Rewriting Science

This opinion piece at Salon.com (that they lifted from grist magazine) furthers my biologist friend’s belief that the Bush administration is committing an ecological holocaust. Unhappy with an upcoming report covering the flow of the Missouri river, Craig Manson — assistant interior secretary for fish and wildlife parks — issued a memo requesting a new reoprt.

This opinion is to be provided by a “special national team of [U.S. Fish and Wildlife] Service experts … referred to as ‘the Wise Guys’ or the ‘SWAT Team,’ [which] has served well in other complex, high-interest consultations,’” he wrote, with nary a trace of irony to soften the mafia-boss language. The replacement biological SWAT team will reach its conclusions after a 45-day study; the original team’s findings were based on more than 10 years of research and were confirmed by independent peer review as well as by the National Academy of Sciences.