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As I pointed out on June 16, I often enjoy a good conspiracy theory.  That’s just one of the reasons why I wrote a posting back on January 28, 2010 entitled, “The Conspiracy Against Conspiracy Theories”.

The Internet provides us with innumerable sources of conspiracy theories on a vast array of subjects.  A good number of people disregard all of them, as a result of a belief that any conspiracy theory is of dubious veracity.  Others look for revealing signs of a fictitious narrative.  One such indicator becomes obvious when a conspiracy story twists and turns until it eventually finds its way to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.  Purveyors of those stories are responsible for the anti-Semitic stigma, which the term “conspiracy theory” frequently evokes.

The latest conspiracy theory to catch my attention arises from the Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster.  On July 22, 2010 – three months after that tragic event – I wrote a piece concerning how BP had begun a campaign of signing-up as many potential expert witnesses as could be found, not only to testify on BP’s behalf in administrative and judicial proceedings – but, more importantly – to buy their silence.  Litigation attorneys often refer to this tactic as, “buying experts off the street”.  As you can see, I have been predisposed to assume that there are likely to be more than a few conspiracies and cover-ups resulting from the Deepwater Horizon blowout.  I concluded that essay with this remark about a gentleman named Matthew Simmons:

On July 21, Bloomberg News televised an interview with Matthew Simmons, founder of the Ocean Energy Institute.  Among the subjects included in the conversation was the topic of BP’s confidentiality agreements.  If what Mr. Simmons said is correct, BP’s legal defense efforts will become futile once the public realizes “we have now killed the Gulf of Mexico”.  At least on that one point, the cretins at BP are probably not the only individuals who are hoping that Mr. Simmons is wrong.

Within a few short weeks of that posting, Matthew Simmons was found dead in his hot tub, having suffered an apparent heart attack.  I immediately became suspicious   . . .

More recently, I came across this posting at a conspiracy-oriented website called The Intel Hub.  That item was based on the investigation conducted by a group called the Real Costal Warriors, who have been concerned about the fact that since the Deepwater Horizon event occurred, nine experts, critics and whistleblowers have died under mysterious circumstances.  The Intel Hub informed us that the suspicious death toll has now included a tenth individual:

George Thomas Wainwright, a BP ROV pilot was supposedly killed in a freak shark attack in Australia.

The avid outdoorsman and Texas A&M graduate was a marine systems engineer involved with capping the Macondo well after last year’s BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Wainwright – whose body was recovered by the college friends he was boating with – is the third man killed by a great white in the state in two months.

The aforementioned Matthew Simmons was included in Real Costal Warriors’ list of nine individuals who are either “dead, missing or jailed”.  One of the unfortunate nine – Anthony Nicholas Tremonte – is still alive, although he was jailed after “child porn” was allegedly found on his computer.  A similar “child porn” bust was made against another member of this list – Dr. Thomas B. Manton – who was murdered in prison.  Here is the list as it appears on the Intel Hub website:

April 2, 2011 – Tucker Mendoza, gulf truth activist, still recovering, along with his niece.  Shot four times through his front door, niece hit twice.  Anyone with information regarding this shooting incident should call St. John the Baptist Parish Detectives at 985-359-8769 or Crimestoppers at 504-822-1111.

February 17, 2011 – LSU scientist Gregory Stone, 54 – Died of Unknown Illness.  Stone was an oft-quoted expert concerning the damage the leaked oil might cause to the coast.

January 26, 2011 – Anthony Nicholas Tremonte, age 31 – Mississippi Department of Marine Resources officer, from Ocean Springs arrested on child porn charge.

January 19, 2011 – Dr. Thomas B. Manton, former President and CEO of the International Oil Spill Control Corporation – imprisonment and subsequent murder while jailed.

December 31, 2010 – John P. Wheeler III, a former Pentagon official and presidential aide and a defense consultant and expert on chemical and biological weapons – was beaten to death in an assault, body was discovered in a Wilmington landfill.

November 23, 2010 – James Patrick Black, an incident commander for BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill response team, died Tuesday night near Destin, Florida in a small plane crash.

November 15, 2010 – Chitra Chaunhan, age 33, worked in the USF Center for Biological Defense and Global Health Infectious Disease Research – Found dead in an apparent suicide by cyanide at a Temple Terrace hotel.  She leaves behind a husband and a young child.

November, 2010 – MIA Status – Dr. Geoffrey Gardner of Lakeland, FL – Swan expert who “ran into legal trouble over an expired prescription license has closed his practice” — Was investigating unexplained bird deaths near Sarasota abruptly and immediately closed his practice, and apparently his investigation into the deaths of swans in Sarasota, suspected to have been impacted by the BP Oil Disaster.  No one has heard or spoken with him since. Watch this news report covering his investigation before his disappearance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqbx2TnbYlc&

October 6, 2010 – Roger Grooters, age 66, was hit by a truck as he passed through Panama City, Florida.  Mr. Grooters had been knocked down and killed close to the end of a 3,200-mile trans-America charity ride to raise awareness about the Gulf Coast oil disaster. He began his cross-country bike ride in Oceanside, California, on September 10th.  Grooters’s family and friends will cycle the final stretch of the journey from the Pacific to the Atlantic in his honour, raising cash to support Gulf Coast families.

August 9, 2010 – Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, 86, the longest-serving Republican senator in history, was among nine people on board when the 1957 DeHavilland DHC-3 Otter, crashed into a brush- and rock-covered mountainside Monday afternoon about 17 miles north of the southwest Alaska fishing town of Dillingham, federal officials said.  Stevens was the recipient of a whistleblower’s communication relative to the BP Oil Disaster blow-out preventer, and a conspiracy of secrecy to hide the facts from the public.

“You and your fellow Committee members may wish to require BP to explain what action was ultimately instituted to cease the practice of falsifying BOP tests at BP Prudhoe drilling rigs.  It was a cost saving but dangerous practice, again endangering the BP workforce, until I exposed it to Senator Ted Stevens, the EPA, and the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.”  The cause of the crash is still an OPEN investigation by the NTSB (http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/GenPDF.asp?id=ANC10MA068&rpt=p)

August 13, 2010 – Matthew Simmons, age 67 – Simmons’ body was found Sunday night in his hot tub, investigators said.  An autopsy by the state medical examiner’s office concluded Monday that he died from accidental drowning with heart disease as a contributing factor – “It was painful as can be” to be only insider willing to speak out against the “officials” during the BP Oil Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

April 6, 2010 – Scientist Joseph Morrissey, age 46 – cell biologist and college professor, a near-native Floridian who chose to return to South Florida after studying at elite universities – was fatally shot during what police say was a home invasion robbery.

Obviously, the possibility exists that none of these incidents resulted from the involvement of these individuals in the Deepwater Horizon controversy.  In fact, there is no real connection described, which could remotely connect the death of John P. Wheeler III to Deepwater Horizon.  As for the death of George Thomas Wainwright, are we to believe that a Great White shark was trained to attack a particular individual on command?  There is an implicit suggestion that a shark attack was not the true cause of death, without any facts asserted which could bring that cause of death into question.  The number of victims is apparently being exaggerated here because, as that number increases, it seems less likely that we are looking at random coincidences.

The environmental disaster in the Gulf of Corexit presents enough suspicious circumstances and cover-ups whether or not any of these ten tragedies may have been causally connected to some aspect of the event.  Nevertheless, it’s an intriguing conspiracy theory and I’m going to keep it on my radar until it is satisfactorily debunked.