Wall Street Journal - Friday, July 12, 2002
Mark Schoofs and Rachel Zimmerman, Staff Reporters

BARCELONA, Spain -- Former President Clinton acknowledged, "I was wrong" about one of the most controversial AIDS decisions of his presidency: his refusal to lift the ban on federal funding of needle-exchange programs.

A government panel advised him at the time that the practice, used to slow the spread of HIV among injection-drug users, was effective and didn't promote drug abuse. But Mr. Clinton sided with his drug czar, Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who opposed it, Mr. Clinton said Thursday, because of "the message it would send on the drug front."

At the XIV International AIDS Conference here, Mr. Clinton met with young people in an MTV town-hall style meeting. He also electrified delegates who packed a large hall to hear him and other current and former heads of state talk about how to build political commitment to fight the pandemic. Friday, Mr. Clinton is scheduled to close the conference together with former South African President Nelson Mandela.

Mr. Clinton has made fighting AIDS one of his postpresidency priorities, and earlier this year the nonprofit group of which he and Mr. Mandela are co-chairmen, the International AIDS Trust, commissioned focus-group polling to gauge how to pitch its messages to Americans. During an interview and in his appearances here, Mr. Clinton hewed closely to those messages, which suggest that Americans respond to AIDS best when the economic and national-security consequences are highlighted and when the problem appears solvable. Mr. Clinton repeatedly stressed that letting AIDS continue to devastate poor countries could fuel "narcocrime and terrorism."

COMBATING AIDS See complete coverage of the International AIDS Conference

He also praised Caribbean nations that banded together to negotiate 70%-90% discounts on AIDS drugs made by six major pharmaceuticals companies. Mr. Clinton said those nations should pony up whatever they can and that the U.S. and Canada should pay the difference.

Advocating for that money from government and private foundations was the major specific contribution that Mr. Clinton said he would make to the fight against the disease. "I don't think that's a small thing," he said. "It's a huge thing."

Mr. Clinton said he believes the U.S. should devote $2.5 billion a year in foreign HIV assistance, up from about $1 billion currently, "and if we don't do it, we will be spending far, far more than that to clean up the mess," he said. He also said he would continue to visit hard-hit countries to encourage politicians to tackle the tough issues such as condom use and to help them develop national AIDS plans.

Write to Mark Schoofs at and Rachel Zimmerman at

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