Wolfowitz says won't resign for "smear campaign"

[maddezmom]

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON, April 30 (Reuters) - World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz said on Monday he would not resign in the "face of a plainly bogus charge of conflict of interest" against him over a promotion he directed for his girlfriend at the bank.

In a statement to a special bank panel looking into whether the former deputy U.S. defense secretary abused ethical and other rules by approving the promotion, Wolfowitz said he was a victim of a "smear campaign" to oust him.

"I do not believe that doing so would serve the interests of the world's poor who are suppose to be the first concern of us all," Wolfowitz said.


Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/WBT006904.htm

---

:eyes:

[NC_Nurse]

1. Another shameless asshole appointee...

there's an endless supply of them from this admin. :puke:

[wildhorses]

2. well, no shit the mofo!!! i wouldn't either if i was expecting a

$400,000 bonus:eyes:


i personally would like to see his head on a stick....kinda like a popsicle:bounce:

[acmavm]

3. That arrogant, stupid, lying, greedy, murderous, bastard. I guess

that no matter where he goes he's gonna cheat, lie, kill, and steal.

You gotta wonder what kind of a creature that woman is for even having anything to do with this slug.

[maddezmom]

4. reptilian creature, IMO

Is it just me or does anyone else cringe when they see "girlfriend" attached to this whole mess. sounds so juvenile.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

5. "Smear campaign?"

You're goddamned right!

[Eugene]

6. Bush AGAIN pledges support for Wolfie.

Source: Associated Press

Bush will work with Democrats on Iraq

By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer
4 minutes ago

-snip-

On another subject, Bush said that he wanted Paul Wolfowitz
to remain as president of the World Bank.

"He ought to stay," Bush said. Wolfowitz is being investigated
for helping to arrange a contract to give a big salary increase
to his female companion.

Bush cited Wolfowitz's work in championing programs to end
poverty throughout the world.

-snip-

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070430/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush

---

Earlier today: Wolfowitz Resignation Deal in the Works - Washington Note

[jaxx]

7. Another one who can't take responsibility.

Looks like the bushies all attend the same classes when they join up. How to do what you damned please and make it somebody else's fault.

Oh, and then sweep it under the rug.......along with all the rest of the lumps.

[Raven]

8. The trouble with these people is

that they just don't understand that bad actions and bad judgments can have nasty consequences. They take no personal responsibility and do not feel that they are accountable for anything that they do. Shame on him for bringing up the "world's poor" when he gives obscene raises to his girlfriend and has a $400K golden parachute wainting for him.

[Roland99]

9. But taking a $400,000 payoff would benefit the world's poor?

Fucking asshat

[Chef]

10. Show of Hands

How many out there think it's OK to give a job to your paramour? Do you think your employer would let you get away with it? If the answer is NO, that's the difference between their world and world the rest of us have to live in.

[aquart]

11. This pits the US against the EU.

I will be fascinated to see what happens next.

[rodeodance]

you get Smeared cause you have done stuff to SMEAR

[no_hypocrisy]

12. Translated: You aren't offering me enough money to go away.

[rodeodance]

13. my bet is that the Bank backs down

[C_U_L8R]

14. Helping the poor ??? Helping the poor !!! ??

Exactly how does stuffing your girlfriend's
pocketbook with cash help the poor ???

Is this more trickle down bullshit or what ??!!!

[magellan]

15. It's not a smear campaign if it's TRUE

If you care so much for the poor people of the world, Wolfie, then why didn't you get one of them a promotion instead of your girlfriend? Just about anyone you picked would have been just as qualified.

[ConservativeDemocrat]

16. Yeah, but the problem is that it's not.

I hate to be the wet blanket, but the fact is that Wolfowitz is in the clear over this. His girlfriend already worked at the world bank. When he took over, ethics rules said she couldn't work for him. So, again according to the rules, the WB had a responsibility for getting her another equivalent job; she wasn't being fired for doing anything wrong, after all. Initially, Wolfowitz recused himself from this job search, but the WB ethics committee said it was part of his responsibility to handle the matter, so he did it.

They gave him a clean bill of health. Case closed.


This is the absolute first time that I've seen a witch hunt against a Bush Administration official that resembles the almost daily attacks the Clinton Administration had to endure. With all the other -actually real- charges out there, I'd have thought the media would have had more real reporting to do. But I guess when you're talking about a story that has 1) a high government official, and 2) sex, that's far more important than actually real stories about hundreds of thousands of people being killed.

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

[Spazito]

20. It's not the job, it's the pay raise, the BIG pay raise

he was actively involved in as he has already admitted as not being the right thing to do. Case WIDE open.

[tanyev]

22. How did she get security clearance? How did she get the Pentagon contract in 2003?

Wolfowitz's girlfriend problem
Not only did the World Bank president find his companion Shaha Ali Riza a cushy job in the State Department, but she received a security clearance -- unprecedented for a foreign national.

Exactly how this deal was made and with whom remains something of a mystery. The person who did work with Riza in her new position was Elizabeth Cheney, then the deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs. And Riza's assignment fell under the purview of Karen Hughes, undersecretary of state for public diplomacy. But these facts raise more questions than they answer.

Riza, who is not a U.S. citizen, had to receive a security clearance in order to work at the State Department. Who intervened? It is not unusual to have British or French midlevel officers at the department on exchange programs, but they receive security clearances based on the clearances they already have with their host governments. Granting a foreign national who is detailed from an international organization a security clearance, however, is extraordinary, even unprecedented. So how could this clearance have been granted?

State Department officials familiar with the details of this matter confirmed to me that Shaha Ali Riza was detailed to the State Department and had unescorted access while working for Elizabeth Cheney. Access to the building requires a national security clearance or permanent escort by a person with such a clearance. But the State Department has no record of having issued a national security clearance to Riza.
http://boards.washingtoncaps.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=52816


Pentagon Official "Directed Hiring" of Wolfowitz's Girlfriend

WASHINGTON, Apr 19 (IPS) - An unidentified U.S. Defence Department official directed subordinates to hire four specific outside contractors for Iraq-related work, including Shaha Riza, the girlfriend of then-Deputy Secretary of Defence and current World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz, newly disclosed documents show.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the department is "having to go back and look at the paper trail" related to the 2003 contract under which Riza, who was then already romantically involved with Wolfowitz, worked for San Diego-based Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC), a defence contractor retained by the Pentagon just before the March 2003 Iraq war.

The revelations could add fuel to the nepotism scandal surrounding Wolfowitz about his role in arranging an unusually generous pay-and-promotion package for his 52-year-old girlfriend and Bank staffer, Riza, one of the four individuals hired under the Pentagon contract in question.

"This shows that there's a pattern of mutual benefit between Paul Wolfowitz and Shaha Riza and that what happened at the Bank is not simply one incident or one mistake," Bea Edwards of GAP told IPS.
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37414

[tanyev]

24. Ahem.

World Bank ethics chief disputes Wolfowitz claims
Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz violated staff rules when he intervened directly in the personnel matters of his girlfriend even though he said he wanted no part in her promotion and transfer, the head of a bank ethics panel at the time said on Tuesday.

In a statement to a bank committee examining the role Wolfowitz played in arranging a high-paid promotion for his girlfriend, Ad Melkert said it would have been better if Wolfowitz had instructed one of his deputies to handle the transfer for Shaha Riza, to avoid conflict of interest issues.

"Contrary to what the staff rules allowed for, Mr. Wolfowitz's proposal explicitly insisted on the possibility of maintaining professional contacts with Ms. Riza," said Melkert, who since March 2006 has been at the U.N. Development Program.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2830805

[Laughing Mirror]

17. Hiding behind "the world's poor," his shield when he's under attack

Just like Bush hiding behind those school children. Just simply pathetic.

Using the world's poor as his human shield. As if the name Paul Wolfowitz is a household name everywhere in sub-Saharan Africa. As if he has ever done anything for poor people.

[FVZA_Colonel]

18. Considering that his (more or less) stated goal upon entering the job was ending corruption,

how seriously can we trust him to try and reach this goal when he has been proven to have taken actions that meet every definition of corruption? That is why his resignation is necessary.

[JDPriestly]

19. Congress needs to investigate why this woman

who is not even a citizen of the U.S. has been given such a large budget for her "work," and determine just what she is accomplishing with the millions in her budget. Is she paying people off? If so, who? And why? And what do they do with the money after she pays them off?

[cliss]

21. Baby, Hang in there.

That's all I have to say.

As Paul Wolfowitz & the World Bank play Draw Poker, the rest of us get to see really UGLY, SORDID details about these positions, how much they get paid, and clandestine sweetheart deals made at the expense of the rest of us.

I love it. As long as he keeps maniacally hanging on with his fingertips, the WB will be forced to dredge out more stuff.

It gets uglier by the minute.

[LiberalFighter]

23. Does he need to resign? Can the governors/executive board fire him?