http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Carmona#Political_interferenceOn July 10, 2007, Carmona, along with former Surgeons General C. Everett Koop and David Satcher,
testified before the United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform about political
and ideological interference with the Surgeon General's mission. Carmona accused the Bush Administration
of preventing him from speaking out on certain public health issues such as embryonic stem cell research,
global climate change,<8> emergency contraception, and abstinence-only sex education, where the
Administration's political stance conflicted with scientific and medical opinion.<9>
Carmona also testified that the Bush Administration had attempted for years to "water down" his report
on the dangers of secondhand smoke and pressured him not to testify in the tobacco industry's racketeering trial:
"Anything that doesn't fit into the political appointees' ideological, theological or political agenda
is ignored, marginalized or simply buried."<10><11> According to Carmona, he was even ordered not to attend
the Special Olympics because the event was sponsored by the Kennedy family, and was told to mention
President Bush three times on every page of his speeches.<6> The Washington Post subsequently identified
William R. Steiger as the Bush Administration official who had blocked release of Carmona's report on
global health because it conflicted with the Administration's political priorities.<12>
Reuters reported that Carmona's predecessors as Surgeon General had acknowledged the high level of political
interference he experienced, saying: "We have never seen it as partisan, as malicious, as vindictive,
as mean-spirited as it is today, and you clearly have worse than anyone's had."<10>