29 Mar 2012, Thur, SoS Clinton and Staff Schedule

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/appt/2012/03/187073.htm
SECRETARY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
Secretary Clinton is on foreign travel to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Istanbul, Turkey through April 1. The Secretary is accompanied by Assistant Secretary Shapiro and Director Sullivan.

DEPUTY SECRETARY BILL BURNS
10:15 a.m. Deputy Secretary Burns meets with U.S. Representative Eliot Engel, on Capitol Hill.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

11:30 a.m. Deputy Secretary Burns meets with Moroccan Ambassador to the U.S. Rachad Bouhlal, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

12:30 p.m. Deputy Secretary Burns attends a meeting at the White House.
(PRESS DETERMINED BY WHITE HOUSE)

2:30 p.m. Deputy Secretary Burns meets with Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

DEPUTY SECRETARY TOM NIDES
8:00 a.m. Deputy Secretary Nides speaks with U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

10:00 a.m. Deputy Secretary Nides meets with Director of Foreign Assistance Rob Goldberg, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

10:30 a.m. Deputy Secretary Nides receives the credentials of Qatari Ambassador-designate Mohammed Abdullah al Rumaihi, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

12:15 p.m. Deputy Secretary Nides meets with CEO of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Daniel Yohannes, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

1:30 p.m. Deputy Secretary Nides speaks with CEO and President of Carlson Hubert Joly.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

3:30 p.m. Deputy Secretary Nides meets with Senior Advisor to the President Valerie Jarrett, at the White House.
(MEDIA DETERMINED BY WHITE HOUSE)

US FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH, ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT ROBERT HORMATS
Under Secretary Hormats departs for New York to deliver remarks at the “Financial Times Conference on Investing in a Sustainable Future,” through March 30.

US FOR CIVILIAN SECURITY, DEMOCRACY, AND HUMAN RIGHTS MARIA OTERO
Under Secretary Otero is on foreign travel to El Salvador and Belize through March 29.

ACTING US FOR ARMS CONTROL ROSE GOTTEMOELLER
Acting Under Secretary Gottemoeller is on foreign travel to Vienna, Moscow, Tallinn and London through April 5.

ACTING US FOR PUBLIC DIPLOMACY AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS KATHLEEN STEPHENS
Acting Under Secretary Stephens is on foreign travel to Algiers, Doha, Amman, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv through April 5.

AS FOR SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIAN AFFAIRS ROBERT BLAKE
Assistant Secretary Blake is on foreign travel to Dushanbe, Tajikistan; New Delhi, India; and Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

AS FOR INTERNATIONAL NARCOTICS AND LAW ENFORCEMENT AFFAIRS WILLIAM BROWNFIELD
8:30 a.m. Assistant Secretary Brownfield testifies before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs at a hearing on, “Security Challenges in Latin America,” on Capitol Hill.
(media determined by host)

AS FOR AFRICAN AFFAIRS JOHNNIE CARSON
12:00 p.m. Assistant Secretary Carson attends an event in honor of Rwandan President Paul Kagame, in Washington, DC.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

2:15 p.m. Assistant Secretary Carson testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Subcommittee on African Affairs at a hearing on, “A Closer Look at Nigeria: Security, Governance, and Trade,” on Capitol Hill.
(media determined by host)

AS FOR INTERNATIONAL SECURITY AND NONPROLIFERATION TOM COUNTRYMAN
Assistant Secretary Countryman is on foreign travel in Tokyo, Japan through March 29.

AS FOR EUROPEAN AND EURASIAN AFFAIRS PHILIP GORDON
Assistant Secretary Gordon is on foreign travel to France, Italy, Switzerland and the Czech Republic.

ACTING AS FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS MIKE HAMMER
4:00 p.m. Acting Assistant Secretary Hammer attends a meeting at the White House.
(MEDIA DETERMINED BY WHITE HOUSE)

ACTING AS FOR WESTERN HEMISPHERE AFFAIRS ROBERTA JACOBSON
11:15a.m. Acting Assistant Secretary Jacobson meets with Jamaican Ambassador to the U.S. Audrey Marks, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

2:00 p.m. Acting Assistant Secretary Jacobson chairs an Executive Committee meeting, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

AS FOR DEMOCRACY, HUMAN RIGHTS AND LABOR MICHAEL POSNER
Assistant Secretary Posner and Deputy Assistant Secretary Daniel Baer are on foreign travel in Ottawa, Canada, to lead the U.S. Delegation for the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights (VPs) Initiative Annual Plenary Meeting.

AS FOR POLITICAL-MILITARY AFFAIRS ANDREW SHAPIRO
Assistant Secretary Shapiro accompanies Secretary Clinton on foreign travel.

AS FOR EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL AFFAIRS ANN STOCK
Assistant Secretary Stock in on foreign travel in Spain through March 30.

9:00 a.m. LOCAL Assistant Secretary Stock attends the Service Innovation Summit, hosted by the U.S. Embassy in Spain, the Rafael del Pino Foundation and Meridian International’s Global Service Leaders Initiative, in Madrid, Spain.
(MEDIA DETERMINED BY HOST)

11:00 a.m. LOCAL Assistant Secretary Stock meets with members of the Spanish Fulbright Commission, in Madrid, Spain.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

AMBASSADOR-AT-LARGE TO MONITOR AND COMBAT TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS LUIS CDEBACA
11:30 a.m. LOCAL Ambassador CdeBaca delivers remarks at the National Association of Attorneys General Presidential Initiative Summit, in Seattle, Washington.
(MEDIA DETERMINED BY HOST)

3:30 p.m. LOCAL Ambassador CdeBaca meets with members of the Seattle Human Trafficking Task Force at an event hosted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, in Washington, DC.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

AMBASSADOR-AT-LARGE AND U.S. GLOBAL AIDS COORDINATOR ERIC GOOSBY
Ambassador Goosby leads the U.S. delegation at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria board retreat in Geneva, Switzerland, to review new General Manager Gabriel Jaramillo’s initial progress in reforming the Fund.
(MEDIA DETERMINED BY HOST)

OFFICE OF GLOBAL CRIMINAL JUSTICE, AMBASSADOR-AT-LARGE STEPHEN RAPP
Ambassador Rapp is on foreign travel in Istanbul, Turkey to participate in meetings related to the second meeting of the “Friends of the Syrian People.”

AMBASSADOR-AT-LARGE FOR GLOBAL WOMEN’S ISSUES MELANNE VERVEER
9:00 a.m. Ambassador Verveer attends meeting at the White House.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

10:30 a.m. Ambassador Verveer meets with Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Deputy Coordinator in the Office of the Coordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, Ruth Pojman, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

3:00 p.m. Ambassador Verveer meets with President and CEO of Calvert Foundation Lisa Hall, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

5:00 p.m. Ambassador Verveer delivers remarks on the Arab Spring, by teleconference, to students of the University of Wisconsin Law School.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

6:00 p.m. Ambassador Verveer delivers keynote remarks on women in government at the Women’s Congressional Staff Caucus Women’s History Month briefing, on Capitol Hill.
(MEDIA DETERMINED BY HOST)

SR FOR GLOBAL PARTNERSHIPS KRIS BALDERSTON
Special Representative Balderston is on foreign travel to London, UK to meet with representatives from the private sector to discuss support for the Secretary’s Global Impact Economy Forum and the International diaspora Engagement Alliance (IdEA) among other partnership opportunities.

SR FOR GLOBAL INTERGOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS RETA JO LEWIS
Special Representative Lewis is on foreign travel in Brazil through April 3 to promote sub-national engagement.

8:30 a.m. LOCAL Special Representative Lewis meets with representatives of the American Chamber of Commerce, in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
(MEDIA DETERMINED BY HOST)

10:30 a.m. LOCAL Special Representative Lewis meets with Maria da Graca Paiva, a UNESCO consultant with the Rio Grande do Sul State Secretary of Health, in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
(MEDIA DETERMINED BY HOST)

1:30 p.m. LOCAL Special Representative Lewis meets with Rio Grande do Sul State Secretary for Sports Kalil Sehbe, in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
(MEDIA DETERMINED BY HOST)

3:00 p.m. LOCAL Special Representative Lewis meets with Mayor of Porto Alegre José Fortunati, in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
(MEDIA DETERMINED BY HOST)

4:30 p.m. LOCAL Special Representative Lewis meets with President of CECUNE Juarez Ribeiro, in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

SPECIAL ENVOY TO MONITOR AND COMBAT ANTI-SEMITISM HANNAH ROSENTHAL
10:30 a.m. Special Envoy Rosenthal delivers a keynote address at the 13th Annual Mosaic Luncheon, hosted by the Women’s Division of the Jewish Federation of Greater Austin, in Austin, Texas.
(MEDIA DETERMINED BY HOST)

DIRECTOR OF POLICY PLANNING JAKE SULLIVAN
Director of Policy Planning Sullivan accompanies Secretary Clinton on foreign travel.

PRESS BRIEFING SCHEDULE
12:30 p.m. Daily Press Briefing with Deputy Spokeperson Mark Toner

29 Mar 2012, Thur, Pres and VP Schedule

http://www.whitehouse.gov/schedule
10:00 am
The President receives the Presidential Daily Briefing
Oval Office
Closed Press

10:45 am
The President delivers remarks urging Congress to vote to end the billions in taxpayer dollars handed out to oil companies every year
Rose Garden
Open Press

http://www.whitehouse.gov/schedule/vice-president
12:30 pm
The Vice President attends a campaign event with local supporters
Local Event Time:
11:30AM CST
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

2:45 pm
The Vice President attend a campaign event.
Local Event Time:
1:45PM CST
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

6:00 pm
The Vice President attends a campaign event
Local Event Time:
5:00PM CST
Chicago, Illinois

Women's group protests Limbaugh honor in Missouri

From Yahoo News: Women's group protests Limbaugh honor in Missouri
..JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri House Speaker Steven Tilley has been getting a lot of deliveries from women's rights groups since his decision to commission a bronze bust of Rush Limbaugh to be placed among other honorees inside the state Capitol's Hall of Famous Missourians.

Two weeks ago, one group wheeled 600 rolls of toilet paper into the middle of his Capitol office, waving signs and telling the speaker to "Flush Rush!"

On Wednesday, another round of protesters marched around the Capitol's north side before piling up pages with about 35,000 petition signatures outside Tilley's third-floor corner office.

The Perryville Republican announced the honor for the conservative radio host days after Limbaugh described a Georgetown law student as a "slut" and a "prostitute" for her testimony about birth control before congressional Democrats. Limbaugh has since apologized for his language.

The protesting groups say Limbaugh's remarks were not just disrespectful to the law student, but to all women. Jessica Peters, a Planned Parenthood volunteer from Kansas City, said the remarks should preclude Limbaugh from having his bust placed in the Hall of Famous Missourians.

"I think that words have a lot of power to them," said Peters, 27. "If we say that it's OK for somebody to call somebody a 'slut,' then it's OK for people to use name-calling."

Despite the protests, Tilley hasn't given any indication he's thinking about changing his mind about the honor. Tilley said Limbaugh, who is from Cape Girardeau, is an important — if controversial — figure in Missouri's history.

"He's transformed talk radio, he's the most popular radio personality in the country and he's from our home state of Missouri," Tilley said. "Does he say controversial things? Yes. Does he say provocative things? Yes. Does he say things that I disagree with? Yes. But he certainly has been successful."

Limbaugh himself does not appear to have commented on Tilley's decision, or the backlash that followed its announcement. In an emailed statement Wednesday, Premiere Networks, which syndicates Limbaugh's weekday radio show, took a neutral stance.

"Premiere Networks remains committed to providing its listeners with access to a broad range of opinion and commentary without condoning or agreeing with the opinions, comments or attempts at humor expressed by our on-air talent," the statement read. "We respect the right of Mr. Limbaugh, and the right of those who disagree with him, to express those opinions."

Hall of Famous Missourians inductees have their busts displayed on the third floor of the state Capitol. Several dozen people have been chosen by Missouri House speakers through the years, including President Harry Truman, Mark Twain, Walt Disney, George Washington Carver and Stan Musial.

..

"Before we let you take over our city, we'll burn it down"

What's this "our city" crap? And where will you live after you've burned down "your city"?

RUSH: While we're on the subject of the New Black Panthers, I told you yesterday about the former NAACP leader from Garland, Texas. He's a conservative by the name of C.L. Bryant. We had the story yesterday. It was two guys that he was publicly very critical of: The Reverend Jackson and Al Sharpton. He accused them of exploiting the Trayvon Martin case. And, by the way, our caller, Josh, had a good point. Have you seen much of the Trayvon Martin case lately compared to what it was earlier in the week? It must not have been going the way they wanted it to go because it kinda quieted down.

I know the Supreme Court oral arguments came along and maybe took precedence, but still. Anyway, Mr. Bryant -- the Reverend Bryant of the NAACP -- appeared last night on CNN with Erin Burnett on her program, Out Front. He appeared with Roland Martin, the African-American host of Washington Watch on TV One, and I think he's a commentator at CNN as well. So these two guys are on, and Reverend Bryant buried Roland Martin. And I want you to hear the sound bites. We have three of them. Erin Burnett said, "Reverend Bryant, you have made the comment that Reverend Sharpton and Reverend Jackson -- both of whom now are involved in this situation -- are, quote, 'exploiting the tragedy.' What do you mean?"

BRYANT: Wherever there is something like this that occurs like Tawana [Brawley] or the Duke lacrosse team, you can guarantee you that two faces will show up in order to heighten the tension in this type of situation. And they're usually Reverend Sharpton and Reverend Jackson. Our hearts do go out to this mother because she's lost a son who is 17 years old. That, though, is an issue that I do believe justice will find its way to remedy.

RUSH: Okay. So after Bryant says that Sharpton and Jackson have "heighten[ed] the tension," Roland Martin steps in to say this...

MARTIN: I say, "As a pastor, where are you?" See, I get pastors who differ. I know that the Apostle Paul differed with the Disciple Peter. But where have you been? Are you leading marches? Are you leading rallies? Are you stepping up?

RUSH: So you see, the definition of an authentic African-American is leading marches, leading the rallies. "Are you stepping up?" So Roland Martin says to C. L. Bryant: Where have you been, buddy? I haven't seen you out on the march! I haven't seen you out at the rallies! Where have you been?

And so Reverend Bryant responds...

BRYANT: Your question is: What dues have I paid? I've had the Klan and the skinheads after me --

MARTIN: That's not what I asked!

BRYANT: -- over school busing --

MARTIN: That's not what I asked!

BRYANT: -- 20-some years ago. Just this past month here where I live in Shreveport, in Louisiana, the skinheads and the Aryan Nation was try to move into our area.

MARTIN: I asked --

BRYANT: I, along, with other pastors have in fact done that. What we're doing...

MARTIN: (interrupting)

BRYANT: What we are doing is, in fact, trying to deal with a powder keg here that we need to keep the top on.

MARTIN: Erin! Erin!

BRYANT: That's what we're trying to do.

RUSH: "Erin! Erin!"

Roland Martin wants some help there from Erin Burnett. Ronald Martin wanted Erin to stop the Reverend C.L. Bryant. But he was challenged on his credentials and on his authenticity. So he became back (summarize): "Okay, fine. I got the Klan. I got skinheads after me here. We got Aryan Nation here running around trying to move into our area." But apparently that's not good enough. And from the Examiner.com: "New Black Panther Leader Malik Shabazz Threatens to Burn Detroit Down -- Angry over steps being taken due to a financial emergency in Detroit, New Black Panther Party leader Malik Shabazz declared he would burn the city down.

"'This is white-on-black crime,' he said during public comment at the two hour meeting held Monday afternoon. 'This is white supremacy. Before you can take over our city, we will burn it down,' he added. According to the Detroit Free Press, Shabazz was one of about 100 angry and defiant Detroiters who attended the meeting. The Detroit Free Press reported: 'Detroit's financial review team this afternoon declared that the city is under a financial emergency and no consent agreement between the city and state has been adopted, a move that forces Gov. Rick Snyder to appoint an emergency manager within the next 10 days under state law. State officials, however, are hopeful that an agreement can be reached before an emergency manager is named.' ...

"[S]ome locals see the move as a 'hostile takeover of a predominately black city,' the Free Press added." The local newspaper said that some locals see the move to appoint a new manager to handle the financial situation in Detroit as a "hostile takeover of a predominantly black city." That makes sense to me. The city of Detroit has been run by black Democrats for a long time, and New Black Panther leader Malik Shabazz has threatened to burn it down, and he's black. He's threatened to burn it down if the manager appointed here by the governor to take over the finances of the city doesn't meet with his approval. Detroit's in a shambles as it is. What are the stories we've had?

Houses have been bulldozed. Neighborhoods have, too, where the houses have been abandoned and so forth. At the end of the story, the last line of the story -- you'll like this -- is: "Last December, talk show host Rush Limbaugh offered his advice for fixing Detroit: 'Get rid of every liberal in government.'" I did offer that advice last December, and I stand by it. If you want to fix Detroit, get rid of the liberals. Wherever they run the show... (sigh) Take a look wherever they run the show, wherever liberals are in charge unchecked with no opposition. I don't care what their skin color is. It doesn't matter. Liberalism doesn't know race or any of that. You take a look at any city dominated by liberalism for a long period of time, unchecked, and you will see major problems.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: So let's put this in perspective. An unhinged nut goes crazy with a gun in Tucson, Arizona, and wounds a member of Congress, and for months after we get preached to by President Obama and the Democrats that Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh need to clean up their language, even though it was learned that that deranged lunatic in Arizona didn't even listen to talk radio.

Then we had an avowed, acknowledged Obama fan threaten to kill Joe Arpaio, and we get crickets. Now we got Malik Shabazz threatening to burn down Detroit, and we got crickets. The New Black Panther Party with a bounty on George Zimmerman in Florida, we get crickets. But this Malik Shabazz thing, his reaction, folks, it's a precursor. It's Greece. What Malik Shabazz is saying in Detroit: You put somebody in charge here who's gonna start cutting the budget; you put somebody in here who's gonna cut payments to unions; you put somebody in here who's gonna cut benefit payments, and we're gonna burn the city down.

That is exactly the kind of reaction the Democrats want. Isn't that how they intend to counter any Republican demands for budget cuts or fiscal responsibility? Imagine Romney or Santorum are elected president, the Republicans take over the Congress, start cutting the budget, here come the threats. Isn't that exactly what's gonna happen? This is the signal. So Malik Shabazz says we'll burn down Detroit. If you implement any kind of a financial austerity plan here, we'll burn down the city. It's a precursor. His reaction's exactly what the Democrats want. That's what Occupy Wall Street is. You better not start cutting our freebies. You do that and we're gonna start defecating on your cars, whatever else they did. Worse, of course.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: It might be useful to remember that Spike Lee hosted President Obama in a fundraiser back in January. Obama raised $1.6 million at Spike Lee's house. The same guy who tweeted the address where he thought George Zimmerman was so the New Black Panther Party posse could go out. That's the kind of people raising money for Obama, and of course Obama is not giving the money back.

When Is President Obama Going to Ask for Calm and Sanity?

Rush had a lot of good stuff to say on this today...

RUSH: Bobby Rush went to the floor of the House today. He is a congressman from Illinois, Chicago. He went to the floor of the House today dressed in a hoodie to show solidarity with Trayvon Martin and with the Civil Rights Coalitions case, Trayvon Martin's situation. Now, there's a dress code in the House that does not include hoodies, and he was chastised and stopped from speaking. He was cut off for breaking the House dress code, and here's how it sounded.

BOBBY RUSH: Just because someone wears a hoodie does not make them (gaveling) a hoodlum. (gaveling) The Bible teaches us, Mr. Speaker, in the book of... (crosstalk)

CHAIR: The member will suspend...

BOBBY RUSH: ...these words... (gaveling)

CHAIR: The member will sus...

BOBBY RUSH: These words. (gaveling)

CHAIR: The member... (gaveling and crosstalk) the member will suspend.

BOBBY RUSH: ...what is good.

CHAIR: The chair must remind...

BOBBY RUSH: What does... (crosstalk)

CHAIR: ... clause 5 of Rule 17. (crosstalk)

BOBBY RUSH: ...what does the Lord require you but to do justly... (crosstalk)

CHAIR: Member is out of order.

BOBBY RUSH: ...and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (crosstalk)

CHAIR: The member is no longer recognized. The chair will ask the sergeant-at-arms to enforce the prohibition on decor.

RUSH: He showed up wearing a hoodie. Well, he got what he wanted. He got all the attention and then tried to make the case the hoodie is a fashion statement. Now, Bobby Rush is a former Black Panther. You should know that. He's a former Black Panther. So let's now go to sound bite number 17. J. Christian Adams appeared on Fox & Friends today with Brian Kilmeade. J. Christian Adams worked in the Obama Justice Department. He was handling the case against the New Black Panther Party for voter intimidation in Philadelphia when Eric Holder basically shut down the case. And J. Christian Adams -- and this is really the CliffsNotes version of this -- he resigned and wrote a book and explained what was going on.

He basically said that the Obama Justice Department had determined they were not going to pursue black defendants. Just weren't gonna do it. It was payback time now. Just dropped the case. And J. Christian Adams was handling the case and they had plenty of evidence. They coulda gotten a conviction, he thought. So he's now an expert on these matters. We've interviewed him for the Limbaugh Letter. He was on Fox this morning, Fox & Friends with Kilmeade. By the way, J. Christian Adams' book is Injustice: Exposing the Racial Agenda of the Obama Justice Department. They were talking about the New Black Panther Party bounty for the capture of George Zimmerman, and Kilmeade said, "You investigated the Black Panthers for what they were doing in 2008. That went nowhere. Why is this case with the New Black Panthers now, why is this one going nowhere or why is it slow off the mark?"

ADAMS: It's because the New Black Panthers think they're above the law. What would have given them that idea? I mean we all know the answer. The answer is Eric Holder. Look, we live in a country where lawless mobs don't offer bounties on citizens' heads to be captured. We don't live in that country, but these guys think we do. You cannot solicit kidnapping in the state of Florida. It's a felony in Florida. It's a felony to travel across interstate lines to solicit kidnapping. So here we have the New Black Panthers once again probably committing crimes and going completely unpunished.

RUSH: Unpunished? If I may interject, they're not even being pursued. They haven't been charged. We haven't gotten to the punishment stage. Nobody's even condemning this. Certainly Holder isn't, from the Justice Department, nor is Obama. But I would say that, with all due respect, J. Christian Adams is mistaken. We do live in a nation where this is happening. He said we don't live in that country. We do. He said we don't live in a country where lawless mobs offer bounties on citizens. Yeah, we do. In fact, I happen to live in the state where it's happening. Disney World is not far from where this is happening. So I must respectfully disagree. We do live in a country where lawless mobs can issue... certain lawless mobs can. Kilmeade said, "Besides Eric Holder, is there fear of inflaming race relations if you crack down on people who want to inflame race relations like the Black Panther Party?"

ADAMS: There's a fear among some, but there's no fear among people like Al Sharpton. Even the president has inserted himself in a racial way saying that Trayvon looks like --

KILMEADE: Do you think wrongly?

ADAMS: Absolutely wrongly. No president in our country's history would have injected himself into a criminal matter using racial code like Barack Obama did.

RUSH: This is a brave guy, folks. J. Christian Adams is a brave man to be saying this. A former member of the Obama Justice Department, very courageous and brave. This is not gonna sit well with the forces of tyranny. A lot of people are maybe a little surprised I'm using the word tyranny to describe what's happening to the country. I think it fits. I think it's apt. It's perfectly descriptive. A friend of mine made a point to me in an e-mail last night. I thought it was great. One of the reasons that the left in this country -- stop and think about this. The reason they're so tyrannical, tyrants never have to explain anything. They don't have to explain why they're doing anything.

Your earliest encounter with tyrants was your parents, and your parents didn't have to tell you "why" anything. They just said, "because I said so." Now, it's not considered tyranny, parent to child. It's considered child rearing. Most parents are trying to protect their kids from doing the wrong thing, teach 'em to do the right thing, and sometimes parents don't know what to say when kids go, "Why? Why?" "'Cause I say so." But when you get into adult to adult, government to citizen, they don't have to explain. Tyrants never have to explain anything. They just issue the tyranny. And if you fight back and demand an explanation, it makes it worse. You're never gonna get one because they don't have to.

Now, here's J. Christian Adams taking it right to 'em. "No president in our history would have injected himself into a criminal matter using racial code like Obama did." Everybody thinks that, but J. Christian Adams is one of the few to say it. Kilmeade finally says, "In the terms of this case, isn't it pretty clear, especially from a guy in your situation, there's much more that we'll all have to learn about this case?"

ADAMS: No question. That's what the process of law is. That's why what the Black Panthers did is so bad, because we have a system to analyze complicated facts like this. It's not a lynch mob. It's not a posse of lawless thugs. You can't solicit kidnapping under Florida law, so where's the Florida department of criminal justice on this? Where's the attorney general of Florida? Where are they? Something needs to be done.

RUSH: They're scared. They'll be called racists. I'll tell you what the attitude is. Let this play out and it will go away. That's what the attitude is. The attitude is, if we try to enforce the law here it's just going to inflame these already high tensions. Let's back off. Let's not make it any worse than it is. It'll go away. The problem with that is once you stop the pursuit of criminals, you've empowered 'em. Once you stop asserting your morality and the primacy of your law, that sends a message to people who want to break it.

28 Mar, 2012, Wed, Rush Limbaugh Headlines

--The Ridiculous Obamacare Debate

--We're Up Against the Forces of Tyranny

--Carville: Dems Can Win by Losing

--Jeffrey Toobin's Condition Worsens

--Scalia: You Expect Us to Read 2,700 Pages?

--How Did We Get to This Point?

--Trayvon Martin Latest: Bobby Rush, J. Christian Adams, Rev. Bryant, Spike Lee and More New Black Panther Threats

--Defend Small Business!

--Americans are Woefully Misinformed About "Access to Health Care"

--Rush Baby Starts a Company

Stack of Stuff
--Gas Tops $3.90 a Gallon -- AAA Survey

--Americans Angry with Obama Over Gas Prices

--Skeptical Justices Question Obama Healthcare Law

--Carville: A Supreme Court Loss Will Help Democrats

--Elderly Couple in Fear Over Spike Lee Tweet

--20% of America's Working-Age Men Are Unemployed

Reforming the Global Fund to Fight AIDS

AMBASSADOR-AT-LARGE AND U.S. GLOBAL AIDS COORDINATOR ERIC GOOSBY
Ambassador Goosby leads the U.S. delegation at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria board retreat in Geneva, Switzerland, to review new General Manager Gabriel Jaramillo’s initial progress in reforming the Fund.

I'm wondering why the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria needs to be "reformed". Hasn't it been doing its job??

(And I see, when getting down to the last couple of paragraphs in the Wikipedia article below, that, why, yes, the Fund was discovered, in 2011, to be rife with corruption.)

From Wikipedia:
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (often called The Global Fund or GFATM) is an international financing organization that aims to "[a]ttract and disburse additional resources to prevent and treat HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria." A public–private partnership, the organization has its secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland. The organization began operations in January 2002. Microsoft founder Bill Gates was one of the first private foundations among many bilateral donors to provide seed money for the project.

The Global Fund is the world's largest financier of anti-AIDS, TB and malaria programs and at the end of 2010 has approved funding of USD 21.7 billion that supports more than 600 programs in 150 countries. According to the organization, it has financed the distribution of 160 million insecticide-treated nets to combat malaria, provided anti-tuberculosis treatment for 7.7 million people, and provided AIDS treatment for some three million people, saving 6.5 million lives. In 2009, the Fund accounted for around 20 percent of international public funding for HIV, 65 percent for tuberculosis, and 65 percent for malaria.

The Global Fund is a financing mechanism rather than an implementing agency. This means that monitoring of programs is supported by a Secretariat of approximately 600 staff (as of 2011) in Geneva. [Rather an expensive place to live....]

Implementation is done by Country Coordinating Mechanisms, which are committees consisting of local stakeholder organizations in-country that include some or all of government, NGO, UN, faith-based and private sector actors. This has kept the organization smaller than other international bureaucracies, but also given rise to concern over its capacity to ensure appropriate use of its funds. It has also raised concerns about conflict of interest, as some of the bodies who sit on the CCMs also receive money from them.

Fundraising
Since the Fund was created in 2002, public sector pledges have totaled USD 28.3 billion (95 percent of all pledges). The remaining USD 1.6 billion (5 percent) has been pledged from the private sector or other financing initiatives. The Fund states that from 2002 to 2015, 54 donor governments have pledged a total of USD 28.3 billion and paid USD 17.2 billion. From 2001 through 2010, the largest contributor by far has been the United States, followed by France, Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom. The donor nations with the largest percent of gross national income contributed to the Fund from 2008 through 2010 are Sweden, France, Norway, the Netherlands, and Spain.

The global financial crisis has significantly impacted the fund. The Fund stated in May 2011 that it was short by USD 1.3 billion for 2011 through 2013, seeking at least USD 13 billion to cover minimum estimated needs but only holding pledges of USD 11.7 billion. The organization was also adversely affected by revelations of USD 25 million missing from community programs in four nations in Africa, which caused Sweden and Germany to suspend their donations until the completion of audit in 2011.

Creation
The genesis of the Global Fund emerged during discussions between donor and multilateral agencies toward the end of 1999, leading up to the July 2000 G8 Summit in Okinawa, Japan.

During that time, under the leadership of World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland and WHO Deputy Director General David Nabarro, discussions were initiated with donors other UN agencies concerning the creation of a new global health fund to help achieve these targets. Just prior to the Summit, WHO publicly called for a "massive effort to tackle infectious diseases" and for creation of "a new mechanism to take proven interventions to scale. The mechanism would achieve internationally agreed targets to cut TB and malaria mortality by 50%, and HIV infection by 25%."

At the Okinawa Summit, G8 nations for the first time established measurable global targets for addressing AIDS, TB and malaria. Immediately following the Summit, WHO went on record stating that the G8’s commitment to fight AIDS, TB and malaria would cost at least $25 billion over the next five years, suggesting that 60 percent of this funding should be spent on HIV/AIDS, and the rest evenly split for campaigns against TB and malaria.

On September 28, 2000, the European Commission, WHO and UNAIDS announced that they were taking a common stand against the epidemics of HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria in the developing world.

In October 2000, WHO and the city of Winterthur, Switzerland convened a Massive Effort Advocacy Forum to engage over 200 public agencies, private sector and civil society organization in a process of building ownership and support to massively scale up donor funding to fight diseases of poverty. In eventually launching a massive global health resource drive, the city of Winterthur agreed to pay for the lodging of all of them Massive Effort guests. Speakers included Brundtland and Swiss President Ruth Dreifuss, in addition to Prof. Jeffrey Sachs via satellite.

This subsequently led to WHO, Credit Suisse/Winterthur Group and the Swiss/Kenyan NGO Double Incentive Project (DIP) establishing and funding the Massive Effort Campaign, for the short term purposes of igniting, jump starting and building global support the fight against AIDS, TB and malaria.

During the final months of 2000 and early 2001, political jockeying over who might host the Global Fund intensified. Many initially assumed hosting the Global Fund was WHO's end game. On August 19, 2000, The Washington Post reported that "Clinton Signs Bill Establishing Global Fund to Fight AIDS," effectively intending to locate it inside the World Bank. According to The Washington Post, "President Clinton signed a bill today that sets up a global trust fund for AIDS patients that has been likened to a kind of Marshall Plan against the infectious disease." Soon thereafter, UNICEF's Carol Bellamy suggested that UNICEF was better equipped to know "How to Distribute AIDS Drugs" in her March 2001 The New York Times op-ed.

An article published in the British medical journal The Lancet by Harvard academics Amir Attaran and Jeffrey Sachs in January 2001 called for an order of magnitude increase in foreign aid budgets for HIV/AIDS, over those the researchers documented in the 1990s. Attaran and Sachs proposed a new funding stream of $7.5 billion or more to fund projects proposed and desired by the affected countries themselves, and that a panel of independent scientific experts validates as having epidemiological merit against the pandemic.

Attaran and Sachs also recommended that the new funding stream "must be based on grants, not loans, for the poorest countries", unlike the World Bank, which was the largest multilateral HIV/AIDS funder then existing.

On April 21, initiating a week of heightened, coordinated advocacy in support of establishing the Global Fund, GlaxoSmithKline CEO Jean-Pierre Garnier called for a "Marshall Plan" to fight AIDS in Africa. This followed on an announcement by 38 pharmaceutical companies that they would drop their challenge to prevent South Africa from providing cheaper generic ARVs.

On April 23, 2001, an informal meeting of "stakeholders including some G8 and non-G8 members, representing different constituencies," was hosted by DFID and CIDA in London, to discuss the proposed “Global Fund for Health and AIDS.” A number of potential options were on the table, including the "Ottawa Fund," a UNAIDS concept paper submitted on behalf of all UN agencies, and a proposal by Italy, which was about to host the upcoming G8 Summit.

According to the minutes of the meeting, the aspirations of the group were to focus on HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB, with the potential to expand to other health conditions including children’s illnesses and maternal ill-health. This fund would be characterized by “highly visible operating systems, transparency of processes, the relentless pursuit of results, speedy disbursement, support for a diversity of service providers (including faith-based organizations) under common (usually national government) stewardship. Investors would be able to top predict the likely impact of their investments.”

It was noted the following week in a video conference with the UN Secretary General's office that, with the possible exception of France, "none of the bilaterals are keen to support an HIV/AIDS specific fund." Canada, Japan The Netherlands, and the EC were most interested on focusing on the three diseases, with the UK, Italy and Sweden potentially wanting a broader mandate, and with Denmark, Norway and Germany being unclear about their positions.

On April 26, 2001, in Abuja, Nigeria, at the urging of a wide range of parties—and particularly due to the emerging consensus among bilateral and UN agencies during the London meeting three days prior—UN Secretary General Kofi Annan made the first explicit public call by a highly visible global leader for this new funding mechanism, proposing "the creation of a Global Fund, dedicated to the battle against HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases."

A month later, The Economist editorialized that "...the fund itself must not be devoured by a voracious UN bureaucracy. Mr Annan wants an independent board to administer the money... (and that) the amount of money needed, after all, is not huge: it is about half America's annual spending on pot-plants and flowers."[26]

The first private contribution to the Global Fund was made by Kofi Annan. Having just been named the recipient of the 2001 Philadelphia Liberty Medal on May 3, 2001 Annan announced that he would donate his US$ 100,000 award to the Global Fund "war chest" he had just proposed creating. On May 8, the International Olympic Committee also made a US$ 100,000 contribution to the Global Fund.

In an address during WHO's World Health Assembly on May 15, 2001, WHO Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland described the challenges of going to scale smartly yet rapidly. "The timetable is necessarily a tight one. You might say that we are going to have to sail in the boat, while we are still building it. But the world is not going to wait while we get every detail in place." There was strong pressure that the Global Fund become operational by the year's end."

On May 31, France became the second bilateral donor after the US to announce a contribution to the Global Fund. This initial pledge was for US$ 127 million.

Stephen Lewis of Canada was appointed as the United Nation's Special Envoy on AIDS on June 1, 2001. On the same day, Kofi Annan addressed the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and encouraged American business leaders to speak up loud and often about the AIDS epidemic as a way to fight the disease.

South Africa's Minister of Health quickly gave notice that support from the Global Fund might not be welcomed in the single country home to the most HIV infections. "South African Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang told the conference a global fund being set up to fight AIDS, TB and malaria should not be used to force AIDS advisers on the region. 'We know what AIDS is and we know what is happening here. The region has its own experts on AIDS,' she said.

Early resistance to the promise of the Global Fund wasn't limited to Manto during the first week of June 2001. Andrew Natsios, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, told The Boston Globe that Africans were incapable of following complicated, multi-drug AIDS treatment, which requires taking different pills at specified times of day, because many of them "don't know what Western time is." According to Natsios, "Many people in Africa have never seen a clock or a watch their entire lives, . . . they know morning, they know evening, they know the darkness at night."

Countering the week's spate of skepticism, the Massive Effort Campaign mobilized the first large corporate contribution to the Global Fund from Credit Suisse/Winterthur Group for US$ 1 million, signaling that while some health ministries and donor agencies might still have doubts about the viability of the Global Fund, one of the world's largest banks and health insurance companies did not.

On June 19, 2001, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation committed $100 million, spread over a few years. Signaling that stopping the transmission of AIDS was the foundation's top global health priority, the Foundation announced that it would commit $100 million to the Global Fund over a multi-year period. The foundation also used the occasion to call on other organizations and governments around the world to support the new fund. Additionally, by the end of June, the UN Foundation set up a new mechanism for channeling private donations to the Global Fund.

The decision to create the new funding mechanism was expected to be taken by heads of state at the 2001 G8 Summit in Genoa (Italy), at the urging of United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, and largely along the lines WHO, Attaran and Sachs described. Indeed, the United Nations system had been considered ill conceived to implement a major increase in development funding. Multiple organizations were converging with small-scale projects on countries with limited institutional capacities, which exacerbated a series of problems, including poor coordination, duplication, high transaction costs, limited country ownership and lack of alignment with country systems.

Before the start of the Genoa G8, the United States, Britain and Japan had already contributed $200 million each, France had committed $127 million, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation had committed $100 million. On July 13, Germany announced its contribution to the Global Fund amounting to US$ 131 million. On July 18, Canada committed US$ 100 million and the European Commission agreed to a Euro 120 million contribution. On July 20, Russia contributed $20 million.

The G8 didn't disappoint in calling for the creation of the Global Fund, although pledges were significantly lower than the $7 to $10 billion annually called for by Kofi Annan.

According to the G8’s final communique, “At Okinawa last year, we pledged to make a quantum leap in the fight against infectious diseases and to break the vicious cycle between disease and poverty. To meet that commitment and to respond to the appeal of the UN General Assembly, we have launched with the UN Secretary-General a new Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. We are determined to make the Fund operational before the end of the year. We have committed $1.3 billion. The Fund will be a public-private partnership and we call on other countries, the private sector, foundations, and academic institutions to join with their own contributions - financially, in kind and through shared expertise.”

In July 2001, Kofi Annan appointed Ugandan cabinet minister Crispus Kiyonga to chair the Transitional Working Group that would establish the Global Fund. The Transitional Working Group was composed of representatives from more than 40 countries, UN agencies, the World Bank, private groups and NGOs.

The September 11 attacks created serious challenges for the Global Fund. In the three months prior to 9/11, the New York Times had expressed its support for fully financing the Global Fund in four separate editorials; it wouldn't be until three months after 9/11 that it would again editorialize in support of the Global Fund.

According to Timothy Wirth, former US Senator and head of the UN Foundation, "The attacks had a very damaging impact on funding, and we have to get everyone moving again to rebuild that momentum. The victims of Sept. 11, beyond the direct victims of the violence, have been the world's poorest people, particularly those with AIDS. The United States cannot say to the rest of the world, 'Help us' (in fighting terrorism) when we're not willing to help the rest of the world."

A key piece of evidence arguing for the importance of the Global Fund was delivered on December 20, 2001, when the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health made its findings public. Created by WHO's Brundtland and chaired by Sachs, the report promised that "A drastic scaling up of investments in health for the world’s poor will not only save millions of lives but also produce enormous economic gains." This report was particularly timely in reengaging journalists and refocusing the attention of policy makers on diseases of poverty and the emerging Global Fund, months following 9/11.

Officially operational in 2002, the Global Fund was intended to introduce a new aid paradigm based on partner country leadership, donor alignment with partner countries' development strategies, harmonization of donor actions, managing for results, and donor and partner being mutually accountable for results. This was subsequently conceptualized by the OECD in its 2004 Paris Declaration on 'aid effectiveness'.

The Global Fund's initial 18-member policy-setting board held its first meeting on January 28–29, 2002, and issued its first call for proposals. The first Secretariat was established in January 2002 with Paul Ehmer serving as team leader, soon replaced by Anders Nordstrom of Sweden who became the Fund's interim executive director. By the time the Global Fund Secretariat became operational, the Fund had already received $1.9 billion in pledges. In the months to follow, the Bush Administration was sharply criticized in the media for promising to pledge only $200 million a year.

At its inception, the Fund was adamant that it would not be about "business as usual," but would be grounded in "tough love" as it wrote its checks. On February 14, 2002, The Wall Street Journal headlined that the "Disease Fund Plans Tough Standards." In the article, a Bush administration official is quoted saying, "We envision a level of fiscal accountability . . . that’s unheard of in international development assistance."

In March 2002, a panel of international public health experts was named to begin reviewing project proposals that same month. In April 2002, the Global Fund awarded its first batch of grants - worth $378 million – to fight the three diseases in 31 countries.

Initial leadership
Richard Feachem was named as its first Executive Director in April 2002 and was about to get off to a rocky start days before the opening of the July 2002 International AIDS Conference in Barcelona, a bi-annual meeting attended by tens of thousands of the world's leading AIDS researchers, implementers, care givers and activists.

According to John Donnelly of The Boston Globe, "Richard G.A. Feachem, about to become the first director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, is already under fire from activists who want him to quit for saying the fund has plenty of money to start. At a critical time in the fight against the three killer infectious diseases, and on the eve of the 14th International AIDS Conference in Barcelona, Feachem is set to begin building an organization almost from scratch while fending off the activists."

During this defining moment, the Massive Effort Campaign, the activist NGO created, contracted and entrusted to ensure the Global Fund's successful launch throughout its first four years, was able to help prevent the Global Fund from being killed in its crib.

Feachem served from July 2002 until March 31, 2007. He announced he would not seek another term following a probe into the involvement of his wife in the Global Fund's business.

Michel Kazatchkine was then selected over the Global Fund’s architect, David Nabarro, even though Nabarro was “considered the strongest of three shortlisted candidates to head the Global Fund ... A selection committee has evaluated the three nominees' qualifications and ranked ‘Nabarro first, Kazatchkine second and (Alex) Cotinho third,’ according to a Fund source.”

Eventually, Michel Kazatchkine, a public health expert with over 20 years of experience in the field, was selected to be the Global Fund's second Executive Director. The September 2005 conference in London mobilized 3 billion euro, just over half the pledges at the Gleneagles G8 summit. On September 21, 2011, the AIDS Health Foundation called for Kazatchkine's resignation in the wake isolated yet unprecedented reports of "waste, fraud, and corruption" in order that "reforms may begin in earnest.” On January 24, 2012, Michel Kazatchkine ultimately declared his resignation.

Operations
The Global Fund has drawn much praise for the transparency of its organization. Information on the Global Fund's processes, including sensitive decision-making processes, is available from their official website.

The Global Fund provides initial grant funding solely on the basis of the technical quality of applications, as evaluated by its independent Technical Review Panel. The Fund has no means of assessing the implementation capacity of the applicants. Grants are signed for an initial period of two years. It provides continued funding to programs based solely on the basis of performance, which is generally defined as disbursement and purchases. The Fund makes no attempt to confirm whether services were delivered or whether its grants had any effect on health status or outcomes.

The objective of the Global Fund — to provide funding to countries on the basis of performance — was supposed to make it different from other international agencies that concerned themselves primarily with recording what money has been spent on, rather than what targets have been achieved.

These organizations have hundreds or thousands of staff that assist with implementation of grants. However, the Global Fund's five-year evaluation concluded that without a standing body of technical staff, the Global Fund is not able to ascertain the actual results of its projects. It has therefore tended to look at disbursements or the purchase of inputs as performance.

It also became apparent shortly after the Global Fund opened that a pure funding mechanism could not work on its own, and it began relying on other agencies (notably WHO) to support countries in designing and drafting their proposals and in supporting implementation. UNDP, in particular, bears responsibility for supporting Global Fund-financed projects in dozens of countries. As a result, the Fund is most accurately described as a financial supplement to the existing global health architecture rather than as a separate approach.

Bilateral donors immediately pledged millions (in some cases billions) of US dollars in support of Global Fund programs. The innovative approach to its financing principles is obviously considered key to its success. Since its inception, the Global Fund has committed US $11.4 billion to more than 550 grants in 136 countries (as of December 2008).

In March 2010, Dow Jones Indexes signed a memorandum with The Global Fund to explore the creation of co-branded indexes that could be licensed as the basis for investment products. The Global Fund aims to strengthen its engagement with the private sector, while the Dow seeks to add to its range of socially conscious indexes.

The Global Fund became the first organization of its kind, incorporated as a Foundation under Swiss law. It is a new kind of public-private partnership but is often confused as being part of the United Nations family. This may be because until January 1, 2009 Global Fund staff were officially World Health Organization (WHO) staff members and besides this the World Health Organization (WHO) provided many administrative services to the Global Fund secretariat and is also based in Geneva, Switzerland.

Effective January 1, 2009, the Global Fund became an administratively autonomous organization, terminating its administrative services agreement with the World Health Organization (WHO).

In March 2009, the head of the Fund criticized statements made by Pope Benedict XVI, according to whom AIDS "cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems."

Replenishment phase
As of 2010, the Global Fund has entered its 'replenishment phase', i.e. it needs funders to commit themselves to continued financing. Alarms have been raised prior to the 2010 October meeting about a looming deficit in funding, which would lead to people currently undergoing ARV treatment losing access to this - increasing the chance of them becoming resistant to treatment. UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé has dubbed the scenario of a funding deficit an "HIV Nightmare".

The Global Fund has stated that it needed at least 20 billion dollars in 2011-13, and 13 billion just to "allow for the continuation of funding of existing programs". Its 2001-2010 budget includes 19,4 billion dollars, with 600 interventions in 145 countries and 5.7 million lives saved.

Italy, founding member of the Fund seating in its administrative committee, announced at the Aquila 2009 G8 Summit a una tantum contribution of 30 million €. Both the una tantum and the 2009 and 2010 contributions (130 million € each) have not been disbursed (in fall 2010), for a total debt of 290 million €.

At the October 2010 replenishing meeting $11.8 billion USD was mobilized, with the USA being the largest contributor - followed by France, Germany and Japan. The Global Fund has said that the $1.2 billion USD lack in funding will "lead to difficult decisions in the next three years that could slow down the effort to beat the three diseases".

In 2011, the organization's internal investigation identified 13 countries, most in Africa, where several million dollars' worth of antimalarial drugs where stolen and presumably sold on the black market. A Global Fund spokesman confirmed that the organization suspected malaria drug valued at USD 2.5 million were stolen from Togo, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, and Cambodia from 2009 to 2011, with some cases earlier. Investigations were continuing to determine the amount of theft in other countries.

In November 2011, the Fund's board cancelled all new grants for 2012, only having enough money to support existing grants.

Corruption and misuse of funds
In January 2011, the Associated Press reported vast corruption in programs financed by the Global Fund.

The article cited findings of the GFATM OIG office that up to 2/3 of funds in some of the reviewed Global Fund’s grants were lost to fraud and the OIG report showed that systematic fraud patterns have been used across countries.

GFATM responded to the AP story with a press release on January 24, 2011, stating that, "The Global Fund has zero tolerance for corruption and actively seeks to uncover any evidence of misuse of its funds. It deploys some of the most rigorous procedures to detect fraud and fight corruption of any organization financing development."

In the days following the AP story, a number of op-eds, including one by Michael Gerson which was published in the Washington Post on February 4, 2011, sought to put the controversy surrounding the misuse of Global Fund grants in perspective. In his op-ed, Gerson stated, "The two-thirds figure applies to one element of one country's grant - the single most extreme example in the world. Investigations are ongoing, but the $34 million in fraud that has been exposed represents about three-tenths of 1 percent of the money the fund has distributed. The targeting of these particular cases was not random; they were the most obviously problematic, not the most typical."

These newly uncovered misuses of funds were investigated and made public by the Global Fund Inspector General's Office (OIG), an auditing unit independent from the Global Fund Secretariat that manages the disbursements of funds to the programs (the selection of new applications for grants is done by the Technical Review panel and the GFATM Board - both independent entities from the GFATM secretariat).

This point was also highlighted by Gerson in his February 4, 2011, op-ed where he noted, "The irony here is thick. These cases of corruption were not exposed by an enterprising journalist. They were revealed by the fund itself. The inspector general's office reviewed 59,000 documents in the case of Mali alone, then provided the findings to prosecutors in that country. Fifteen officials in Mali have been arrested and imprisoned. The outrage at corruption in foreign aid is justified. But this is what accountability and transparency in foreign aid look like. The true scandal is decades of assistance in which such corruption was assumed instead of investigated and exposed." The GFATM Secretariat has posted a series of press releases on the GFATM website to publish their views on these dealings.

The OIG has been newly reinforced and was created during 2005, three years after the GFATM was founded.

During these investigation the U.N. Development Program (UNDP) that manages and supervises a large proportion (12%) of the fund's spending as Local Fund Agent (LFA) in-country (the Global Fund has no country offices) has claimed diplomatic immunity to block the GFATM inspector general from access to internal audits and books of investigated programs in the more than two dozen nations.

The OIG has only examined a small percentage of the grants so far. Previous reviews of grants and the organization have shown substantial misconduct in some programs, lack of adequate risk management and operational efficiency of the Global Fund.

Severe cases of corruption have been found in several African countries such as Mali, Mauritania, Djibouti and Zambia. Global Fund spokesman, Jon Liden, said; "The messenger is being shot to some extent. We would contend that we do not have any corruption problems that are significantly different in scale or nature to any other international financing institution." This statement triggered a wave of private protests from other agencies who felt the Fund was attempting to divert attention from itself. Subsequent Global Fund statements have omitted any reference to other agencies.

In response to the findings, Sweden, the fund's 11th-biggest contributor, has suspended its $85 million annual donation until the corruption problems are resolved. Together with Sweden, Germany, the 3rd biggest contributor to the fund has also blocked any financing until a special investigation has been completed.

These findings come on top of previously discovered massive abuse of funds, corruption and mismanagement in a series of grants that forced the GFATM to suspend or terminate these grants after such dealings became publicly known with Uganda, Zimbabwe, Philippines, Ukraine being the largest of these grants (more than US$ 100 million each).

The story widened in February 2011 when the Financial Times reported that the fund’s board of directors had failed to act previously on concerns over accountability, including the conclusion of an ex­ternal evaluation in 2009 which criticized the Fund's weak procurement practices. Warnings of inadequate controls had also been reported periodically.

In Feb. 2011 the FT also reported that its own review found that neither Global Fund staff nor the Local Fund Agents (the entities entrusted with ensuring accountability at country level) had noticed the deficiencies reported by the inspector-general.

Financing, major donations and administration
The GFATM is almost completely funded by contributions from the largest developed nations governments / tax payers. GFATM audited annual returns show that currently more than 96% of its yearly contributions are received from government organizations. Its largest private contributor by far is the Gates Foundation.

* In June 2001, Winterthur Group, the Swiss-based financial services group, a sponsor of the Massive Effort Campaign and at the time a subsidiary of Credit Suisse, became the first corporate contributor to the Global Fund with a gift of $1 million.

* In January 2006, Bono and Bobby Shriver announced the launching of the Product Red campaign, proceeds from which would go to the Global Fund. Questions have been raised by nonprofit watchdogs and marketing experts regarding the unusually high advertising budgets spent on Product Red that some (until 2007) estimated as high as $100 million. GFATM published data states that until February 2011 the Product Red campaign has contributed less than 1% ($163 million) of the almost $19 billion contributions received since establishing the GFATM 2001/02.

* In August 2006, the Gates Foundation contributed $500 million to the Global Fund, calling the fund "one of the most important health initiatives in the world".

* In March 2006, Executive Director Richard Feachem announced his intention to step down, as soon as his successor was determined by the Global Fund Board. In April 2007, Michel Kazatchkine became the Global Fund's new Executive Director.