It was a dramatic page one headline: “AIDS Is Declared Threat to Security.” The Washington Post reported that the deadly disease AIDS is so widespread that in Africa and around the world the Clinton Administration says it is threatening the national security of the United States. The paper said the disease has reached “catastrophic dimensions,” affecting tens of millions of people, and could topple governments and touch off ethnic wars. But like so much of what comes out of this administration, the media have failed to ask a basic question: is it true?

The stories were based, in part, on a National Intelligence Estimate prepared in January. But it is politically driven, produced in response to initiatives from President Clinton, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and the United Nations. On page nine of the report, in a section on “data,” it is admitted that facts about diseases in Africa are very hard to come by, and that some estimates are based on small samples. It also says, “Much disease incidence in developing countries, in particular, is either unreported or under-reported due to a lack of adequate medical and administrative personnel.”

It turns out that many cases of disease are being branded as “AIDS” when no AIDS test has even been conducted. AIDS can be a catch-all term referring to malaria, cholera and TB. Writer Tom Bethell has called the coverage of AIDS in Africa “hype.” He quotes Michael Fumento, a science writer, as saying the stories about high HIV infection rates in Africa are not believable. One of the tricks, even cited in the National Intelligence Estimate, is the shifting of people with TB into the category of people with AIDS.

A hint of the truth could be found further down in the Washington Post story, where it was reported that Jesse Jackson and former Congressman Ron Dellums “have adopted the cause of AIDS in Africa.” The Post said that politics was a “mobilizing factor” behind the administration’s decision to make the disease into a national security threat. Such a designation could lead to billions of dollars of foreign aid flowing into the continent, where violence and anti-white hatred are on the increase. Bethell says there is talk of a billion dollar “Marshall Plan” for Africa, similar to the effort to rebuild Europe after World War II.

If AIDS has reached epidemic proportions and is so contagious, why, then, hasn’t it infected Egypt, which is just up the river from Uganda in Africa? The U.N. reports there are just 215 AIDS cases in Egypt. The National Intelligence Estimate claims that the disease is being “under reported” in Egypt and other Arab and Muslim countries. But if it is being “under reported” there, couldn’t it be over reported in other areas?

These questions are important because, if the problem in Africa is AIDS, that could lead to more spending on the so-called “AIDS establishment,” including treatments but no cures for a deadly disease. If, however, the basic problem is the high prevalence of other diseases, then that might lead to spending in other, more important, areas. Before we spend billions, we ought to have the truth.

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