But Adds Misdeeds Limited To Public Affairs Office

Claims brought against NASA regarding suppression of information tied to global warming appear to have been right on target, according to a 48-page report released Monday by the agency's inspector general's office.

The New York Times reports the IG determined political appointees inside NASA's public affairs office engaged in a pattern of distorting and suppressing information regarding climate change... and, in at least one case, took steps to prevent the agency's top climate scientist from speaking with reporters about global warming.

The Times broke the original story in early 2006, after several NASA researchers and public affairs workers contacted the paper with claims of political interference with getting science news to the public. A group of 14 senators later asked the IG to look into the claims.

"Our investigation," the report states, "found that during the fall of 2004 through early 2006, the NASA Headquarters Office of Public Affairs managed the topic of climate change in a manner that reduced, marginalized or mischaracterized climate change science made available to the general public."

The report adds no evidence was found linking high level officials with NASA, or within the Bush Administration, to suppressing information about global warming. Nevertheless, the report did uncover evidence supporting claims that politics was "inextricably interwoven" into daily operations within the public affairs office "especially on a topic that has worldwide scientific interest."

The report also cites evidence indicating appointees within NASA's public affairs office took steps to prevent Dr. James Hansen, the agency's leading climate scientist, from speaking to the media. The IG also asserts news releases on global warming were also muted, or in some cases withheld outright, by officials appointed to the agency by President Bush.

The latter is interesting... in that while the IG says no top-level Bush Administration officials were involved in suppressing information, underlings hired by the President DID perform such actions.

As ANN reported, one of those appointees, George Deutsch -- appointed by the President to the agency at the tender age of 24 -- was booted from NASA after his alma mater, Texas A&M, disputed Deutsch's assertions he graduated from the university with... ah, his own academic records.

NASA spokesman Michael Cabbage downplayed the IG's findings. "The issues mentioned in the inspector general’s report are more than two years old, and after learning of those issues, NASA revised the agency’s policy for disseminating science information," he said.

FMI: http://oig.nasa.gov/