As Karl Burkart at Mother Nature Network says, if Anderson Cooper is ticked off, something must really be wrong. COOPER: There is this yellow l
June 11, 2010

As Karl Burkart at Mother Nature Network says, if Anderson Cooper is ticked off, something must really be wrong.

COOPER: There is this yellow line up there. And they literally will not get you within 20 to 30 feet, where you can actually get a picture of an oiled bird being brought in.

Why? They say they don't want to upset the birds, and they don't want to interfere with workers. But, I mean, I can assure you, one cameraman is a trained professional at CNN, and they're not going to interfere with workers.

As -- as for BP, they have promised transparency on a number of occasions. Most recently was a letter that we just obtained yesterday. It was actually sent out a couple days ago. And, in the letter -- it is from BP Doug -- COO Doug Suttles -- they say -- quote -- "BP has not and will not prevent anyone working in the cleanup operation from sharing his or her own experiences or opinions with the media."

That's from, as I said, BP's Doug Suttles to company employees and contractors. Now, the "has not" part, that they haven't done this, is patently false. I mean, that's a rewriting of history. Many reporters from many news organizations over many weeks have been blocked and stiff-armed and given the silent treatment or told flat- out, BP said we would lose our jobs if we talked.

And this isn't just one news organization. This has been going on for weeks. As for the "will" not part, that they're not going to prevent anyone from cooperating with the media, well, maybe not everyone has gotten the memo. We put it to the test today.

Karl's post suggests this goes beyond the possibility of simply covering for BP, though. While he's not revealing specifics, he refers to a text message he received from a friend in the cleanup zone:

At first I thought it was because the government was somehow backing for BP, supporting them in their attempt to keep the story from getting out of hand. Now I’m not so sure...

This afternoon I received a text message sent on a borrowed phone from someone who had recently returned form [sic] the cleanup operation. The contents of that message were so mind-numbingly horrific that I cannot publish them here.

I am earnestly attempting to confirm what I was told, and I will be tweeting about my findings on @greendig. If true, it would explain WHY the government won’t let even the New York Times fly over the original site of Deepwater Horizon. And it would also explain why Obama has done a 180 on his policy of government transparency, risking his entire political career by deceiving the American people.

Now Karl is a pretty level-headed blogger. He doesn't routinely don a tinfoil hat and start writing about undisclosed text messages that appear to be harbingers of doom, or worse. So I'm inclined to take him seriously, and am watching to see if he receives confirmation of what he suspects.

All I can say is this: I hope whatever it is that has him so concerned isn't related to that munitions dump due west of the Deepwater Horizon. Because it would explain a lot, if it does.

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