Government Takeover Of Official BP Gulf Oil Spill Website Means Data Will Disappear And Links Will Break
Posted by Alexander Higgins - July 7, 2010 at 10:27 pm - Permalink - Source via Alexander Higgins Blog
Loading ...In case you have not read it yet the official BP Gulf Oil Spill website, deepwaterhorizonresponse.com, will soon be taken over by the Federal Government and will be moved from it’s current “.com” domain to a new “.gov” domain.
While normally I would welcome an announcement that the Federal Government is stepping up to take over more control of the BP Gulf Oil Spill this move seems to scream of a smoke and mirrors stunt.
Moving an entire web site to a new domain in the middle of a crisis seems to lack any sense of logic because millions of links to web pages and documents on the site will likely become broken.
Simply put the move lacks an sense of logic unless of course the Federal Government is looking for a way to make the information on the site disappear with raising to many eyebrows.
Seriously this is bad news for those of us trying to document the ongoing cover up that continues to unfold during the BP Gulf Oil Spill.
Call me a conspiracy theorists of a “tin foil hatter” all that you want but think about it.
I must have dozens of links to “official documentation” that is on the site and by now there must be hundreds of millions of web pages on the Internet with similar links.
You can be rest assured that when the Federal Government takes over the site and moves it to a the new “.gov” domain every single one of those links will break.
Furthermore some of those the documents on the site will undoubtedly disappear altogether .
Then there is the problem of links in the content and documents on the website itself that will break as they will point to the old deepwaterhorizonresponse.com website.
Shortened links using third party link shorteners for sites like Twitter and Facebook will also become broken.
Still not convinced this is smoke and mirrors?
I thought to myself, let me make a web crawler to download the entire website before its gone.
But I soon ran into a problem. The Deepwater Horizon Response web site does not just host the official BP Gulf Oil Spill response website but it also hosts dozens of other Government web sites as well.
Try this. Go to Google.com and enter the search phrase “site:http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/”, without the quotes.
Observe the first page of the search results and you’ll notice some of the different Government websites hosted there.
Notice that the are several different numbers in the URLS.
Unlike a normal website each one of those numbers are in fact a Site ID identifying a different web site most of which appear to be Government websites.
For example, check out the site with an ID of 21 http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/go/doc/21/473415/
The Deepwater Horizon Site ID 21 is 13th District Public Affairs for the US Coast Guard, not a BP site.
Then check out this to Site Id of 834 of http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/go/site/834/
Deepwater Horizon site id 834 is the US Coast Guard Site for the Port of Los Angeles
Now compare that website to this the Los Angeles Coast Guard site at http://www.uscglosangeles.com
http://uscglosangeles.com is the same site as Deepwater Water Horizon site id 834 shown above.
So what does this mean?
The Deepwater Horizon Web site is being ran on a Content Management System apparently owned by Pier Systems.
The Government already hosts websites using this service but feels the need to “take over” the BP site and move the Deepwater Horizon Response website to a seperate “.gov” domain so it can better control the information on the site to be more “transparent”.
I am just not buying it.
If the Government wants unilateral control over the the website then why not just take over the existing site and leave the links and the data on the site intact.
The already hosts dozens of websites using the service and I am just not buying that they are taking over the site to be more transparent.
The bottom line is if there is any information or documentation on that website that you need, you better download it and save it before the Government takes it over.
If you wait too long you just may find out that the documents or data you are looking for have dissappeared.
No matter how much effort is put into the site move there will undoubtedly be information that disappears whether on accident or by intentional scrubbing.
Furthermore, once the website is finally moved we need to keep in mind that Government websites don’t exactly have the best reputation for being able to find information easily.
MSNBC reports on the Government take over of the website.
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is expected to take over control of the central information website on the Gulf oil spill response that has been run jointly by various agencies and BP for the 2½ months since the rig explosion.
The Department of Homeland Security wants a one-stop shop for information that is completely overseen by the government as it settles into the long-haul of dealing with the response to the disaster. The U.S. Coast Guard falls under Homeland Security’s authority.
BP and the federal government are part of a unified command that is working together to try to contain the oil gusher, but the government has been directing BP at every turn.
A DHS spokesman told The Associated Press on Sunday that the joint relationship won’t change when the website is given a .gov address instead of a .com address.
But who can post information to the site would change. Details are still being worked out.
The spokesman, Sean Smith, said the government wants to be as transparent as possible and increase Americans’ access to information.
BP is helping pay for the current website. The government could still bill BP when it takes over the site.
The deepwaterhorizonresponse.com site may still be maintained during the changeover, but ultimately it will be taken down altogether when the government moves the response information to its own website.
A BP spokesman did not immediately respond to several requests for comment on the move, which could occur within days.
A frequent critic of the administration’s response to the oil spill, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., was skeptical the change would amount to much.
“Given that the government taking over the cleanup hasn’t exactly fixed things, it’s hard to imagine the government taking over a website making things much better either,” Issa, a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said in a statement e-mailed to the AP.
“In recent weeks, we’ve heard directly from local officials pleading for less bureaucracy, more resources and expressing an overall frustration with this administration’s apparent pre-occupation with the public relations surrounding this catastrophe,” he said.
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Late Night Predictions by
The Great Karnack.
(for those of you too young to remember that was Johnny Ca…awww, forget it)
The Great Karnak PREDICTS!;
The BP Live Video Feed Webcam Will Be Cut
Due To National Security Concerns.
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Woa Now! You didn’t say it was the Department of Homeland Security.!!! That doesn’t look good at all. If it was the department of environmental whatever , handling the Web site then I would still be outraged. But! to have it overseen by those spooky, rights stealing, Bush era freaks that are positioning themselves for what they KNOW will be a planet changing event which will in turn create chaos
and through chaos(spell?) obtain control, is very bad indeed. An event of such monumental vast proportion coupled with some very unscrupulous warfare techniques triggering a real war and civil unrest may take place.
I shudder to think in , who knows, 6 months? 1 year? 2? When DeepwaterHorizon hosted by the Department of Homeland Security. start trailing Internet uses by the IP addresses and who’s to say that they may find documents blogs posted as a threat to national security and go after that blogger?
THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY OCTOBER 2010
BE ADVISED THAT THOSE CITIZENS WITHIN THE PARISHES OF…..WILL BE TRANSPORTED TO FEMA CAMPS AT 1 PM TODAY.
We are being manipulated by those who try to get away with controling our lives there are more of us then there are of them….wait a second! What am I saying? More of us to be locked up or shot down if we stand up for our rights. Too late Police State is here!
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7/7/10
Let’s see here…
there’s the President and his Internet Kill-Switch.
Then, there’s that thing about being arrested, charged with a federal offense, fined $40,000 and going to jail if you put one toe over their line in the sand. Oh, and don’t try talking to a Gulf worker. It’s bad luck.
So, there was small surprise to learn of their take-over of BP’s web-site, controlling it’s records & history.
Moving ever forward with sublime consistency,
the government today drew the attention of
the Drudge Report with this headline;
‘PERFECT CITIZEN’ PROGRAM PLACES ‘SENSORS’ THROUGHOUT WEB’…’NSA INTERNET GRAB; SPY AGENCY SHIFTS TO DOMESTIC EAVESDROPPING’
I believe there are a few other matters of this nature lately but I just can’t remember them all.
Well, Obama did promise change.
And speaking of POTUS, if anyone needs a little comic relief (it’s a healthy thing)
there a howler of a YouTube video called
“Obama the Cat Discovers he’s not So Popular Around the Neighborhood Anymore.”
Enjoy.
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The original website was merely another diversion and distraction attempt by BP (that's why the government decided to take it over and have the Coast Guard START ALL OVER AGAIN to review all 13,000+ proposals to help). Neither are really competent to evaluate scientific proposals and don't want to admit that there may have been as many as half-dozen methods to seal the well, but it should have been government run from the start and any databases should have been open and easily accessible by all. The BP site was proprietary and no one could see what was being proposed. BP pretty much just ignored all the suggestions it received (representing maybe 500,000 person-hours of effort)
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I disagree with you that the government taking over the Private, proprietary (misleading and and useless) BP website, represents some sinister plot. It might not be a lot better, but it might. But, fine job you are doing – appreciate your efforts!!!
Your coverage, inquiries and questioning of what is going on is, overall, better than ALL the traditional news coverage combined. And since there does not appear to be much in the way of real "investigative news" as it relates to this disaster, I hope you keep it up! Maybe you should even put out a specific call for confidential information, documents and leaks that can be substantiated, or maybe just monitor what might come up on WikiLeaks over the next few weeks and months. I may even have something to contribute to them!
Who knows, maybe you could get the next Pulitzer if you get the right scoop!
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If they do try to suppress any information in the databases, I think attorneys suing BP and the government could likely get hold of this information by subpoena, if necessary. But maybe if the government has hold of it they could make this very difficult. The public would than have to demand that all this information be released and maybe they should get started soon.
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Could Mr. Higgins, please be made aware, that there's a type of software, That "keeps one from leaving the website/blog, by automatically adding a new tab"!
"This way, when a viewer clicks on a link, they won't leave this website!"
You've got a swell thing going. Keep Up, the Great Work! (It's about "protecting OUR OWN Borders"!)