Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Hansen Says Bush Administration Uses "Nazi" Tactics to Silence Government Scientists
James Hansen, director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies and one of the country's leading climate scientists told the House Government Reform Committee yesterday that that the Bush administration's heavy-handed attempts to control what government scientists say publicly about climate change smack of Nazi Germany.
"It's not the American way," Hansen said, "And it's not constitutional."
The Bush administration sends a minder -- in Soviet Russia they called them political commissars -- along with Hansen when he gives interviews. White House officials also refused to allow him to be interviewed by NPR.
As Hansen testified, one of those minders, Philip Cooney, chief of staff to the White House Council on Environmental Quality, sat next to him. Cooney edited Hansen's testimony before the committee changing "will" to "may" in describing the impact of human activity on climate change.
Some of the changes Cooney made, he admitted to the committee, were "to align these communications with the administration's stated policy" on climate change.
"It's not the American way," Hansen said, "And it's not constitutional."
The Bush administration sends a minder -- in Soviet Russia they called them political commissars -- along with Hansen when he gives interviews. White House officials also refused to allow him to be interviewed by NPR.
As Hansen testified, one of those minders, Philip Cooney, chief of staff to the White House Council on Environmental Quality, sat next to him. Cooney edited Hansen's testimony before the committee changing "will" to "may" in describing the impact of human activity on climate change.
Some of the changes Cooney made, he admitted to the committee, were "to align these communications with the administration's stated policy" on climate change.
