Can BP Be Trusted in Light of its Past?
Minutes after the "Top Kill" operation got under way, CBS News Chief Investigative Correspondent Armen Keteyian sat down with BP CEO Tony Hayward at the company's headquarters in Houston.
The conversation focused on corporate culture, and BP's controversial record on safety and the environment.
Big Oil's "Cozy Relationship" with Inspectors
The Deepwater Horizon exploded five weeks ago. It was one of about 3,500 oil and gas platforms in the Gulf regulated by the Continue »
Oil Spill Burning $50M Hole in Pollution Fund
CBS
The director of the U.S. Coast Guard's National Pollution Funds Center told senators Tuesday that the government is burning through the special fund set up to respond to oil pollution.
Special Section: Disaster in the Gulf
Director Craig Bennett testified that $72.4 million has been withdrawn so far from the emergency fund. The center is charged with overseeing the liability and compensation provisions of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, which includes managing the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund.
The emergency portion of the fund provides up to $50 million a year. When that's not enough --and it's not with the Deepwater Horizon gusher -- up to $100 million more can be withdrawn from the center's principal fund. An emergency transfer from the principal fund has never been done before.
How is the money being spent? Bennett said $7 million has been paid to 14 state agencies for response efforts. Twenty-five thousand claims have been covered so far with recipients ranging from small businesses to fishermen.
BP has 28 claims processing centers and 432 personnel in the area but can surge to 15,000 claims a day and 2,500 agents. That may well be needed. Bennett told Congress "we may exhaust the balance" of the emergency fund as early as June 5. Bennett said all costs will be billed to BP.
More Oil Spill Coverage
Will BP Oil Spill Feed Go Dark Tomorrow During "Top Kill"?
Poll: 70% Say BP Handling Oil Spill Badly
White House Remains Open to Offshore Drilling
Officials, Senators Blast BP en Masse
Feds Seek Identity of Mystery Man
The mystery man, listed in court papers as John Doe, is alleged to have assumed the identity of Jason Evers, a three-year-old boy who was murdered in 1982.
John Doe was arrested last month after the investigators with the U.S. State Department cross-checked the name on his passport with death certificates and discovered the name he was using was not his own.
According to Jason Evers' father, Bob Evers, the impersonator used Jason Evers' name for 14 years undetected, since applying for a birth certificate in 1996. Prosecutors say there is no connection between the John Doe and the murder of the three-year-old boy--another man was convicted of the murder and imprisoned.
Bob Evers told CBS News he thought it was a "sick joke" when he first heard an imposter had been using his son's name. At the time he had been working on a petition to keep his son's murderer, who is up for parole June 2, behind bars.
Continue »Congress Hears Dramatic Rape Kit Testimony
TSA Officers Lack Training to Spot Terrorists
A new government report released Thursday reveals that federal officers with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) who are tasked with the job of spotting terrorists at airports have little training.
As CBS News Chief Investigative Correspondent Armen Keteyian first reported on Wednesday the TSA's behavior detection officers have never spotted a terrorist. Furthermore, the Government Accountability Office discovered that at least 16 known terrorists travelled through 8 different U.S. airports 23 times where the program had been implemented.
The GAO report says the TSA implemented its behavior detection program, which now costs taxpayers about $200 million annually, without first determining if there was any scientific valid basis for using it.
Continue »TSA's Program to Spot Terrorists a $200M Sham?
Times Square bombing suspect Faisal Shahzad was arrested after he boarded a plane headed for Dubai, though the government is spending millions each year on a program that's supposed to spot terrorists before they reach the gate.
As CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian reports, the program doesn't seem to be working.
There's a hidden layer of airport security most people don't know about.
It's called "behavior detection," and involves specially trained Transportation Security Administration employees whose primary mission is to spot terrorists.
They look for unique facial expressions and body language that may identify a potential threat. About 3,000 of these officers work at 161 U.S. airports -- costing taxpayers nearly $200 million in 2009. This year, the TSA asked Congress for $20 million more to expand the program.
Alleged Terrorists Used Social Network Sites
Nigerian terror suspect Umar Farouq Abdulmutallab, who is charged with trying to blow up a U.S.-bound flight last December after training with al Qaeda in Yemen, also had a Facebook account.
There is little information about the role social network websites might play in the radicalization and recruitment of terrorists, but the FBI is seeing an increase in the use of such websites by radical groups.
"Social networking sites certainly can and do provide a means to bring like minded individuals together, whether it is if for radicalization, recruitment or other terrorism objectives," says UC Tom Osborne, unit chief of the Counterterrorism Internet Targeting Unit (CITU) at the FBI.
Continue »Times Square Bomb Suspect's First Day in Court
In front of a courtroom packed with FBI agents, reporters and spectators, Federal Judge James Francis informed Shahzad of the charges against him in a criminal complaint.
Shahzad, sporting a black beard, was wearing a grey sweatshirt and grey sweatpants. As he sat silently at the defense table with a federal defender seated to his left, the judge read the five counts against him. Shahzad showed no emotion, and the proceeding lasted 15 minutes. Francis set June 1 for a preliminary hearing.
At that hearing, the government must establish probable cause that a crime was committed or the government must obtain an indictment by a grand jury. The prosecutor, Randall Jackson, asked the court to continue to detain Shahzad in prison and the public defender, Julia Gatto, had no objection.
Gatto did ask the court if the judge would order Halal meals (blessed Muslim meals) for Shazad in prison. No plea was entered, and Shazad was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs, surrounded by U.S. marshals.
Report: Intelligence Failures Let Christmas Bomber Board Plane
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab
/ CBS/ APAccording to the report, the committee found "systemic failures across the Intelligence Community which contributed to the failure to identify the threat posed by Abdulmutallab." Specifically, according to the report, the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) was not well-enough organized to "fulfill its mission" and the U.S. intelligence community does not have access to the technology needed for analysts to intelligence data.
Report: Failures in Christmas Attack Mirror 9/11
Read the full declassified summary reportSpecial Section: Terrorism in the U.S.
Special Report: The Christmas Day Terror Attack
The report also cites 14 specific failures - what the committee terms "a series of human errors, technical problems systemic obstacles, analytical misjudgments, and competing priorities" - that allowed Abdulmutallab to board a plane to the United States.
