Washington sources say National AIDS Policy Coordinator Kris Gebbie’s chief of staff, Andrew Barrer, has been spending a significant amount of his time carrying out a personal vendetta against Bob Hattoy, the only openly HIV positive official in the Clinton Administration. According to insiders, Barrer faxed copies of the Hattoy interview in the April/May issue of POZ to White House officials, congressional staffers and reporters, urging them all to fight Hattoy’s imminent appointment to President Clinton’s Commission on HIV because of Hattoy’s many candid comments expressing dissatisfaction with the Administration’s performance on AIDS. The fax flurry, one source says, “Put the article on everybody’s desk in the Clinton Administration. Some staff meetings were held about it, communication directors were sent scurrying.”

Though admitting that “someone from my office may have semt a fax,” Gebbie says she would have “no problem at all” with Hattoy being named to the President’s Commission.

Says Bob Hattoy: “The President has heard of the controversy, he has read the article in POZ. It’s his decision whether I get appointed to the Commission or not. If anyone on Kris Gebbie’s staff has been spending time trying to ’get me politically,’ that would be a real waste of their time. They should spend their time fighting AIDS, not fighting me.”