Jesse Ventura Takes BP Gulf Oil Questions To National TV

By Andrew Kreig

TruTV host Jesse Ventura has been raising important and rarely answered questions recently on his show. On Dec. 10, for example, the former Minnesota governor, Navy SEAL and professional wrestler explored on Conspiracy Theory, "Gulf Oil Disaster Planned?"

Readers here may wonder why JIP would provide further visibility for such conspiratorial questions, especially with the implication that high figures in government might not be fighting effectively for the ordinary resident of affected areas. My own journey in the nation's capital has included authoring a Clinton Transition memo for the well-connected Carol Browner in 1992 to help prepare her for her interview with the president-elect to become EPA administrator. This job was, of course, the beginning of her national proinence leading to her current post as President Obama's special assistant for climate and energy. Along the way, I attended Obama's first major Washington fund-raiser in March 2007.  But I saw also how neither Browner, nor EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson nor Attorney Gen. Eric Holder responded to letters this fall by Alabama Democratic Senate nominee Bill Barnes seeking answers to his pointed questions on behalf of Gulf residents about the disaster.  JIP hosted Barnes at the National Press Club, where he spoke eloquently about the lack of response from officials. His letters are contained in our news article, "Senate Nominee Disappointed With DOJ, EPA."  A video of his press conference is on the JIP website, broken down by topic. His remarks are well worth watching, and there's even some humor in the final segment. Just to be clear, however, Barnes wasn't making allegations or even asking questions remotely as tough as Ventura's. The important point, however, is that if a Senate primary winner can't get answers from political appointees even from his own party who can?

From JIP's sources along the Gulf, we saw also early on that the government and conventional media persisted in calling the disaster a "spill" or a "leak" when that was clearly a misnomber for a "gusher" if not "an oil volcano," a term we started using early last May. Equally inexplicably, we saw also recurent reports that the government was cooperating with BP in spreading chemicals to disperse the oil, low-balling damage estimates, restricting access by news reporters and other researchers from the affected areas and setting up a questionable claims process in cooperation with BP to adjudicate legal claims so promptly through special master Kenneth Feinberg that many potential claimants couldn't possible know the full facts of the matter.

Ventura has undertaken a dramatic journey from a Vietnam combat veteran to a rare voice who raises daring questions publicly and seeks answers from the powerful. Given the staeks of the matter when a chemical-caused cancer might have a 20-year latency before symptoms, it's a no-brainer to at least note on this site what kinds of questions he and his team are asking. Blogger Andrew Zarowny summarized last week's program on the website Rightjuris.com this way: "Dots are connected showing possible motives for the ‘accident.’ Jesse Ventura and his team of investigators unravel a trail of innuendo leading to profit motives, a relocation program by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to depopulate the Gulf region, and even a wild claim that Barack Obama has been a CIA ‘asset’ since the 1980s!"

Even what might seem a wild claim could have substance.  Investigative reporter and author Wayne Madsen, a former National Security Agency analyst, has been reporting since February 2009 that documentation exists showing hidden ties between Obama and national security operatives. He's since published many articles illustrating how Obama's policies have been extremely predictable, given his background.  Stay tuned.

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