Evening Buzz: Oil Spill Blame Game

[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/US/05/10/gulf.oil/story.oil.shore.gi.jpg caption="A fish killed by unknown causes washed ashore in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, on Monday." width=300 height=169]

Maureen Miller
AC360° Writer

There is still no accurate timetable for controlling the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Today lawmakers on Capitol Hill tried to find out who's responsible for the mess. They got few answers and lot of finger-pointing.

At the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing, the owner and operator of the well, BP, said the fault lies with the company it hired to work the well: Transocean. BP officials specifically pointed to Transocean's valve, or blowout preventer, that was supposed to cut off the oil after the accident; but it failed. Meanwhile, Transocean is pushing blame in two directions. First, back at BP and second, it blames subcontractor Halliburton, which encased the well in cement. As you might predict, Halliburton is also denying responsibility and says the focus should be on Transocean and BP.

We're keeping them honest tonight on 360°. Tom Foreman will break down the blame game and show you how this is playing out.

Senators on both sides of the aisle are not happy with the denials from the three big companies.

"It doesn't benefit any one of them for BP to be pointing the finger at Transocean, to be pointing the finger at Halliburton, to be pointing the finger back, at BP, because if there is no offshore exploration activity then BP's not going to be working out there, Halliburton's not going to be working out there and Transocean's not going to be working out there. So they've got to resolve, all of them, that the effort now is to make sure that we never see a disaster of this magnitude again," said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), a supporter of offshore drilling, at a news conference this afternoon.

"I think it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that there is no such thing as 'too safe to spill,' " said Sen. Bob Menendez (D-New Jersey), a critic of offshore drilling, at today's hearing.

Meanwhile, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar spoke about the crisis on CNN's Situation Room today. He said everything is being done to try to stop the oil leak as "fast as possible."

"Best case: That it starts coming into some kind of containment over the weekend and into next week and the next couple of weeks. Worst case is looking at August with a relief drill," Salazar said.

We’ll also continue Nic Robertson's eye-opening report on the new jihad training ground here in the U.S. - maybe even in your town. Nic spent the last year retracing the steps of a young American, to determine how the former altar boy from Long Island, New York became determined to kill for al Qaeda.

Also tonight, in Washington state three men and a woman are accused of killing a man over a diamond ring. All four are charged with the murder of Jim Sanders on April 28 after he posted an ad for the ring on Craigslist. Sanders, his wife and their two sons, ages 14 and 10, were restrained with plastic handcuffs during the deadly home invasion, investigator said. Sander’s wife is speaking out. Hear what she said she and her family faced that day.

Join us for these stories and much more starting at 10 p.m. ET. See you then.