the White House faces charges that it is manipulating science to fit its own political agenda. The director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Dr. James Hansen, says NASA's public affairs office tried to silence him to keep him from talking about the dangers of global warming specifically.

BILL TUCKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Who says the world of science isn't interesting? These days it's wrapped in political overtones. The head of the National Aeronautics Space Administration has even had to issue a memo saying, quote, "It is not the job of the public affairs officers to alter, filter or adjust engineering or scientific material produced by NASA's technical staff.

Why such an obvious memo? Because of the public complaints by one prominent NASA scientist, James Hansen. That he had, in effect, been told to be quiet by global warming by a public affair's officer who was a Bush political appointee.

The 24-year-old who lied on his resume about a college degree resigned last week. The Bush administration doesn't believe global warming is real. The prospects for an investigation into the incident are dim in the estimations of the ranking Democratic on the House Science Committee, which has oversight of NASA.

REP. BART GORDON (D-TN), SCIENCE COMMITTEE: We have not seen a Republican Congress have any interest in investigating a Republican administration. It's very clear that Congress is acquiescing its role as oversight. And simply don't see that changing.

TUCKER: This latest incident of disturbing the scientists because government scientific research is supposedly free of commercial and political influence. If it's not --

FRANCESCA GRIFO, UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS: What young scientist is going to go into a federal government, into government service, into what we call public service if they think that this is going to happen to them?

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TUCKER: The answer is, they will be less inclined to go into public service. And the fear is, Lou, that our national science will suffer as a result.

DOBBS: It's at the very least troubling. It is an opportunity for us to take a look and find out what is going on because Dr. James Hansen is our guest here tonight. It's good to have you here. He's worked for NASA for nearly four decades.

He first warned Congress about the dangers of global warming two decades ago. He's now director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and joins us now. It is good to talk with you. It is unfortunate that we're not talking about some of the great, great discoveries that are made. All that NASA accomplishes.

The idea that a 24-year-old political appointee has the sway to influence whatever you say or do not say about science, it just infuriates me to tell you the truth.

JAMES HANSEN, DIR. NASA'S GODDARD INST.: Yes, it's good to be here. I have to first note on the advice of counsel that I speak on the basis of my 39 years of NASA but I don't speak for the agency.

DOBBS: So stipulated and understood.

HANSEN: And I don't specify policy or criticize policy. I let the data and its policy implications speak for themselves.

DOBBS: Your feeling is, after studying the data for a mere 400,000 years, would that be about right?

HANSEN: Yes, we have good data for 400,000 from the ice scores in Antarctica.

DOBBS: And your conclusion is?

HANSEN: Well, the conclusion is the earth has warmed about .08 degrees Celsius, which is about one and a half degrees Fahrenheit in the last century, most of that in the last 30 years, while greenhouse gases have been increasing very rapidly and the main point that I was trying to make is that we're getting very close to a point of no return.

If the planet warms more than two degrees Fahrenheit additional, we will begin to have a very different planet.

DOBBS: And why did the Public Affair's Office not want you to share those concerns?

HANSEN: Well, global warming is a sensitive topic. Yes. And the public should know about it. My job, the first line of the NASA mission is to understand and protect our home planet and that's the reason that I'm speaking out.

DOBBS: And the public affairs office? Didn't understand the mission?

HANSEN: Well, they apparently feel that it's OK to filter the information going to the public. Which is, from a scientific point of view, you have to present all the data. Not filter it. But from the public's point of view, they're the ultimate policymaker. So they have to have the information. And so they have to get the whole story.

DOBBS: They have to get the whole story. Michael Griffith, a scientist himself, a man I personally respect, his background is extraordinary, the administrator. How has he reacted here in your judgment and has he been supportive of you and the need to have one of our leading scientists be able to openly speak? I mean taxpayer pays your salary.

HANSEN: Yes, that's right. And he has said exactly the right things that NASA is open but as yet, Public Affairs does not admit they've done anything wrong. And frankly, the story that came out was that as a 24-year-old. But no, in fact, he was doing what he was told by the higher ups.

DOBBS: By the Public Affairs Office.

HANSEN: Absolutely.

DOBBS: Which has had extraordinarily influence unlike any other Public Affairs Office in any other agency that I'm aware, the NASA P.A. Office is very powerful. Do you think you're going to see a change here? Or do you face, as the charge says, dire consequences if you speak out?

HANSEN: Right. I think there's a good chance that, because we do have a really good administrator and he said he's going to fix problem. But this is not limited to NASA. In fact, the problem more serious in NOAA and still worse in EPA.

DOBBS: NOAH and EPA two of our most important agencies, if not most important agencies, in point in fact, in terms of looking at our climate, our ecology and what we're doing to both.

HANSEN: Right.

DOBBS: Dr. James Hansen, we thank you for your courage. We thank you for being here. Let's hope that this administration does the right thing, failing that, let's hope that Michael Griffin has the courage and the character that I suspect of him of having and we thank you for your display of both qualities.

HANSEN: It's good to be here.

DOBBS: Thank you.