The White House Is Looking for “Scapegoats”

The situation surrounding BP can seriously damage Barack Obama’s image. Therefore, the U.S. president ordered to find and bring to justice the perpetrators of the environmental disaster, and “to follow the facts wherever they lead, without fear or favor.”

Experts believe that with their tough actions, the Obama administration is trying to compensate for its lack of power in actually combating the “black gold,” which has been spilling into the coastal waters of the United States for almost 50 days.

Above BP — owner of the exploded platform Deepwater Horizon — the clouds continue to thicken. Despite the fact that one of the largest multinational players in the oil market has already lost $70 billion of market capitalization, the worst for its leadership is yet to come.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, while on a visit to the disaster-stricken region, refrained from commenting on the situation. This will become the subject of a criminal investigation. “We will closely examine the actions of those involved in this spill,” said the attorney general while in New Orleans. “If we find evidence of illegal behavior, we will be forceful in our response.”

However, prominent lawyers in Washington believe that in the course of the investigation, it’s not only BP that might get kicked hard “in the nuts.” The boomerang of the American Themis [Goddess of Justice] will hit U.S. authorities. In particular, the U.S. Department of Justice should be interested in the false declarations of the Minerals Management Service of the Department of the Interior.

In addition — at the heart of the incident with the explosion of the platform — several other companies were involved aside from BP, including its drilling contractor Transocean Ltd., the well-known Halliburton Company that cemented the underwater oil well, and Cameron International Corporation that produced BP’s blowout preventer. So to find a “scapegoat” will be difficult, and the investigation itself may take longer than a year.