While Photoshop jockeys were busy doctoring photos of Bush at the G8, and speculating that he had a hangover that prevented him from going to the AIDS discussion, there was a distinct lack of logic on the blogs. Bush wouldn't get drunk in that public a forum; his handlers wouldn't allow it.
And neither would they allow him to have one of his most scurrilous scams thrown in his face by world leaders at a morning meeting on HIV/AIDS relief. So a virus became the scapegoat.
My first guess was that he didn't want to be challenged on the U.S.'s insistence that AIDS drugs be bought from his Big Pharma buddies rather than producing their own generics. The truth is even worse.
As part of their much-touted efforts to help Africa with debt relief, the Bush administration "suddenly" announced that they were going to work through the IMF to get debt relief for countries in dire need of funds to provide AIDS drugs. Sounds good...
But evidently, the announcement was not as "sudden" as it seemed. In at least two African countries, Bush cronies had already purchased the bonds in question at deep discount prices, so that when the U.S. redeemed them, they'd make obscene profits.
Well meaning Americans empathize with the suffering of starving third world citizen, being attacked by a changing climate, overpopulation, civil war and strife, and aids. President Bush magnanimously offers up a program to offer Debt Relief to the third world country, and the US Congress responds by approving funds, which are then held in a US account.
Simultaneously, Vulture funds such as Paul Singer's, knowing that the target country finances are about to be re-capitalized by the US Taxpayers, go out and buy up the debt which was supposed to be forgiven. Here's a recent example:
"...By extraordinary coincidence, the amount claimed is almost exactly the sum which Zambia is due to receive this year as a result of the Gleneagles debt deal..."
Here's one report on the results from OXFAM:
Zambia stung by debt relief fraud
One of the poorest countries in Africa is about to undergo a process of debt reduction with a difference. It will be paying more in debt servicing after creditors provide debt relief than it is at present, with devastating consequences for poverty.
Greg Palast has a series of reports on the ongoing scandal on his website, and discussed it on Air America Sunday. "...a vulture fund can extract more than $40m from Zambia for a debt which it bought for less than $4m.
The same is true in the Congo. The "vulture" is Billionaire Paul Singer (of SwiftBoat fame):
Paul Singer is a billionaire of Elliott Associates. Vulture funds are what this company specializes in. In 1996, he bought up some of Peru's debt for $11 million, then threatened to bankrupt Peru if they didn't give him $58 million. He got his $58 million. Then Singer bought some discounted debt from Congo Brazzaville for only about $10 million. Elliott Associates company then sued the Congo and turned the $10 million into $127 million. But that still wasn't enough. www.DemocracyNow.org
Singer's company says the Congo government is corrupt and hid assets from creditors. Courts have agreed, allowing Singer to seek tripled damages under US racketeering law. They could get $400 million. Not bad for a $10 million bet. Congo was counting on George W Bush to use his legal authority to stop Singer's court action. That hasn't happened. Paul Singer is the number one donor to George Bush and the Republican cause in New York City. In the run-up to the 2000 election, he gave them $300,000. In 2004, he gave them $1.2 million, including money for the so-called Swift Boat campaign, which smeared the war record of George Bush's opponent. His spokesman told us, "We have nothing to hide. We just don't do interviews." www.DemocracyNow.org
Palast says that John Conyers learned about the problem from BBC and went personally to challenge the President on it:
REP. JOHN CONYERS: His response was, "I didn’t know anything about this." And he assigned a staffer to get on it right away. And so, it’s our position that the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the Comity Doctrine brought from our Constitution allows the President to require the courts defer in individual suits against foreign nations.
Tony Blair had refused to act to stop Singer, but Gordon Brown is committed to acting. Perhaps that's why Bush had a sudden headache when AIDS was on the agenda.