Report Charges Broad White House Efforts to Stifle Climate Research.

Evidence and allegations of political interference in government

climate change research have dogged the Bush administration, even from

fellow Republicans.

Last November, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., charged the administration

had broken the law by failing to deliver news of climate change

research to Congress by a legally-mandated deadline of November 2004.

"When you get to that degree of obfuscation, then you get a little

depressed," McCain said then.

From ABC News, 3/27/07:

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/03/exclusive_repor_1.html

Report Charges Broad White House Efforts to Stifle Climate Research

Justin Rood Reports:

Bush administration officials throughout the government have engaged

in White House-directed efforts to stifle, delay or dampen the release

of climate change research that casts the White House or its policies

in a bad light, says a new report that purports to be the most

comprehensive assessment to date of the subject.

Researchers for the non-profit watchdog Government Accountability

Project reviewed thousands of e-mails, memos and other documents

obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests and from

government whistle-blowers and conducted dozens of interviews with

public affairs staff, scientists, reporters and others.

The group says it has identified hundreds of instances where White

House-appointed officials interfered with government scientists'

efforts to convey their research findings to the public, at the behest

of top administration officials.

The report is slated to be released tomorrow at a hearing before the

House Science Committee, which is investigating the issue.

"The evidence suggests that incidents of interference are often

top-down reactions to science that has negative policy or public

relations implications for the administration," the group says in its

report.

Some of the alleged interference -- including restricting scientists'

ability to talk with the press and Congress -- may have violated

federal laws protecting their right to speak, the group concludes.

"Directives and signals" from White House offices, like the Council on

Environmental Quality, the Office of Science and Technology Policy and

the Office of Management and Budget, are handed down to political

appointees and politically-aligned civil servants through

off-the-record conversations, the report says.

Frequently, those giving the direction have little or no scientific

background, according to the report.

The alleged interference took the form of "delaying, monitoring,

screening, and denying interviews" between government scientists and

media outlets, as well as delaying, denying or "inappropriate[ly]

editing" press releases conveying scientific findings to the public.

Political appointees also suppressed, delayed and inappropriately

edited reports produced by government scientists for Congress and the

public, the Washington, D.C.-based group concluded.

In some cases, the policies and practices the group says were enacted

to squelch damaging scientific information "constitute constitutional

and statutory infringements of the federal climate science employees'

free speech and whistle-blower rights," the report finds.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

__________________________________________________

Strange. Why is the Bush Crime Family trying to keep the truth about

climate change from the American Public?

Harry