Jan 27, 2012
FOIA Friday: The Fracking New York Times - How Industry and the Government Reacted to an Expose
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FOIA FRIDAY |
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This week's document: Internal emails from the Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration responding to a New York Times article on fraking. Document dates: June and July, 2011 Every Friday, POGO will strive to make one document available that we or others have obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), especially documents that have not previously been posted online. Some of these documents will be more important than others, some may only be of historical interest— although relevance is in the eye of the beholder. POGO is doing this to highlight the importance of open government and FOIA throughout the year. |
By MIA STEINLE
In the aftermath of last summer’s damaging New York Times investigation into fracking—a method of shale gas drilling lauded by investors—industry and the Department of Energy (DOE) went into damage control mode.
Internal department emails obtained by POGO through the Freedom of Information Act give insight into how DOE’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) responded to the first story from Ian Urbina’s “Drilling Down” series for The Times. The story itself helped bring the fracking debate into the public consciousness, by making public internal industry emails and DOE documents, which showed skepticism about fracking’s promises as early as 2009.
The EIA emails obtained by POGO show that agency employees were displeased with The Times investigation, which revealed, among other things, industry emails from 2009 comparing shale gas investments to Ponzi schemes. The Times noted that, just one year prior, residents of Fort Worth, Texas, were promised almost $28,000 per acre for drilling leases—but many never received such high royalty checks.
The emails also show that employees from the fracking industry—from investment banks, consulting firms and energy companies—and EIA employees emailed each other Urbina’s article and press releases, written by both EIA and industry employees, that were critical of the article.
One EIA economist sent fellow agency employees a press release from natural gas producer Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK), which called The Times investigation “inaccurate” and “misleading.” The EIA economist wrote, “This is only my opinion, but I concur with CHK’s findings.” Another EIA employee forwarded the CHK press release to fellow employees, noting, “Here is a rebuttal from a company my nephew works at. Just for amusement.”
It’s no wonder industry hit back hard against Urbina’s story, considering how much they’re betting on fracking and the natural gas market. Another Urbina story also brought to light the dependence EIA has on industry data. As that story notes, EIA “relies on research from outside consultants with ties to the industry. And some of those consultants pull the data they supply to the government from energy company news releases.” So perhaps it shouldn’t come as any surprise some EIA employees, who’ve depended on industry for their view of fracking’s potential, might be taking industry’s side. And if industry indeed has made some rosy assumptions, this is troubling.
Six Americans Obama and Holder Charged Under the Espionage Act (and One Bonus Whistleblower)
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By DANA LIEBELSON
Though rare, U.S. presidents have attempted to use the World War I-era Espionage Act to silence Americans from leaking information to the media for decades. It is a charge that is as controversial, as it is grave. This is the law the Nixon administration infamously invoked when attempting to bar the media from continuing to publish the classified Pentagon Papers—the second largest leak of classified information to the press in the U.S., after Wikileaks. Nixon of course, was unsuccessful, and his shattered reputation never recovered.
But guess what? The Nixon Administration is small potatoes compared to the present. When it comes to wielding the “incomprehensible” Espionage Act to stop disclosures of classified information, one presidential administration has the rest beat by a mile: The Obama Administration. This Administration far outnumbers every previous one in prosecuting leaks of classified information to the media. The Department of Justice under Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder has used it more than all prior administrations combined.
Here are six cases where the Obama Administration charged an American with the Espionage Act—and one very similar case where a whistleblower underwent a criminal investigation for leaking information to the press. After perusing these, be sure to check out POGO’s Adam Zagorin’s piece for further analysis on Obama’s use of this contentious law.
Thomas DrakeDrake is a former senior executive at the National Security Agency, who was charged under the Act for allegedly retaining top-secret defense documents for the purpose of unauthorized disclosure. Drake’s defenders called him a whistleblower who was a key witness in a Defense Department Inspector General audit, first obtained by POGO, which found that the NSA spent $1.2 billion on a contract that was ineffective, when it could have done it in-house for $3 million. The espionage charges were ultimately dropped after public pressure for leniency, and Drake pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count for unauthorized use of a government computer. |
Shamai LeibowitzLeibowitz is a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen who worked as a translator for the FBI. He was tried under the Act and sentenced to 20 months in prison last year for leaking classified information to a blogger. He released the documents because he was concerned about the possibility of a “disastrous” Israeli strike on Iran. The blogger told The New York Times that Leibowitz is an “American patriot and whistleblower. |
Morning Smoke: Senate to Vote on Insider-Trading Bill
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MORNING SMOKE |
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Where there's smoke, there's fire. POGO's Morning Smoke is a collection of the freshest investigations, scoops, and opinions related to the world of government oversight. Have a story you'd like to see included? Contact POGO's blog editor |
Financial Oversight
Senate to Take Up Insider-Trading Bill
Peter Schroeder, The Hill
The Incredibly Shrinking Bill for TARP
Suzy Khimm, The Washington Post
How Allen Stanford Kept the SEC at Bay
Murray Waas, Reuters
Charlie Rose Talks to the SEC's Robert Khuzami
Charlie Rose, Businessweek
National Security
Panetta's Pentagon Shift Favors Subs, Bombers, Tankers
Tony Capaccio, Businessweek
Defense Spending Panel Says Sequestration Wouldn't Be Disastrous
Andrew Lapin, Government Executive
Defense Budget Plan Doesn't Cut as Deeply as Pentagon Says
Nancy A. Youssef, McClatchy
N.E. Lawmakers Voe to Flight Base Closing
Bryan Bender, Boston Globe
Nuclear Security
Loophole in Senate Bill May Create Nuclear Risks
Aaron Mehta, iWatch News
Contract Oversight
Security Contractors See Opportunities, and Limits, in Mexico
Nick Miroff and William Booth, The Washington Post
Public Health
FDA: Par Free Speech Lawsuit Is a Red Herring
Ed Silverman, Pharmalot
Government Accountability
Arlington Cemetery Disputes Reports, Says $12 Million Isn't Missing
Chrisitan Davenport, The Washington Post
Jan 26, 2012
Un-Do Influence: Fear the Facepalm!
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Ratings Guide 4 = Stupefying example of everything that's wrong with the system. 3 = Outrageous; shameless, even. 2 = Worthy of rebuke. 1 = Even if there's no conflict of interest, appearances matter. |
By JOE NEWMAN
From Wikipedia: A facepalm (sometimes also face-palm or face palm) is the physical gesture of placing one's hand flat across one's face or lowering one's face into one's hand or hands. The gesture is found in many cultures as a display of frustration, embarrassment, shock, or surprise.
Our facepalm ratings are intended to shine a light on the people who through their conflicts of interest, influence peddling and trips through the revolving door are doing their part to undermine our faith in government.
Study after study shows that well-financed lobbyists -- who are often major political fundraisers and contributors -- have a real impact on how our government officials and elected leaders make public policy. Likewise, people who move through the revolving door between government and industry have the type of insider access that gives them an unfair competitive advantage when it comes to influencing everything from how contracts are awarded to whether wrongdoing is investigated. Corporate lobbyists do more than advocate for or against legislation, often times, they actually write the bills or talking points that members of Congress use.
Consider our facepalm ratings a way to not only express our frustration with the system but a way to build some momentum for reform through our Un-Do Influence Campaign. Unfortunately, we don't expect to ever run out of deserving recipients.
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No Veiled Threats Here
You got to give Chris Dodd some credit. In this day of behind-the-scenes lobbying and the influence that goes along with campaign spending, the former U.S. senator gave us a candid look at how the game actually works in the nation's capital.
Dodd, now the head of the Motion Picture Association of America, didn't mince words when he vented to Fox News about the sudden and dramatic loss of congressional support for the Stop Online Piracy and Protect IP acts. Protests from millions of internet users helped derail the bills, handing the motion picture and recording indistries a devastating setback. Dodd was livid:
"Candidly, those who count on quote 'Hollywood' for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who's going to stand up for them when their job is at stake. Don't ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don't pay any attention to me when my job is at stake."
Talk about a civics lesson. Dodd straight up called out his former Democratic colleagues and told them to toe the line or they're apt to not only lose their invitations to the next George Clooney screening but also see an end to that Hollywood gravy train.
Continue reading "Un-Do Influence: Fear the Facepalm!" →
More DoD Investigations of Allegations of U.S. Contractor-Fueled Human Trafficking
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By NICK SCHWELLENBACH
It appears that Fiscal Year 2011 saw more Defense Department criminal investigations of alleged human trafficking by its contractor supply chain than in any one of the last five years, according to a Pentagon inspector general report publicly released today (it is dated January 17).
All three investigations involved or allegedly involved U.S. government contractors or subcontractors in Southwest Asia: Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan.
Here’s how the inspector general describes the three cases in its report:
- The U.S. Army investigated an allegation that Philippine women were being sold into sexual and domestic servitude for DoD contractor personnel at Ali Al Salem Air Base, Kuwait, and that their passports had been withheld, preventing them from leaving the country. The U.S. Army investigated allegations against an individual with no DoD or DoD-contractor affiliation, as well as three DoD contractor personnel. The investigators found sufficient evidence to support an allegation of Transnational Slavery (under the Kuwait Criminal Code) against the non-DoD individual, whose case was referred to and accepted by the Kuwait Criminal Investigation Division in September 2010. U.S. Army investigators determined that allegations against the three DoD contractor personnel were unfounded.
- The U.S. Air Force initiated an investigation on April 28, 2011, based upon information alleging that a subcontractor in Iraq was delaying the payment of salaries from its contracted drivers for a period of three to four months, withholding their passports, and coercing employees to sign employment contracts under threat of abandonment. On July 15, 2011, the information pertaining to human trafficking was passed to the office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation at the U.S. Embassy, in Baghdad, Iraq for investigation.
- The Defense Criminal Investigative Service had an open investigation of possible labor-related human trafficking violations by a sub-contractor in Afghanistan. As of December 2011, the investigation was ongoing.
In my testimony before Congress in November last year on whether government enforcement is lacking in this area, I summarized the public reporting of the DoD’s investigative activity of allegations of human trafficking by its contract workforce. According to publicly available Department of Justice (DOJ) reports on human trafficking enforcement, which summarize investigative activity across the federal government, there were no Defense Department investigations into trafficking in persons in 2006 and 2007. The section detailing the military’s efforts is altogether missing in the 2008 annual report. The Justice Department declined to comment on the missing section in its 2008 report when I asked the DOJ about this in 2010. In the 2009 report, the most recent available online (the report is dated July 2010), this section is also missing.
Morning Smoke: If an Autonomous Robot Makes a Mistake, Who's Accountable?
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MORNING SMOKE |
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Where there's smoke, there's fire. POGO's Morning Smoke is a collection of the freshest investigations, scoops, and opinions related to the world of government oversight. Have a story you'd like to see included? Contact POGO's blog editor |
National Security
New Drone has No Pilot Anywhere, So Who's Accountable?
W.J. Hennigan, Los Angeles Times
Lockheed F-35 Said to be Cut by 13 Planes in Pentagon's Budget
Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg
Panetta Jumps Into Budget Fray with Plan to Cut Billions in Military Spending
Jeremy Herb, The Hill
Puncturing the Hot Air Balloons on Defense Spending
R. Jeffrey Smith, iWatch News
Targeting Waste
Mark Thompson, Battleland
Whistleblower Issues
Oil Spill Cleanup Whistleblower Sues BP for Retaliation
Corporate Whistleblower Blog
Financial Oversight
Stanford Told 'Lie After Lie' to Investors, U.S. Prosecutor Says
Andrew Harris, Laurel Brubaker Calkins and Tom Schoenberg, Bloomberg
Merrill Lynch Fined $1 Million for Bonus Clawbacks
Ben Protess, The New York Times
Stanford Invented Offshore Bank's U.K. Insurer, Prosecutor Says
Andrew Harris and Laurel Brubaker Calkins, Bloomberg
Government Accountability
Arlington Cemetery Trying to Account for Missing $12 Million
Christian Davenport, The Washington Post
Public Health
Federal Regulators Have Failed to Act on Toxic Chemical, Report Says
Chris Hamby, iWatch News
Obama's Selective Sanctimony: Impunity for Torture, 30 Years in Prison for So-Called "Espionage"?
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| Photo of John Kiriakou by Troy Page |
By ADAM ZAGORIN
Torture! The Obama Administration is finally prosecuting someone in connection with torture! The only problem is that the case targets someone making a public disclosure about the problem, not a perpetrator of the act, or someone accused of covering it up. Torture is a crime under federal law.
The new case marks the Administration’s sixth national security leak prosecution, a total higher than any of its predecessors combined. The latest action seems to ignore last year’s Thomas Drake fiasco, in which an over-reaching Department of Justice (DOJ) tried to charge the National Security Administration whistleblower with espionage, only to be forced into plea-bargaining his supposed crimes down to a misdemeanor.
This time the target is John Kiriakou, a former CIA agent facing four felony counts, including espionage for allegedly revealing the identity of covert colleagues, and other offenses. Like Drake, whose multi-year case died with a whimper, Kiriakou faces more than 30 years in prison.
Drake and Kiriakou offer a study in contrast. A longtime Republican intent on exposing government waste, fraud and abuse, Drake is widely regarded as a whistleblower. The garrulous Kiriakou is another story.
Jan 25, 2012
Mr. President, America Needs a Penny-Pinching Patriot
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By BEN FREEMAN, Ph.D.
In the fight over the Pentagon budget the battle lines have been drawn. When President Obama releases the military budget later this week, proponents of fiscal responsibility and a leaner, meaner military will, once again, combat the defenders of Pentagon pork and overpaid defense contractors.
Buck McKeon (R-CA), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC), along with other Republicans on the HASC released a video arguing against defense cuts just hours before the President’s State of the Union address—which is just their latest assault on attempts, like those by Reps. Barney Frank (D-MA), Ed Markey (D-MA), and others, to rein in the bloated Pentagon budget.
But this isn’t a partisan spat. While Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, a Democratic political appointee, has been spouting hyperbolic “doomsday” rhetoric about Pentagon spending cuts, many Republicans have expressed an interest in reducing the Pentagon’s bloated budget, including Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI), who recommended reducing spending on service contracting, including military contractors, and Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), who has identified more than $1 trillion that can be cut from the Pentagon’s budget over the next ten years.
Continue reading "Mr. President, America Needs a Penny-Pinching Patriot" →
Vulnerable U.S. Nuclear Weapons Site Faces Allegations of Snoozing Security Guard
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Potential Pattern of Fatigue Among Wackenhut Nuclear Personnel
By MIA STEINLE
The security contractor for the Energy Department's Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee is investigating reports that one of its security guards was sleeping and had also been using an unauthorized cell phone while they were supposed to be guarding a sensitive nuclear facility with bomb-grade material.
Photos of the alleged incident were sent to Wackenhut Security Inc.'s (WSI) Oak Ridge unit, the Energy Department, and the Knoxville News Sentinel, which broke the story Tuesday.
The photos were allegedly taken inside Building 3019, which raises “the additional issue of who took photographs inside a high-security nuclear installation,” according to the News Sentinel. Building 3019 stores about a half-ton of uranium-233, which POGO Senior Investigator Peter Stockton said today in a statement is roughly the amount needed for 250 improvised nuclear detonations.
"Perhaps the most egregious part of all this is that the Energy Department is allowing Wackenhut to investigate the latest security lapse itself," Stockton said. "This is too important to leave up to Wackenhut."
WSI is commonly known as Wackenhut. In 2002, the Florida company was acquired by a Danish corporation and is now officially known in the U.S. as G4S Secure Solutions.
Wackenhut has a history of sleeping security guards. “It was Wackenhut that in 2007 initially denied that its guards at the Peach Bottom nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania were sleeping on the job—that is until the company was confronted with a video of the guards that was leaked to the media,” Stockton said. In the wake of that scandal, Wackenhut lost its contract with Exelon to manage security at ten nuclear power plants, according to a Washington Post article.
POGO called Oak Ridge National Laboratory a “high risk” as early as 2006 for its inadequate security, and also found that Wackenhut security guards at the nearby Y-12 National Security Complex were overworked to the point of severe fatigue.
Mia Steinle is a POGO investigator.
Report: Pay Czar Failed to Defeat Excessive Pay Packages for Bailed-Out Bank Execs
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By DANA LIEBELSON
Treasury officials tuned out the President and Congress's request to curtail excessive executive compensation in the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), and allowed seven floundering companies receiving huge bailouts to pay their executives millions of dollars, according to a report released yesterday by the TARP Special Inspector General (SIGTARP).
In 2008, it was revealed that certain companies were using taxpayer TARP funds to pay billions of dollars in bonuses to their executives. Frustrated with this practice, President Obama appointed a “Special Master”—also known as czar, (might as well just leap to Special Super Master Czar)—who was tasked with making sure that those companies that received “exceptional assistance” from TARP had to cap their salaries at $500,000, and submit higher compensation packages for approval.
But according to the SIGTARP report, Special Super Master Czar Kenneth Feinberg "could not effectively rein in excessive compensation at the seven companies because he was under the constraint that his most important goal was to get the companies to repay TARP."
Morning Smoke: Guard at High-Security Oak Ridge Facility Allegedly Slept on the Job
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Where there's smoke, there's fire. POGO's Morning Smoke is a collection of the freshest investigations, scoops, and opinions related to the world of government oversight. Have a story you'd like to see included? Contact POGO's blog editor |
National Security
Guard allegedly found asleep at Oak Ridge nuke facility
Frank Munger, Knox News
Adios Global Hawk, U-2 Will Stick Around
Defense Tech
Pentagon on track to meet 2017 deadline for full audit, experts say
Sean Reilly, Federal Times
Energy
Fired BP worker files whistleblower suit
David Hammer, The Times-Picayune
Finance
Obama Urges Tougher Laws on Financial Fraud
Edward Wyatt, The New York Times
OCC’s Walsh Warns of ‘Vast Over Reaction’ in Derivatives Regulation
Alan Zibel and Jamila Trindle, Real Time Economics
Revolving Door
The Washington-Wall Street Revolving Door Keeps Spinning
Bill Moyers and Michael Winship, The Huffington Post
Government Contracting
Another contractor charged in $20m Army kickback scheme
Scott McCaber, The Examiner
Jan 24, 2012
POGO and Allies Ask for Full Release of Key Camp Lejeune Contamination Info
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By DANA LIEBELSON
A few members of POGO were up bright and early this morning, waiting for the announcement of the Academy Award nominations. This may seem like unorthodox behavior for a bunch of wonks--but the moving documentary, Semper Fi: Always Faithful, which explores the catastrophic contamination at Camp Lejeune, was short-listed for a nomination--and we hoped this honor would bring attention to the pressing issue.
Sadly, the documentary didn’t make the Oscars' final cut—but POGO certainly hasn’t given up on helping the Marines and civilians who were sickened at Camp Lejeune receive justice. Today, along with our allies, we sent letters to the Pentagon and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), asking them to consider the public interest, and come clean about the scandal.
As POGO reported last week, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) recently released a redacted report on the water contamination at Camp Lejeune in response to a legally dubious request by the Navy. Today, POGO and allies raised concerns about the legal justifications for the redactions and urged HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to ensure the public release of the unredacted ATSDR report to the full extent allowable under the law.
The letter raised questions about whose interest the Marine Corps (which is a component of the Navy) is taking into account:
Continue reading "POGO and Allies Ask for Full Release of Key Camp Lejeune Contamination Info" →
