Watch the video below, it is quite something. Amazing that they were stupid enough to tape themselves saying this much less turn it into a documentary!
UPDATE: The legal pleading has been added, link below, quite a read.
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Excerpt From Wizbang: Environmental Scientist Caught Agreeing To Ignore Her Own Data, Make Up New Claims
Dr. Ann Maest is a managing scientist at Straus Consulting, and she’s the go to expert on all things groundwater. In the press release announcing her reappointment to the National Academy of Sciences, they mention that she is focused on the environmental effects of mining and petroleum extraction and production, and, more recently, on the effects of climate change on water quality.
Maest is in high demand as an expert for those looking to stop oil and mineral exploration. She’s also heavily used by the federal government, even though after new details about her past work are coming to light as a result of a lawsuit. From The New York Times:
An environmental consulting firm named as a defendant in a racketeering suit filed by Chevron Corp. over a landmark pollution lawsuit in Ecuador is continuing to work on another blockbuster case: the Deepwater Horizon oil spill investigation.
Boulder, Colo.-based Stratus Consulting, a long-term contractor with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other federal agencies, is gathering and analyzing data concerning the Gulf of Mexico spill.
Chevron is suing those behind the Ecuadorian case including: the lead attorney Steven Donziger; Stratus Consulting; and Maest. As part of their lawsuit, Chevron obtained through discovery, outtakes from a documentary called “Crude” that show Donziger and Maest colluding ignore their own findings and make up some new unsubstantiated claims. Watch this:
from the YouTube description:
The following is an outtake from Joe Berlinger’s movie Crude. At the March 4, 2007, lunch meeting between plaintiffs’ lead U.S. lawyer Steven Donziger and plaintiffs’ U.S. consultants Charles Champ, Ann Maest and Richard Kamp, they reveal the truth about plaintiffs’ lack of evidence and their intent to manipulate the Ecuadorian court. Maest tells Donziger that they need evidence of groundwater contamination, because plaintiffs did not submit any. Maest admits that, “Right now all the reports are saying it’s just at the pits and the stations, and nothing has spread anywhere at all.” Donziger responds, “Hold on a second, you know, this is Ecuador. … You can say whatever you want, and at the end of the day, there’s a thousand people around the courthouse. You’re going to get what you want. Sorry, but it’s true.” Donziger continues, “Because at the end of the day, this is all for the court just a bunch of smoke and mirrors and bulls**t. It really is. We have enough, to get money, to win.” View more outtakes at YouTube.com/TexacoEcuador. For more information about the Ecuador lawsuit, visit Chevron.com/Ecuador
Read the whole thing at Wizbang: Environmental Scientist Caught Agreeing To Ignore Her Own Data, Make Up New Claims
Here’s the legal pleading, quite a read h/t to Steve
http://www.chevron.com/documents/pdf/ecuador/StampedComplaint.pdf
What’s the official ranking – is it lawyers or climatologists who are the least scrupulous?
Realtors and car salesmen are positively saintly by comparison.
Environmentalists everywhere should have a sinking feeling about now.
Wow, this Donziger character seems like quite the psychopath….
I should also mention that Chevron’s channel devoted to this case has some more good videos.
http://www.youtube.com/user/TexacoEcuador
FIRST KILL ALL THE LAWYERS.
Henry The Sixth, Part 2 Act 4, scene 2
Very unprofessional of them to speak on camera like that! /sarc.
Lawyers, by trade, cannot be ethical people. Especially if there is no punishment for the losing side. Lying is not recommended, but serious stretching of the truth runs rampant in the legal systems. Whoever comes across as most convincing to the court or the jury is usually the winner. Effectively, the attorney who is the best actor wins. Sad but true.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q7mjoxHzm4&w=640&h=360]
It’s all about the big green for Big Green. Always has been. The WWF selling carbon credits, Al Gore and his stock options, and GreenPeace and it’s non-disclosure of its funding.
It’s nothing more than a Shake Down, enabled by useful idiots.
It’s stuff like this that’s the reason I never joined APEGGA.
Yep. Corrupt, greedy, and stupid. Pretty much sums up today’s environmental movement.
Well…I’m sure (ahem) that they aren’t ALL (cough) like this (ahem, cough)…
“Boulder, Colo.-based Stratus Consulting, a long-term contractor with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other federal agencies, is gathering and analyzing data concerning the Gulf of Mexico spill.”
So…is NOAA still doing business with these people???
Jesse,
“Yutes” is the classic line from that clip, but my pronunciation highlight is “high-ay-nus”.
Addtional OT factoid, the porky witness is Maury Chaykin, who went on to play the private detective Nero Wolfe in the A&E series.
Now…back to our regular programming…
This seems fairly typical of the “environmental” movement to date, all the way from the people involved with the science to the people who manipulate opinion.
They are disgusting and despicable. These people are not the exception. As we have learned in climategate, they are typical.
JEM says: “I’m sorry, but we need to see the NEXT minute. We need to see her response to his bafflegab, or transcripts of testimony, or other corroborating details that indicate that she bought into this…”
You mean, the part where she says, “But that would be wrong?”
jeez says:
December 13, 2011 at 4:16 pm
James Sexton,
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia …….
======================================
I’m sad and angry about this…………….. if RICO applies, then criminal charges must be drawn!
I had given up on our legislative body. They are all unprincipled scumbags. I had given up on the executive branch. They are scumbags that can’t be part of the legislative branch. I held hope that the judicial branch would carry the day.
It can not be that people have violated RICO and not be in violation of federal law. In which case, the remedy is prison, if not the death penalty.
Thomas Jefferson was correct about periodicity. Corrupted bastards…….
OMFG,
and the like…
Please be careful what you write. RICO – Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations. Incredibly, I once spent a year as racketeer (according to the courts). Now I’m just another person. I sort of miss the racketeer thing; it was an interesting conversation starter. At the time I sent the “Cousin Vinny” video to my attorneys as a primer on our forthcoming court date. They didn’t see the humor.
““Crude” is available on Netflix streaming. See if the next minute is shown.”
My bad. These are outtakes from “Crude”, so by definition the next minute is not in the documentary. The documentary edited out the good stuff.
These guys could play Dumb and Dumber… Well, I guess they did.
What, the Rico Defendants thought commissioning “Crude” would ~”further their criminal enterprise”? Were they trying to supplant “Che’s” success in t-shirt sales?
The IPPC, ACORN and OWS can’t compare to Donziger yet, but the thought is there. Check out the Chevron pleading as above:
http://www.chevron.com/documents/pdf/ecuador/StampedComplaint.pdf
http://www.chevron.com/documents/pdf/ecuador/StampedComplaint.pdf
JPeden;
Thanks for that link. Just the table of contents is breathtaking!
James Lovelock said (I’m paraphrasing) that something like 80% of the ozone measurements were either faked or incompletely done. The ATF discussed using “Fast and Furious” to achieve a new level of gun control (wonder if this is what Obama meant when he said he was working on gun control “under the radar”).
I’m not surprised at this (but glad it was posted).
And I wouldn’t be surprised if some day, we find out that most of those major lawsuits against Walmart were mostly bogus and designed to pressure Walmart to either cave into union demands (so the DNC get’s their ‘cut’) or to pressure Walmart to donate to left wing politicians and /or causes.
“They are disgusting and despicable. These people are not the exception. As we have learned in climategate, they are typical.”
They are exceptional in their ineptitude. Most of them are probably much brighter than this, which is no comfort.
I wish Chevron great success in this suit! I have long held that collusion by our AGW fanatics is addressable by RICO lawsuit. Same goes for the incestuous socialist cronyism surrounding taxpayer guaranteed Billion dollar loans to already failed companies like Solydra who are run by money launderers for highly placed politicians ‘that believe in wealth redistribution’!.
If that ain’t ‘Racketeering’, What The Hell Is??!!
Actually he didn’t suggest making anything up; he said take the existing *known* contamination and extrapolate per theory to 300 meters taking into account the topographical changes. Not quite as bad as using cherry-picking 1998 as the starting point for global temperature graph or comparison.
In Australia coaching a witness is a criminal offense but it is hard to prove unless there is good evidence such as this video. I would have thought that the US Justice Department would need to take action.