Bush aide denies science distorted by political agenda

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, April 04, 2004

Bush aide denies science distorted by political agenda

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US President George W. Bush's chief science adviser has fired back at an advocacy group that accused the administration of distorting scientific facts to support a conservative political agenda, The Washington Post reported Saturday.

Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), a Washington-based advocacy group, on Feb. 18 issued a report accusing the Bush 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.

The UCS report gained extra attention because its release was accompanied by a supporting letter signed by more than 60 scientists, including 20 Nobel laureates.

In a statement released on Friday with a 17-page, point-by-point rebuttal, John H. Marburger III, director of the White HouseOffice of Science and Technology Policy, said the UCS accusations "are wrong and misleading."

"The accusations in the (UCS) document are inaccurate, and certainly do not justify the sweeping conclusions of either the document or the accompanying statement," wrote Marburger.

Marburger's rebuttal was issued at a time of increasing scrutiny of the Bush administration's relationship with science, The Washington Post said.

The administration has for many months been criticized that itspolicy on global warming, air quality, forest management and othermatters of science are driven by a conservative agenda.

Most recently, President Bush's Council on Bioethics came underfire from several science groups after two members supportive of human embryo research were dismissed, a move the administration denied was political.

Source: Xinhua

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