Obama Weighs Criminal Charges in BP Spill

According to this June 1 NYT article : “The Obama administration said [today] that it had begun civil and criminal investigations into the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. . . . Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said in New Orleans that he planned to ‘prosecute to the fullest extent of the law’ any person or entity that the Justice Department determines has broken the law in connection with the oil spill. . . . Mr.

Holder’s comments, which echoed those of Mr. Obama earlier in the day in the Rose Garden, reflected deepening frustration within the administration at the inability to stop the spill. . .”

The Holder announcement is here .

So, every question posed to every BP employee, from CEO Tony Hayward on down, will of course begin with a statement of Miranda rights. That will certainly help to get the story out quickly.

By the way, it’s an interesting word choice in the Times’s report: Obama’s announced search for criminal charges reflects “frustration” over BP’s inability to stop the spill. In what twisted psychology would a man’s frustrations over a current difficulty produce a desire to throw in jail someone (apparently anyone) who broke some law (apparently any law) during the onset of the difficulty? It sounds like what one might find in a tyrant’s court: When the tyrant is in a bad mood every misstep can mean the lash or the noose. It does not sound at all like what America did at the time of the Challenger disaster: Find out what went wrong and why. Quietly apportion blame. But mainly try to make sure such a thing will not happen again, while admitting that civilizataion at its highest will always be risky.

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