You have to hand it to Google: We're not sure there's another company on earth that in the same week could be linked to business relationships with both the CIA and Earth Day organizers, without most of the public so much as batting an eye.

It certainly appears that the information monolith has mastered the art of playing both sides of the aisle. They want to save the earth, but they're not above helping the U.S. intelligence community spy on you. How very altruistic of them.

Google has been linked to environmental causes for years, which may be their way of making up for some decidedly earth un-friendly practices. Last weekend they took the symbolic step of "going dark" for Earth Hour. This week, the Earth Day Network said Google has agreed to help organizers flood the Capitol switchboard on Earth Day in an attempt to lobby lawmakers to support environmental legislation. The company will reportedly "help coordinate online advertisements and other publicity measures in support of the calls" for the April 22 event.

News of this partnership broke on the same day reports surfaced that Google would be lending technical assistance to the CIA and other intelligence agencies, including the search features for Intellipedia, a Wikipedia-style site for people with very high security clearance on which agents can post information about their targets.

Oddly, it looks like the only outlet to pick up the Earth Day news was the conservative Washington Times, (founded by this guy), where the article incited a near riot in the comments section. Let's just say more than a few Times readers have now declared their allegiance to Yahoo!