Oil Spill Gulf Coast Catastrophe
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Tonight the latest on the oil spill: where it's heading and what BP the government is trying to do about it. Also a stunning statement by Michael Brown -- remember him head of FEMA during Katrina, "Brownie you're doing a heck of job" -- that guy. He says President Obama wants this spill to spread and he's using it to stop all offshore drilling. Tonight we asked him the hard questions. Where are his facts? We're "Keeping Them Honest." Also ahead the terror suspect talking: newly released court documents reveal a lot according to the feds. He received bomb training in Pakistan. We've also just learned that authorities tailing the suspect, Faisal Shahzad; lost him late yesterday as he made his way to New York's Kennedy Airport. That is from a senior counter-terrorism official with first hand information. And how come this guy was able to board a plane? He was originally put on a no-fly list but the airline which is the Emirates Air had not refreshed their copy so his name didn't raise any red flags. Fortunately Customs and Border Protection caught his name. We have a lot of new details and the latest new information coming in almost by the minute. Also in this hour, "Crime and Punishment", an African-American charged in Mississippi with killing a white supremacist. The question was racial hatred the motive or was something much more surprising involved? We begin though tonight, "Keeping Them Honest": the latest on the spill and allegations of conspiracy theories that the Obama administration wanted the Gulf oil spill to happen. Now the edges of the oil now grazing the Louisiana barrier islands, but as of late today, no oil coming ashore; the wind cooperating, expected however to turn unfavorable by Thursday. So that is when BP says it expects to lower that huge containment dome or coffer dam on the top of the main leak. The aim: to funnel crude to the drill ship on the surface. What is really interesting tonight, though, and in this partisan climate perhaps it shouldn't be surprising, but what's really interesting is the conspiracy theories being floated around today. You've already heard Rush Limbaugh suggest that environmentalists may have tried to blow up the oil rig. But tonight, Michael Brown, the onetime head of the Arabian Horse Association, he was head FEMA during hurricane Katrina and was then fired. Michael Brown is back declaring that the White House wanted the spill to spread. We'll talk to him in a moment. But here's what he said on Fox News about he says is a deliberately slow administration response in order to ultimately shut down offshore drilling in America.</s>MICHAEL BROWN, FORMER FEMA DIRECTOR: And so now, you're looking at this oil slick approaching the Louisiana shore. According to certain NOAA and other places if the winds are right, it will go up the East Coast. This is exactly what they want, because now he can pander to the environmentalists and say, I'm going to shut it down because it's too dangerous. While Mexico and China and everybody else drills in the Gulf, we're going to get shut down.</s>COOPER: So he says, quote, "This is exactly what they want", they being the Obama administration. He's alleging really something truly heinous, far worse than the charges of ineptitude and gross mismanagement he faced after Katrina. So does he have the facts to back up his claim? Well, we're "Keeping Them Honest" we spoke earlier.</s>COOPER: Mr. Brown, thanks for being with us. You've made some pretty stunning statements about this oil spill and the response by the President. You said that the Obama administration wanted the oil to spread and wanted it to go up the East Coast because, quote, "Now he can pander to the environmentalists and say, I'm going to shut it down because it's too dangerous." Do you honestly believe the President of the United States wants this oil spill to spread and cause billions of dollars in damage and ruin people's livelihood?</s>BROWN: Well, that's not what I said, Anderson. I said that they want this crisis so that they can respond to it. Look, nobody --</s>COOPER: Wait. But wait -- that is -- that is what you said. You said --</s>BROWN: No --</s>COOPER: You said about it spreading up the East Coast and you said that's what they want.</s>BROWN: I've read the transcript again. And what I said was that they want this crisis. I said, it may spread to Louisiana and depending on the NOAA forecast it could go up the Florida coast.</s>COOPER: And you said that's what they want.</s>BROWN: That they want a crisis like this so that they can use a crisis like this to shut down offshore and gas drilling.</s>COOPER: What evidence do you have of that?</s>BROWN: We should not do that. We should expand -- pardon?</s>COOPER: What evidence -- I mean, as a former government official I think you would choose your words carefully. What evidence do you have that they want this, that this was basically plot to shut down oil?</s>BROWN: In January, the president gave an interview to the "San Francisco Chronicle", in which he said the cap and trade legislation should be as strong as possible, so that anybody that wants to use carbon, coal, oil and gas, whatever, that it would be so expensive that they would end up going bankrupt. The president wants to move this country away from a carbon based energy supply to something else.</s>COOPER: Ok, but -- but I mean, my question is what evidence -- my question is what evidence do you have that the President of the United States wants this spill to spread, wants it, that they want it to go up the East Coast and they -- they want this so they can shut down the oil drill?</s>BROWN: Anderson, nobody, including the President, wants the oil to spread into the wetlands or around the coast. I said that it would. They want to use the crisis. If they can use this crisis to shut down oil and gas drilling, that's what they're going to do. And in fact, Bill Nelson's already come out and said it. Arnold Schwarzenegger's already come out and said it. The people who are opposed to oil and gas offshore drilling are using this crisis to shut down a legitimate industry.</s>COOPER: You're saying so Bill Nelson coordinates all statements with President Obama and Arnold Schwarzenegger coordinates all statements with President Obama?</s>BROWN: Look, when you have an administration who is leading the country and their political position is that we want to move away from a carbon-based energy supply to something else, this crisis occurs, the Rahm Emanuel rule number one of never letting a crisis go to waste kicks in and they've done that. They have used this crisis, where 11 people have died, a rig worth billions of dollars has sunk under the ocean floor, they are talking about this huge damage that will last forever, which it won't, the environment will recover, they're using that to say, look how bad this is.</s>COOPER: OK, again I -- but I know you said that but I've asked you -- I've asked you now repeatedly --</s>BROWN: There shouldn't be drilling and in fact the president has suspended -- he's already suspended oil and gas drilling in the Gulf. He's already done it.</s>COOPER: Well, you can argue that he wants extreme stipulations on it, but, again, you haven't provided any evidence that -- in fact, you're now denying a statement you made yesterday, and let me just read it to you. What you said, "And so now, you're looking at this oil slick approaching, you know the Louisiana shore, according to certain NOAA and other places, if the winds are right, it will go up the East Coast. This is exactly what they want because now he can pander to the environmentalists and say, I'm going to shut it down because it's too dangerous." Again, the question, you believe the President of the United States wants the oil --</s>BROWN: That's right, they want the crisis. They want -- Anderson, let me respond. They want the crisis because the crisis enables them to shut down oil and gas offshore drilling, which they have done, which fits into what he said to the "San Francisco Chronicle" in 2008. Those are the facts.</s>COOPER: Let's move on because clearly you have -- you've stated your position quite well. You also are saying that essentially, this is President Obama's Katrina. Where do you see the similarities between Katrina and the response to this? I mean, in Katrina, we know there were failure at the local level, failure at the state level and failure at the federal level. Where are the failures here?</s>BROWN: And here -- and here you have an oil explosion on April 20th. On April 22nd, I think it was, the rig collapsed and the platform sunk into the ocean. That is a major catastrophe. On April 23rd, the U.S. Coast Guard suspended rescue efforts because by that time, if any of those men were still alive, they had been in those ocean waters, those Gulf waters for three days, so the Coast Guard rightfully suspended rescue efforts. It wasn't until April 27th that Janet Napolitano issued her declaration of the spill of national significance. What were they doing in the meantime? They left the Coast Guard out there without the additional resources that the Coast Guard needed, just like President Bush left me down in Katrina without the additional resources that I needed because they were dillydallying around back at Washington</s>D.C. COOPER: Mr. Brown, I appreciate your time. Thank you for being with us.</s>BROWN: Thank you, Anderson.</s>COOPER: We'll put more of the interview online on the Web site tomorrow in which we talk about the President Obama's actual support for oil drilling back in 2008, stated support for limited offshore oil drilling back in 2008 during the presidential debates as well as his administration's announcement this year of continued support for it much to the horror of some environmentalists and liberals. We'll put that on the Web site. Let us know what you think. The live chat is up and running at AC360.com. Up next, we'll take you to the frontline of the spill. We'll show you the fight -- the fight to keep it clean, a fight that for now at least they re winning. And later, just who is the Times Square bombing suspect? We'll tell you what he's saying to authorities and how they traced him, chased him, nearly lost him and finally caught him.