Barack Hussein Obama's NASA Muslim Outreach
NASA’S NEW MISSION: BOOST THE MUSLIM WORLD’S SELF-ESTEEM
Human Events
By: Jeff Crouere
7/26/2011
Now that the space shuttle program
has been retired, NASA can start focusing on its primary mission:
reaching out to the Muslim world.
In 1961, John F. Kennedy promised
that America would be the first country to land a man on the
moon. It was an exciting time for the space program and many
amazing accomplishments were achieved, including the fulfillment of
Kennedy’s promise, the moon landing of 1969.
It is quite sad to see
how NASA has suffered in the last four decades. Instead of
excitement about the space program, there is a sense that it is coming
to an end with the retirement of the space shuttle.
Who could have predicted that NASA
would no longer explore space, the final frontier? Despite all of
the technology breakthroughs in the last four decades, our country is
currently incapable of replicating what was done in 1969, sending an
astronaut to the Moon.
NASA is a perfect example of a
government bureaucracy that became inefficient and top-heavy with
management, and lost sight of its most important objectives. Back
in the 1960s, with the advent of the Apollo program, NASA was an adept
and nimble agency, able to meet Kennedy’s ambitious challenge.
Today, we have a President who is
not asking the agency to shoot for the stars. Instead, Barack
Obama has other goals for NASA, such as studying the so-called problem
of manmade global warming.
Liberals like President Obama do not want
astronauts reaching for the stars, they want rocket scientists to place
their focus on Planet Earth, studying global temperatures and producing
research that will support green energy initiatives.
Incredibly, President Obama’s other
primary mission for NASA is to reach out to the Muslim world.
Last year, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden told Al Jazeera television
that President Obama gave him three primary tasks: encourage children
to learn about math and science, improve relations with foreign nations
and “perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the
Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to
help them feel good about their historic contribution to science … and
math and engineering.”
It is ludicrous for NASA to be
focused on Muslim outreach or boosting the self esteem of the Islamic
world. NASA should not be an arm of the State Department.
It is just another indication of how far the agency has strayed from
its primary mission.
For the foreseeable future, our
country will have to hitchhike on the Russian Soyuz capsule to reach
the International Space Station at a cost of $60 million per
passenger. The concrete Bush administration plans to reach the
Moon and Mars have been scrapped and future space initiatives seem very
questionable.
While Bolden boasts of a future
mission to land an astronaut on an asteroid, there is no space vehicle
in production to carry out these unfocused goals. In the
meantime, the Hubble telescope will never be serviced again and,
according to former NASA administrator Michael Griffin, our country’s
space flight programs are at “an end for the indefinite
future.”
Several companies in the private
sector are working on plans to send tourists into low Earth orbit, but
none of these companies can replicate the achievements of the space
shuttle program. NASA cannot be replaced by entrepreneurial
ventures with no track record.
Space exploration is a worthy goal
for our country to pursue. In the past 50 years, we have achieved
amazing technological advances and been able to inspire decades of
young schoolchildren with the NASA program.
Today, the program is literally Earth-bound and playing a diplomatic game of Muslim outreach.
The diplomacy should be left to the State Department and the climate research should be the domain of the Earth scientists.
NASA should be focused on the heavens above and exploring the last frontier, space.
Hopefully, the space program can be
revived in January of 2013 when a new President will occupy the White
House and restore the dreams of American children and the livelihood of
thousands of NASA employees who are now looking for work in this
horrible Obama economy.
NASA Outreach Program 'Confirmed' Despite White House Denial, Rep Says
Published July 14, 2010
FoxNews.com
Call it a failure to launch.
The White House is disavowing a plan
to have NASA conduct outreach to Muslim countries, but a congressman
who talked to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden about that plan last
month said the initiative was very real until somebody slammed the
brakes on it.
Rep. Pete Olson, ranking Republican
on the Space and Aeronautics House Subcommittee, told FoxNews.com that
Bolden described the outreach program as part of the administration's
space plan during a conversation they had in June.
"He confirmed it to me," Olson said.
The Texas Republican said he thinks the program existed until the
"uproar" compelled the administration to rethink it.
Though Bolden mentioned the outreach
months ago during a speech in February, it drew widespread attention
after he described it as a "foremost" priority during an interview with
Al Jazeera last month. The administration initially stood by the claim,
but White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday that Bolden
misspoke and that the outreach is "not the task of NASA."
Olson said that to his knowledge no
collaboration with Muslim countries actually took place. He said such a
collaboration could raise concern about missile technology falling into
the wrong hands. But at the same time, he said NASA doesn't have much
classified information to share. He described the agency as a
cash-strapped arm of the federal government in dire need of some TLC.
His main concern with the outreach program was that it would divert
badly needed money away from space exploration.
"The
last thing we need to be doing now is spending precious space dollars
... on outreach to any religion," he said. "We need to spend money on
human space exploration."
John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador
to the United Nations under the Bush administration, echoed Bolden's
comments to Al Jazeera in saying NASA now needs international help to
do what it once did on its own.
For instance, a U.S. manufacturer
working on a NASA project reportedly is eyeing a Russian booster for
its Taurus II launch vehicle. A Russian rocket booster on Saturday was
used to launch a U.S. satellite into orbit for DISH Network.
"That's appalling but that's
basically where it is," Bolton said, adding: "I'm not sure at this
point ... whether there's much in technology that they have to share."
He agreed with Olson that the outreach program was probably a bona fide initiative before Bolden spoke up about it.
"I think (Bolden) was reflecting exactly what he heard the president say," Bolton said.
Bolden
said in the interview that Obama told him before he took the job that
he wanted him to do three things: inspire children to learn math and
science, expand international relationships and "perhaps foremost, he
wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage
much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about
their historic contribution to science ... and math and engineering."
The comments drew fire from
conservatives and former NASA officials already on high alert over the
administration's move to cut funding for the NASA Constellation
program.
Michael Griffin, NASA administrator under the Bush administration, said NASA was in danger of becoming an "empty shell."
However, he said that while
international cooperation is welcome at NASA it's wrong to say the U.S.
needs the aid of other countries to travel beyond low-earth orbit.
White House corrects NASA chief on Muslim comment
WASHINGTON | Mon Jul 12, 2010
(Reuters) - White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Monday that NASA administrator Charles Bolden was wrong to say that reaching out to the Muslim world was a top priority of the U.S. space agency.
Bolden raised eyebrows in the space community and outrage among conservative pundits by telling Al-Jazeera television recently President Barack Obama had instructed him to work for better outreach with the Muslim world.
He said Obama told him one of his top priorities was to "find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math and engineering."
Improving relations with the Muslim world was a top foreign policy priority for Obama on taking office last year and he delivered a major speech on the topic in Cairo in June 2009.
The White House last week sought to clarify Bolden's comment, saying Obama wanted NASA to engage with the world's best scientists and engineers from countries like Russia and Japan, Israel and many Muslim-majority countries.
That failed to end the controversy.
Gibbs, at his daily news briefing, was asked why Bolden had made the comment.
"It's an excellent question, and I don't think -- that was not his task, and that's not the task of NASA," Gibbs said.
Many in the U.S. space community, such as moon astronaut Neil Armstrong, are disgruntled by Obama's proposals to bolster support for private space companies and abandon an over-budget NASA moon program.
Former NASA Director Says Muslim Outreach Push 'Deeply Flawed'
By Judson Berger
Published July 06, 2010
FoxNews.com
The former head of NASA on Tuesday described as "deeply flawed" the
idea that the space exploration agency's priority should be outreach to
Muslim countries, after current Administrator Charles Bolden made that
assertion in an interview last month.
"NASA ... represents the best of America. Its purpose is not to inspire
Muslims or any other cultural entity," Michael Griffin, who served as
NASA administrator during the latter half of the Bush administration,
told FoxNews.com.
Bolden created a firestorm after telling Al Jazeera last month that
President Obama told him before he took the job that he wanted him to
do three things: inspire children to learn math and science, expand
international relationships and "perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find
a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with
dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic
contribution to science ... and math and engineering."
Officials from the White House and NASA on Tuesday stood by Bolden's
statement that part of his mission is to improve relations with Muslim
countries -- though NASA backed off the claim that such international
diplomacy is Bolden's "foremost" responsibility.
Griffin said Tuesday that collaboration with other countries, including
Muslim nations, is welcome and should be encouraged -- but that it
would be a mistake to prioritize that over NASA's "fundamental mission"
of space exploration.
"If by doing great things, people are inspired, well then that's
wonderful," Griffin said. "If you get it in the wrong order ... it
becomes an empty shell."
Griffin added: "That is exactly what is in danger of happening."
He also said that while welcome, Muslim-nation cooperation is not vital for U.S. advancements in space exploration.
"There is no technology they have that we need," Griffin said.
The former administrator stressed that any criticism should be directed
at Obama, not Bolden, since NASA merely carries out policy.
The White House stood by Bolden on Tuesday. Spokesman Nick Shapiro said
in a written statement to FoxNews.com that Obama "wants NASA to engage
with the world's best scientists and engineers as we work together to
push the boundaries of exploration.
"Meeting that mandate requires NASA to partner with countries around
the world like Russia and Japan, as well as collaboration with Israel
and with many Muslim-majority countries. The space race began as a
global competition, but, today, it is a global collaboration," he said.
Bob Jacobs, NASA's assistant administrator for public affairs, echoed
that point. However, he said that Bolden was speaking of priorities
when it came to "outreach" and not about NASA's primary missions of
"science, aeronautics and space exploration." He said the "core
mission" is exploration and that it was unfortunate Bolden's comments
are now being viewed through a "partisan prism."
Though the Al Jazeera interview drew widespread attention, it wasn't the first time Bolden made the assertion.
A Feb. 16 blog in the Orlando Sentinel reported that Bolden discussed
the outreach during a lecture to engineering students. As he did in the
interview with Al Jazeera last month, Bolden was quoted then saying
Obama told him to "find ways to reach out to dominantly Muslim
countries."
He reportedly talked about the importance of helping countries
establish space programs and pointed to the largest Muslim country in
the world, Indonesia, as a possible partner.
"We really like Indonesia because the State Department, the Department
of Education (and) other agencies in the U.S. are reaching out to
Indonesia as the largest Muslim nation in the world," he said.
Bolden did not describe such outreach as his prime mission at the time.
The NASA administrator was in the Middle East last month marking the
one-year anniversary since Obama delivered an address to Muslim nations
in Cairo. Bolden spoke in June at the American University in Cairo, and
in the interview with Al Jazeera he described space travel as an
international collaboration of which Muslim nations must be a part.
"It is a matter of trying to reach out and get the best of all worlds,
if you will, and there is much to be gained by drawing in the
contributions that are possible from the Muslim (nations)," he said.
He held up the International Space Station as a model, praising the contributions there from the Russians and the Chinese.
However, Bolden denied the suggestion that he was on a diplomatic
mission. "Not at all. It's not a diplomatic anything," he said.
He also said the United States is not going to travel beyond low-Earth
orbit on its own and that no country is going to make it to Mars
without international help.
Griffin disputed this point. He said the U.S. can still make those
strides without international aid if it wishes, and that, "To the
extent that we wish to go to Mars, we can go to Mars."
Griffin said the U.S. should in fact seek international cooperation for
those missions, but that it would be "clearly false" to suggest the
U.S. needs that cooperation.
Bolden has faced criticism this year for overseeing the cancellation of
the agency's Constellation program, which was building new rockets and
spaceships capable of returning astronauts to the moon. Stressing the
importance of international cooperation in future missions, Bolden told
Al Jazeera that the moon, Mars and asteroids are still planned
destinations for NASA.
NASA Chief: Next Frontier Better Relations With Muslim World
Published July 05, 2010
FoxNews.com
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a recent interview that his
"foremost" mission as the head of America's space exploration agency is
to improve relations with the Muslim world.
Though international diplomacy would seem well outside NASA's orbit,
Bolden said in an interview with Al Jazeera that strengthening
those ties was among the top tasks President Obama assigned him. He
said better interaction with the Muslim world would ultimately advance
space travel.
"When I became the NASA administrator -- or before I became the NASA
administrator -- he charged me with three things. One was he wanted me
to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math, he
wanted me to expand our international relationships, and third, and
perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim
world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them
feel good about their historic contribution to science ... and math and
engineering," Bolden said in the interview.
The NASA administrator was in the Middle East last month marking the
one-year anniversary since Obama delivered an address to Muslim nations
in Cairo. Bolden spoke in June at the American University in Cairo --
in his interview with Al Jazeera, he described space travel as an
international collaboration of which Muslim nations must be a part.
"It is a matter of trying to reach out and get the best of all worlds,
if you will, and there is much to be gained by drawing in the
contributions that are possible from the Muslim (nations)," he said. He
held up the International Space Station as a model, praising the
contributions there from the Russians and the Chinese.
However, Bolden denied the suggestion that he was on a diplomatic mission -- in a distinctly non-diplomatic role.
"Not at all. It's not a diplomatic anything," he said.
He said the United States is not going to travel beyond low-Earth orbit
on its own and that no country is going to make it to Mars without
international help.
Bolden has faced criticism this year for overseeing the cancellation of
the agency's Constellation program, which was building new rockets and
spaceships capable of returning astronauts to the moon. Stressing the
importance of international cooperation in future missions, Bolden told
Al Jazeera that the moon, Mars and asteroids are still planned
destinations for NASA.