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 clear
shape, a day after Senator John Kerry won
the Wisconsin Democratic primary and solidified
his position as President Bush's likely opponent
in the fall. 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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