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Were the Deaths of the 12 Coal Miners Preventable? A Look
At the History of Safety Violations at the Sago Mine
Whistleblower Warns the Bush Administration Is Cutting Back
Mining Safety Regulations
Ariel Sharon Suffers Major Stroke: Uri Avnery & Rabbi
Michael Lerner Discuss the Future of Israel
Were the Deaths of the 12 Coal Miners Preventable?
A Look At the History of Safety Violations at the Sago Mine
Last year, the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration
filed 200 alleged violations against the Sago mine. 46 citations
were issued in the past three months - 18 of them were considered
"serious and substantial." We speak with investigative
reporter Ken Ward of the Charleston Gazette (WV) who closely
monitors the mining industry. [includes rush
transcript]
Yesterday morning, 12 of the 13 coal miners initially thought
to have survived a mine explosion at Sago Mines in Central
West Virginia, were pronounced dead. The explosion occurred
on Monday morning in a sealed section of the mine, and trapped
13 miners 260 feet below the mine"s surface. Their immediate
fate was unknown but by Tuesday night company officials announced
they had found toxic levels of carbon monoxide in the area
where the miners were thought to be. That night West Virginia
Governor Joe Manchin acknowledged at a press conference that
there was little hope there would be any survivors. Then late
Tuesday night, the company that owns the mine, International
Coal Group, announced that 12 of the miners had been found
alive. Family members and friends who had gathered in a local
church heard the news from the rescue command center and celebrated
with cheering and singing for almost three hours. Many newspapers
on the east coast ran headlines proclaiming the miners to
be alive.
Then early Wednesday morning the CEO of ICG, Ben Hatfield,
announced that actually only one miner, Randy McCloy, had
survived the blast. After the announcement, chaos broke out
at the Sago Baptist church and the devastated families grew
increasingly angry after it emerged that mine officials had
known within 45 minutes that original reports of the miners"
survival might have been false, but they had waited to tell
the families. A fight broke out inside the church and a mining
company official had to be escorted away under police protection.
These are family members speaking to reporters yesterday after
they heard the news.
- Family members react to mine deaths
Also on Wednesday, the CEO of the International Coal Group,
Ben Hatfield, gave a press conference and expressed regret
that the families of the 12 dead miners were mistakenly led
to believe for three hours that their loved ones were alive.
He also tried to explain why the miscommunication happened.
- Ben Hatfield, the CEO of the International Coal Group
Monday's explosion at Sago mine is the state"s deadliest
mining accident since 1968. Seventy-eight men, including the
uncle of the current governor, died in that disaster. The
tragedy propelled Congress to pass the historic Mine Health
and Safety Act of 1969.
The deaths of the 12 miners this week at Sago mine highlighted
ongoing safety problems. Last year alone Sago mine was cited
for over 200 health and safety violations. Inspectors found
16 violations in the past 8 months that were listed as "unwarrantable
failures."
Sago mine was forced to suspend operations 16 times in 2005
after failing to comply with safety rules. The violations
found at Sago included mine roofs that collapsed without warning,
faulty tunnel supports and a dangerous build-up of flammable
coal dust. But the fines that the company were required to
pay were extremely low, most of them $250 or $60 dollars.
Government documents also show a high rate of accidents at
Sago. 42 workers and contractors have been injured in accidents
since 2000 and the average number of working days lost because
of accidents in the past five years was nearly double the
national average for underground coal mines.
We are joined now by Ken Ward Jr., staff writer for West
Virginia"s Charleston Gazette and investigative reporter
who wrote an award-winning series of articles about coal-industry
abuses in West Virginia, revealing that state regulators routinely
ignore the law when they issue mountaintop removal permits.
He continues to cover industry abuses for the Gazette.
We also invited ICG to be on the program but they did not
return our calls.
- Ken Ward, staff writer for the Charleston Gazette in
West Virginia. He wrote an award-winning series of articles
for the paper about coal-industry abuses in West Virginia,
revealing that state regulators routinely ignore the law
when they issue mountaintop removal permits.
Whistleblower Warns the Bush Administration Is Cutting
Back Mining Safety Regulations
We speak with Jack Spadaro, the former head of the National
Mine Health and Safety Academy, a branch of the Department
of Labor. Spadaro discusses how we was forced out of his job
as he attempted to investigate a 2000 mining accident. We
are also joined by Hillary Hosta with the West Virginia-based
Coal River Mountain Watch. [includes rush
transcript]
Critics contend that the Bush administration is beholden
to the mining industry and has gutted safety and health regulations
in the mines. They point to figures from the Center for Responsive
Politics which show that over the last 6 years, coal companies
gave $9 million to mostly republican federal candidates. Critics
also point out that Bush cut funding for mine safety enforcement
by $15 million and stacked the Mine Safety and Health Administration
with representatives of corporate interests.
In 2002, Bush named former Massey Energy official Stanley
Suboleski to the MSHA review commission that decides all legal
matters under the Federal Mine Act. Massey Energy is one of
the largest coal companies in the U.S and has been cited for
numerous violations. And David Lauriski, the former head of
MSHA, spent 30 years as an executive in the mining industry
before being tapped to head the agency. He resigned last year
to work for a mine-industry consulting company. The current
head of MSHA, Richard Stickler, was appointed by Bush last
September. Stickler is a former manager of Beth Energy mines.
The Bush administration has also cut 170 positions from MSHA.
- Jack Spadaro, mining engineer who has devoted his life
to the safety of miners. He was head of the National Mine
Health and Safety Academy (MSHA), a branch of the Department
of Labor, which trains mining inspectors. He's been working
in federal regulatory agencies for almost 30 years. He was
threatened with losing his job at MSHA after blowing the
whistle on what he called a whitewash by the Bush administration
of an investigation into a major coal slurry spill in 2000.
- Hillary Hosta campaigner with the West Virginia-based
Coal River Mountain Watch.
- Ken Ward, staff writer for the Charleston Gazette in
West Virginia. He wrote an award-winning series of articles
for the paper about coal-industry abuses in West Virginia,
revealing that state regulators routinely ignore the law
when they issue mountaintop removal permits.
Ariel Sharon Suffers Major Stroke: Uri Avnery &
Rabbi Michael Lerner Discuss the Future of Israel
In Israel, the country's prime minister Ariel Sharon is
fighting for his life after he suffered a significant stroke
last night. Doctors say he is now in an intensive care unit
after undergoing nine hours of surgery to stem bleeding in
his brain. Even if he survives, the 77-year-old is not expected
to ever regain leadership of the country. [includes rush
transcript]
In Israel, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is clinging to life
in after suffering a massive stroke and brain hemorrhage.
Doctors say the stroke caused severe bleeding in the brain
and paralyzed half his body. This is Shlomo Mor-Yosef, director
of Hadassah University Hospital.
- Prof. Shlomo Mor-Yosef, Hadassah Hospital Director General.
There is no word on how much damage the bleeding may have
caused. But Israel Radio reported : "The assessment is
that Sharon is in a life-threatening state." Sharon's
hospitalization comes less than three weeks after he suffered
a mild stroke and one day before he had been scheduled for
a heart operation. Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is acting
as Sharon's interim replacement. Olmert spoke at an emergency
cabinet meeting earlier this morning.
- Ehud Olmert, Acting Israeli Prime Minister
Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Sharon has been one of
the most dominant political figures in Israel's history. He
has been involved in each of Israel's major wars dating back
to its founding in 1948. As Prime Minister, Sharon has overseen
Israel's disengagement from the Gaza Strip. The Gaza disengagement
caused a serious rift in Sharon's Likud party, which led to
his departure from Likud last month. Sharon has formed a new
party, Kadima, which wants to maintain the Gaza disengagement
but keep Israeli control over the major settlement blocs in
the occupied West Bank. Kadima has been leading polls for
national elections scheduled for late March.
Among Palestinians, Sharon is one of the reviled political
figures in the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict. He
is seen as the father of the settlement movement and the architect
of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, which killed a reported
20,000 Palestinian and Lebanese. An Israeli commission of
inquiry found Sharon had "personal responsibility"
for the massacre of over 1,000 Palestinian refugees at the
Sabra and Shatila camps in Lebanon in 1982.
- Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei
The news of Sharon's condition was greeted with a different
reaction from many Palestinian civilians. This is Mahmoud
Al-Hwareh, a resident of Gaza.
- Mahmoud Al-Hwareh, a resident of Gaza
Joining us on the phone is Uri Avnery, an Israeli writer
and peace activist with Gush Shalom. He is a former member
of the Israeli parliament and was a member of the rightwing
Irgun underground in the 1940s. He speaks to us from Tel Aviv.
We;re also joined by Michael Lerner. Rabbi Lerner is rabbi
of Beyt Tikkun and the editor of TIKKUN magazine: A Bimonthly
Jewish Critique of Politics, Culture and Society. He speaks
to us from California.
- Uri Avnery, an Israeli writer and peace activist with
Gush Shalom. Speaking from Tel Aviv. He is a former member
of the Knesset and was a member of the rightwing Irgun underground
in the 1940s.
- Michael Lerner, Rabbi Lerner is rabbi of Beyt Tikkun
and the editor of TIKKUN magazine: A Bimonthly Jewish Critique
of Politics, Culture and Society.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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