tv The Rachel Maddow Show MSNBC May 4, 2010 9:00pm-10:00pm EDT
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security screening, boarded the flight. the door was closed. the plane received okay for takeoff. at the last minute u.s. officials stopped the plane, boarded the flight and took mr. shahzad off the plane with them. >> from my calculation from the time faisal shahzad drove across broadway and parked that vehicle to when he was apprehended it was 53 hours and 20 minutes. we know jack bauer can do it in 24 minutes. but in the real world, 53 is a pretty good number. >> self-congratulations aside, shortly after police arrested mr. shahzad last night, he did reportedly admit to driving the jerry rigged dysfunctional car bomb into times square. >> it is clear that this was a terrorist plot aimed at murdering americans in one of
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the busiest places in our country. we believe that this suspected terrorist fashioned a bomb from rudementry ingredients, placed it in a rusty suv and drove it into times square with the intent to kill as many innocent tourists and theater goers as possible. >> if mr. shahzad hadn't readily admitted to that, investigators were prepared to present a trove of physical evidence linking him to the crime scene. a key ring left in the ignition of that suv containing a key to mr. shahzad's house in connecticut as well as to another car that he owned. whatever the level of mr. shahzad's intentions or affiliations, his terrorist trade craft seems to have been strictly low grade. that said, with his would be bomb neutralized and towed away planned shahzad in custody and talking to his interrogators, the livest wire of this investigation remains his links,
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his links to broader terrorist organizations and causes. within hours of the failed bombing attempt in times square on saturday night the taliban in pakistan, ttp was claiming credit for the attack. they posted this audio on youtube hailing the recent attack in the usa. this attack, they claimed was meant to avenge al qaeda two top leaders in iraq last month and predator drone strikes in pakistan. it has take on a new significant. the charge sheet says "after the arrest shahzad admitted he recently received bomb-making training in waziristan, pakistan. faisal shahzad's connections to pakistan are fairly extensive, although he is a u.s. citizen mr. shahzad was born in a village called pabbi.
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after becoming a u.s. citizen mr. shahzad traveled to karachi for more than a month. in february he returned to the united states from a five-month trip to pakistan. court documents say he received four telephone calls from a pakistani phone number on the day he purchased the suv that was ultimately left filled with explosives in teems square. none of those instances of travel to pakistan or phone calls are themselves evidence of any kind of wrongdoing, but arrests in this case are reportedly being made in pakistan and the race is on to try to find and trace any real connections that may exist between faisal shahzad and the pakistani taliban. if he did receive bomb-making training in pakistan or anywhere else it appears that training was, thankfully, tremendously inadequate. >> it does not appear, from our opinion, to be the most sophisticated device. there are a number of
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opportunities for the device to fail. >> the justice department released a diagram today, this diagram, of the contents of mr. shahzad's suv, several white bags of fertilizer, two five gallon gasoline canisters, 152 commercially available fireworks, three propane gas canisters and two alarm clocks connected to wires. apparently the fireworks were supposed to serve as a detonating device in this case. the problem is the propane tanks serving as the bomb's supposed main charge, the propane tanks are designed to be fire resistant. one u.s. official telling "newsweek" from what is known of the bomb's construction, it may have been assembled by a cursory reading of past bombings. it is unclear whether this bombing was directed by the pakistani taliban or any other terrorist group, if it was between the amateurish design of
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the bomb and the bomber left the keys to his house in the ignition, this incident will be taken as a warning of this terrorist aspirations not of their ability to execute. joining us from islamabad, nbc's chief foreign correspondent richard engel. thank you for getting up so early to join us. >> it is my pleasure. i have spoken to people who said this is very, very amateurish, it should be considered a warning sign. there are links definitely back to this country, back in pakistan. over the last 24 hours pakistani officials have arrested a dozen suspects in connection to this case. >> richard, what can you tell us about mr. shahzad's background? what you've been able to find about his links in pakistan and anything else we can find out about where he has come from and what his influence may have been? >> if you look at the chronology
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of his life, it paints a very interesting picture. faisal shahzad was from a privileged background. his father was a very senior commander in the pakistani air force. he actually established the pakistani version of the blue angels, that acrobatic flight group. he was at one stage head of the civil aviation authority here. so he came from a very prominent military family. then faisal, the son, travels to the united states, graduates with a ba in computer science from bridgeport, in connecticut in 2000, buys a house in connecticut in 2004. somewhat living the american dream. he gets a mortgage for about $214,000. it is a three bedroom house with a pool in the back. he is doing quite well. gets his mba in bridgeport. information technology in 2005. has the first of his two children in 2006.
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things start to fall apart for him later in his life. 2008 he starts to have trouble making payments on the mortgage. by 2009 he's already in foreclosure. he's becoming more and more estranged from his wife. at one stage the wife leaves. why she leaves is exactly unclear. then in 2009 when he's losing his house, he is having trouble with his marriage, he quits his job. he is working at this stage as a junior financial analyst and comes here to pakistan. he arrives in june of 2009 and he leaves in february 2010. it's this window, these eight months that law enforcement officials are focusing on right now. what was he doing in pakistan while he was here? faisal shahzad has admitted he did receive some training in making bombs and that training took place in waziristan. how much training and who was organizing it is a matter of investigation.
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>> richard, in terms of us trying to piece together the clues of how connected he may have been to militant groups, as you mentioned he has described -- he has said he received bomb-making training in pakistan. an official said he may have received military training. we are hearing reports he may have links to a military group. do any of those things sound important in understanding what we are dealing with and how connected he was? >> he was from a very prominent family as i just discussed. he was from an area where there was a lot of militant groups operating. his family has a home in pashar. he went to karachi, which has militant activity. when to pashar and to
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waziristan. the reason there have been suspected links to jasha muhammad, a kashmiri group, he is an ethnic kashmiri, and, two, the person who is now under arrest he met up with at karachi was arrested at a mosque that has links to that militant group. did he have associations with people involved in militant groups? it seems he certainly did. did they actively recruit him or did he come on his own? now, if this was a person living in the states who had quite a good life, a successful life and then was disaffected and decided to quit his job and come back here, it is very possible he came back on his own and started to seek out some of these groups, use his family connections, use the fact he had a u.s. citizenship, a u.s. passport to receive military training or bomb-making
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training. certainly he did not receive the top bomb-making training because of the amateurish nature of his attack. one former law enforcement official said if he received bomb-making training, the person who gave it to him should be given an "f." >> nbc news chief foreign correspondent live from islamabad after a very long night of reporting and travel. richard, thank you for your time tonight. appreciate it. >> pleasure. >> okay. so there is this thing that happens when you get arrested in america. no matter who you are, you get read your miranda rights. not just in cop shows. in real life, too. everybody freak out. today i spoke with an analytical chemist who is advising what is in that oil gusher spreading across the gulf of mexico. that is ahead. we are live from new orleans. please do stay with us.
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so it is a little hard to keep track of the domestic politics in the u.s. how we treat terror suspects. the shoe bomber guy was jamaican and british. the underpants bomber on the other hand was nigerian. huge uproar of him being read his rights. najibullah zazi, u.s. permanent resident of afghanistan. now faisal shahzad, in his case huge uproar on the right of him being read his rights. don't get me starting on the hutar militia. the selective random outrage over terrorism suspects' rights may be totally incoherent, but that doesn't mean it is heartfelt. that ridiculous story, next. n can be more confident in their ability to be ready with cialis.
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he has been and continues to be questioned by federal agents. as a result of those communications shahzad has provided useful information to authorities. >> joint terrorist task force agents and law enforcement from nypd interviewed shahzad under the public safety to the miranda rule. he was cooperative and provided valuable intelligence and evidence. he was eventually transported to another location, mirandized and continued talking. >> faisal shahzad was arrested and questioned immediately and he talked. he was mirandized and he talked. and he talked and he talked and
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talked and talked. reportedly confessing to receiving bomb-making training in waziristan in pakistan and to trying to blow up an suv and having a gun in his car. information that can be used to convict him of terrorism charges. what is wrong with this picture? i. is too legal. >> don't give this guy his miranda rights before we find out what it is about. >> what if they have already given him his miranda rights. >> obviously, that would be a serious mistake. there are legal ways of delaying that. >> what exactly makes reading someone their miranda rights such a mistake? what is the disadvantage to american counterterrorism and law enforcement officials using legal american tactics to arrest and question a terrorism suspect? no one can quite put their finger on what the exact problem
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is. it apparently doesn't feel right. that was made quite clear when congressman peter king heard about the arrest and sprinted toward the nearest reporter. he blurted out this gem of pure unconstitutional feeling "i hope that attorney general eric holder did discuss this with the intelligence community. if they believe they got enough from him, how much more should they get? did they mirandize him? i know he's an american citizen, but still." he actually said that, but still. i know there is a whole constitution, we're america thing, but still, i just hate it. senator joe lieberman took that free floating strategically incoherent anti-constitution feeling further announcing plans to amend american law to strip you of your citizenship, not if you are convicted or suspected of anything, purely on the basis of the government deciding you have bad affiliations. >> there is an existing law
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which hasn't been much used. it says if an american citizen is shown to be fighting in a military force that is an enemy of the united states, then that person is -- loses their citizenship and they no longer have the rights of citizenship. it is an old law that was adopted in a very different time of conflict. i think it is time for us to look at whether we want to amend that law to apply it to american citizens who choose to become affiliated with foreign terrorist organizations, whether they should not also be deprived automatically of their citizenship and, therefore, be deprived of rights that come with that citizenship when they are apprehended and charged with a terrorist act. >> automatically deprived. it should be noted that senator lieberman is a little unclear on his facts here. if you are arrested in the united states of america, the
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reason you get due process rights, the reason, for example, you get read your miranda rights is not because you are a citizen. foreigners arrested here get due process and read their rights. the reason you get due process in america is because this is america. remember? we called senator lieberman's office for clarification of his call to strip americans of their citizenship without trial or due process, as usual, no one in his office would call us back. which worries me he didn't want to declare me american anymore. joining us is chris hayes. hi mr. hayes. >> ms. maddow, how are you? >> i'm good. i'm on the banks of the mississippi and so far only half the bugs in town know i'm here. >> it is nice to have some co-hosts. that is exactly right.
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faisal shahzad apparently is talking quite readily to his questioners. right now. he was given his miranda rights yet we are having a lot of outrage on the right he has been mirandized. do you understand the anti-miranda argument? is there some substance to it? >> no. there is two strains. one is essentially just bad faith attempts to continue to use this terrorism kudjul on the president, to wound the president, to create this narrative we are weak on terrorism. knee jerk way to attack the president. others are just hoeltding a grudge on miranda. when miranda was brought down by the court they hatded it. they probably don't want you or i or citizens to have miranda
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there is an ideological vendetta prosecuted against miranda at the core of some of this. >> i wonder also if we are at a point with this where there is a, i guess, maybe a fork between paleo conservatives and libertarian conservatives in that we are seeing people that i think most notably glenn beck, host on fox news channel saying it is important that these suspects are read their miranda rights. we can't shred the constitution just because it is inconvenient. to see a split between somebody like john mccain and somebody the new right, the new libertarian right in the form of glenn beck, does that split map with that old grudge against miranda rights in the conservative movement? >> yeah, i think so. this is interestingly knotted ideological space.
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i do think one of the things you have seen is the influence of this libertarian streak, particularly the campaign of ron paul has sufficient fused the tea party movement and the right but only the parts of the argument with the state's use of economic power. all the critiques he makes of american imperial impl have been jetsonned because the neo conservatives control the foreign policy apparatus. the question is whether that can be pried apart. there have been increasing concerns in conservatives i follow and read about encroachments of the state in these kind of civil liberty situations. there is a potential for a fissure there. i don't think it is developed. >> chris, this proposal by lieberman to strip citizenship on the basis of affiliations with bad people.
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is this the sort of thing that joe lieberman might sort of run with with relish, not because he wants to pass it, but enjoys making liberals mad? >> if he does it speaking truly porly of his character. i hope he wakes up tomorrow and regrets what he said. it is an ode yus piece of legislation. the adjective affiliated is doing a tremendous amount of work that is a loose cry tier yan of stripping someone of their citizenship. citizenship doesn't come to play in mirandizing. this zomy argument that miranda only applies to citizens refuses do die. they didn't take that seriously. now that comes up here they want to get rid of the citizenship. >> washington editor of "the nation" identifying the zombie
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argument that won't die. thanks for your time. there are still thousands of barrels of oil spewing in the gulf of mexico from the deep horizons well tonight. one critical question, what kind of oil is doing the spewing? of course, it is all bad when you are talking about a spill. i visited the man in charge of figuring out what is polluting the gulf and threatening the shore. we looked at oil from the spill. it was a pretty amazing thing to see and awesome illustration of applied geekiness in an actual kem lab. that story ahead, please do stay with us. [ cellphone rings ] what up, dawg! it's your mother. [ male announcer ] dunk or don't dunk. choose your side.
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this is our second day here in louisiana covering the ongoing oil disaster in the gulf. today we drove to baton rouge. we are at lsu. one of the analytical lab. dr. edward overton, emeritus professor of environmental sciences has a ton of experience in advising on oil spills and the response to oil spills. he has been sent samples of what has actually pilled in the gulf to assess what that is. oil is not just oil is not just oil. it matters exact type of oil of the overall impact, what techniques are available to clean this up and how devastating this is going to be. we are in dr. overton's lab to
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learn more about what is continuing to flow into the gulf at the rate of tens of thousands of gallons a day. dr. overton, i appreciate your time. i don't want to take too much time away from what you are doing because it is so important for the response. when did you get your first examples? >> about a week ago this monday. we had a loose sample from the gulf and wellhead oil a couple three days later than that. >> i understand when you got that first sample you were very concerned about what was in that sample, what that said about what type of oil that was. can you show us that sample and tell us what concerned you? >> this is a subset, it has the consistency of roof tar. crude coming out of that production zone should be much more fluid and as is typical south louisiana crude. >> do you have an example of what would be south louisiana crude. >> this is a normal oil from the production zones in this area.
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south louisiana crude. low sulfur crude. a high-quality crude. the first samples i saw were something like this which really started to alarm us that there may be something unique about what is going on out there. >> you received subsequent examples that aren't quite that thick. >> not quite as thick as this. these are some of the samples that came off of skimmers that were cleaning up the oil spill. notice it is a kind of ready brown color. crude oil is typically black. this south louisiana crude. so you can see the difference in the tint. and this is an oil and water emulsion called a moo ed ed a m chocolate mousse, if you will. this is floating around and undergoing environmental change.
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>> is it possible what is coming out of the seabed is a few different types of material? we have some of this and some of this and some of the spill may be this hard to deal with oil? >> i doubt it. there is some speculation that is ooccurring. this is all coming out of one pipe. way down in the ground it is mixed together. i doubt it but i don't have a good explanation for that first sample. we are still trying to understand. we are dealing early on into a long-term event. we are in the first two weeks of probably a nine-month affair to clean up and understand the effects of this spill. >> you say nine months. is that because you think it is going to take nine months to stop the well from leak something. >> i think it is going to take three to six unless these cement barriers they are trying work. we hope and pray it work. to drill a relief well is very difficult to do. you have to drill down and
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intersect the damaged pipeline and cut it in half. you can imagine the difficulty of doing something like that. so worse case is they won't be able to use cement structures and we will have a spill of some magnitude until the well is capped and shut off below the surface. and that is not a very pretty picture in terms of the amount of oil. right now we are so early we don't know the ultimate fate that is why we are getting samples to try to understand what happens. ultimately, some of this stuff will dr the environment -- it will evaporate and mike robes witt eat off chemical structure and you are left with something tari like this. we don't want most of it to be tari like this. >> you are part of a scientific team for noaa. they send you the samples of what is spilling in the gulf. you are analyzing it. what happens to your findings? how is your research used in the
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containment cleanup effort? >> we do these tests and write up a summary of our understanding of what is going on and we pass it along to the group in noaa providing scientific advice to the coast guard. >> you can't give me the comprehensive answer the coast guard is receiving from everyone, what you are seeing is you have to keep it off the coast and you think this can be dispersed? >> mother nature is dispersing it. it is floating around. some of it is going get on shore. no doubt depending on the wind and wave conditions. how much of an impact remains to be seen. the worst case is bad. >> the threat of the worst case, is the likelihood of that affected by the quantity of how much oil is spilled. >> right. the more you put in there, the better the chances are that some of it in the circulation patt n patterns of this zone are going to impact the coastline. the sooner we can stop the flow,
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of course, the better. the next best thing is keeping it offshore to the extent we can. the last chain of attack is seeing what you can do to keep it away as it gets near shore. deflection booms. those are not particularly effective. the best thing is to keep it offshore. >> the first thing we have to do is cap the well. >> absolutely. cap the >> in terms of the overall timeline under which this is unfolding. you say reasonably expect mont to drill a relief well. that is horrifying. it is may right now, hurricane season starts in june. what is the combination of a big storm and a big spill mean? are you worried? is there reason to worry about hurricane season on the horizon here? >> you always worry about a hurricane season. period.
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everybody down here. in terms of the spill, of course, you'll have to crease offshore operations. everything will have to come ashore if a storm is looming. hurricane is mother nature's dispersants. it is so much energy, for a while after the spill oil will be -- will look like it is gone. it hasn't gone. it is just spread out. it is an incredible amount of energy in a short period of time that disperses the oil. concentrated oil is bad. dispersed oil is not good, but better than concentrated oil. so hurricanes have their good and their bad. it would be nice to have a nice mild hurricane to disperse a lot of oil but not cause much coastal damage. >> you described this of having the qualities of a category five hurricane. do you think this spill can do as much damage? >> it certainly could. will it? i mean, we are into possibilities versus probabilities. right now it is hard to predict how bad it is going be.
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it could be extremely devastating, but it may not be. a lot depends on factors we simply can't control, weather, the natural dispersal. it is just starting. we have only been doing this for two weeks. we don't know how quick that oil is being removed from the environment. what is happening to it. those are issue we are starting to figure out. >> plus capping that well. >> capping the well is the first thing. there is nothing we can do about that. that is bp and the engineers. >> dr. edward overton, this has been really, really helpful. thank you for your time. now get back to your work. we need you. >> i have to go look at my answering machine. >> thank you, sir. one reasonable reaction is to consider the possibility that the way we've been dealing with oil as a nation has problems that should be reconsidered. another possible reaction is to call for more drilling right
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welcome back to new orleans where you can see the lights of the crescent city bridge. in nashville, tennessee, today this is what it looked like downtown after flood waters of the cumberland river starts to reseed. 29 people died when torrential rains swelled the river to 12 feet above flood stage. rescue officials say they will fear they will find more bodies. this is not going to be an easy recovery for nashville. 50 of the city schools were damaged. this is the field where the tennessee titans play. that is water you are seeing there. the grand old opry, country music hall of fame, national symphony center took on water. the $2.5 million pipe organ was severely damaged as is the city's only water treatment
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plant remained in tact due to prisoners who piled up sandbags. that is the only one they've got. nashville has the one saved water treatment plant causing officials to ask people of the city to conserve water. keith noted you can donate $10 to the red cross to help in the rescue and recovery by texting. text the word redcross to 90999. we'll be right back. [ dog barks ] [ female announcer ] share your goal at walgreens.com and we'll celebrate you in times square. and to help you take the first step, we've lowered prices on more than 100 helpful everyday products like sunscreen. buy one today and get one half off. walgreens. there's a way to stay well.
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you said you bought a digiorno. but the pizza came with cheesy breadsticks. new digiorno pizza & breadsticks. taste. believe. it's not delivery. it's digiorno. she found the box. maybe 'cause you left it right on the counter. that's my choice. because with national, i roll past the counter... and choose any car in the aisle. oh, buck chooses the blue one! [ male announcer ] go national. go like a pro. choosing your own car? now, that's a good call.
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louisiana's democratic u.s. senator the one you don't associate with the hooker scandal, responded to the huge bp oil spill off the coast here in new orleans with a call for the country to recommit, to double down and hold steady to oil drilling. >> our country needs this oil. i mean, there is no question about that. we have to produce this oil at home unless we want to be completely reliant. we've got investigate, fine, clean up and then do the research necessary so this will never happen again.
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and we must continue to go forward. >> we have to continue to go forward. just as we've always done, for decades over and over and over again with each successive oil spill, explosion and fire. prices paid in lives and land and in economies. yet at the same time every president has paid lip service to dependency on oil and fossil fuels. on january 29, 1969, before i was born, six miles off the california coast there was a blowout at a union oil drilling platform. oil and natural gas gushed into the ocean. 200,000 crude killed thousands of sea birds. 35 miles of california coast were caked in tar. the next day earth day was born. never again would we take our environment for granted or abuse it or put it at such risk.
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>> we can no longer afford to consider air and water common property. free to be abused by anyone. without regard to the consequences. instead, we should begin now to treat them as scarce resources, which we are no more free to contaminate than we are free to throw garbage into our neighbor's yard. >> being and oil-based nation was not just a problem for what it was doing for our land and seas, it was a huge national security liability. >> a massive program must be initiated to increase energy supply, to cut demand and provide new stand by emergency programs to achieve the independence we want by 1985 increasing energy supplies is not enough. we must take additional steps to cut long-term consumption.
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>> that was in 1975. then december 15, 1976 came, near buzz standard's bay in massachusetts. the argo merchant broke apart. it dumped 7.7 million gallons of fuel oil. bad timing during the country's worst energy crisis. >> the energy crisis has not yet overwhelmed us, but it will if we do not act quickly. we simply must balance our demand for energy with our rapidly shrinking resources. >> our resources were not limbless. we could no longer afford to treat them as such. >> we will ensure that our people and our economy are never again held hostage by the whim of any country or cartel. >> eighth point i have to wait for the giant riverboat to go by. they want to be on tv, too.
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okay. i won't move to new orleans. one more? no, that's it. president after president insisted we would not be held hostage. then on march 24th, 1989, the king of all oil disasters, at least so far, the "exxon valdez" colliding with an underwater reach. fish, birds, otters, seals all devastated. 1,300 miles of coast did not line covered in oil. it was a national manmade disaster and national embarrassment prompts president george h.w. bush toll say, quote -- i promise you this, this nation, the united states of america will take the lead internationally. june 8th, 1990, an explosion and fire on the megaborg released
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over 5 million gallons off the coast of galveston. on august 10th, 1993, three ships collide near tampa, florida, 336,000 gallons of oil spill into tampa bay. september 28th, 2000, an oil tanker runs aground near port sulphur, half a million gallons of oil pour into the lower mississippi. all of that oil moving around with neverending opportunity for huge oopses. then one of the deadliest oil disasters in history, a massive sxlos at a bp oil refinery in texas city, kills 15 people. the government determined bp was so egregiously negligence german it levied the largest fine ever, $21.3 million against that company. four years later that record was broken when officials fined bp another $87 million for failing to correct hundreds of safety violations at the very same texas city refinery, four years after they killed 15 of their
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own workers at that same plant. clearly time for bold accomplice cat action, right? time to trot out the same tired line they trot out before nothing changes. >> keeping america competitive requires affordable energy. here we have a serious problem. america is addicted to oil. >> the deepwater horizon drilling rig off the louisiana coast here was feeding that addiction until an explosion two weeks ago killed 11 workers. as we speak, oil continues to flow unabated into the gulf of mexico with no end in sight. this time we'll get it right, right? we'll learn the lessonses from four decades of spills, crashes, explosions and fires. >> as president of the united states, i'm going to spare no effort to respond to this crisis for as long as it continues, and we will spare no resource to clean up whatever damage it's caused. while there will be time to fully investigate what happened on that rig and hold responsible parties accountable, our focus
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now is on a fully coordinated relentless response effort to stop the leak and prevent more damage to the gulf. >> we'll clean it up and go back to normal, normal presumably being the completely reliability effect of drilling and spilling. john boehner told roll call today, quote, this tragedy should remind us america needs a real, comprehensive in like. the all of the above strategy is a relic of the summer of 2008, when gas prices so high could make filling up your tank woozy. in places includings alaska's arctic wildlife refuge. here in louisiana, for all the criticism, failed attempts, rescue crews were able to reach the disaster site almost immediately. this is the gulf. accidents and disasters happen, human beings mess up, they mess up a lot. technology messes up. if you mess up in the arctic,
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where are the resources to clean up after yourselves? booms, the boats, the scientists and experts? where would you rather have a heart attack? in new york city near the hospitals and doctors and medicine? or on the moon? you obviously don't want a heart attack anywhere, but the republican energy plan is a heart attack on the moon plan, a plan that ignores decades of oil disasters, but we have to continue to just go forward, right? right, senator landrieu? just like we always do, keeping plugging along, right? d customee than any other luxury manufacturer the last 10 years says something. yet the award we value most is the fact that lexus has had more repeat loyal drivers in more of the last 10 years than any other luxury automotive brand. to express our thanks, we are featuring our best values of the year. giving you unprecedented access to lexus at your lexus dealer.
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paging the gulf of mexico foundation's position, which the times described as guardedly optimistic about the big spill. the sky is not falling. that should calm the nerves of a lot of those chicken little types than worried about the gusher offshore. it's the gulf of mexico we're talking about, and this is the gulf of mexico foundation, and they say it's sort of fine. who is the gulf of mexico foundation again? the investigative folks and propublica, reports. one of them is currently an executive at transocean, the company that owns the deepwater horizon rig that exploded last month. or at companies that provide products and services primarily to the offshore oil and gas industry. those includes shell, conoco phillips, llog, anadarko, anding international. so fear not, according to representatives of the petroleum
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business cloaked in a name that sounds environmentally protective, this isn't so catastrophic after all. don't forget, before astroturf meant fake grassroots ginned up by lobbyists, it meant flooring, flooring made of plastic. i have just one word for you -- plastics. did you know that plastics are a petroleum product? that does it for us tonight here in new orleans. we'll see you again tomorrow night back in new york city. keith olympic berman starts right now. thanks for being with us. which of these stories will you be talking about tomorrow? from times square to arrested in 53 hours and 30 minutes. and a president is not crowing and not trying to terrify the citizens for whom he works. >> as americans and as a nation, we will not be terrorized. >> the suspect is faisal shahzad
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and he is singing like a bird. >> he has been talking to us and providing useful information. >> providing it before and after he was read his miranda rights, such as he was trained in a pakistani terror camp, arrests there, despite pete king's moronic quote, i know his an american citizen, but city. despite john mccain calling the mirandizing a serious mistake. general paul eaton saying king and mccain are putting american lives at risk and my special comment, what part of america does john mccain actually love? republicans push for more offshore drilling even as the cataclysm from the destroyed gulf rig gets worse and closer. nashville, fema arrives. 19 dead in tennessee alone. we go live. >> mother nature can be cruel and certainly she's dealt us a bad hand. >> "worsts" the latest lie from charles krauthammer. no successful attacks under bush after 9/11.
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