NRO’s Byron York on House Democrats wanting to bring climate change as a national security matter, thus making intelligence agencies in the United States divert funds and other resources against the pursuit of Al Qaida and towards figuring out if eggs will fry on Texas sidewalks in August five seconds faster today than five years ago:

Hoekstra and other Republicans worry that Democrats want to return intelligence policy to a time in the 1990s when the Clinton administration established what was known as the DCI Environmental Center within the CIA. The Center used satellite spying resources to track environmental matters. “They took pictures of volcanoes and sea turtle nests and took air samples of air pollution, as opposed to checking for traces of biological or chemical weapons, and it was all done at the behest of Al Gore,” says one Republican knowledgeable about intelligence affairs.

Former CIA director George Tenet mentions Gore’s environmental emphasis in his new book, At the Center of the Storm. “True to his interests, [Gore] had a fascination for wonkish issues,” Tenet writes. “He asked lots of questions about the impact on national security of water shortages, disease and environmental concerns.” Tenet reveals that some inside the CIA derided Gore’s priorities as “bugs and bunnies.”

“We started allocating precious intelligence resources to environmental issues just as al Qaeda was on the upswing,” says Rep. Hoekstra. “We were becoming politically correct. My fear is that we’re going back to the same place.”

What the hell was the CIA taking photos of sea turtle nests for when there were two declarations of war against the United States without action?  Priorities, I know, but last I checked, while there’s a very small chance you or anyone you know will be killed by a terrorist attack in the United States, you stand a better chance of getting blown up by someone named Muhammad than drowned by a sea turtle nest.