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CIA gives the good dope to America's kids, online

The CIA might not immediately strike outsiders as a workplace full of fun.

There is the recent bitter fight with the White House over Iraqi weapons of mass destruction for a start -- not to mention a sinister history of morally dubious activities, or covert operations, around the globe.

So it is not before time that the CIA has launched a Web page for children (www.odci.gov/cia/ciakids/ginger/index.shtml), guiding potential future spies through the world of covert operations under the guidance of a cartoon bear named Ginger.

But the CIA's home page for kids may also have opened up a new battlefield -- by supporting a viewpoint on climate change vigorously disputed by the White House.

US President George W. Bush will be pleased that a large section of the site is dedicated to the war on drugs. But he may be perturbed by one reason put forward for shunning narcotics. Drug cultivation, the CIA argues, causes global warming.

Amid admonitions to "Just Say No," and a page where children can download and sign a Junior Intelligence Officer Pledge Against Drugs, the site says that the "slash and burn" techniques used by some drug farmers release large quantities of greenhouse gases that "may contribute to the rise in average temperatures around the world which some scientists believe is harmful to all living things."

This adoption of the consensus on climate change is accompanied by warnings of other environmental hazards caused by the drugs trade.

It warns of ozone depletion and pollution caused by herbicides, pesticides and other chemicals used in the illegal manufacturing process.

"Chemicals washed or dumped into lakes, streams and rivers can kill most or all of the fish and plants that normally live there," it cautions.

Sceptics might consider the CIA's stance a case of cherrypicking the intelligence, since the Bush administration has been accused of taking such concerns far less seriously where corporate offenders are concerned.

The White House recently backed away from an agreement to join a global treaty banning the world's 12 most environmentally toxic chemicals, including the carcinogen DDT.

The Stockholm convention on persistent organic pollutants, signed by more than 150 countries, including the US in 2001, and now ratified by 50, is set to take effect next month -- without the participation of the US.

As for climate change, Bush's administration has consistently downplayed evidence identifying a significant problem.

It created international controversy last year by ordering that references to global warming be removed from a report by the US Environmental Protection Agency.

"The [Web site] acknowledges the urgency of climate change and that drug lords are part of the problem," said Kert Davies, research director of Greenpeace USA.

"But the White House refuses to accept that Exxon Mobil and the fossil-fuel lords are also part of the problem," he said.

"Drug cultivation is a major source of deforestation in rainforests and [is] not to be underestimated; it's a real problem for the planet. But versus logging and clearing for agriculture, and fossil fuel-related greenhouse gases generally, it pales by comparison. We have to fix both," he said.

In another part of its anti-drugs message, the CIA site urges its visitors to shun illegal substances and instead to "get high on intelligence."

Prospective operatives are warned that mandatory medical and polygraph tests for all CIA personnel will root out those who experiment with drugs.

A taste of what awaits those who make it past the tests is given by the Web site's overview of the agency's work.

"There is information that other countries will not share with the US, called secrets," it explains.

"All this information is very important to our nation's leaders," it says.

But when it comes to defining exactly what is meant by intelligence, the language used is coded, and arguably Rumsfeldian -- similar to the opacity of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

"This question is not easy to answer," the site says.

"And depending on who you ask, you may get different answers," it adds.

A CIA spokesman, Tom Crispell, said the Web site was not intended as an intervention in the political debate on climate change.

"The kids' page is designed to put out information about the evils of drugs -- it doesn't take a policy position," he said.
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