Showing posts sorted by relevance for query GASLIGHTING. Sort by date Show all posts
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Wednesday, March 20, 2024

PAKISTAN

How long can govt hide behind ‘all is well on X’ mantra?
Work of content creators, fact-checkers suffering due to unannounced curbs on social media platforms.
DAWN
Published March 20, 2024


KARACHI: After being grilled by the courts over the unannounced curbs on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), government institutions seem to have adopted a fresh tactic: pretending as if nothing has happened.

“They’re taking us to be fools… The ban is not only unconstitutional and illegal, but it’s also shrouded in mystery,” says Abdul Moiz Jaferii, one of the petitioners challenging the disruption before the Sindh High Court, which is scheduled to be taken up by the court again today (Wednesday).

Recalling a recent hearing of his petition, Mr Jaferii related how an official from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) tried to mislead the court by opening X on his phone and pretending as if everything was working normally.

“This seems to be their new strategy: pretend nothing is happening. They manipulate courts into believing there was never a loss of freedoms, branding it as mass paranoia.”

But when the judge in question, SHC Chief Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi, asked the petitioners whether the PTA claim was accurate, they informed the court that the official was doubtlessly using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to access the website, which remained inaccessible to the public at large.

Work of content creators, fact-checkers suffering due to unannounced curbs on social media platforms

‘Gaslighting the public’

“The majority of Pakistan sees it as obfuscation and gaslighting by the government. And the majority of Pakistan has had enough,” Mr Jaferii notes.

It has now been over a month since X was restricted in various parts of Pakistan. This unofficial ban followed accusations by former Rawalpindi commissioner Liaquat Chat­­tha against the chief election commissioner and chief justice, alleging their involvement in rigging the February 8 general elections.

Even the newly elected government has distanced itself from any responsibility, with newly-minted Information Minister Atta Tarar acknowledging that the social media website was indeed blocked but without any official notification.

When approached for a comment, the PTA asked DawnNewsEnglish to direct questions regarding X to the interior ministry. When pressed further, they attributed the instructions to the government.

But digital rights activists do not buy this argument. “Only the PTA has the legal authority to block websites under Section 37 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act,” insisted digital rights activist Farieha Aziz. “Any suggestion otherwise is legally incorrect.”

“The law clearly requires any curtailment of access to online content to be bound between very limited lines,” explains Mr Jaferii. “It needs to be something that affects the integrity of the state, something that attacks Islam and its glory, something that can cause riots and unrest.”

Beyond that, he added, there isn’t “any legal situation where the regulator can affect such a ban.”

Existing laws, such as Section 37 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, also outline due process for censorship. “They [PTA] have to send a notice to a website,” says Usama Khilji, another lawyer and digital rights activist. “There has to be an option of appeal, there has to be an explanation, and there has to be a public notice, but none of that is being implemented.”

In the case of X, there has been no notification from PTA or formal communication from the government.

This is obviously taking a toll on those who use social media for professional purposes.

Creators, journalists ‘at receiving end’

A 2023 report by the Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry estimated that digital transformation could add a staggering $60 billion to Pakistan’s economy in the next seven to eight years.

“Social media apps are critical to many people’s employment and their jobs, especially content creators who depend on these platforms to produce and publish content,” says Sabah Bano Malik, a content creator.

She notes that when these apps are repeatedly taken down, it disrupts consistency for both the audience and the content creators. “It breaks the rhythm of posting and engagement, making it challenging for creators to maintain their audience’s interest and engagement,” she added.

“This inconsistency also affects content creators’ relationships with brands, impacting their ability to meet deadlines and deliver results.”

Another segment being affected is journalists. According to Amber Rahim Shamsi, who heads the IBA’s Centre for Excellence in Journalism and is one of the petitioners in the case before the Sindh High Court, the ban is actually interfering with the work of independent fact-checkers.

When you are fact-checking, one criteria to monitor is virality, says Ms Shamsi. Twitter being the most public domain — as opposed to Whatsapp, which is more of a private medium — it offers a good platform to track the spread of mis/disinformation across a social network, she says.

This can’t be done through VPN, she says, as they work erratically. Additionally, tracking mis/disinformation online involves comparing the spread of a particular piece of information across multiple platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram and, of course, X.

Therefore, the unannounced ban makes it harder to track and map the spread of misinformation, she says, essentially handicapping fact-checkers and allowing inaccurate information to proliferate in the absence of any independent checks and balances.

Nadir Guramani in Islamabad also contributed to this report; watch the full video on the DawnNews English YouTube channel

Published in Dawn, March 20th, 2024





PTI endorses Amnesty’s call for restoration of X


DAWN
Published March 19, 2024 

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has fully endorsed Amnesty International’s demand for the immediate restoration of social media platform X, stating that Pakistan has become a laughing stock in the international community due to the unjustified blockage of social media and the chain of oppression against its own citizens.

A party spokesperson said that the government’s unjustified closure of the internet, especially social media websites on a daily basis, to conceal facts regarding the “mandate theft” in the general elections, has provided opportunities for the world to ridicule Pakistan.

According to the party’s media wing, he alleged that the Constitution was virtually suspended during the past 23 months and basic constitutional rights were openly being trampled upon.

“It is shameful that X has remained blocked in the country for over one month now. We fully endorse 28 civil society organisations’ demand for immediate removal of ban on the social media platform, allowing free flow of information as should be the case in a democratic country,” said the PTI spokesperson.

He went on to say that the murder of freedom of expression and the press had been the topmost priority of the “usurper and anti-constitutional” group.

He stated that all kinds of coercive and brutal tactics, ranging from enforced disappearances to blackmailing their families, had been used to target impartial journalists and social media workers.

He lamented that efforts were afoot to strangle the freedom of expression and the press to suppress critical, sane voices to establish control over the media.

The PTI spokesperson stated that the government of the “people-rejected” PDM-2 continued the series of violations of all fundamental and constitutional rights without any fear of accountability.

He made it clear that the closure of social networking websites by the authorities without any reason and justification was a violation of Article 19 of the Constitution and international laws. He said that PTI supported the statement of Amn­esty International and demanded immediate restoration of social media platform ‘X’.

Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2024


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Wednesday, January 08, 2020

CBP IS 'GASLIGHTING' IRANIAN AMERICANS BY DENYING IT DETAINED DOZENS AT WASHINGTON BORDER, STATE'S LT. GOVERNOR SAYS

BY  
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Thursday, July 22, 2021

Health minister shrugs off demand for real-time tracking of Alberta medical staff shortages


Health Minister Tyler Shandro responded to the NDP’s demand for real-time tracking of bed closures in Alberta hospitals Wednesday by accusing the Opposition of playing political games.

© Provided by Edmonton Journal Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro.

Lisa Johnson 
lijohnson@postmedia.com

When asked if the province would commit to the real-time reporting amid a shortage of health-care staff that’s led to temporary closures, Shandro accused the NDP of lying about the extent of the province’s challenges.

“They told us that the doctors were fleeing the province, they attacked our contingency plans when it came to field hospitals, they told Albertans that we were firing nurses during the pandemic — they were all complete lies and the NDP are again abject and complete liars,” said Shandro at an unrelated news conference, doubling down on similar comments he made Monday.

Shandro called the NDP demand for public data a “ruse” that amounted to an attack on nurses, doctors and senior leaders at AHS for political gain.

Shandro has said the province is recruiting more health-care staff, including 1,000 more nurses over the last year, and Wednesday added there are 1,700 more registered nurses in the province now than in 2019, when the NDP was in government.

Staffing shortages have affected Edmonton facilities, including Royal Alexandra Hospital, which closed an additional 12 beds for four hours late last week on top of six beds that remain closed , and Grey Nuns Hospital, which will operate at 80 per cent outpatient capacity in its endoscopy unit for two weeks.

Covenant Health spokeswoman Karen Diaper said in a statement the reduction is the result of staffing coverage issues “due to pre-approved staff vacations and unexpected absences for non-COVID-related medical concerns.”


Elsewhere, the emergency department at St. Theresa General Hospital in Fort Vermilion will be without an overnight doctor until July 31, and this past weekend, the Sacred Heart Community Health Centre’s emergency department in McLennan was without a doctor for a total of 30 hours .

While Alberta Health Services tracks emergency room wait times and publishes them online , not all bed closures are announced publicly.

NDP Leader Rachel Notley said Albertans deserve to see the details of the challenges being faced within the health-care system so that leaders can be held to account for their efforts to fix them.

“We need the minister to stop gaslighting frontline workers, stop gaslighting Albertans and start taking his ministerial responsibility seriously. I get that it’s a big job, but you do not earn trust by pretending the problem doesn’t exist,” said Notley.

She added similar challenges, sparked in part by burnout from the COVID-19 pandemic, are happening across the country, but the UCP government’s bargaining proposals for wage cuts for health-care workers are exacerbating the problem in Alberta.

“This burnout is being made even worse by the utter lack of respect this government has shown for the sacrifices of these Albertans,” said Notley.

The NDP has noted that over the past two months, bed closures and ER shutdowns have also been reported at hospitals in Edson, St. Paul, Boyle, Elk Point, Galahad, Westlock, Fairview, Rocky Mountain House, Cold Lake, Lac La Biche, High Prairie, Slave Lake, Wainwright, Rimbey, Barrhead and Lacombe.


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Saturday, February 25, 2023

One fish, two fish, red fish, dead fish? Feds fail to disclose Coastal GasLink data on salmon eggs, habitat


Fri, February 24, 2023 

Shannon McPhail said she felt like the “world’s biggest schmuck” after reading an email from a senior official at Fisheries and Oceans Canada. The official told her it was “impossible to confirm” how many living salmon eggs were in the path of the Coastal GasLink pipeline at a major river crossing.

With wild salmon populations in decline throughout the watershed, McPhail wanted to know what the government agency is doing to ensure eggs laid in the path of the pipeline aren’t harmed — and she wanted data.

But the federal department wasn’t telling her everything it knew.

The government message, sent via email in early December, addressed a list of detailed questions McPhail, co-founder of Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition, had sent more than a month prior. To draft its reply, the fisheries agency, commonly called DFO, asked Coastal GasLink (CGL) to look over the questions, according to documents obtained by The Narwhal through freedom of information legislation.

A Coastal GasLink contractor promptly replied. To the question of how many eggs were in Wedzin Kwa (Morice River) on Wet’suwet’en territory, where the company started drilling a large tunnel under the river in September, the pipeline worker was forthright: “Oodles.”

“But following DFO’s blasting guidelines we will assume only [spawning beds] within 150 metres of the tunnel path have the potential to be impacted by vibrations,” the contractor, whose name was redacted in the released documents wrote in a Nov. 17 email. “A conservative estimate of coho eggs in the gravels within 150 metres of the tunnel path [is] 273,000.”

McPhail was stunned into silence when she learned the government agency had not disclosed the information.

“You’re fucking kidding me,” she blurted out on a phone call with The Narwhal. “They were gaslighting me. This just blows my mind. I have been pushing so hard for so long trying to find out this information, which I felt was a reasonable request based on reasonable concerns. And they purposely withheld that information.”

Fisheries and Oceans Canada did not reply to questions about the details of the released documents prior to publication.

According to TC Energy, the Alberta-based pipeline operator that is building Coastal GasLink, drilling under the river at a depth of more than 11 metres below the riverbed won’t disturb salmon eggs. Provincial and federal regulators told The Narwhal the same — but declined to share details of the evidence it reviewed about potential impacts of the drilling. McPhail’s questions included a request to see spawning surveys, which Coastal GasLink provided to fisheries officials, according to the newly released documents. The federal department did not share those surveys with McPhail.

“When the pipeline company is being forthcoming with the data but the regulators are not, that’s a pretty significant red flag,” she said. “I can’t even believe this level of willful negligence and gaslighting and withholding of information. This, to me, is criminal and they need to be held accountable.”

Brad Fanos, director of the federal government’s Fish and Fish Habitat Protection Program, told McPhail the department couldn’t confirm how many eggs were in the river because it would depend on fish species, numbers of successful spawners, size of the females and how many natural mortalities had occurred during the run. Fanos also echoed the pipeline company’s claims the work would not impact salmon eggs.

“There is no reason to believe any of the incubating eggs are being impacted by the directional drill beneath the Morice River,” he wrote, adding that monitoring had not picked up any indication of “physical or behavioural impacts” to fish or spawning beds at the site.

The exact wording Fanos would use in his email to McPhail was being discussed internally just two hours after the department received information from Coastal GasLink, according to the records. But it would take another 19 days before the department sent its response.

Eric Hertz, an analyst with the Pacific Salmon Foundation, said it’s “technically true” Fisheries and Oceans Canada wouldn’t be able to confirm the exact number of eggs, but he didn’t understand why the department wasn’t willing to share Coastal GasLink’s data.

“They were provided an estimate from industry so it is surprising that they weren’t able to pass that along — or they chose not to pass that along,” he said, adding he shares concerns about the lack of transparency.

While Coastal GasLink noted a conservative estimate of 273,000 coho eggs, the actual number of salmon at risk could be much higher. In the email to fisheries officials, the pipeline contractor noted individual females can lay between 2,000 and 7,000 eggs per clutch. And coho isn’t the only species that spawns in the river. According to the industry survey, the pipeline crossing is home to 13 fish species considered by a Coastal GasLink consultant to be of concern, including bull trout, lamprey, steelhead, mountain whitefish and all five species of Pacific salmon.

Wet’suwet’en fish and wildlife inspectors have rarely been able to monitor construction. Coastal GasLink has blocked access to worksites and told chiefs and their supporters they would be arrested if they ignored the warnings. TC Energy told the Office of the Wet’suwet’en, an administrative body that operates on behalf of the Hereditary Chiefs, that anyone wanting access to sites needs to give 24 hours notice and arrange to have private security accompany them, according to Wet’suwet’en fisheries officials.

Hereditary Chief Na’moks said if the federal fisheries officers have data, it’s vital the public has access to that information.

“They are there to protect salmon and fish species,” he told The Narwhal in an interview. When data is “smothered” people are led to believe construction of the pipeline isn’t damaging the environment, he said, accusing government officials of “just spreading pixie dust on the territory” by creating an impression that “everything’s fine and dandy.”

Coastal GasLink also told federal officials in an email sent in November that they were looking at installing vibration monitors, but neither the company nor the department confirmed whether it followed through on that plan.

“We have the spawning areas mapped so we can place the monitors in the best sampling location and avoid disturbing any redds,” a Coastal GasLink contractor wrote in the email.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada said the company was doing this in response to “ongoing public concerns” but did not confirm whether it had verified information it was receiving from the company.

“Through conversations with CGL, DFO understands that vibration monitoring along the drill path was conducted on both the east and west sides of the river using geophones that were positioned outside of the wetted stream to avoid any potential disturbance to [spawning beds],” a spokesperson with the department told The Narwhal.

Coastal GasLink’s email noted “environmental inspectors visit the location daily to inspect for compliance with permitting conditions” and industry biologists have been monitoring water quality “24/7 since the start of tunnelling works.”

Fisheries and Oceans Canada did not directly answer whether it was involved in inspections or water quality monitoring at the site.

As The Narwhal recently reported, fisheries officers decided in late October to avoid monitoring in areas they considered “tense locations” due to perceived conflict between land defenders, police and pipeline workers. Internal government messages revealed that federal enforcement officers used vandalism as an excuse not to do required inspections.

Walter Joseph, fisheries manager with the Office of the Wet’suwet’en, said his experience working with fisheries officers has been positive and habitat issues or concerns have been handled appropriately. But he said monitoring is challenging.

“From what I’ve seen with their working with CGL is that local helicopter companies have a lot of business with CGL, and are reluctant to endanger their work by having DFO fly low over their site,” he told The Narwhal in an email. “When they do so, CGL calls the helicopter base to complain.” Joseph said pipeline workers stopped by the office in Smithers to complain after he flew over construction sites near the river crossing.

The federal agency confirmed the river system provides vital habitat for numerous fish species but did not directly answer whether fisheries officers were keeping an eye on the crossing on the ground or from above.

“Morice River is considered important fish habitat and supports spawning of a number of salmonid species in proximity to the pipeline crossing site,” the spokesperson said. “Because of this sensitivity, DFO recommended that instream works be avoided at this location.”

“The regulator’s interpretation is that the absence of any evidence that there could be an impact is the evidence,” Hertz said. “There could be an impact but they don’t want to think about that.”

“Given the importance of salmon in the Skeena and elsewhere in the province, having an independent body to ensure that works are being done in the most appropriate way for salmon is important,” he added. “It’s concerning that DFO is relying on these companies to report on themselves.”

Between federal and provincial investments, more than $900 million has been allocated to Pacific salmon conservation initiatives in the last four years alone, including a sockeye recovery program in Wedzin Kwa, which supports a third of the watershed’s Chinook salmon. As populations throughout the region continue to slip further on a decades-long decline, anything that could harm fish or fish habitat — from illegal poaching to major industrial projects — runs a gauntlet of legislation and regulations put in place to prevent species from going extinct.

It’s all based on a dizzying array of data: years of field studies, comprehensive climate change modelling, water chemistry calculations, collaboration with First Nations, academics and industry and much more. There’s a complex network of officials overseeing the laws and regulations meant to keep people and companies in check. Conservation officers float the rivers to check sport fishers’ licences while compliance and enforcement authorities drop out of the sky in helicopters to make sure heavy equipment operators are keeping their machines from leaking toxins into fish-bearing streams.

At 670 kilometres, the Coastal GasLink pipeline is roughly equal to the distance between Vancouver and Calgary. The path crosses the northern Rocky Mountains, spans vast stretches of forests pockmarked by decades of clearcutting, rises back up into the glacier-capped Coast Mountains and finally drops down to meet the Pacific Ocean. Building the gas pipeline through all this terrain means crossing more than 700 creeks and rivers.

Despite the international scope of the project — getting fracked gas from massive shale deposits in B.C.’s northeast to buyers in Asia on behalf of a consortium of foreign-controlled corporations — oversight of the pipeline is primarily handled by provincial regulators. That’s because construction is taking place within provincial borders.

The main watchdogs are the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission (which quietly announced it is changing its name and expanding its regulatory responsibilities last October) and the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office.

Since starting construction in 2019, Coastal GasLink has continually struggled to prevent sediment from entering wetlands, lakes and rivers. Sediment reduces available oxygen in fish habitat and can suffocate fish in large amounts. For its failures, the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office has issued dozens of rebukes and fined the company more than $450,000 for infractions. Yet the company still struggles to control the issue and cited it as one of the reasons for skyrocketing costs — on Feb. 1, TC Energy announced the pipeline now had an revised price tag of $14.5 billion, more than double its original estimate.

“This project is a boondoggle,” McPhail said. “It’s a boondoggle for the province, for the feds and for Coastal GasLink.”

Officials at Environment and Climate Change Canada can step in if the project is in violation of federal legislation.

“As the issue is currently in relation to the erosion of a wetland and fish habitat, but does not concern the release of deleterious substances into fish-bearing waters, [Environment and Climate Change Canada’s] enforcement branch has not been involved in this matter,” a department spokesperson told The Narwhal in an email. It later added in a follow-up response that the deposit of deleterious substances could include sediment in certain circumstances.

“Eggs and anything in the gravel would be a big concern,” Hertz said. “A fry or smolt has some ability to move and find areas that are less turbid, but for a fish that’s developing and in the gravel, you’re kind of stuck with where you were laid.”

Sleydo’ Molly Wickham, a Gidimt’en clan wing chief, noted neither provincial nor federal governments have jurisdiction over Wet’suwet’en lands and waters. In 1997, a landmark Supreme Court of Canada case affirmed the nation had never given up its Rights and Title to the 22,000 square kilometre territory.

But she said Canada still has a duty to protect the rights of Indigenous Peoples.

“The federal government has responsibilities to us, as Indigenous people. I’m not saying they have jurisdiction, but they have legal responsibilities to Indigenous people. The same goes for DFO.”

Fisheries and Oceans Canada told The Narwhal it typically stays out of B.C. processes but monitors “provincial project decisions and focuses on any related Fisheries Act or Species at Risk Act regulatory decisions.”

Yet, according to internal documents the federal agency appears to be in regular contact with Coastal GasLink and conducts periodic inspections of worksites.

In October, for example, the pipeline company reached out to a fisheries protection biologist with the department for permission to work in a fish-bearing stream on Wet’suwet’en territory outside of a prescribed “least-risk” window. Coastal GasLink is also required to file regular reports and keep the department up to speed on any negative impacts to habitat.

“The fact that they’ve been involved without anybody knowing seems a little suspicious to me,” Wickham said. “They’ve said nothing, they haven’t supported us in any way to find out information, to find out accountability processes — that’s critical information that we need in order to protect our territory and our fish and our water. Why are they hiding the fact that they’ve been involved this whole time? If anything, you would think that they would be transparent about it to prove that they’re doing their job.”

With so many government agencies involved, it’s hard to know who to turn to for answers. McPhail said figuring out which agency has jurisdiction over various conservation issues has been a major source of frustration. Prior to sending her first lengthy email to provincial and federal regulators, she said she spent weeks trying to connect with regulators on phone calls.

“We get these responses that don’t include answers to the questions, that are completely trying to dodge responsibility and, in some cases, are outright misleading or outdated information that presents a reality that doesn’t exist.”

When it comes to how and when the various government regulators talk to each other, things get murkier.

The federal Fisheries Department said it has been coordinating with B.C. “on specific issues related to their project monitoring that intersects with DFO’s mandate, and vice versa.”

But both the federal and provincial governments responded to The Narwhal’s freedom of information requests by saying they had no records of communications between the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office and federal fisheries officers between Sept. 1 and Nov. 24, 2022, when Coastal GasLink was conducting major work crossing salmon rivers and tributaries and the pipeline company continued to struggle with erosion and sediment control issues.

A spokesperson for B.C.’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy confirmed it was not in contact with the federal agency about the pipeline during the period, noting the environmental assessment office takes a backseat to the federal department and the energy regulator for “instream works and crossings.”

“It is a cross-jurisdictional issue with a number of federal and provincial agencies involved in regulating both potential causes of fish habitat impact and the potential impact itself,” the spokesperson wrote in an email. They added that the province didn’t detect any instances of non-compliance that required inter-agency communication during the fall months.

“These agencies are aware of each other’s mandate and which agency is the best-placed regulator to respond to an incident or to ensure compliance with habitat-protection requirements.”

In a similar request for communications between B.C.’s assessment office and the provincial energy regulator, The Narwhal was told “no records were located.”

Hertz said it’s not surprising there is confusion.

“Having so many different entities involved, I think, is a recipe for issues like this to come up,” he said. “Who is supposed to be keeping track of what? It seems troubling.”

To McPhail, the best bet to protect salmon lies with the pipeline workers.

“There are a lot of people who are out there trying to make a good honest living for themselves and for their families,” she said. “I want to empower those people to be our eyes and ears out there, because our regulators are not. We need the local people who are working on this pipeline to keep working it — that’s exactly who we want out there. And if they see something, we need them to say something because the regulators, both provincially and federally, aren’t doing it.”

Matt Simmons, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Narwhal
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Friday, November 24, 2023

COMMENTARY
Biden is gaslighting us about natural gas exports

Time for President Biden to say NO to methane gas exports

By CALEB HEERINGA - ROISHETTA OZANE
SALON
PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 24, 2023 5:30AM (EST)
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting about countering the flow of fentanyl into the United States, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House November 21, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Imagine you woke up one morning to find out that the government approved the construction of a giant “natural” gas processing facility in your backyard. Though your community already suffers from elevated levels of asthma, respiratory disease and cancer from polluting industry, no one asked you or your neighbors whether you wanted yet another source of air pollution.

Now imagine that the federal government told you that your new polluting neighbor was a solution to climate change and the escalating extreme weather disasters that routinely devastate your community.

That kind of gaslighting is the current reality for communities in Southern Louisiana, as President Biden’s Department of Energy considers granting a license to build a new “liquified natural gas” export terminal called Calcasieu Pass 2 (CP2). This is the latest in the oil and gas industry’s mad dash to build gas export facilities that will make countries around the world dependent on fossil fuels for decades to come.

For years, the industry has pushed a myth: that “natural” gas is a clean energy solution that can act as a “bridge fuel” until clean energy like wind and solar are ready. In reality, wind and solar are now the most affordable source of new energy and are being deployed at record levels across the planet. And “natural” gas is mostly methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that warms to the atmosphere more than 80 times as quickly as carbon dioxide; it constantly leaks (or is purposefully released) from fracking sites, gas pipelines, and storage and processing facilities like CP2.

When all that methane pollution is taken into account, it erases any supposed climate benefit that gas has over coal power. According to researchers at Cornell University, it could even make gas worse than coal in terms of its contributions to extreme weather. Robert Howarth, a professor of ecology and environmental biology at Cornell, found that even under a best-case scenario with as few leaks as possible, the greenhouse gas emissions from the entire gas export cycle are 24% worse than those caused by digging up and burning an equivalent amount of coal.

In addition to their vast climate impacts, exporting vast amounts of gas fuels inflation and raises energy prices for American families, as US utilities are forced to compete with entire foreign countries for the same limited supply of fuel. The price of gas nearly tripled last year as the industry rushed to make top dollar selling it overseas following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Huge new facilities like CP2 would only further tie US consumers to volatile international gas markets and risk higher monthly energy bills

These revelations about “natural” gas may be shocking to DC politicians who have been fed a steady diet of misleading marketing and industry lobbying, but it’s no surprise to Gulf Coast communities that are living next to these facilities. They see the bright red flames of methane that the industry routinely burns off, and can feel in their lungs the invisible pollutants these facilities release. A new poll released this month found that respondents want limits on natural gas exports by a 2-to-1 margin. 62% support a pause on the construction of new export facilities until the proper reviews are completed.

Even though pollution from gas export facilities is supposedly “regulated,” the industry often ignores those laws in order to keep reaping the profits on the sale of gas. Just down the road from where CP2 would be built, Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass 1 LNG exceeded its air pollution limits 139 times last year but kept operating because any potential fines are minuscule compared to the profits that executives can make selling gas overseas.

Does polluting Gulf Coast communities, warming the planet with more methane gas and raising US energy prices sound like its “in the public interest?” That’s the metric that President Biden’s Department of Energy (DOE) is supposed to be weighing to determine whether gas export facilities like CP2 can be built. But as a group of Democrats in Congress have noted, “DOE’s case-by-case approach to approvals ignores the aggregate impact that the explosive growth in U.S. LNG exports is having on climate, communities, and our economy.”

The reality is that the rush to expand gas exports has more to do with the interests of oil and gas executives than the public, which will be stuck with more extreme weather disasters, higher energy bills and air pollution in frontline communities in Southern Louisiana. It’s time for Biden and DOE to slow down and actually weigh the impacts that gas exports are having on the American public.


By CALEB HEERINGA
Caleb Heeringa is Campaign Director of Gas Leaks, a nonprofit educating the public about the harms of “natural” gas.MORE FROM CALEB HEERINGA

By ROISHETTA OZANE
Roishetta Ozane is the founder of the Vessel Project of Louisiana, a grassroots mutual aid, disaster relief, and environmental justice organization.
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Monday, January 16, 2023

CRIMINAL CRYPTO CAPITALI$M;FTX
UPDATED

Former FTX US President Accuses SBF of ‘Gaslighting and Manipulation’


Sun, January 15, 2023

Former President of FTX US Brett Harrison shared details of his tenure under Sam Bankman-Fried on Saturday, distancing himself from the disgraced crypto mogul who’s been charged with a series of financial crimes.

In a flurry of Twitter posts, Harrison accused Bankman-Fried of “gaslighting and manipulation,” claiming he was isolated as a leader while working to build out the defunct cryptocurrency exchange’s presence in the U.S.

Harrison stepped down from FTX’s U.S. division in September, just weeks before Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire began to crumble—but says his relationship with the former CEO had begun to fall apart long before that.

“My relationship with Sam Bankman-Fried and his deputies had reached a point of total deterioration, after months of disputes over management practices at FTX,” he wrote.

Former FTX US President Promises to Share More Information ‘In Time’

While Harrison led FTX US for a total of 17 months, the former high-ranking employee said he threatened to leave the company in April of last year—just 11 months into his role—over “organizational problems” that he identified with FTX’s structure.

Harrison said one issue he flagged was the separation of FTX’s legal, development, and executive teams, which had influence over both FTX US and the company’s international exchange, according to Harrison.

Harrison said Bankman-Fried ultimately disagreed with the suggested structural changes early on in his role at FTX US, describing the FTX founder as stubborn and spiteful when his authority was questioned.

Harrison added that he faced “tremendous pressure not to disagree with Sam” as president of FTX US, along with other employees who worked within the cryptocurrency exchange’s U.S. division. He said the team’s professional background was rendered “irrelevant and valueless.”

“I wasn’t the only one at FTX US who disagreed with Sam and members of his inner circle,” he stated. “FTX US was staffed with experienced professionals from US finance firms, law firms, and regulated exchanges.”

Other sticking points Harrison said he identified were “the delegation of managerial responsibility and controls,” which he said were handled by Bankman-Fried and other company executives based in the Bahamas, where FTX was based.

He also wanted to make more transparent the software development responsibilities of FTX co-founder Gary Wang and Nishad Singh, the former FTX engineering chief who is now seeking a cooperation deal with federal prosecutors in New York pertaining to Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial.

Attorneys in the Southern District of New York filed charges against Wang last month, as well as the former CEO Alameda Research, Caroline Ellison, who led the trading firm founded by Bankman-Fried before FTX. Wang and Ellison are both cooperating with investigations into FTX. Singh and Harrison have not been accused of wrongdoing.

Prosecutors have charged Bankman-Fried with eight criminal charges, including fraud and money laundering. He is accused of siphoning billions of dollars worth of customer funds away from FTX to cover trades made by Alameda, donate to political campaigns, purchase private real estate, and expand his business.

After submitting a formal complaint about issues he identified with FTX’s structure, Harrison resolved to leave the company upon receiving backlash, stating he was “threatened on Sam’s behalf” that he would be fired and his professional reputation ruined.

FTX US President Brett Harrison Stepping Down, Shifting to Advisory Role

Harrison explained he was initially sympathetic towards Bankman-Fried’s unfavorable leadership, stating he thought “addiction and mental health problems” could’ve been a contributing factor.

The former FTX US president had come to know Bankman-Fried as a junior trader at New York-based trading firm Jane Street, where Ellison also got her start in finance as an intern. Harrison had worked there for over seven years prior to roles at Citadel Securities and Headlands Technologies.

In addition to the proficiency Bankman-Fried displayed in a programming class he taught, Harrison developed a positive perception of Bankman-Fried as a “sensitive and intellectually curious person who cared about animals,” and senior traders “indicated he had promise.”

During Harrison’s time at FTX US, the company was hit with a cease-and-desist-letter from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation over a false and misleading statement made by Harrison. In a now-deleted Tweet, Harrison had claimed “direct deposits from employers to FTX US are stored in individually FDIC-insured bank accounts in the users’ names.”

When asked about the statement via Twitter on Saturday by EZPR founder and CEO Ed Zitron, Harrison blocked Zitron’s account, according to a recent post made by Zitron. Zitrion told Decrypt that Harrison’s move was “laughable.”

FTX US Hit With FDIC Cease-and-Desist Over 'False and Misleading' Statements

Harrison did not respond immediately to requests for comment, but he replied to Zitron’s question stating “it’s impossible to have a good faith or fact-based discussion” about the incident on Twitter.

When Harrison departed from FTX US in September, he announced that he would be shifting into an advisory role with the firm over the next few months but wouldn’t be leaving the crypto space in his next role.

“I don’t doubt my experiences in this role will be among the most cherished of my career,” he stated. “I’ll be assisting Sam and the team with this transition to ensure FTX ends the year with all its characteristic momentum.”

Harrison is currently launching a crypto software company, for which he recently sought funding at a valuation of up to $100 million, Bloomberg reported last month. In a reply to Harrison’s thread on Saturday, American financier and former White House director of communications Anthony Scaramucci identified himself as an investor.

Scaramucci's investment firm Skybridge Capital received $40 million from Bankman-Fried's FTX Ventures in September in exchange for a 30% stake in the investment firm. FTX was also featured prominently as a sponsor at SALT New York last year, a networking event affiliated with Skybridge.

“I am proud to be an investor in your new company,” Scaramucci stated. “Go forward. Don’t look back.”

Meet Sam Trabucco, the Alameda exec who oversaw the development of the crypto hedge fund's ultra-risky trading strategies

Morgan Chittum
Sun, January 15, 2023 

Sam Trabucco was the co-CEO of Alameda Research.

Sam Trabucco was Alameda Research's co-CEO. He left the crypto hedge fund a few months before its collapse.


Before he left Alameda, he reportedly went on a $10 million all-cash property buying spree and bought a 52-foot yacht.


US prosecutors have not alleged Trabucco with any wrongdoing.

Sam Trabucco stepped down as the co-CEO of trading firm Alameda Research in August, just months before Sam Bankman-Fried's crypto empire filed for bankruptcy and lost $8 billion of customer money.

Around the time of his departure in late August, he tweeted, "But if I've learned anything at Alameda, it's how to make good decisions – and this is the right one for me."

Whereabouts of Trabucco, who has not been accused of any wrongdoing, are unclear. Here's what we know about one of the top executives at Alameda Research.

Bankman-Fried was the sole CEO of Alameda from its inception until October 2021 when Ellison and Trabucco took over. Trabucco was formally in his role as Alameda's co-CEO for less than a year, according to a court filing, from October 2021 to August 2022.

Trabucco, 30, hasn't publicly been accused of any wrongdoing. He stepped down from the company in August, shifting Caroline Ellison into the role of Alameda's CEO.

Trabucco significantly reduced his role at Alameda in this months leading up to his departure. He couldn't "personally continue to justify the time investment of being a central part of Alameda," he tweeted, adding that he would be staying on as an advisor to the company but would not have a "strong day-to-day presence."

Trabucco wanted to "prioritize other things."

"What other things? I'm really not sure, exactly. Lately I've been really happy, spending a lot of time traveling, visiting friends and family, working on 'myself' and whatnot," he said. "Also I bought a boat, that's been cool. I needed to relax, and I'm really, really happy."

Before he left Alameda, it was reported that Trabucco a went on a $10 million all-cash property buying spree, purchasing two luxury apartments in San Francisco, according to Protos. He also bought a 52-foot yacht, which he called "Soak my Deck." The Financial Times reported that Trabucco even paid a freelancer on Fiverr to design the boat's logo.

A little over a month after his departure from FTX, Trabucco tweeted: "Why are journalists so excited to make my stepping down about something other than a desire to go fast over the nice water."

Bankman-Fried and Trabucco have known each other for over a decade. They met at a five-week math camp at Mount Holyoke College in 2010, where Trabucco said Bankman-Fried rarely slept during his stay, Insider reported.

The two later reconnected in college at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where Trabucco studied math and computer science. Before joining Alameda as a trader in 2019, he had a stint as a quant trader on Susquehanna's bond exchange-traded fund desk, according to his LinkedIn.

In a press release announcing Trabucco and Ellison's move to become co-CEOs, the company said the two will "oversee all operations at Alameda while also collaborating to execute on the strategy the organization" and "focus on managing the trading desk."

The former exec was an aggressive crypto trader, employing risky bets in Alameda's business. Trabucco has indicated in a series of public comments that he also employed poker and blackjack strategies in trading, Bloomberg reported.

"Bigger is Bigger (when Betting is Better)," he tweeted in January of 2021, explaining how his gambling experience shaped his trading methods. "Getting it in good is a poker term referring to the idea that, when your odds are best.... you wanna bet more."

When crypto exchange OKX suspended user withdrawals on its platform in January of 2021, Alameda began buying out positions of investors wanting to reduce exposure.

"Not only are we not sellers, we're HUGE buyers -- even though it's risky -- because, in fact, we can take the risk and this trade is GREAT according to what we know -- was crucial, and it's something we're always aiming to do," he tweeted.

As for his involvement in FTX's downfall, US prosecutors have not said Trabucco was involved in any wrongdoing even as he worked in Alameda's C-suite with several execs who are now facing a slew of charges.

"[Sam] is not really involved in day-to-day operations in Alameda," Trabucco told CoinDesk in October of 2021. "Caroline and I have been leading the charge [at Alameda] for quite some time."

Despite his claims to the news outlet over a year ago,"Bankman-Fried remained the ultimate decision-maker at Alameda, even after Ellison and Trabucco became co-CEOs," the US Securities and Exchange Commission said in its complaint against the fallen FTX CEO.

The court document reads: "Bankman-Fried directed investment and operational decisions, frequently communicated with Alameda employees, and had full access to Alameda's records and databases."

Trabucco did not respond to Insider's request for comment.

FTX Collapse: Bankman-Fried Takes On a Powerful Law Firm

The disgraced former crypto king continues to tell a version of events that ignores regulators' allegations against him.

LUC OLINGA
JAN 14, 2023 

Sam Bankman-Fried faces a series of criminal and civil charges, including alleged fraud.

The trial of the disgraced founder of cryptocurrency exchange FTX and its sister company Alameda Research, a hedge fund and trading platform, is scheduled for October.

Bankman-Fried was released on bail on Dec. 21 after being extradited from the Bahamas where he lived and where FTX's headquarters were based.

The former trader pleaded not guilty on Jan. 3 during a hearing in New York.

Facing the court, he remained silent but since Bankman-Fried, known by the initials SBF in the crypto space, has resumed speaking on social networks. He tries, as during his apology tour at the end of November/beginning of December, to exculpate himself. In doing so, he tries to blame others.

He has just done this in a blog post in which he points the finger at the powerful law firm Sullivan & Cromwell. To be clear, Bankman-Fried is not accusing Sullivan & Cromwell of any wrongdoing related to FTX or Alameda Research.


Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty

'I Would Sometimes Work Out of S&C's Office'

He accuses Sullivan & Cromwell of conflicts of interest. He also claims that the law firm forced him to file for bankruptcy and to choose John Ray, the new CEO of FTX, as liquidator of FTX and Alameda Research. Basically, if his empire is in disarray it is the fault of Cromwell & Sullivan because there were other options than bankruptcy, says Bankman-Fried.

"Senators have raised concerns about a potential conflict of interest from Sullivan & Crowell (S&C)," the former crypto emperor wrote. "Contrary to S&C’s statement that they 'had a limited and largely transactional relationship with FTX', S&C was one of FTX International’s two primary law firms prior to bankruptcy, and were FTX US’s primary law firm."

He continued: "FTX US’ GC came from S&C, they worked with FTX US in its most important regulatory application, they worked with FTX International on some of its most important regulatory concerns, and they worked with FTX US on its most important transaction. When I would visit NYC, I would sometimes work out of S&C’s office."

GC stands for General Counsel. FTX US is the American subsidiary of FTX. Consumers residing in the United States wishing to buy or sell cryptocurrencies and other digital assets (NFTs) via FTX could only do so through FTX US, an entity based on American soil.

"S&C and the GC were the primary parties strong-arming and threatening me into naming the candidate they themselves chose as CEO of FTX -- including for a solvent entity in FTX US -- who then filed for Chapter 11 and chose S&C as counsel to the debtor entities," Bankman-Fried asserted without providing any evidence.

Sullivan & Cromwell did not respond to a request for comment.

The law firm is FTX's lead counsel in its bankruptcy.

'Pressured'

Four U.S. senators -- Sens. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) -- recently wrote to Delaware Judge John Dorsey to point out that, given the past relationship between FTX and Sullivan & Cromwell, the law firm was not in the best position to deal with the current bankruptcy proceedings.

The bipartisan group of senators wrote that the law firm has "advised FTX for years leading up to its collapse and one of its partners even served as FTX’s general counsel."

As a result, "the firm is simply not in a position to uncover the information needed to ensure confidence in any investigation or findings."

"The firm had a limited and largely transactional relationship with FTX and certain affiliates prior to the bankruptcy,” Sullivan & Cromwell responded in a statement according to Bloomberg. A "broad team of sophisticated professionals, including conflicts counsel,” is advising FTX in bankruptcy.

The law firm has already said in court documents that it collected $8.5 million from FTX for work related to regulatory requests and transactions.

Dorsey found the senators' letter 'inappropriate' but said he will "make my decisions on the matters referred to in the letter based only upon admissible evidence and the arguments of parties and interest presented in open court."

Bankman-Fried says there was another option other than bankruptcy.

"Despite its insolvency, and despite processing roughly $5b of withdrawals over its last few days of operation, FTX International retains significant assets – roughly $8b of assets of varying liquidity as of when Mr. Ray took over," he asserted without providing evidence.

"In addition to that, there were numerous potential funding offers – including signed LOIs (letters of intent) post chapter 11 filing totaling over $4b. I believe that, had FTX International been given a few weeks, it could likely have utilized its illiquid assets and equity to raise enough financing to make customers substantially whole."

Bankman-Fried is not optimistic.

"Since S&C pressured FTX into Chapter 11 filings, however, I worry that those pathways may have been abandoned."

Why the IRS Has an Interest in the FTX Bankruptcy Case


Stacy Elliott
Sat, January 14, 2023

Of all the crypto bankruptcies over the past year, the FTX Chapter 11 proceeding is the only one that’s had a Department of Justice attorney assigned to represent the Internal Revenue Service.

Deputy Attorney General David Hubbert filed notice for Department of Justice trial attorney Elisabeth Bruce (replacing attorney Warren Benson, who was assigned in December) to appear in the FTX bankruptcy proceedings on Thursday.

There’s been no indication of the IRS’s exact interest in the case. A call to the IRS’s press office from Decrypt yielded a decline to comment. It’s also not clear if the agency plans to pursue its own litigation against the bankrupt crypto exchange. But the fact that it's involved at all is notable, especially given the IRS's prior interest in the customer data of major crypto exchanges such as Coinbase and Kraken.

FTX, founded by ex-CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, filed for bankruptcy on November 11. In the days leading up to its voluntary filing, the company saw billions worth of assets pulled off its crypto trading platform, was almost acquired by competitor Binance, and then froze withdrawals in a last-ditch attempt to stay afloat.

It was a sudden and spectacular downfall that caught the attention of U.S. regulators and law enforcement. Sam Bankman-Fried has since been arrested and charged with eight financial crimes. Members of his inner-circle Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang have already pleaded guilty and are cooperating with prosecutors as Bankman-Fried awaits trial.

Meanwhile, the FDIC, Federal Reserve, and Office of the Comptroller put out a joint statement two weeks ago, warning that crypto isn’t “safe and sound.” The White House has ramped up its call for regulation (while fielding questions about meetings between Bankman-Fried and President Joe Biden).

As for the IRS, Miles Fuller, TaxBit’s director of government solutions, told Decrypt that it seems the agency has more than a passing interest in the case.

Normally when debtors file for bankruptcy, those cases get assigned to an insolvency unit within the IRS, he said. The unit keeps tabs on the case and, if the IRS becomes a creditor in the proceedings, they file a proof of claim without getting lawyers involved.

He would know. Fuller spent 15 years working as an attorney at the IRS before joining TaxBit last year.

“If there was some very administrative thing that just needed to be handled, the Department of Justice's tax division is like, ‘Yeah, we don't care about that. We'll let you guys handle that,’” Fuller said. “But for any sort of really substantive tax related matter or high profile tax matter, they say, ‘No, no, we want to do that.’”

TaxBit, a tax software and crypto account firm, raised $130 million last year at a $1.3 billion valuation. That made it one of the rare startup unicorns in the middle of a not so great year for most of the crypto industry.

DOJ, IRS Target Tax-Evading Clients of Crypto Broker SFOX

Fuller said it’s possible, but a long shot, that the IRS is trying to get its hands on the customer list that FTX was given permission to keep private for another three months. If that were the agency’s interest, it wouldn’t be completely unprecedented. The IRS has issued John Doe summons seeking information on potential tax evaders to crypto firms Coinbase, Kraken, Circle, and SFOX.

Fuller suggested the IRS could also be working on guidance for how customers who have lost money in FTX, or other crypto collapses, can claim their assets at a loss without having to wait for the full bankruptcy proceeding to play out. The agency created a rule for victims of theft and Ponzi schemes in 2009 following the Bernie Madoff case.

Lisa Zarlenga, a tax attorney and partner at Steptoe & Johnson in D.C., said she’s not as optimistic about the IRS making accommodations for FTX victims.

Court Greenlights IRS Access to Kraken’s Customer Data

“You're probably still in limbo because you're gonna have to wait for the bankruptcy to play out. You could recover something, and so it's not really a closed transaction yet. They haven't actually incurred the loss,” she told Decrypt. “Some people have talked about triggering a loss by abandoning something, but can you even abandon a crypto account?”

She’s gotten the sense that most customers would prefer to wait and see what they can get from the bankruptcy, even if it means they forgo any immediate benefit. As for the IRS sending a Justice Department attorney to represent it in the case, she said her initial thought was that the agency is getting in line to file its own claim. Why? FTX—or one of its 130 entities—could owe the government money, she said.
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