White House Backs Away From Bolden’s Muslim Outreach Comments

The White House has backed away from statements by NASA Administrator Charles Bolden that outreach to the Muslim World is a key priority for the space agency’s international relations efforts. Presidential Press Secretary Robert Gibbs responded to a question on Monday by saying that Bolden was not given this task and that it is not NASA’s job to do such things.

This adds more confusion to an existing firestorm of controversy since Bolden’s remarks were aired on al Jazeera TV recently. Only a week ago, Administration officials were strongly defending his remarks and actions and rightly accusing critics of taking the comments out of context.

The shift could be an ominous one for the embattled administrator, who has been criticized from all sides for his performance leading NASA. Critics have attacked him for the Administration’s proposed revamp of NASA, which some have termed a “road to nowhere.” Supporters have been disappointed in his efforts to explain and promote these plans. Bolden’s Muslim comments – which Jon Stewart correctly described as rather “bland” – have been taken out of context by conservative opponents of the Obama Administration.

The White House’s decision to distance itself from Bolden’s statements doesn’t seem very credible. Bolden had publicly talked about efforts to reach out to the Muslim world for many months without causing much of a stir at all. There were a few isolated complaints from the right wing, but by and large few people seemed concerned. The effort is in line with a larger initiative to reach out to the Muslim world that was launched by President Barack Obama last year in Egypt.

In fact, Bolden was in Cairo only a month ago – near the one-year anniversary of Obama’s visit there – to promote closer ties with that nation. It’s unlikely that this trip was unknown to the White House. Bolden’s remarks were closely aligned with the President’s efforts to improve relations with the Muslim world. The comments were also in step with the Administration’s newly released National Space Policy, which calls for greater engagement with international partners.

In prepared remarks given on April 15 at the American University in Cairo, Bolden said:

Soon after President Barack Obama stood in Cairo, just over one year ago, and spoke of Partnership between the United States and Muslims around the world, he asked NASA to change that ratio by reaching out to “non-traditional” partners and strengthening our cooperation in the Middle East, North Africa, Southeast Asia and in particular in Muslim-majority nations.

NASA has embraced this charge. International cooperation contributes significantly to NASA’s mission just as it does to the national goals and objectives of our partners. Existing cooperation with non-traditional partners is reflected in many of our agreements that involve low-cost, high impact activities in science and education.

For example, NASA already has 39 active agreements in 30 dominantly Muslim countries. Many of those agreements are for participation in an outstanding program known as GLOBE, or Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment, an internet-based global community of students, teachers, and scientists. Students actively take measurements that are then shared with others around the world, using the Internet to record the data. Importantly, these high-quality, student-made measurements are being used by professional scientists and researchers around the world to help validate satellite data and to improve weather and climate forecasts.

Bolden went on to elaborate on a variety of existing and planned collaborations between the two nations in education, Earth sciences, resource management, astrophysics and other areas. None of these areas seem especially sensitive; they are the sorts of joint projects that NASA has done with international partners for decades.

The Administrator closed his speech with a plea to look beyond our differences:

International cooperation has always been a basic principle of NASA’s mission. With the renewed energy from President Obama’s Cairo initiative, we continue to expand our efforts to work together with other nations in pursuit of common objectives.

As I know from my time in orbit on the U.S. Space Shuttle, astronauts see a single, magnificent planet when we look down from space.

Crew members aboard the International Space Station see their homelands pass by for just a few seconds at a time – one orbit every 90 minutes – and take advantage of any spare moments looking out the new panoramic cupola at the vista before them. From that vantage point, the differences that divide us seem much less significant than those that unify us.

Together, we must continue to share discovery and knowledge, bring the benefits of space technology to citizens at home, and encourage the use of space as a tool for sustainable development here on the Earth. NASA can, and has, set the standard for peaceful cooperation in science and technology among diverse nations.

By furthering our mutual objectives through enhanced cooperation in space, we can demonstrate in this new era of international partnerships how important global challenges and goals for the planet can be addressed by peoples of all nations working together. As President Obama closed his message On a New Beginning here in Cairo one year ago this month – “The people of the world can live together in peace. We know that is God’s vision. Now that must be our work here on Earth.”

Again, these remarks are not particularly radical. This is nothing we haven’t heard from various presidents, astronauts, cosmonauts and NASA administrators for decades.

It’s not really clear what Gibbs’ comments contributed to a controversy that was beginning to cool down. Not only did he undercut Bolden at a crucial time for NASA’s budget and future, he seemed to cast doubt on a larger Administration outreach to the Muslim world. It would have been better if the Administration had stood its ground and pointed out how important better relations are when we’re embroiled in two overseas wars.