NASA Scientist threatened 2-2-2006

2, February 2006                   NASA Scientist threatened

Once again the White House ‘swift boat’ swat team has ensnared another victim. Dr. James Hansen. NASA’s top climate specialist has invoked the wrath of the administration for his public statements linking industrial emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases to global warning. Dr. Hansen informed Andrew C. Revkin of the New York Times that he was threatened with “dire consequences” if he continued to defy and embarrass the administration on such ‘petty, inconsequential issues’. This is another example of the administration’s attempt to stifle free speech, the bedrock of a healthy democracy.

The administration’s ‘hired gun’ was George Deutsch, a spokesperson in NASA's public affairs office who appears to have been rewarded for his services with President Bush's re-election campaign and inaugural committee. Mr. Deutsch was forced to resign when an alert blogger exposed his false claim of receiving a bachelor's degree in journalism from Texas A&M in 2003. It is appalling that NASA did not vet the credentials of one its employees and allowed him to denigrate and alter the report of a valued scientist with impeccable credentials.