Sex, Lies And Big Oil?

CBS News Investigates: Allegations Of Bad Behavior Hit Off-Shore Drilling Employees

(CBS)  The Bush administration has long been accused of having too close a relationship with the oil industry. Just how close is documented in new reports.

The investigative report was released a day after President Bush had a private lunch with Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, the man in charge of the agency at the heart of the scandal.

That was behind closed doors. Wednesday's embarrassment was very public, CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports.

"The government employees who oversee offshore oil drilling are literally and figuratively in bed with big oil," said Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.

The allegations of bad behavior involve about a dozen government employees in Denver and Washington - workers who sell U.S. mineral rights to oil companies, which is one of the government's biggest sources of revenue besides taxes.

They're supposed to be looking out for the taxpayers' interest.

But according to the inspector general, they rigged contracts, and engaged in illegal moonlighting, drugs, sex and gift-taking from oil company representatives.

Two reports revealed startling allegations including:

An employee who attended a so-called "treasure hunt" in the desert with all expenses paid by an oil producer.

A former supervisor who bought cocaine from a colleague, then boosted her performance award, had sex with subordinates and steered government contracts to an outside business where he also worked.

No one - from the oil companies to the workers allegedly involved - provided a response today other than to say they cooperated with the investigation, or appropriate action will be taken.

With mineral rights bringing in $8 billion in revenue a year, reporters today asked the head of government mineral management, off camera, whether taxpayers suffered a loss due to the cozy relationships. He said there's no indication they did.

© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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by brdlikbllss September 13, 2008 3:05 AM EDT

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by brdlikbllss September 13, 2008 3:04 AM EDT

'' .. i took a school class once, thinking they would teach me something silly nobody knew, they taught me things everyone already knows, how to help someone threw labor, a little brain surgery, some rocket science .. i gave her a great huge tip and donation for teaching the class that nobody teaches because every street corner toddlet already knows .. as laugh-making as the class was, more funny still is the thought of a world full of teachets so ineffective that everybody doesn''t already know .. ''

'' .. i had a heart to heart with my daughter, i merely told her flat out, there may be plenty of proverbial wives and children in the world, treated not like assets, but like unlimited liabilitys, treated worse than proverbial employees, but that she didn''t have to play the part of the proverbial husband and father and boss, that i was upset by all the ill treatment and that i could tolerate only twenty minutes of it each night, and that the rest of my night is my night to live anyway i please, to live free, she promised to try not to make and remake all the same mistakes i made when i was growing out, she''ll be three soon, i hope i''ll live that long .. ''

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[brdlikbllss]

'' .. they gave my grand kids hundreds of billions of dollars and said to feed every war baby and all the rest of folk too, and they raped and killed more war babys with more nuclear biological chemical stealth ray *** toys than everyone ever combined, starved slaved tortured mangled messes washed up on every shore and porch in the world, then they gave them hundreds billions dollars more, and told them to death and tax and tag every war baby and all the rest of folk too, and again they raped and killed more war babys with more nuclear biological chemical stealth ray *** toys than everyone ever combined, again starved slaved tortured mangled messes washed up on every shore and porch in the world, then they gave them hundreds billions dollars more .. i am so proud and i am so secure, each time i step out to the curb and get lashed and slashed at, harassed and arrested as if i''m some kind of naked or lazy or lusty or dopey or other unnatural, i think of them and i thank them and i worship them and i am pleased (and so turned on and satisfyed too as well) .. ''

[brdlikbllss]

'' .. i took a school class once, thinking they would teach me something silly nobody knew, they taught me things everyone already knows, how to help someone threw labor, a little brain surgery, some rocket science .. i gave her a great huge tip and donation for teaching the class that nobody teaches because every street corner toddlet already knows .. as laugh-making as the class was, more funny still is the thought of a world full of teachets so ineffective that everybody doesn''t already know .. ''

'' .. i had a heart to heart with my daughter, i merely told her flat out, there may be plenty of proverbial wives and children in the world, treated not like assets, but like unlimited liabilitys, treated worse than proverbial employees, but that she didn''t have to play the part of the proverbial husband and father and boss, that i was upset by all the ill treatment and that i could tolerate only twenty minutes of it each night, and that the rest of my night is my night to live anyway i please, to live free, she promised to try not to make and remake all the same mistakes i made when i was growing out, she''ll be three soon, i hope i''ll live that long .. ''