Ex-surgeon general: Bush admin. interfered

WASHINGTON, July 11 (UPI) -- Former U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona told a congressional committee the Bush administration blocked him from speaking on some public health issues.

Carmona told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that during his 2002-2006 term as surgeon general, administration appointees regularly wiped politically sensitive material from his speeches and barred him from publicly addressing stem-cell research, abstinence-only sex education, the emergency contraceptive Plan B and other health matters, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

"Anything that doesn't fit into the political appointees' ideological, theological or political agenda is often ignored, marginalized or simply buried," he said. "The problem with this approach is that in public health, as in a democracy, there is nothing worse than ignoring science or marginalizing the voice of science for reasons driven by changing political winds."

Carmona said he was forced to mention President George W. Bush three times on every page of his speeches, The New York Times reported. He said he was even discouraged from attending the Special Olympics because of the event's ties to a "prominent family," which he refused to name -- but when asked if the Kennedys are the prominent family, he responded: "You said it. I didn't."