11:34 Monday 21st October 2002 Reuters

The US government's top independent advisers on issues relating to science, medicine and engineering objected on Friday to moves by the Bush administration to close access to scientific information, especially on the Internet.

Since the 11 September, 2001 terrorist attacks, the White House and federal agencies quietly have asked researchers to remove or block access to information that once was freely shared. Some of this may be necessary, but the government has acted unilaterally and often against its own rules, the presidents of the National Academies of Science said.

"Restrictions are clearly needed to safeguard strategic secrets; but openness also is needed to accelerate the progress of technical knowledge and enhance the nation's understanding of potential threats," National Academy of Sciences president Bruce Alberts, National Academy of Engineering president William Wulf and Institute of Medicine president Harvey Fineberg wrote in an open letter.

"A successful balance between these two needs -- security and openness -- demands clarity in the distinctions between classified and unclassified research. We believe it to be essential that these distinctions not include poorly defined categories of 'sensitive but unclassified' information that do not provide precise guidance on what information should be restricted from public access," they added.

"The inevitable effect is to stifle scientific creativity and to weaken national security."

Alberts, Wulf and Fineberg urged the administration to work with scientists to decide what information should be classified. They also offered their help in preparing against further attacks.

"The federal government should affirm and maintain the general principle of National Security Decision Directive 189, issued in 1985 (which reads): 'No restrictions may be placed upon the conduct or reporting of federally funded fundamental research that has not received national security classification, except as provided in applicable US statutes,"' they wrote.

The National Academies of Science were created by Congress to provide advise to the government.

Information about how to make bombs, how to prepare biological, chemical and even radiological weapons can be found on the Internet. The government has expressed concern about the availability of this information.

The Health and Human Services Department said it had closed at least one Web site providing information about how to make a bioterrorism weapon, but declined to give details about the site.

However, scientists have complained in recent months that information that they need to do their work also is no longer to be found.

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