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For Immediate Release
September, 16 2010, 08:35am EDT
Contact:
Kate Hornyan (202) 265-7337
Lawsuit to Unravel Varying BP Spill Estimates
Paper Trail Explaining Starkly Different Leak Rate Numbers Yet to Surface
WASHINGTON
The Obama administration is hiding the memos and e-mails behind
official scientific assessments of the size of the massive BP oil spill
in the Gulf of Mexico, according to a lawsuit filed today by Public
Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Estimates of the
leak rate inexplicably rose five-fold amid reports that political
appointees sought to low ball the size of the spill.
The controversy concerns the National Incident Command's Flow
Rate Technical Group which, among other tasks, was charged with
developing an independent estimate of the amount of oil flowing from
BP's leaking oil well. Marcia McNutt, Director of the Interior
Department's U.S. Geological Survey, chaired the Technical Group. On
May 27 2010, Dr. McNutt issued a public statement that the "Best
Estimate" range of flow rates was between 12,000 to 19,000 barrels per
day (bpd) but she -
- Omitted the fact that these were minimum estimates
(deleting phrases such as "at least" and "range of lower bounds") and
did not mention completed estimates that were much higher.
Significantly, the Technical Group was supposed to look at worst-case,
catastrophic scenarios to help gauge needed resources and tactics for
spill response; - Withheld the actual technical report and instead released only a summary that she wrote; and
- Directed that none of the Technical Group documents was
subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and that group members
should not disclose any materials.
Ultimately, the oil leak rate has been measured in the new
well cap system to be 55,000 bpd, a daily flow rate that had diminished
over time, starting at about 62,000 bpd. These numbers were much higher
than the previously released figures - a disparity that has yet to be
explained.
On July 6, 2010, PEER requested the release of all of the
Technical Group papers, including directives from Dr. McNutt and other
Interior political appointees but virtually none of these materials has
been released. Today, PEER filed suit in federal district court in
Washington, D.C. claiming that hundreds of pages of reports and
communications are being withheld in violation of FOIA.
"This lawsuit will produce Exhibit A for the case that
science is still being manipulated under the current administration,"
stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, noting that promised
scientific integrity safeguards which would have prevented or exposed
political interference in this arena are still not in place more than a
year after the deadline imposed by President Obama. "Our concern is
that the administration took, and is still taking, steps to falsely
minimize public perception about the extent and severity of the BP spill
- a concern that the administration could start to dispel by releasing
these documents."
A similar controversy is brewing about the "Oil Budget"
released by the administration which estimates that 75% of the BP oil
spill has dissipated or been removed but the scientific methodology, let
alone the actual studies, behind this conclusion has yet to be
disclosed.
###
Read the PEER complaint
See the McNutt May 27 press statement
Note the delay in enacting promised scientific integrity policies
Look at the NOAA Oil Budget estimates
PEER protects public employees who protect our environment. We are a service organization for environmental and public health professionals, land managers, scientists, enforcement officers, and other civil servants dedicated to upholding environmental laws and values. We work with current and former federal, state, local, and tribal employees.
LATEST NEWS
'Here It Comes': Leaked Hegseth Memo Suggests More US Troops on US Streets
"The worst we've been waiting for," wrote one legal scholar in response to an internal DHS-DoD document reportedly authored by Philip Hegseth.
Aug 02, 2025
New reporting based on a leaked briefing memo from a recent meeting between high-level officials at the Department of Homeland Security and Defense Department sparked fresh warnings on Saturday about the Trump administration's internal plans to increase its domestic use of the U.S. military.
According to Greg Sargent of The New Republic, which obtained the memo, the document "suggests that Trump's use of the military for domestic law enforcement on immigration could soon get worse."
The "terrifying" memo—which the outlet recreated and published online with certain redactions that concealed operational and personnel details—"provides a glimpse into the thinking of top officials as they seek to involve the Defense Department more deeply in these domestic operations, and it has unnerved experts who believe it portends a frightening escalation."
Circulated internally among top Trump officials, TNR reports the memo was authored by Philip Hegseth, the younger brother of U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. The younger sibling, though lesser known by the public than his controversial brother, currently serves as a senior adviser to Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem and acts as DHS liaison officer to the Pentagon.
Text of the terrifying memo, written by Pete Hegseth’s little brother, with some redactions due to the agreement Sargent had with those he obtained it from. newrepublic.com/article/1986...
[image or embed]
— Rebecca Rauber (@defeatthefascists.bsky.social) August 2, 2025 at 9:17 AM
The meeting between DoD and DHS officials and the memo centers on Philip Hegseth's push for closer collaboration between the two departments, especially with regard to operations on the ground, like those that happened earlier this year in Los Angeles when National Guard units and later U.S. Marines were deployed in the city to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and local law enforcement put down local protests sparked by raids targeting immigrants and workers.
As Sargent noted in a social media post:
Strikingly, the memo says straightforwardly that what happened in Los Angeles is the sort of operation that may be necessary "for years to come." As one expert told me: "They see Los Angeles as a model to be replicated."
"To Make America Safe Again, DHS and DoD will need to be in lockstep with each other, and I hope today sets the scene for where our partnership is headed," states the memo, which also compares transnational criminal gangs and drug cartels to Al Qaeda.
Lindsay Cohn, an associate professor at the U.S. Naval War College, was among the experts TNR spoke with who called that comparison particularly worrying. "The conflation of a low-level threat like transnational criminal organizations with Al Qaeda, which was actually attempting to topple the United States government, is a clear attempt to use excessive force for a purpose normally handled by civil authorities," said Cohn.
Sociology professor Kim Lane Scheppele, a scholar who studies the rise of autocracy at Princeton University, was among those who raised alarm in response to the published reporting and the contents of the memo.
"Here it comes," wrote Kim Lane Scheppele. "The worst we've been waiting for."
According to TNR:
The memo outlines the itinerary for a July 21 meeting between senior DHS and Pentagon officials, with the goal of better coordinating the agencies' activities in "defense of the homeland." It details goals that Philip Hegseth hopes to accomplish in the meeting and outlines points he wants DHS officials to impress on Pentagon attendees.
Participants listed comprise the very top levels of both agencies, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and several of his top advisers, Joint Chiefs chairman Dan Caine, and NORTHCOM Commander Gregory Guillot. Staff include Phil Hegseth and acting ICE commissioner Todd Lyons.
"Due to the sensitive nature of the meeting, minimal written policy or background information can be provided in this briefing memo," the memo says.
Joseph Nunn, counsel for the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, told TNR it was "disturbing to see DHS officials pressuring the U.S. military to turn its focus inward even further." Nunn added that the memo suggests that "military involvement in domestic civilian law enforcement" is set to become "more common" if the policy recommendations put forth by Phillip Hegseth take hold.
Following publication of his reporting, Sargent said he wanted to flag something specific for readers.
"It looks plausible that the Hegseth brothers are trying to push military leaders further on involving military in domestic law enforcement," he noted. "Two experts I spoke with read the memo that way. There may be a bigger story here to get."
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Top UNICEF Official Says Gaza Children 'Being Starved' by Israel
"This simply should not be happening. The children I met are not victims of a natural disaster."
Aug 02, 2025
The deputy director of UNICEF returned from his most recent trip to the Gaza Strip this week and has issued a fresh warning to the world that immediate and forceful action must be taken to end the suffering that is being imposed by Israel on the children who live in the war-torn enclave that now teeters on the edge of full-blown famine as bombs continue to be dropped, nowhere is safe, and kids are dying at a rate of more than two dozen every single day.
UNICEF deputy director Ted Chaiban said in a Friday statement that he had just completed his fourth in-person visit to Gaza since the war that began "after the horrors of October 7th," but that there was no preparing for what he witnessed in recent days.
"You see the images on the news, and you know what has happened, but it is still shocking when you are there," he said. "The marks of deep suffering and hunger were visible on the faces of families and children. Over 18,000 children have been killed in Gaza since the beginning of the war. That's an average of 28 children a day, the size of a classroom, gone. Children have lost loved ones, they are hungry and scared, and they are traumatized."
Calling the conditions that Israel has created on the ground in Gaza "inhumane," Mr. Chaiban demanded a sustained ceasefire and a political way forward. He also detailed how the United Nations has now identified two indicators showing that Gaza has "exceeded the famine threshold," and that the occupied territory "faces grave risk of famine" due to the ongoing Israeli blockade that prevents humanitarian aid to reach Palestinians, even as the number of documented deaths from acute starvation continue to mount and the killings of people trying to reach aid distribution points continues to climb.
"This simply should not be happening. The children I met are not victims of a natural disaster," Chaiban said Friday of the young Palestinians, critically malnourished, he met during his visit to Gaza in the preceding days. "They are being starved, bombed, and displaced."
Aid organizations as well as Palestinians living in Gaza are describing horrific scenes as the famine conditions grip the population and the suffering of children escalates from a situation that has been described as "hell on earth" for well over a year.
"All my children have lost nearly half of their body weight," Jamil Mughari, a 38-year-old from Maghazi in central Gaza, told the Guardian in an interview published Saturday. "My daughter, who is five years old, now weighs only 11kg. My son Mohammad has become just skin and bones. All my children are like this."
"I myself used to weigh 85kg," Mughari explained, "and now I'm down to 55."
Rejecting the misguided suggestion that airdrops should be part of the solution to the starvation crisis in Gaza, Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), said Friday that a large number of trucks, alongside the return of experts in the distribution of humanitarian aid, is the best solution.
"As the people of Gaza are starving to death, the only way to respond to the famine is to flood Gaza with assistance," said Lazzarini. "UNRWA, the largest UN agency on the ground, has 6,000 trucks loaded with aid stuck outside Gaza waiting for the green light to enter."
While UNICEF is helping some limited aid reach people in need, Chaiban said the trickle allowed by Israel is nowhere close to what's needed to save lives and that efforts to change the policies have been rebuffed, even as "children are dying at an unprecedented rate" with no end in sight.
"We are at a crossroads," he said, after calling for the entry of at least 500 trucks per day to deliver life-saving supplies. "The choices made now will determine whether tens of thousands of children live or die. We know what must be done and what can be done."
Amidst the carnage and growing global outrage over Israel's genoce in Gaza, critics of the U.S. backing of the underlying policies continue to acknowledge and decry the shameful complicity of the Trump administration, members of Congress, and influential media outlets who offer material support and political cover to the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"The debate over whether or not Gaza is a genocide is, effectively, over. So can we now also stop pretending that we are mere bystanders to this genocide? That our sin is one only of omission rather than commission?" asked Zeteo founder Mehdi Hasan in a Guardian op-ed on Saturday.
"The inconvenient truth is that the U.S. has not just looked the other way, as tens of thousands of Palestinians have been besieged and bombed, starved and slaughtered, but helped Israel pull the trigger," argued Hasan. "We have been complicit in this genocide, which is itself a crime under article III of the Genocide convention."
On Friday, as Common Dreams reported, Human Rights Watch issued a new report on the starvation in Gaza and said it was "indefensible" for the U.S. government to continue its backing of Israel.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who led another failed effort this week in the U.S. Senate to block further military support of Israel, struck a similiar tone in the Boston Globe on Friday when he wrote that most Americans, according to recent polling, oppose what's taking place in Gaza.
"At a time when Israeli soldiers are routinely shooting civilians trying to get food, when Gaza faces mass starvation, and when extremist settlers terrorize Palestinians in the West Bank, the United States should not provide more weapons to enable these atrocities," Sanders wrote.
"Americans want this to end. They do not want to be complicit in an unfolding famine and daily massacres. Congress has the power to act—to use our leverage of billions in military aid to demand Israel end this slaughter," he added. "History will condemn those who fail to do so."
Sparing neither the current nor former U.S. administrations in his remarks, Hasan said that the history books will remember where people stood and when.
"To the Biden and Trump administrations, to Democrats and Republicans in Congress, to the US media, I say this: history will judge you," Hasan wrote. "For the bombs you sent, the votes you cast, the lies you told. This will be your shameful legacy when the dust finally settles in Gaza, when all of the bodies have been pulled from the rubble. Not defending your ally or fighting terrorism, but non-stop complicity in a genocide; aiding and abetting the crime of crimes."
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'Authoritarian Horrors' of Trump Dealt Blow by Federal Appeals Court
The 9th Circuit upholds lower court ruling against ICE raids denounced as 'unconstitutional' by legal plaintiffs in California.
Aug 02, 2025
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit late Friday backed a lower court ruling which found immigration raids targeting people based on their apparent racial identity, language spoken, or vicinity of their capture are unlawful—a decision which dealt a further blow to President Donald Trump's authoritarian policies aimed at migrant workers and working-class communities in California and beyond.
In its ruling, the 3-judge panel of the federal court upheld a previous ruling by a U.S. District Court in early July which found the targeting of migrants during the raids was based not on suspicion of wrongdoing or criminal activity of any kind, but simply for speaking Spanish, appearing to be a certain ethnicity, or being near a location where certain workers tend to congregate, such as a bus stop, large hardware store, or agriculture site.
The ruling stems from a case brought against the Trump administration by the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, Public Counsel, workers, and others who argue the raids, which have touched off community anger and unease for months, are, in the words of Public Counsel's senior attorney Mark Rosenbaum, "unconstitutional, unsupported by evidence, and rooted in fear and harmful stereotypes, not public safety."
The 9th Circuit ruling means the lower court's ban on such raids in certain areas of southern California will remain in place while the case proceeds.
"Every person, regardless of immigration status, has the right to live, work, and belong in their community without being hunted, harassed, or locked away." —Lindsay Toczylowski, Immigrant Defenders Law Center
As the New York Times notes, the latest ruling leaves the Trump administration with two legal options. "It can ask all the active Ninth Circuit judges to reconsider the panel’s Friday night decision," the newspaper notes, "or it could ask the Supreme Court to issue a stay of [the lower court order issued on July 7.]"
In the meantime—though the legal battle is far from over—the plaintiffs in the case celebrated the ruling and vowed to continue their fight against Trump's far-right, anti-immigrant agenda.
"This decision is further confirmation that the administration's paramilitary invasion of Los Angeles violated the Constitution and caused irreparable injury across the region," said Mohammad Tajsar, senior staff attorney at the ACLU Foundation of Southern California. "We look forward to holding the federal government accountable for these authoritarian horrors it unleashed in Southern California, and we invite every person of conscience to join us in defending the integrity and freedom of communities of color across the country."
Lindsay Toczylowski, president and CEO of Immigrant Defenders Law Center, another party to the suit, also heralded the ruling.
"This decision reaffirms that nobody is above the law—not even the federal government," said Toczylowski. "Southern California was never going to back down in the face of lawless attacks on our immigrant communities. Every person, regardless of immigration status, has the right to live, work, and belong in their community without being hunted, harassed, or locked away. While we celebrate this hard-fought victory, we remain relentless in protecting our clients in the courtroom and beyond."
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