Monday, February 3, 2003

Another magical day! In the AM, I brief the POTUS on Project BioShield. Place = Roosevelt Room of the WW. Present are POTUS, VP Cheney, Tom Ridge, Tommy Thompson, Scooter Libby, Condi Rice, Karl Rove, Josh Bolten, Kristen Silverberg, Adm Abbott, Ari Fleischer, Dan Bartlett, Ken Bernard, Elias Zerhouni, Carol Kuntz, etc. I played major role in walking him through the Project. We rush back to NIH to greet him (Flying in on Marine One) at the VRC. We give him a tour and he is smash hit with the staff. We go over in motorcade to Natcher Building where he gives major address. He specifically mentions me as an old friend and someone who he thanks on the part of the country because I have been for many years THE general in war on AIDS. His speech drew applause every time he would mention me, Zerhouni, or AIDS in Africa Plan, but no applause when he spoke of the likely need to go to war with Iraq. He leaves and I spend rest of day and also Feb. 4 doing press calls to describe in detail Project BioShield.