The International AIDS Conference is the most important annual event in the world in terms of information and idea exchange among nations battling the disease. Yet Science Magazine (Sept 24, 2006 p.1086) reports that Bush & Co, have decreed that only a few selected people from relevant departments and agencies will be allowed to attend this year’s event in Toronto (August).

National Institutes of Health insiders say that the limits on US representation at the AIDS conference is indeed politically motivated. The Bush administration has had no problem sending vast numbers of staffers to other major gatherings. Rumor has it that Bush is “punishing” the International AIDS Conference because Tommy Thompson was heckled at the 2002 event.

While getting all kinds of mainstream media coverage for his bogus pledges to fight AIDS, Bush has been slashing away at the most important international collaborative effort, as represented by the International AIDS Conference. Here’s a report from the Washington Post from 2004:

“The Bush administration Health and Human Services (HHS) Department cut funding for the 2004 international AIDS conference by 86 percent ($3.1 million) and reduced official participation by 187 persons (79 percent). The reduced U.S. participation forced the cancellation of dozens of presentations including many designed to train AIDS researchers in developing nations and foster international cooperation. Officials within HHS told the Washington Post that the cuts are political retaliation for an incident at the 2002 conference where AIDS activists booed Secretary of Health Thompson for the U.S.'s failure to address the global AIDS crisis. [Washington Post, 7/9/04]” (Scroll down several headlines on this page:
www.democrats.org/a/2005/05/bushs_broken_pr.php)

In short, Bush is not just a phony, a liar, a hypocrite, and infantile, he is, in effect, punishing the innocent who would benefit from greater US support of the conference in a school-yard-style retaliation for a stupid and meaningless incident.