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James Glanz, NYT: The Bush administration has deliberately and systematically distorted scientific fact in the service of policy goals on the environment, health, biomedical research and nuclear weaponry at home and abroad, a group of about 60 influential scientists, including 20 Nobel laureates, said in a statement issued today.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/18/science/18CND-RESE.html
February 18, 2004
Scientists Accuse White House of Distorting Facts
By JAMES GLANZ
The Bush administration has deliberately and
systematically distorted scientific fact in the
service of policy goals on the environment, health,
biomedical research and nuclear weaponry at home and
abroad, a group of about 60 influential scientists,
including 20 Nobel laureates, said in a statement
issued today.
The sweeping charges were later discussed in a
conference call with some of the scientists that was
organized by the Union of Concerned Scientists, an
independent organization that focuses on technical
issues and has often taken stands at odds with
administration policy. The organization also issued a
37-page report today that it said detailed the
accusations.
Together, the two documents accuse the administration
of repeatedly censoring and suppressing reports by its
own scientists, stacking advisory committees with
unqualified political appointees, disbanding
government panels that provide unwanted advice, and
refusing to seek any independent scientific expertise
in some cases.
"Other administrations have, on occasion, engaged in
such practices, but not so systematically nor on so
wide a front," the statement from the scientists said,
adding that they believed the administration had
"misrepresented scientific knowledge and misled the
public about the implications of its policies."
A White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, said today
he had not seen the text of the scientists'
accusations. "But I can assure you that this is an
administration that makes decisions based on the best
available science," he said.
Dr. Kurt Gottfried, an emeritus professor of physics
at Cornell University who signed the statement and
spoke in the conference call, said the administration
had "engaged in practices that are in conflict with
the spirit of science and the scientific method." Dr.
Gottfried asserted that what he called "the cavalier
attitude toward science" could place at risk the basis
for the nation's long-term prosperity, health and
military prowess.
The scientists denied that they had political motives
in releasing the documents as the 2004 presidential
race began to take shape, with Howard Dean dropping
out a day after Senator John Kerry narrowly defeated
Senator John Edwards on the Wisconsin Democratic
primary. The organization's report, Dr. Gottfried
said, had taken a year to prepare — much longer than
originally planned — and had been released as soon as
it was ready.
"I don't see it as a partisan issue at all," said
Russell Train, who served as administrator of the
Environmental Protection Agency under Presidents
Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford, and who spoke in
the conference call in support of the statement. "If
it becomes that way I think it's because the White
House chooses to make it a partisan issue," Mr. Train
said.
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