CIA Shuts Down Its Climate Change Boondoggle
In September 2009, the CIA opened a new boondoggle. The CIA heralded this breakthrough, which was timed to take advantage of the United Nation Organization’s scheduled December meeting in Copenhagen. It was poor timing.
Two months later, the files of the main British global warming propaganda center were hacked. With perfect timing, two weeks before the UN meeting, the hackers released thousands of incriminating emails and documents. The media had a field day with this. The world learned of the outright deception of the public and suppression of rival views that had gone on for years. The “Copenhagen summit” collapsed in a wave of derisive laughter. That was the high water mark of the global warming movement. It is best symbolized by this stunt at the meeting.
Note: Phil Jones was the head of the hacked propaganda center. In one email, he bragged: “I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (i.e., from 1981 onwards) and from 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline.” His reputation immediately melted. He is still on the payroll, where he serves out his time faithfully but invisibly until his retirement.
Ten weeks before Copenhagen, a public relations flak at the CIA released this breathless statement.
The Central Intelligence Agency is launching The Center on Climate Change and National Security as the focal point for its work on the subject. The Center is a small unit led by senior specialists from the Directorate of Intelligence and the Directorate of Science and Technology.Its charter is not the science of climate change, but the national security impact of phenomena such as desertification, rising sea levels, population shifts, and heightened competition for natural resources. The Center will provide support to American policymakers as they negotiate, implement, and verify international agreements on environmental issues. That is something the CIA has done for years. “Decision makers need information and analysis on the effects climate change can have on security. The CIA is well positioned to deliver that intelligence,” said Director Leon Panetta.
The Center will assume responsibility for coordinating with Intelligence Community partners on the review and declassification of imagery and other data that could be of use to scientists in their own climate-related research. This effort draws on imagery and other information that is collected in any event, assisting the US scientific community without a large commitment of resources.
The new Center does more than bring together in a single place expertise on an important national security topic—the effect environmental factors can have on political, economic, and social stability overseas. It will also be aggressive in outreach to academics and think tanks working the issue. The goal is a powerful asset recognized throughout our government, and beyond, for its knowledge and insight.
The CIA has announced that it has shut down the project. Better late than never. Let us give thanks.
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Published on November 21, 2012. The original is here.