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Griffin Lays Out NASA Position On Openness
Washington DC (SPX) Feb 06, 2006 NASA administrator Michael Griffin has laid out his agency's position on unauthorized statements by employees. He released the statement last Friday in the wake of recent media reports that a NASA climate scientist had been prevented from speaking on climate change, and that the Inspector General had been attempting to silence safety warnings about the space shuttle. In the first instance, James E. Hansen, the chief climate scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., claimed he was ordered to clear his public statements with agency's public information officials. Hansen had contested the Bush administration's position on climate change during a lecture at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco last December. In the second, Robert "Moose" Cobb, a former White House lawyer who was appointed NASA inspector general in 2002, was accused by current and former employees in a Feb. 3 story by The Washington Post that he had squashed NASA internal investigations. An FBI-led watchdog agency is reported looking into multiple complaints against Cobb. Written complaints and supporting documents from at least 16 people have been given to investigators for the Integrity Committee of the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency. The documents allege that Cobb, appointed by President George W. Bush in 2002, suppressed investigations of wrongdoing within NASA and abused and penalized his own investigators when they persisted in raising concerns. The complaints describe efforts by Cobb to shut down or ignore investigations on issues such as a malfunctioning self-destruct procedure during a space shuttle launch and the theft of an estimated $1.9 billion worth of data on rocket engines from NASA computers. "I want to make sure that NASA employees hear directly from me on how I view the issue of scientific openness and the role of public affairs within the agency," Griffin said in his statement. "NASA has always been, is, and will continue to be committed to open scientific and technical inquiry and dialogue with the public. The basis for this principle is codified in the Space Act of 1958, which requires NASA to 'provide for the widest practicable and appropriate dissemination of information concerning its activities and the results thereof,'" Griffin continued. He also said the job of NASA's Office of Public Affairs is "to convey the work done at NASA to our stakeholders in an intelligible way. It is not the job of public affairs officers to alter, filter or adjust engineering or scientific material produced by NASA's technical staff. To ensure timely release of information, there must be cooperation and coordination between our scientific and engineering community and our public affairs officers." Griffen said NASA has "identified a number of areas in which clarification and improvements to the standard operating procedures of the Office of Public Affairs can and will be made. The revised policy, when complete, will be disseminated throughout the agency." He concluded by saying he wanted "to encourage employees to discuss this issue and bring their concerns to management so we can work together to ensure that NASA's policies and procedures appropriately support our commitment to openness." Related Links NASA
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