Decades’ old CIA breakdown needs intelligent, independent, experienced leadership ─ Goodman

U.S. CIA
drone wars
killling by remote

 An agency blinded by ideology, politics; rogue empire, old ruins

Editing, excerpting, brief comment by 

Carolyn Bennett

Sixty-five years ago U.S. President Harry S. Truman created the CIA to produce intelligence free from bias of the policy process ─ particularly the military process. As he searches for a successor, Melvin A. Goodman wrote late last year, “President Barack Obama should keep this in mind.”

Experienced civilian leaders could demand reform. The former Central Intelligence Agency analyst said President Obama has an opportunity to name a director who will ─

 

[r]e-establish the CIA’s commitment to objective and balanced intelligence and rebuild the Office of the Inspector General, which has been severely weakened by the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations.

BREAKDOWN

“The role of strategic intelligence has deteriorated during the past decade with major failures including the lack of premonitory [early-warning] intelligence for the terror attacks of 9/11 and for the Arab Spring, as well as the false intelligence to justify the Iraq War in 2003,”  Goodman said. “There were major operational failures in Afghanistan in 2009, when eight CIA officers were killed, and in Libya, where the U.S. ambassador lost his life.”

Moral Bankruptcy

T

he politicized intelligence for the Iraq War, as well as CIA secret prisons and use of torture, revealed moral bankruptcy at the CIA …

“The CIA’s Inspector General has not investigated any of these failures since its examination of the 9/11 failure.

Incest, entrenchment, nepotism blinds

Civilian leadership, Independent analysis needed

Agency careerists, like the current acting director of the CIA, Goodman says, lack the stature for the job and military officers lack the background and often the intellect.

E

xperienced civilian leaders could demand a reform process to correct the flawed processes of the analytical and operational directorates and assure that the CIA strengthens independent analysis for the strategic needs of high-level decision-makers.

Decades' old BREAKDOWN

A new director, Goodman said, “must make sure that the CIA [has an Inspector General with the character of] a junkyard dog [aggressive, no-nonsense] as that statutory position requires.” 

Goodman says the CIA needs leaders “who understand the role of strategic intelligence.” His choices for the job (though not without linkage to established, entrenched, recycled Washington) are these men:

Former U.S. Senator from Nebraska (1997-2009), Charles Timothy (Chuck) Hagel (b. 1946)

Former U.S. Senator from Nebraska (1989-2001) and 35th Governor of that state (1983-1987), Joseph Robert (Bob) Kerrey (b. 1943)

Former U.S. Senator from New Jersey (1979-1997) and former candidate for U.S. presidency (2000), William Warren (Bill) Bradley (b. 1943)

Retired U. S. ambassador, formerly posted as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (1989-1992), Senior Vice President for International Relations at Boeing (ending in 2006), Thomas Reeve (Tom) Pickering (b. 1931)

Current U.S. diplomat, former U. S. Ambassador to Russia (2005-2008) then acting U. S. Secretary of State (January 2009 HR Clinton stand-in), current Deputy Secretary of State, William Joseph Burns (b.1956)

Extrajudicial(lawless)
killings

Is it possible to move beyond old ruins?

T

hough the men suggested by Mel Goodman might be wonderful to head the Central Intelligence Agency, I expect there are even better suited, more qualified potential candidates [not Brennan] for the positions of Chief and Inspector General who do not rise from the pit of Washington’s ruined: the entrenched, the recycled, descendant old sons of nepotism.

Today’s News from Senate Committee Hearing: “[Obama-nominee] John Brennan CIA confirmation hearing interrupted by protesters” – Guardian UK Live

President Obama's
man for CIA chief

• Brennan grilled by Senate intelligence committee
 
• Floor cleared as anti-drone protesters interrupt session

Sources and note

“Restore Reliability and Accountability” (New York Times, December 3, 2012 Article by Melvin A. Goodman), http://www.ciponline.org/research/entry/restore-reliability-and-accountability; http://www.ciponline.org/research/entry/restore-reliability-and-accountability

Mel Goodman

Melvin A. Goodman is Director of the National Security Project at the Center for International Policy in Washington, D.C., and adjunct professor of government at Johns Hopkins University.

Earlier he was a Soviet analyst at the CIA and the U.S. Department of State for 24 years; and a professor of international relations at the National War College for 18 years. He served in the U.S. Army in Athens, Greece (three years); and was intelligence adviser to the SALT delegation (1971–1972).

In addition to articles in a variety of news source, Goodman is author of Failure of Intelligence: The Decline and Fall of the CIA; National Insecurity: The Cost of American Militarism; Gorbachev’s Retreat: The Third World; The Wars of Eduard Shevardnadze; The Phantom Defense: America’s Pursuit of the Star Wars Illusion; and Bush League Diplomacy: How the Neoconservatives are Putting the World at Risk

http://www.citylights.com/book/?GCOI=87286100245480&fa=author&person_id=16690

Center for International Policy

Founded by former diplomats and peace activists (1975) in the wake of the Vietnam War, the Center for International Policy, according to its website, is a nonprofit research that “advocates a U.S. foreign policy that promotes international cooperation, demilitarization and respect for human rights.”

The Center’s advocacy and policy research promotes transparency and accountability in U.S. foreign policy; and provides policy recommendations and analysis to decision makers in government, the private sector and civil society.

“Washington insiders with an outsider’s agenda,” they call themselves, a group of former senior government officials, journalists, academics and activists with programs focusing “on long-term policy questions ─ examining policy implications of important issues such as the drug war, military budget, global financial integrity, climate change ─ while quickly responding to breaking news.”

Programs have grown and expanded: In the late 1970s, the Indochina program promoted the normalization of relations between the United States and Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia; in the 1980s, CIP turned its focus to Central America; in the 1990s, the focus expanded to reform of the U.S. intelligence agencies. Then to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and illicit financial flows; continually programs focused on issues and events’ impact on human rights and national security; and the role of money, money defining policy: in Washington, Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and Africa. http://www.ciponline.org/about-us

President Barack Obama chooses soiled for CIA chief

“John Brennan CIA confirmation hearing interrupted by protesters” – live, February 7, 2013, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/07/john-brennan-senate-hearing-cia-nomination-live-blog

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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Shuffling War, Terror Cabinet

Securing status quo at 1600 Pennsylvania

Editing, end comment by Carolyn Bennett

U.S. President Barack Obama is shifting CIA Director Leon Panetta to head Defense, Gen. David Petraeus to head the CIA, and proposing U.S. Marine General John Allen to replace Petraeus as U.S. commander in Afghanistan.

In comments today on Democracy Now, former CIA analyst Ray McGovern said he thinks the president has “made a terrible mistake.”

The CIA’s Analysis Division (distinct from its operations division) last year made two insightful estimates on Afghanistan and Pakistan, McGovern said — “though you wouldn’t know from reading the New York Times or listening to Hillary Clinton —

[The United States] … will never prevail [in Afghanistan] unless we can get the Pakistanis to seal the border and really cooperate with us [and]

… [T]here isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that we [the U.S.] can persuade Pakistanis to cooperate with us because they see their interests in Afghanistan in a completely different way. It has to do with India.

“And nothing [U.S. Secretary of State] Hillary Clinton or [Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral] Mike Mullen can say to the Pakistanis is going to persuade them [the Pakistanis] that they should not really worry about India [and] should worry just about terrorists. It isn’t going to work.”

As to Panetta’s claim his sending drone missiles on to Afghanistan and Pakistan is protecting the United States, McGovern asks —  

“Tell me how that works. Would some senator please ask Panetta ‘How does it work?’ How are you defending the United States?” What Panetta is really doing is “creating more terrorists,” McGovern says, “and that’s provable by just the interrogators who interrogate people caught in Iraq and in Afghanistan.

Question: “‘Why did you come there?’”

Answer: “‘We came there because of the drones.

Answer: “‘We came there because of Guantánamo.

Answer: “‘We came there because of Abu Ghraib.’

“We create our own terrorists,” McGovern continues.

“Panetta is not and Petraeus is not going to be able to tell the President that — because he [Gen. David Petraeus] is not a disinterested party. What the President is entitled to is an unbiased, tell-it-like-it-is opinion. He won’t get that from Petraeus.”

“I think from that point of view Obama has made a terrible mistake.”

The status quo holds: “Our young people are being chewed up — sent over there by a poverty draft,” an unconscionable happening — “not to mention what’s happening to the militants that are being subjected to drone and other attacks.”  

Unconscionable indeed is the endless bleeding, the trauma to and displacement of Afghan and Pakistani civilians, the protracted destabilization of the entire Middle East, Persian, South Central Asia region.

Sources and notes

Democracy Now April 28, 2011, "Former CIA Analyst Ray McGovern: Petraeus Will Expand Pro-War Agenda as New CIA Director," http://www.democracynow.org/2011/4/28/former_cia_analyst_ray_mcgovern_petraeus

Ray McGovern is a former senior CIA analyst whose duties with the agency included preparing the President’s [under George H.W. Bush] Daily Brief and chairing National Intelligence Estimates. McGovern is co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity.

CIA chief Leon Panetta a year ago was quoted saying, “We have a responsibility to defend this country, and that’s what we’re doing and anyone who suggests that somehow, you know, we’re employing other tactics here that somehow violate international law are dead wrong. What we’re doing is defending this country. That’s what our operations are all about.”

During his tenure as CIA chief, Democracy Now reports, Panetta in the past two years “has led a massive escalation of the use of unarmed drones in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In 2008, the U.S. carried out 35 drone strikes in Pakistan. In 2010, Panetta’s first full year as CIA director, at least 117 strikes occurred. Panetta in the above quote was defending “the legality of the drone attacks.”

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Bennett's books available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]
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Proving their bona fides — impunity, amorality

Clinton/Obama/Obama/Clinton-ites — 

Impunity, mendacity, rights be damned

Editing, comment by Carolyn Bennett

HRClinton heavies silence freedom protester at her free-speech speech

Rory O’Connor wrote yesterday, “Are you as shocked as I am that even former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld turns out to be a better supporter of free speech than Hillary Clinton?”

It seems her majesty HRC was again talking nonsense in high places: lecturing the rest of the world about freedom this week at George Washington University and silencing a silent protester, peace activist, U.S. Army veteran, former C.I.A. analyst Ray McGovern.

McGovern’s crimes against amoralist HRC were to don a t-shirt and turn has back during her free-speech speech. The government hauled McGovern out of the hall, roughed him up a bit, and cited him for “Disorderly Conduct.”

McGovern was reportedly “wearing a shirt that blocked the view of guests and the media and therefore ‘disrupted’ the state secretary’s speechifying. “ In an interview with blogger Rob Kall, McGovern said Government heavies cuffed him and watched his wrists flowing blood all over his pants and the transport vehicle.

In D.C. police custody, officers charged protester McGovern with disorderly conduct, booked, fingerprinted and photographed him, and dropped him in a six by four cell for three hours. On release, McGovern took a taxi to the hospital for x-rays and dressings on his wounds. Doctors advised him that he had suffered an assault and should report the assault to police.

Clinton/Obama/Obama Clinton’s America — 

Welcome to their world

Rephrasing O’Connor’s question: “Are you as shocked as I am,” he asks, that Hillary Rodham Clinton is less a supporter of free speech than was former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld?  No, I am not shocked and only a person living for decades in a cave would be genuinely shocked.

Someone wrote on a fence along the Erie Canal path near where I live, “When America finishes bringing freedom and democracy to the world, maybe they’ll bring a little of that freedom and democracy to the United States of America.”

The danger of people like the Clintons and Obamas  in positions of enormous power (together with their amorality) is that they feel compelled to exact extreme pain and violence. They feel compelled to prove to a world of barbarians ill at ease with their kind that they can be as brutal as — even more barbaric than — thugs and dictators, authoritarians, militarists and mercenaries operating with impunity, beyond law, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and international conventions.

Clinton’s reading a script condemning other governments for “arresting protesters and inhibiting free expression” is another example of this government’s and its predecessors’ mendacity, its profoundly entrenched and dangerous schizophrenia. Notwithstanding all this, the 71-year-old McGovern says despite the brute force and bruises, he is glad he protested and will go on bearing witness.

Sources and notes

“Hillary Clinton Talks Freedom as Protester Ray McGovern Is Bloodied,” February 17, 2011, News and Politics (RoryOConnor.org)

Filmmaker and journalist Rory O'Connor is the author of ‘Shock Jocks: Hate Speech and Talk Radio’ (AlterNet Books, 2008). O'Connor also writes the Media Is A Plural blog.

http://www.alternet.org/news/149951/hillary_clinton_talks_freedom_as_protester_ray_mcgovern_is_bloodied/?page=entire

Amoralists are those who are or believe themselves to be and so act as though they are outside the sphere to which moral judgments apply, beyond the moral order or a particular code of morals. They lack moral center or sensibility and in high office, the effect, in its inhumanity, is a kind of madness as dangerous as that of sociopaths or psychopaths.

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Bennett's books available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]
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“Terror” policy will fall, People will stand—Joya

Afghanistan’s Joya exposes entrenched policy, persisting resistance of a people invaded but unbowed
Excerpts, editing by Carolyn Bennett

Leading into the September 11, 2001-September 11, 2010, more from Afghan truth teller Malalai Joya, A woman among warlords

“We Afghans remain trapped between two enemies: the Taliban on the one side and US/NATO forces and their warlord hirelings on the other. We are feeling the squeeze and it is costing us in blood and tears. But the situation is not hopeless. I believe in the power of the people, and I know that there are millions of women and men standing and waiting—eager to play their role in history. Afghans have lost all patience with the corruption and violence that surround them, and they are just one spark away from an uprising that will once more demonstrate their power and show their thirst for freedom and justice.”

“The unjust and criminal occupation of Afghanistan and its puppet regime cannot last forever.


The use, abuse, and destabilization of Afghanistan by great powers and neighboring countries cannot last forever.


The domination of our country by warlords, Taliban, and their so-called intellectual lobbyists cannot last forever.


The impunity of war criminals—whether sitting in the Parliament or Kabul or at the ranch in Texas—cannot last forever.


The subjugation of women as second-class citizens cannot last forever.


The unpunished rape, abduction, murder, and mistreatment of women and girls cannot last forever.


The government and NGO corruption and embezzlement, the drug running and profiteering, all of which deny Afghans basic services such as health care and education, cannot last forever.


The terrorizing of honest journalists and the silencing of dissenting voices through violence and intimidation cannot last forever.


The suppression of the democratic and progressive people and parties in Afghanistan cannot and must not last forever.”

Entrenched policy experienced firsthand

“The people of Afghanistan can see very clearly that the warlords are supported and protected by the United States and other foreign troops. They could not continue their fascist agenda for even one day without the backing of the United States and NATO …

“Intervening against countries where governments take action against U.S. corporate interests is the policy of every president. It is, after all—militarism —imperialism—that has given the United States a dominant position in the world. Without war its empire will have no future. American foreign policy, in reality, is set; the job of the president is simply to implement it.

“If we look at the historical record, the policies of U.S. governments have been very consistent for decades. War making has been the policy of every president.…

“… Recent world events prove that ‘exporting democracy’ is just a hoax behind U.S. foreign policy.… Some of the closest allies of the United States are anything but democratic. In the Middle East, two key pillars of U.S. influence in the region are the dictatorship in Egypt and the fundamentalist monarchy in Saudi Arabia. When we analyze this record, it should not be too surprising to see the type of antidemocratic figures that the United States is propping up in positions of power in Afghanistan…

“Although the U.S./NATO forces say they are staying in Afghanistan to hunt down bin Laden and a resurgent Taliban, they might consider beginning their search in Kabul. … The new Afghan government is not only a photocopy of the Taliban, but some of the prominent figures from that former regime have been recycled and repackaged and now hold positions of power.”

This goes to show that the United States “has been less interested in destroying the Taliban than in cultivating ‘our Taliban,’ the ‘good Taliban,’ or any other ‘good’ fundamentalists who will serve their interests.…”

With a situation like this, “our country cannot stand on its own feet and will remain dependent on foreign troops.” The policy of the U.S. government “is to keep us in this situation [and] if things continue on this course, I believe the foreign powers could even lead us toward the breakup of our country along ethnic lines.… [Afghans] must fight against the disintegration of our national unity. We do not want to lose our Afghanistan.”


Terror inside out

“There are all kinds of terror in the world [Afghanistan in the past thirty years has been subjected to every kind of atrocity in the name of socialism, religion, freedom, democracy and liberation, now in the name of a ‘war on terror’ ],” Joya writes. “We live every day of our lives in the terror of endless war.”

“The ‘war on terror’ today serves as an excuse for war and intervention. As in the past, when many democratic governments were overthrown and replaced with dictatorships in the name of ‘fighting communism,’ so it is today with the language of ‘fighting terrorism.’…

“This so-called war on terror is in fact an extremely dishonest policy.” The only way this war needs to last decades is if the real purpose is for the United States and its allies to establish permanent bases to serve their strategic aims.

“To our people, the idea that the United States, with all its military might, technology, and power, could not have already defeated these medieval-minded groups—assuming that was the real American war aim—is like a bad joke. Instead, it looks like they are playing a game of cat-and-mouse in order to justify keeping their military in Afghanistan…

“What is important for the world is not whether the president is black or white, but what his ideas and his actions are. You cannot eat symbolism, and for us [U.S. President] Obama will only become a symbol of an unjust policy of war and domination if he continues down the path he has chosen to follow.”

“I believe only the people in the United States and other countries, once they understand their responsibility, can change this situation.…”


People unbowed

Afghans are more than just a handful of warlords, Taliban, drug lords, and lackeys. I have a country full of people who know what I know and believe what I believe, Joya writes.

That we Afghans can govern ourselves without foreign interference

That democracy is possible here but can never be imposed at gunpoint


That the blood of millions of freedom-loving martyrs runs through our veins, and their memories live on in every corner of our country


That Afghan women have been at the forefront of our struggle throughout our proud history [and] they inspire us to pick up the flag and carry on the struggle for justice and freedom.


It is a battle we will never surrender.”

“With the help of peace-loving people around the world, I know that the Afghan women and men are ready to do their part to stop this cycle of misery and build a better future. The ‘war on terror’ is a dead end for the people in the Middle East, in Central Asia, and in the West. Only a great, united movement of people can put an end to this foolish policy.”

“Our enemies can cut down the flower, but nothing can stop the coming of the spring.…”

“Our fight for independence has gone on for centuries, and it will continue because it is a just and dignified struggle.”

“A river is made drop by drop. It is a long struggle but if we unite for justice and democracy, our people will be like a flood that no one can stop.


Social activist and politician Malalai Joya was born in Afghanistan’s remote Farah Province. She grew up in refugee camps in Iran and Pakistan and is the youngest person ever to be elected to the Afghan Parliament. She was suspended from that Parliament in 2007 for continuing to denounce warlords and their cronies in government. In that year, Joya received a nomination for the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.


Source
Her book A Woman among Warlords: The extraordinary story of an Afghan who dared to raise her voice (2009 with Derrick O'Keefe), excerpts from pages 196-210

WEEKEND NEWS

Afghanistan
Ten people died Saturday in Kandahar and more than a dozen suffered wounds in two separate attacks. Among the dead were police officers and civilians including a child [http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/09/201094161033100180.html].

Hundreds of Afghans have been unsuccessful in withdrawing money from the country’s largest bank, amid concerns that it could collapse. “The panic was sparked by reports that Kabul Bank has lent millions of dollars to members of the political elite, who used the money to make risky investments”  [http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/09/20109592512818877.html].

Neighboring Pakistan
Sixty-five people died after a suicide bomb exploded in a Shia Muslim procession Friday in the Pakistani city of Quetta. More than 150 people suffered wounds. In the past three years, more than 3,660 people have died as a result of “a series of suicide attacks and bomb explosions, many of them carried out by the Taliban and other al-Qaeda-linked fighters”  [http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/09/2010948413333315.html]

U.S. BREACH unleashed British oil

Re-reporting, excerpting, editing, commentary by Carolyn Bennett  

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America [Preamble to the U.S. Constitution].

Taking the oath of office, U.S. Government Officials swear to uphold the Constitution and, failing that, they stand in breach of this Constitution. A report today in the New York Daily News illustrates that the U.S. Government and a long line of government officials are in continuing breach of their oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America. 

U.S.-BP is the case in point. British Petroleum “suffered the most spills” of any oil company in the period 2000 to 2010, Juan Gonzalez reports, and the U.S. government knew about it. “Federal records show BP reported 23 significant oil spills” in this period; two of them within weeks of each other in 2003. Involved was “the same Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that was destroyed in the April 21” catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico.

• January 19, 2000: 2,400 barrels of 60 percent synthetic-based drilling mud [with approximately 60,000 gallons of oil] leaked into the Gulf of Mexico.
• May 21, 2003: 2,450 barrels of 58 percent Accolade synthetic-based drilling mud (SBM) spilled at Mississippi Canyon 778 containing approximately 1,421 barrels (59,000 gallons) of Accolade synthetic base oil.
• June 30, 2003: 944 barrels (est.) of Nova Plus synthetic base oil were spilled into the sea.
• August 3, 2003: 143 barrels (est.) spilled after the boost line leaked because of a rupture in the boost hose and several worn places along the hose

Between 2000 and 2009 “there have been thousands of spills,” Gonzalez quoted the head of Toxics Targeting in Ithaca, N.Y, a company that tracks and analyzes federal hazardous spill reports.

 “Spills mounted,” Gonzalez, and “no one paid attention. Now the big one has come and nothing can hide the gushing hole at the bottom of the sea” [“Devastating BP oil spill was inevitable as government failed to learn from past tragedies” (Juan Gonzalez – News), June 11, 2010, http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/06/11/2010-06-11_previous_oil_spills_taught_them_zilch.html]

Today on the Democracy Now program, Juan Gonzalez talked about the current Gulf of Mexico catastrophe and his reporting for the New York Daily News story.

“New government estimates have found the BP oil spill may be spewing twice as much oil into the Gulf of Mexico as previously thought. On Thursday, the Flow Rate Technical Group released its new estimate of 25,000 to 30,000 barrels of oil a day based on information gathered last week, before BP installed a new capture device.

“Some scientists have warned that the flow rate sharply increased after BP last week cut the pipe known as the riser to install the new device. The current estimates from the government panel suggest that an amount equivalent to the Exxon Valdez disaster could be flowing into the Gulf of Mexico every eight to ten days. The new numbers were released shortly after a scientist on the Flow Rate Technical Group publicly warned that the oil might be spewing out at a rate of more than 100,000 barrels a day, a figure BP once called its worst-case scenario. …”

Based on the Toxics Targeting analysis, Gonzalez reported that in government databases over the past several decades “there had been literally thousands of spill reports in the Gulf of Mexico and they have been increasing dramatically ─ especially the significant spills ─ since the Bush administration…. BP has been the firm with the most spill reports, twenty-three in the last ten years…. The number of incidents clearly should have signaled to the government that the number of accidents was increasing ─ and that a big one was bound happen.”

In the clean up now being undertaken in the Gulf, Gonzalez commented, “many of the people working out there are getting sick as a result of the lack of safety provisions” and “BP [has hired former U.S. Vice President] Dick Cheney’s former spokesperson as their director of communications” [http://www.democracynow.org/2010/6/11/].

 In the entrenched earmark-making, broken U.S. governmental system where money and luxury buy legislation and policy (government officials), deregulation and blindness ─ governance in the interest of private for-profit and nonprofit corporations ─ the constitutional principle of providing for the common defense, promoting the general welfare, securing the blessings of liberty to ourselves, and our posterity is abandoned. A “more perfect union” where justice takes root, peace among the people is insured is a pipedream ─ a betrayal of public trust, a BREACH of the people’s law.