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Atlanta ? The allegation by oil giant BP that Halliburton, a subcontractor on the doomed Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, destroyed data about a cement slurry operation is a glimpse into a nasty corporate court battle set to go to trial in federal court in New Orleans in February.
BP has assumed responsibility for the explosion, which killed 11 workers and eventually spewed more than 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. But it is fighting Halliburton and rig owner Transocean in court over liability for damages. Next year's trial is BP's attempt to get a federal court to impose sanctions against Halliburton, which has refused to admit liability for the explosion and spill. So far, BP has shelled out $40 billion to cap the damaged well and clean up the Gulf and soiled coastline.
In asking the court to sanction Halliburton over the missing data, BP has played its most powerful card yet. The legal tussle has been a contentious one all along, prompting President Obama to describe it last year as ?executives of BP and Transocean and Halliburton falling over each other to point the finger of blame at somebody else.?
IN PICTURES: Sticky mess: The Gulf oil spill's impact on nature
In court papers filed Monday, BP alleges that Halliburton, an oil field services corporation once run by former Vice President Dick Cheney, destroyed data from tests on a cement slurry that the firm uses in drilling operations. Several investigations have identified a similar slurry as a root cause of the Deepwater Horizon accident. BP also wants the court to order a third-party inspection of a key Halliburton computer to determine if any of the test data can be recovered.
As the rig's crew worked in April 2010 to wrap up operations at the Macondo well, a series of managerial mistakes and safety equipment failures compounded the failed plug and exacerbated the accident and ensuing spill, congressional investigators have found.
Monday's court filing by BP charges that two Halliburton employees said, under oath, that they destroyed notes and samples that gave insight into the stability of a cement slurry similar to the one that was used in the Macondo wellhead. One reason for discarding the data, one Halliburton employee testified, was concern that the data would be misinterpreted during a legal proceeding, according to the BP documents.
"Halliburton intentionally destroyed the evidence related to its nonprivileged cement testing, in part because it wanted to eliminate any risk that this evidence would be used against it at trial," the BP filing says.
?Halliburton's role is at once the most limited ? it was only doing a small piece of the job ? but is also critical to the blowout that occurred,? says David Uhlmann, former chief of the Justice Department's environmental crimes unit and now a law professor at the University of Michigan.
Aside from civil liability questions, the bigger worry for Halliburton, he says, is that BP's allegations, if substantiated in court, raise the possibility of criminal charges. ?If evidence is destroyed in the aftermath of the nation's worst environmental disaster ? that only increases the likelihood that they would face criminal charges and may also mean that they face additional obstruction of justice charges from the Justice Department,? says Mr. Uhlmann.
Halliburton, for its part, said Monday it disagrees with BP's assertion and will rebut the allegations in court. BP's filing is an attempt to ?incorrectly attribute operation decisions to Halliburton,? the company told CNN on Monday.
"Every contributing cause where Halliburton is named, the operational responsibility lies solely with BP. Halliburton remains confident that all the work we performed with respect to the ... well was completed in accordance with BP's specifications for its well construction plan and instructions," Zelma Branch, a Halliburton spokeswoman, told CNN.
BP has gained some ground on its contention that Halliburton and Transocean share legal responsibility for the spill. In October, the US government found liability with BP, Transocean, and Halliburton, citing all three companies for violating oil industry regulations ? a move expected to result in massive fines for a deadly spill that soiled hundreds of miles of Gulf coastline and temporarily devastated the region's fishing and tourism industries.
In its final report in January, the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling said a "root cause" of the explosion was "insufficient controls in place" at Halliburton to ensure that "test results were vetted rigorously."
"On the cement, they did the test, but they didn't communicate the result of that test," commission member Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, told The New York Times in January. "There were some real communication gaps, a lot of management errors, a lot of lack of information offshore and onshore, and among contractors."
IN PICTURES: Destructive oil spills
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60-Second Science |
Mind & Brain
People who scored high on standard tests for creativity were also more likely to be willing to cheat for personal gain. Sophie Bushwick reports.
December 5, 2011?|
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Why do cheaters cheat? Perhaps because they can think up original ways to avoid work: a new study finds that creativity is tied to a willingness to cheat. The work is in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. [Francesca Gino and Dan Ariely, The dark side of creativity: Original thinkers can be more dishonest]
The teacher hands back copies of a multiple-choice test where you circled your answers. She then tells you to transfer your answers to a sheet where you fill in circles next to each answer. But your copy of the test includes her marks for the correct answers. If you were paid per correct answer, would you fill in the bubbles with your answers or the right ones?
The researchers used a variety of tests like this one to determine if the study?s participants were willing to cheat. In addition to integrity tests, the subjects underwent standard psychological evaluations to measure their creativity. The researchers found a significant correlation between innovative minds and a willingness to bend the rules for personal gain. Now, intelligence alone did not indicate dishonesty. But it may be creativity that puts the art in a con artist.
?Sophie Bushwick
[The above text is a transcript of this podcast]
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=4d5ee2866effc78e8db5f57c4cf9f048
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KABUL, Afghanistan ? In Afghanistan's first major sectarian assault since the fall of the Taliban regime a decade ago, a suicide bomber slaughtered 56 Shiite worshippers and wounded more than 160 others Tuesday outside a Shiite shrine in the capital.
The body of a woman, clutching a dead child in each arm, was sprawled along a dirt road littered with shoes, bloodstained clothing, hats and body parts after the blast, which took place as a bombing that killed four Shiites in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
A loudspeaker at the shrine blasted a recitation of the Quran as ambulances with loud sirens rushed in to carry away the dead and wounded. Outside a hospital in Kabul, a man sobbing with other relatives cried out "Mother! My mother!"
The Taliban condemned the attack, which was reminiscent of the wave of sectarian bloodshed that shook Iraq during the height of the war there. Suspicion centered on militant groups based in neighboring Pakistan where Sunni attacks on minority Shiites are common.
A man who claimed to be from Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a Pakistan-based group that has carried out attacks against Shiite Muslims, called various media outlets in Pakistan to claim responsibility for the bombing in Kabul. The validity of the claim could not be determined.
Until now, the decade-long Afghan war has largely been spared sectarian violence, where civilians are targeted simply for their membership in a particular religious group. Tuesday's attack suggests that at least some militant groups may have shifted tactics, taking aim at ethnic minorities such as the Hazara who are largely Shiite and support the Afghan government and its Western partners.
The Afghan Taliban, who are mostly ethnic Pashtuns and nearly all Sunni Muslims, had been attempting to diversify their ranks, expanding to areas outside their southern homeland, recruiting some Tajiks and others and forging an alliance with Uzbek militants in the north in an attempt to present themselves as a national resistance movement.
Unlike some Iraqi militant groups ? who consider anybody from the rival community a legitimate target ? the Taliban have generally refrained from mass attacks against purely civilian targets. They usually focus instead on the U.S.-led coalition, Afghan forces or government offices, although recently the Taliban have been responsible for a rising number of civilian deaths in smaller attacks, according to a U.N. report.
Tuesday's powerful explosion in Kabul was the deadliest attack in the capital since July 7, 2008, when a suicide car bombing at the gates of the Indian Embassy killed more than 60 people.
The bomb went off shortly before noon as bare-chested men were beating and cutting themselves with knives and chains to mourn the death of one of their most beloved saints. They had gathered at the Abul Fazl shrine with a blue minaret to mark the holiday called Ashoura, which honors the death of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, in 680 A.D.
Black and gray smoke spiraled skyward from the bomb site after the blast. Lifeless bodies were lying on top of one another. Survivors with blood-smeared faces cried for help.
"It was a very powerful blast," said Mahood Khan, who is in charge of the shrine. "It was out of control. Everyone was crying, shouting. It is a disaster."
At roughly the same time in Mazar-i-Sharif, 185 miles (300 kilometers) to the north, four other Shiites were killed and 21 were wounded when a bomb strapped to a bicycle exploded as a convoy of Shiites was driving down a road, said Sakhi Kargar, a spokesman for the Ministry of Public Health.
In the southern city of Kandahar, one civilian was killed when a motorcycle bomb exploded. But the Kandahar provincial police chief, Gen. Abdul Raziq, said the blast did not appear related to the Shiite holiday.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, cutting short his trip to Europe after meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, said the attack on Shiites was unprecedented in scope and marked the first time that one had been carried out during a religious event.
"Without any doubt, the enemies of Afghanistan are trying to separate the Afghan people," Karzai said in a statement. He didn't blame any specific insurgent group, but when he uses the phrase "enemies of Afghanistan," it is widely believed that he is referring to countries, including Pakistan, that he suspects are backing insurgents fighting in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan's Shiite community of mostly Hazaras make up about 20 percent of the nation's 30 million population. Hard-line Sunnis consider Shiites nonbelievers because their customs and traditions differ from the majority sect.
"This was not Afghan. They (the attackers) were from outside," said Rahmaz Ali, a Shiite elder in the west end of Kabul. "Sunni and Shia in Afghanistan are like brothers."
That's not the case in neighboring Pakistan where Sunni militants linked to al-Qaida and the Taliban have carried out scores of bombings and shootings against minority Shiites. One of the deadliest groups has been the Punjab-based Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which claimed responsibility this summer for gunning down 26 Shiites riding in a bus through southwestern Baluchistan province.
Muhammad Mohaqeq, a top leader of Afghan Shiites and the Hazara faction, blamed insurgents who are backed by foreign nations and operate under the guise of the Islam faith.
"I don't know. It's possible that the tension between Pakistan and Karzai and the U.S. and Pakistan provoked it," he said.
Andrew Exum, a civilian adviser to former Gen. Stanley McChrystal, said he worried the attack was launched to incite sectarian tensions in Afghanistan.
Some Afghans think the war will worsen after tens of thousands of international combat troops with the U.S.-led NATO coalition withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014. They fear a repeat of the four-year civil war that broke out after a Soviet-backed government collapsed in 1992, with ethnic factions turning their weapons on one another.
"One big worry over the past year has been that factions within Afghanistan have ? independent of anything NATO has been doing ? begun to prepare for another civil war in the aftermath of a NATO withdrawal," said Exum, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, a think tank in Washington. "I see the attack simply hastening that process."
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid called the attack "antihuman and anti-Islamic."
But not everyone was convinced that the Taliban's hands were clean.
"Jihadists have come to realize that taking credit for killing Muslims ? be they Sunni or Shia ? garners them more ill will than support from the local population," said Rita Katz, director of the U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks jihadist Web sites.
That doesn't mean they necessarily did not execute or plan them, she said.
"So long as they are able to maintain their distance from the attacks, jihadist groups benefit from sectarian strife because it shows the ineffectiveness of the government in providing security for the country, leading to fear and retaliation within the population and instability."
___
Associated Press writers Amir Shah, Patrick Quinn and Heidi Vogt in Kabul and David Rising in Berlin contributed to this report.
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Afghan police officers stand guard at the scene of a suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2011. A suicide bombing tore through a crowd of Shiite worshippers marking a holy day Tuesday in the Afghan capital, the deadliest of twin attacks that killed scores of people in a rare burst of violence targeting the minority Islamic sect. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)
Afghan police officers stand guard at the scene of a suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2011. A suicide bombing tore through a crowd of Shiite worshippers marking a holy day Tuesday in the Afghan capital, the deadliest of twin attacks that killed scores of people in a rare burst of violence targeting the minority Islamic sect. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)
An Afghan police officer stands guard at the scene of a suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2011. A suicide bombing tore through a crowd of Shiite worshippers marking a holy day Tuesday in the Afghan capital, the deadliest of twin attacks that killed scores of people in a rare burst of violence targeting the minority Islamic sect. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)
Afghan police officers stand guard at the scene of a suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2011. A suicide bombing tore through a crowd of Shiite worshippers marking a holy day Tuesday in the Afghan capital, the deadliest of twin attacks that killed scores of people in a rare burst of violence targeting the minority Islamic sect. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? Afghan officials say 48 people have been killed in a suicide bombing targeting Shiite worshippers in Kabul.
The attacker blew himself up Tuesday in the midst of a crowd of men, women and children gathered outside the Abul Fazl shrine to commemorate the seventh century death of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson Imam Hussein.
Mohammed Zahir, chief of the Kabul Criminal Investigation Department, gave the death toll and said more than 100 people were wounded.
Officials say four other people were killed when a bomb strapped to a bicycle exploded as a convoy of Afghan Shiites drove by in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? A suicide bomber struck a crowd of Shiite worshippers marking a holy day Tuesday in the Afghan capital as at least 20 people were killed in an unprecedented wave of violence against the minority Islamic sect in Afghanistan.
The Kabul attacker blew himself up in the midst of a crowd of men, women and children gathered outside the Abul Fazl shrine to commemorate the seventh century death of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson Imam Hussein. Some men were beating themselves in mourning and food was being distributed.
A bomb strapped to a bicycle also exploded as a convoy of Afghan Shiites was driving down the road, shouting slogans for the festival known as Ashoura, in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
Sayed Kabir Amiri, an official in charge of Kabul hospitals, said at least 16 people killed and more than 100 were wounded in Kabul. At least four were killed and 21 wounded in the Mazar-i-Sharif attack, said Sakhi Kargar, a spokesman for the health ministry.
Religiously motivated attacks on Shiites are rare in Afghanistan although they are common in neighboring Pakistan. No group claimed responsibility for Tuesday's blasts, reminiscent of the wave of sectarian attacks that shook Iraq during the height of the war there.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, speaking at a news conference after meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, said the attack was unprecedented in scope.
He said it was "the first time that on such an important religious day in Afghanistan terrorism of that horrible nature is taking place."
Mohammad Bakir Shaikzada, the top Shiite cleric in Kabul, said he could not remember a similar attack having taken place on such a scale.
"This is a crime against Muslims during the holy day of Ashoura. We Muslims will never forget these attacks. It is the enemy of the Muslims who are carrying them out," he said, declining to place blame.
The last incident of violence between Shiites and Sunnis following the U.S. invasion 10 years ago occurred in early 2006, during Ashoura commemorations in the western city of Herat. During those riots, blamed on Islamic extremists, five people were killed and more than 50 injured.
Mahood Khan, who is in charge of the Abul Fazl shrine, said the explosion occurred just outside a courtyard where dozens of worshippers were lined up as they filed in and out of the packed building.
A few minutes after the blast, bodies could be seen loaded into the trunks of cars while wounded were led away by friends and relatives. Survivors wept in the streets.
"It was a very powerful blast," Khan said. "The food was everywhere. It was out of control. Everyone was crying, shouting. It is a disaster."
Mustafa, a shopkeeper, said he and his mother were delivering food to the worshippers when the blast occurred. Two groups of 150 to 200 people from Kabul had just prayed at the shrine and left.
Another group of more than 100 from Logar province was entering when the explosion occurred. He said the suicide bomber was at the end of the line of worshippers from Logar when he blew himself up near one of the gates to the shrine.
"It was very loud. My ears went deaf and I was blown 3 meters (yards)," said Mustafa, who uses only one name. "There was smoke and red blood on the floor of the shrine. There were people lying everywhere."
The shrine's loudspeaker continued to blast a recitation of the Quran as ambulances carried bodies and wounded away. Women stood outside the shrine wailing and holding crying children.
The mosque had been packed with worshippers and a large crowd that could not fit inside were gathered outside the building. The bomber walked into this crowd and detonated his explosives, said witness Mohammad Sharif.
The shrine is close to the palace where Karzai lives and who is in Europe to attend an international conference on Afghanistan. It is named after Abul Fazl, who was an adviser to a 14th century Mogul emperor. The shrine and its blue minaret is one of Kabul's better known landmarks. It is located in Murad Khane area near the Kabul river, a district that has been listed by the World Monuments Fund as one of its 100 most endangered sites of cultural heritage.
___
David Rising contributed from Berlin, Deb Riechmann, Heidi Vogt and Patrick Quinn from Kabul.
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CHICAGO ? Rod Blagojevich's days of reckoning arrive Tuesday when a federal judge opens a sentencing hearing for the disgraced former Illinois governor on 18 corruption counts, including trying to auction off President Barack Obama's old Senate seat.
The impeached state executive-turned-reality TV star has good reason to feel anxious and afraid at the two-day hearing in Chicago. He faces the prospect of 10 or more years behind bars.
If Judge James Zagel settles on a sentence Wednesday of more than a decade, that would make it one of the stiffest penalties imposed for corruption in a state with a long history of crooked politics.
Prosecutors will ask Zagel to imprison the twice-elected governor for 15 to 20 years, arguing he has not only shirked all responsibility for his crimes but repeatedly thumbed his nose at the U.S. justice system.
Blagojevich has already paid a price in public ridicule and financial ruin, the defense argues in proposing a term of just a few years. They also seem bent on an approach judges often frown upon at the sentencing stage: Continuing to insist their client is innocent.
Both sides could finish their pitches to Zagel during Tuesday's hearing, which was moved to a large ceremonial courtroom to accommodate expected crowds. But Zagel says he'll wait until Wednesday to pronounce a sentence ? possibly so he can sleep on it.
The 70-year-old judge, who played a judge in the 1989 movie "Music Box," must answer nuanced questions according to complex sentencing algebra, including whether any good Blagojevich accomplished as governor counterbalances the bad.
In describing the humiliation his family has faced, the defense cited Blagojevich's appearances on NBC's "Celebrity Apprentice," where he struggled to use a cellphone, and his wife, Patti, eating a tarantula on the reality show, "I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!"
After sentencing, Zagel will likely give Blagojevich weeks before he must report to prison. Once there, the man heard scoffing on FBI wiretaps about earning a low six-figure salary would have to take a prison job ? possibly scrubbing toilets ? at just 12 cents an hour.
Blagojevich's sentencing comes just days before his 55th birthday and three years to the week of his Dec. 9, 2008, arrest.
The jury deadlocked in his first trial, agreeing on just one of 24 counts ? that Blagojevich lied to the FBI. Jurors at his recent retrial convicted him on 17 of 20 counts, including bribery.
Legal experts have said Blagojevich needs to display some remorse when, as expected, he addresses Zagel Tuesday or Wednesday. But the big unknown is whether the often cocksure ex-governor will beg for mercy at the hearing or yet again protest his innocence.
A flat-out apology isn't always considered a must. If it isn't sincere, it can only anger a judge.
The defense could call others to speak in court. But as Blagojevich became politically radioactive, longtime friends scattered, so it's not clear who would be willing to speak for him now.
Wives often plea for leniency, but Zagel likely wouldn't view Patti Blagojevich sympathetically. On FBI wiretaps, she was heard encouraging her husband's bid for campaign cash or a top job in exchange for an appointment to Obama's vacated seat.
___
Michael Tarm can be reached at www.twitter.com/mtarm
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