NEWS: White House Tries To Control World Health Organization, page 1

The Bush White House is now attempting its own version of "spin-doctoring" science. Scientists who work for the government in any capacity must now be "approved" by a political appointee of Bush's choice before they can participate in WHO meetings.

YahooNews

White House Tries to Rein In Scientists

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration has ordered that government scientists must be approved by a senior political appointee before they can participate in meetings convened by the World Health Organization (news - web sites), the leading international health and science agency.

A top official from the Health and Human Services (news - web sites) Department in April asked the WHO to begin routing requests for participation in its meetings to the department's secretary for review, rather than directly invite individual scientists, as has long been the case.

Officials at the WHO, based in Geneva, Switzerland, have refused to implement the request, saying it could compromise the independence of international scientific deliberations.

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Hats off to Rep. Henry Waxman, who is battling this nonsense. And speaking as an academic, Tony Jewell's comment ("No one knows better than HHS who the experts are and who can provide the most up-to-date and expert advice") is outrageously stupid.

[edit on 28-6-2004 by Zion Mainframe]

[edit on 28-6-2004 by Zion Mainframe]