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Baghdad on the Bayou: Disaster Capitalism and the War on Equality

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"They found out that Blackwater was killing people. Blackwater was just in there eradicating. If you didn't make it past the checkpoint and got to the dome or the convention center, or the bridge, or whatever, you were fair game.

"They were claiming that they would deputize to confiscate guns. But they were told to shoot whenever they felt like it." (3)

"Everybody here knows that there are more than 1300 people dead. Everybody that actually got into the city and was trying to help, saw bodies floating, saw bullet wounds. The coroner knows what's going on, and he ain't talking. But he knows. Because I know for a fact from some other sources that he was saying to somebody, probably on a private level, that those bullet wounds were military or highly powerful wounds. [Our investigation noted the same reports from multiple, unrelated sources.]

Those were not 22 caliber pistols. Or 9-millimeter pistols. Let's face it; criminals want to save their lives too, in a situation like that. It's not some free-for-all. People are trying to get the hell out of there."

Mass[ive] Media Cover-Up


"The way it was portrayed [by media] was totally wrong. And from what I hear from outside of this country, which really is embarrassing to me, is that our media doesn't touch the stuff. I did an interview with a guy and he was blown away every time he opens a new door, it's a whole other big story that nobody is covering. He said that this thing is like the ten-headed snake. You grab one head and the other one is ready to bite you.

"There is a story trying to go out on the Associated Press right now about oil and how that is why we're in the situation we're in right now, and the guy has submitted it, ready to go, and it's really a huge step, but it hasn't been out yet. This has been over a month that it's been submitted and it hasn't been out on the wire, so, is he gonna print it? That's a whole different thing. At least someone is willing to listen.

"This Katrina thing was handled as if it would have been Iraq. It was handled in a military way for resources, resources were the main focus, and the only difference is that the hurricane scattered people instead of bombs. There were people getting shot, there were bodies everywhere, there was destruction everywhere, and there's oil coming out of the ground like it never has before. Remind you of something else? The only difference is that we didn't have the equipment and the ability to fight back. We didn't have suicide bombers and the things that other people have.

"You get knocked out, and then you get killed. Look how easy this was to do. All the peoples' records were wiped out. Their city hall, their courthouses, their medical records, and their hospitals--all of that is gone. How easy is it to start taking people out at that point? That's the easiest thing in the world to be able to do.

"You hide it from the media, you keep the media focused on the [super] dome and the convention center, and you keep giving opinionated stories about what this picture is, and then you pull the wool over everybody's eyes. I don't know what we're doing outside of this country, but I know what I saw right here. This is a major, major step into a civil war. Starting right here. With these resources right here. We have the biggest port in the country, the most important port, the mouth of the river, it will always be that way, and we have the oil port which is the most important port in the country. We have 40% of the oil refining capabilities in the country, almost half of the refining is sitting right on top of us right here [Louisiana]"

CNN Non-Interview


"I was on CNN to promote the IMAX film Hurricane on the Bayou. The interviewer asked me this five-part question, and I didn't even finish answering the first part. Her question was longer than my answer. I didn't even get to start getting into it, and they cut me off. I didn't even talk about oil or anything. As soon as the cameras go out, I'm talking to someone at the local affiliate here, and they ask me "Is there anything down there we need to be knowing about?" and I was like yeah, we've got a [oil] rig in a neighborhood that was just blatantly in the wrong place. (4)

"It's a brand new neighborhood that's going up, and there's a brand new house being built, and then there's a [oil] rig right next to it. Right there in the middle of a neighborhood. This is an expansion of a neighborhood that already existed. It didn't look right. We couldn't fight it; they had police protection around it" we didn't know who these people were. There were unmarked cars sitting around this rig. We've never seen that before. You can usually walk right up to a rig and nobody is gonna stop you. [see photo taken in Houma,Terrebonne Parish]

"There was no signage on the rig or anything like that, and from what I was told it was a Chinese rig. (5)


(Image by Unknown Owner)   Details   DMCA


"I don't know if that meant China is drilling here or if it's a Chinese [oil] drill drilling with another company, but there were no signs. That's kind of unusual too. Usually when you see an oil company that has a rig up, they're gonna have signs all over the thing.

They're proud of their logos. The people around here were kind of blown away but couldn't do anything about it."


"Local government" there's no government in Louisiana. There is no such thing. As long as we have this much oil coming out of the ground, there is no such thing as government here. And it's been like that since we've had oil coming out of the ground. Since the Texas oil companies bought this whole coast. All of the swamps and marshes are owned by a Texas oil company. None of it belongs to anybody but them. That's why they can cut it up and do anything they want. It's their property. So when we're trying to fight to save this stuff, we're fighting to save their land. But their land is our coast and our protection. People don't understand all of this. People here are so focused on working in the oil field business, and making a living this way, that they're missing what's going on.

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Georgianne Nienaber is an investigative environmental and political writer. She lives in rural northern Minnesota and South Florida. Her articles have appeared in The Society of Professional Journalists' Online Quill Magazine, the Huffington (more...)
 

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