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Here's how this article begins:

"I've seen this movie before. In 1989, I was a fraud investigator hired to dig into the cause of the Exxon Valdez disaster. Despite Exxon's name on that boat, I found the party most to blame for the destruction was ... British Petroleum (BP)."

http://www.truthout.org/slick-...-known-too-well59178

This account by investigative reporter Greg Palast, is an eye-opener. He recounted this story in greater detail in a chapter he contributed to a book published in 2005, The Secret Histories, an amazing compendium of "the hidden stories that have shaped our world."In that book, the chapter on BP/Valdez is entitled. "A Well-designed Disaster: The Untold Story of the Exxon Valdez." A sub-chapter heading is "Slimey Limeys." I'll let you figure out who that applies to.

The Secret Histories acount includes much of the information in the link, plus other details of just how low BP stooped in the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez incident.

Yet more on BP's grossly sleazy,unlawful and environmentally destructive activities:

http://www.greenchange.org/article.php?id=5870
Here's an excerpt:

"In Alaska, BP first brought unwelcome attention to itself more than 20 years ago in the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Exxon was BP's partner in Alaska's Prudhoe Bay oilfield, the nation's largest, and shared in the ownership of the trans-Alaska pipeline system, known as Alyeska and headed then by a BP executive who was on loan to the pipeline company.

After a series of documents were leaked to news reporters and Congress that showed how Alyeska failed to live up to its promises to contain spills, that executive, James Hermiller, in February 1990 ordered an undercover operation to track down the leaker.

Hermiller's chief suspect was Chuck Hamel, a former congressional aide and oil broker in Alexandria, Va., who became a conduit between industry whistleblowers and reporters. With Hermiller's blessing, Alyeska hired Wackenhut Corp., a security company in South Florida, to catch Hamel and identify his whistleblowers.

Wackenhut set up a phony environmental law firm and attempted to get Hamel to use it to pursue public interest lawsuits against Alyeska and Exxon. They stole Hamel's trash, bugged an office he used and hired a beautiful blonde to pretend she was an environmentalist in order to get Hamel to talk.

But the scheme collapsed seven months later when one of the Wackenhut operatives came to believe that it was Hamel who was honorable, not Alyeska, and switched sides, bringing the Wackenhut spies with him.

Hermiller retired at the age of 57 in 1993 in the wake of subsequent investigations and congressional hearings and was eventually replaced by a new BP official, who vowed to clean up Alyeska's corporate culture. Hamel successfully sued and used some of his damage award to continue his watchdog pursuit of the industry."

A Federal judge told Aleyska that Hermiller's conduct in the attempted smearing of Hamel was "reminiscent of Nazi Germany."
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