A radical Obama adviser who at one point forecast that the world would undergo famines during the 1970s when hundreds of millions of people would starve and later guessed that 1 billion people will die in "carbon-dioxide-induced famines" before 2020 once served as an adviser to GOP presidential hopeful Gov. Mitt Romney.
Word comes in a report in Investors Business Daily, which said, "Politics is said to make strange bedfellows, but no couple in our view is more bizarre than when John Holdren, now President Obama's assistant for science and technology, once advised GOP presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney on environmental policy."
The report noted that it was on Jan. 1, 2006, when Massachusetts started (as the first state) to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.
That is something the Obama administration has been trying to do nationwide now, through an Environmental Protection Agency strategy that includes regulations and mandates that could destroy jobs.
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IBD reported that a Dec. 7, 2005, memo from Romney's office said that among the "environmental and policy experts" advising on the issue was one "John Holdren, professor of environmental policy at Harvard."
"Holdren's bizarre views are best suited for an adviser to someone like, say, Pol Pot," IBD commented. "He views humanity as a plague on the planet and the Industrial Revolution as a tragic mistake. The fewer people, he believes, the better, and he's not shy about the ways he would use to reduce their number.
"Why Gov. Romney, a reasonable person, would pick such a man to advise him on anything is beyond us."
IBD noted that it is Holdren who has advocated for the "de-development" of the United States.
He also has considered as potentially positive developments forced abortion, mass involuntary sterilization, government limits on family size, a planetary government to crack down on population and the confiscation of infants.
WND previously has reported that Holdren collaborated with conspiracy theorist Paul Ehrlich, author of "The Population Bomb," in which it was proclaimed: "The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s, the world will undergo famines – hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death."
At National Review, Greg Pollowitz wrote, "Mitt, you have a problem."
John Holdren |
Just recently U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf. R-Va., expressed concern that Obama's science "czar," Holdren, apparently has been collaborating with the Chinese even though Congress specifically prohibited that activity in a bill signed into law by his boss, Obama.
A congressional committee recently was listening to testimony about China's espionage in the United States and "the violation of the law by the director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy."
Wolf noted he opposed the idea that the U.S. should work with China in any way regarding that nation's space program.
"The Chinese space program is being led by the People's Liberation Army, and to state the obvious, the PLA is not our friend as evidenced by their recent military posture and aggressive espionage against U.S. agencies and firms," Wolf said at the time.
His concern was raised because NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden had scheduled a trip to China to talk about cooperation between NASA and the Chinese army, and Holdren made multiple trips to China for weeks of meetings.
WND first broke the story that Holdren also visited the Soviet Union during the Cold War as vice chairman of a group whose founder was accused of providing vital nuclear information that helped the Soviets build an atom bomb.
"I was … concerned to learn that Dr. John Holdren, head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), had spent 21 days in China on three separate trips in one year – more than any other country. Very little information about these cooperative agreements with China were being provided to Congress and the American people," Wolf said.
"So, I included language in Section 1340 of the Fiscal Year 2011 Continuing Resolution preventing NASA and OSTP from using federal funds 'to develop, design, plan, promulgate, implement or execute a bilateral policy, program, order, or contract of any kind to participate, collaborate, or coordinate bilaterally in any way with China or any Chinese-owned company," he continued.
"Less than one month after its enactment, I learned that Dr. Holdren and OSTP had defied the provision. Even more troubling is that he withheld information about his intention to do so during his appearance before the House Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations subcommittee when we discussed, among other things, the implementation of Section 1340, and Dr. Holdren's participation in the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, from May 6-10," Wolf said.
Wolf said he called on the Government Accountability Office to investigate, and that office determined the "plain meaning of Section 1340 is clear."
In a statement, Holdren said he knew about the ban and wouldn't follow it.
"OSTP's activities in bilateral diplomacy with China on … issues fall under the president's exclusive constitutional authority to conduct foreign diplomacy and thus cannot be precluded by Section 1340(a). In reliance on this advice, OSTP continued to engage in these activities," the statement said.
He added that managed cooperation can outweigh its liabilities – "even when the cooperation is with a potent adversary."
Wolf explained in a statement to constituents that he authored the ban "after the NASA administrator and the president's science adviser attempted to enter into new technology-sharing agreements with the Chinese government, including human spaceflight."
China also is a major source of Internet attacks on U.S. technology, and it is a major arms supplier for various unwelcome regimes around the world.