CounterSpill

BP has a history of impeding the flow of information, but recent events have turned a trickle of truth into an outright downpour.

Greenpeace obtained 30,000 documents related to BP's actions surrounding last year's oil spill.

And James Turner of Greenpeace told the Sun Herald that it's just the beginning.

“The key thing is that we’ve only got a fraction of the documents back. We’ll be adding more to this all the time.”

Last July, the environmental organization submitted multiple Freedom of Information requests to get access to the documents. Although the information was slow coming at first, the organization is now getting new content every day. 

However, Greenpeace says that there is too much for it to examine on its own. So it created a separate website to house the scans of the documents, inviting the public to peruse and identify any evidence of wrongdoing. Anyone interested in viewing them can log on to PolluterWatch.org and sign in under the username "guestuser" with the password "guest."

Already, there is some indication of questionable behavior to be found. The Guardian reprinted one email from June 24, 2010, in which one of BP's "environmental experts" sent an message to colleagues, asking:

"Can we 'direct' GRI [Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative] funding to a specific study (as we now see the governor's offices trying to do)? What influence do we have over the vessels/equipment driving the studies vs the questions?"

This may confirm fears that many have had regarding BP's influence over the scientific reports it funds. Back in July of 2010, the Los Angeles Times reported that a congressional committee warned BP against "any effort to muzzle scientists" as they thought there was "potential suppression of scientific data and analysis."