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Freedom call to DEP: “Dike is containing the material”

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When a Freedom Industries employee called the state Department of Environmental Protection to report the chemical leak that would contaminate the region's drinking water, he said that the leaky tank's containment dike was working and he did not think any chemical would enter the river.

When a Freedom Industries employee called the state Department of Environmental Protection to report the chemical leak that would contaminate the region's drinking water, he said that the leaky tank's containment dike was working and he did not think any chemical would enter the river.

Bob Reynolds, the Freedom employee who called the DEP at 12:05 p.m. on Jan. 9, did not even mention the river until about five minutes into the six-and-a-half minute call, and then only when he was directly asked about it.

When Reynolds was asked by the DEP operator whether the chemical was going into a creek or stream, he said, "Ah, don't know at this time. It's located right on the Elk River and right now the dike is containing the material, so we don't anticipate it going into the river."

The state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management posted a recording of the call on its website on Friday afternoon.

When the call was made, DEP inspectors were already on the site. They had arrived at the scene after local residents had complained of a strong licorice odor, now known to be caused by the leaked chemical, "Crude MCHM."

The DEP inspectors and other emergency officials arrived at Freedom at about 11 a.m., about an hour before the company officially reported the leak. The DEP had been getting complaints about the odor as early as 8:15 a.m. Freedom's storm water permit required the company to immediately report any spills. DEP officials have said that Freedom only called the spill line after they were told to by inspectors on the site.

The first DEP inspectors on the scene described seeing a 4-foot wide stream of chemical flowing across the bottom of the containment dike and disappearing at the joint where the dike's wall met the floor.

The inspectors also initially did not realize the chemical was entering the river.

When Reynolds was asked by the DEP operator what time the leak occurred he said, "I heard it about 15 minutes ago, so it was shortly before that."

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Freedom call to DEP: “Dike is containing the material”

Sensenbrenner: ‘Freedom Act ends bulk data collection’

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DW: You've been critical of what the NSA has been doing and have authored the Freedom Act. But the Freedom Act also doesn't include rights for European citizens or other foreign nationals. Do you think that foreign nationals also deserve a right not to be monitored indiscriminately?

Frank James Sensenbrenner: Yes, unless they are involved in some type of terrorist activity. The issue with the Freedom Act, however, is that constitutionally the United States Congress cannot legislate in this area, because it is a presidential prerogative under our constitution to deal with foreign relations. How that is handled will have to be done by President Obama in the executive branch.

However, what I can say is that the Freedom Act ends bulk collection for everybody - Americans and foreigners. Bulk collection was never intended to be the case in the Patriot Act, which I authored. We are going to get back to where we started from right after September 11 in targeting the collection only to people who are foreigners who are part of a designated terrorist organization. And we ought to be watching what those people are doing.

How optimistic are you that the Freedom Act will actually become law?

I think we have a better than 50:50 chance. I think there are definitely the votes in the House [of Representatives] to pass the Freedom Act, and unless the Freedom Act is passed, the intelligence reauthorization bill will not be passed. This is a kind of under the Capitol dome thing in terms of how it is lined up in terms of procedure and how we get votes. My main job now is to get a vote on the Freedom Act, because if I do get a vote, I am certain that an overwhelming majority of both Democrats and Republicans in the House will vote for it.

Can Europeans do anything to help push that matter?

I think the message that Europeans can do to help is the point how much the NSA scandal has hurt transatlantic relations and has broken trust. It has cost American companies a lot of business in Europe. There are also some unfortunate things that have happened such as taking away the internationalization of the Internet, which would be a bad idea, and stopping the negotiations on the transatlantic trade agreement, which would also be a bad idea.

People all over the world were outraged when the news of NSA spying activities broke

I would hope that there would not be any punitive reactions on the part of either the European Commission or on the part of national governments of member states of the EU while we in America are trying to figure out what to do with the NSA to bring it back to where it ought to be: that is, an organization that is designed to root out domestic and international terrorism.

Germany has played a pretty important role in this international debate on the NSA revelations and has reiterated just recently that it is so far not contend with the message that it received from Washington on the NSA revelations, but specifically also of the targeting of Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone. Do you think that it is realistic, that the Obama administration should send a further message or signal to Berlin?

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Sensenbrenner: 'Freedom Act ends bulk data collection'

Concern Voiced About Media Repression in Middle East

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Advocates of press freedom are concerned about recent moves by some governments to arrest journalists and restrict Internet access to their citizens. Freedom House is a Washington-based group that supports democracy and free speech activists. The group says these restrictions on freedom of expression undermine both human rights and the foundation of democratic societies.

Charles Dunne is director of Middle East and North Africa programs at Freedom House. He says reports that journalists in Egypt are being harassed and arrested and that a proposed law in Turkey will increase restrictions on Internet access are an alarming turn toward repression in the Middle East and other countries where democracy is not firmly established.

Our annual Freedom of the World Report that was released in January did find a trend of authoritarian pushback, certainly in many Arab spring countries, but elsewhere in repressive countries, focusing not only on journalists but on bloggers, even Tweeters in many cases. So this is something that is very concerning to us," said Dunne.

The proposed law to restrict Internet access in Turkey has sparked public protests. The government says the new restrictions are to protect peoples privacy, but Turkish free speech advocate Selin Kaledelen says the purpose is to protect government officials from media scrutiny.

So for me, it's dictatorship of the authorities in terms of law. It's a censorship law, and we don't recognize it," said Kaledelen.

In Egypt, the arrest of journalists with Al Jazeera on charges of aiding a terrorist group has been condemned by UN Human Rights spokesman Rupert Colville.

It is extraordinary to find this being put into the kind of terrorist dialogue that journalists are supporting terrorists. This is really an alarming development and we hope it changes very quickly," said Colville.

U.S. State Department Spokesperson Jennifer Psaki says the U.S. government is also troubled by reports of journalists being arrested in Egypt.

Any journalist, regardless of affiliation, must not be targets of violence, intimidation or politicized legal action. They must be protected and permitted to freely do their jobs in Egypt," said Psaki.

She said the United States government advocates freedom of the media and freedom of the press as something that should be respected and valued.

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Concern Voiced About Media Repression in Middle East

Let’s Play Monster Hunter Freedom Unite Part 174 Die Super Nanny im Haustierbereich – Video

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Let #39;s Play Monster Hunter Freedom Unite Part 174 Die Super Nanny im Haustierbereich
das diese Monoblos einfach keine Manieren ist einfach unnormal. Nur weil man kastriert und entmannt wird, heist das doch noch lange nicht, dass man so ausras...

By: DeusNemesiX

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Let's Play Monster Hunter Freedom Unite Part 174 Die Super Nanny im Haustierbereich - Video

Anarchast Ep. 108 With Josh Tolley. Free Enterprise is the Fuel for Freedom – Video

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Anarchast Ep. 108 With Josh Tolley. Free Enterprise is the Fuel for Freedom
Jeff Berwick interviews Josh Tolley on the state #39;s battle against entrepreneurship and what you can do to gain personal freedom by succeeding in business. Jo...

By: TheAnarchast

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Anarchast Ep. 108 With Josh Tolley. Free Enterprise is the Fuel for Freedom - Video

The Mystery Men Behind Freedom Industries

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Before the lawsuits and the retreat into federal bankruptcy court, before the change in ownership in a veiled roll-up by an out-of-state coal baron, before the Justice Departments environmental-crimes investigation, the presidentially declared emergency, and the National Guards arrivalnine years before all of thatthe co-founder of Freedom Industries, the company at the center of the Jan. 9 chemical spill that cut off tap water for 300,000 West Virginians, was convicted of siphoning payroll tax withholdings to splurge on sports cars, a private plane, and real estate in the Bahamas. And 18 years before that, in 1987, before he started Freedom Industries, Carl Kennedy II was convicted of conspiring to sell cocaine in a scandal that brought down the mayor of Charleston.

Little known, even locally, Freedom was born and operated in a felonious milieu populated by old friends who seemed better suited to bartending at the Charleston-area saloons they also owned. These people who were running Freedom Industries werent the sort youd put in charge of something like chemical storage that could affect the whole community, Danny Jones, Charlestons current mayor, says. Who are these guys, anyway?

Good question. Kennedy kept the books for bars and restaurants, including a rib house Mayor Jones used to own, although he hadnt gotten to know him well. He was pleasant enough, Jones says. Until the spill, the mayor had no idea his former accountant had been enmeshed with Freedom. That really seems troubling, Jones says, especially with the cocaine stuff in his history.

Kennedys main partner was a college buddy named Dennis Farrell, who had some technical background and took over Freedom after Kennedy went to prison in 2006. By Farrells own account, the company, founded in 1992, nearly ran aground on his watch. Only a rescue in 2009 funded by the federal antirecession stimulus program kept the company going.

The third member of the companys leadership triad, Gary Southern, has served as Freedoms public face since the spill. He lives in Marco Island, Fla., and says hed been advising the company for several years before becoming full-time president in 2013. Not blessed with a talent for public expression, Southern didnt mention in the first days after the leak of 10,000 gallons of coal-processing compounds that Freedom had been acquired, only 10 days earlier, by Cliff Forrest.

A different sort of character from Kennedy, Farrell, and Southern, Forrest founded and heads Rosebud Mining, the third-largest coal producer in Pennsylvania and the 21st-largest in the country. Hes a prominent figure in his industry and an opponent of what he calls the Obama administrations war on coal. Why he wanted Freedoms decrepit facilities for blending and distributing chemicals remains a mystery. Publicly, Forrest hasnt said a word. His connection to Freedom wasnt confirmed until Jan. 17, when his lawyers put the company into bankruptcy. The Chapter 11 filing in Charleston required disclosure of a financial paper trail that led to Forrests coal company headquarters near Pittsburgh via another entity called Chemstream Holdings.

So while the spill revealed once again that porous legislation and murky assumptions about industry self-policing hinder oversight of dangerous chemicals, it also highlighted a peculiar and deeply troubling element of American commerce, one where holding companies and roll-ups make it difficult to determine whos accountable. Kennedy grew up in Montgomery, W. Va., a small city on the Kanawha River. He went to college there at West Virginia University Institute of Technology. It was later, in Charleston, that he attained a measure of notoriety.

West Virginias rugged mountains and forested hollows are home to struggling coal-mining communities. Locals call the Kanawha region Chemical Valley because of the network of foul-smelling refining plants spread across it. The state ranks among the nations poorest. Charleston, with its office towers and expensive eateries, is a place apart: Home to a social and business elite of lawyers, lobbyists, and coal executives, the capital enjoys a wealth and lan alien to the states rural and industrial precincts.

In the mid-1980s, Kennedy moved easily in a narcotic-fueled night scene associated with Charlestons Republican mayor at the time, James Mad Dog Roark. Targeted by a federal investigation, Roark pleaded guilty to cocaine possession in 1987, resigned as mayor, and went to jail. The same year, Kennedy, then 30 years old, was charged with distributing the not-trivial amount of 10 ounces to 12 ounces of coke. In a plea deal, he admitted to one distribution count and was sentenced to five years probation. In all, federal prosecutors notched some 30 convictions.

A forgiving town, Charleston didnt ostracize Kennedy. Despite his criminal record, he and Farrell became prolific business partners. Farrell had earned a masters degree from West Virginia University and for a time was employed by a company called Sherex Chemical. Together they invested in commercial real estate and a saloon in Montgomery called the Bank Bar & Grill. In a laudatory 2002 article, the Charleston Gazette marveled at the pairs far-flung array of business ventures, which included a manufacturer of a synthetic fuel additive, a trucking company, and a plant in the town of Nitro, W. Va., that mixed chemicals. Kennedys portfolio also contained Freedom Industries, which he incorporated in 1992, according to filings with the West Virginia secretary of state. (Kennedy, Farrell, and lawyers who have represented them over the years all failed to respond to telephone and e-mail messages.)

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The Mystery Men Behind Freedom Industries


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