Bush Aide Blocks Global Health Report

by: Betsy L. Angert

Mon Jul 30, 2007 at 01:57:37 AM EDT

A Bush Aide, William R. Steiger, blocked a report. The Global Health Draft 2006 was rejected.  It was not released because the research was deemed politically incorrect.  This study detailed a correlation between poverty and poor health worldwide.  Steiger realized this information might hurt the Administration, or hinder the Bush Cheney cause. Thus, this man helped to hide what might harm the "right" agenda. 

American citizens understand, or might know by now, truth, when it does not serve this Administration well, is blocked.  Citizens cannot read what might reveal America is in a state of crisis.  Nor are we given an opportunity to assess how the global state of affairs affect us.

In recent months, it is increasingly evident, "executive privilege" rules in this 'The Bush - Cheney Era.'  Any report that might jeopardize this reign is rebuked.  Persons that place the White House in peril are removed.  However, on occasion, evidence of what is real is exposed.  Today, the people are privy to a report the Administration hoped to conceal.

A surgeon general's report in 2006 that called on Americans to help tackle global health problems has been kept from the public by a Bush political appointee without any background or expertise in medicine or public health, chiefly because the report did not promote the administration's policy accomplishments, according to current and former public health officials.

The report described the link between poverty and poor health, urged the U.S. government to help combat widespread diseases as a key aim of its foreign policy, and called on corporations to help improve health conditions in the countries where they operate.  A copy of the report was obtained by The Washington Post.

Three people directly involved in its preparation said its publication was blocked by William R. Steiger, a specialist in education and a scholar of Latin American history whose family has long ties to President Bush and Vice President Cheney.  Since 2001, Steiger has run the Office of Global Health Affairs in the Department of Health and Human Services.

Richard H. Carmona, who commissioned the "Call to Action on Global Health" while serving as surgeon general from 2002 to 2006, recently cited its suppression as an example of the Bush administration's frequent efforts during his tenure to give scientific documents a political twist.  At a July 10 House committee hearing, Carmona did not cite Steiger by name or detail the report's contents and its implications for American public health.

Carmona told lawmakers that, as he fought to release the document, he was "called in and again admonished . . . via a senior official who said, 'You don't get it.' " He said a senior official told him that "this will be a political document, or it will not be released."

After a long struggle that pitted top scientific and medical experts inside and outside the government against Steiger and his political bosses, Carmona refused to make the requested changes, according to the officials. Carmona engaged in similar fights over other public health reports, including an unpublished report on prison health.  A few days before the end of his term as the nation's senior medical officer, he was abruptly told he would not be reappointed.

The 'honorable' William Steiger is 37 years of age.  He is a godson of former president George Herbert Walker Bush.  Steiger is also the son of a moderate Republican who represented Wisconsin in the House.  The senior Steiger hired a young Dick Cheney to serve as his intern. 

In 1989, President Bush 41 appointed Steiger's mother to the Federal Trade Commission.  Apparently, according to biographical sketch of William's mother located at the American Bar Association's Web site, we can see that the Steiger family was well acquainted with the Rumsfelds and the Bushes.  They were "lifelong friends" all "representing" our nation together.

In the résumé, Steiger submitted to Congress, we learn this Bush appointee is not only well connected, he is also well educated.  However, health is not his area of expertise.

[Steiger] he obtained a doctorate in Latin American history from the University of California at Los Angeles before teaching at a university in the Philippines and consulting in Angola for the International Republican Institute -- a nonprofit group that is associated with the party and promotes democracy around the world. He was an education adviser to then-Gov. Tommy G. Thompson (R) of Wisconsin and came to Washington when Thompson became HHS secretary. He is now awaiting a Senate vote on his nomination as Bush's ambassador to Mozambique.

Bill Hall, an HHS spokesman, said Steiger promoted interest in global health at the department while more than doubling the number of expert staff members overseas and participating in international negotiations on issues such as avian influenza. "You have to look at his skills as an executive leader in spite of the fact that he doesn't have a medical degree or a public health degree," Hall said.

Public health advocates have accused Steiger of political meddling before. He briefly attained notoriety in 2004 by demanding changes in the language of an international report on obesity.  The report was opposed by some U.S. food manufacturers and the sugar industry.

The words crooked and criminal come to mind when I contemplate this and other Administrative undertakings.  My wish, my plea; Congress please stop the madness.  Impeach and bring integrity back to America.

I offer a link to the draft of this suppressed report. 

Please note: This copy of the unpublished Surgeon General's Call to Action on Global Health is a draft document that its authors expected to update and revise before making public.  It is not a final version.

The Surgeon General's Call to Action on Global Health 2006 Office of the Surgeon General.  United States Department of Health and Human Services.

The Secret and Sources . . .