A single line often inverts meaning once you see what it
answers, so neighbouring messages are always shown.
-
Oct. 13, 2003 - Went to White House ceremony (President's speech) and reception to commemorate Columbus Day. The President specifically greeted me in his remarks saying how proud he was of how I was the General in the Global War on AIDS. After the ceremony, I ran into Josh Bolten in the hallway of the EEOB. He asked about my opinion of the controversy of $2 billion versus $3 billion in FY '04 for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Bono has been giving the WH a hard time saying that the President was reneging on his promise when in fact he promised $15 billion over 5 years staring with $2 billion in '04 (see above). He specifically asked my opinion of how Randy Tobias was doing as the new AIDS head of the program. He indicated that he did not think that there was anything wrong, but that he was getting the vague feeling that things were not moving along as aggressively as he thought that they would be. He asked me to quietly check it out.
-
Oct. 16, 2003 - Had breakfast (at his invitation) with Jay Lefkowitz at the White House Mess to say goodbye. He is leaving as Director of Domestic Policy Council to return to his law firm in its NYC branch. He will likely return after 2 years for the President's 2nd term (if this occurs). We had a great conversation in which he mentioned how honored he was to work with me on the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the MTCT plan and to a lesser extent on the stem cell issue. I sincerely told him that he was second to none in people that I have worked with at the WH over the past 19 years. He asked my help in making sure that the AIDS Plan does not get derailed by the mischief of USAID in trying to lobby the legislation such that power is taken away from Randy Tobias and he would not be given an independent account.
-
Oct. 17, 2003 - Went to going away reception in Indian Treaty Room of EEOB at White House in honor of Jay Lefkowitz. Great time just talking to the White House crew and others that I have gotten to know over the past 2+ years: Jay, Margaret Spelling, Kristen Silverberg (just back from Iraq and will replace Jay), Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, Josh Bolten, Ginger Loper (WH Leg. Affairs), Terrell Halaska, Allen Gilbert, Mark McClellan (FDA), Scott Whitaker, Ladd Wiley, Alex Lazar, etc.
-
Oct. 24, 2003 - Met with Sen. Barbara Mikulski to try to convince her not to support Rep. Chris Van Hollen's attempt to block the construction of the biodefense building (Bldg. 33) on the NIH campus and move it to Ft. Detrick. He keeps calling it a bioterror building. She was sympathetic, but indicated that we must engage the community more. Fact is....we have been doing this, but a very recalcitrant few do not want to building on campus no matter what. This is the same group that did not want to fence put up around NIH. This is a political issue since Van Hollen made 2 campaign promises: 1) no fence; and 2) no biodefense building. He already lost the first and does not want to lose the second. We will try to work with him. Also present at the meeting were several of Mikulski's staff, Elias Zerhouni, John La Montagne, and Marc Smolonsky. Also, I hosted Julie Gerberding to deliver the NIAID Joseph Kinyoun Lecture and then took her to dinner with John La Montagne, Ed Tramont, Pamela McInnes.
-
2003-10-25 00:00
Anthony S. Fauci
Oct. 25, 2003 - Had biodefense strategizing meeting at Wye River Conference Center run by Richard Danzig. Discussed issues related to dealing with mass casualties. The usual suspects were there - DA Henderson, Julie Gerberding, David Franz, Michael Osterholm, Bill Patrick, C.J. Peters, George Tavel, people from DoD, FBI, CIA, etc.
-
Oct. 27, 2003 - Had a Policy Coordinating Committee for an "end-to-end" analysis of biodefense responsiveness at the White House EEOB. Meeting run by Ken Bernard and Bob Kadlec. Attended by all the usual suspects from each agency - CIA, FBI, DHS, HHS, OMB, OVP, etc. After the meeting I met with Bob Kadlec about the possibility of going to Iraq to interact with the medical and research community. Apparently, the copies of HPIM-15 that I had sent to Iraq through Kristen Silverberg were a smash hit and the Iraqis want very much for me to go to Iraq. However, over the past few weeks there has been a great escalation of insurgency and terrorism with many suicide bombings and rocket and rocket propelled grenade attacks on both military and civilian targets. It appears that the terrorists are targeting the Iraqis who are cooperating with the USA in trying to rebuild the country. Kadlec does not trust the security associated with the ministries of health to provide for my safety. He actually feels that if word gets out that I am coming that I would be targeted by snipers. He feels that if I go, he will arrange for CIA operatives to get me into the country and move around "under the radar" and that CIA operatives would provide my security. We decided to wait a few weeks before resuming plans about going to Iraq and consider going in January/February. Bob will have to go there at this time anyway to continue search for weapons of mass destruction.
-
Oct. 29, 2003 - Met with Ray Gilmartin (CEO of Merck) and Adel Mahmoud (Merck) to discuss ways that Merck can collaborate with NIAID in AIDS and in biodefense. Great meeting. Also, discussed how Merck can interact with BioShield process. Anacostia Post lat
-
Nov. 3, 2003 - Carol Kuntz informed me that the Vice President wants me to brief him on what we are doing with Rad/Nucl research and countermeasures. This is tough since this is not really my issue; however, the VP wants it and so we will put something together for him
-
Nov. 5, 2003 - Meet in my conference room with Israeli Ambassador to the USA - Daniel Ayalon to discuss potential for collaborations with Israel. We got along very well; he is quite engaging. We discussed scientific collaboration as well as our difficult situation in Iraq with the insurgency and terrorism.