Environmental Espionage: Inside a Chemical Company's Louisiana Spy Op
Facing lawsuits and activist outcry following a massive chemical spill, Condea Vista called in Beckett Brown International's for-hire spies to infiltrate its opposition.
BBI's activities were brought to light by John Dodd, a Maryland businessman who invested in the company before learning of its covert practices. Earlier this year, Dodd opened his collection of company documents to Mother Jones. Those documents, contained in cardboard boxes piled high in a storage facility, trace the course of various investigations against activist groups. Throughout the files are references to something called the "Lake Charles Project," an effort by Condea Vista—then a subsidiary of the German petrochemical company RWE-DEA and now part of SASOL, the South African mining, chemical, and synfuels giant—to fend off protests and legal actions mounted in response to its pollution of the region. At the time, Condea was fighting civil suits by workers who had been sickened by leaks from the Lake Charles pipeline, as well as campaigns by local environmental activists. Condea and the crisis management firm it hired to mute the controversy, Nichols-Dezenhall, collectively paid BBI at least $200,000 for its services in Louisiana, according to billing records.
In addition to intelligence reports, client briefings, internal emails, and billing records laying out the Lake Charles Project, Mother Jones has also obtained video copies of depositions of two key players in the operation: Jay Bly and Tim Ward, the BBI operatives who oversaw intelligence gathering efforts on Condea opponents. The depositions, taken last fall by Lake Charles attorney Perry R. Sanders Jr., who is representing workers who say they were harmed during the cleanup of the spill (and who was not the source of the videos), will be entered in state court in Louisiana as part of an effort to force Condea Vista to come clean about what exactly it ordered the hired spooks to do.
Attorneys familiar with the litigation said that bringing Ward and Bly into the case—and potentially showing that Condea, through BBI, engaged in unsavory, if not illegal, surveillance practices—could influence a jury to set higher punitive damages.
The bulk of BBI's covert operations in the Lake Charles area took place in the middle to late 1990s, during trial preparations for a host of lawsuits brought by workers who had been exposed to high levels of ethylene dichloride (EDC), a solvent used in the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) industry that is a probable carcinogen and can also cause permanent damage to organs and the central nervous system. Since the mid-1980s, Condea had routed EDC through a pipeline, owned by the oil company Conoco, that stretched from Conoco's docks on the Calcasieu River in Westlake to Condea's chemical plant in Lake Charles. The lawsuits alleged that the chemical company was aware of the high risk of leaks from the deteriorating, 40-year-old pipeline, yet continued to use it to transport, and at times even store, the dangerous chemical.
While some of the litigation has since been settled, Sanders and his co-counsel continue to litigate cases brought by plaintiffs—500 of them—who say they were harmed as a result of the spill. Seeking damages for his clients, Sanders has charged Conoco, its former parent company Dupont, and SASOL with, among other things, "reckless disregard for the public safety and environment." An initial complaint filed in 2004 accuses Conoco specifically of "engaging in a corporate policy of destroying documents that would reveal the true extent of the spill and Conoco's culpability." Also named in suits filed by Sanders are R.W. Equipment Company and Anco Industries, companies hired to assist in the cleanup of the spill. (In a statement provided to Mother Jones, SASOL, which bought Condea Vista in 2001, said it had no comment on the litigation or the events surrounding BBI's Lake Charles operation, since it purchased the chemical manufacturer years after the spill occurred. A lawyer representing Conoco in the Lake Charles litigation did not return a call for comment.)
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Yet another example of the rightwing "free" market at work. Phooey!
These chemicals were used and are being used in crime:
WARNING!:
THE 'BLAME ISRAEL' AND USING SKINHEADS, CRIMINALS, MURDERERS, FAKE JEWS TO RUN ALL JEWISH TO DEATH AND OTHERS; LOOTING ISRAEL AND U.S. WHILE BRINGING AROUND 'ISLAMIC WARS' AS THE FRONT. AFTER ANOTHER 40 MILLION KILLED SENT TO ISRAEL AND ELSEWHERE UNDER THIS 'BIG LIE' (THOUGH NOT ONE WAS NOT INDICTED FOR FRAUD). Only increasing so far and crimes on ourselves, many died of cancers, illnesses, radiation, from labs, multipart crimes paid off, fake Jewish, brain diseases, fraudulent doctors, even from Iran from earlier 'deals'
Notice of Racketeering & Influence enmasse, along with nonstop ideological nonsense to get people to help.
The overall, world plans right now are 100% looting of Israel and running more crime through; bringing about 'Islamic wars' and then turning that back around after setting up new deals.
Victims:
http://journals.aol.com/suehon5
http://endorganizedcrimesuniverse.org
All real Israelite lines (from 1600, Wales, to 1920) being attacked, while having the Porn-Egyptian undergound/Demi/Baal Syndrome bring Islam as a front to 100% racketeering in every kind of fraud:
One out of millions:
Dr. Les Sachs -- Expert, exiled critic of USA (Inc.) corruptionDr Les Sachs is a gentle and peaceful writer whose freedom of speech has been .... And that goes triple for any crimes connected to the US judges and courts ...
www.adventuresinlegalland.com/index.php?/component/option,com_smf/Itemid... - 57k
Jewish 'conversions' are also being targeted.
Great article. Yet one more expose' that serves as a gross underscoring of the malevolent nature of our corporate world.
A book that I really like and recommend is Deceit and Denial -- The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution by Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner.
My favorite documentary would be Bill Moyer's one on the chemical industries coverups (I don't remember the exact title, right now). A couple of 10 minute clips can be found on YouTube at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn0z8FCkOLc
and
My fathers death was an indirect result of EDC exposure. Shame on Conoco!
EXCELLENT, WELL-RESEARCHED ARTICLE!
I AM THE "SENATOR JIM COX" REFERRED TO IN THE FIRST MEMO ATTACHMENT. WHAT STUMBLE-BUMS THESE SPOOKS ARE! IT IS NOT TRUE THAT I 'FUNDED CLEAN'S OPERATIONS FROM MY OWN POCKET OR FROM STATE FUNDS". HOWEVER I AM VERY PROUD THAT MY DAUGHTER, LAURA COX, WAS A WONDERFUL ORGANIZER FOR CLEAN AND GREENPEACE AND WAS LARGELY INSTRUMENTAL IN EXPOSING CONDEA VISTA'S PERFIDY IN COVERING UP THE SPILL OF MILLIONS OF POUNDS OF EDC (A DEADLY CHEMICAL, PROVEN TO CAUSE SEVERE RESPIRATORY PROBLEMS AND EVEN DEATH). Her then-husband, my son-in-law, Tom Filo, tried the case in which a local jury slapped vista with a $7 million punitive damage judgement.
THOSE MILLIONS OF POUNDS OF EDC REMAINS LARGELY UNREMEDIATED AND IT IS PROBABLE THAT LARGE AMOUNTS ARE ENTERING THE CHICOT AQUIFER, A MAJOR SOURCE OF WATER FOR SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA.
Excellent, well-researched reporting and a real eye-opener!
WHAT A BUNCH OF STUMBLE-BUMS THOSE SPOOKS HAVE PROVEN THEMSELVES TO BE!
I am the Senator Jim Cox referred to in the PDF document dated August 20, 19998 (click on the reference to the document in the second paragraph of page 3. While it is not true that I "funded CLEAN's operations from my own pocket or from state funds", I am proud to say that my daughter, Laura Cox, spearheaded Clean.s operations and did a wonderful job for Greenpeace, and was largely responsible for helping bring to light Condea Vista'/s cover-up of one of the largest industrial spills in our nation's history. Millions of pounds of EDC, a deadly chemical known to cause severe respiratory problems and even death, were leaked into the Calcasieu River estuary in Southwest Louisiana and remained largely unrecovered. As I write this, it is probable that this giant spill is continuing to work its way into the Chicot aquifer, from which the druinking water is obtained for SW Louisiana and Eastern Texas. Her then-husband and my son-0in-law, Tom Filo, slapped Condea Vista with a $7 million punitive damage judgement and after that hundreds of injured workers recovered more millions, but the tragedy continues.
What is all this about? What are you commenting on?
Above query is in response to Honaker
The information that you have given me was on point and very interesting. Thank you for the Article it helped me out in my Business Law Class. I would very much like to read your othter work in the near future.
Ecofasa turns waste to biodiesel using bacteria
Ecofasa turns waste to biodiesel using bacteria
A group of Spanish developers working for a company called Ecofasa just announced a new biofuel made up from trash. This isn't a biodiesel made from used frying oil; instead, it's made from general urban waste which is treated by bacteria. The result of that bacteria? Fatty acids that can be used to produce standard biodiesel. According to the company's CEO, the process is fully biologic, competes with no feedstock and is really sustainable. However, the process doesn't yield that much actual fuel: just one liter of biodiesel from 10 kg of trash. The project is now in a development phase, but Ecofasa said that a commercially viable model could be ready in three to four years.
http://www.biodieselmagazine.com/article.jsp?article_id=3225
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