Homeland Security damage control in the Gulf

July 2 : CNN : The US Coast Guard announced new rules keeping photographers, reporters and anyone else from coming within 65 feet of any response vessel or booms, out on the water or on beaches.
Violators could face a fine of $40,000 and class D felony charges. The coast guard tried to make the exclusion zone 300 feet before scaling it down to 65 feet."

July 3 : MSNBC : A photographer taking pictures of a BP refinery in Texas was detained by a BP security official, local police and a man who said he was from the Department of Homeland Security.

July 4 : Bloomberg : The US government is expected to take over control of the central information website on the Gulf oil spill response that has been run jointly by various agencies and BP for the 2 1/2 months since the rig explosion.
The Department of Homeland Security wants a one-stop shop for information that is completely overseen by the government as it settles into the long-haul of dealing with the response to the disaster. The U.S. Coast Guard falls under Homeland Security's authority.
The deepwaterhorizonresponse.com site may still be maintained during the changeover, but ultimately it will be taken down altogether when the government moves the response information to its own website."

July 6 : Washington Post : "In the 77 days since oil from the ruptured Deepwater Horizon began to gush into the Gulf of Mexico, BP has skimmed or burned about 60 percent of the amount it promised regulators it could remove in a single day.

In a March report that was not questioned by federal officials, BP said it had the capacity to skim and remove 491,721 barrels of oil each day in the event of a major spill.
As of Monday, with about 2 million barrels released into the gulf, the skimming operations that were touted as key to preventing environmental disaster have averaged less than 900 barrels a day.

On Monday, the joint operations center for the federal government and BP reported that more than 671,428 barrels of an oil-water mixture have been captured and stored.
About 90 percent of the mixture is water, so the true amount of oil skimmed is relatively small -- roughly 67,143 barrels of oil. Had the estimated amounts in the March response plan been accurate, 38 million barrels of oil could have been removed by now. "

Although the US House of Representatives voted 420 to 1 to give the presidential commission investigating the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico full subpoena power, the Republicans in the Senate have blocked it. There will be no real investigation.

The Coast Guard, under the auspices of Homeland Security, will announce this week the creation of an expert panel to conduct a "preparedness review" for Deepwater Horizon.
Minerals Management Services, the federal body charged with (not doing any) oversight, has changed its name to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement.

The Secrecy of the Harper regime

This shouldn't surprise anyone.

Four years after the Harper government came to power pledging sweeping improvements to Canada’s access laws, a new report warns that the right of Canadians to obtain federal documents is at risk of being “totally obliterated.”

The damning conclusion comes from interim access to information commissioner Suzanne Legault, who is waiting for the government to announce whether she – or someone else – will be appointed to a permanent, seven-year term.

Open, accountable government, run by a bunch of knee-jerking hillbillies with a hidden agenda.

This is NOT open and accountable government, Steve

The G&M reports this morning that access to information from the federal government since Harper took office has turned into a cold porridge.

It's taking more than a year for some Canadians to obtain government documents because the federal Information Commissioner isn't demanding swift action from departments bogged down in increasingly lengthy reviews, critics say.

Several recent requests under the Access to Information Act have been returned to applicants with a notice that they require a 240-day extension - a delay three times the previous average, making information outdated and often useless when it is released.

Users of the system say Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government has imposed so many layers of scrutiny that even the most benign material gets caught up in reviews for months, even years.

"The intent is to frustrate efforts ... and ultimately you're going to go away," said Michel Drapeau, a retired colonel and expert in access to information legislation.

We know that DND and the CF have imposed an additional layer of information blocking on the "access to information" system, but what's going on elsewhere?

The extensions are linked in part to additional checks by the Privy Council Office, which advises the prime minister and cabinet, and that now reviews most requests filed with the government.

Ah yes. The Privy Council Office... which visits TGB several times throughout the day. (Yes. We've noticed.)

That is a sign of outward paranoia. A government which is worried that something dirty will slip out and be used against them. The petulant little micro-manager wants to know what information you do get when you get it so he can cut you off at the pass... just in case you might use it against him.

And you can bet your bottom brass dollar that Sandra Buckler's little working group gets handed your Access To Information request if there is the slightest chance that anything in that request or the information associated with it might damage Harper's chance of locking down a majority government in the next election.

It's a part of the Conservative perpetual election campaign. Far from governing, the Harperites spend a majority of their time covering their own asses and that, in both the long and short run, is costing you.

Fire in the hole!

Yes, there are details surrounding military operations which should not be released into the public domain. They are known as Essential Elements of Friendly Information (EEFI). The primary consideration, particularly in the Afghanistan situation, is the security of the troops operating in that country.

Prisoners and the treatment of prisoners does not fall under that category in any way, shape or form. In fact, there is a requirement to transmit information through a third party identifying exactly who has been captured.

But then, it is contingent upon the Canadian Forces and the Minister of National Defence to brief this country specifying exactly what type of information is now being withheld and under what authority. And, when information would become available.

Nothing more or less works.

Because if you refuse to tell us anything, we can make up anything we want to and you can't call us wrong.

I'm can see there is at least one brigadier-general who remembers that little lesson from Staff College. I certainly do. It was the double-edged sword that was mentioned when you put a clamp on information.

Example. This was in the Globe and Mail article:

In early June of last year, Ms. Jansen voiced her concerns to Brigadier-General A.J. Howard about fully severing two items that were the subject of an information request. “We can't just apply a blanket exemption based on speculations,” she wrote.

Brig.-Gen. Howard replied: “I will not address this any further by e-mail… If you would like to drop by my office so I can explain all of this to your satisfaction I would be happy for you to do so.

“My advice – tread carefully on both of these matters – there are very serious diplomatic and allied issues at stake here.”

It is unclear what the two items are – in the documents obtained by The Globe, they are fully severed.

You see? Now we are allowed to speculate and neither the CF nor DND can fight back. We won't know with absolute certainty that we're correct, but neither can the CF deny anything speculative because they sever too much.

So, what the G&M should be looking at is whether they asked anything about actions involving Canadian troops and Afghan National Army units which resulted in an exchange of fire with each other.

Has that happened? According to the rumour mill, it has.