Four years after the deepwater horizon drilling platform killed 11 workers, causing more than 200 million gallons of oil to spew into the gulf of mexico, the Environmental Protection agency has lifted a ban that excluded bp from new federal contracts. In a broadcast exclusive, will speak with Elizabeth Birnbaum who was director of the Minerals Management service in the interior department the time of the deepwater horizon blowout. She left soon after. She now says the risk of another blowout is real. Then, rubin hurricane carter has died. He became an International Symbol of Racial Injustice after spending 19 years in prison for a wrongful murder conviction. This is unreal. This is what i sat in a cell hoping to happen. This is a dream come true. Ive never had a dream in life that has not been realized. Never yet. Earth limited on this simply by our own imagination. Theres nothing we cant do. Hurricane carters ordeal with publicized was in the film starring denzel washington. We will speak with john artis, rubin hurricane carters codefendant, and friends who cared for him until his death in canada. And with ken klonsky who cowrote, eye of the hurricane my path from darkness to freedom. Mandela wrote the forward. All of that and more coming up. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. The Obama Administration has again delayed a decision on approval or rejection of the Keystone Xl Oil pipeline. The state Department Says it will await the results of legal challenges to the pipelines proposed route through nebraska. That means a final move will not likely come until after the midterm elections. It is now the third Consecutive Year the white house has put off a final ruling on the keystone xls fate. The pipeline would carry Tar Sands Oil from alberta to the gulf coast, and environmental say that would unleash a devastating amount of carbon into the atmosphere. Antikeystone xl protest is slated for washington, d. C. Later this week when a coalition of ranchers, farmers, native groups stage reject and protect, a weeklong encampment on the national mall. Dozens of people have been killed in two consecutive days of u. S. Drone attacks inside yemen. Around 15 people died on saturday when the u. S. Missile hit a road in the Central Province of albayda. Around 25 people were killed into u. S. Attacks on southern areas on sunday. The victims were also described as suspected al qaeda militants. Another drone attack was reportedly carried out earlier today, but details are unclear. Violence broke out in Eastern Ukraine on sunday days after the truce between kiev and moscow. At least three people were killed when a shootout erupted at a check point in a town controlled by prorussian separatists. The truce calls for the disarming and withdrawal of armed groups under international supervision. But a top separatist leader has said his forces are not bound by the deal, and Little Movement has been seen so far. At the white house, National Security adviser susan rice appeared to suggest the u. S. Could target russias oil and gas sector if its deemed to violate the truce. There other potential ways in the framework of our executive orders that we could impose should that be necessary. In the event of a dramatic escalation, including the itsntial for russia to move forces on the border inside of ukraine, that those costs and sanctions could even include targeting very significant sectors of the russian economy. The on that, im not going to be specific. At least 33 people were killed in sunday on sunday in iraq. Iraq is due to hold parliamentary elections early next month amidst its bloodiest period in six years. The latest figures show enrollment in private health plans under the Affordable Care act has topped 8 million. The nations rate of uninsured is now at its lowest point since 2008, and a gallup poll shows up to 12 billion people have obtained coverage since the fall. At the white house, president obama touted figures showing over one third of enrollees are under the age of 35, and premiums will cost 15 lower than predict did. But i find it strange the republican position on this law is still stuck in the same place that it has always been. They still cant bring themselves to admit the Affordable Care act is working. They said nobody would sign up. They were wrong about that. They said it would be unaffordable for the country. They were wrong. Policy is immigration coming under increasing resistance at the state and local level. On friday, maryland announced it will no longer automatically hold prisoners at the request of immigration thing customs enforcement. The federal government has used the program secure communities to get local Police Forces to hand over immigrant detainees for their potential deportation. The Baltimore CityDetention Center says it will now only grant those requests if the immigrant detainee has been charged with or convicted of a serious crime. Sheriffs in nine oregon counties now say they will not comply with federal immigration detainers at all. The decision came after a state judge ruled an immigrant detainees rights were violated. She was held for 19 hours after she should have been released so federal agents could take her into custody. The military trial of five alleged 9 11 conspirators could be in limbo amidst allegations of fbi spying on the defense team. Fbi agents questioned a contractor working as a Security Guard for one of the suspects lawyers earlier this month. The contractor was forced to sign a confidentiality form, a move attorneys say turns him into a de facto informant. The military judge overseeing pretrial hearings has opened the way for an inquiry. Prosecutors had hoped for jury selection to begin early next year, but the defense says the trials could be delayed until 2017. Attorney James Connell said only one person appears to have come under fbi questioning so far. Our preliminary investigation leads us to hope that it may be confined that we may have nipped this in the bud just after it started. Is that going to turn out to be true . I dont know. So far, we dont have information that the investigation has spread beyond. Allegationng on th follows previous claims by the attorneys that Guantanamo Bay prison officials have monitored their communications. A firets are behind police chief in South Carolina who supporters say was targeted because shes a lesbian. Chris still more had never received a single reprimanded 20 years on the job. But the mayor dismissed earlier this month after suddenly handed handing down several reprimand and a single day. The mayor has been caught on tape making antilgbtq remarks, saying he would rather have a drunk person care for his job and someone who is gay. Dozens of residents flooded the City Council Meeting last week demanding answers for the firing. Moore says the wrist no explanation for her firing. But i cant believe we still have no equal rights. Ive been harassed, intimidated, and this is the first time it has ever been this public. I have try to live a decent, quiet life and do what im supposed to. A group of alabama prisoners reportedly staged a work stoppage this weekend in protest of conditions at their prison. The Free Alabama Movement says they call the strike at the st. Clair correctional facility in to call attention a work system that forces them to conduct free labor. It is the second strike this year after a work stoppage in january. A federal judge has cleared the way for landmark case against several major corporations accused of aiding south africas apartheid regime. Companies including ford and ibm are accused of complicity in human rights abuses during the years they did business in apartheid south africa. The role was filed by black victims of white minority rule. Theyre suing under the alien tort claims act, which allows foreigners to file cases against companies for crimes committed abroad. In a ruling last week, the district judge rejected the companys claim that previous rulings shield them from suits. And the celebrated boxer and prisoner rights activist rubin hurricane carter has died at the age of 76. Carter became an International Symbol of Racial Injustice after his wrongful murder conviction forced him to spend 19 years in prison before he was exonerated. Since his release, carter championed the cause of wrongfully convicted prisoners. We will have more on rubin hurricane carters life later in the broadcast. Those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Sunday marked the fourth anniversary of what is thing called the worst manmade environmental disaster in recent history. It was april 20, 2010 when an explosion and fire on bps deepwater horizon drilling platform killed 11 workers and caused more than 200 million gallons of oil to spew into the gulf of mexico. Today, Oil Continues to wash up on some of the beaches of louisiana, despite claims made by the gulf coast residents, featured in bpss Television Advertisements like this one. Last summer i saw certain spots were oil would pull up on the beaches and the shores. We saw a clean up crew every day. In my opinion, it is as good as its ever been. Ive been here since 1991 and ive never seen our beaches look at her. Bei expected our beaches to messed up for a while and see the effects of it, but it is nice and clean as you can see. That is an ad by bp the oil company said it spent more than 14 billion responding to the spill and cleaning the coastline and recently announced it is ending its active cleanup in louisiana. Similar operations ended last summer in alabama, florida, mississippi. Last month, the Environmental Protection agency lifted a 2012 new excluding bp from federal contracts. The ban was put in place after the epa found the company failed to fully correct problems that led to the well blowout in 2010. Bp had sued to have the suspension lifted. The Consumer Advocacy GroupPublic Citizen said in a lets at the settlement corporate felon and repeat offender off the hook for its crime against people and the environment. During an auction in new orleans, bp bid 40 two lane dollars to win 24 new leases in the gulf of mexico. In a broadcast exclusive, were joined now by Elizabeth Birnbaum. She was director of the Minerals Management service at the time of the deepwater horizon blowout, and is now a consultant at seb strategies. She recently cowrote an oped for New York Times headline, the deepwater horizon threat. This is her first broadcast interview since she left the department of interior shortly after the bp spill. She joins us from washington, d. C. Welcome. Talk about this risk you have written about, four years after the bp spill. After the spill, there were investigations into the spill and hot might be prevented in the future. One of the key reports was some of the National Academy of engineering, experts on engineering, looked at all aspects of what had caused the spill on the that the decisionmaking on the oil rig, which had led to loss of control of the well. They also look at what happened with the blowout preventer. That is a huge piece of equipment that sits on the seafloor and is designed to do what its name says, stop the blowout as it comes up the well im a be able to cut off any oil and gas coming out of the well. What the National Academy of engineering found was that the blowout preventers are not actually well engineered to do that and found a number of failings within the blowout preventers. The administration had several times indicated they were going to adopt new regulations to require low out preventers that would prevent this kind of an accident. But in fact, they never even put out a draft regulation. It is now 2. 5 years since we are from the National Academy of engineering. And your response to the epa lifting that 2012 than on bp getting new federal contracts, they just bid for a bunch more . I believe the epa is bound by federal laws that allowed bp to go back in a business, but there are ongoing concerns about bp practices over the years. They were involved in the major texas Chemical Plant incident previously, so there are a number of questions about their Business Practices and certainly, it deserves a good look. Can you talk about your controversial time with this blowout that occurred. You left soon after. The report says you are forced out just before you were to testify with ken salazar who was then head of the department of interior for congress. What happened at that time . Love thet time, i administration at the request of the interior secretary who asked for my resignation. Since then, ive been monitoring what is been going on and trying to determine if there is a way to prevent future accidents of this kind. I thought any issues about my resignation were a distraction from what was really going on, which is why we did not know why the spill had occurred and needed to learn about it and take lessons from it. In a press statement, the company said it suspended 14 million and 70 million manhours on the cleanup effort. It went on to say liz birnbaum, are you assured . There are continuing reports about oil along the coast, particularly in the marshes. Those are areas that are hard to reach him of the the areas that are the central to keeping louisianas coastline intact. Be deteriorating for years. There are reports there are still many miles of coastal marshes where you can find oil and where that is contribute into the death of the marshes. You have talked about the blowouts or the offshore wells that have lost control several times just in the last year. Can you talk more about that . A few of these have been temporary losses of control where there was unexpected pressure coming off a well and the operator was able to get it under control fairly quickly. But there was at least one incident last year in july were natural gas well, which was not spewing oil, luckily did not pollute the gulf, but was meeting highpressure natural gas the caught on fire, copy rig on fire, and it took two days to put them out and to stop the flow of gas from the well. That is the kind of incident which a blowout preventer were similar device should be able to stop and it is the kind of incident the department of the interior should be trying to prevent three regulation. The administrations recent proposal to use these seismic airguns to search for oil along the Atlantic Coast . That is a new proposal to search for Additional Oil and gas. A just completed the Environmental Impact statement looking at that and determined the use of these seismic air vents, which basically him it huge sound explosions under c repeatedly over miles of survey area would have submit second impact on marine life and a particular cost thousands of deaths among dolphins and whales. The concern is the National OceanicAtmospheric Administration is in the process of issuing new guidelines for exactly this kind of activity and how to avoid impact on dolphins and whales that came out in draft in december. The department of the interior should not be Going Forward with the new seismic testing until after noaas new guidelines have been finalized. Anyou have regrets regrets from your time at the department of interior, heading of the Minerals Management service . I have enormous regrets. Most watch, we had the devastating accident we have had offshore where 11 men died and we had an enormous pollution event in the gulf of mexico, which is perhaps the worst environmental disaster in u. S. History. I believe we need to continue to work to make our regulation of off shoring oil and gas better, and to make sure we can prevent incidents like that in the future. Finally, the issue of the human factor, reducing the human factor. How do you do that . Number ofere a reports which look at what happened on the rig when they made poor decisions, looked at the data from the well and decided they would ignore tests that suggested the well was and under control. Those are decisions that were made probably because a very Human Factors about the fact they had discovered a huge reservoir of oil and wanted to move forward on a very quickly. The only solution to that is that monitoring by people who are not so intricately involved. The interior department has proposed having the data from the wells sent on shore to Enter Department personnel interior Department Personnel or any wells being drilled in the arctic. I dont understand why they havent done that for any well in the gulf as well. Those are ones that have huge risks and if you simply had some of the onshore monitoring the data, you would know whether or not there were risky decisions being made on the rig. Liz birnbaum, thank you for being with us on i this exclusive interview. She wrote the oped piece in New York Times called, the deepwater horizon threat. The coauthor of the pi