Wolfie's Panocha

[Nbadan]

http://www.dcist.com/images/lovematch.jpg
Combsucker pays $193 big per year

By Lesley Wroughton


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The World Bank's employee organization has questioned the promotion and pay rise of a female staffer it says is involved with bank President Paul Wolfowitz.

In a letter circulated internally to staff on Tuesday, the bank's Staff Association demanded an explanation from Wolfowitz and the board of member countries for what it called "violations of staff rules in favor of a staff member closely associated with the president."

The relationship with Shaha Riza, a former senior gender specialist and senior communications advisor in the bank's Middle East Department who had worked at the bank for eight years, became public when Wolfowitz took the helm of the bank in 2005.

The issue is the latest in a string of tensions between Wolfowitz and the Staff Association that began soon after his arrival at the bank accompanied by an inner circle of advisors who had previously worked for the Pentagon and White House.

Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN0513756320070405)

More:

Favoritism Towards Wolfowitz's Girlfriend


-snip


Wolfowitz, who as Deputy Secretary of Defense was considered an architect of the U.S. war with Iraq, disclosed to bank board members that he had a romantic relationship with a senior bank communications officer, Shaha Riza, shortly after he was nominated to head the World Bank. Bank regulations disallow bank employees from supervising spouses or romantic partners, but Wolfowitz reportedly attempted to circumvent the rules so he would be able to continue to work with Riza. Informed by the bank's ethics officers that that would not be allowable, the problem appeared solved when Riza was detailed to work at the State Department's public diplomacy office in September 2005--even though her salary was still to be paid by the World Bank.

Before she was detailed over to the State Department, Riza was earning $132,660, according to bank records obtained by the Governmental Accountability Project. Had the bank's board adhered to its ordinary rules, as Riza was shifted over to the State Department, she should have only been eligible for a raise of about $20,000. Instead she was given a raise of $47,340, whereupon her salary became $180,000. Then last year, she received yet another raise which brought her salary to $193,000. That salary increase not only meant that Riza earned more than Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, but apparently made her the single highest paid State Department official.

After GAP shared the records it obtained with the Washington Post's "In the Loop" columnist Al Kamen, and the New Yorker also mentioned the preferential treatment in a profile of Wolfowitz last week, the World Bank's Group Association was "inundated with messages from staff expressing concern, dismay, and outrage," according to the April 3 memo circulated by the association to the bank's rank and file employees.

Huff (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/murray-waas/favoritism-towards-wolfow_b_45038.html)

Wolfie isn't a prize either, but for $193 big per, I could find someone who looks closer to Jessica Alba than Bea Arthur. Common Wolfie, it's not bad enough that over 3000 American troops and 100K Iraqi's are dead or dying because of your lies, your have to stick it too a chick that looks like she's been dead as long as your credibility?

[ChumpDumper]

Shaha welcomed him as a liberator.

[exstatic]

http://www.dcist.com/images/lovematch.jpg
Combsucker pays $193 big per year

By Lesley Wroughton



Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN0513756320070405)

More:

Favoritism Towards Wolfowitz's Girlfriend


-snip



Huff (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/murray-waas/favoritism-towards-wolfow_b_45038.html)

Wolfie isn't a prize either, but for $193 big per, I could find someone who looks closer to Jessica Alba than Bea Arthur. Common Wolfie, it's not bad enough that over 3000 American troops and 100K Iraqi's are dead or dying because of your lies, your have to stick it too a chick that looks like she's been dead as long as your credibility?
If she's still of breeding age...man...those would be some FUCKING UGLY kids.

[gtownspur]

If she's still of breeding age...man...those would be some FUCKING UGLY kids.


Is that why you don't breed yourself?

[Nbadan]

World Bank board says will decide soon on Wolfowitz
Fri Apr 13, 2007 4:48AM EDT


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The World Bank's board of directors adjourned a meeting on Friday over the promotion by bank President Paul Wolfowitz of his girlfriend, Shaha Riza, saying it would move quickly to decide how to proceed.

In a statement, the board said it found that Wolfowitz signed off on Riza's promotion and salary increase without a review by an ethics committee nor the board's chairman. The promotion came shortly after he joined the institution in 2005.

"The executive directors will move expeditiously to reach a conclusion on possible actions to take," the board said.

"In their consideration of the matter the executive directors will focus on all relevant governance implications for the bank," it added.

Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN1340701920070413)

check out this statement by Wolfy on the matter:

Statement by Paul Wolfowitz, President of the World Bank Group
WB/IMF Spring Meetings 2007
Available in: Spanish
April 12, 2007

Statement by Paul Wolfowitz,
World Bank President (MP3)



Paul Wolfowitz: "Let me just say a few words about the issue on everyone’s mind. Two years ago, when I came to the Bank, I raised the issue of a potential conflict of interest and asked to be recused from the matter. I took the issue to the Ethics Committee and after extensive discussions with the Chairman, the Committee’s advice was to promote and relocate Ms. Shaha Riza.

I made a good faith effort to implement my understanding of that advice, and it was done in order to take responsibility for settling an issue that I believed had potential to harm the institution. In hindsight, I wish I had trusted my original instincts and kept myself out of the negotiations. I made a mistake, for which I am sorry.

Let me also ask for some understanding. Not only was this a painful personal dilemma, but I also had to deal with it when I was new to this institution and I was trying to navigate in uncharted waters. The situation was unprecedented and exceptional. This was an involuntary reassignment and I believed there was a legal risk if this was not resolved by mutual agreement. I take full responsibility for the details. I did not attempt to hide my actions nor make anyone else responsible"

According to his own statement, Wolfy forced her go with him to the world bank so they could continue their tawdry affair.

Yuck.

[boutons_]

It's not only his girlfriend that Wolfie paid that upsets the WB:

The World Bank, Stuck In the Mud

By Sebastian Mallaby
Friday, April 13, 2007; A17

In the wake of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, there was a new recognition that poor countries could harm rich ones: Weak and failing states could incubate disease, crime, environmental degradation -- and terrorism. But that healthy recognition is fading, and the World Bank, which ought to be a powerful voice against complacent backsliders, is muted by scandal.

Before we get to the World Bank, consider the bigger picture. After Sept. 11, the world launched the Doha round of trade talks, which was supposed to help developing countries; now Doha has fizzled. After Sept. 11, there was hope for more humanitarian intervention; now the Iraq syndrome undermines the Western will to intervene, even in the extreme case of Darfur. The most lasting impact of Sept. 11 on the West's attitude toward development is perhaps a negative one. Opponents of immigration have been handed a convenient argument, with the result that workers from poor countries may have fewer legal opportunities to earn paychecks in rich countries and send money home.

Then there is the aid story. After Sept. 11, foreign assistance from governments doubled from $52 billion in 2001 to $107 billion in 2005; and that year, the leaders of the industrialized nations gathered at the Group of Eight summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, and pledged a further doubling of aid to sub-Saharan Africa. But the Gleneagles promise is proving empty. The latest data show that governments gave less in 2006 than they had a year earlier. An analysis by the Center for Global Development projects that aid to sub-Saharan Africa will grow at less than half the rate promised at Gleneagles.

The West's financial retreat is a policy retreat, too, because an alternative patron of poor nations is emerging in the form of China. So long as Western governments dominated the aid business, African governments had reason to listen to their advice on fighting corruption and building institutions. But as Western aid budgets tighten, more African leaders will turn to China for cash and technical assistance. China cares little for controlling corruption and still less for democratic notions of accountability. Even though China has developed marvelously itself, its new sway in Africa is likely to set back the struggle against poverty.

In times like these, the West needs a clear voice to make the case for development. In the past, this has frequently come from the World Bank: As the bank's president in the 1970s, Robert McNamara coined the phrase "absolute poverty." And James Wolfensohn, his most illustrious successor, did more than anybody else to forge the post-Sept. 11 consensus in favor of development. But there is no moral clarity emanating from the bank right now. Instead, there is demoralizing scandal.

The scandal centers on the pay of people around Paul Wolfowitz, the World Bank president. Kevin Kellems, an unremarkable press-officer-cum-aide who had previously worked for Wolfowitz at the Pentagon, pulls down $240,000 tax-free -- the low end of the salary scale for World Bank vice presidents, who typically have PhDs and 25 years of development experience. Robin Cleveland, who also parachuted in with Wolfowitz, gets $250,000 and a free pass from the IRS, far more than her rank justifies. Kellems and Cleveland have contracts that don't expire when Wolfowitz's term is up. They have been granted quasi-tenure.

Then there is the matter of Shaha Riza, a long-standing bank official who is Wolfowitz's romantic partner. She went on paid leave (seconded to the State Department) after Wolfowitz arrived; her salary has since jumped from $133,000 to $194,000. When questions were first asked about Riza's rewards, a spokesman declared that the matter had been handled by the bank's board and general counsel, implying that the bank president himself had not been responsible. But the truth was that Wolfowitz had been closely involved, as a contrite Wolfowitz admitted yesterday.

Treating an anti-poverty institution this way would look bad under any circumstances. But the scandal is especially damaging to Wolfowitz because his leadership had generated questions already. He has alienated the staff by concentrating too much power in the hands of Kellems and the abrasive Cleveland; he has alienated shareholders by presenting half-baked strategy ideas; he has alienated borrowers by blocking loans, sometimes capriciously. Moreover, Wolfowitz has made the battle against corruption his signature issue. He of all people should have thought twice before sanctioning exorbitant pay for his entourage.

After Sept. 11, Wolfowitz's predecessor, James Wolfensohn, seized on the attacks to drive home the point that the fortunes of the world's rich depend on the fortunes of the world's poorest. In good times an invisible wall seems to divide the two, but the terrorist attacks demonstrated how this divide could be spectacularly breached. "There is no wall," Wolfensohn insisted.

Now, five years later, the United States is walling off its southern border and the aid boom is over. And where is the current World Bank president? Fending off calls for resignation.

[email protected]

============

Wolfie is just yet another ideological, crony-izing neo-cunt in the Iraq war cabal who is totally incompetent, who treats government and public service with utmost contempt and disrespect, government to be abused and raped for personal and political gain.

Dammit, these insane Repugs and AEI/PNAC/neo-cunt motherfuckers need to be lined up and shot.

[Nbadan]

This story has legs...


The woman at the heart of the controversy that has embroiled World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz says she is a victim and was forced into a job transfer because of their relationship.

Shaha Riza said that at no time did she report directly to Wolfowitz and that he had proposed to recuse himself from any decisions involving her to avoid a potential conflict of interest.

She said the ethics committee of the World Bank's board had required her "to go on external assignment contrary to my wishes."

Riza was detailed to a high-paying job at the State Department in September 2005. "I have now been victimized for agreeing to an arrangement that I have objected to and that I did not believe from the outset was in my best interest," she said....

Business Week (http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8OFTENG0.htm)

Is she saying the world bank paid her to prostitute for Wolfie?

[Nbadan]

You can't make this shit up....


http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/afp/20070416/capt.sge.pkp01.160407170531.photo01.photo.default-428x512.jpg
Bad boy!

From Daily Kos (http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/4/17/224244/450), Wolfowitz girlfriend planned the Iraqi government


As if the tangled web of Paul Wolfowitz and his girlfriend, Shaha Riza, weren't already sordid enough, now comes word that while he was Deputy Secretary of Defense, the Pentagon ordered Science Applications International Corp., a Pentagon contractor, to enter into a subcontract with Ms. Riza under which she spent approximately a month in the spring of 2003 "studying ways to form a government in Iraq."

Well, Wolfie wound up doing to Iraq what he was doing to Ms. Riza so she may have been worth the money.

[BIG IRISH]

If anyone want details you can't get anywhere else try this link. This guy has good sources and has been on this BS for a couple of years.
http://villagevoice.com/blogs/bushbeat/archive/2007/04/inside_wolfowit_1.php
i.e.


Inside Wolfowitz's Second War
posted: 7:00 AM, April 16, 2007 by Harkavy

Bank Information Center

http://villagevoice.com/blogs/bushbeat/Wolfie-capital-letters--thumb.jpg




Sweetheart deal: Wolfie's lawyer made this demand back in 2005 when he was negotiating terms of his presidency.

Note that Wolfie's refusing (in all caps, like a madman) the notion that he won't have any contact with his gal, Shaha Ali Riza). As it turned out, of course, he sent her to the State Department to work with Dick Cheney's daughter. :rolleyes


World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz spent the weekend desperately trying to keep his job, but e-mails flying around the bank's internal bulletin board show that he'll never quell the internal revolt.

Built into the bank's massive bureaucracy is a Staff Association — not a union, but an officially recognized organization of the bank's 10,000 employees that has a formal say, of sorts, in the operations of the bank. And it's the Staff Association that is leading the revolt. Its pressure, led by chair Alison Cave, forced an unprecedented release of the bank's investigation of Wolfie's sweetheart deal for his gal, Shaha Ali Riza.

He's having as much success with the 10,000 World Bank staffers as he had with the 25 million Iraqis.

On April 12, Cave, speaking on behalf of the Staff Association, called on Wolfie to resign........

Cave's actions earned her praise from at least hundreds, if not thousands, of bank employees, according to a flood of internal e-mails obtained by the Voice.

And the e-mails raise new questions — new to the public, at least — about other issues.

For instance, Suzanne Rich Folsom, head of the bank's Institutional Integrity department, is rumored in the e-mails to have hosted a Republican fundraiser.

That wouldn't be surprising. Folsom is the wife of George Folsom, former president of the International Republican Institute. She was already at the bank when Wolfie arrived in 2005. But now she's the chief corruption fighter. (Read a staff Q&A with her here.)

As I reported in January 2006, she hired Allison Brigati, the daughter of America's leading lobbyist for the gambling industry, Frank Fahrenkopf, to help her probe corruption within the bank.

Did I mention that Fahrenkopf is a former national chairman of the GOP?

I used the bank's corruption hotline to ask whether Folsom hosted a GOP fundraiser. (I also put in a message to Folsom's flack). Haven't heard back yet.

[Update, 5 p.m. April 16: Folsom's flack, David Theis, responded via e-mail, "Suzanne has NEVER hosted a Republican fundraiser. Never happened. She has engaged in no GOP fundraising or other activities since she joined the bank in 2003 under Jim Wolfensohn." He later added that neither she nor her husband have hosted fundraisers, "nor has she engaged in any other political activity since she joined the bank, beyond voting." Theis responded promptly to me. I apologize for the delay in adding this clarification.]

Meanwhile, as the New York Times reports this morning, Wolfowitz "spent the weekend churning through meetings with a determination to project confidence that he could weather the crisis.":

“I think he has just wanted to tough it out,” said a bank official who watched him. “He’s clearly hoping that once everyone leaves town, he can go on and that all this will fade away. That has not happened and it is not going to happen.”
Especially inside the bank. Most bank staffers were unhappy when the Bush regime installed Wolfie. Now they're really unhappy. Here's a sampling of the e-mails last week to the internal bulletin board after Cave's call for Wolfie's resignation:

Evidently INT [Folsom's department] was asked to investigate the Riza-Kellems-Cleveland appointments and salary increases and the associated breaking of Staff Rules in May 2006. Yet, INT refused to investigate. Could this be because Ms. Folsom is a close associate and ally of Mr. Wolfowitz?



There is clearly a conflict of interest here. What kind of governance structure is it when the head of the internal investigation unit will not investigate any allegations linked to the President? Ms. Folsom should be held accountable. Moreover, what was the role of HR and especially the VP of HR in all this? He needs to answer a few questions.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By the way your comment about this not being the first time they have flouted the Staff Rules — are you indicating the appointment of Robin Cleveland and Kevin Kellems? I can understand Term Appointments to match the President's term — but on Open Ended appointments which I believe they were given? Who approved such appointments without competition?


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Regarding the latest news on "bending the rules", I am wondering if Mr. Wolfowitz has given a second thought to what he is requiring of WB borrowers in terms of his slogan on "anti-corruption and governance." Sir, practice what you preach — or in your case, try less threats and force on borrowing governments when you are flagrantly crushing all moral/ethical values yourself. . This is not the Pentagon, just in case you were wondering. I've included an "amusing" excerpt from the Bank's Anti-corruption website — talk about serious double standards: "The Bank has identified corruption as among the greatest obstacles to economic and social development. It undermines development by distorting the rule of law and weakening the institutional foundation on which economic growth depends."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Besides the issue of excessive pay raises, I have not seen any questions raised why the World Bank should pay a staff member to work in the US State Department in an office that many would consider a propaganda machine for an unpopular US administration. If the Bank does indeed need to send her on external assignment, wouldn't Bank resources be better spent, if Ms. Riza worked at an NGO or charity organization? It would be good if the Staff Association could raise this issue with management as well.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How could Ms. Riza be sent on External Service in the US? It does not comply with the definition in the Staff Rules. "External Service With Pay means assignment to perform services for member governments, international organizations, or other entities providing technical assistance to the Bank Group clientele for which the staff member continues to be paid by the Bank Group." I hope the Board will investigate this thoroughly - including the entire chain of command in HR and MNA Line Management who permitted this to be processed!


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The President's own salary has undergone an unusual course. [Wolfie's predecessor James] Wolfensohn received a salary of $302,470, set on July 1, 2004. Mr. Wolfowitz received a salary of $391,440, effective July 1, 2005. How was this 29.4 percent pay raise achieved? 4 percent ($12,099) was due to the Wash. area CPI adjustment. The rest ($76,871) was because when Mr. Wolfowitz was appointed he negotiated with the Board about his salary. Presumably $314,569 net of tax (Mr. Wolfensohn's salary plus 4 percent CPI) was not enough. The massive Salary raise was attained by reducing the "Allowance for Expenses" (presumably entertainment, travel etc.) that is allocated to the President from $141,290 (as allocated to Mr. Wolfensohn in 2004) to $70,700 (allocated to Mr. Wolfowitz in 2005). If Mr. Wolfensohn's $141,290 was adjusted for the 4 percent CPI it would have been $146,942. Mr. Wolfowitz requested that of this amount, $76,871 be added to his salary, leaving only $70,070 as allowance for expenses. All this is documented in the Bank's Annual Reports (see under "Remuneration of the President" online). Why did Mr. Wolfowitz request this change? The main justification was that the new higher salary was the same as that of the Managing Director [of the International Monetary Fund, the bank's sister organization]. Why this equivalence should suddenly apply to Mr. Wolfowitz, when it was established otherwise for all his predecessors, is not clear. Of course it could be that being a modest man, Mr. Wolfowitz felt that he could not justify the level of expenses paid to Mr. Wolfensohn. But then he should have just asked for the allowance to be reduced. If he was not going to incur expenses of $146,942 it did not follow that he deserved a higher salary. As any staff member knows, there is a big difference between Expenses and Salary. It could also be that Salary is pensionable and the basis for other benefits, and Allowances are not. We should be told. ........

[boutons_]

Wolfowitz Clashed Repeatedly With World Bank Staff

Tenure as President Has Been Rocky

By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 15, 2007; A12

As he prepared to sign a five-year contract as World Bank president in the spring of 2005, Paul Wolfowitz sent his personal lawyer, Robert Barnett, to negotiate the terms. Barnett, whose high-profile clients have included some of Washington's biggest political and media figures, did not mince words in his meetings with the bank's legal team.

Wolfowitz wanted more than a dozen amendments to the standard contract that had served the institution for decades, Barnett told them, including special dispensation for the books he would write and the paid speeches he planned to deliver, and a salary on par with that of the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, who was traditionally more highly paid.

A final sticking point, conveyed in all capital letters in an e-mail to then-general counsel Roberto Dañino, was Wolfowitz's insistence that, while he had earlier offered to recuse himself from all office matters involving bank employee and his girlfriend Shaha Riza, he insisted on retaining retain "professional contact" with her -- something that the executive board later determined was a clear conflict of interest under personnel rules.

The Riza issue has come back to haunt Wolfowitz, as the bank's executive board is now considering what to do about revelations -- contained in documents it released Friday -- that Wolfowitz resolved the issue by personally arranging a bank salary and promotions for her in a temporary State Department post.

Testy exchanges and peremptory demands, similar to those made on his behalf by Barnett early in his tenure, quickly came to characterize Wolfowitz's dealings with the institution's staff and governors on a range of issues during his presidency, according to current and former senior bank officials and representatives of the bank's member governments interviewed for this article, several of whom have worked closely with Wolfowitz. None would speak on the record, out of either fear of retribution or reluctance to become involved in the increasingly public controversy.

Wolfowitz has clashed with the staff over pay packages and authority he gave to aides Robin Cleveland and Kevin Kellems, whom he brought to the bank from the White House, installed in senior positions and rewarded with open-ended contracts and quarter-million-dollar, tax-free salaries, despite their lack of development experience.

Both staff and management also have raised concerns over what several described as Wolfowitz's insistence that the bank accelerate its lending to Iraq and open an office there.

A principal architect of the Iraq war as deputy defense secretary during President Bush's first term, Wolfowitz has pressed the issue in the bank against strong concerns about security and poor governance in Iraq. "He was pretty aggressive about it, given that he's generally a mild-mannered person. He was really quite hard," said one source with first-hand knowledge of internal bank discussions on Iraq. "I don't know how much of it was flogging for the administration rather than his own ghosts and convictions."

Although the bank eventually opened a $500 million loan program for Baghdad, the board took the unusual step of asking to be "regularly updated" on developments, according to internal documents obtained by the Government Accountability Project, a Washington-based whistle-blower group that tracks World Bank activities. Bank interests in Iraq have been managed from its regional headquarters in Jordan.

In December, after a bank official offered the Baghdad job turned it down, a committee interviewing other candidates reported that the pool of those willing and qualified was "extremely limited and particularly weak," according to an internal memo provided to The Washington Post yesterday by the accountability group.

Another signature Wolfowitz initiative was a new anti-corruption strategy for countries receiving bank loans. But at a meeting last fall in Singapore, bank governors rejected the proposal on the grounds that it would politicize the multilateral institution. More recently, they attacked Wolfowitz's budget proposal, saying it lacked a coherent strategy. Governors have now accepted a revised anti-corruption plan, and a chastened Wolfowitz has announced the appointment of a respected bank economist to launch a strategic review of bank operations.

[b] "He arrived at the bank expecting the board to behave like the Republican Congress, and ran into a Democratic majority," Nancy Birdsall, president of the Washington-based Center for Global Development, told the Financial Times last week. Birdsall, a former director of policy research at the bank, on Friday called for Wolfowitz to resign.

As the Riza controversy has escalated over the past week, Wolfowitz has suddenly been left fighting for his job amid uneven support, at best, from many of the bank's most powerful donor nations. The board has said it had no knowledge of the deal with Riza; Wolfowitz has publicly acknowledged making a "mistake" and has apologized.

The White House on Friday expressed President Bush's "full confidence" in Wolfowitz. Japanese Finance Minister Koji Omi, here for the bank's annual spring meeting of finance and development ministers this weekend, said, "I rate his work as World Bank president highly."

( always count on the Japs to kiss ass and brown nose )

But French Finance Minister Thierry Breton, whose government has questioned Wolfowitz's leadership in the past, noted ominously that the bank is "special" because of its mission of helping the world's poor and that its "governance and ethics must obviously be impeccable."

"I fully trust the governing board to draw the consequences it must draw," Breton said.

Most ministers, including Omi, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and Canada's Jim Flaherty, declined to comment directly on the Riza matter. All spoke of letting the executive board's "process" regarding Wolfowitz run its course.

Among African leaders, the emphasis Wolfowitz has placed on their continent's development has won him support. "He has been a visionary, absolutely supportive and responsive," said Antoinette M. Sayeh, finance minister of Liberia. "We have visionary leadership and steadfast progress under Mr. Wolfowitz, and we look forward to it continuing."

Zambian Finance Minister N'gandu Peter Magande cautioned against a rush to judgment. "We don't want to go back to old days in our jungles," he said. "We want to be sure that issues are dealt with correctly. It is not that we are being soft; we didn't come here to make a judgment on this issue."

Officials from several governments said any desire for Wolfowitz's departure would be carefully balanced against the need to preserve smooth bilateral ties with the United States and to avoid exacerbating a bad situation at the bank.

The board is unlikely to take the unprecedented step of firing Wolfowitz, a knowledgeable source said. "They could try to get the same result by making some statement to the effect that they're deeply disappointed that he misled them as to his role" in directing Riza's compensation.

In an e-mail to bank staff last night, Wolfowitz wrote: "Out of respect for the Board review process that has been underway, I have said little. I feel, however, that this has left a vacuum which has been largely filled by misleading information." The 109 pages of documents released by the board, he said, are "a lot to wade through looking for significant facts so I'd like to call your attention to a number of them."

He attached a selection of excerpts, most of them referring to his initial offer before assuming the presidency to recuse himself from dealings with Riza, and all of them favorable to himself. ( http://spurstalk.com/forums/images/smilies/smilol.gif http://spurstalk.com/forums/images/smilies/smilol.gif Good ol' Wolfie, still cherry picking the intel!! http://spurstalk.com/forums/images/smilies/smilol.gif http://spurstalk.com/forums/images/smilies/smilol.gif ). They did not include Barnett's subsequent clarification that the recusal officer did not include a ban on "professional contact."

He included a link to the complete package of documents, as did a posting on the bank's Web site yesterday.

Wolfowitz's initial appointment, made by tradition by the U.S. president, was controversial, largely because of his role in the administration's Iraq policy, which was opposed by most of the bank's contributing governments.

Some have said Wolfowitz is now being vilified as a proxy for Bush, and because his proposed reforms challenged the bank's entrenched status quo. But there is consensus, even among many of his supporters, that his actions over the past two years have given ammunition to those eager to find more reasons to dislike him.

"They were waiting for him to screw up, and he did," said a recently departed senior bank official.

Staff writer Krissah Williams contributed to this report.

==================

dubya yet again applies his anti-Midas touch to put a loyal neo-cunt, an inexperienced crony to fuck up and mismanage an institution, much the way dubya has fucked up the Exec.

[exstatic]

OMG, that's what you look like with the lights on? WTF?
http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/afp/20070416/capt.sge.pkp01.160407170531.photo01.photo.default-428x512.jpg

[xrayzebra]

Hey the guy is only following Clinton's cue. After all, what he does
with females, it is his and her business. It is only a main squeeze
after all.

[smeagol]

Hey the guy is only following Clinton's cue. After all, what he does
with females, it is his and her business. It is only a main squeeze
after all.
Like clockwork!

No thread about Republicans fucking up is complete without a right-winger bringing up Clinton.

[exstatic]

Separated at birth:
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2007/WORLD/europe/04/20/worldbank.wolfowitz.ap/vert.wolfowitz.afp.jpg http://images.wikia.com/muppet/images/9/90/CountCountsLP(2).jpg

[Nbadan]

Wolfie blames 'the system'...


WASHINGTON: Fighting to hold on to his job, World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz issued a broadbased rebuttal Thursday that blamed unclear bank rules for creating questions about his handling of hefty pay raises for his girlfriend.

The rebuttal comes as a special bank panel is putting together a report on whether Wolfowitz acted properly in the arranging the 2005 promotion and compensation package for bank employee Shaha Riza. The panel's findings and recommendation will go to the bank's 24-member board, which ultimately will decide Wolfowitz' fate.

The bank's former top ethics official, Ad Melkert, who is Dutch, told the panel earlier this week the bank's ethics committee was not consulted and did not approve of Riza's compensation package. The bank's former general counsel, Roberto Danino, a Peruvian, said he believed Wolfowitz acted "incorrectly."

"Rather than attempt to adjudicate between our conflicting interpretations of the events that occurred here, the board should recognize that this situation is the product of ambiguous bank rules and unclear governance mechanisms," Wolfowitz wrote Thursday to the special panel's chief, Herman Wijffels, who is Dutch.

IHT (http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/05/03/business/NA-FIN-US-World-Bank-Wolfowitz.php)

I think Wolfowitz raises a legitimate point. How was he to know the World Bank would balk at paying for his panocha?

[Nbadan]

Another victory for good, Wolfey is gone...

Source: ABC News


World Bank officials say the bank's board is completing an "exit strategy" that will allow World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz to resign this afternoon and "still save some face" over the issue of his efforts to seek a promotion and pay raise for his girlfriend at the bank.

The officials say the bank's board will accept Wolfowitz's resignation but will also acknowledge that the World Bank's Ethics Committee bears "some responsibility" for giving him bad advice on the issue of his girlfriend.

The decision is likely today, officials say, because Wolfowitz had been scheduled to leave tonight for a European trip.

German Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul said yesterday, "He would do the bank and himself a great service if he resigned." The German said Wolfowitz would not be welcome at an Africa forum the bank is holding next week in Berlin should he refuse to resign

ABC News (http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/05/wolfowitz_to_re.html)

[boutons_]

White House Support for Wolfowitz Wavers

By Peter S. Goodman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 16, 2007; Page A01

The Bush administration softened its support for World Bank President Paul D. Wolfowitz yesterday, signaling a willingness to replace him if the bank's executive board resolves an ethics controversy without firing him.

"All options are on the table," said White House spokesman Tony Snow, addressing reporters at a morning briefing. "Members of the board, Mr. Wolfowitz, need to sit down and figure out what is in fact going to be best for this bank. . . ."



The shift of tone at the White House, which nominated Wolfowitz for the post two years ago, is a blow to his struggle to save his job. It came a day after a bank investigating committee found that Wolfowitz broke ethics rules and damaged the integrity of the institution by engineering a large raise for his girlfriend, Shaha Riza, while keeping the bank's top legal adviser out of the loop.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/15/AR2007051500185.html

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Yet another dubya incompetent, inexperienced political hack/crony/operative/neo-cunt fucks up his job and gets canned. The Hits Just Keep Coming.

20 more months ...

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As part of his plea bargain to resign, Wolfie wants the bank to assume joint blame, and/or wants to be cleared of ethical violations.

Don't waste another millisecond. Fire the motherfucking scumbag for cause.

[Nbadan]

Shades of 'your doing a hec of va job'..


"All I can tell you is Paul Wolfowitz has an interest in what's best for the bank," Bush said at a news conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Yahoo News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070517/ts_nm/worldbank_wolfowitz_bush_dc_3)

Yeah, the best interest of his bank - his bank account, that is.