Thread: Bye Bye Wolfowitz

Well, it seems some characters can't help themselves but fucking up. Make you wonder how they could manage to get that far.

Originally Posted by WSJ

Wolfowitz Memo, Dictating Raises
Given to Friend, Now Haunts Him

WASHINGTON -- The disclosure yesterday of a 2005 memo from World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz -- dictating the terms of his girlfriend's promotions and raises while on the bank's payroll -- is giving new ammunition to critics who seek his ouster and threatening to weaken him if he stays on at the bank.

Those prospects may suit those who oppose him on controversial issues ranging from an expansion of the bank's presence in Iraq to its recent withholding of loans from governments who don't do enough to cure corruption. Either outcome could strengthen the role of the bank's 24-member board of directors, especially those representing European governments and the poor countries that borrow from the bank, on a host of issues.

Already, the public release of the memo and dozens of other related documents reflects the changing dynamic as Mr. Wolfowitz tries, with a mix of apologies and persistence, to hold onto his $400,000-a-year post as head of the world's biggest anti-poverty institution. With representatives of the U.S. and European governments at odds Thursday night over how many documents to disclose, Mr. Wolfowitz cut through the debate by asking that they all be released in an apparent effort to bolster his bid to keep his job.

In the August memo -- which wasn't reviewed by the bank's directors, ethics committee or general counsel -- Mr. Wolfowitz told Xavier Coll, vice president for human resources: "I now direct you to agree to a proposal which includes the following terms and conditions..." The memo went on to detail the salary that Shaha Riza, then a communications officer, would earn when she was assigned a job outside the bank at the bank's expense. It also set out her future raises and her status when she returned to the bank after Mr. Wolfowitz's term as president. She now earns a tax-free $193,590, about $61,000 more than before she was reassigned. It's not clear who besides Messrs. Wolfowitz and Coll knew all the terms.

The memo followed a long back-and-forth with the bank's board of directors over how to handle the potential conflict posed by Mr. Wolfowitz becoming Ms. Riza's boss. He made clear in the memo he wasn't pleased with the results: He asserted that the bank's ethics committee had rejected his plan, in which he would have recused himself from any personnel matters involving Ms. Riza but allowed her to "continue on her professional career course at the Bank." The memo ended with a bitter paragraph: "I wish to reiterate deep unhappiness with the whole way of dealing with a situation that I still believe...should have been resolved by my recusal."

The Bush administration's 2005 choice of Mr. Wolfowitz, an architect of President Bush's Iraq war, to run the bank was instantly controversial. His tenure has been marked by tension and criticism both from inside and outside the bank. But the past two weeks have been extraordinary: The March 28 disclosure of the details of Ms. Riza's salary led to chants of "Resign! Resign!" from some staffers gathered in the atrium of the bank's headquarters, and then to the emailed release of the previously highly confidential documents by the bank's board early yesterday morning.

A weakened Wolfowitz presidency, bank insiders and outside analysts say, could complicate a planned campaign to secure more than $30 billion over the next few years from governments around the world to replenish the bank's discount-rate loan program, known as the International Development Association. If Mr. Wolfowitz, who is 63, remains, "it's hard to see a scenario in which other countries step forward and say, 'We're going to pony up $30 billion,' " said Geoffrey Lamb, a former World Bank vice president who until recently was helping to raise money for the program and is now a senior fellow at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. "It's terribly damaging."

And it would leave the Bank with diminished credibility to pursue the high-profile campaign to curb official government corruption -- among Mr. Wolfowitz's top priorities. Governments accused of corruption would say, "Who is he to be telling us about governance and corruption when he doesn't have his own house in order?" says Debayani Kar of Jubilee USA, a debt-relief advocacy group.

Even if Mr. Wolfowitz stays in the post, the harsh public spotlight that has been focused on him is widely seen as a victory for the World Bank's 10,000-member professional staff. Many of them have chafed at Mr. Wolfowitz's style and reliance on a couple of highly paid aides: Robin Cleveland, who was an influential budget analyst in the Bush White House, and Kevin Kellems, a former Pentagon and White House public-relations specialist.

The fracas already has made a minor celebrity out of a previously little-known urban planner, Alison Cave, an 11-year veteran of the bank's staff who chairs its staff association. Standing at the top of a flight of stairs in the bank's atrium before a crowd of World Bank staffers on Thursday, Ms. Cave called for Mr. Wolfowitz's resignation. "It ....seems impossible for the institution to move forward with any sense of purpose under the present leadership, especially in our endeavor to assist governments and their people in improving their own governance," she said, reading from a prepared statement.

When Mr. Wolfowitz, who is divorced, was named to head the institution, he and the board of directors quickly grappled with the issue of his supervising his companion, Ms. Riza. Then a specialist in issues related to women in the bank's Middle East department, she is an Oxford-educated British citizen who grew up in the Middle East.

As described in a six-page report released early yesterday by an ad hoc committee of World Bank directors formed to defuse the controversy last week, Mr. Wolfowitz and the bank's board and its ethics committee spent much of the summer of 2005 searching for an acceptable solution to the potential conflict of interest.

Eventually, Ms. Riza ended up leaving the World Bank and working -- at the bank's expense -- first at the U.S. State Department and now at an embryonic non-government organization created by the State Department to make grants "to help civil society" in the Middle East, called the Foundation for the Future. Her current salary of $193,590 (tax-free because she is a foreign national working for an international institution), was obtained by a whistleblower group, the Government Accountability Project.

In her own memo to the ad hoc committee, Ms. Riza said she had been treated unfairly both by having to leave her World Bank post and by having her salary details come out in the controversy. "I have now been victimized" for agreeing, she wrote, "to an arrangement that I have objected to and that I did not believe from the outset was in my best interest." The memo was included in the documents released by the bank.

Her relationship with Mr. Wolfowitz was discussed during his initial contract negotiations with the bank and was the subject of meetings, emails and memos from June through September 2005. Mr. Wolfowitz suggested that he recuse himself from "any influence over personnel decisions" involving Ms. Riza. The board's ethics committee suggested instead that she be "relocated to a position beyond (potential) supervising influence by the president." It said that because the move would take her out of the running for a promotion, she should be given an "in situ promotion," a raise within her present post.

The committee told Mr. Wolfowitz on Aug. 8, 2005, to have Mr. Coll work out the details with Ms. Riza. Three days later, Mr. Wolfowitz wrote Mr. Coll the now-public two-page memo that went further, by detailing how her raises and promotions would work. He then told the bank's ethics committee that Ms. Riza would be detailed outside the bank, which he indicated was per the committee's direction. He withdrew his plan to recuse himself.

The ethics committee in an August memo challenged Mr. Wolfowitz's summary of their conversations. The committee emphasized that it had "indicated that the staff member could continue to work at the bank provided that the position she holds is outside the direct or indirect supervision" of Mr. Wolfowitz "and there is no routine professional contact between them." But it said it the outcome -- sending Ms. Riza to the State Department -- was acceptable.

Mr. Wolfowitz, arguing that the bank's general counsel couldn't provide legal advice to both the ethics committee and the president, hired the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher to review the contract, after it had been accepted by all sides.

An anonymous employee complaint in January 2006 about Ms. Riza's salary said she had received a $50,000 raise to $180,000 without the approval of the board. The complaint was considered by the ethics committee and dismissed.

Mr. Wolfowitz's critics turned to other issues until recently. On March 28, the Washington Post detailed Ms. Riza's salary. Mr. Kellems, the Wolfowitz spokesman, responded in the story, "All arrangements concerning Shaha Riza were made at the direction of the bank's board of directors."

That assertion raised eyebrows within the bank, including among directors. A few days later, the bank's Staff Association, akin to a union, questioned Ms. Riza's salary and urged the bank board to inquire. The board formed the ad hoc committee. A few days later, on April 9, Mr. Wolfowitz posted a "Dear Colleagues" note on an internal Web site, saying he had "acted on the advice" of the Board's ethics committee, but added that he accepted "full responsibility for the actions taken in this case."

Over the course of the next few days, the ad hoc committee interviewed the bank's former general counsel Robert Danino, a former prime minister of Peru, and the former head of the bank's ethics board, Ad Melkert, a Dutch politician.

With finance ministers and central bankers from around the world -- representatives of the bank's 185 shareholder countries -- preparing to descend on Washington for the spring meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, Mr. Wolfowitz took the offensive. On Thursday , he used a previously planned news conference to apologize: "I made a mistake, for which I am sorry," he said, adding he would accept "any remedies" the board deems appropriate. Later that day, he found himself standing before angry staffers, who had been summoned to the atrium of the bank's headquarters by the staff association's leader, some of whom began chanting, "Resign! Resign!" when Mr. Wolfowitz appeared.

Meanwhile, the bank's board was meeting in private almost around the clock to consider the findings of the ad hoc committee. European nations, led by the United Kingdom, began pushing for full disclosure, a move they knew would push Mr. Wolfowitz to consider resigning. The U.S., backed by a handful of allies, resisted full disclosure, bank officials said. Mr. Wolfowitz ended that debate late Thursday, asking that "all documents related" to the matter be released "in the interest of transparency." By email, at 2:30 a.m. Friday, the board released more than 100 pages of documents and a statement pledging to "move expeditiously to reach a conclusion on possible actions to take." It offered no specifics except to say they would "focus on all relevant governance implications for the Bank."

Mr. Wolfowitz's chair was empty at yesterday afternoon's meeting of finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven industrialization nations, officials said. But the White House continued to stand behind him. "He's apologized for the matter, and his board is undergoing an internal review, and we expect him to remain as World Bank president. He has the president's support," said Deputy White House Press Secretary Dana Perino.

The unfolding conflict moved the Bank into what many officials suggested is unknown territory. Disputes between the board and the president are not uncommon, but typically have been over policy matters, such as the clash over Mr. Wolfowitz's anti-corruption initiative. In this case, the dispute is about Mr. Wolfowitz's own conduct.

In the Wolfowitz camp, there has been growing frustration with the board, which one top Bank official complained was trying to act as "judge and jury" in the current brouhaha. The notion holding a vote of no confidence has been discussed within the Board, though bank officials cautioned there is no consensus on that issue and divisions among members have complicated efforts to move forward.

By releasing the accumulated material and the board committee's findings -- and avoiding a vote on whether to dismiss Mr. Wolfowitz -- the board may have put the impetus on Mr. Wolfowitz to decide whether to resign or try to weather the storm.

INSIDE THE CASE


• Timeline in the Wolfowitz controversy

• Statement by World Bank executive directors (04/13/07)

• Supporting documents: Report of the Ad Hoc Group | Ethics Committee Case No. 2 and President's Paper (04/13/07)

• Transcript and Webcast of Wolfowitz's press conference (04/12/07)

• World Bank Group Staff Association's letter calling on Wolfowitz to resign (04/12/07)

• Washington Wire: Shaky Foundation

• Apology Fails to Soothe World Bank Furor
04/12/07

• World Bank Leader's Woes Grow
04/11/07

^
Easy he was Bush tool, what a dumb ass - I remember when he went to Iraq and a bomb went off near him and he shit his pants.

If they sold tickets so I could belly punch him. I'd buy ten and wouldn't ask for a discount.

That's another one down, and Bush isn't too popular either.

Remains the Hydra's head - Cheney!

Good riddance.

^ I don't think Wolfowitz has resigned as of yet, but pressure is mounting.

He is trying to stay, but he is very weak with no credibility left. You can't manage an organization like that when you credibility is gone

BBC NEWS | Business | US 'expects Wolfowitz to stay on'

and take your mia with you

Trust the US government to support him in this crisis. F***ing hypocrites.

Corruption is considered one of the main causes and contributory factors in third world poverty. Wolfowitz's position is untennable but of course he has the full backing of the White House.

Yawn...another non-story

I wonder if you'd say that if it was Kofi Annan boonie?

Originally Posted by sabang

I wonder if you'd say that if it was Kofi Annan boonie?

Annan's crimes were of a much greater magnitude...

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

Yawn...another non-story

If it is nothing more than a "non-story", then I guess he will not leave.

Kofi Annan and Wolfowitz have/had different jobs at the different organizations.

(Or, did.)

I don't like the guy but from what I have read he was above board about it. He had a law firm look over the legality of moving her to state dept. The WB Ethics Committee reviewed it. What surprised me is him knowing he is a target he gives her a huge pay raise with 8% a year pay raises thereafter.

FOXNews.com - Documents May Give Wolfowitz New Lifeline in World Bank Scandal - International News | News of the World | Middle East News | Europe News

Shaha Riza - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

^
8% of what?
Depends on what her base salary was whether it was a 'huge' pay raise.
He still gave the Moonbats ammunition tho...

a few facts regarding wolfowitz, his girlfriend, and the $60,000 tax free raise ....

Documents released in the past couple of weeks showed that Wolfowitz had a direct hand in securing a State Department job for Riza in September 2005 that pays her $193,590. Before the transfer, Riza was earning close to $133,000 as a communications adviser in the bank’s Middle East department.
Riza remains on the World Bank’s payroll even though she left the State Department job in 2006 and now works for Foundation for the Future, an international organization that gets some money from the department.

Wolfowitz hires a top Washington lawyer - International Business - MSNBC.com

it will be interesting to see whether or not he stays on.....i hope he does because he's so wounded by this corruption scandal, that his power has been effectively eroded. god only knows who bush would nominate to replace him.....rummy has some free time these days.

and btw, he was never qualified for the job in the first place....he's not a banker or a mananger.....he's an academic---who had a theory that has been proven to be significantly flawed.

BBC NEWS | Business | MEPs call on Wolfowitz to resign

Strangely, he's probably more useful to us as a neutered Fukstik than sacked. My guess is that he will be sacked though.

Originally Posted by sabang

Strangely, he's probably more useful to us as a neutered Fukstik than sacked. My guess is that he will be sacked though.

His staff hate him by all accounts. They've been leaking to the press and no one at the bank (to my knowledge) has said one good word in his defence.

yesterday GWB thanked him for the work he was doing.....certainly the last thing wolfie needed at this point.