weight.BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said there was no guarantee the cut-and-cap effort would work. He did say the company has learned from past efforts to contain the leak, which gives them a better shot at success.I'm very hopeful,Suttles said.I think we'll find out over the next couple of days.The cleanup, relief wells and temporary fixes were being watched closely by President Barack Obama's administration.The president gave the leaders of an independent commission investigating the spill orders to thoroughly examine the disaster and its causes, and to follow the facts wherever they lead, without fear or favor.The president said that if laws are insufficient, they'll be changed. He said that if government oversight wasn't tough enough, that will change, too.Meanwhile, BP spokesman Graham MacEwen said the company was awaiting analysis of water samples taken in the Gulf before making a final determination on whether huge plumes of oil are suspended underwater. CEO Tony Hayward said Sunday there was no evidence of the plumes even though several scientists have made the claims.
Billy Nungesser, president of Plaquemines Parish, fired back at Hayward.We ought to take him offshore and dunk him 10 feet underwater and pull him up and ask him What's that all over your face? said Nungesser.On the business side of things, the company's share price, which has fallen steadily since the start of the disaster, took a turn for the worse Tuesday, losing 15 percent to $6.13 in early afternoon trading on the London Stock Exchange.That was the lowest level in more than a year. The shares have now lost more than a third of their value, wiping some $63 billion off BP's value, since the explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig six weeks ago. BP said early Tuesday it had spent $990 million so far on fighting and cleaning the spill, with multiple lawsuits for damages yet to be tallied. The Coast Guard also announced that it was replacing the admiral who has been the federal on-scene coordinator since the oil rig exploded, though the agency said the change was previously planned. Rear Adm. Mary Landry will now return to duties as commandant of the 8th Coast Guard District in New Orleans to focus on hurricane season preparations. BP failed to plug the leak Saturday after several attempts with its top kill, which shot mud and pieces of rubber into the well but couldn't beat back the pressure of the oil.The spill has already leaked between 20 million and 44 million gallons, according to government estimates.
The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration also announced that almost one-third of federal waters — or nearly 76,000 square miles — in the Gulf were closing to commercial and recreational fishing because of the spill. The relief well is the best chance to stop the leak. A bore hole must precisely intersect the damaged well, which experts have compared to hitting a target the size of a dinner plate more than two miles into the earth. If it misses, BP will have to back up its drill, plug the hole it just created, and try again. The probability of them hitting it on the very first shot is virtually nil,said David Rensink, incoming president of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, who spent most of his 39 years in the oil industry in offshore exploration.If they get it on the first three or four shots they'd be very lucky.The trial-and-error process could take weeks, but it will eventually work, scientists and BP said. Then engineers will then pump mud and cement through pipes to ultimately seal the well. On the slim chance the relief well doesn't work, scientists weren't sure exactly how much — or how long — the oil would flow. The gusher would continue until the well bore hole collapsed or pressure in the reservoir dropped to a point where oil was no longer pushed to the surface, said Tad Patzek, chair of the Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering Department at the University of Texas-Austin.Wardell reported from London. Associated Press writers Michael Kunzelman and Kevin McGill in New Orleans, Greg Bluestein in Covington, and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.
BP shares plunge as next Gulf fix gets underway By BEN NUCKOLS and JANE WARDELL, Associated Press Writer - JUNE 1,10 11:00AM
PORT FOURCHON, La. – BP lost billions more in market value Tuesday when shares fell steeply in the first trading day since the company failed to plug the worst oil spill in U.S. history, as investors realized the best chance to stop the leak was months away and there was no end in sight to the cleanup.As hurricane season began on the fragile Gulf Coast, BP settled in for the long-term. With the ambitious top kill abandoned over the weekend, BP's hope to stanch the leak lies with two relief wells that won't be finished until at least August. The company is, however, trying another temporary fix to contain the oil and siphon it to the surface by sawing through the leaking pipe and putting a cap over the spill.The cleanup, relief wells and temporary fixes were being watched closely by President Barack Obama's administration. Obama planned to meet for the first time Tuesday with the co-chairmen of an independent commission investigating the spill, while Attorney General Eric Holder was headed to the Gulf Coast to meet with state attorneys general.Obama's energy czar, Carol Browner, said she doesn't want to guess the prospects for success on BP's containment cap.Interviewed Tuesday on ABC's Good Morning America,Browner said,I don't want to put odds on it. ... We want to get this thing contained.Browner also said she's concerned about the effect the hurricane season, which began Tuesday, could have on ending the environmental crisis.
To accommodate more than 500 workers hired to clean up the worst oil spill in U.S. history, BP and several subcontractors have set up floating hotels, or "flotels," made up of steel boxes resembling oversized shipping containers and stacked atop barges.At Port Fourchon, the oil industry's hub on the Gulf , a flotel there is the only way to station workers in a massive shipyard surrounded by ecologically sensitive marshes and beaches.There are no permanent residents here on the port, said Dennis Link, a manager from a BP refinery who's handling logistics at the 1,300-acre site that's easily accessible by ship, but reachable on land only by a state road that snakes through the bayous. On Monday afternoon, the living quarters on the flotel sat empty. Generators pumped in cool air and powered the lights, and at the foot of each bunk sat a towel, washcloth and individually wrapped bar of soap. If necessary, four tents on dry land nearby can house 500 more workers. Workers will likely be trucked in on the two-lane state road.The accommodations on the barge are Spartan, but comfortable — similar to military barracks. Each pod contains 12 bunks, with a bathroom for every four. Per Coast Guard standards, each resident gets 30 square feet of space in the quarters. The barge has 10 washers, 10 dryers and a kitchen, although food will be served in a tent on land. The quarters are typically floated alongside offshore oil rigs to supplement housing on the drilling operations.
Another flotel sits about 15 miles away, off Grand Isle, and BP plans to establish them elsewhere along the coast.Meanwhile, the company's share price, which has fallen steadily since the start of the disaster, took a turn for the worse Tuesday, losing 15 percent to $6.13 in early afternoon trading on the London Stock Exchange.
That was the lowest level in more than a year. The shares have now lost more than a third of their value, wiping some $63 billion off BP's value, since the explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig six weeks ago.BP said early Tuesday it had spent $990 million so far on fighting and cleaning the spill, with multiple lawsuits for damages yet to be tallied.Cleanup efforts are being ramped up while BP tries the latest of patchwork fixes, this one the cut-and-cap process. The risky procedure could, at least temporarily, increase the oil flowing from the busted well. Using robot submarines, BP plans to cut away the riser pipe this week and place a cap-like containment valve over the blowout preventer. On Tuesday, live video feeds showed robot submarines using a circular diamond saw to cut pipes at the bottom of the Gulf. We are well into the operation to put this cap on the well now, BP Managing Director Bob Dudley told NBC's Today show on Tuesday. BP failed to plug the leak Saturday with its top kill, which shot mud and pieces of rubber into the well but couldn't beat back the pressure of the oil. The oil company also announced plans Monday to try attaching another pipe to a separate opening on the blowout preventer with some of the same equipment used to pump in mud during the top kill. The company also wants to build a new freestanding riser to carry oil toward the surface, which would give it more flexibility to disconnect and then reconnect containment pipes if a hurricane passed through.
Neither of those plans would start before mid-June and would supplement the cut-and-cap effort. The spill has already leaked between 20 million and 44 million gallons, according to government estimates. For the relief well to succeed, the bore hole must precisely intersect the damaged well, which experts have compared to hitting a target the size of a dinner plate more than two miles into the earth. If it misses, BP will have to back up its drill, plug the hole it just created, and try again. The probability of them hitting it on the very first shot is virtually nil, said David Rensink, incoming president of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, who spent most of his 39 years in the oil industry in offshore exploration.If they get it on the first three or four shots they'd be very lucky.The trial-and-error process could take weeks, but it will eventually work, scientists and BP said. Then engineers will then pump mud and cement through pipes to ultimately seal the well. On the slim chance the relief well doesn't work, scientists weren't sure exactly how much — or how long — the oil would flow. The gusher would continue until the well bore hole collapsed or pressure in the reservoir dropped to a point where oil was no longer pushed to the surface, said Tad Patzek, chair of the Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering Department at the University of Texas-Austin.Wardell reported from London.
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences;(CHEMICAL,BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS) and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
POISONED WATERS
REVELATION 8:8-11
8 And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;
9 And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.
10 And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;
11 And the name of the star is called Wormwood:(bitter,Poisoned) and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.(poisoned)
REVELATION 16:3-7
3 And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.(enviromentalists won't like this result)
4 And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.
5 And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.
6 For they(False World Church and Dictator) have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.
LIVE BP OIL FEED
http://interactive.foxnews.com/livestream/live.html?chanId=2&openAIR=true
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/26/bp-oil-spill-live-feed-vi_n_590635.html
http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/
homepage/STAGING/local_assets/bp_homepage/html/rov_stream.html
OBAMA ON OIL SPILL-VIDEO
http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/deepwater-bp-oil-spill-presidential-press-conference
PART 1-OIL SPILL
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2010/05/oil-still-gushing-as-of-645pm.html
PART 2-OIL SPILL
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2010/05/p-2-oil-slick-news-nay-29.html
ITS 11:45AM JUNE 1,10 AND BP IS CUTTING THE PIPE TO TRY TO CAP IT.ITS DAY 43 AND COUNTING.
ITS 2:45PM JUNE 1,10 AND THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION WILL NOT DO ANY MORE PRESS CONFERENCES WITH BP.INSTEAD OF GETTING CLOSER TO THE OIL SPILL,OBAMA IS COWARING AND HIDING AND HOPING THE SPILL GOES AWAY.OBAMAS NOT INTERESTED IN THE POISONING OF THE WATERS AND SEA ANIMALS,HES JUST THINKING OF DOLLAR SIGNS FROM A BIG FAT BAILOUT SO HE CAN FUND HIS COVERUP OF HIS BIRTH SCANDLE.
ITS 4:20PM JUNE 1,10. 1/3RD OF THE GULF IS NOW UNFISHABLE,BIBLE PROPHECY HAS BEEN PARTIALLY FULFILLED.WHICH MEANS 1/3RD OF THE SHIPS WILL BE DESTROYED,THEY LOSE THEIR JOBS AND LIVELYHOODS.AND THE WATER IS POISONED LIKE THE BIBLE SAYS AND LOOKS LIKE THE BLOOD OF A DEAD MAN.THE COST ESTIMATED TO BP WILL RANGE FROM $2.5 BILLION TO $22 BILLION.IN THE LAST 5 WEEKS BP IS DOWN 38% THE STOCKS.
ITS 10:10AM JUNE 2,10 THEY CLAIM THE SAW IS STUCK IN THE PIPE THEY WERE CUTTING AND THE OIL STILL GUSHES...THE INTERESTING SAGA CONTINUES WHILE WATERS GET POISONED AND DEATH OF ALL THE SEA ANIMALS AND SEA LIFE OCCURS.
ITS 4:05PM JUNE 2,10 ALREADY OBAMA IS TALKING NEW ENERGY MEASURES.THE SWEET TALK FOR BAILOUTS IS ON AGAIN.DAY 44 IS ALMOST COMPLETE.OH PROPHECY IS FULFILLED 37% OF THE GULF IS NOW POISONED.GOD(KING JESUS TOLD US WHAT WOULD BE COMING IN THE LAST DAYS.FOR GODLESS SKEPTICS...YOU BETTER GET SAVED QUICK....THE WORST IS YET TO COME.
ITS 10:25PM JUNE 2,10-CNNS ANDERSON COOPER IS SPREADING THE HAYWARD PROPAGANDA OF THE ILL PEOPLE BEING SICK FROM FOOD POISON.WHAT HOGWASH..BILLY THE MARSH GUY SAID AFTER A PLANE SPRAYED SOMETHING ONE GUY STARTING GETTING NASEAU AND VOMITING AND WAS TAKEN TO HOSPITAL.DR SANJAY GUPTA AT LEAST IS SAYING YOU CAN GET SICK AND RESPIRATORY SYSTEM PROBLEMS FROM INHALING THE GAS FUMES AND CHEMICALS BP IS SPRAYNG IN THE WATER TO BREAK UP THE OIL.THE BIBLE CLEARLY SAYS MANY WILL DIE FROM THE POISONED WATERS SO EXPECT EFFECTS AND DEATHS FROM THIS SPILL IN THE SHORT AND LONG TERM.
WHAT IS AN OIL PLUME? WELL ITS THE MIXTURE OF THE OIL AND GAS COMING OUT OF THE SPILL AND ADD ON TO THAT THE CHEMICALS BPS IS USING THAT COMES OUT ALSO TO BREAK UP THE OIL AND YOU GET AN INVISBLE PLUME OF THE 3 POISON MIXTURES COMBINED TO MAKE A PLUME.THE BIGGEST PLUME THEY BELIEVE IS 22 MILES LONG BY FIVE MILES WIDE AND VARIOUS OTHER SIZE PLUMES ARE DESTROYING ALL THE ANIMALS AND PLANKTAN IN THE GULF.THESE PLUMES KILL OFF ALL THE OXIGEN AND KILLS WHAT EVERS IN THE AREA WERE THE PLUME IS.
8:15AM JUNE 3,10 DAY 45 OF OIL SPILL.SEE WHAT TODAY BRINGS.I HEARD THERES SOMETHING TO DO WITH OYSTERS THIS WEEKEND.I WOULD BE STAYING CLEAR OF ANYTHING EATIN FROM THE GULF IN THE LAST 45 DAYS.THESE OYSTERS MIGHT HAVE BEEN POISONED EARLY AND THE COMPANY MAY HAVE STILL LET THEM THROUGH SO BE AVOIDING ALL THE GULF SEA FISH AND ANIMALS WOULD BE MY ADVICE.
ITS 1:45PM JUNE 3,10 AND OBAMA WANTS TO PUT CLIMATE CHANGE EXPERTS ON THE OIL SPILL COMMITTEE.HERE WE GO CAP & TRADE AND BIGTIME TAXES ARE COMING AMERICA BE PREPARED.OBAMA MUST BE TELLING HIS ADMINISTRATION OF THUGS THAT THIS IS THE WAY WE CAN GET TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO BP THROUGH BAILOUTS AND TRILLIONS TO PAY FOR THEM BY TAXES AND SHUTING DOWN MAIN CITIZEN ORGANIZATIONS AS WELL AS SKY ROCKETING FOOD PRICES.OBAMA SAYS TO HIS ADMINISTRATION,THESE SHEEPLE OF FOOLS WILL WORSHIP US THROUGH TAXES AND HIGH PRICES AND OUR THUG DICTATORSHIP AND EUGENICS PROGRAM.
OH AND ONE VERY IMPORTANT HAPPENNING,ON APRIL 18,10 GOLDMAN SACHS DUMPED THEIR BP STOCKS THEY HAD...COINCIDENCE OR PAYOUT OR WORSE...I CAN ONLY IMAGINE.2 DAYS BEFORE THE EXPLOSION.THE CONNECTION ONCE AGAIN TO THE WHITE HOUSE AND GOLDMAN SACHS CONNECTION.NOW WE UNDERSTAND WHY OBAMAS NOT INTERESTED IN THE OIL SPILL ANYMORE.
Goldman Sachs sold $250 million of BP stock before spill
By John Byrne Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010 -- 10:12 am
Firm's stock sale nearly twice as large as any other institution; Represented 44 percent of total BP investment.The brokerage firm that's faced the most scrutiny from regulators in the past year over the shorting of mortgage related securities seems to have had good timing when it came to something else: the stock of British oil giant BP.According to regulatory filings, RawStory.com has found that Goldman Sachs sold 4,680,822 shares of BP in the first quarter of 2010. Goldman's sales were the largest of any firm during that time. Goldman would have pocketed slightly more than $266 million if their holdings were sold at the average price of BP's stock during the quarter.If Goldman had sold these shares today, their investment would have lost 36 percent its value, or $96 million. The share sales represented 44 percent of Goldman's holdings -- meaning that Goldman's remaining holdings have still lost tens of millions in value.The sale and its size itself isn't unusual for a large asset management firm. Wall Street brokerages routinely buy and sell huge blocks of shares for themselves and their clients. In light of a recent SEC lawsuit arguing that Goldman kept information about a product they sold from their clients, however, the stock sale may raise fresh concern among Goldman's critics. Goldman is also a frequent target of liberals and journalists, including Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi, who famously dubbed the firm a vampire squid.Two calls placed to Goldman Sachs' media office in New York Wednesday morning after US markets opened were not immediately returned, though Raw Story decided to publish the story quickly after the calls since the stock sale had been already noted online.
Others also sold stock
Other asset management firms also sold huge blocks of BP stock in the first quarter -- but their sales were a fraction of Goldman's. Wachovia, which is owned by Wells Fargo, sold 2,667,419 shares; UBS, the Swiss bank, sold 2,125,566 shares.Wachovia and UBS also sold much larger percentages of their BP stock, at 98 percently and 97 percent respectively.Wachova parent Wells Fargo, however, bought 2.3 million shares in the quarter, largely discounting Wachovia's sales.Those reported buying BP's stock included Wellington Management, a large asset firm, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.BP is struggling to cap a massive oil leak at one of its drill sites in the Gulf of Mexico. The firm's myriad safety violations over the years have come to light in lieu of the Gulf disaster.BP traded on average at $56.86 in the first quarter, according to GuruFocus, a site that monitors the major trading moves of prominent investors. A list of major institutions' sales of BP stock are available at the market research website Morningstar.It's certainly unknown as to why the firms sold their holdings. In its analysis of the company in mid-March, Morningstar, the market research site, gave the company an average rating of three out of a possible five stars.
BP's valuation carries more uncertainty than ExxonMobil's or Shell's because the firm is less integrated, with more of its earnings coming from the [exploration and production] business than from potentially offsetting refining operations, the site's analyst wrote. Like its peers, a sustained drop in oil and gas prices can hurt upstream earnings. Lower crude-oil feedstock costs could help refining margins, but refined product pricing lags could quickly swing refining profits to losses. BP's global business faces potential disruptions caused by political risks, particularly with its heavy exposure to Russia. Disruptions caused by environmental and operational constraints could further limit earnings potential.The transnational oil company, like other energy giants, was hit with lower oil and gas prices in the past year after the price of oil surged in 2008.BP's fourth quarter marked another quarter of year-over-year production gains, with a 3% increase thanks to new field startups,Morningstar's analyst wrote in another note, after BP turned in better than expected fourth quarter results in February. BP reported fourth-quarter replacement cost profit of $3.4 billion, up 33% from year-ago earnings of $2.6 billion, as upstream earnings growth was more than enough to offset downstream weakness. For the full year, BP's earnings of $14 billion were 45% below year-ago earnings of $26 billion, in part because of lower oil prices earlier in the year. We're encouraged by BP's sequential earnings gains as new projects and cost-cutting efforts drive upstream results.The SEC filed a civil lawsuit against Goldman Sachs and one of its vice presidents in April, asserting that the firm had committed fraud by misrepresenting a mortgage-investment product inherently designed to fail. The company helped a hedge fund trader create a mortgage investment that gained value as mortgage borrowers defaulted en masse.In response, Goldman said the SEC's charges were completely unfounded in law and fact and averred that it would vigorously contest them and defend the firm and its reputation.The firm has also faced criticism over giant bonuses paid to staff amidst the US financial crisis. Goldman reduced the sizes of its staff bonuses this year to $16.9 billion, and said it would pay its chief executive $9 million, far less than the previous year.Goldman also announced it would create a $500 million program to help small businesses. Critics noted that the figure represented just 3% of the bonus pool.
BP cuts pipe, plans to lower cap over Gulf spill By GREG BLUESTEIN, Associated Press Writers - JUNE 3,10 1:45PM
METAIRIE, La. – BP sliced off a pipe with giant shears Thursday in the latest bid to curtail the worst spill in U.S. history, but the cut was jagged and placing a cap over the gusher will now be more challenging.BP turned to the shears after a diamond-tipped saw became stuck in the pipe halfway through the job, yet another frustrating delay in the six-week-old Gulf of Mexico spill.The cap will be lowered and sealed over the next couple of hours, said Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the government's point man for the disaster. It won't be known how much oil BP can siphon to a tanker on the surface until the cap is fitted, but the irregular cut means it won't fit as snugly as officials hoped.We'll have to see when we get the containment cap on it just how effective it is, Allen said. It will be a test and adapt phase as we move ahead, but it's a significant step forward.Even if it works, BP engineers expect oil to continue leaking into the ocean.The next chance to stop the flow won't come until two relief wells meant to plug the reservoir for good are finished in August.This latest attempt to control the spill, the so-called cut-and-cap method, is considered risky because slicing away a section of the 20-inch-wide riser removed a kink in the pipe, and could temporarily increase the flow of oil by as much as 20 percent.Live video footage showed oil spewing uninterrupted out of the top of the blowout preventer, but Allen said it was unclear whether the flow had increased.I don't think we'll know until the containment cap is seated on there, he said. We'll have to wait and see.
President Barack Obama will return to the Louisiana coast Friday to assess the latest efforts, his third trip to the region since the April 20 disaster. It's also his second visit in a week.BP's top executive acknowledged Thursday the global oil giant was unprepared to fight a catastrophic deepwater oil spill. Chief executive Tony Hayward told The Financial Times it was an entirely fair criticism to say the company had not been fully prepared for a deepwater oil leak. Hayward called it low-probability, high-impact accident.What is undoubtedly true is that we did not have the tools you would want in your tool-kit, Hayward said in an interview published in Thursday's edition of the London-based newspaper.Oil drifted six miles from the Florida Panhandle's popular sugar-white beaches, and crews on the mainland were doing everything possible to limit the catastrophe.The Coast Guard's Allen directed BP to pay for five additional sand barrier projects in Louisiana. BP said Thursday the project will cost it about $360 million, on top of about $990 million it had spent on response and clean up, grants to four Gulf coast states and claims from people and companies hurt by the spill.Mark Johnecheck, a 68-year-old retired Navy captain from Pensacola, sat on a black folding chair as rough surf crashed ashore at Pensacola Beach and children splashed in the water. Johnecheck has lived in the Pensacola area since the 1960s, but doesn't come to the beach very often.The reason I'm here now is because I'm afraid it's going to be gone, he said. I'm really afraid that the next time I come out here it's not going to look like this.He said the arrival of the oil seems foregone: I don't know what else they can do, he said.It just makes you feel helpless.His wife walks up and becomes emotional thinking about the oil. It's like grieving somebody on their dying bed, said Marjorie Johnecheck, 62. Next to her chair is a small white pail full of sugary Panhandle sand. She will take it home and put it in a decorative jar.
I'm taking it home before it gets black, she said. Forecasters said the oil would probably wash up by Friday, threatening a delicate network of islands, bays and beaches that are a haven for wildlife and a major tourist destination dubbed the Redneck Riviera. Officials said the slick sighted offshore consisted in part of "tar mats about 500 feet by 2,000 feet in size. County officials set up the booms to block oil from reaching inland waterways but planned to leave beaches unprotected because they are too difficult to defend against the action of the waves and because they are easier to clean up. Anne Wilson, a 62-year-old retired teachers aide who has lived in Pensacola Beach for the last year and a half, felt helpless. There's nothing more you can do,said Wilson, who lived in Valdez, Alaska, near the Exxon spill in 1989.It's up to Mother Nature to take care of things. Humans can only do so much.Florida's beaches play a crucial role in the state's tourism industry. At least 60 percent of vacation spending in the state during 2008 was in beachfront cities. Worried that reports of oil would scare tourists away, state officials are promoting interactive Web maps and Twitter feeds to show travelers — particularly those from overseas — how large the state is and how distant their destinations may be from the spill.
The effect on wildlife has grown, too. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported 522 dead birds — at least 38 of them oiled — along the Gulf coast states, and more than 80 oiled birds have been rescued. It's not clear exactly how many of the deaths can be attributed to the spill. Dead birds and animals found during spills are kept as evidence in locked freezers until investigations and damage assessments are complete, according to Teri Frady, a spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This includes strict chain-of-custody procedures and long-term locked storage until the investigative and damage assessment phases of the spill are complete,she wrote in an e-mail.Associated Press writers Adam Geller and Janet McConnaughey in New Orleans, Melissa Nelson and Matt Sedensky in Pensacola and Travis Reed in Miami also contributed to this report.
Once again, BP experiment in Gulf spill hits snag By MELISSA NELSON and ADAM GELLER, Associated Press Writers – Thu Jun 3, 4:30 am ET
PENSACOLA, Fla. – BP fumbled its latest underwater experiment with the wild Gulf gusher — just like every other endeavor the company has tried to fix the nation's worst oil spill and BP's chief executive said the company wasn't fully prepared for the disaster.First, a 100-ton, four-story box couldn't contain the spill because icelike crystals clogged the top. Then, a straw-like device that actually did capture crude was inconsistent at best. The supposed top kill — shooting heavy mud and junk into the well — couldn't overcome the pressure of the oil. And the most recent risky gambit ran into trouble a mile under the sea Wednesday when a diamond-tipped saw became stuck after slicing through about half of the blown-out well.It took BP 12 hours to free the saw, and the company hopes to use giant shears similar to an oversized garden tool to snip off the pipe. However, the cut won't be as clean if successful, and a looser fitting cap will have to be placed over the spill.No timetable was given for when that might start, a familiar refrain in this six-week-old disaster.The Financial Times on Thursday quoted BP CEO Tony Hayward as saying it was entirely fair to criticize the company's preparations.The newspaper quotes Hayward as saying: What is undoubtedly true is that we did not have the tools you would want in your tool kit.However, Hayward said BP had been successful so far in keeping most of the oil away from the southeastern U.S. coast.Considering how big this has been, very little has got away from us,Hayward was quoted as saying.
So far, each novel attempt to stop more oil from spewing into the Gulf has dragged on and misfired. All along, the company has been drilling a relief well, the best option at stopping the gusher — but it's still two months away.Since the biggest oil spill in U.S. history began to unfold April 20 with an explosion that killed 11 workers aboard an offshore drilling rig, crude has fouled some 125 miles of Louisiana coastline and washed up in Alabama and Mississippi. The well has leaked anywhere from 21 million to 45 million gallons by the government's estimate.The latest attempt to stop it, the so-called cut-and-cap method, is considered risky because slicing away a section of the 20-inch-wide riser could remove kinks in the pipe and temporarily increase the flow of oil by as much as 20 percent.
And the situation on the water's surface becomes more dire with each day.
Oil drifted perilously close to the Florida Panhandle's famous sugar-white beaches, and crews on the mainland were doing everything possible to limit the catastrophe. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the nation's point man for the spill, directed BP to pay for five additional sand barrier projects in Louisiana. Boats were also sent packing east, along with four helicopters to help skimmers spot oil threatening Alabama, Mississippi and the Florida coast.As the edge of the slick drifted within seven miles of Pensacola's beaches, emergency workers rushed to link the last in a miles-long chain of booms designed to fend off the oil. They were slowed by thunderstorms and wind before the weather cleared in the afternoon.Forecasters said the oil would probably wash up by Friday, threatening a delicate network of islands, bays and white-sand beaches that are a haven for wildlife and a major tourist destination dubbed the Redneck Riviera.We are doing what we can do, but we cannot change what has happened,said John Dosh, emergency director for Escambia County, which includes Pensacola.
The effect on wildlife has grown, too.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported 522 dead birds — at least 38 of them oiled — along the Gulf coast states, and more than 80 oiled birds have been rescued. It's not clear exactly how many of the deaths can be attributed to the spill. Dead birds and animals found during spills are kept as evidence in locked freezers until investigations and damage assessments are complete, according to Teri Frady, a spokeswoman for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. This includes strict chain-of-custody procedures and long-term locked storage until the investigative and damage assessment phases of the spill are complete,she wrote in an e-mail. As the oil drifted closer to Florida, beachgoers in Pensacola waded into the gentle waves, cast fishing lines and sunbathed, even as a two-man crew took water samples. One of the men said they were hired by BP to collect samples to be analyzed for tar and other pollutants. A few feet away, Martha Feinstein, 65, of Milton, Fla., pondered the fate of the beach she has been visiting for years. You sit on the edge of your seat and you wonder where it's going, she said. It's the saddest thing.
Officials said the slick sighted offshore consisted in part of tar mats about 500 feet by 2,000 feet in size. County officials set up the booms to block oil from reaching inland waterways but planned to leave beaches unprotected because they are too difficult to defend against the action of the waves and because they are easier to clean up. It's inevitable that we will see it on the beaches,said Keith Wilkins, deputy chief of neighborhood and community services for Escambia County. Florida's beaches play a crucial role in the state's tourism industry. At least 60 percent of vacation spending in the state during 2008 was in beachfront cities. Worried that reports of oil would scare tourists away, state officials are promoting interactive Web maps and Twitter feeds to show travelers — particularly those from overseas — how large the state is and how distant their destinations may be from the spill.
Melissa Nelson reported from Pensacola, Fla., and Adam Geller from New Orleans. Associated Press writers Greg Bluestein in Covington, La., Matt Sedensky in Pensacola, Travis Reed in Miami, Kevin McGill over the Gulf of Mexico, Darlene Superville and Pete Yost in Washington, Brian Skoloff in Port Fourchon, La., Mary Foster in Boothville, La., and Michael Kunzelman in New Orleans also contributed to this report.
BP has another setback as oil slick threatens Fla. By MELISSA NELSON and ADAM GELLER, Associated Press Writers 9PM JUNE 2,10
PENSACOLA, Fla. – The BP oil slick drifted perilously close to the Florida Panhandle's famous sugar-white beaches Wednesday as a risky gambit to contain the leak by shearing off the well pipe ran into trouble a mile under the sea when the diamond-tipped saw became stuck.The saw had sliced through about half of the pipe when it snagged, and it took BP 12 hours to free it. The company said preparations were being made to resume cutting, but didn't give a timetable on when it might start.The plan is to fit a cap on the blown-out well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico to capture most of the spewing oil; the twisted, broken pipe must be sliced first to allow a snug fit.I don't think the issue is whether or not we can make the second cut. It's about how fine we can make it, how smooth we can make it, said Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the government's point man for the crisis.As the edge of the slick drifted within seven miles of Pensacola's beaches, emergency workers rushed to link the last in a miles-long chain of booms designed to fend off the oil. They were slowed by thunderstorms and wind before the weather cleared in the afternoon.Forecasters said the oil would probably wash up by Friday, threatening a delicate network of islands, bays and white-sand beaches that are a haven for wildlife and a major tourist destination dubbed the Redneck Riviera.We are doing what we can do, but we cannot change what has happened, said John Dosh, emergency director for Escambia County, which includes Pensacola.
Allen said more staff, boats and helicopters were sent to the eastern Gulf Coast as the slick spread, including a cutter in Mobile Bay, Ala., and one off Pensacola. The boats will help skim oil and add more boom to collect it. Four helicopters would help skimmers spot threatening oil.Since the biggest oil spill in U.S. history began to unfold April 20 with an explosion that killed 11 workers aboard an offshore drilling rig, crude has fouled some 125 miles of Louisiana coastline and washed up in Alabama and Mississippi as well. Over the past six weeks, the well has leaked anywhere from 21 million to 45 million gallons by the government's estimate.The latest attempt to control the leak is considered risky because slicing away a section of the 20-inch-wide riser could remove kinks in the pipe and temporarily increase the flow of oil by as much as 20 percent. The cap could be placed over the spill as early as Wednesday.If the strategy fails — like every other attempt to control the leak 5,000 feet underwater — the best hope is probably a relief well, which is at least two months from completion.As the oil drifted closer to Florida, beachgoers in Pensacola waded into the gentle waves, cast fishing lines and sunbathed, even as a two-man crew took water samples. One of the men said they were hired by BP to collect samples to be analyzed for tar and other pollutants.A few feet away, Martha Feinstein, 65, of Milton, Fla., pondered the fate of the beach she has been visiting for years. You sit on the edge of your seat and you wonder where it's going,she said. It's the saddest thing.Officials said the slick sighted offshore consisted in part of tar mats about 500 feet by 2,000 feet in size.
County officials set up the booms to block oil from reaching inland waterways but planned to leave beaches unprotected because they are too difficult to defend against the action of the waves and because they are easier to clean up.It's inevitable that we will see it on the beaches, said Keith Wilkins, deputy chief of neighborhood and community services for Escambia County.Florida's beaches play a crucial role in the state's tourism industry. At least 60 percent of vacation spending in the state during 2008 was in beachfront cities. Worried that reports of oil would scare tourists away, state officials are promoting interactive Web maps and Twitter feeds to show travelers — particularly those from overseas — how large the state is and how distant their destinations may be from the spill.
In other developments:
- Investors ran from BP's stock for a second day, fearful of the potential cleanup costs, lawsuits, penalties and damage to the company's reputation.
- President Barack Obama said it is time to roll back billions of dollars in tax breaks for oil companies and use the money for clean energy research and development.
- A pair of Democratic senators pressed BP to delay plans to pay shareholder dividends worth $10 billion or more. They called it unfathomable that BP would pay out a dividend before the total cost of the cleanup is known. BP had no comment.
- More fishing grounds were closed. More than one-third of federal waters in the Gulf are now off-limits to fishing, along with hundreds of square miles of state waters.
I'm going to be bankrupt very soon, said fisherman Hong Le, who came to the U.S. from Vietnam and rebuilt his home and business after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 wiped him out. Everything is financed. How can I pay? No fishing, no welding. I weld on commercial fishing boats and they aren't going out now, so nothing breaks.Melissa Nelson reported from Pensacola, Fla., and Adam Geller from New Orleans. Associated Press writers Greg Bluestein in Covington, La., Matt Sedensky in Pensacola, Travis Reed in Miami, Kevin McGill over the Gulf of Mexico, Darlene Superville and Pete Yost in Washington, Brian Skoloff in Port Fourchon, La., Mary Foster in Boothville, La., and Michael Kunzelman in New Orleans also contributed to this report.
In oil spill shadow, Obama pledges energy bill push
By Alister Bull JUNE 2,10
PITTSBURGH (Reuters) – President Barack Obama pledged on Wednesday to find support in the Senate for a bill to overhaul U.S. energy policy, using the Gulf of Mexico oil spill to hasten production of cleaner renewable fuels.Obama, in remarks at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, also said he expected to see strong job growth reflected in the May jobs report to be released on Friday.The president had planned to focus his year on boosting jobs in the United States, where unemployment is hovering near 10 percent, but other issues -- healthcare reform, changes to financial regulation, and now the Gulf of Mexico oil spill -- have distracted attention from that.Obama, a Democrat, accused Republicans of sitting on the sidelines while his administration worked to rescue the economy. But he also said he would seek their support to pass energy legislation in the U.S. Senate despite strong resistance ahead of November congressional elections.The votes may not be there right now, but I intend to find them in the coming months, Obama said, referring to a bill that is languishing in the Senate.I will continue to make the case for a clean energy future wherever and whenever I can. I will work with anyone to get this done. And we will get it done, he said to applause.The House of Representatives has already passed a bill that would put limits on greenhouse gas emissions, but a similar effort has stalled in the Senate.Obama said the oil spill should prompt Americans to acknowledge that the United States could not depend solely on fossil fuels in the future.That meant tapping into U.S. reserves of natural gas, increasing the number of nuclear power plants, and rolling back billions of dollars of tax breaks to oil companies so we can prioritize investments in clean energy research and development.
SHORT TERM SOLUTION
He said the United States could only pursue offshore drilling as a short-term solution to its energy needs and said U.S. dependence on fossil fuels threatened its security while putting the economy and the environment at risk.Obama also pushed his case for a system that would limit greenhouse gas emissions from industry, a key ingredient for the United States in a still elusive global agreement to fight climate change.The only way the transition to clean energy will ultimately succeed is if the private sector is fully invested in this future -- if capital comes off the sidelines and the ingenuity of our entrepreneurs is unleashed, he said.And the only way to do that is by finally putting a price on carbon pollution.In the coming weeks Democrats in the Senate are expected to plot strategy for dealing with energy and environment legislation. Prior to Obama's remarks on Wednesday there was little evidence the Senate would take up a comprehensive measure this year.Nevertheless, Democratic Senator John Kerry has been hoping the full Senate would debate and vote on a bill in late June or early July, leaving enough time in September or October to work out a final bill with the House.An Environmental Protection Agency economic analysis of the a climate and energy bill written by Kerry and independent Senator Joseph Lieberman is expected sometime in June.(Writing by Jeff Mason; additional reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Effort to contain Gulf oil stalls with stuck saw By KEVIN MCGILL, Associated Press Writer - WED JUNE 2,10 10:10AM
SCHRIEVER, La. – Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen is saying that a saw has become stuck as it was cutting through a pipe on a busted well, stalling the latest attempt to contain the Gulf oil gusher.Allen said Wednesday the goal is to free the saw and finish the cut later in the day. This is the second major cut in the effort to contain — not plug — the nation's worst spill.Allen says the first cut with giant shears was successful overnight.The best chance at plugging the leak involves a relief well that is at least two months from completion.
Oil closes in on Fla. as BP tries risky cap move By GREG BLUESTEIN and BRIAN SKOLOFF, Associated Press Writers - JUNE 2,10
PORT FOURCHON, La. – As submersible robots made another risky attempt to control the underwater Gulf oil gusher, the crude on the surface spread, closing in on Florida. BP's stock plummeted and took much of the market down with it, and the federal government announced criminal and civil investigations into the spill.
The stakes couldn't be higher.After six weeks of failures to block the well or divert the oil, the latest mission involved using a set of tools akin to an oversized deli slicer and garden shears to break away the broken riser pipe so engineers can then position a cap over the well's opening.But it's a big gamble: Even if it succeeds, it will temporarily increase the flow of an already massive leak by 20 percent — at least 100,000 gallons more a day. That's on top of the estimated 500,000 to 1 million gallons gushing out already.In Florida, officials confirmed an oil sheen about nine miles from the famous white sands of Pensacola beach. Crews shored up miles of boom and prepared for the mess to make landfall as early as Wednesday.It's inevitable that we will see it on the beaches, said Keith Wilkins, deputy chief of neighborhood and community services for Escambia County.
Florida would be the fourth state hit. Crude has already been reported along barrier islands in Alabama and Mississippi, and it has impacted some 125 miles of Louisiana coastline.More federal fishing waters were closed, too, another setback for one of the region's most important industries. More than one-third of federal waters were off-limits for fishing, along with hundreds of square miles of state waters.Fisherman Hong Le, who came to the U.S. from Vietnam, had rebuilt his home and business after Hurricane Katrina wiped him out. Now he's facing a similiar situation.I'm going to be bankrupt very soon," Le, 53, said as he attended a meeting for fishermen hoping for help. Everything is financed, how can I pay? No fishing, no welding. I weld on commercial fishing boats and they aren't going out now, so nothing breaks.Le, like other of the fishermen, received $5,000 from BP PLC, but it was quickly gone.I call that Shut your mouth money,said Murray Volk, 46, of Empire, who's been fishing for nearly 30 years. That won't pay the insurance on my boat and house. They say there'll be more later, but do you think the electric company will wait for that?
BP may have bigger problems, though.Attorney General Eric Holder, who visited the Gulf on Tuesday to survey the fragile coastline and meet with state and federal prosecutors, would not say who might be targeted in the probes into the largest oil spill in U.S. history.We will closely examine the actions of those involved in the spill. If we find evidence of illegal behavior, we will be extremely forceful in our response,Holder said in New Orleans.The federal government also ramped up its response to the spill with President Barack Obama ordering the co-chairmen of an independent commission investigating the spill to thoroughly examine the disaster, to follow the facts wherever they lead, without fear or favor.The president said that if laws are insufficient, they'll be changed. He said that if government oversight wasn't tough enough, that will change, too.BP's stock nose-dived on Tuesday, losing nearly 15 percent of its value on the first trading day since the previous best option — the so-called top kill — failed and was aborted at the government's direction. It dipped steeply with Holder's late-afternoon announcement, which also sent other energy stocks tumbling, ultimately causing the Dow Jones industrial average to tumble 112. If BP's new effort to contain the leak fails, the procedure will have made the biggest oil spill in U.S. history even worse. It is an engineer's nightmare,said Ed Overton, a Louisiana State University professor of environmental sciences.They're trying to fit a 21-inch cap over a 20-inch pipe a mile away. That's just horrendously hard to do. It's not like you and I standing on the ground pushing — they're using little robots to do this.Since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20, eventually collapsing into the Gulf of Mexico, an estimated 20 million to 40 million gallons of oil has spewed, eclipsing the 11 million that leaked from the Exxon Valdez disaster. BP PLC's Doug Suttles said that although there's no guarantee the company's latest cut-and-cap effort to close off the leak will work, he remained hopeful, but wouldn't guarantee success.
Engineers have put underwater robots and equipment in place this week after a bold attempt to plug the well by force-feeding it heavy mud and cement — called a top kill — was aborted over the weekend. Crews pumped thousands of gallons of the mud into the well but were unable to overcome the pressure of the oil. The company said if the small dome is successful it could capture and siphon a majority of the gushing oil to the surface. But the cut and cap will not halt the oil flow, just capture some of it and funnel it to vessels waiting at the surface. The British oil giant has tried and failed repeatedly to halt the flow of the oil, and this attempt like others has never been tried before a mile beneath the ocean. Experts warned it could be even riskier than the others because slicing open the 20-inch riser could unleash more oil if there was a kink in the pipe that restricted some of the flow.
Eric Smith, an associate director of the Tulane Energy Institute, likened the procedure to trying to place a tiny cap on a fire hydrant that's blowing straight up. Will they have enough weight to overcome the force of the flow? he said.It could create a lot of turbulence, but I do think they'll have enough weight.But BP's best chance to actually plug the leak rests with a pair of relief wells but those won't likely be completed until August. The company has carefully prepared the next phase, knowing that another failure could mean millions more gallons spew into the ocean and lead to even more public pressure. And they say they have learned valuable lessons from the failure of a bigger version of the containment cap last month that was clogged with icelike slush.Bluestein reported from Covington, La. Associated Press writers Darlene Superville and Pete Yost from Washington, Curt Anderson from Miami, Brian Skoloff from Port Fourchon, Mary Foster in Boothville, and Michael Kunzelman also contributed to this report.
Red-brown oil washes up on Dauphin Island, Ala., 3 weeks after tar balls found Published June 01, 2010| Associated Press
DAUPHIN ISLAND, Ala. (AP) — Red-brown oil is making its first appearance on an Alabama island near the mouth of Mobile Bay, three weeks after tar balls were found there.Donald Williamson, director of the state Department of Public Health, said weathered patches of oil washed up on Dauphin Island's east end Tuesday, prompting officials to close some state waters to fishing and post warnings urging beachgoers to stay out of the water.Dauphin Island is a popular tourist destination.
Pam Anderson Calls Gulf Oil Spill End of the World.Does Rest of Hollywood Agree? By Hollie McKay Published June 01, 2010| FOXNews.com
LOS ANGELES-Pamela Anderson says she’s doing what she can to combat the catastrophic oil spill that continues to pollute the Gulf of Mexico and threaten America's southern shores. But is she one of the few stars stepping up to play a role in the clean-up? It’s terrible, it’s awful. It feels like it is the end of the world to me, the actress/animal rights activist told Pop Tarts at last week’s Big Bluff Online Trivia Game launch. I’m working with international bird rescue, they’re expecting (it to get a lot worse) which is unbelievable. It’s the worst thing that could happen, and we won’t know what the effects are until later.And as thousands of gallons of oil continue to spill every day, it seems the majority of Hollywood, a community often given to preaching on green issues, is staying away. Granted, there were some celebrities like Conan O’Brien and Jimmy Fallon who took to Twitter to express their thoughts on the issue, but unlike the tragedy in Haiti in January, there hasn’t been an outpouring of donations, large-scale fund-raisers, contribution-driven websites and hotlines, or PSAs encouraging Americans to do all they can to help out.Hollywood stars have a romance with saving foreign countries, they see America as this rich and powerful country that should fix problems on its own,said media expert Michael Levine. Celebrities feel heroic in saving people from other places. Patriotism isn’t of interest, sometimes Hollywood forgets that America needs care and consideration too.
Hollywood’s heavyweights are certainly not afraid to dig very deep into their pockets in times of global disaster. It was well-documented in the press that celebrities including Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Sandra Bullock and Madonna collectively donated millions to the earthquake relief. Actor George Clooney used his star status to raise over $57 million in his Hope For Haiti telethon. Queen Latifah, Sean Diddy Combs and Pharrell Williams hosted another telethon in conjunction with BET, and Sean Penn even hightailed it to the poverty-stricken country to personally lend his hand with refugee efforts.But according to other entertainment industry experts, it’s not a case of celebrities only wanting to help out foreign countries: it’s a case of this being a man-made disaster as opposed to a natural one.It's politically safer when its victims on one side and a catastrophic event on the other. In that case, there is only one side to be on. Man-made catastrophes are not as clear-cut. This one is filled with politically loaded issues of off-shore oil drilling, dependence on foreign oil and the environment, explained Glenn Selig, founder of The Publicity Agency. Plus BP employees died. You don't want to make those victims part of an evil oil company that created the mess. It's complicated, which makes it a very tough issue to rally around.
Media expert Dana Livingston Ward echoed Selig's sentiments.We're all referring to this environmental mishap as the BP oil spill, which automatically places blame on BP, therefore no one - Hollywood included - feels the need to pay for a problem caused by someone else,said Ward. In the end, the Gulf oil spill is an issue that does indeed affect our people, so celebs and the rest of Americans should be just as quick to help create a solution for this latest disaster... even if it's simply speaking up to raise awareness and thus force the guilty party to remedy the situation in more timely manner.Still, there are some stars that aren’t afraid to bypass the politics to do what they can for the sake of the environment and those affected.Waterworld star Kevin Costner, who 15 years ago began funding the work of Louisiana-based firm Ocean Therapy solutions, has offered up his multi-million dollar machines which function like a vacuum to separate water and oil, purifying both in the process. Director James Cameron has loaned the submersibles used to shoot Titanic to the crews trying to stop the underwater geyser, and Robert Redford appeared in a commercial encouraging Americans to Call For Clean Energy Now.In addition Lenny Kravitz, John Legend, and Mos Def recently performed at a benefit for the Gulf Relief Foundation in New Orleans to raise funds for fisherman affected by the disaster, and 90’s pop sensation Sophie B. Hawkins is donating 100 percent of the net proceeds from her new song The Land, the Sea & the Sky to the Waterkeeper Alliance’s clean-up efforts in the region.But despite her concern over the wildlife affected by the spill, Anderson has faith that President Obama, despite the harsh criticism he has been under for not doing enough.I (totally blame) the oil people. They made a big mistake of not having a back-up plan,Anderson added.I would definitely like to see Obama do more, but I also want to support him and what he stands for. I think he’s a good president and he’s very compassionate, and we have to just trust that he knows best.Additional reporting by Deidre Behar
Feds open criminal probe of Gulf oil spill By BEN NUCKOLS and JANE WARDELL, Associated Press Writers - JUNE 1,10 4:25PM
PORT FOURCHON, La. – Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday that federal authorities have opened criminal and civil investigations into the nation's worst oil spill, and BP lost billions in market value when shares dropped in the first trading day since the company failed yet again to plug the gusher.Investors presumably realized the best chance to stop the leak was months away and there was no end in sight to the cleanup. As BP settled in for the long-term, Holder announced the criminal probe, though he would not specify the companies or individuals that might be targeted.We will closely examine the actions of those involved in the spill. If we find evidence of illegal behavior, we will be extremely forceful in our response, Holder said in New Orleans.With the ambitious top kill abandoned over the weekend, BP's hope to stanch the leak lies with two relief wells that won't be finished until at least August. The company is, however, trying another risky temporary fix to contain the oil and siphon it to the surface by sawing through the leaking pipe and putting a cap over the spill.Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the national incident commander, said Tuesday that BP was making its first major cut with super shears that weigh 46,000 pounds and resemble a giant garden tool. The company will also use a powerful diamond-edged cutter the resembles a deli slicer to try to make a clean cut above the blowout preventer, then will lower a cap over it with a rubber seal.After several failed attempts to divert or block the well, BP's latest attempt involves cutting the broken riser pipe, making it spew as much as 20 percent more oil into the water for days while engineers try to position a cap over the opening.
Eric Smith, an associate director of the Tulane Energy Institute, said the strategy had about a 50 to 70 percent chance to succeed. He likened it to trying to place a tiny cap on a fire hydrant.Will they have enough weight to overcome the force of the flow? he said. It could create a lot of turbulence, but I do think they'll have enough weight.BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said there was no guarantee the cut-and-cap effort would work. He did say the company has learned from past efforts to contain the leak, which gives them a better shot at success.I'm very hopeful,Suttles said.I think we'll find out over the next couple of days.The cleanup, relief wells and temporary fixes were being watched closely by President Barack Obama's administration.The president gave the leaders of an independent commission investigating the spill orders to thoroughly examine the disaster and its causes, and to follow the facts wherever they lead, without fear or favor.The president said that if laws are insufficient, they'll be changed. He said that if government oversight wasn't tough enough, that will change, too.Meanwhile, BP spokesman Graham MacEwen said the company was awaiting analysis of water samples taken in the Gulf before making a final determination on whether huge plumes of oil are suspended underwater. CEO Tony Hayward said Sunday there was no evidence of the plumes even though several scientists have made the claims.
Billy Nungesser, president of Plaquemines Parish, fired back at Hayward.We ought to take him offshore and dunk him 10 feet underwater and pull him up and ask him What's that all over your face? said Nungesser.On the business side of things, the company's share price, which has fallen steadily since the start of the disaster, took a turn for the worse Tuesday, losing 15 percent to $6.13 in early afternoon trading on the London Stock Exchange.That was the lowest level in more than a year. The shares have now lost more than a third of their value, wiping some $63 billion off BP's value, since the explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig six weeks ago. BP said early Tuesday it had spent $990 million so far on fighting and cleaning the spill, with multiple lawsuits for damages yet to be tallied. The Coast Guard also announced that it was replacing the admiral who has been the federal on-scene coordinator since the oil rig exploded, though the agency said the change was previously planned. Rear Adm. Mary Landry will now return to duties as commandant of the 8th Coast Guard District in New Orleans to focus on hurricane season preparations. BP failed to plug the leak Saturday after several attempts with its top kill, which shot mud and pieces of rubber into the well but couldn't beat back the pressure of the oil.The spill has already leaked between 20 million and 44 million gallons, according to government estimates.
The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration also announced that almost one-third of federal waters — or nearly 76,000 square miles — in the Gulf were closing to commercial and recreational fishing because of the spill. The relief well is the best chance to stop the leak. A bore hole must precisely intersect the damaged well, which experts have compared to hitting a target the size of a dinner plate more than two miles into the earth. If it misses, BP will have to back up its drill, plug the hole it just created, and try again. The probability of them hitting it on the very first shot is virtually nil,said David Rensink, incoming president of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, who spent most of his 39 years in the oil industry in offshore exploration.If they get it on the first three or four shots they'd be very lucky.The trial-and-error process could take weeks, but it will eventually work, scientists and BP said. Then engineers will then pump mud and cement through pipes to ultimately seal the well. On the slim chance the relief well doesn't work, scientists weren't sure exactly how much — or how long — the oil would flow. The gusher would continue until the well bore hole collapsed or pressure in the reservoir dropped to a point where oil was no longer pushed to the surface, said Tad Patzek, chair of the Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering Department at the University of Texas-Austin.Wardell reported from London. Associated Press writers Michael Kunzelman and Kevin McGill in New Orleans, Greg Bluestein in Covington, and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.
BP shares plunge as next Gulf fix gets underway By BEN NUCKOLS and JANE WARDELL, Associated Press Writer - JUNE 1,10 11:00AM
PORT FOURCHON, La. – BP lost billions more in market value Tuesday when shares fell steeply in the first trading day since the company failed to plug the worst oil spill in U.S. history, as investors realized the best chance to stop the leak was months away and there was no end in sight to the cleanup.As hurricane season began on the fragile Gulf Coast, BP settled in for the long-term. With the ambitious top kill abandoned over the weekend, BP's hope to stanch the leak lies with two relief wells that won't be finished until at least August. The company is, however, trying another temporary fix to contain the oil and siphon it to the surface by sawing through the leaking pipe and putting a cap over the spill.The cleanup, relief wells and temporary fixes were being watched closely by President Barack Obama's administration. Obama planned to meet for the first time Tuesday with the co-chairmen of an independent commission investigating the spill, while Attorney General Eric Holder was headed to the Gulf Coast to meet with state attorneys general.Obama's energy czar, Carol Browner, said she doesn't want to guess the prospects for success on BP's containment cap.Interviewed Tuesday on ABC's Good Morning America,Browner said,I don't want to put odds on it. ... We want to get this thing contained.Browner also said she's concerned about the effect the hurricane season, which began Tuesday, could have on ending the environmental crisis.
To accommodate more than 500 workers hired to clean up the worst oil spill in U.S. history, BP and several subcontractors have set up floating hotels, or "flotels," made up of steel boxes resembling oversized shipping containers and stacked atop barges.At Port Fourchon, the oil industry's hub on the Gulf , a flotel there is the only way to station workers in a massive shipyard surrounded by ecologically sensitive marshes and beaches.There are no permanent residents here on the port, said Dennis Link, a manager from a BP refinery who's handling logistics at the 1,300-acre site that's easily accessible by ship, but reachable on land only by a state road that snakes through the bayous. On Monday afternoon, the living quarters on the flotel sat empty. Generators pumped in cool air and powered the lights, and at the foot of each bunk sat a towel, washcloth and individually wrapped bar of soap. If necessary, four tents on dry land nearby can house 500 more workers. Workers will likely be trucked in on the two-lane state road.The accommodations on the barge are Spartan, but comfortable — similar to military barracks. Each pod contains 12 bunks, with a bathroom for every four. Per Coast Guard standards, each resident gets 30 square feet of space in the quarters. The barge has 10 washers, 10 dryers and a kitchen, although food will be served in a tent on land. The quarters are typically floated alongside offshore oil rigs to supplement housing on the drilling operations.
Another flotel sits about 15 miles away, off Grand Isle, and BP plans to establish them elsewhere along the coast.Meanwhile, the company's share price, which has fallen steadily since the start of the disaster, took a turn for the worse Tuesday, losing 15 percent to $6.13 in early afternoon trading on the London Stock Exchange.
That was the lowest level in more than a year. The shares have now lost more than a third of their value, wiping some $63 billion off BP's value, since the explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig six weeks ago.BP said early Tuesday it had spent $990 million so far on fighting and cleaning the spill, with multiple lawsuits for damages yet to be tallied.Cleanup efforts are being ramped up while BP tries the latest of patchwork fixes, this one the cut-and-cap process. The risky procedure could, at least temporarily, increase the oil flowing from the busted well. Using robot submarines, BP plans to cut away the riser pipe this week and place a cap-like containment valve over the blowout preventer. On Tuesday, live video feeds showed robot submarines using a circular diamond saw to cut pipes at the bottom of the Gulf. We are well into the operation to put this cap on the well now, BP Managing Director Bob Dudley told NBC's Today show on Tuesday. BP failed to plug the leak Saturday with its top kill, which shot mud and pieces of rubber into the well but couldn't beat back the pressure of the oil. The oil company also announced plans Monday to try attaching another pipe to a separate opening on the blowout preventer with some of the same equipment used to pump in mud during the top kill. The company also wants to build a new freestanding riser to carry oil toward the surface, which would give it more flexibility to disconnect and then reconnect containment pipes if a hurricane passed through.
Neither of those plans would start before mid-June and would supplement the cut-and-cap effort. The spill has already leaked between 20 million and 44 million gallons, according to government estimates. For the relief well to succeed, the bore hole must precisely intersect the damaged well, which experts have compared to hitting a target the size of a dinner plate more than two miles into the earth. If it misses, BP will have to back up its drill, plug the hole it just created, and try again. The probability of them hitting it on the very first shot is virtually nil, said David Rensink, incoming president of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, who spent most of his 39 years in the oil industry in offshore exploration.If they get it on the first three or four shots they'd be very lucky.The trial-and-error process could take weeks, but it will eventually work, scientists and BP said. Then engineers will then pump mud and cement through pipes to ultimately seal the well. On the slim chance the relief well doesn't work, scientists weren't sure exactly how much — or how long — the oil would flow. The gusher would continue until the well bore hole collapsed or pressure in the reservoir dropped to a point where oil was no longer pushed to the surface, said Tad Patzek, chair of the Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering Department at the University of Texas-Austin.Wardell reported from London.
HATE PROPAGANDA AGAINST ISRAEL FOR BLOCKAIDE
THE REAL TRUTH ABOUT THE PEACEFUL ACTIVIST GROUPS INVOLVED IN THE GAZA BLOCKAIDE.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6sAEYpHF24&feature=player_embedded
TAMAR-MARTIME LAWS ON THE HIGH SEAS
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Radio/News.aspx/2261
THE TERRORISTS ON ACTIVIST SHIP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV6DVk04HkM&feature=player_embedded
THE GROUPS BEHIND THE GAZA BLOCKAIDE AND RAID FOR THE PAST WEEK.THE EXTREME MILITANTS AS I CALL THEM.THE TERRORIST GROUPS THAT SET UP ISRAEL.AND TARGETED USA CITIES TO BOMB.THIS SO CALLED ACTIVIST OF PEACE AND CHARITY GROUP FLOTILLA.AND WE HAVE THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION CONNECTIONS BILL AYERS AND HIS WIFE ARE BIG SUPPORTERS OF FREE GAZA AND GIVE MONEY TO THEIR GROUP.AND WHY DID ALL THE SOCIALIST HATERS INCLUDING MIKE RIVERO WITHIN AN HOUR OF THE ISRAELI PROTECTION RAID ON THE GAZA SHIP PUT TOGETHER PROTESTS AROUND THE WORLD.YES THE HATERS WERE ALL SETTING IT UP BECAUSE THEY KNEW ISRAEL WOULD NOT ALLOW THE SHIPS IN WITHOUT BEING LOOKED OVER FOR WEAPONS.BUT ISRAEL ONLY HAD PAINT BALL GUNS AS PROTECTION SO IT KILLED THE IDEA OF INNOCENT PEACEFUL AID ACTIVISTS WERE SLAUGHTERED BY ISRAEL.THE PROPAGANDA BY THE MEDIA HAD TO BE IN FULL GEAR TO COVERUP THE TERRORISTS ACTIONS AND BLAME ISRAEL.WHAT PROPAGANDA THESE MURDERERS DONE TO SET ISRAEL UP SO THEY WOULD BE CONDEMNED AND THE BLOCK AIDE WOULD BE FORCED ON THEM TO BE LIFTED LIKE THE UN AND THE WORLD ARE CALLING FOR.WHAT A HOAX BY THESE RADICAL ETREME MILITANTS TO TRY TO DESTROY ISRAELS REPUTATION AS USUAL.
The Humanitarian Relief Wing of Hamas and Al-Qaeda Posted by John Perazzo on Jun 2nd, 2010 and filed under FrontPage.
http://frontpagemag.com/2010/06/02/the-“humanitarian-relief”-wing-of-hamas-and-al-qaeda-3/
The Foundation for Human Rights and Freedom and Humanitarian Relief (better known by its Turkish acronym, IHH) is the group that organized the six-ship flotilla which recently tried, without success, to sail all the way to Gaza. Established in Turkey in 1992, the Foundation sends aid to distressed areas throughout the Middle East – in the form of food, medicine, vocational education, and building supplies. A prime destination for this aid is Gaza, where – according to IHH – Palestinians are being oppressed by an unjustified Israeli naval blockade. (For the record, that blockade was put in place to prevent Hamas, which controls Gaza politically and has fired thousands of rockets into southern Israeli towns in recent years, from importing additional weaponry from Iran and other allies abroad.)For several days last week, as the flotilla approached Gaza, Israel issued warnings that the ships would not be permitted to reach their destination without first submitting to an inspection of their cargoes – to ensure that no weaponry was being transported. But when the respective crews of the vessels refused to comply, Israeli commandos took action and intercepted the flotilla in the early morning hours of May 31. The IHH-affiliated activists responded with violence, instantly attacking the commandos with knives and clubs, and throwing one of them overboard. In the melee that ensued, ten activists were killed and seven Israeli soldiers were wounded. How could this be? How can we be expected to believe that a well-meaning “humanitarian relief” group would ever behave in a manner that might provoke violent reprisals from Israeli troops? A more thorough examination of IHH’s history and affiliations explains everything.
While IHH is indeed involved in the aforementioned humanitarian endeavors, its overall objectives are much broader. Belying the dove of peace whose image appears on its logo, IHH overtly supports Hamas, is sympathetic to al Qaeda, and maintained regular contact with al Qaeda cells and the Sunni insurgency during the bloodiest stretches of the Iraq War. Moreover, IHH has supported jihadist terror networks not only in Iraq, but also in Bosnia, Syria, Afghanistan, and Chechnya. According to Carnegie Endowment analyst Henri Barkey, IHH is an Islamist organization that has been deeply involved with Hamas for some time. A 2006 report by the Danish Institute for International Studies characterized IHH as one of many charitable front groups that provide support to Al-Qaida and the global jihad.Is the IHH beginning to sound less and less like a humanitarian relief group? Let’s look a little deeper still.
According to a French intelligence report, in the mid-1990s IHH leader Bülent Yildirim was directly involved in recruiting veteran soldiers to organize jihad activities, and in dispatching IHH operatives to war zones in Islamic countries to gain combat experience. The report also stated that IHH had transferred money as well as caches of firearms, knives and pre-fabricated explosives to Muslim fighters in those countries. Given this track record, can Israel’s concern about the contents of the IHH flotilla cargoes really be considered excessive or unwarranted? In 1996, IHH continued to burnish its credentials as a humanitarian relief organization when an examination of its telephone records showed that repeated calls had been made to an al Qaeda guest house in Milan and to Algerian terrorists operating in Europe. That same year, the U.S. government formally identified IHH as having connections to extremist groups in Iran and Algeria.In December 1997, Turkish authorities, acting on a tip from sources claiming that IHH leaders had purchased automatic weapons from other regional Islamic militant groups, initiated a domestic criminal investigation of IHH. A thorough search of the organization’s Istanbul bureau uncovered a large assortment of firearms, explosives, bomb-making instructions, and a jihad flag. In addition, Turkish authorities seized a host of IHH documents whose contents ultimately led investigators to conclude that the group’s members were going to fight in Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Chechnya.Near the end of 2000, IHH organized protests against proposals to overthrow that humanitarian icon, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein; American and Israeli flags were burned at these rallies.
During the April 2001 trial of would-be millennium bomber Ahmed Ressam, it was revealed that IHH had played an important role in the plot to blow up Los Angeles International Airport on December 31, 1999. Some reasonable observers might contend that to classify such a pursuit under the heading of humanitarian relief would require an unduly broad definition of that term.In 2002, investigators found correspondences from IHH in the offices of the Success Foundation, a Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated organization whose Secretary was Abdul Rahman Alamoudi. For the record: The Brotherhood was the ideological forebear of Hamas and al Qaeda; it supports jihad; and it seeks to impose shari’a law on the entire civilized world. Mr. Alamoudi, for his part, is currently serving a prison term of nearly a quarter-century for his role as a funder of international terrorism. He is best known for having proudly declared himself to be a passionate supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah. The connections to humanitarian relief seem rather tenuous here.According to a report issued by a website close to Israeli military intelligence: [S]ince Hamas took over the Gaza Strip, IHH has supported Hamas’ propaganda campaigns by organizing public support conferences in Turkey.The report also states that IHH continues to operate widely throughout Gaza and to funnel large sums of money to support the Hamas infrastructure.
In January 2008, an IHH delegation met with Ahmed Bahar, chairman of Hamas’ council in the Gaza Strip. At the meeting, the delegation not only boasted about the large amount of financial support it had given Hamas during the preceding year, but also declared its intent to double that sum in the future. Once again, we are left to wonder how any of this falls under the rubric of humanitarian relief.In 2008 Israel banned IHH from the country because of the organization’s membership in the Union of Good (UOG), a Hamas-founded umbrella coalition comprised of more than 50 Islamic charities (most of which are associated with the global Muslim Brotherhood) that channel money and goods to Hamas-affiliated institutions. In December 2008, the U.S. government designated UOG as a terrorist entity that was guilty of diverting donations that were intended for social welfare and other charitable services, and using those funds to strengthen Hamas’ political and military position.In January 2009, IHH head Bülent Yildirim met with Khaled Mash’al, chairman of Hamas’ political bureau in Damascus, and Mash’al thanked Yildirim for the support of his organization.
In November 2009 IHH activist Izzat Shahin transferred tens of thousands of American dollars from IHH to the Islamic Charitable Society (in Hebron) and Al-Tadhamun (in Nablus), two of Hamas’ most important front groups posing as charitable societies.
This, then, is the IHH: a pack of anti-Semitic supporters of terrorism, cloaking themselves in the vestments of victimhood, and bleating to the world about how unfairly they have been treated by the very nation whose extermination they have worked long and hard to bring about. It’s actually a story that has become quite familiar.
Photo by: IDF Spokesperson What is the IHH?
By BEN HARTMAN 06/01/2010 22:32
The Turkish charity that helped plan the Gaza flotilla may be linked to Jihadist groups. The IHH, a Turkish charity that was one of the main planners of the Gaza flotilla, is widely considered a terrorist organization by a number of bodies - including the Israeli government - and has been accused of maintaining ties with a number of terror organizations.The IHH, short for the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (Insani Yardim Vakfi), is an Islamic charity that was founded in the mid-90s to provide aid to Bosnia Muslims. Since then, it has been involved in charity operations in a number of Muslim and Middle Eastern countries, including Indonesia, Pakistan, Iraq, Lebanon and aid missions to the Palestinian territories.According to the Israeli NGO The Intelligence and Information Center, the IHH is affiliated with Hamas and the Union of the Good, an Islamic umbrella affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood.In 2006, a report issued by the Danish Institute for International Studies stated that during the 1990s the IHH maintained links with al-Qaida and a number of global jihad networks.The report also said that the Turkish government launched an investigation into the IHH starting December 1997 after receiving intelligence that the IHH had bought automatic weapons from Islamist terrorists.
The report said that following the revelation, the Turkish government launched a raid on the organization’s Istanbul offices, where they found weapons, explosives, and instructions for bomb-making. The report added that an examination of documents found at the IHH office indicated that the group was planning to take part in terrorist activities in Afghanistan, Chechnya, and Bosnia.According to the study, a French intelligence report found that in the mid-1990s IHH leader B’ulent Yildirim recruited soldiers for jihad activities in a number of Muslim countries and that the IHH transferred money, firearms, and explosives to jihadists in said countries.
Izzet Sahnin, an employee of the IHH was arrested by the security services outside Bethlehem in April for what the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) said was suspicion that he was working for an extended period of time in Judea and Samaria for the Turkish organization IHH, which Israel declared illegal in 2008.The Shin Bet added that they suspected Sahnin’s activities endangered West Bank security.Following the arrest, the IHH posted a press statement on its Web site that said Izzet Sahin, who has been living in West Bank since the 28th of November, 2009 [and is] a student of [the] Hebrew University, was taken into custody in an illegal manner on the 27th of April, 2010. First court hearing of Izzet Sahin was held last week... Officials from IHH demand [that the] Turkish government interfere to ensure Sahin’s release.The Turkish government has denied assisting the IHH in its planning or funding of the Gaza flotilla.
FREE GAZA BLOG-ISRAEL HATE BLOG BIGTIME-ALL HATE PROPAGANDA
http://www.freegaza.com/
Turkish Funds Helped Group Test BlockadeBy SABRINA TAVERNISE and MICHAEL SLACKMAN Published: June 1, 2010
ISTANBUL — Since 2007, a small group of hard-core activists has repeatedly tried to sail cargo-laden ships into Gaza in an effort to thwart Israel’s blockade. But when the Free Gaza Movement teamed up with a much wealthier Turkish organization to assemble a flotilla, it became more than a nuisance, supercharged by the group’s money, manpower and symbolic resonance into what Israel sees as a serious and growing threat. Is there a way to prevent attacks against Israel while providing humanitarian relief to the Palestinians? After a botched raid that killed nine activists, an international uproar is intensifying pressure on Israel’s blockade. And the movement has hit on a strategy that, even when it fails in its aims, succeeds in tactical terms: The world sees Israel use military force against civilians. On Tuesday in a bustling neighborhood in Istanbul, the Turkish organization was celebrating a strange success. We became famous,said Omar Faruk, a board member of the group, Insani Yardim Vakfi, known by its Turkish initials, I.H.H. We are very thankful to the Israeli authorities.The group brought large boats and millions of dollars in donations to a cause that had struggled to gain attention and aid the Palestinians. Particularly galling to Israel is the fact that the group comes from Turkey, an ally, but one whose relations with Israel have become increasingly strained. Israeli authorities say I.H.H. bolsters Hamas, which runs Gaza and which they see as doctrinally committed to destroy the state of Israel. It also charges that the group has links to Al Qaeda and has bought weapons, charges the group denies.
The organization is funded entirely on donations, its members said, money that comes from Turkey’s religious merchant class, an affluent section of Turkish society that has brought the party of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to power. Inside the group’s tidy three-story office building in central Istanbul Tuesday, women in colorful scarves brought money and were given receipts. The group bought three boats, including the Mavi Marmara, the one that was raided, from a company owned by the Istanbul city government for $1.8 million. The boats carried aid that included building materials — cement, tiles and steel, which Israel bans because it says they could be put to military means — worth about $10 million, members said. Mr. Faruk argues his organization was crucial in helping to project Free Gaza’s cause.We changed the balance,he said. The Turkish group is a charity, members said, but the Israel Project, a private nonprofit advocacy group, sent an Internet link to journalists with references to what it described as the group’s radical Islamic, anti-Western orientation. The link alleges that the group supports Hamas, in part through a branch it opened in the Gaza Strip, the charity it sends them, and in meetings and speeches by Bulent Yildirim, its leader, and Hamas officials.
Israeli authorities said the group had been raided in 1997 by Turkish authorities, who turned up weapons in one of their offices. Ali Adakoglu, another board member, said there had been a raid on the house of a member in 1997, but he argued that it was politically motivated, since that was the year of a Turkish military crackdown on Islamist groups. He denied that weapons had been found. This is an Islamist charity, quite fundamentalist, quite close to Hamas, said Henri J. Barkey, a professor of international relations at Lehigh University.They say they do charity work, but they’ve been accused of gunrunning and other things, and their rhetoric has been inflammatory against Israel and sometimes against Jews.The organization was founded in the early 1990s, first as a charity for the poor in Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city, and later for Bosnian war victims. It now runs charity and relief work in more than 100 countries, including Haiti and nations in Africa, according to the deputy director, Yavuz Dede. The Free Gaza Movement was formed in September 2006 by a group of passionate Palestinian supporters, most of whom had been barred from ever returning to Israel. The group says it receives most of its money in donations. We asked ourselves, what can we do to make a difference? said Greta Berlin, the group’s 69-year-old co-founder and spokeswoman. We said, Let’s sail a boat to Gaza.That was literally how it started.
At first, no one seemed to care much. Five times the Free Gaza Movement sailed from Cyprus, where they are based, to Gaza. Israel ultimately came to believe that a threat was evolving, fearing that ships coming into port could transport weapons. Israeli officials said they feared the prospect of Hamas being as powerfully armed as Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. The Free Gaza Movement has its roots in the International Solidarity Movement, another organization that sought to take direct action in defense of Palestinians, using nonviolent strategies to impede Israeli military actions in the occupied territories. Members would often act as human shields. In 2003, an Israeli Army bulldozer crushed to death an American woman, Rachel Corrie, who had kneeled in the dirt to prevent it from destroying a Palestinian home.
Turkish Funds Helped Group Test BlockadePublished: June 1, 2010
It took the members two years to raise money necessary to buy the first two fishing boats, maintain and fuel them, Ms. Berlin said. But after that first landing, she said, the group quickly received enough donations to buy a small yacht, which they named Dignity. With the new boat, four more times Israel let the group dock at Gaza.
Rethinking the Gaza Blockade
Is there a way to prevent attacks against Israel while providing humanitarian relief to the Palestinians? On the sixth attempt to land in Gaza, Israel decided that was enough. The shift came after Israel invaded Gaza in December 2008, saying it needed to retaliate after thousands of rockets had been fired into civilian neighborhoods.
They loaded the boat with activists and headed to Gaza. It was dark and Ms. Berlin said that an Israeli ship rammed the boat three times, until it retreated to Lebanon. That ship eventually sank when it returned to port in Cyprus. The group raised more money and managed to buy a small ferry that could hold 30 passengers. This one they called The Spirit of Humanity. They tried three more times, with no success. On their last try, in July 2009, she said, Israel boarded the boat and detained the passengers. Israel never returned the ship, she said. We were pretty dismayed because we had no boats and no money, Ms. Berlin said. She said that former Malaysia officials and the Perdana Global Peace Organization, which describes itself on its Web site as opposed to war, helped them raise enough to buy two yachts and a cargo ship. Then they decided to team up with other groups to stage a multiship flotilla. The movement has grown into a diverse coalition of organizations and activists, often with little in common apart from opposition to the Israeli blockade of Gaza, making it difficult to generalize about its funding, views or radical connections, according to several analysts.
Evan F. Kohlmann, a veteran terrorism analyst with Flashpoint Global Partners in New York, said American diplomats and politicians, Holocaust survivors and leftist writers all have offered their names, time or money to the cause, ignoring or oblivious to the role of others with more militant connections, he said. Ms. Berlin, the outspoken co-founder, is originally from Los Angeles. She was married for 14 years to a Palestinian, with whom she had two children, and for 14 years to an American Jew. She likes to joke and says that makes her the most qualified anti-Semite.But when she is not joking she says that her detractors in Israel are right, that she does not accept Israel as a Jewish state, though she contends that is part of a larger philosophy which opposes all national borders. You decide in your life what you are passionate about,she said.I happen to be passionate about the Palestinians who have had no rights since 1948. Sabrina Tavernise reported from Istanbul, and Michael Slackman from Jerusalem. Scott Shane contributed reporting from Washington, and Sebnem Arsu from Istanbul.
The story of Israel June 2, 2010 - 22:11 ET
http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/41435/
Watch Glenn Beck weekdays at 5p & 2a ET on Fox News Channel
Israel is an amazing place.
It's very similar to us. It's different, sure, but different like how we're different from, say, Canada — rather than how we're different from Egypt or Iran. Those are worlds apart.
But Israel's problems are very similar to ours. For example:
- They've got a political system that's crippling the country. We've got one of those, too. Israel has three major political parties and the way it works is kind of like how the coalitions are made on the show Survivor. They don't really care which side it is; they look at where power can be formed and then co-opt whichever side it is.
- Their welfare system is threatening to collapse the economy. Almost 20 percent of Israeli men aged 35 to 54 aren't working; 27 percent of Arab men and 65 percent of Orthodox Jews don't work, mostly because they opt for a life of state-subsidized religious study. It's bankrupting the system and these people living off the state end up being political pawns.
The Temple Mount is where many believe God first talked to man; where Abraham prepared to sacrifice Isaac as an offering; where Solomon built the first Temple; where Mohammed ascended into the sky; where Jesus turned over the tables; where Christians believe the antichrist will stand and where Jesus will return. It's only 45-acres and it's got everything: Islam, Christianity, Judaism.
You may not believe in any of this stuff, but isn't it odd that a country the size of a postage stamp could throw the world into chaos? Fiji is about the same size; New Jersey is slightly bigger. Name a country that was foretold it would play a great role, then be destroyed, then come back again.
Israel was gone for centuries and when does it come back into the picture? 1917, World War I. Most of Europe was preparing for war. They all wanted to go to war. The U.S. also wanted to get involved. Why? Because we knew we'd become one of the world's players. We were loaning them money which, in turn meant, much like the IMF is doing to Greece right now, we could tell them what they had to do. They had that giant IOU hanging over their head. The second reason: Progressives actually believed war in Europe would provide some sort of collective salvation.
But Europe couldn't afford the war. Some of the rich and powerful in the Jewish community including eventual first president of the state of Israel, Chaim Weizmann, were key in helping fund and equip the British war effort. Germany had the market cornered on acetone, a key ingredient for arms production. Britain could very well have lost the war, but Weizmann invented a fermentation process that allowed the British to manufacture their own liquid acetone. So, understandably, the British were extremely grateful and sympathetic towards Weizmann.
Weizmann also was a leading voice for Israel's statehood. On November 2, 1917, the Balfour Declaration was signed. It was a formal statement by the British government, saying that they'd create a Jewish homeland in British-occupied ancient Palestine. One of Woodrow Wilson's pet projects, the League of Nations, ratified the declaration in 1922. This declaration and ratification caused Jews to be optimistic about the eventual establishment of a homeland. Jewish immigrants started pouring in during the '30s and Arabs became fearful that the region would become a national homeland for the Jews.
By 1936, fighting had broken out between Jews and Arabs. Anti-Semitic sentiment was spreading throughout the Middle East and Persia. Toss Hitler into the mix and the Jewish people were getting it from all sides. Hitler's top propagandist, Joseph Goebbels, epitomized the hate. He wrote that they needed to throw out the Jews and to give them a serious beating. He said, We see Jewry as a direct threat to every nation"; Jewry is a contagious infection and there can be no peace in Europe until the last Jews are eliminated from the continent.
The hatred wasn't just contained to Hitler. Persia and Germany were allies at one time and eventually Persia changed their name to Iran. That name change came at the suggestion of Iranian diplomats in Berlin to the Persian foreign ministry in Tehran; the idea was that Iran was considered to be the birthplace and the original homeland of the Aryan race. The significance of this is that Iran, in Farsi, means the land of the Aryans.
Now, World War II is over. Harry Truman comes to office in 1945. Truman was a religious, biblically Christian man. He's best friends with a Jewish man named Eddie Jacobson. They'd been friends since 1905, but had fallen out of touch for more than a decade when circumstances involving World War I brought them together. They operated a regimental canteen together and it went so well they made a pact that after the war they would go into business. They never wrote any of their agreements down, a handshake was always good enough. After the war they kept their word and opened Truman & Jacobson's Gents' Furnishings in 1919. In 1922 they went out of business. But instead of filing for bankruptcy, they decided to pay back all their own debts. It took them until 1937. They recalled that,It took a lot of sacrifice, but both of us are glad that the old firm of Truman & Jacobson doesn't owe anybody a dime. That's the kind of men these guys were: honorable.
From the beginning, President Truman made his sympathies for the Jewish people clear and supported the Balfour Declaration. Again, he was a Bible-fearing man and the Jews were viewed as an extension of us, for no other reason than the Bible told us so. But Truman was being pressured from all sides not to intervene on behalf of the Jews — by the Soviets and even by the State Department, who didn't want America to intervene because they feared Arab nations would restrict oil supply to America.
But Truman strongly believed that because of the Holocaust and the oppression suffered by the Jews, they needed a homeland. As the United Nations prepared to pass the resolution to create the state of Israel, the Arab League Council directed governments to send troops to the border. Nevertheless, Truman believed this was the right thing to do and ordered the State Department to support the U.N. resolution.
On November 29, 1947, the partition plan was passed in the U.N. General Assembly. U.N. Resolution 181 defined the outline of a settlement. In 1947, U.N. partition divided the area into three entities: a Jewish state, an Arab state and an international zone around Jerusalem.
At midnight on May 14, 1948, the provisional government of Israel proclaimed the new state of Israel. On that same day, Truman recognized the provisional Jewish government as the de facto authority of the new Jewish state. Truman believed he was doing the work of God. Truman is the reason we have Israel — he felt he was born for that mission.
That's how we got Israel. And it only took a day before the fighting began. On May 15, 1948, the Arab states issued their response statement and Arab armies invaded Israel and the fighting has gone on ever since. And so have the lies, distortion, propaganda and deception with every country.GLENN BECK SHOW JUNE 2,10 5PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6sAEYpHF24&feature=player_embedded
TAMAR-MARTIME LAWS ON THE HIGH SEAS
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Radio/News.aspx/2261
THE TERRORISTS ON ACTIVIST SHIP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV6DVk04HkM&feature=player_embedded
THE GROUPS BEHIND THE GAZA BLOCKAIDE AND RAID FOR THE PAST WEEK.THE EXTREME MILITANTS AS I CALL THEM.THE TERRORIST GROUPS THAT SET UP ISRAEL.AND TARGETED USA CITIES TO BOMB.THIS SO CALLED ACTIVIST OF PEACE AND CHARITY GROUP FLOTILLA.AND WE HAVE THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION CONNECTIONS BILL AYERS AND HIS WIFE ARE BIG SUPPORTERS OF FREE GAZA AND GIVE MONEY TO THEIR GROUP.AND WHY DID ALL THE SOCIALIST HATERS INCLUDING MIKE RIVERO WITHIN AN HOUR OF THE ISRAELI PROTECTION RAID ON THE GAZA SHIP PUT TOGETHER PROTESTS AROUND THE WORLD.YES THE HATERS WERE ALL SETTING IT UP BECAUSE THEY KNEW ISRAEL WOULD NOT ALLOW THE SHIPS IN WITHOUT BEING LOOKED OVER FOR WEAPONS.BUT ISRAEL ONLY HAD PAINT BALL GUNS AS PROTECTION SO IT KILLED THE IDEA OF INNOCENT PEACEFUL AID ACTIVISTS WERE SLAUGHTERED BY ISRAEL.THE PROPAGANDA BY THE MEDIA HAD TO BE IN FULL GEAR TO COVERUP THE TERRORISTS ACTIONS AND BLAME ISRAEL.WHAT PROPAGANDA THESE MURDERERS DONE TO SET ISRAEL UP SO THEY WOULD BE CONDEMNED AND THE BLOCK AIDE WOULD BE FORCED ON THEM TO BE LIFTED LIKE THE UN AND THE WORLD ARE CALLING FOR.WHAT A HOAX BY THESE RADICAL ETREME MILITANTS TO TRY TO DESTROY ISRAELS REPUTATION AS USUAL.
The Humanitarian Relief Wing of Hamas and Al-Qaeda Posted by John Perazzo on Jun 2nd, 2010 and filed under FrontPage.
http://frontpagemag.com/2010/06/02/the-“humanitarian-relief”-wing-of-hamas-and-al-qaeda-3/
The Foundation for Human Rights and Freedom and Humanitarian Relief (better known by its Turkish acronym, IHH) is the group that organized the six-ship flotilla which recently tried, without success, to sail all the way to Gaza. Established in Turkey in 1992, the Foundation sends aid to distressed areas throughout the Middle East – in the form of food, medicine, vocational education, and building supplies. A prime destination for this aid is Gaza, where – according to IHH – Palestinians are being oppressed by an unjustified Israeli naval blockade. (For the record, that blockade was put in place to prevent Hamas, which controls Gaza politically and has fired thousands of rockets into southern Israeli towns in recent years, from importing additional weaponry from Iran and other allies abroad.)For several days last week, as the flotilla approached Gaza, Israel issued warnings that the ships would not be permitted to reach their destination without first submitting to an inspection of their cargoes – to ensure that no weaponry was being transported. But when the respective crews of the vessels refused to comply, Israeli commandos took action and intercepted the flotilla in the early morning hours of May 31. The IHH-affiliated activists responded with violence, instantly attacking the commandos with knives and clubs, and throwing one of them overboard. In the melee that ensued, ten activists were killed and seven Israeli soldiers were wounded. How could this be? How can we be expected to believe that a well-meaning “humanitarian relief” group would ever behave in a manner that might provoke violent reprisals from Israeli troops? A more thorough examination of IHH’s history and affiliations explains everything.
While IHH is indeed involved in the aforementioned humanitarian endeavors, its overall objectives are much broader. Belying the dove of peace whose image appears on its logo, IHH overtly supports Hamas, is sympathetic to al Qaeda, and maintained regular contact with al Qaeda cells and the Sunni insurgency during the bloodiest stretches of the Iraq War. Moreover, IHH has supported jihadist terror networks not only in Iraq, but also in Bosnia, Syria, Afghanistan, and Chechnya. According to Carnegie Endowment analyst Henri Barkey, IHH is an Islamist organization that has been deeply involved with Hamas for some time. A 2006 report by the Danish Institute for International Studies characterized IHH as one of many charitable front groups that provide support to Al-Qaida and the global jihad.Is the IHH beginning to sound less and less like a humanitarian relief group? Let’s look a little deeper still.
According to a French intelligence report, in the mid-1990s IHH leader Bülent Yildirim was directly involved in recruiting veteran soldiers to organize jihad activities, and in dispatching IHH operatives to war zones in Islamic countries to gain combat experience. The report also stated that IHH had transferred money as well as caches of firearms, knives and pre-fabricated explosives to Muslim fighters in those countries. Given this track record, can Israel’s concern about the contents of the IHH flotilla cargoes really be considered excessive or unwarranted? In 1996, IHH continued to burnish its credentials as a humanitarian relief organization when an examination of its telephone records showed that repeated calls had been made to an al Qaeda guest house in Milan and to Algerian terrorists operating in Europe. That same year, the U.S. government formally identified IHH as having connections to extremist groups in Iran and Algeria.In December 1997, Turkish authorities, acting on a tip from sources claiming that IHH leaders had purchased automatic weapons from other regional Islamic militant groups, initiated a domestic criminal investigation of IHH. A thorough search of the organization’s Istanbul bureau uncovered a large assortment of firearms, explosives, bomb-making instructions, and a jihad flag. In addition, Turkish authorities seized a host of IHH documents whose contents ultimately led investigators to conclude that the group’s members were going to fight in Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Chechnya.Near the end of 2000, IHH organized protests against proposals to overthrow that humanitarian icon, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein; American and Israeli flags were burned at these rallies.
During the April 2001 trial of would-be millennium bomber Ahmed Ressam, it was revealed that IHH had played an important role in the plot to blow up Los Angeles International Airport on December 31, 1999. Some reasonable observers might contend that to classify such a pursuit under the heading of humanitarian relief would require an unduly broad definition of that term.In 2002, investigators found correspondences from IHH in the offices of the Success Foundation, a Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated organization whose Secretary was Abdul Rahman Alamoudi. For the record: The Brotherhood was the ideological forebear of Hamas and al Qaeda; it supports jihad; and it seeks to impose shari’a law on the entire civilized world. Mr. Alamoudi, for his part, is currently serving a prison term of nearly a quarter-century for his role as a funder of international terrorism. He is best known for having proudly declared himself to be a passionate supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah. The connections to humanitarian relief seem rather tenuous here.According to a report issued by a website close to Israeli military intelligence: [S]ince Hamas took over the Gaza Strip, IHH has supported Hamas’ propaganda campaigns by organizing public support conferences in Turkey.The report also states that IHH continues to operate widely throughout Gaza and to funnel large sums of money to support the Hamas infrastructure.
In January 2008, an IHH delegation met with Ahmed Bahar, chairman of Hamas’ council in the Gaza Strip. At the meeting, the delegation not only boasted about the large amount of financial support it had given Hamas during the preceding year, but also declared its intent to double that sum in the future. Once again, we are left to wonder how any of this falls under the rubric of humanitarian relief.In 2008 Israel banned IHH from the country because of the organization’s membership in the Union of Good (UOG), a Hamas-founded umbrella coalition comprised of more than 50 Islamic charities (most of which are associated with the global Muslim Brotherhood) that channel money and goods to Hamas-affiliated institutions. In December 2008, the U.S. government designated UOG as a terrorist entity that was guilty of diverting donations that were intended for social welfare and other charitable services, and using those funds to strengthen Hamas’ political and military position.In January 2009, IHH head Bülent Yildirim met with Khaled Mash’al, chairman of Hamas’ political bureau in Damascus, and Mash’al thanked Yildirim for the support of his organization.
In November 2009 IHH activist Izzat Shahin transferred tens of thousands of American dollars from IHH to the Islamic Charitable Society (in Hebron) and Al-Tadhamun (in Nablus), two of Hamas’ most important front groups posing as charitable societies.
This, then, is the IHH: a pack of anti-Semitic supporters of terrorism, cloaking themselves in the vestments of victimhood, and bleating to the world about how unfairly they have been treated by the very nation whose extermination they have worked long and hard to bring about. It’s actually a story that has become quite familiar.
Photo by: IDF Spokesperson What is the IHH?
By BEN HARTMAN 06/01/2010 22:32
The Turkish charity that helped plan the Gaza flotilla may be linked to Jihadist groups. The IHH, a Turkish charity that was one of the main planners of the Gaza flotilla, is widely considered a terrorist organization by a number of bodies - including the Israeli government - and has been accused of maintaining ties with a number of terror organizations.The IHH, short for the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (Insani Yardim Vakfi), is an Islamic charity that was founded in the mid-90s to provide aid to Bosnia Muslims. Since then, it has been involved in charity operations in a number of Muslim and Middle Eastern countries, including Indonesia, Pakistan, Iraq, Lebanon and aid missions to the Palestinian territories.According to the Israeli NGO The Intelligence and Information Center, the IHH is affiliated with Hamas and the Union of the Good, an Islamic umbrella affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood.In 2006, a report issued by the Danish Institute for International Studies stated that during the 1990s the IHH maintained links with al-Qaida and a number of global jihad networks.The report also said that the Turkish government launched an investigation into the IHH starting December 1997 after receiving intelligence that the IHH had bought automatic weapons from Islamist terrorists.
The report said that following the revelation, the Turkish government launched a raid on the organization’s Istanbul offices, where they found weapons, explosives, and instructions for bomb-making. The report added that an examination of documents found at the IHH office indicated that the group was planning to take part in terrorist activities in Afghanistan, Chechnya, and Bosnia.According to the study, a French intelligence report found that in the mid-1990s IHH leader B’ulent Yildirim recruited soldiers for jihad activities in a number of Muslim countries and that the IHH transferred money, firearms, and explosives to jihadists in said countries.
Izzet Sahnin, an employee of the IHH was arrested by the security services outside Bethlehem in April for what the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) said was suspicion that he was working for an extended period of time in Judea and Samaria for the Turkish organization IHH, which Israel declared illegal in 2008.The Shin Bet added that they suspected Sahnin’s activities endangered West Bank security.Following the arrest, the IHH posted a press statement on its Web site that said Izzet Sahin, who has been living in West Bank since the 28th of November, 2009 [and is] a student of [the] Hebrew University, was taken into custody in an illegal manner on the 27th of April, 2010. First court hearing of Izzet Sahin was held last week... Officials from IHH demand [that the] Turkish government interfere to ensure Sahin’s release.The Turkish government has denied assisting the IHH in its planning or funding of the Gaza flotilla.
FREE GAZA BLOG-ISRAEL HATE BLOG BIGTIME-ALL HATE PROPAGANDA
http://www.freegaza.com/
Turkish Funds Helped Group Test BlockadeBy SABRINA TAVERNISE and MICHAEL SLACKMAN Published: June 1, 2010
ISTANBUL — Since 2007, a small group of hard-core activists has repeatedly tried to sail cargo-laden ships into Gaza in an effort to thwart Israel’s blockade. But when the Free Gaza Movement teamed up with a much wealthier Turkish organization to assemble a flotilla, it became more than a nuisance, supercharged by the group’s money, manpower and symbolic resonance into what Israel sees as a serious and growing threat. Is there a way to prevent attacks against Israel while providing humanitarian relief to the Palestinians? After a botched raid that killed nine activists, an international uproar is intensifying pressure on Israel’s blockade. And the movement has hit on a strategy that, even when it fails in its aims, succeeds in tactical terms: The world sees Israel use military force against civilians. On Tuesday in a bustling neighborhood in Istanbul, the Turkish organization was celebrating a strange success. We became famous,said Omar Faruk, a board member of the group, Insani Yardim Vakfi, known by its Turkish initials, I.H.H. We are very thankful to the Israeli authorities.The group brought large boats and millions of dollars in donations to a cause that had struggled to gain attention and aid the Palestinians. Particularly galling to Israel is the fact that the group comes from Turkey, an ally, but one whose relations with Israel have become increasingly strained. Israeli authorities say I.H.H. bolsters Hamas, which runs Gaza and which they see as doctrinally committed to destroy the state of Israel. It also charges that the group has links to Al Qaeda and has bought weapons, charges the group denies.
The organization is funded entirely on donations, its members said, money that comes from Turkey’s religious merchant class, an affluent section of Turkish society that has brought the party of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to power. Inside the group’s tidy three-story office building in central Istanbul Tuesday, women in colorful scarves brought money and were given receipts. The group bought three boats, including the Mavi Marmara, the one that was raided, from a company owned by the Istanbul city government for $1.8 million. The boats carried aid that included building materials — cement, tiles and steel, which Israel bans because it says they could be put to military means — worth about $10 million, members said. Mr. Faruk argues his organization was crucial in helping to project Free Gaza’s cause.We changed the balance,he said. The Turkish group is a charity, members said, but the Israel Project, a private nonprofit advocacy group, sent an Internet link to journalists with references to what it described as the group’s radical Islamic, anti-Western orientation. The link alleges that the group supports Hamas, in part through a branch it opened in the Gaza Strip, the charity it sends them, and in meetings and speeches by Bulent Yildirim, its leader, and Hamas officials.
Israeli authorities said the group had been raided in 1997 by Turkish authorities, who turned up weapons in one of their offices. Ali Adakoglu, another board member, said there had been a raid on the house of a member in 1997, but he argued that it was politically motivated, since that was the year of a Turkish military crackdown on Islamist groups. He denied that weapons had been found. This is an Islamist charity, quite fundamentalist, quite close to Hamas, said Henri J. Barkey, a professor of international relations at Lehigh University.They say they do charity work, but they’ve been accused of gunrunning and other things, and their rhetoric has been inflammatory against Israel and sometimes against Jews.The organization was founded in the early 1990s, first as a charity for the poor in Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city, and later for Bosnian war victims. It now runs charity and relief work in more than 100 countries, including Haiti and nations in Africa, according to the deputy director, Yavuz Dede. The Free Gaza Movement was formed in September 2006 by a group of passionate Palestinian supporters, most of whom had been barred from ever returning to Israel. The group says it receives most of its money in donations. We asked ourselves, what can we do to make a difference? said Greta Berlin, the group’s 69-year-old co-founder and spokeswoman. We said, Let’s sail a boat to Gaza.That was literally how it started.
At first, no one seemed to care much. Five times the Free Gaza Movement sailed from Cyprus, where they are based, to Gaza. Israel ultimately came to believe that a threat was evolving, fearing that ships coming into port could transport weapons. Israeli officials said they feared the prospect of Hamas being as powerfully armed as Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. The Free Gaza Movement has its roots in the International Solidarity Movement, another organization that sought to take direct action in defense of Palestinians, using nonviolent strategies to impede Israeli military actions in the occupied territories. Members would often act as human shields. In 2003, an Israeli Army bulldozer crushed to death an American woman, Rachel Corrie, who had kneeled in the dirt to prevent it from destroying a Palestinian home.
Turkish Funds Helped Group Test BlockadePublished: June 1, 2010
It took the members two years to raise money necessary to buy the first two fishing boats, maintain and fuel them, Ms. Berlin said. But after that first landing, she said, the group quickly received enough donations to buy a small yacht, which they named Dignity. With the new boat, four more times Israel let the group dock at Gaza.
Rethinking the Gaza Blockade
Is there a way to prevent attacks against Israel while providing humanitarian relief to the Palestinians? On the sixth attempt to land in Gaza, Israel decided that was enough. The shift came after Israel invaded Gaza in December 2008, saying it needed to retaliate after thousands of rockets had been fired into civilian neighborhoods.
They loaded the boat with activists and headed to Gaza. It was dark and Ms. Berlin said that an Israeli ship rammed the boat three times, until it retreated to Lebanon. That ship eventually sank when it returned to port in Cyprus. The group raised more money and managed to buy a small ferry that could hold 30 passengers. This one they called The Spirit of Humanity. They tried three more times, with no success. On their last try, in July 2009, she said, Israel boarded the boat and detained the passengers. Israel never returned the ship, she said. We were pretty dismayed because we had no boats and no money, Ms. Berlin said. She said that former Malaysia officials and the Perdana Global Peace Organization, which describes itself on its Web site as opposed to war, helped them raise enough to buy two yachts and a cargo ship. Then they decided to team up with other groups to stage a multiship flotilla. The movement has grown into a diverse coalition of organizations and activists, often with little in common apart from opposition to the Israeli blockade of Gaza, making it difficult to generalize about its funding, views or radical connections, according to several analysts.
Evan F. Kohlmann, a veteran terrorism analyst with Flashpoint Global Partners in New York, said American diplomats and politicians, Holocaust survivors and leftist writers all have offered their names, time or money to the cause, ignoring or oblivious to the role of others with more militant connections, he said. Ms. Berlin, the outspoken co-founder, is originally from Los Angeles. She was married for 14 years to a Palestinian, with whom she had two children, and for 14 years to an American Jew. She likes to joke and says that makes her the most qualified anti-Semite.But when she is not joking she says that her detractors in Israel are right, that she does not accept Israel as a Jewish state, though she contends that is part of a larger philosophy which opposes all national borders. You decide in your life what you are passionate about,she said.I happen to be passionate about the Palestinians who have had no rights since 1948. Sabrina Tavernise reported from Istanbul, and Michael Slackman from Jerusalem. Scott Shane contributed reporting from Washington, and Sebnem Arsu from Istanbul.
The story of Israel June 2, 2010 - 22:11 ET
http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/41435/
Watch Glenn Beck weekdays at 5p & 2a ET on Fox News Channel
Israel is an amazing place.
It's very similar to us. It's different, sure, but different like how we're different from, say, Canada — rather than how we're different from Egypt or Iran. Those are worlds apart.
But Israel's problems are very similar to ours. For example:
- They've got a political system that's crippling the country. We've got one of those, too. Israel has three major political parties and the way it works is kind of like how the coalitions are made on the show Survivor. They don't really care which side it is; they look at where power can be formed and then co-opt whichever side it is.
- Their welfare system is threatening to collapse the economy. Almost 20 percent of Israeli men aged 35 to 54 aren't working; 27 percent of Arab men and 65 percent of Orthodox Jews don't work, mostly because they opt for a life of state-subsidized religious study. It's bankrupting the system and these people living off the state end up being political pawns.
The Temple Mount is where many believe God first talked to man; where Abraham prepared to sacrifice Isaac as an offering; where Solomon built the first Temple; where Mohammed ascended into the sky; where Jesus turned over the tables; where Christians believe the antichrist will stand and where Jesus will return. It's only 45-acres and it's got everything: Islam, Christianity, Judaism.
You may not believe in any of this stuff, but isn't it odd that a country the size of a postage stamp could throw the world into chaos? Fiji is about the same size; New Jersey is slightly bigger. Name a country that was foretold it would play a great role, then be destroyed, then come back again.
Israel was gone for centuries and when does it come back into the picture? 1917, World War I. Most of Europe was preparing for war. They all wanted to go to war. The U.S. also wanted to get involved. Why? Because we knew we'd become one of the world's players. We were loaning them money which, in turn meant, much like the IMF is doing to Greece right now, we could tell them what they had to do. They had that giant IOU hanging over their head. The second reason: Progressives actually believed war in Europe would provide some sort of collective salvation.
But Europe couldn't afford the war. Some of the rich and powerful in the Jewish community including eventual first president of the state of Israel, Chaim Weizmann, were key in helping fund and equip the British war effort. Germany had the market cornered on acetone, a key ingredient for arms production. Britain could very well have lost the war, but Weizmann invented a fermentation process that allowed the British to manufacture their own liquid acetone. So, understandably, the British were extremely grateful and sympathetic towards Weizmann.
Weizmann also was a leading voice for Israel's statehood. On November 2, 1917, the Balfour Declaration was signed. It was a formal statement by the British government, saying that they'd create a Jewish homeland in British-occupied ancient Palestine. One of Woodrow Wilson's pet projects, the League of Nations, ratified the declaration in 1922. This declaration and ratification caused Jews to be optimistic about the eventual establishment of a homeland. Jewish immigrants started pouring in during the '30s and Arabs became fearful that the region would become a national homeland for the Jews.
By 1936, fighting had broken out between Jews and Arabs. Anti-Semitic sentiment was spreading throughout the Middle East and Persia. Toss Hitler into the mix and the Jewish people were getting it from all sides. Hitler's top propagandist, Joseph Goebbels, epitomized the hate. He wrote that they needed to throw out the Jews and to give them a serious beating. He said, We see Jewry as a direct threat to every nation"; Jewry is a contagious infection and there can be no peace in Europe until the last Jews are eliminated from the continent.
The hatred wasn't just contained to Hitler. Persia and Germany were allies at one time and eventually Persia changed their name to Iran. That name change came at the suggestion of Iranian diplomats in Berlin to the Persian foreign ministry in Tehran; the idea was that Iran was considered to be the birthplace and the original homeland of the Aryan race. The significance of this is that Iran, in Farsi, means the land of the Aryans.
Now, World War II is over. Harry Truman comes to office in 1945. Truman was a religious, biblically Christian man. He's best friends with a Jewish man named Eddie Jacobson. They'd been friends since 1905, but had fallen out of touch for more than a decade when circumstances involving World War I brought them together. They operated a regimental canteen together and it went so well they made a pact that after the war they would go into business. They never wrote any of their agreements down, a handshake was always good enough. After the war they kept their word and opened Truman & Jacobson's Gents' Furnishings in 1919. In 1922 they went out of business. But instead of filing for bankruptcy, they decided to pay back all their own debts. It took them until 1937. They recalled that,It took a lot of sacrifice, but both of us are glad that the old firm of Truman & Jacobson doesn't owe anybody a dime. That's the kind of men these guys were: honorable.
From the beginning, President Truman made his sympathies for the Jewish people clear and supported the Balfour Declaration. Again, he was a Bible-fearing man and the Jews were viewed as an extension of us, for no other reason than the Bible told us so. But Truman was being pressured from all sides not to intervene on behalf of the Jews — by the Soviets and even by the State Department, who didn't want America to intervene because they feared Arab nations would restrict oil supply to America.
But Truman strongly believed that because of the Holocaust and the oppression suffered by the Jews, they needed a homeland. As the United Nations prepared to pass the resolution to create the state of Israel, the Arab League Council directed governments to send troops to the border. Nevertheless, Truman believed this was the right thing to do and ordered the State Department to support the U.N. resolution.
On November 29, 1947, the partition plan was passed in the U.N. General Assembly. U.N. Resolution 181 defined the outline of a settlement. In 1947, U.N. partition divided the area into three entities: a Jewish state, an Arab state and an international zone around Jerusalem.
At midnight on May 14, 1948, the provisional government of Israel proclaimed the new state of Israel. On that same day, Truman recognized the provisional Jewish government as the de facto authority of the new Jewish state. Truman believed he was doing the work of God. Truman is the reason we have Israel — he felt he was born for that mission.
That's how we got Israel. And it only took a day before the fighting began. On May 15, 1948, the Arab states issued their response statement and Arab armies invaded Israel and the fighting has gone on ever since. And so have the lies, distortion, propaganda and deception with every country.GLENN BECK SHOW JUNE 2,10 5PM
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
ALLTIME
-
COMMUNIST NAZI PROSTITUE PUPPET MEDIA OF CANADA IN KAHOOTS WITH COMMUNIST-NAZI LIBERAL LEADER TRUDEAU TO DESTROY TRUCKERS. THE PROPAGANDA PR...
-
JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN S...
-
DEFEATING DEMONIC SPIRITS (PART 2) RELATED PART 1 http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2006/08/defeating-demonic-powers.html GIFTS OF THE SPIR...