Politico-Spike Lee Says U.S. Gov't Was BP's "Puppet"

Spike Lee: Eurweb

(Story reported by Patrick Galvin for Politico)

Filmmaker Spike Lee appeared on MSNBC's "Countdown" Tuesday night to discuss his new documentary on Hurricane Katrina and the Gulf oil spill and their effects on New Orleans. Unsurprisingly, he had some sharp critiques at the ready.

Lee said that American greed stood to bring down the country: "We have people in office appointed and voted in and people in big business positions who only care about the dollar bill, and there are people [who] get harmed, people [who] die. They say that's the cost of doing business."

Lee also said that he thinks the U.S. government has been a puppet for BP.

"Throughout this whole thing, I feel — and a lot of those people feel down here — that BP was dictating [to] the United States government what to do," he said. "BP dictated [to] the FAA who could fly over the site. BP dictated to the Coast Guard and Thad Allen which boats can come and go. And BP dictated [to] the EPA — the EPA sent a letter to BP saying we have serious concerns about your dispersant, Corexit. They sent back [one] saying, we're going to use it anyway. So BP's been running things."

(click here to read the full story on the Politico website. Below is the video to Spike's appearance on Keith Olbermann's "Countdown".)