[...] the FBI Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force apparently signed a deal with ChoicePoint to access records the FBI is forbidden to collect under the 1974 Privacy Act. In 2003, ChoicePoint gave the federal government Internet access to its service, and then began developing a system exclusively for government use. Although the Privacy Act forbids the government from collecting certain records about its citizens, nothing in the law expressly prevents a corporation from doing so on the government's behalf.

"He's only a bit player," Dr. Hansen said of Mr. Deutsch. "The problem is much broader and much deeper and it goes across agencies. That's what I'm really concerned about."



"On climate, the public has been misinformed and not informed," he said. "The foundation of a democracy is an informed public, which obviously means an honestly informed public. That's the big issue here."

The Big Bang is "not proven fact; it is opinion," Mr. Deutsch wrote, adding, "It is not NASA's place, nor should it be to make a declaration such as this about the existence of the universe that discounts intelligent design by a creator."



It continued: "This is more than a science issue, it is a religious issue. And I would hate to think that young people would only be getting one-half of this debate from NASA. That would mean we had failed to properly educate the very people who rely on us for factual information the most."