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| Ballet at Sea? Who does BP think it is kidding? Posted: 18 Jun 2010 08:10 AM PDT  Much of BP's s-called "charm offensive" (e.g. attempts to spin the Deepwater Horizon disaster as less than catastrophic) is already well known. The shameless attempts to minimize size of the spill, the ridiculous commercials, the attempts to prevent reporters from informing the public about the horrendous effects the oil is having on wildlife (warning—very upsetting video) and beaches, the dead sperm whale found not far from the spill, not to mention the 11 oil workers who lost their lives, all show a company more focused on minimizing liability exposure than on minimizing the harms that flow (no pun intended) from its actions.But, even with all that evidence that BP's crisis management cares more about damage control than on transparency, this "Report from the Gulf" on BP's website made  my jaw drop. I am all for finding the beauty in the everyday, but who do they think they're kidding??? Oil skimming is dirty, polluted work that puts the health of the clean up workers, whom BP at first didn't even provide with protective gear, at risk, even as it barely makes a dent in the toxic soup they are spewing into the Gulf.A few days ago, the Representatives Henry A. Waxman (D-Cal.) and Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce sent BP a fourteen page letter detailing all of the multiple errors and poor choices that combined to create this disaster. Each one involved choosing to minimize costs by increasing risks. I have previously blogged about how the poor deregulatory choices the U.S. made over the last decade enabled BP to be so cavalier with the public good. (here, here and here). But, no amount of thinking about how this crisis occurred, or what lessons to learn from it could prepare me for the unmitigated gall of a company in full CYA mode. Hayward's testimony yesterday was more of the same. In case you missed it, here is a link to a Rachel Maddow segment where someone read the "report" aloud against a backdrop of what sea skimming actually looks like. p.s. This is a take that sums up the hypocrisy of BP's "manage the public" approach to crisis response.  |
| Posted: 18 Jun 2010 03:16 AM PDT  While some may view Obama's stance on administration leaks as aggressively hard-line, his approach of prosecuting officials responsible for disclosure of confidential information is relatively tame compared to the approach proposed at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia last week. The Cambodia Daily reports that, at a private meeting, international Co-Prosecutor Andrew Cayley warned that journalists who disclose confidential information from the ECCC risk criminal prosecution. That's right -- not court staff, but journalists could face prison time for publishing confidential information from the court. In addition, Cayley threatened contempt of court charges against journalists responsible for publishing confidential court documents. While there's no doubt that the problem of confidentiality is a serious one for the ECCC, with names of witnesses exposed on the Internet and prosecution allegations leaked to reporters, the prosecution of journalists seems both ineffective and contrary to the underlying purpose of the court -- to bring the rule of law and democracy to Cambodia.Cayley's threat appears to rest on quite broad language in the ECCC's rules authorizing the court to sanction "any person who discloses confidential information in violation of an  order of the Co-Investigating Judges or the Chambers." While punishing court officials and employees who reveal confidential information might in some cases be necessary to prevent leaks from the inside, the prosecution of journalists will neither stop these leaks nor serve the public interest.The dangers of authorizing such prosecutions are described well by Thierry Cruvellier, a French journalist who faced contempt proceedings at the hands of the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda after he revealed that a key prosecution witness was suspected of participating in the genocide. In his words, In democratic societies, journalists breach confidentiality measures and defy court orders when they believe the public interest outweighs the need for secrecy. And it is the job of journalists to find out information that some parties in a trial want kept secret.Yet prosecutors at the ICTR and now the ECCC seem to overlook both the crucial role of the Fourth Estate in a democracy and the central function of internationalized criminal courts in modeling democratic principles in countries struggling to transition to democracy. One can only hope that they remember these core democratic values at the ECCC, and soon.  |
| Posted: 18 Jun 2010 01:20 AM PDT (Taking context-optional note of thought-provoking quotes)
-- The 2004 Nobel Peace Prizewinner, Dr. Wangari Maathai (above left), in an op-ed, which she published yesterday in the Nairobi-based Daily Nation, reflecting on the work of the Kampala International Criminal Court Conference. (credit for photo by Martin Rowe)  |
| Posted: 18 Jun 2010 12:04 AM PDT  On this day in ...... 1429, the French defeated the English in the Battle of Patay, marking a turning point in the Hundred Years' War. The battle took place near Orléans in north central France. Though much of the fighting was complete before her arrival on the battlefield, credit for the victory traditionally has gone to Jeanne d'Arc (right), the 17-year-old military leader also known as Joan of Arc. (Prior June 18 posts are here, here, and here.)  |
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