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Similarly, on the issue of media access, BP insisted in an email (PDF) last week that the company "has not and will not prevent anyone working in the cleanup operation from sharing his or her own experiences or opinions." (Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles, who sent the email Wednesday, was responding to reports that the company was trying to block press access to Gulf workers and oil-soaked portions of the coast.)
But it appears that Suttles either has issues with the truth or has very little idea what's going on in his company.
Scott Walker, a reporter from NBC New Orleans affiliate WDSU, tried to interview cleanup workers on a public Grand Isle beach Friday, and even specifically cited Suttles' note — yet was blocked by someone who identified himself as an employee of "Talon Security." The employee claimed that Suttles' "email does not say, did not explicitly give you permission to do that." Here's video of an employee of a private company — not an official of the local, state or federal government — attempting to prevent Walker, a private citizen, from accessing certain areas of a public beach:
A Yahoo! search of companies named Talon Security yielded several firms under that name. Yahoo! News contacted many of them, but none has yet confirmed that it is providing security services for BP in south Louisiana.
Even more recently, reporter Bigad Shaban of CBS affiliate WWL in New Orleans accompanied U.S. David Vitter (R-La.) on a tour of spill-affected areas Monday. They stopped off at the Fort Jackson Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Buras, La., but Shaban and his cameraman were denied entry. Coast Guard officials told the men that their presence would "hurt" the wildlife being treated there. Vitter attempted to intervene, but according to Shaban's account of the incident on Shaban's Twitter feed, Coast Guard officials asked to speak to Vitter "in private." According to Shaban, Vitter commented, "I'm no wildlife expert, but that's BS."
Originally posted by David9176
the Thom Hartmann Program who is rated the #1 Progressive talk show host (yes you may not have heard of him)....
If Obama would grow a pair of balls and stand up to BP and seize their assets and nationalize them, it would scare the hell out of the entire corporate world. No one since JFK has had the balls to interfere with a corporation and since Obama's speech last night he has pretty much proven himself incompetent.