It's Christmas-time in conspiracy-land as it's been revealed that the CIA will be funding a $630,000 study into whether the government could control the weather and stop global climate change.

Aside from being totally redundant to the good work being done by HAARP, the study (as described by Mother Jones) will look into changing weather patterns, assess the possible damage that might do, and see the possible national security implications of learning how to control the weather (or, you know, turning it into a weapon).

Still, everything seems pretty far off from anything the Tornado-truther crowd believes is possible, with the study focusing on methods to decrease the amount of carbon monoxide in the atmosphere and reflecting incoming sunlight.

"It's natural that on a subject like climate change the Agency would work with scientists to better understand the phenomenon and its implications on national security," Edward Price, a spokesman for the CIA, told Mother Jones. The CIA, in all its stodgy glory, refused to comment on whether the study actually exists.

The U.S. government has long dabbled in the dark art of weather-manipulation, from seeding clouds to rain on Vietnamese soldiers, to a 20-year attempt to influence to course of hurricanes.