Moscow? Berlin? Naw, just Washington...

Not really surprising, but infuriating nonetheless. The NY Times reports that top NASA climatologists and director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Dr. James Hansen was censored by top NASA officials who subjected his speeches, papers and postings on the Goddard site.

Hansen was placed under various restrictions after a Dec. 6 2005 address to the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, in which claimed that "without leadership by the United States, climate change would eventually leave the earth "a different planet." "

The NY Times article includes a worthwhile video of Hansen speaking on climate change.

The clamp down is not restricted to Hansen. "At climate laboratories of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, for example, many scientists who routinely took calls from reporters five years ago can now do so only if the interview is approved by administration officials in Washington, and then only if a public affairs officer is present or on the phone."