Simon,

I doubt the US or any other country stopped trusting the Russians. The US is just as bad and the least trustworthy nation on the planet. The Russian mafia, KGB, and DMV is not different than the US or any other country. When money to be made runs into the hundred of millions and billions it brings out the worst in any person or nation. Perhaps Lucas is just being intentionally turning a blind eye to just how bad the US and west conduct their affairs?

Re: Putin, I see him as the Russian Ronald Reagan and that is bad for everyone. As for the penetration of Western media, we have Reagan to thank for that disaster in the US. It was his brain child to relax media ownership to foreign control in 1986.

I never knew who Boris Johnson was until he came to the defense of BP when they destroyed the Gulf of Mexico. I was livid Boris had the audacity to defend Tony Brown for wanting his life back and had the nerve to go yachting while his incompetent company couldn't stop their vomiting oil. Boris is still a foot dragging gene splice, but I like how he ripped Mitt a new one in Hyde Park last week for insulting England/Olympic committee for not being prepared enough. I thought, and still do, believe security is over kill, but it wasn't enough for Mitt the Twit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCjwUzZuF0s

Until we get real leaders with a vision for the future and not a bunch of Wall Street program managers all of us are toast. The only thing I care about in life now is music, art, women, and beer.

I don't think BP were solely to blame Story

The guy who was photographed on his yacht did resign

My bad ... Tony Hayward, not Tony Brown.

My feeling about the Gulf spill is that is was BP's project and BP should take full responsibility for the spill. When the Deep Water Horizon sank, BP was already doing damage control claiming Haliburton was the negligent in their performance, Haliburton claimed it was one of their subcontractor's fault, and it was everyone else who was to blame. It was also BP that immediately set their lobbyist loose on the US Congress to minimize their financial exposure and stiff the American taxpayer with the cost of cleanup. People all over the US were outraged that BP was doing nothing, Congress were dragging their feet because of the oil lobby, and Boris jumps in to defend BP. Had Chevron done the equivalent to the Thames River what BP did to the Gulf, Boris Johnson would have been demanding immediate cleanup and making whole of all victims, but he came to the defense of BP that they were being persecuted unjustly, and that is when I felt Boris deserved to have his head on a stick along side of Tony Hayward. I'm even more disgusted by the fact that he is not in jail and is still working in the oil industry.

$20 billion may sound like a lot of money, but its chump change for the damage caused and BP got off on the cheap. The $20 billion fund set up for Gulf victims is a con they are being pressured into quick settlements and not even getting what is close to what they are entitled to receiving. Its going to be years before the damage even begins to reverse itself. BP should be forced to pay for 100% of the damage and be fined a penalty equal to 100% of the clean. If BP went out of business it wouldn't bother me at all. As for Tony Hayward and his entire executive team, they should be in a maximum security prison with murderers and rapist. Right now they are probably enjoying their tiramisu at a country club.

Just wait for a nuclear accident in England or the US. Its not of question of if it will happen, but when will it happen. For the playbook on sticking the cost of cleanup and damages on the tax payer look at Fukishima. I will no longer each fish caught in the Pacific Ocean because TEPCO intentionally dumped nuclear waste into the Pacific. And they are still lying about the damage caused and problems with containing the problem.

While I don't wish to defend the 'suits' in this country,it does seem the USA not only had a difference of opinion on how things were handled in your country Shown Here but also in the manner in which another incident was handled For Example

The denigration of BP by Obahma seemingly stopped when David Cameron made his first visit to Washington after becoming PM. I speculate that a 'deal' of some kind was done between the two of them over Libya/Gaddafi and Al Megrahi (the Lockerbie bomber who the Scots let free), which is why (I speculate further) the U.S. had minimum 'visible' involvement in Libya's 'democratic revolution' (Britain and France funded the NATO action but no doubt MI5 were crawling all over the place beforehand winding it up).
Cameron, like Johnson, was protecting a major Olympic sponsor in BP and no doubt some kind of 'override' will be paid to the American government on future BP profits that emanate from Libyan oil.
Pure speculation on my part but Thunderclap will no doubt dig out an obscure article from some newspaper where a journalist has had a similar theory...

The Scots never let Al Megrahi free as most believe him guilty it was a Scottish government minister who let him go on compasionate grounds and I believe pressure from the Westminster government as they had signed a prisoner exchange deal with libya, one has to ask how many prisoners at that time did the UK have and vice versa Libya to exchange ?.
Could it also been a condition of the trade deals Blair signed with Gadaffi for oil and sell him weapons which came in handy to control the Libyan people.
But I suspect if the truth ever comes out about Lockerbie and I hope it does Megrahi may well have been just a patsy for this crime as many believe.

Thunderclap - I thought the same thing re: Union Carbide and Bhopal.

David M - I think the anti- "British Petroleum" rhetoric from O'Bama (he's Irish, you know) stopped when he was told there's no such company (BP isn't its initials - it's the name of the company), and when he was told it is something like 40% US-owned (I believe it employs more Americans than Brits).

I worked for BP for a number of years and always believed that the company is called British Petroleum. It used to be the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. Its ships are named after the company and are prefixed with British and they carry the colours of the Iranian flag on their funnels. I don't know how the US sits, dealing with Iran through a British company

As soon as I saw the clip was Rudy Giuliani I had a feeling it was going to be vomit rant of lies, when the clip began to show he was on FOX News I knew it was going to get worse, and Giuliani being interviewed by Sean Hannity, I stopped there and shut the clip down. Reasonable minded Americans do not have to watch that clip because there is zero credibility with all three individuals. There was no objective opinion or question asked during that hatchet session on Obama. FOX News should be driven out of business. Sean Hannity should be given a hot lead enema. And Giuliani is a neocon.

This is why reasonable minded Americans are outraged over BP and Tony Hayward. And the same information has been disseminated on all major American news networks, with the exception of FOX News.

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/5/5/gr ... one_of_the

Regardless of why Boris defended BP, he really put an entire shoe factory in his mouth. So what if London lost a major Olympic sponsor because there would have been a dozen other companies willing to fill the gap if they walked. BP wants to develop oil in Alaska and after what they did in the Gulf of Mexico ... no way in hell!

The US protecting Union Carbide's CEO from Indian prosecution is a travesty. All these pious conservatives preach responsibility, but they fail to take responsibility for their criminal negligence. Obama was blowing steam over Hayward. It was political drama of being tough and really doing nothing. Americans throwing neutered mayonnaise at BP gas stations would have been more effective than Obama's wimpy sanctions against BP.

US companies deal with Iran though foreign subsidiaries and shell companies. The US Department of Justice (what a freaking joke) since the Reagan Administration has a policy of looking the other way unless a journalist publishes a report of an American company caught dealing with Iran. The the DOJ puffs a lot of smoke and it drops off the radar.

Dick Cheney 5 days prior to the 9-11 attacks went before Congress demanding prohibitions for US oil services companies dealing with Iraq be lifted because they were losing an estimated $5 bln a year. After the 9-11 attacks Cheney denied the remarks, but they can be found in the US Congressional Record.

Do as I say, but not as I do is the official policy of governments when large sums of money to be made is on the table. This is true in health care, energy policy, education, environment, and food.

British Petroleum merged with Amoco in 1998 thereby changing name to BP Amoco (later just BP) and becoming a US- British owned company.

G

I didn't know that Graham. Long time since I worked for them.

That's our Boris...

Wow, you must have did some digging to get that old question of mine up, pity you never answered it at the time. And what has been resolved? Has anyone on been charged or even taken to Court?