therealnews--2020-08-07--Mainstream media misses damning evidence in Blueleaks police data dump

This is a rush transcript and may contain errors .
It will be updated .
Taya Graham : Hello .
My name is Taya Graham and welcome to the Police Accountability Report .
As I never get tired of saying , this show has a single purpose with a twist , we aim to hold cops accountable of course , but we don ’ t want to just let the system which bolsters bad policing off the hook .
I ’ m talking about the economic inequality and racial bias that not only make bad policing possible but necessary .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ a deep dive into a story that speaks to both issues .
It ’ s a cache of internal law enforcement documents known as BlueLeaks .
Paperwork that reveals internal techniques and troubling trends in our ever expansive police state .
But we ’ re not just going to review the documents , we ’ re going to delve into an aspect of the paper trail that has received less attention .
But quickly before we begin , I want you watching to know that if you have evidence of police misconduct , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ [ email protected ] , and we might be able to investigate .
And please like , and share , and comment on our videos .
You know I read your comments , appreciate them , and of course you can message me directly @ tayasbaltimore on Facebook or Twitter .
Okay .
We ’ ve got that out of the way .
Now , before I get into the BlueLeaks cache , I want to jog your memory a little bit .
Remember him ?
His name is Edward Snowden , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ former NSA contractor released a huge cache of documents that revealed how the country ’ s national security cabal had reached far beyond the boundaries set by the Constitution to delve into the lives of ordinary Americans .
But to us there was an aspect of Snowden ’ s landmark reveal that received less attention that is even more relevant today .
Even though it was billed as an overreach of the nation ’ s burgeoning security state , it was also a watershed moment in the collaboration between the twin provincialisms that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ regularly on this show , policing and capitalism .
That ’ s because as you may recall , Snowden was making 122,000 per year working for the private contractor whose documents he exposed , which brings us to the BlueLeaks document dump .
It ’ s a cache taken from a server used by a contractor intimately involved in both American law enforcement and Homeland Security .
This treasure trove of information was leaked in June , as protests were flaring up , and published with the help of Anonymous hacktivists and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The documents cover a wide range of topics , from security alerts based upon information found on people ’ s Facebook pages as we ’ ve already discussed , to helping people working in law enforcement hide their social media presence from the public .
There are also documents tied to a Homeland Security infrastructure that has received more attention since federal police arrested and detained protesters in Portland , Fusion Centers .
Fusion Centers are regional spokes in the country ’ s troubling Homeland Security surveillance system .
They were intended to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ enforcement ostensibly to catch terrorists .
But as we ’ ve seen in the trove of documents it has recently been aimed at American citizens exercising their constitutional right to protest .
But the reason we ’ re talking about these documents today is that they reveal an aspect of law enforcement that we have discussed before , but now seems more relevant than ever , and that is just how easily policing can monetize almost every facet of our lives .
I mean if you look at the documents we are showing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ created by private contractors , and as you look at the scope of the report and the PowerPoints you realize there ’ s an entire invisible landscape of contractors and private firms cashing in on the growth of surveillance and the policing of our communications .
To discuss just how broad this issue is and what it means , I ’ m joined by my reporting partner , Stephen Janis .
Stephen , thank you so much for joining me .
Stephen Janis : Taya , thanks for having me .
I appreciate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ first you reviewed the documents , what did you see and what stood out to you ?
Stephen Janis : What stood out to me is how little it seems like law enforcement knows about social media , but how eager it is to get into the game of monitoring social media .
If you look at document , after PowerPoint , after PowerPoint , it ’ s all about getting into social media , getting into people ’ s social media accounts , monitoring their Facebook , criminalizing it , and then @ @ @ @ @ @ @ really an interesting sort of look at the depth of how law enforcement is looking at social media as the next great frontier to criminalize people .
Taya Graham : Now , we ’ ve talked about how much this paperwork translates into money .
What do these documents represent and who is getting rich ?
Stephen Janis : That is a fascinating question about it .
There ’ s so little data out about how much these contractors are making and how much this industry has grown .
I can give you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ defense contracts , and Google has about 130 defense and federal law enforcement contracts .
But federal law enforcement has grown to such a degree since the beginning of Homeland Security and since 911 that it ’ s really hard to get a handle on it .
Supposedly it ’ s like 60,000 new officers , and all these officers need training , and all these officers need PowerPoints , so it ’ s something that we ’ re going to keep working on , but at this point I can ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : Finally , I wanted to check in with you regarding comments from the federal authorities about the documents , and if they will confirm or respond to any questions about them .
Stephen Janis : We have gone back and forth with the FBI .
I ’ ve reached out to several people in the FBI and have yet to get an answer if any of these documents are authentic , especially when we have showing an FBI agent allegedly monitoring a Facebook post and reporting for possible criminal activity .
It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have gone back and forth .
I ’ ve asked .
I ’ ve sent them screenshots of documents .
As I said before , the only question they ’ ve asked me is , “ Where did you get these , ” a question which I ’ m not willing to answer .
Taya Graham : Now , we aren ’ t just going to talk about the spreadsheets and PDFs that some have said represent the biggest document dump in the history of law enforcement .
Instead , to gain even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to talk to a person who has worked from the inside of the tech security industry and is willing to share its secrets .
We call him Friends in Code , and he ’ s been a guest on the show before .
He has real-world experience working in security and technology and is willing to discuss what goes on behind the scenes save a single caveat , we don ’ t reveal his identity .
Friends in Code , thank you so much for joining us today .
We really appreciate it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the basics .
What is BlueLeaks , how big of a leak is it , and what does it mean ?
Friends in Code : It ’ s not as big as say what Snowden did .
There ’ s a lot of interesting information in here .
The biggest thing to me is the mud in the face to the poor nerd that let this happen .
You know , your one job was to protect this data , and guess what ?
You ’ ve failed .
There are books that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this , and as third parties I mean this is , again , why it ’ s so important to actually at least be able to throw a bullshit flag .
You know , you don ’ t have to completely understand it , but you have to understand its principles .
Taya Graham : What range of documents have people seen ?
What is the scope ?
Friends in Code : I mean there ’ s email addresses .
There ’ s all kinds of IP addresses .
It ’ s a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , it looks like one large web server to me .
It has a bunch of folders for all the individual agencies or groups that were using the service .
From my perspective , the scope is all over the place .
I ’ ve seen everything from somebody monitoring social media , to CSV files that look like database dumps , PDF files , Excel files in here where it literally … And that ’ s just the file-type scope .
That ’ s not even what you ’ re getting from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s actually in the file types .
Taya Graham : Are you surprised at what you ’ re seeing from these documents in terms of how Homeland Security is prepared to police local communities ?
Friends in Code : I mean that ’ s federal [ inaudible 00:07:57 ] stuff .
They could do that all along .
We ’ ve been seeing it ever since we started before Snowden .
I mean Snowden accelerated , showed what acceleration looks like .
This is showing what acceleration to the state and local @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ m not surprised .
The boogeymans in the little unmarked vans .
Yeah , I ’ m very aware that those guys exist , and whether or not they ’ re actually sanctioned to do it , I don ’ t know .
Today we ’ re living in a fear-based society .
Taya Graham : Now , we ’ ve seen a series of cases criminalizing Facebook posts .
Do you also expect this trend to accelerate ?
Friends in Code : The technology to have this kind of surveillance has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , I just understood this is what ’ s available , this is what ’ s out there .
That ’ s why it doesn ’ t really scare me , man .
It was programmed by a human .
It was secured by a human .
It means it could be broke by a human .
Taya Graham : How lucrative is this glimpse of the law enforcement industrial complex we ’ re seeing in these documents ?
How much money is it generating ?
Friends in Code : When you work @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s very lucrative .
It ’ s because you ’ re selling them the fear that they want to know , and so if you can shape , and it ’ s not even really shape the data .
I mean anybody that ’ s taken any kind of statistics understands that depending on how you ask the question the statistics will show what the question wants , so you have to be very careful about those kind of things .
But all in all , when you were doing video surveillance , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ large markups , especially if you knew that you were taking care of something big .
You know , high rise would require a little bit more because you ’ re having to pull cables in this or whatever it may be .
But you were still able to sell some of the same equipment to mom and pop for a lot less , because they didn ’ t need as much recording or whatever it might be .
But when you ’ re selling fear you know , fear sells .
Taya @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the American law enforcement industrial complex reveals something disturbing about the imperative of policing in this country that can not be emphasized enough , the rhetoric and platitudes about public safety and communal wellbeing seem hollow in the face of just how much it costs .
I mean how much are we paying an FBI agent to troll someone ’ s Facebook page and write a report about it ?
How much are we forking over to consultants to help cops keep their social media profiles secret ?
And one can assume along @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , meaning eventually the people creating and using all these documents and planning the Fusion Centers are expected to produce something .
In this case , as we ’ ve seen , it appears in part the process demands arrests , stats that indicate how many bodies all the PowerPoints and PDFs have delivered to our insatiable carceral state .
It ’ s another example of the transactional nature of capitalism once again incentivizing criminal justice .
In other words , how many protesters can be monitored , detained , or otherwise charged @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we have to pay to become a data point turned into a cash cow for cops and consultants ?
Consider the case of Georgana Sziszak .
Recently the New Jersey resident started a GoFundMe page .
Why ?
To raise money for her defense ’ s charges related to a retweet .
That ’ s right .
According to a GoFundMe campaign , she was charged by the State of New Jersey with a fourth-class felony because she retweeted the picture of an officer who a friend had said threatened him .
We @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have yet to get a response .
We also spoke to the New Jersey Attorney General ’ s Office who said they ’ re not involved .
But as I stated at the beginning of the show , what we see in the BlueLeaks document dump is how capitalism has found yet another way of doing what it does best , monetize and incentivize bad public policy .
It ’ s bad enough that social media platforms like Facebook have turned fear into a currency of wealth and influence , how hidden algorithms @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to fix our gazes at the behest of corporate sponsors .
The aforementioned formula has birthed so many billionaires the practice itself has earned its own moniker , surveillance capitalism .
And now through the BlueLeaks dump we have learned that law enforcement is looking for a piece of the action .
It ’ s interesting that in a country that arrests millions of people a year in tactile space , virtual space would become fertile ground for carceral growth .
That a nation which jails more people than any other on Earth @ @ @ @ @ @ @ arrests .
Of course , didn ’ t the French philosopher Foucault warn us about this ?
Not just as theories about Bentham ’ s panopticon , the universal concept prison where all of us are to be housed and observed , the space where privacy is impossible , and the human psyche is open to political dissection .
But there ’ s an even more relevant idea in his book , Discipline and Punish .
In it he discusses how physical control over our bodies combined with the symbolism of power prepares @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
He recounts public executions in the 17th century replete with the symbols of the king as an earlier example of this formula , or how military training imposes a strict regime on our bodies as a precursor to the broader imposition of the power of the state over our minds .
Isn ’ t it interesting that policing has found a way to turn our Facebook musings and Twitter rants into a veritable panopticon to monitor our playfulness , how law enforcement industrial complex is aiming to turn a platform for free @ @ @ @ @ @ @ constraint ?
That in a sense by creating and then surveilling platforms of fear , the power to constrain both our psyches and bodies have grown in ways we could never have imagined .
This is a cautionary tale that is told through the documents exposed in the leak .
That if we do not put limits on the power to surveil , the incentive to watch coupled with the ability to do so unfettered , we will build a new American prison of the mind .
I want to thank my guest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ us and being so forthcoming about what goes on behind the scenes of a data dump and how secure our data really is .
Thank you , Friends in Code .
Friends in Code : Appreciate you all having me back .
Taya Graham : I also have to thank intrepid reporter , Stephen Janis , for his investigative work , writing , and editing on this piece .
Thank you , Stephen .
Stephen Janis : Taya , thanks for having me .
I appreciate it .
Taya Graham : And of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ did not thank friend of the show , Noli Dee , for her support .
Thanks Noli Dee .
And I want you watching to know that if you have evidence of police misconduct or brutality , please share it with us and we might be able to investigate .
Please reach out to us .
You can email us privately at [ email protected ] and share your evidence of police misconduct .
You can also message us @ policeaccountabilityreport on Facebook or Instagram , or @ eyesonpolice on Twitter .
And @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tayasbaltimore on Twitter or Facebook , and please like and comment .
You know I read your comments , appreciate them , and I try to answer your questions whenever I can .
My name is Taya Graham , and I ’ m your host of the Police Accountability Report .
Please be safe out there .

The massive document dump reveals a troubling trend the mainstream media has overlooked: Tech companies monetizing criminal surveillance.
Story Transcript
This is a rush transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated.
Taya Graham: Hello. My name is Taya Graham and welcome to the Police Accountability Report. As I never get tired of saying, this show has a single purpose with a twist, we aim to hold cops accountable of course, but we don’t want to just let the system which bolsters bad policing off the hook. I’m talking about the economic inequality and racial bias that not only make bad policing possible but necessary. Today we’re going to take a deep dive into a story that speaks to both issues. It’s a cache of internal law enforcement documents known as BlueLeaks. Paperwork that reveals internal techniques and troubling trends in our ever expansive police state.
But we’re not just going to review the documents, we’re going to delve into an aspect of the paper trail that has received less attention. But quickly before we begin, I want you watching to know that if you have evidence of police misconduct, please email it to us privately at par@therealnews.com, and we might be able to investigate. And please like, and share, and comment on our videos. You know I read your comments, appreciate them, and of course you can message me directly @tayasbaltimore on Facebook or Twitter. Okay. We’ve got that out of the way. Now, before I get into the BlueLeaks cache, I want to jog your memory a little bit.
Remember him? His name is Edward Snowden, and back in June of 2013, the former NSA contractor released a huge cache of documents that revealed how the country’s national security cabal had reached far beyond the boundaries set by the Constitution to delve into the lives of ordinary Americans. But to us there was an aspect of Snowden’s landmark reveal that received less attention that is even more relevant today. Even though it was billed as an overreach of the nation’s burgeoning security state, it was also a watershed moment in the collaboration between the twin provincialisms that drive many of the problems we discuss regularly on this show, policing and capitalism.
That’s because as you may recall, Snowden was making 122,000 per year working for the private contractor whose documents he exposed, which brings us to the BlueLeaks document dump. It’s a cache taken from a server used by a contractor intimately involved in both American law enforcement and Homeland Security. This treasure trove of information was leaked in June, as protests were flaring up, and published with the help of Anonymous hacktivists and the hacktivist group Distributed Denial of Secrets. The documents cover a wide range of topics, from security alerts based upon information found on people’s Facebook pages as we’ve already discussed, to helping people working in law enforcement hide their social media presence from the public.
There are also documents tied to a Homeland Security infrastructure that has received more attention since federal police arrested and detained protesters in Portland, Fusion Centers. Fusion Centers are regional spokes in the country’s troubling Homeland Security surveillance system. They were intended to synthesize intelligence from local and federal law enforcement ostensibly to catch terrorists. But as we’ve seen in the trove of documents it has recently been aimed at American citizens exercising their constitutional right to protest. But the reason we’re talking about these documents today is that they reveal an aspect of law enforcement that we have discussed before, but now seems more relevant than ever, and that is just how easily policing can monetize almost every facet of our lives.
I mean if you look at the documents we are showing you on the screen, many are created by private contractors, and as you look at the scope of the report and the PowerPoints you realize there’s an entire invisible landscape of contractors and private firms cashing in on the growth of surveillance and the policing of our communications. To discuss just how broad this issue is and what it means, I’m joined by my reporting partner, Stephen Janis. Stephen, thank you so much for joining me.
Stephen Janis: Taya, thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
Taya Graham: Now, first you reviewed the documents, what did you see and what stood out to you?
Stephen Janis: What stood out to me is how little it seems like law enforcement knows about social media, but how eager it is to get into the game of monitoring social media. If you look at document, after PowerPoint, after PowerPoint, it’s all about getting into social media, getting into people’s social media accounts, monitoring their Facebook, criminalizing it, and then monetizing it. So it’s really an interesting sort of look at the depth of how law enforcement is looking at social media as the next great frontier to criminalize people.
Taya Graham: Now, we’ve talked about how much this paperwork translates into money. What do these documents represent and who is getting rich?
Stephen Janis: That is a fascinating question about it. There’s so little data out about how much these contractors are making and how much this industry has grown. I can give you one example. Amazon has about 230 defense contracts, and Google has about 130 defense and federal law enforcement contracts. But federal law enforcement has grown to such a degree since the beginning of Homeland Security and since 911 that it’s really hard to get a handle on it. Supposedly it’s like 60,000 new officers, and all these officers need training, and all these officers need PowerPoints, so it’s something that we’re going to keep working on, but at this point I can’t give you a number.
Taya Graham: Finally, I wanted to check in with you regarding comments from the federal authorities about the documents, and if they will confirm or respond to any questions about them.
Stephen Janis: We have gone back and forth with the FBI. I’ve reached out to several people in the FBI and have yet to get an answer if any of these documents are authentic, especially when we have showing an FBI agent allegedly monitoring a Facebook post and reporting for possible criminal activity. It is really, really difficult. I have gone back and forth. I’ve asked. I’ve sent them screenshots of documents. As I said before, the only question they’ve asked me is, “Where did you get these,” a question which I’m not willing to answer.
Taya Graham: Now, we aren’t just going to talk about the spreadsheets and PDFs that some have said represent the biggest document dump in the history of law enforcement. Instead, to gain even more perspective, we’re going to talk to a person who has worked from the inside of the tech security industry and is willing to share its secrets. We call him Friends in Code, and he’s been a guest on the show before. He has real-world experience working in security and technology and is willing to discuss what goes on behind the scenes save a single caveat, we don’t reveal his identity. Friends in Code, thank you so much for joining us today. We really appreciate it. So let’s start with the basics. What is BlueLeaks, how big of a leak is it, and what does it mean?
Friends in Code: It’s not as big as say what Snowden did. There’s a lot of interesting information in here. The biggest thing to me is the mud in the face to the poor nerd that let this happen. You know, your one job was to protect this data, and guess what? You’ve failed. There are books that tell you how to take care of this, and as third parties I mean this is, again, why it’s so important to actually at least be able to throw a bullshit flag. You know, you don’t have to completely understand it, but you have to understand its principles.
Taya Graham: What range of documents have people seen? What is the scope?
Friends in Code: I mean there’s email addresses. There’s all kinds of IP addresses. It’s a full-on leak. The interesting thing is, it looks like one large web server to me. It has a bunch of folders for all the individual agencies or groups that were using the service. From my perspective, the scope is all over the place. I’ve seen everything from somebody monitoring social media, to CSV files that look like database dumps, PDF files, Excel files in here where it literally … And that’s just the file-type scope. That’s not even what you’re getting from trying to piece it together, what’s actually in the file types.
Taya Graham: Are you surprised at what you’re seeing from these documents in terms of how Homeland Security is prepared to police local communities?
Friends in Code: I mean that’s federal [inaudible 00:07:57] stuff. They could do that all along. We’ve been seeing it ever since we started before Snowden. I mean Snowden accelerated, showed what acceleration looks like. This is showing what acceleration to the state and local levels look like. Yeah. I’m not surprised. The boogeymans in the little unmarked vans. Yeah, I’m very aware that those guys exist, and whether or not they’re actually sanctioned to do it, I don’t know. Today we’re living in a fear-based society.
Taya Graham: Now, we’ve seen a series of cases criminalizing Facebook posts. Do you also expect this trend to accelerate?
Friends in Code: The technology to have this kind of surveillance has never really scared me. You know, I just understood this is what’s available, this is what’s out there. That’s why it doesn’t really scare me, man. It was programmed by a human. It was secured by a human. It means it could be broke by a human.
Taya Graham: How lucrative is this glimpse of the law enforcement industrial complex we’re seeing in these documents? How much money is it generating?
Friends in Code: When you work in the fear industry, it’s very lucrative. It’s because you’re selling them the fear that they want to know, and so if you can shape, and it’s not even really shape the data. I mean anybody that’s taken any kind of statistics understands that depending on how you ask the question the statistics will show what the question wants, so you have to be very careful about those kind of things.
But all in all, when you were doing video surveillance, it wasn’t unusual to have large markups, especially if you knew that you were taking care of something big. You know, high rise would require a little bit more because you’re having to pull cables in this or whatever it may be. But you were still able to sell some of the same equipment to mom and pop for a lot less, because they didn’t need as much recording or whatever it might be. But when you’re selling fear you know, fear sells.
Taya Graham: Now the inner workings of the American law enforcement industrial complex reveals something disturbing about the imperative of policing in this country that cannot be emphasized enough, the rhetoric and platitudes about public safety and communal wellbeing seem hollow in the face of just how much it costs. I mean how much are we paying an FBI agent to troll someone’s Facebook page and write a report about it? How much are we forking over to consultants to help cops keep their social media profiles secret? And one can assume along with payouts comes a need for results, meaning eventually the people creating and using all these documents and planning the Fusion Centers are expected to produce something.
In this case, as we’ve seen, it appears in part the process demands arrests, stats that indicate how many bodies all the PowerPoints and PDFs have delivered to our insatiable carceral state. It’s another example of the transactional nature of capitalism once again incentivizing criminal justice. In other words, how many protesters can be monitored, detained, or otherwise charged and arrested? And how much do we have to pay to become a data point turned into a cash cow for cops and consultants?
Consider the case of Georgana Sziszak. Recently the New Jersey resident started a GoFundMe page. Why? To raise money for her defense’s charges related to a retweet. That’s right. According to a GoFundMe campaign, she was charged by the State of New Jersey with a fourth-class felony because she retweeted the picture of an officer who a friend had said threatened him. We reached out to Georgana, but we have yet to get a response. We also spoke to the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office who said they’re not involved.
But as I stated at the beginning of the show, what we see in the BlueLeaks document dump is how capitalism has found yet another way of doing what it does best, monetize and incentivize bad public policy. It’s bad enough that social media platforms like Facebook have turned fear into a currency of wealth and influence, how hidden algorithms exploit our polarized politics and growing distrust to fix our gazes at the behest of corporate sponsors. The aforementioned formula has birthed so many billionaires the practice itself has earned its own moniker, surveillance capitalism. And now through the BlueLeaks dump we have learned that law enforcement is looking for a piece of the action.
It’s interesting that in a country that arrests millions of people a year in tactile space, virtual space would become fertile ground for carceral growth. That a nation which jails more people than any other on Earth would seek to mine our avatars for arrests. Of course, didn’t the French philosopher Foucault warn us about this? Not just as theories about Bentham’s panopticon, the universal concept prison where all of us are to be housed and observed, the space where privacy is impossible, and the human psyche is open to political dissection.
But there’s an even more relevant idea in his book, Discipline and Punish. In it he discusses how physical control over our bodies combined with the symbolism of power prepares us for other types of psychological dominance. He recounts public executions in the 17th century replete with the symbols of the king as an earlier example of this formula, or how military training imposes a strict regime on our bodies as a precursor to the broader imposition of the power of the state over our minds.
Isn’t it interesting that policing has found a way to turn our Facebook musings and Twitter rants into a veritable panopticon to monitor our playfulness, how law enforcement industrial complex is aiming to turn a platform for free expression into a minefield of subjugation and constraint? That in a sense by creating and then surveilling platforms of fear, the power to constrain both our psyches and bodies have grown in ways we could never have imagined.
This is a cautionary tale that is told through the documents exposed in the leak. That if we do not put limits on the power to surveil, the incentive to watch coupled with the ability to do so unfettered, we will build a new American prison of the mind. I want to thank my guest,
Friends in Code, for joining us and being so forthcoming about what goes on behind the scenes of a data dump and how secure our data really is. Thank you, Friends in Code.
Friends in Code: Appreciate you all having me back.
Taya Graham: I also have to thank intrepid reporter, Stephen Janis, for his investigative work, writing, and editing on this piece. Thank you, Stephen.
Stephen Janis: Taya, thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
Taya Graham: And of course I would be remiss if I did not thank friend of the show, Noli Dee, for her support. Thanks Noli Dee. And I want you watching to know that if you have evidence of police misconduct or brutality, please share it with us and we might be able to investigate. Please reach out to us. You can email us privately at par@therealnews.com and share your evidence of police misconduct. You can also message us @policeaccountabilityreport on Facebook or Instagram, or @eyesonpolice on Twitter. And of course you can message me directly @tayasbaltimore on Twitter or Facebook, and please like and comment. You know I read your comments, appreciate them, and I try to answer your questions whenever I can. My name is Taya Graham, and I’m your host of the Police Accountability Report. Please be safe out there.
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therealnews--2020-08-10--Climate official pushing controversial sun-blocking plan resigns

In recent weeks , this column has focused heavily on the intersection between COVID-19 and the climate crisis , and that will continue as the pandemic sweeps the world .
This week , with the presidential election just over three months away , President Donald Trump is down in the polls , but was up for a speech at a fracking rig in a COVID-19 hotspot , one with no masks in sight .
As he spoke , a company with operations nearby and ambitions to boost an obscure drilling technique joined a legion of other companies who have declared @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you think deserves a spot in the roundup or story pitches in general , get in touch with me at [ email protected ] or on Twitter at @ SteveAHorn .
You can read the previous edition here .
Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment ( SCoPEx ) , a controversial program aimed at reversing the climate crisis that we covered here several weeks ago suffered a recent blow after its chairwoman stepped down .
The program is based at Harvard University and until July 22 had an advisory council chaired by the director of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Bedsworth .
But after coming under scrutiny both from global climate justice groups and in a June 19 story by The Real News Network , Bedsworth has stepped down from the post .
The scrutiny was aimed at the technology for which the research group is pushing to develop a governance mechanism , called solar geoengineering or solar radiation management , for reflecting sunlight away from the Earth to halt the greenhouse effect of climate change .
That technofix—which involves spraying aerosols into the atmosphere for an indefinite period of time to shield @ @ @ @ @ @ @ potentially dangerous to deploy and also a way to continue business as usual in emitting greenhouse gases .
And the scrutiny also came because Bedsworth did not clearly separate her duties as a private individual with her duties as a state employee .
On the same day this reporter received documents under California Public Records Act showing blurred lines between Bedsworth private Harvard role and her state office , Bedsworth announced her resignation .
The emails show that she had considered resigning since The Real News published the article on June 19 .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the records to this reporter on July 22 may have been the final straw .
In turning over the records , Strategic Growth Council chief external affairs officer Sandra Lupien—who in one email mocked this outlet as “ Real ” News and referred to the June 19 article as a “ hit piece ” —said that Bedsworth chaired the group “ on [ a ] voluntary basis ” and “ her participation has been in a professional capacity , but not in her State/SGC capacity.
” Yet , it didn ’ t quite @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ We acknowledge that Dr. Bedsworth used her State email for some correspondence regarding the SCoPEx Advisory Committee , and engaged SGC communications staff briefly in Committee matters , ” she wrote .
“ We have taken steps to prevent a reoccurrence ( sic ) .
” Bedsworth sang a similar tune in her official resignation letter published on the SCoPEx website , saying she was “ undertaking this work as a volunteer ” and “ failed to make a clear distinction between this work and my official role.
” Gary Hughes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ group Biofuelwatch , said he thinks the changing of the story as the documents came to light casts a shadow on the shared governance mission with which Bedsworth and the SCoPEx team profess to support .
“ They want to tell us how they ’ re going to govern this technology , but they can ’ t even fulfill their responsibilities around governance in the state institution that she works in , ” said Hughes .
In that same vein , Hughes said his group and the coalition with which it works—called Hands @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in SCoPEx ’ s public commenting process ending on July 31 .
The 73 signatories from around the world—situated in places ranging from Nepal , Togo , Costa Rica , Brazil , Denmark , Mexico , Chile , France , Ecuador , Venezuela and elsewhere—denounced the process in an open letter , calling it a “ mockery of participation ” and a “ charade.
” The group further called for SCoPEx to shutter altogether .
SCoPEx got off the ground in November 2018 with seed money from Bill Gates .
One of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Keith , is the founder of the company Carbon Engineering .
Financed by Gates and Canadian tar sands magnate Murray Edwards , Carbon Engineering also has received financing from oil companies such as Chevron and Occidental Petroleum .
California involvement in SCoPEx has international implications , but it also has national connections .
Bedsworth ’ s SCoPEx Advisory Council colleague and the vice chair , Kevin Knobloch , served as Chief Of Staff for the U.S. Department of Energy under Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz during the second term of the Obama Administration .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ governance approaches ” also appears in the report published a month ago by the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis , which came out just days after the group Union of Concerned Scientists published its own report expanding upon that framework .
That group also has a representative sitting on the advisory council for SCoPEx .
And its executive director , Peter Frumhoff served on the search committee creating the SCoPEx advisory council .
Bedsworth began her career working for Union of Concerned Scientists under Frumhoff .
A press liaison from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for comment on the situation , nor answer a question as to whether Bedsworth will remain on the Steering Committee for SCoPEx .
Asked for more details in this same vein , an attorney for the SGC provided a boilerplate copy and paste of the initial quote given by Lupien in response to the open records request .
The Harvard website now shows her name still on the steering committee , but with no affiliation listed and no longer listed as Chair .
Bedsworth ’ s colleagues from SCoPEx wrote statements in “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ August 3 .
The Real News Network continues to review the documents obtained as of publishing time .
On July 29 , President Donald Trump spoke on a fracking production rig in Midland , Texas , a west Texas town best known as an oil production epicenter .
In the speech , Trump called the coronavirus the “ China Virus ” multiple times and the “ plague from China ” once , neither of his cabinet members present wore masks , and very few people jammed into the audience wore them either .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ that Texas is a national hotspot for coronavirus cases and deaths , as is Midland and the surrounding area .
In Trump ’ s speech , beyond hyping up his own deregulatory agenda , he claimed “ no fracking ” is Biden ’ s energy plan .
“ No fracking .
That ’ s part of his platform , ” said Trump .
“ If these far-left politicians ever get into power , they will demolish not only your industry , but the entire U.S. economy.
” The rhetoric is far from the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Biden ’ s campaign team has envisioned .
As covered in recent weeks here , the Biden energy plan and the plan put forward by the Democratic Party have received Big Oil ’ s warm embrace .
In a July 28 story by The New York Times , many in the oil and gas industry also spoke fondly of Biden ’ s energy agenda .
“ There is a lot of room in there for oil and gas , ” Matt Gallagher , president of Parsley Energy , told The Times .
Parsley @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the Permian Basin , the most prolific oil fracking field in the world .
The company purchased billions of dollars in assets from the owner of the very rig on which Trump spoke : Double Eagle Energy .
Parsley purchased Double Eagle ’ s Permian assets in April 2017 for $ 2.8 billion .
Double Eagle Energy then began a new round of purchasing land for fracking in the same field thereafter .
In the aftermath of his speech , President Donald Trump also signed four different presidential permits , including two @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Burgos Pipeline , owned by the company NuStar and which will bring natural gas from Texas to Mexico .
Before the speech , President Trump attended a fundraiser in Odessa , Texas , landing $ 7 million in contributions toward his reelection efforts .
Those who donated $ 50,000 could take a picture with the president , while $ 100,000 donors could participate in a roundtable with him .
The minimum entry fee for the private event was $ 2,800 .
Fundraisers in the company town are a mainstay for GOP presidential candidates @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not the first time in recent election cycles that a presidential candidate has gone to the site of a fossil fuel industry company to promote the sector and his political ambitions .
Back in 2012 , President Barack Obama gave a speech in front of the pipes which would become the southern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline .
Also during that same cycle , Mitt Romney delivered a speech at a coal mining site owned by Murray Energy .
In the New York Times article , one of the things that industry @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and the Democratic Party are promoting CCUS technology .
As reported in the previous roundup , CCUS means capturing carbon dioxide greenhouse emissions , sequestering the CO2 and then utilizing it for something else .
And the predominant use of that CO2 these days , according to a 2018 Congressional Research Service report , is something called enhanced oil recovery .
Known in industry lingo as CO2 EOR , climate and justice critics view it as creating a new subsidized market for oil .
CO2 EOR involves pumping CO2 into existing oil patches @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more oil from them .
A technically sophisticated process , involving heavy use of water and chemical compounds , it shares many similarities to fracking in concerns it raises about protecting groundwater and air quality .
But like fracking , this type of drilling is expensive .
And Denbury Resources , one of the biggest companies in the EOR business , has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy .
The filing comes weeks after one of the top fracking companies , Chesapeake Energy , also did so .
Denbury previously benefited during the Obama @ @ @ @ @ @ @ given to a coalition of companies to do CO2 EOR in Texas during his first term .
There were already indications that Denbury had spent far more than it earned for years , as indicated by its lobbying support for legislation like the CO2 Regulatory Certainty Act , a bill to cut federal regulatory compliance expenses by expediting the monitoring and regulatory reporting process for CO2 pipelines .
The bankruptcy filing came one day after the largest CCS plant in the U.S. in Houston called Petra Nova—a coal-fired power plant that captures carbon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a temporary shuttering .
The Petra Nova facility also focuses on CO2 EOR , delivering CO2 via pipeline to Jackson County , Texas , where the amount of oil extracted has increased 30-fold .
The companies involved in Petra Nova—NRG Energy and the Japanese company JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration—received $ 380 million in subsidies from the Obama Administration and opened for business in 2017 .
Even with CCS technology equipped , Petra Nova was one of the most greenhouse gas-intensive and polluting power plants in Texas .
Though advertised as a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ federal data shows that the facility had not complied with the Clean Air Act for four straight years between 2015-2018 , listed at “ high priority violation ” and “ significant violation ” levels by the Environmental Protection Agency .

Welcome back to TRNN’s Climate Crisis News Roundup.
In recent weeks, this column has focused heavily on the intersection between COVID-19 and the climate crisis, and that will continue as the pandemic sweeps the world.
This week, with the presidential election just over three months away, President Donald Trump is down in the polls, but was up for a speech at a fracking rig in a COVID-19 hotspot, one with no masks in sight. As he spoke, a company with operations nearby and ambitions to boost an obscure drilling technique joined a legion of other companies who have declared bankruptcy.
If you have a story you think deserves a spot in the roundup or story pitches in general, get in touch with me at steve@therealnews.com or on Twitter at @SteveAHorn. You can read the previous edition here.
“Real” Geoengineering News
Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment (SCoPEx), a controversial program aimed at reversing the climate crisis that we covered here several weeks ago suffered a recent blow after its chairwoman stepped down.
The program is based at Harvard University and until July 22 had an advisory council chaired by the director of the California Strategic Growth Council, Louise Bedsworth. But after coming under scrutiny both from global climate justice groups and in a June 19 story by The Real News Network, Bedsworth has stepped down from the post.
The scrutiny was aimed at the technology for which the research group is pushing to develop a governance mechanism, called solar geoengineering or solar radiation management, for reflecting sunlight away from the Earth to halt the greenhouse effect of climate change. That technofix—which involves spraying aerosols into the atmosphere for an indefinite period of time to shield the Earth—is seen by many as both potentially dangerous to deploy and also a way to continue business as usual in emitting greenhouse gases.
And the scrutiny also came because Bedsworth did not clearly separate her duties as a private individual with her duties as a state employee. On the same day this reporter received documents under California Public Records Act showing blurred lines between Bedsworth private Harvard role and her state office, Bedsworth announced her resignation. The emails show that she had considered resigning since The Real News published the article on June 19.
But it appears the turning over of the records to this reporter on July 22 may have been the final straw. In turning over the records, Strategic Growth Council chief external affairs officer Sandra Lupien—who in one email mocked this outlet as “Real” News and referred to the June 19 article as a “hit piece”—said that Bedsworth chaired the group “on [a] voluntary basis” and “her participation has been in a professional capacity, but not in her State/SGC capacity.”
Yet, it didn’t quite play out that way, Lupien added.
“We acknowledge that Dr. Bedsworth used her State email for some correspondence regarding the SCoPEx Advisory Committee, and engaged SGC communications staff briefly in Committee matters,” she wrote. “We have taken steps to prevent a reoccurrence (sic).”
Bedsworth sang a similar tune in her official resignation letter published on the SCoPEx website, saying she was “undertaking this work as a volunteer” and “failed to make a clear distinction between this work and my official role.”
Gary Hughes, the California policy monitor for the group Biofuelwatch, said he thinks the changing of the story as the documents came to light casts a shadow on the shared governance mission with which Bedsworth and the SCoPEx team profess to support.
“They want to tell us how they’re going to govern this technology, but they can’t even fulfill their responsibilities around governance in the state institution that she works in,” said Hughes.
In that same vein, Hughes said his group and the coalition with which it works—called Hands Off Mother Earth—chose not even to participate in SCoPEx’s public commenting process ending on July 31.
The 73 signatories from around the world—situated in places ranging from Nepal, Togo, Costa Rica, Brazil, Denmark, Mexico, Chile, France, Ecuador, Venezuela and elsewhere—denounced the process in an open letter, calling it a “mockery of participation” and a “charade.” The group further called for SCoPEx to shutter altogether.
SCoPEx got off the ground in November 2018 with seed money from Bill Gates. One of the head scientists for the group, David Keith, is the founder of the company Carbon Engineering. Financed by Gates and Canadian tar sands magnate Murray Edwards, Carbon Engineering also has received financing from oil companies such as Chevron and Occidental Petroleum.
California involvement in SCoPEx has international implications, but it also has national connections.
Bedsworth’s SCoPEx Advisory Council colleague and the vice chair, Kevin Knobloch, served as Chief Of Staff for the U.S. Department of Energy under Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz during the second term of the Obama Administration. The suggestion to research solar radiation management “governance approaches” also appears in the report published a month ago by the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, which came out just days after the group Union of Concerned Scientists published its own report expanding upon that framework. That group also has a representative sitting on the advisory council for SCoPEx. And its executive director, Peter Frumhoff served on the search committee creating the SCoPEx advisory council. Bedsworth began her career working for Union of Concerned Scientists under Frumhoff.
A press liaison from SCoPEx did not respond to a request for comment on the situation, nor answer a question as to whether Bedsworth will remain on the Steering Committee for SCoPEx. Asked for more details in this same vein, an attorney for the SGC provided a boilerplate copy and paste of the initial quote given by Lupien in response to the open records request. The Harvard website now shows her name still on the steering committee, but with no affiliation listed and no longer listed as Chair.
Image Credit: Harvard University SCoPEx
Image Credit: Harvard University SCoPEx
Bedsworth’s colleagues from SCoPEx wrote statements in “unequivocal support” of her published on August 3. The Real News Network continues to review the documents obtained as of publishing time.
Trump at Texas Rig
On July 29, President Donald Trump spoke on a fracking production rig in Midland, Texas, a west Texas town best known as an oil production epicenter.
In the speech, Trump called the coronavirus the “China Virus” multiple times and the “plague from China” once, neither of his cabinet members present wore masks, and very few people jammed into the audience wore them either. This was the case despite the fact that Texas is a national hotspot for coronavirus cases and deaths, as is Midland and the surrounding area.
In Trump’s speech, beyond hyping up his own deregulatory agenda, he claimed “no fracking” is Biden’s energy plan.
“No fracking. That’s part of his platform,” said Trump. “If these far-left politicians ever get into power, they will demolish not only your industry, but the entire U.S. economy.”
The rhetoric is far from the reality of the actual energy agenda that Biden’s campaign team has envisioned. As covered in recent weeks here, the Biden energy plan and the plan put forward by the Democratic Party have received Big Oil’s warm embrace. In a July 28 story by The New York Times, many in the oil and gas industry also spoke fondly of Biden’s energy agenda.
“There is a lot of room in there for oil and gas,” Matt Gallagher, president of Parsley Energy, told The Times. Parsley Energy is one of the top drillers in the Permian Basin, the most prolific oil fracking field in the world. The company purchased billions of dollars in assets from the owner of the very rig on which Trump spoke: Double Eagle Energy. Parsley purchased Double Eagle’s Permian assets in April 2017 for $2.8 billion. Double Eagle Energy then began a new round of purchasing land for fracking in the same field thereafter.
In the aftermath of his speech, President Donald Trump also signed four different presidential permits, including two to build the New Burgos Pipeline and Burgos Pipeline, owned by the company NuStar and which will bring natural gas from Texas to Mexico.
Before the speech, President Trump attended a fundraiser in Odessa, Texas, landing $7 million in contributions toward his reelection efforts. Those who donated $50,000 could take a picture with the president, while $100,000 donors could participate in a roundtable with him. The minimum entry fee for the private event was $2,800. Fundraisers in the company town are a mainstay for GOP presidential candidates vying for the presidency.
This is not the first time in recent election cycles that a presidential candidate has gone to the site of a fossil fuel industry company to promote the sector and his political ambitions. Back in 2012, President Barack Obama gave a speech in front of the pipes which would become the southern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline. Also during that same cycle, Mitt Romney delivered a speech at a coal mining site owned by Murray Energy.
CCUS Goes Bust
In the New York Times article, one of the things that industry insiders noted was their excitement that Biden and the Democratic Party are promoting CCUS technology. As reported in the previous roundup, CCUS means capturing carbon dioxide greenhouse emissions, sequestering the CO2 and then utilizing it for something else.
And the predominant use of that CO2 these days, according to a 2018 Congressional Research Service report, is something called enhanced oil recovery. Known in industry lingo as CO2 EOR, climate and justice critics view it as creating a new subsidized market for oil.
CO2 EOR involves pumping CO2 into existing oil patches via injection wells in order to extract more oil from them. A technically sophisticated process, involving heavy use of water and chemical compounds, it shares many similarities to fracking in concerns it raises about protecting groundwater and air quality.
But like fracking, this type of drilling is expensive. And Denbury Resources, one of the biggest companies in the EOR business, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The filing comes weeks after one of the top fracking companies, Chesapeake Energy, also did so. Denbury previously benefited during the Obama era from a $284 million subsidy given to a coalition of companies to do CO2 EOR in Texas during his first term.
There were already indications that Denbury had spent far more than it earned for years, as indicated by its lobbying support for legislation like the CO2 Regulatory Certainty Act, a bill to cut federal regulatory compliance expenses by expediting the monitoring and regulatory reporting process for CO2 pipelines.
The bankruptcy filing came one day after the largest CCS plant in the U.S. in Houston called Petra Nova—a coal-fired power plant that captures carbon and sells it for CO2 EOR—also announced a temporary shuttering. The Petra Nova facility also focuses on CO2 EOR, delivering CO2 via pipeline to Jackson County, Texas, where the amount of oil extracted has increased 30-fold.
The companies involved in Petra Nova—NRG Energy and the Japanese company JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration—received $380 million in subsidies from the Obama Administration and opened for business in 2017. Even with CCS technology equipped, Petra Nova was one of the most greenhouse gas-intensive and polluting power plants in Texas. Though advertised as a way to produce coal more cleanly, federal data shows that the facility had not complied with the Clean Air Act for four straight years between 2015-2018, listed at “high priority violation” and “significant violation” levels by the Environmental Protection Agency.
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therealnews--2020-08-11--Climate, crude, and COVID devastate Ecuador’s Amazon

Unprecedented flooding , the COVID-19 pandemic , and catastrophic oil spills are wreaking havoc in Ecuador ’ s Amazon and its Indigenous communities , one of the groups hardest hit by the climate-related emergencies fueled by unbridled drilling for oil and mining for minerals .
In April , as COVID-19 began to overwhelm the healthcare system , both of Ecuador ’ s transnational oil pipelines ruptured , dumping thousands of barrels of oil into the Coca river and its tributaries that provide fresh water and livelihoods to native communities .
Regarded as Ecuador ’ s worst spill in a decade @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fully repaired , and the government remains tightlipped over the incident .
A similar environmental disaster was caused by an oil spill linked to Chevron-Texaco in Aguarico in Sept. 2013 .
Caught between the pandemic , historic flooding , and governmental negligence , Ecuador ’ s Indigenous people have launched an international appeal to crowdsource rebuilding efforts , and a COVID-19 monitoring platform with help from international environmental groups .
As of early August , nearly 2,000 Indigenous people have tested positive for COVID-19 , and almost 40 deaths have been recorded in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 17 million inhabitants , Ecuador ’ s fortunes have nosedived in the combined wake of the pandemic and recent environmental catastrophes .
The country ’ s confirmed COVID-19 cases now stand at nearly 85,000 , with the total number of deaths approaching 6,000 .
But the actual number could be fifteen times higher , according to one analysis , with bodies reportedly littering the streets of Quito , the nation ’ s largest city .
Beset by the coronavirus pandemic and crude-contaminated waters , the Indigenous people of the Ecuadorian Amazon are entirely @ @ @ @ @ @ @ little or no government healthcare support , similar to the situation TRNN previously reported in Brazil and Peru , the native people of the Ecuadorian Amazon are struggling with food security , access to drinking water , and sanitation supplies .
The government in Quito recently moved to reopen businesses , allowing the oil , gas , and mineral industries to restart operations .
Workers and equipment have been brought back into Indigenous land , considerably elevating communities ’ exposure to COVID-19 .
The acute lack of essential items has also forced native @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
In some cases , those who leave also bring back COVID-19 .
Around the same time as the pipeline rupture , global oil prices dipped below zero as worldwide demand faltered under pandemic fears , sending Ecuador to the brink of default on foreign debt .
The country is heavily dependent on oil revenue , and much of its $ 65 billion public debt comprises oil-backed loans from China .
Despite the uncertain global oil market amidst surging COVID-19 cases , the government in Quito has announced plans to expand oil production @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In April , Bobonaza River—located in Ecuador ’ s central Amazon—swelled to historic levels , leading to unprecedented flooding .
Community bridges collapsed and water swept away homes and crops providing livelihoods to hundreds of families .
The Kichwa tribe of Sarayaku are among the hardest hit .
Water leveled with the roofs of traditional communal houses , destroying everything in its path , according to Amazon Watch .
Within weeks came a second wave of floods , dealing a blow to rebuilding efforts that were underway .
Talking to The Real News @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , leader of the Indigenous Kichwa community of Sarayaku , said : “ What we ’ ve seen over the last several months , mostly due to climate change , is a series of floods , tremendous rain that has been happening in the Ecuadorian Amazon .
and it ’ s affected the waterways , the rivers and the basins of the Andes and the Amazon .
Those rivers have swelled and created massive erosion along the Napo river , and as a consequence tremendous amount of water came down the waterways.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the struggle for the rights of Indigenous people in Ecuador , added that erosion caused the two ( transatlantic ) pipelines that run alongside the river to rupture , spilling crude right into the water .
“ And as you can imagine , this has had a very huge impact on Indigenous people that live along these rivers and depend on them .
We have incidents of children that have skin rashes , communities that don ’ t have potable water to drink , crops that have been damaged .
So , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lamented .
She blames the Ecuadorian government for being neglectful in managing the erosion , saying the consequences are immense .
“ You know , the Navajo River is a river that ’ s connected to not only Ecuador but also to Peru and waters of Amazon River .
So crude oil flowing down this river is going to get further into the Amazon and continue to have a major impact on us.
” Amazon Watch ’ s analysis calls the oil spill the worst in a decade .
Indigenous tribes sued the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , but trust in the justice system is at an all-time low because of the historic injustices and inequalities native people have endured over many decades .
“ It ’ s very exhausting because we always have to be suing the government because they continue to enact policies that violate our rights , like the illegal commissioning of oil blocks on our territory , without prior consent , like the case Sarayaku has brought .
We had to go to international forums to try to see justice , ” Gualinga added .
Executive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Belén Paéz agrees that government agencies ignored geological assessments pointing at future catastrophe .
Talking to The Real News from Quito , Paéz said geological studies clearly showed 20 years ago that the area was prone to erosion , and any kind of infrastructure was at risk of collapse .
She said the consumers of Ecuadorian crude should share responsibility for the widespread contamination : “ The consumers are especially in California .
This oil is going from Ecuador to Pacific Ocean and then into the United States .
And then they are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and Chinese ships .
But also , the companies that are operating in this area of the Amazon are local companies ” .
She added that the responsible oil companies kept mum about the spill rather than warning communities as soon as the incident occurred .
“ They [ communities ] only realized when native people went to swim and came out drenched in oil , or developed rashes and fever because of the oil in the water reaching the food.
” Paéz , too , is skeptical about the local courts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he can not proceed with this case because he is COVID-19 infected .
“ And after two months of this Twitter announcement , the government has not been able to react or come with answers for this situation.
” She lamented the government continues to turn a blind eye despite the severity of the situation , and is instead interested in pushing to resume drilling and mining .
Meanwhile , back in Sarayaku , Gualinga is convinced the floods and soil erosion are climate-linked .
“ I ’ m very surprised and disturbed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ extreme weather and climate change phenomena with the extractive industry .
We ’ re seeing deforestation happening related to oil mining , but also to illegal and legal logging .
Right now , what we ’ re seeing is all kinds of tropical hardwoods , but particularly right now , balsa wood , which is being extracted and cut and being shipped to China.
” In a pleading and passionate tone , Gualinga said Indigenous elders have been warning this will happen if we don ’ t respect nature—And their words have been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unfettered extraction of oil and gas despite what we know are climate consequences of that .
And that will bring , you know this extreme weather , more pandemics .
Chaos will ensue if we can ’ t live in balance with nature ” .
Notable climate scientists such as Brazil-based Carlos Nobre agree with Indigenous peoples ’ assertion that certain ecosystems like the Amazon are vital for the balance of our planet and should be off limits to any type of resource extraction .
“ Clearly , what we ’ re talking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ profound change , ” Gualinga continued , “ and this is not what ’ s being talked about at the COPs [ UN climate conferences ] where they ’ re trying to improve a flawed system .
We ’ re talking about a bigger system change.
” She cautioned there is a dire need for this kind of larger view and realization that everything is connected , and that “ we are not divided by countries and borders and continents .
We are all connected .
The reality is that the earth is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
So we need to have almost a rebirth about our viewing the planet and the role of humanity .
”

Unprecedented flooding, the COVID-19 pandemic, and catastrophic oil spills are wreaking havoc in Ecuador’s Amazon and its Indigenous communities, one of the groups hardest hit by the climate-related emergencies fueled by unbridled drilling for oil and mining for minerals.
In April, as COVID-19 began to overwhelm the healthcare system, both of Ecuador’s transnational oil pipelines ruptured, dumping thousands of barrels of oil into the Coca river and its tributaries that provide fresh water and livelihoods to native communities. Regarded as Ecuador’s worst spill in a decade, the collapsed pipelines are still not fully repaired, and the government remains tightlipped over the incident. A similar environmental disaster was caused by an oil spill linked to Chevron-Texaco in Aguarico in Sept. 2013.
Caught between the pandemic, historic flooding, and governmental negligence, Ecuador’s Indigenous people have launched an international appeal to crowdsource rebuilding efforts, and a COVID-19 monitoring platform with help from international environmental groups. As of early August, nearly 2,000 Indigenous people have tested positive for COVID-19, and almost 40 deaths have been recorded in the monitored territories.
A country of 17 million inhabitants, Ecuador’s fortunes have nosedived in the combined wake of the pandemic and recent environmental catastrophes. The country’s confirmed COVID-19 cases now stand at nearly 85,000, with the total number of deaths approaching 6,000. But the actual number could be fifteen times higher, according to one analysis, with bodies reportedly littering the streets of Quito, the nation’s largest city.
Beset by the coronavirus pandemic and crude-contaminated waters, the Indigenous people of the Ecuadorian Amazon are entirely left to fend for themselves. With little or no government healthcare support, similar to the situation TRNN previously reported in Brazil and Peru, the native people of the Ecuadorian Amazon are struggling with food security, access to drinking water, and sanitation supplies.
The government in Quito recently moved to reopen businesses, allowing the oil, gas, and mineral industries to restart operations. Workers and equipment have been brought back into Indigenous land, considerably elevating communities’ exposure to COVID-19. The acute lack of essential items has also forced native people to venture out to nearby towns. In some cases, those who leave also bring back COVID-19.
Around the same time as the pipeline rupture, global oil prices dipped below zero as worldwide demand faltered under pandemic fears, sending Ecuador to the brink of default on foreign debt. The country is heavily dependent on oil revenue, and much of its $65 billion public debt comprises oil-backed loans from China. Despite the uncertain global oil market amidst surging COVID-19 cases, the government in Quito has announced plans to expand oil production.
And then came the floods. In April, Bobonaza River—located in Ecuador’s central Amazon—swelled to historic levels, leading to unprecedented flooding. Community bridges collapsed and water swept away homes and crops providing livelihoods to hundreds of families. The Kichwa tribe of Sarayaku are among the hardest hit. Water leveled with the roofs of traditional communal houses, destroying everything in its path, according to Amazon Watch. Within weeks came a second wave of floods, dealing a blow to rebuilding efforts that were underway.
Talking to The Real News from her native town, Patricia Gualinga, leader of the Indigenous Kichwa community of Sarayaku, said: “What we’ve seen over the last several months, mostly due to climate change, is a series of floods, tremendous rain that has been happening in the Ecuadorian Amazon. and it’s affected the waterways, the rivers and the basins of the Andes and the Amazon. Those rivers have swelled and created massive erosion along the Napo river, and as a consequence tremendous amount of water came down the waterways.”
Gualinga, who is at the forefront of the struggle for the rights of Indigenous people in Ecuador, added that erosion caused the two (transatlantic) pipelines that run alongside the river to rupture, spilling crude right into the water. “And as you can imagine, this has had a very huge impact on Indigenous people that live along these rivers and depend on them. We have incidents of children that have skin rashes, communities that don’t have potable water to drink, crops that have been damaged. So, you have tremendous contamination,” she lamented.
She blames the Ecuadorian government for being neglectful in managing the erosion, saying the consequences are immense. “You know, the Navajo River is a river that’s connected to not only Ecuador but also to Peru and waters of Amazon River. So crude oil flowing down this river is going to get further into the Amazon and continue to have a major impact on us.”
Amazon Watch’s analysis calls the oil spill the worst in a decade. Indigenous tribes sued the government and oil companies for criminal negligence, but trust in the justice system is at an all-time low because of the historic injustices and inequalities native people have endured over many decades. “It’s very exhausting because we always have to be suing the government because they continue to enact policies that violate our rights, like the illegal commissioning of oil blocks on our territory, without prior consent, like the case Sarayaku has brought. We had to go to international forums to try to see justice,” Gualinga added.
Executive Director of the Pachamama Foundation in Ecuador Belén Paéz agrees that government agencies ignored geological assessments pointing at future catastrophe. Talking to The Real News from Quito, Paéz said geological studies clearly showed 20 years ago that the area was prone to erosion, and any kind of infrastructure was at risk of collapse.
She said the consumers of Ecuadorian crude should share responsibility for the widespread contamination: “The consumers are especially in California. This oil is going from Ecuador to Pacific Ocean and then into the United States. And then they are [shipped] by the Chinese tanks, and Chinese ships. But also, the companies that are operating in this area of the Amazon are local companies”. She added that the responsible oil companies kept mum about the spill rather than warning communities as soon as the incident occurred. “They [communities] only realized when native people went to swim and came out drenched in oil, or developed rashes and fever because of the oil in the water reaching the food.”
Paéz, too, is skeptical about the local courts, saying the judge announced on Twitter he cannot proceed with this case because he is COVID-19 infected. “And after two months of this Twitter announcement, the government has not been able to react or come with answers for this situation.” She lamented the government continues to turn a blind eye despite the severity of the situation, and is instead interested in pushing to resume drilling and mining.
Meanwhile, back in Sarayaku, Gualinga is convinced the floods and soil erosion are climate-linked. “I’m very surprised and disturbed that the government is not connecting this extreme weather and climate change phenomena with the extractive industry. We’re seeing deforestation happening related to oil mining, but also to illegal and legal logging. Right now, what we’re seeing is all kinds of tropical hardwoods, but particularly right now, balsa wood, which is being extracted and cut and being shipped to China.”
In a pleading and passionate tone, Gualinga said Indigenous elders have been warning this will happen if we don’t respect nature—And their words have been ignored. “We continue to see unfettered extraction of oil and gas despite what we know are climate consequences of that. And that will bring, you know this extreme weather, more pandemics. Chaos will ensue if we can’t live in balance with nature”.
Notable climate scientists such as Brazil-based Carlos Nobre agree with Indigenous peoples’ assertion that certain ecosystems like the Amazon are vital for the balance of our planet and should be off limits to any type of resource extraction. “Clearly, what we’re talking about and calling for is a really profound change,” Gualinga continued, “and this is not what’s being talked about at the COPs [UN climate conferences] where they’re trying to improve a flawed system. We’re talking about a bigger system change.”
She cautioned there is a dire need for this kind of larger view and realization that everything is connected, and that “we are not divided by countries and borders and continents. We are all connected. The reality is that the earth is losing its balance and heading towards destruction. So we need to have almost a rebirth about our viewing the planet and the role of humanity.”
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