Thursday, May 27, 2010

President Obama Cautiously Spells Out Peak Oil

At his press conference today on the continuing crisis in the Gulf of Mexico, President Obama made the present prospects of energy quite clear. The following transcript is my own from the video:

"Now, let me make one broader point though, about energy. Um, the fact that oil companies now have to go a mile underwater and then drill another three miles below that in order to hit oil, tells us something about the direction of the oil industry! Extraction is more expensive and it is going to be inherently more risky. And so, that's part of the reason you never heard me say, 'Drill, Baby, Drill!' Because we can't drill our way out of the problem. It may be part of the mix as a bridge to a transition to new technologies and new energy sources. But we should be pretty modest in understanding that the easily accessible oil has already been sucked out of the ground. And, as we are moving forward, the technology gets more complicated, the oil sources are more remote, and that means that there's probably going to end up being more risk. And we as a society are going to have to make some very serious determinations in terms of what risks are we willing to accept. And that's part of what the commission, I think, is going to have to look at. I will tell you though, that understanding we need to grow, we're going to be consuming oil for our industries and for how people live in this country, we're going to have to start moving on this transition! And that's why when I went to the Republican Caucus just this week, I said to them, 'Let's work together'. You've got Lieberman and Kerry, who previously were working with Lindsay Graham, even though Lindsay's not on the bill right now, coming up with a framework that has the potential to get bipartisan support. And says, yes, we are going to still need oil production, but you know what? We can see what's out there on the horizon and it's a problem if we don't start changing how we operate."

This starts at about the 49:30 time on the video. Thanks to Subdivisions at Democratic Underground for providing the link.

It's great that there is finally political movement toward bipartisan consensus on our post-oil economic infrastructure. But any framework in order to be effective needs to build upon two previous studies. David Goodstein, Vice Chancellor at Cal Tech, published a study explaining that it takes 30 years to change an energy infrastructure, assuming that you have something to change to. The other study was conducted by Robert Hirsch for the Department of Energy in 2005. Known as the Hirsch Report, this study on Peak Oil concluded that if we started preparing for a new infrastructure 20 years prior to peak, we might be OK. If we started 10 years prior to peak, we could expect at least 10 years of recession. If we waited until we actually hit Peak Oil, expect a 20 year recession as a best case scenario.

Read both reports and a quote from Jaws comes to mind: "We're gonna need a bigger boat".

Since I had problems downloading the news conference, here is the best link:

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/293762-1

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

An American View of Greece

Recently, my father traveled to Greece. He's an extensive world traveler who has visited every continent except Antarctica. There are many countries he loves to visit, but probably his favorite place to travel to is Greece. He has been on multiple occasions, usually to visit his Orthodox friends on Mount Athos. I wanted to talk with him regarding the recent protests that have engulfed Greece in the wake of their economic debt crisis that has lead to strikes and riots.

"They go on strike for just about any reason over there", Dad remarked regarding the recent May Day strike. "This time was the worst". Dad had a friend who invited him to take a side trip over to Macedonia to see some of the churches there, then he planned on returning to Greece May 1. He fell in love with Macedonian culture, enjoying their festival of parades and picnics which contrasted starkly with the chaos in Greece, where buses and trains were on strike. Getting back to Greece required paying a taxi 50 euros to travel 75 kilometers just to get across the border to the town of Thessaloniki. But the real killing came within Greece where he had to get another taxi in Thessaloniki to get near Mount Athos, which cost 130 euros to travel half of the previous distance!

Why does he think they're having such problems in Greece? My Dad read an article he thought gave a simple explanation. I believe the writer made some good points about the unsustainability of the extensive social safety net for Greece and other poorer countries within the EU like Spain and Portugal. But I disagree with him about the cause; they have had poor economic growth, but you can't blame it on slow population growth. Greece actually had negative population growth from 1992 to 2001, yet didn't experience nearly as much turbulence as they do now. The elephant in the room is slow resource growth, or as Richard Heinberg would say, Peak Everything.

I do agree with the writer's concern about the EU keeping Greece and other poorer countries on board and resorting to hyperinflation in a futile attempt to bail them out. Our debt situation really doesn't compare to the EU as far as health care and college tuition because, as the writer hints at but doesn't quite grasp, we have a "strong central government", which is code for the almighty Federal Reserve. Obama HCR won't kill the Federal Reserve. VAT won't kill the Federal Reserve. Higher education costs won't kill the Federal Reserve. But hyperinflation might. We really don't have inflation in this country that has reached the level of economic constriction that we saw during the Ford and Carter administrations. But if the EU resorts to inflationary measures (which is what the 750 billion euro assistance fund is the start of) and Greece or others default, this could spread globally and then our All-American Fast Driving Buy Now Pay Never Society funded under the fiat printing arm of the Federal Reserve really could be in jeopardy of extinction. Which ultimately, in the face of permanent resource contraction within an Infinite Growth Paradigm, is not necessarily a bad thing.

"They went overboard and overextended themselves", Dad observed regarding the EU. "They're doing a lot of things wrong, they expect too much but they can't afford it". I asked him what he thought about the possibility that James Howard Kunstler floated recently on his blog that Greece might resort to communism. "As far as I'm concerned, they're really close to it, they're crazy over there", Dad lamented.

I believe these BBC photos document that craziness:

In pictures: Greece protests

Protester throwing rock
A protester throws a traffic sign at riot police in front of Greece's parliament building in Athens, 5 May, 2010
Bricks, rocks, broken bits of marble and even petrol bombs were used as missiles against the police.
HIDE CAPTIONSSTART SLIDESHOW

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

25,000 Barrels A Day & We're Still Missing The Wake Up Call!

It is truly a disgusting sight on so many levels to watch what is happening with The Great Oil Leak of 2010. The Leak itself is truly horrific; I'll get to the details of that later. What is really infuriating to witness is the abdication of responsibility from everyone connected with this tragedy. The entire incident has dissolved into a political blame game. The hearings in Congress today are proof that the importance of laying blame supersedes the importance of actually fixing the damn catastrophe.



BP, subcontractors: Spill is the other guy's fault





NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The three oil companies primarily involved in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill blamed each other Tuesday for the accident last month that left 11 workers dead and oil still spewing into the Gulf.
At a hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, BP (BP), the well's owner and lead operator of the project, sought to turn attention to the valve that was supposed to shut off the well in case of an accident. The valve, known as a blowout preventer, is owned by drilling rig operator Transocean, which was contracted to drill the well for BP using its Deepwater Horizon drill rig.
"Transocean's blowout preventer failed to operate," said Lamar McKay, chairman and president of BP America, according to prepared testimony. "Only seven of the 126 onboard the Deepwater Horizon were BP employees, so we have only some of the story."
Transocean (RIG) said the blowout preventer performed fine in tests just a week before the accident.

more...
http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/11/news/companies/BP_hearings/index.htm?hpt=T1

Revolting. BP blames Transocean for a faulty preventer. Transocean says the preventer might not be the cause and blames faulty cement work. Halliburton, responsible for the cement work, blames BP, as does Transocean. The Senators chastise them for playing the blame game, but the truth is that in the MSM-dominated world of politics, the blame game is the only game in town. Fox News blames President Obama. Keith Olbermann blames Dick Cheney. And outside of MSM, the blogosphere reverberates in their respective ideological echo chambers. Oh, occasionally someone will post news that avoids the game to focus on just how horrendous this event truly is:

Oil leak is 5 times greater than reported by officials


From staff reports • May 10, 2010
The amount of oil gushing from BP's Deepwater Horizon oil disaster is five times more than what the oil company and the U.S. Coast Guard are currently estimating, said a Florida State University oceanography professor on Saturday.
At an oil spill environmental forum at the Hilton Pensacola Beach Gulf Front, Ian MacDonald said the blowout is gushing 25,000 barrels a day.
The Coast Guard and BP estimate 5,000 barrels a day of crude is spewing into the Gulf.
MacDonald said his estimate is based on satellite images and government maps forecasting the slick's trajectory.
more...
http://www.pnj.com/article/20100510/NEWS01/5100314

If You Think You Have a Sense of the Oil Spill's Scale

May 9 2010, 12:32 PM ET
Try this utility from Paul Rademacher's site, which overlays a scaled representation of the Deepwater Horizon spill onto a Google Earth view of any city you choose. (May require a Google Earth web plug-in, available at the site linked above. I've used that plugin for a long time with no ill effects.) For instance, here is how the spill would look as applied to Washington DC. Click for larger.

DCOilSpill.png

And, just quickly a few other cities I'm familiar with. First the SF Bay Area, then Tokyo, then Duluth MN. You can choose any place.

SFSpill.png

ToykoOil.png

DuluthSpill.png

more...

http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2010/05/if-you-think-you-have-a-sense-of-the-oil-spills-scale/56425



After Gulf Coast oil spill, scientists envision devastation for region


snip

Few people have a more apocalyptic view than Matt Simmons, retired chairman of the energy investment banking firm Simmons & Company International and a 41-year veteran of the industry. Simmons, who will speak at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston this week, has been famous in recent years for warning that the industry is running out of oil. Now he sees a disaster on an epic scale as the pressurized subterranean reservoir known as the Macondo field, tapped for the first time by Deepwater Horizon, continues to vent into the gulf.
"It really is a catastrophe," Simmons said. "I don't think they're going to be able to put the leak out until the reservoir depletes. It's just too technically challenging."
He said BP's cleanup costs could ruin the company.
"They're going to have to clean up the Gulf of Mexico," he said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/04/AR2010050402980_2.html?sid=ST2010050405322

Games may be fun, but the dire situation we face is not, and The Great Oil Leak of 2010 is just the tip of the iceberg for the civilization-shaking yet to come. How did we get in this predicament? The sad fact is that when you put the game aside, we are all to blame. Unless you've managed to live through your life only eating organic foods, avoiding pharmaceutical products and everything made from plastic and limit your transportation methods to walking or horseback riding, you've actively participated in reaping the benefits of our technologically advanced society which would not exist without an economic infrastructure predicated on cheap abundant oil. I believe Matt Simmons is right, that age is coming to an end. It's not an issue of foreign oil, offshore oil or arctic oil, it's all oil. The world no longer has the supply to meet the exponential demands of a globalized population dependent on it. Period.
But to accept the blame, to truly take responsibility, we can't wallow in guilt to one extreme or take the blame game to a Jacobean conclusion on the other. There is no all-encompassing solution to this crisis because there are no alternatives in any combination that will allow us to keep running our high-tech society with the same debt-ridden abandon that we have for the last 100 years. We can try but ultimately I believe we will discover that instead of an all-encompassing solution we will opt for the best options that fit into the needs of our immediate community. Globalization will be replaced by Relocalization. Different communities may have different needs, we need policies now that will accomodate such devolution without political friction or chaos. Time will tell if that is still possible.
But time is not on our side. This is our wake up call, and it's happening at the speed of 25,000 barrels a day. There's danger in the ocean; time to start setting up the lifeboats.




Tuesday, May 4, 2010

"They Just Started Shooting Us Down" -- Kent State

kainah (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Wed May-03-06 08:06 PM
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"They Just Started Shooting Us Down" -- Kent State



At 12:24 PM on Monday, May 4, 1970, twenty-eight Ohio National Guardsmen pivoted 135 degrees and began shooting into a crowd of student protesters at Kent State University. By the time the shooting ended thirteen seconds later, the guardsmen had fired sixty-seven rounds and four students lay dead or dying with at least another nine having been shot. How did this confrontation happen? And what caused the Guard to open fire? 36 years later, many of the answers are still unclear.

In Part I of this series, we looked at Nixon's curiously timed announcement of the Cambodian invasion and the May Day rally at Yale University. Part II examined the events of that weekend at Kent. This, Part III, explores the events of May 4. The final diary in the series will focus on the legal aftermath.

In memory of Jeffrey Miller, Allison Krause, Bill Schroeder, and Sandy Scheuer, join me in exploring the events of May 4.

Most of the links in this diary are photos, so if you want to see what was happening, click a link!



(This map will also help to keep you oriented. The arrows indicate the route the Guard took on campus that day. The spray of lighter lines indicates the direction of the shots.)


Monday, May 4, 1970 dawned sunny and deceptively calm. Anger over the invasion of Cambodia had faded into the background. That Monday, Kent State students were angry at what they saw as the occupation of their campus back by the National Guard. They wanted their campus back. Many attended the noon rally, announced the previous Friday, hoping to get some answers. They wanted to find out what was going on and when the Guard would leave. At least one professor encouraged his students to go to the rally for this reason. Other students, crossing the Commons between classes, got caught up in events. Although officials later asserted that all gatherings had been banned, classes were scheduled as usual, although a few got cancelled due to fake bomb scares.

By noon, about two thousand students had gathered on the Commons. Some 80-90% of them were spectators. The Scranton Commission, later convened by Nixon to investigate campus disturbances nationwide, determined the Kent State protest began as a peaceful gathering.

Facing students from the charred remains of the ROTC building were Companies A and C of the 145th Infantry and Troop G of the 107th Armored Cavalry, under the command of Major Harry Jones and General Robert Canterbury. Canterbury, who had been meeting with KSU and Kent city officials, arrived too late to don his uniform. At that meeting, Canterbury said later that a decision had been reached to ban the noon rally. No one, however, would later admit having made this decision which the Scranton Commission called “a serious error.” Nonetheless, at 11:50 AM, KSU policeman Harold Rice ordered the crowd to disperse. With that announcement, this peaceful rally did become illegal. However, since few students heard the announcement, Gen. Canterbury ordered Rice to take a jeep into the crowd and repeat it. Meanwhile, the guardsmen were ordered to lock and load their weapons.

The crowd reacted angrily to what they considered an unnecessary suspension of their first amendment right to assemble. Demonstrators began chanting: “Pigs off campus” and “One, two, three, four, we don’t want your fucking war.” Students pelted Rice’s jeep with rocks. As the hostility increased, Major Jones walked out across the field and pulled Rice back. The Guard then began firing tear gas and, soon thereafter, the skirmish line marched out. When someone pleaded with Canterbury not to advance his units, the general replied, “These students are going to have to find out what law and order is all about.”

Tear gas sent the students running but brisk winds blew much of it back at the troops. As the crowd moved off the Commons, some demonstrators hurled rocks and spent tear gas canisters. Pursued by Company A and Troop G, most students retreated over Blanket Hill. At the crest of the hill, they passed an umbrella-like structure known as the Pagoda. When Allison Krause reached the Pagoda, she paused, turned and yelled an obscenity. (Krause is to the immediate right of the structure in this photo. She is holding hands with her boyfriend.) Her father would always believe that, at that moment, she sealed her fate. After crossing the hill, many students gathered on the veranda of Taylor Hall which housed the school of journalism. Another group continued down the hill to the Prentice Hall parking lot.

General Canterbury later said his mission had been simply to clear the Commons but, when he reached the top of Blanket Hill, he decided to push the demonstrators beyond a practice field some eighty yards below the crest of the hill. Therefore, after cresting the hill, he ordered his troops down the slope of the hill and onto the practice field.

The Scranton Commission later called Canterbury’s decision to abandon his commanding position on Blanket Hill “highly questionable.” The practice field where the troops came to rest was bounded by a six-foot-high fence on its north and east sides. Its south end sloped down to another part of campus. To the west, from which the troops had come, the students quickly reformed. In effect, the guardsmen were now boxed in by fences, topography and students.

About fifty students gathered in the parking lot, closest to the guardsmen, now markedly increased their harassment. Alan Canfora waved a black flag. Jeffrey Miller hurled a spent tear gas canister. Dean Kahler threw a stone. Some guardsmen also threw rocks and spent canisters.

Then, suddenly, members of Troop G knelt and aimed their rifles at the students in the parking lot. Although they did open fire at this point, a subsequent Justice Department investigation determined that “one person, however, probably an officer, at this point did fire a pistol in the air. No guardsman admits firing this shot.” The day after the shootings, a spent .22-caliber casing was found near the edge of the field. Since only Major Jones carried such a weapon, this casing likely came from his gun although he never admitted firing a shot.

Ten tense minutes passed while the guardsmen held their untenable position on the practice field. Officers finally huddled and then ordered their troops to retreat. According to General Canterbury, who denied that he ever took control of the troops that day, the withdrawal was ordered “to make it clear beyond any doubt to the mob that our posture was now defensive and that we were returning to the Commons, thus reducing the possibility of injury to either soldiers or students.” As the guard marched up the hill, they continued to watch the students in the parking lot.

Some demonstrators increased their harassment during the retreat. A few advanced boldly, then retreated. Throughout, however, few students got within 50 feet of the guardsmen. Some threw rocks but almost all of those fell short. One photo taken seconds before the shooting erupted shows that many of the students closest to the guard line were carrying books. (Remember, classes were still going on.)

As the soldiers crested the hill, their forward path remained unimpeded. But, at 12:24 PM, as they crested Blanket Hill, members of Troop G suddenly wheeled 135 degrees, rushed a few feet back to the crest of the hill, and opened fire. The shooting lasted an interminable thirteen seconds and, when it was over, at least 13 students had been shot.

At first, many students thought the guardsmen were firing blanks. But the sights and sounds around them quickly convinced them otherwise. When people saw the river of blood flowing from Jeff Miller's head, reality hit home. The closest fatality, Jeff was standing 265 feet from the guardsmen when a bullet slammed into his mouth and killed him instantly.

The other casualties included: Joseph Lewis, Jr., standing some 60 to 70 feet away, was shot in the abdomen and lower leg. Joe would admit later that he had been giving the guardsmen the finger when they shot him. As he lay wounded, the second shot him in the leg. John Cleary, 110 feet away, was shot in the chest. 200 feet away, Tom Grace, suffered a shot to the foot. Alan Canfora, who had taunted the guard with his black flag, was 225 feet away and hiding behind a tree when a shot ripped through his wrist. Dean Kahler was lying prone 300 feet away when he was shot in the back and permanently paralyzed. Kahler, a conscientious objector, had been home that weekend celebrating his birthday. Douglas Wrentmore, 329 feet away, was shot in his knee. Allison Krause, who had taunted the Guard at the Pagoda, was 343 feet away when the shooting broke out. She and her boyfriend, Barry, hid behind a car. After the shooting ended, Barry thought everything was OK until Allison whispered, "I'm hit." The bullet had entered her armpit and ripped through most of her major organs. She died en route to the hospital. Jim Russell was ninety degrees removed from the others but still 375 feet away when he was slightly wounded in the thigh and forehead by buckshot. William Schroeder, who was attending Kent on a ROTC scholarship, was shot in the lower back when he was 382 feet away. The bullet exited his shoulder. Bill survived the trip to the hospital but died as he was being wheeled into an operating room. Sandra Scheuer, walking to her next class, was 390 feet from the guard when a bullet severed her jugular vein. She bled to death in the parking lot. Robbie Stamps, about 500 feet away, was shot in the right buttock. Donald Scott MacKenzie was 730 feet away when a bullet struck him in the neck and exited his cheek. MacKenzie would almost certainly have been killed had the bullet that hit him not been deflected prior to the strike. (Some believe MacKenzie was struck by the bullet that passed through Sandy Scheuer's neck.)

Immediately after the shootings ended, an eerie silence fell over the scene. Then, as the guard turned on their heels and began marching back to the Commons, students began screaming and trying, to the best of their ability, to protect and treat the wounded. Ambulances soon arrived to carry off the dead and wounded while the students regathered on the Commons and the Guardsmen threatened to march out again. Finally, Professor Glenn Frank tearfully appealed to the students to listen to him, "even if you've never listened to anyone in your whole lives." Please disperse, Frank pleaded, because otherwise there would be another massacre. Few who heard Frank's appeal would ever forget it. Slowly, in confusion, the kids left the Commons and shortly thereafter, the campus was closed for the semester. Within hours, most Kent State students had left town, catching rides out of town however they could.

**************

Why did the guardsmen fire? Almost every student later interviewed said the soldiers had no reason to shoot. Some guardsmen claimed they fired out of fear for their lives. Sergeant Lloyd Thomas, stating his belief that “there was a real possibility that I could be injured,” said he fired “strictly to issue a scare tactic, you know, like showing power with a big noise.” Staff Sergeant Barry Morris said the students “were bent on overtaking us. I was scared to death.” Specialist Fourth Class Ralph Zoller agreed: “I thought they were going to overtake us.”

Sergeant Shafer, the only guardsman to admit firing intentionally at a specific individual, fired once into the air before he saw Joe Lewis with one hand behind his back and the other gesturing obscenely. “I felt – not knowing if this person was going to inflict harm on us or myself – I had to use what abilities I had to stop this person. I fired at him.” Says Lewis: “I was standing still, giving the finger. I was eighteen and arrogant and foolish and I was shot.” All of the photos taken immediately before the shooting prove there was no rush of students bearing down on the guardsmen.

Some speculate that a small group of guardsmen conspired to open fire because they were “fed up” with the demonstrators’ rock-throwing and taunts. Another possible explanation – that an order to fire was given – has consistently been denied by Guard officers. No evidence exists to refute this nor does any evidence support the idea that the guardsmen fired out of panic. Considering the simultaneous whirling around of the guardsmen just as the firing started, had they reacted in panic, it's likely that at least some guardsmen would also have been struck. Nonetheless, it is almost certain that some guardsmen did fire after hearing the initial volley in the belief that an order must have been given.

At least six guardsmen later told the FBI “that the lives of the members of the Guard were not in danger and it was not a shooting situation.” Nevertheless, General Canterbury defended the firing as self-defense: “Guardsmen on the right flank were in serious danger of bodily harm and death as the mob continued to charge. I felt that, in view of the extreme danger to the troops at this point, that they were justified in firing.”

Photographs refute this argument. Although Troop G, responsible for most of the gunfire, was guarding the right flank, they ignored the largest group of student on that side – those in front of Taylor Hall. Instead, they fired on the much smaller, more vocal, and more distant students in the Prentice Hall parking lot. The most compelling evidence to refute the claim of self-defense is the distances at which the victims fell.

The Photographer With A Gun

Another theory advanced immediately after the shootings claimed the guardsmen fired in response to a sniper. This was the rationale offered Monday night by Adjutant General Sylvester Del Corso. Staff Sergeant Barry Morris claimed he heard a shot from behind: “It was not a clear loud crack like it would have been if it had been fired out in the open.” Sergeant Shafer, the only guardsman to admit firing intentionally at a specific individual, initially agreed: “We got over the crest of the hill. There was a single shot. It was impossible to hear what was going on.” Although the sniper theory was quickly abandoned and never thoroughly investigated, evidence exists to suggest that someone other than a guardsman may indeed have fired a weapon that day.

After the firing ceased, the Guard marched back to their original position around the burned-out ROTC building. Within minutes, a young man carrying a gun, a camera, and a gas mask ran over the hill, pursued by another person, yelling, “Stop that man. He has a gun. He fired four shots.”

Terry Norman, the youth with the gun, was a 22-year-old occasional student at Kent State and a free-lance photographer whose primary interest seemed to be taking photos of campus demonstrations. Apparently, at various times, he worked for the campus police, the FBI, or both. Before the May 4 demonstration, Sergeant Mike Delaney, press liaison for the Guard, had initially refused to issue Norman a press pass because Norman lacked the proper credentials. A campus liaison offered to vouch for Norman but that didn't sway Delaney. He finally relented only after the campus police intervened, saying that Norman was “under contract to the FBI to take pictures.” When Norman reached the Guard line after the shootings, Delaney heard him exclaim: “I had to shoot! They would have killed me.”

Several students later told the FBI they saw Norman fire his weapon. After stopping at the guard line, Norman was quickly surrounded by the KSU police. KSU policeman Tom Kelly took possession of Norman’s gun, a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver. NBC reporter Fred DeBrine saw Kelly make “a movement, which resembled the action taken when opening the cylinder on a revolver” and heard the policeman exclaim, “My God, he fired dour shots! What do we do now?” Later, however, Kelly claimed that Norman's gun was “fully loaded” and “had not been fired.” In any case, the KSU policemen quickly hustled Norman away from the scene.

Curiously, when the FBI received Norman's gun, the cartridges they found in the cylinder came from five different manufacturers, leading many to believe that the gun was quickly reloaded with whatever bullets were handy. The FBI agents also concluded that the gun had been fired since its last cleaning, although they could not say when. Three years later, as the House of Representatives threatened to investigate the Kent State shootings, FBI director Clarence Kelley finally revealed that Terry Norman had indeed been on the FBI payroll. On April 29, 1970 – a mere 5 days before the shootings – he had received “a cash payment of $125 … for information which he voluntarily provided to the FBI concerning activities of the National Socialist White People’s Party.” Norman’s connection to the FBI almost certainly explains why he was never subjected to further scrutiny and why his possible role in the shootings was summarily dismissed by the official investigations. Norman later stated in his only sworn statement about the shootings that he did not fire his weapon that day. After that, he remained beyond the jurisdiction of all investigative bodies. “Terry Norman,” declared the Scranton Commission tersely, “a free-lance photographer, was taking pictures of the demonstration and was seen with a pistol after the Guard fired. Several civilians chased him from Taylor Hall into the Guard line, where he surrendered a .38-caliber revolver. The gun was immediately examined by a campus policeman, who found that it had not been fired.” And, officially, that was the end of it. But, for many, the role of Terry Norman remains one of the bigger mysteries of the Kent State shootings.

Terry Norman was last known to be working for a police department in (where else?) Florida.

Cross-posted at Daily Kos and Booman Tribune

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=207842

(This article was reprinted in full with the permission of the author to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the horrible tragedy at Kent State. The following update is from the author at the Daily Kos link.)

UPDATE: Terry Norman is found! (h/t to DU's asthmaticeog) And, an even more remarkable 2006 story about Terry Norman.