Troubles for the prince of darkness at World Bank

Forums: Politics
Email this Topic • Print this Page

World Bank Pledges `Expeditious' Ruling on Wolfowitz (Update6)
By James G. Neuger and Christopher Swann

April 13 (Bloomberg) -- World Bank directors pledged a speedy decision on President Paul Wolfowitz's fate after finding that Wolfowitz personally dictated the terms of a promotion and pay raise for a woman with whom he had an intimate relationship.

``The Ethics Committee, including its chairman, had not been involved in the discussions with the concerned staff member,'' the bank's executive directors said in a statement in Washington early today. The directors ``will move expeditiously to reach a conclusion on possible actions to take.''

Wolfowitz yesterday apologized for his role in promoting and arranging a salary increase for the staffer, Shaha Riza, and said he would accept whatever ``remedies'' are proposed by the international lender's board.

Calls of ``resign, resign'' resounded through the World Bank's atrium yesterday when Wolfowitz, 63, addressed employee representatives. Staff Association head Alison Cave said it was the first time the group had called for a bank president to go.

Wolfowitz sent a memo to the bank's personnel manager ``directing him to reach an agreement with the staff member and specifying in detail the terms and conditions,'' the directors' statement said.

Wolfowitz, an aide to then U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in the runup to the Iraq war, was named to the World Bank post by President George W. Bush in 2005.

White House Support

Bush retains confidence in the World Bank president, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters at a briefing today.

``The president has full confidence in Paul Wolfowitz,'' Perino told reporters at the White House. Wolfowitz has ``apologized for the matter,'' Perino said. ``We expect him to remain as World Bank president.''

full article

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Is this guy a piece of work, or what?

Topic Stats
Top Replies
Link to this Topic

Type: Discussion • Score: 1 • Views: 1,604 • Replies: 32

No top replies

Wolfie took as his pet project to expose and fight corruption. His own corruption is extreme hypocrisy. Keeping him on the job would be like keeping Mark Foley in charge of fighting pedophilia. http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/06/341/

0 Replies

UK says Wolfowitz controversy has hurt World Bank

WASHINGTON, April 14 (Reuters) - Britain said on Saturday the scandal over World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz's promotion of his girlfriend has damaged his institution and the decision over his fate should now lie with its board.

"While this whole business has damaged the Bank and should not have happened, we should respect the board's process," British development minister Hilary Benn said in a statement released as he arrived in Washington for the World Bank/International Monetary Fund meetings.

"I am sure these views will be shared by other governors who will also be considering their responses."

Wolfowitz has been under growing pressure to resign after it became known that he approved a big pay rise and new job for his girlfriend -- a World Bank staffer.

The White House has offered its full backing for the former Bush administration stalwart but many other countries have so far remained cautious about prejudging any decision by the World Bank's board.

Like Britain, however, France and Germany have offered much less than a ringing endorsement of Wolfowitz, considered one of the architects of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

The World Bank is "an institution whose governance and ethics must obviously be impeccable," French Finance Minister Thierry Breton said on Friday.

Germany's development minister, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, told Reuters on Saturday: "He himself has to decide whether he still has the credibility to represent the position of the World Bank."

0 Replies

we could get into all of the "another pnac creep gets caught screwin' up again" stuff. but the real question is;

what kind of woman would be wolf o' shites' girlfriend ??

i mean... really ? even for money ?

0 Replies

She was moved from the World Bank to the US state department where she was being paid more than Condi Rice.

That's the kind of thing that really makes me question the sanity of some people. First that they would do it but then they thought they would get away with it.

In the corporate world if a new CEO did that the board would have already fired him.

0 Replies

parados wrote:

She was moved from the World Bank to the US state department where she was being paid more than Condi Rice.

That's the kind of thing that really makes me question the sanity of some people. First that they would do it but then they thought they would get away with it.

In the corporate world if a new CEO did that the board would have already fired him.

kinda knocks a hole in the bush "ceo president" spiel doesn't it ?

0 Replies

Interestingly enough, noone can figure out exactly what she does over there, either.

She seems to be an 'advisor to a board of directors' for an organization which doesn't really exist. Of course, we are paying her to do this.

Cycloptichorn

0 Replies

Cycloptichorn wrote:

Interestingly enough, noone can figure out exactly what she does over there, either.

She seems to be an 'advisor to a board of directors' for an organization which doesn't really exist. Of course, we are paying her to do this.

Cycloptichorn

well, if nothing else, the bush admin is consistant....

0 Replies

(pssst.... it's actually Perle who has long been referred to as 'the prince of darkness')

You, of course, can continue to refer to yourself as 'the prince of pasta'.

0 Replies

Every time I see the thread title I pause, shocked... What the heck is Ozzie doing at the World Bank?" Now HE is the bloody Prince of Darkness.

0 Replies

Darkness princes everywhere one peers! This must be what it is like from the inside of Bill Bennett's noggin (when not pre-occupied with card counting).

0 Replies

blatham wrote:

Darkness princes everywhere one peers! This must be what it is like from the inside of Bill Bennett's noggin (when not pre-occupied with card counting).

and pnac'ers to boot ! Laughing

bill bennett's another signatory. it's really ridiculous.

speaking of prince vlad perle, did you see the picture in vanity fair where they took a photo of perle sitting in this kind of high backed wooden chair, hands folded on knee* with a rather steely gaze into the camera; and placed next to it, a nearly identical photo of goebels from the good old days? incredibly spooky i tell ya.

had it on the frig for ever until ms. dtom insisted that it was frightening the pets and made me take it down. too bad i don't have a dart board...

* actually, i was wrong about the hand placement. sorrryyyyy.....

0 Replies

and i also found the picture. here 'tis;

http://img.slate.com/media/1/123125/123019/2076350/2087850/030902_perle-letterspage.jpg

0 Replies

blatham wrote:

(pssst.... it's actually Perle who has long been referred to as 'the prince of darkness')

You, of course, can continue to refer to yourself as 'the prince of pasta'.

I am calling him that because I already called him Satan in this thread,so I thought I'd stick with that evil scumbag theme. Too bad if someone else has the same moniker.

0 Replies

kickycan wrote:

blatham wrote:
(pssst.... it's actually Perle who has long been referred to as 'the prince of darkness')

You, of course, can continue to refer to yourself as 'the prince of pasta'.

I am calling him that because I already called him Satan in this thread,so I thought I'd stick with that evil scumbag theme. Too bad if someone else has the same moniker.

nobody has the heart to tell robert novak that the name's already taken, either. it would probably be too much for the ol' guy to take.

0 Replies

DontTreadOnMe wrote:

and i also found the picture. here 'tis;

jesus!

You know, when Reagan was in Iceland and wanted to go with destruction of nukes, one of the advisors who warned that Russia was still not to be trusted was our friend up there.

0 Replies

jesus, is right. why do people continue to listen to guys like him, and wolfie and such? they make a fine art of being consistantly WRONG.

could it possibly be that... hmm, i dunno.. uhh, saying what the the other neos want to hear ?

and even more bizarre; they cause all of this ****, and just get to walk away from it and into even more lucrative situations when they should be in stripes, breakin' rocks.

unreal.. Rolling Eyes

0 Replies

They've managed to get themselves into positions of serious power. They are well supported financially (Murdoch's Weekly Standard consistently loses money) and have quite strategically built up a large and effective media presence. That presence and influence is amplified by well funded and organized lobbying entities (AIPAC etc). And their extreme hawkishness re use of the military aligns them with the all the money and power which resides in the military-industrial-political complex, not to mention with the populist mythologies of American exceptionalism so evident in even some of the well-educated right wing folks we see here in a2k.

It's a formidable structure. Perhaps the most compelling evidence for how formidable it has become is how long is has taken for the American public and media to step back and gain perspective on the disaster that the last six years has been for the US.

0 Replies

blatham wrote:

And their extreme hawkishness re use of the military aligns them with .... not to mention with the populist mythologies of American exceptionalism so evident in even some of the well-educated right wing folks we see here in a2k.

It's a formidable structure. Perhaps the most compelling evidence for how formidable it has become is how long is has taken for the American public and media to step back and gain perspective on the disaster that the last six years has been for the US.

yeah, it is a little perplexing that a modern nation that has access to such a wide variety of info (especially now with cable & sat t.v. capable of receiving foreign broadcasts along with the net) has so many that only hear what they want to hear. and that only from certain sources. suppose that is applicable to the left and right equally.

in other words, be it hannity or air america, you will only get info that they want you to hear. anything else gets run through their filter to depict a given issue in the light that supports their agenda.

but beyond that, there's a certain amount of denial that goes on when confronted with facts that are not in line with partisan or ideological beliefs/support, despite hard evidence supporting the "fact".

conversely, the same seems to often win out; people often believe their preferred politicians,etc. even in the absence of anything near to supportive evidence. but, because the assertion is made by "so and so", it must be true.

strangely, even reagan said "trust. but verify". but so many that list him as a political hero refuse to do so.

so, for a person living in a free nation to decline to use "the inquiring mind" in important situations is nothing less than an abdication of their responsibility as a nation's resident.

people are free to hold whatever opinion they want. i only insist that it be one that they've come to themselves, not one that has been downloaded into their kazoo by some agenda happy manipulator.

0 Replies

Top deputy tells Wolfowitz to step down- sources
Wed Apr 18, 2007 9:57 PM BST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A deputy to Paul Wolfowitz told the World Bank chief on Wednesday to resign in the interests of the institution during a meeting of the bank's management, sources who participated in the meeting said.

The sources told Reuters that World Bank Managing Director Graeme Wheeler, a bank veteran who was appointed by Wolfowitz as one of his two deputies a year ago, raised the issue at a meeting of the bank's vice presidents.

Asked to comment, World Bank spokesman Marwan Muasher said: "I feel it is inappropriate to comment on private meetings."

0 Replies

Troubles for the prince of darkness at World Bank

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know