Sunday, April 15, 2007

Add Wolfowitz to the List

There was a big brouhuha here in Israel over the claim of religious nationalists that everyone who had a major part to play in bringing upon us the plague of disenagement (okay, it is just a week after Pesach) has been struck from on High.

Sharon, Katzav, Karadi, Chalutz, Hanegbi, etc.

Well, add Paul Wolfowitz (who is sleeping with a Libyan) who contibuted big bucks for this project:-

The hothouses were passed to the Palestinians in September in a $14 million deal brokered by former World Bank President James Wolfenson and several wealthy Jewish Americans.
and now this:-

World Bank mulls Wolfowitz's fate

Mr Wolfowitz has said he regrets his mistake

Senior World Bank officials have been holding a key board meeting in which they were to discuss the fate of the organisation's chief, Paul Wolfowitz.
Mr Wolfowitz has been under pressure to quit after admitting helping his partner win a promotion and pay rise.

Although the US continues to support Mr Wolfowitz other nations have questioned his position. Mr Wolfowitz is due to appear before the press after the meeting for the first time since the controversy broke.

British Development Minister Hilary Benn expressed regret that the question of Mr Wolfowitz's fate would overshadow the joint meeting of the IMF and World Bank in Washington. He said the incident had "damaged the bank" and should never have occurred.


Background in a Nutshell:

Shaha Ali Riza, a bank official who was moved to the State Department with a large pay rise after Wolfowitz’s appointment, revealed her distress in a memo to an investigating committee.

“I have now been victimised 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 wrote.

Riza, a Libyan-born British citizen who was educated at Oxford, had worked for the World Bank for seven years when Wolfowitz became president. She had been his girlfriend for several years but bank rules forbid office romances. When she was transferred to the State Department she was awarded a pay increase of more than $60,000 to $193,590, more than the salary of Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state.


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(rough language in those two)

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NYTimes editorial.

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