[uNkNowN ElEmEnt]

September 11, 2006 by Greg Palast

It's true. It's weird. It's nuts. The Department of Homeland Security, after a five-year hunt for Osama, has finally brought charges against . Greg Palast. I kid you not. Send your cakes with files to the Air America wing at Guantanamo.

Though not just yet. Fatherland Security has informed me that television producer Matt Pascarella and I have been charged with unauthorized filming of a "critical national security structure" in Louisiana.

On August 22, for LinkTV and Democracy Now! we videotaped the thousands of Katrina evacuees still held behind a barbed wire in a trailer park encampment a hundred miles from New Orleans. It's been a year since the hurricane and 73,000 POW's (Prisoners of W) are still in this aluminum ghetto in the middle of nowhere. One resident, Pamela Lewis said, "It is a prison set-up" -- except there are no home furloughs for these inmates because they no longer have homes.

To give a sense of the full flavor and smell of the place, we wanted to show that this human parking lot, with kids and elderly, is nearly adjacent to the Exxon Oil refinery, the nation's second largest, a chemical-belching behemoth.

So we filmed it. Without Big Brother's authorization. Uh, oh. Apparently, the broadcast of these stinking smokestacks tipped off Osama that, if his assassins pose as poor Black folk, they can get a cramped Airstream right next to a "critical infrastructure" asset.

So now Matt and I have a "criminal complaint" lodged against us with the feds.

The positive side for me as a journalist is that I get to see our terror-busters in action. I should note that it took the Maxwell Smarts at Homeland Security a full two weeks to hunt us down.

Frankly, we were a bit scared that, given the charges, we wouldn't be allowed on a plane into New York last night. But what scared us more is that we were allowed on the plane.

Once I was traced, I had a bit of an other-worldly conversation with my would-be captors. Detective Frank Pananepinto of Homeland Security told us, "This is a 'Critical Infrastructure' . and they get nervous about unauthorized filming of their property.

Well, me too, Detective. In fact, I'm very nervous that this potential chemical blast-site can be mapped in extreme detail at this Google Map location

What also makes me nervous is that the Bush Terror Terriers have kindly indicated on the Internet that this unprotected critical infrastructure can be targeted -- I mean located -- at 30º 29' 11" N Latitude and 91º 11' 39" W Longitude.

After I assured Detective Pananepinto, "I can swear to you that I'm not part of Al Qaeda," he confirmed that, "Louisiana is still part of the United States," subject to the first amendment and he was therefore required to divulge my accuser.

Not surprisingly, it was Exxon Corporation, one of a handful of companies not in love with my investigations.

So I rang America's top petroleum pusher-men and asked their media relations honcho in Houston, Marc Boudreaux, a simple question. "Do you want us to go to jail or not? Is it Exxon's position that reporters should go to jail?" Because, all my dumb-ass jokes aside, that is what's at stake. And Exxon knew we were journalists because we showed our press credential to the Exxon guards at the refinery entrance.

The Exxon man was coy: "Well, we'll see what we can find out.. Obviously it's important to national security that we have supplies from that refinery in the event of an emergency."

Really? According to the documents our team uncovered from the offices of Exxon's lawyer, Mr. James Baker, the oil industry is more than happy to see a limit on worldwide crude production. Indeed, the current squeeze has jacked the price of oil from $24 a barrel to $64 and refined products have jumped yet higher -- resulting in a record-busting profit for Exxon of nearly $1 billion per week.

So this silly "criminal complaint" has nothing to do with stopping Al Qaeda or keeping the oil flowing. It has everything to do with obstructing news reports in a way that no one would have dared attempt before the September 11 attack.

Dectective Pananepinto, in justifying our impending bust, said, "If you remember, a lot of people were killed on 9/11."

Yes, Detective, I remember that very well: my office was in the World Trade Center. Lucky for me, I was out of town that day. It was not a lucky day for 3,000 others.

Yes, I remember "a lot" of people were killed. So I have this suggestion, Detective -- and you can pass it on to Mr. Bush: Go and find the people who killed them.

It's been five years and the Bush regime has not done that. Instead, the War on Terror is reduced to taking off our shoes in airports, hoping we can bomb Muslims into loving America and chasing journalists around the bayou. Meanwhile, King Abdullah, the Gambino of oil, whose princelings funded the murderers, gets a free ride in the President's golf cart at the Crawford ranch.

I guess I shouldn't complain. After all, Matt and I look pretty good in orange.

*******
A personal request to readers. Many have written to ask what can be done to protect Matt and me from becoming unwilling guests of the State.

First, this ain't no foolin' around: Matt and I are facing these nutty charges. So spread the info. We believe that getting the word out is the best defense.

Second, call Homeland Security and turn us in. They seem to have trouble finding us. If you get a reward, you may choose to donate it to the Palast Investigative Fund, a 501(c)(3) educational foundation which supports our work and pays our legal fees.

Third, ask your local library to order our book, Armed Madhouse: Who's Afraid of Osama Wolf? Homeland Security now reserves the right to read over your shoulder at the library; therefore, the more our agents are forced to read this subversive material, the more likely we can convince them to come in out of the cold. All kidding aside, we do ask you to request your library order the book: not everyone can afford to purchase this hardbound edition.

Our thanks to Amy Goodman at Democracy Now! and the folks at LinkTV for broadcasting our report from New Orleans and the Exxon refinery. And to Gil Noble, host of the ABC Television's Like It Is, our Courage in Journalism award for broadcasting our report on his network's New York affiliate. Catch Gil on WABC every Sunday at noon.

In response to a deluge of requests for a copy of the New Orleans documentary, we are preparing a DVD which you may order at http://www.gregpalast.com/premiums.htm You may change your email address or unsubscribe from the newsletter member page. (If you don't have a password for the member page, you can have one sent to you.)
The Path to 9/11 Karl Rove is a Traitor

[The_Toecutter]

Greg Palast has it wrong. Far from contrived, peak oil is a very real problem due to geological limitations. But he is right about one thing: the oil industry does want production limited and to decline. But it will do that naturally. The price for oil as demand increases is going up much higher proportionally than the cost to extract/refine/deliver/sell that oil. Guess where profits go? The worse the peak oil crisis is, the higher the oil prices will go, the more profit will be generated.

This is why companies like Exxon have fought alternatives to oil. If we and other countries no longer need as much oil and other resources to retain the same living standard, to make the same products, or do many of the same things as we do today, then oil demand and sales could actually drop well below today's production rate even given limits to Jevon's Paradox(eg. triple the efficiency of cars, and Americans will not drive 40k miles a year due to the time that would wasted in a car). Why? Oil wouldn't be wanted near as much. Oil would be back down to a price that achieves cost parity with suppressed but cheaper alternatives. And given that such alternatives have benefits that oil cannot achieve, they would end up seeing more use.

We are unequivocally better off conserving our precious resources.

Like any other Fortune 500 corporation, Exxon seeks to maximize profit. It does not care what effects its actions have on society at large. All things considered, Exxon and other oil companies would rather there be oil wars, ecocide, starvation, and a post-peak dieoff, than to see their profit margins decline. This is evidenced by oil industry actions throught history, and their use of terrorist tactics and government manipulation to gain control of the resources they desire, whether it be Iran in the 1950s, Nigeria in the 1970s, or Iraq in the 1990s/2000s.

The actions against Greg Palast reveal a pathetic but very real conflict. The conflict of interest is between civil liberties and corporate profit. The former is being sacrificed to maximize the latter.

There is a word for politicians and individuals who trample upon the Constituional Rights of other Americans and defy the Supreme Law of the Land. There is a word for these people that we all understand.

Traitors.

If Greg Palast weren't afraid to die, I'd recommend that he refuse to acknowledge the law outright, and attempt to kill anyone who may make an arrest attempt on him and point a gun in his face in effort to make him comply. This would likely result in his death, but there is still the unlikely chance that it would not, providing plenty of motivation not to fuck up.

But then again, Greg Palast is a better man than I. He probably wouldn't bring his own conscience to justify such an action. But as Jack and others here know, everyone at least has that capacity. It's part of being a human, and not one iota any greater or lesser of a being.

But as our Founding Fathers understood, freedom is never free. When men with guns want to take your freedom from you, the most effective way to retain it is to shoot them. History has proven this many times over, with but a handful of notable and inspiring exceptions.

Those running Exxon Mobil, Chevron-Texaco, BP, Amaco, Standard, and those politicians of 1st world nations are a threat to humanity and this planet far worse than any who they deem as a terrorist. Big government and big business, acting together to achieve the same end: maximizing growth, maximizing spending, maximizing taxes, and maximizing profit. All this comes at the expense of the freedoms many of us hold dear and at the expense of our future welfare given the very threat peak oil poses to us. The civil rights and economic freedom of the majority are being sacrificed to enhance the wealth of and provide security to a powerful and extremely wealthy minority.

It's just another wealth redistribution scheme, from bottom to top. Our founding fathers would hang, draw, and quarter those in our government that allowed this very Homeland Security Department to take form for treason.

[NEOPO]

Yes!!!

We need more Journalist like Greg yet he indeed has it wrong on PO and I cannot support him because PO and the ramifications thereof are very important IMO.

If it all were just a simple conspiracy to drive the price up...if only.
Sweet PO dreams are made of this.

If the MSM served this country as they should - this would be headline news.

Well mr cutter - they have not yet managed to weed us all out I see

[The_Toecutter]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')ell mr cutter - they have not yet managed to weed us all out I see

[rogerhb]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('NEOPO', 'I')f the MSM served this country as they should

[Free]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('rogerhb', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('NEOPO', 'I')f the MSM served this country as they should

[NEOPO]

I dont buy it free.
A hard line stance is all.

The hard line works for a while but it never sustains and is ultimately rebelled against - try again.

If the last 2 election's were stolen - do we the american people deserve the government that we have because we "knew" yet could not prove the theft and then in turn did not go about laying seige to the state and laying down our lives for liberty.

Now - consider that one can raise some hell - here and elsewhere or........... well, we have your position - we/i/they somehow DESERVE what we are getting.............

you always get what you deserve so any dissent is a waste of time???
Now that don't sound very fucking patriotic now do it!!

You are not FREE!!!
Nothing is free!!!

I sense alot of frustration in these forums and in turn very little logic.

[The_Toecutter]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')nd why is that? Because of the consumers, the citizens. Because of us.

Nowhere else is the blame to lay. Every country gets the government it deserves, and every consumer-drone the media he deserves.