GAO confuse over Bush AIDS plan

GAO Reports Confusion Over Bush AIDS Plan By RITA BEAMISH 22 minutes ago The emphasis on sexual abstinence in President Bush's $15-billion global AIDS plan is creating confusion and impeding efforts to tailor prevention programs to specific Third World countries' needs, the investigative arm of Congress reported Tuesday. U.S. teams in most of the key countries report they are having a hard time designing programs that work for local prevention and which also meet the administration rules, the Government Accountability Office reported. Specifically, U.S. field workers complained to GAO about ambiguity in the Bush administration spending guidelines for the 20 countries that are receiving more than $10 million each in prevention aid, most of them in Africa. Bush's five-year plan offers treatment and care programs as well as prevention programs for abstinence, fidelity and condoms, often referred to in Washington as the "ABC" approach. The three-prong focus on prevention is valuable, the GAO found, but "teams also reported that the spending requirements can limit their efforts to design prevention programs that are integrated and responsive to local prevention needs." State Department officials told GAO they plan to clarify the guidelines. The administration effort follows a congressional directive that $1 in every $5 be reserved for prevention of HIV/AIDS, and that a third of the prevention money emphasize abstinence until marriage and faithfulness to one partner. Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., blasted the GAO report as "politically biased and incomplete" and said, "One of the most underreported international stories is the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and the ABC approach are working." The smirk trading lives for brownie points with the American Tailban, for a culture of life they sure don't mind a couple thousand dying if they get their narrow world view cram down everyone throats.