By JEREMY W. PETERS

When the operators of Southern Seaplane in Belle Chasse, La., called the local Coast Guard-Federal Aviation Administration command center for permission to fly over restricted airspace in Gulf of Mexico, they made what they thought was a simple and routine request.

A pilot wanted to take a photographer from The Times-Picayune of New Orleans to snap photographs of the oil slicks blackening the water. The response from a BP contractor who answered the phone late last month at the command center was swift and absolute: Permission denied.

“We were questioned extensively. Who was on the aircraft? Who did they work for?” recalled Rhonda Panepinto, who owns Southern Seaplane with her husband, Lyle. “The minute we mentioned media, the answer was: ‘Not allowed.’ ” "Nyet!"

Journalists struggling to document the impact of the oil rig explosion have repeatedly found themselves turned away from public areas affected by the spill, and not only by BP and its contractors, but by local law enforcement, the Coast Guard and government officials.

Read more at NY Times...

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To an old, retired intelligence officer this sounds frighteningly like the former Soviet Union, where citizens needed permission to travel, were restricted from travel to many "sensitive" areas, and every damn map in the country, including the maps produced by the government for use by the government, had gross errors built in so that they couldn't be used by an enemy against the government.

What is all the paranoia about? Is somebody hiding something? Was this a simple industrial accident like we were all prepared to believe, or is all the secrecy and bullshit pointing to a botched conspiracy?

(By the way, it certainly is refreshing to see the left-wing rag NY Times bitching about press censorship by the government. Right On Brothers. Dissent is the Highest Form of Patriotism, Remember?)

"I know not what other gentlemen may do at times like these, but as for me, I'm buying more ammunition."

EnemyoftheState