The Next Crusade

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The Selimiye Mosque, in Edirne, a city in northwest Turkey, is a magnificent stone edifice, with four minarets and an austere, octagonal-shaped body supporting a large dome. Built for Sultan Selim II in the sixteenth century, it has withstood numerous earthquakes and can accommodate more than five thousand kneeling worshippers. One evening at the end of January, I visited the mosque with Paul Wolfowitz, the president of the World Bank, and a half dozen of his aides and colleagues. Two years have passed since President Bush nominated Wolfowitz, the former Deputy Secretary of Defense and one of the architects of the war in Iraq, to head the sprawling multinational lending institution that has as its official goal “a world without poverty.”

The World Bank employs thirteen thousand people in more than a hundred countries, and lends about twenty-five billion dollars a year to poor and middle-income nations. When Wolfowitz inspects bank programs, he often visits religious sites and other monuments. At the Selimiye Mosque, a stern-looking young man with a black beard who identified himself as the imam met us at the entrance and invited us inside. After putting on slippers, Wolfowitz entered the mosque and listened as the imam, demonstrating its acoustics, raised the call to Allah.

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Wolfowitz has an abiding interest in the Islamic world. His father, Jacob, an eminent mathematician who taught at Columbia and Cornell, was a fervent Zionist, and Wolfowitz’s elder sister, Laura, lives in Israel.

Wolfowitz’s critics sometimes portray him as an unquestioning defender of the Israeli government, and yet he has publicly expressed sympathy for the plight of the Palestinians, and some Arab reformers regard him as a friend. Since separating from his wife of more than thirty years, Clare Selgin Wolfowitz, in 2001, he has dated a secular Muslim woman in her fifties, Shaha Ali Riza. A British national from a Libyan family who grew up in Saudi Arabia, Riza is a longtime advocate of democracy in Arab countries.

On a wall of the mosque was some ornate writing in Arabic. “Is that the Fatiha?” Wolfowitz asked, referring to a passage in the Koran. No, the imam replied, explaining that the writing was from another passage. Wolfowitz taught himself Arabic in the nineteen-eighties, when he was working at the State Department. (He also speaks French, German, Hebrew, and Indonesian.) Last year, during a visit to a mosque in eastern China, he recited a prayer from the Koran in Arabic.

This time, as he was leaving the mosque, he encountered a dozen or so news photographers who had gathered to document his visit. Bending down to change back into his shoes, Wolfowitz removed a slipper, revealing a large hole in the toe of one gray wool sock. Then he removed the other slipper, exposing another hole. Shigeo Katsu, the World Bank’s vice-president for Europe and Central Asia, tried to step between Wolfowitz and the photographers, but it was too late. The camera shutters clicked.

If Wolfowitz was perturbed, he didn’t show it. He went next door to a covered market, where he examined the religious and cultural icons for sale. One of the venders urged him to buy some jewelry, but Wolfowitz didn’t have enough cash. His spokesman and senior adviser, Kevin Kellems, gave him what he had, about seventeen dollars in Turkish lira. “I’m going to need more than that,” Wolfowitz whispered. A member of the bank’s Turkish staff handed him a hundred lira (about seventy dollars), and Wolfowitz bought two silver bracelets, for his daughters.

Wolfowitz, who is sixty-three, has jug ears, hazel eyes, a furrowed brow, and thinning gray hair that he combs to the right. He is a rumpled but unflappable traveller, seemingly oblivious of bad weather, uncomfortable transportation, and lack of sleep, as well as of the antiwar protesters who tend to appear wherever he goes. Since joining the World Bank, Wolfowitz has visited more than fifty countries, including remote parts of Africa and Asia. He is often depicted in the media as a neoconservative zealot, but on the road he is unfailingly polite, demonstrating a scholarly interest in local culture.

In Istanbul that morning, Wolfowitz had visited a homeless shelter run by the Turkish government with financial assistance from the World Bank. The shelter was in a nineteenth-century neighborhood, in a brick building on a cobbled street. After greeting the shelter’s director, Wolfowitz and an interpreter entered a small room, containing four narrow beds and some metal chairs. Wolfowitz sat down next to a slight middle-aged man in a fraying denim jacket and a black wool cap, who said that his name was Bedir Yasa and that until recently he had been living on the streets.

Wolfowitz spoke softly to Yasa, who evidently had no idea who he was but responded with a puckish smile. Yasa said that he came from Van, near Iran, and that he wanted to work but had no skills. When Wolfowitz asked if he had any family, he said that his wife had been killed in the earthquake that struck western Turkey in 1999 and that her parents were bringing up his only child, a son, whom he rarely saw. Wolfowitz, who has two daughters and a son, fell silent. “I’m sorry you have had such a tough life,” he said finally. “I hope you can do better soon.”

The World Bank was established in 1944, at a conference on postwar reconstruction in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, where representatives of more than forty nations agreed to create two new institutions: the International Monetary Fund, which was charged with guaranteeing stability in global currency markets, and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which was charged with raising money for the rebuilding of Europe. In December of 1945, twenty-nine countries signed the articles of agreement that formally incorporated the I.M.F. and the World Bank (as the I.B.R.D. came to be called) in Washington.

A year and a half later, the World Bank made its first loan, to France. The United States government quickly became the main financer of European reconstruction, and the bank shifted its focus to developing countries. In 1948, it lent money to Chile. Two years later, it lent to Ethiopia. Before long, it was financing the construction of roads and dams throughout Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

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World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz has apologised for "mistakes" made over the promotion and pay of an ex-colleague with whom he is romantically involved.
Mr Wolfowitz's partner, Shaha Riza, was moved to the State Department when he took the Bank's top job in 2005.

But the bank's staff association says she then received pay rises and promotions which were "grossly out of line" with the Bank's staff rules.

The controversy comes ahead of joint World Bank and IMF spring meetings.

Mr Wolfowitz also said he would accept any remedy that the World Bank's Board proposed.

The bank chief - formerly US deputy secretary of defence - has adopted a fiercely anti-corruption stance.

The latest furore threatens to undermine Mr Wolfowitz's personal campaign to combat corruption and poor governance.

Responsibility

Until now, Mr Wolfowitz has said he took "full responsibility" for the case, but said it was being left to a committee "that is dealing with it and I am comfortable with that".

But on Thursday he said: "I made a mistake, for which I am sorry."

Ms Riza had been a high-ranking communications employee at the bank working in the Middle East section.

When Mr Wolfowitz took over at the Bank in mid-2005, Ms Riza - then a Bank employee for eight years - was transferred to work for the US State Department, to avoid any conflict of interest.

But rapid rises in her tax-free World Bank salary to about $193,000 - more than the $186,000 Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice receives before tax - have aroused ire among other Bank employees.

In a memo to its members earlier in April, the World Bank Staff Association said that the speed of both promotions and salary increases were "grossly out of line" with the Bank's rules.

"Senior management has put forward a call for good governance," the memo said. "In order to be credible, senior management must model the behaviour it espouses."

Aid

While facing press questions about the case, Mr Wolfowitz has tried to shift focus back to the bank's remit of fighting global poverty.

He said the world's richest nations had given 5% less aid over the past 12 months.

"We have yet to see evidence of significant new flows translate into real resources for development programmes on the ground," he said.

Ministers and trade leaders from the 185-nation organisation are to meet on Saturday and Sunday in Washington.

The agenda will include issues including fighting diseases and the state of the world economy.

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The World Bank’s executive board was deliberating today what action to take regarding its president, Paul D. Wolfowitz, amid new evidence that he had not been entirely candid about his role in giving his girlfriend, a World Bank employee, a raise and transfer.

Documents released today by the executive board called into question Mr. Wolfowitz’s earlier assertions that bank ethics officials had been kept informed about the new post for his companion, Shaha Ali Riza. The papers also indicated that Mr. Wolfowitz was more involved in securing the new post for his companion than he has let on.

In August 2005, for instance, Mr. Wolfowitz wrote a memo to the bank’s vice president for human resources in which he virtually dictated the kind of job Ms. Riza should be given. “I now direct you to agree to a proposal which includes the following terms and conditions,” Mr. Wolfowitz wrote. “You should accept immediately her offer to be detailed to an outside institution of her choosing while retaining bank salary and benefits.”

The executive board said ethics officials had not talked with Ms. Riza. “Neither did it find that the terms and conditions of the agreement had been commented on, reviewed or approved by the ethics committee, its chairman or the board,” the executive board added.

The board did note that Mr. Wolfowitz had mentioned “a conflict of interest involving a staff member” early on, and had been given guidance “on an informal basis” by ethics officials, who said Ms. Riza should be moved to a position “beyond potential supervising influence” by Mr. Wolfowitz.

In July 2005, just after becoming bank president, Mr. Wolfowitz wrote to the bank’s ethics committee about his desire to “avoid a conflict of interest, real or apparent” and at the same time to see that “a loyal professional employee” is treated with “respect and fairness.”

Mr. Wolfowitz wrote that the need to avoid the appearance of conflict meant that Ms. Riza was blocked “from many professional opportunities in the bank.” Ms. Riza speaks Arabic, French, Italian and Turkish and has considerable experience in Africa and the Middle East.

The executive board documents released today, while cautious and almost cryptic in their tone, would not seem to strengthen Mr. Wolfowitz’s hopes of holding on to his job. “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.”

On Thursday, the World Bank’s 24-member executive board, the body that elected Mr. Wolfowitz to the job after he was nominated by President Bush in 2005, held hurried meetings amid mounting speculation that it might reprimand Mr. Wolfowitz or ask him to resign.

In a chaotic day of revelations and meetings at a normally staid institution on Thursday, Mr. Wolfowitz apologized for his role in the raise and transfer of Ms. Riza to the State Department, where she remained on the bank’s payroll.

He made the comments to a few hundred staff members assembled in the bank building atrium, only to be greeted by booing, catcalls and cries for his resignation.

Earlier, the bank’s staff association had declared that it was “impossible for the institution to move forward with any sense of purpose under the present leadership.” The association had helped spearhead an investigation into Ms. Riza’s transfer and raise, details of which came into the open in the last 24 hours.

The events injected a new ugliness into what had already been a bitter rift between Mr. Wolfowitz and many of the bank’s employees, who have questioned his suitability for the job as a former deputy secretary of defense and architect of the Iraq war, and have challenged many of his policies at the bank, especially those cracking down on corruption in which he suspended aid to several countries without consulting the board.

Shortly after 10 p.m. a bank official released a statement from Mr. Wolfowitz to the board members saying that “in the interests of transparency,” he was requesting the “immediate public release of all documents related to the board’s current review of the case involving myself and Ms. Riza.” The statement appeared to reflect a concern by the bank president that he was being tarred by selective leaks.

Whatever the outcome, the controversy appeared certain to produce more meetings and engulf delegates at the annual spring session of finance ministry officials in Washington, sponsored by the bank and the International Monetary Fund.

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Mr. Wolfowitz apologized at a news conference Thursday and at the atrium meeting, after the staff association disclosed that it had found the dated memorandum from Mr. Wolfowitz to a vice president for human resources at the bank, apparently instructing him to agree to the terms of a raise and reassignment for Ms. Riza.

The transfer and a subsequent raise eventually took her to a pay of $193,590 from $132,660, tax-free because of her status as a diplomat, and exceeding the salaries of cabinet members. “In hindsight, I wish I had trusted my original instincts and kept myself out of the negotiations,” Mr. Wolfowitz said.

“I made a mistake, for which I am sorry,” he added, pleading for “some understanding” of the “painful personal dilemma” he faced when he left the Pentagon to become bank president. Mr. Wolfowitz said he had been seeking to avoid a conflict of interest by having Ms. Riza, with whom he had a personal relationship, transferred from his supervision.

What drove the anger at the bank was not that Mr. Wolfowitz had denied earlier that he had sought Ms. Riza’s transfer, but that he had been less than fully candid in discussing it until documents surfaced showing his direct role. Even before the release of the documents today, his earlier insistence that he had consulted with ethics officials was disputed by some of them, who say they were not involved in the salary aspect of discussions.

Mr. Wolfowitz, who is divorced, has been close to Ms. Riza for several years, according to people who have worked with them. She was a communications officer in the Middle East and North Africa bureau of the bank when Mr. Wolfowitz arrived in 2005, and was transferred that September to the Middle East and North Africa bureau to help set up a semi-independent foundation to promote democracy in that region.

Her initial supervisor at the State Department was Elizabeth Cheney, whose father, Vice President Dick Cheney, has been a longtime associate of Mr. Wolfowitz. Ms. Riza now serves as a consultant to the foundation, the Foundation for the Future, while drawing her World Bank salary, the State Department said.

Mr. Wolfowitz, in his talk to the bank staff, essentially implied that his fate was up to the board. “I proposed to the board that they establish some mechanism to judge whether the agreement reached was a reasonable outcome,” he said of the arrangement for Ms. Riza. “I will accept any remedies they propose.”

He also appealed to the staff members to look beyond his role in planning the Iraq war and join him in fighting poverty in Africa and other missions of the bank.

“For those people who disagree with the things that they associate with me in my previous job, I’m not in my previous job,” he said.

Many bank officials said board members were likely to wait to decide what to do after checking with their finance ministers, many of whom were on their way to Washington for the annual meetings.

A decision as big as whether to remove Mr. Wolfowitz or encourage him to step down would be likely to involve leaders of the bank’s main donor countries in discussions with President Bush, bank officials said.

The bank’s five largest donors — the United States, Japan, Germany, France and Britain — each nominate one board member, but their voting power is based on shares in the bank. The United States, with 16 percent, has the largest share, making it customary for the White House to nominate the bank president.

But the bank has been gripped by resentment for years over the perception that the United States has too much influence. That trend reflects declining American influence at the bank at a time when European and Asian countries have gained in economic clout.

There is speculation among bank officials that if Mr. Wolfowitz leaves, European members and others will agitate for more of a say in choosing his successor, a possible factor in whether Mr. Bush decides to go along with his removal.

At the White House, Tony Fratto, a spokesman, said: “Of course, President Wolfowitz has our full confidence” and in dealing with the controversy over his involvement with Ms. Riza, “he has taken full responsibility and is working with the executive board to resolve it.”

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The storm over Mr. Wolfowitz has been brewing for a week, following disclosures by the bank’s staff association and the Government Accountability Project, an independent watchdog group, that Ms. Riza had received an unusually large raise. They questioned whether the proper procedures had been involved.

The controversy gained steam after the issue was mentioned by Al Kamen in his Washington Post column. The Financial Times has also disclosed details of the matter.

Subsequently, Mr. Wolfowitz asserted that he had consulted the board and the bank’s general counsel, the board’s ethics committee director, and the human resources director to arrange the transfer.

These officials then contradicted Mr. Wolfowitz, saying that while they supported the transfer and a raise, they were not involved in the amount. Alison Cave, chairwoman of the bank’s staff association, said the amount of the raise and the procedures followed seemed to violate bank rules. Ms. Cave also said the records showed that Ms. Riza was to return to the bank at the higher salary level and be given a rating of “outstanding” in her performance reviews while with the foundation.

Mr. Wolfowitz did not deny his involvement, but Thursday was the first day that evidence surfaced of his direct role.

Bank officials said they were somewhat mystified that the details of the transfer, worked out in 2005, did not get out until now. Some attributed it to the changed landscape in Washington.

Mr. Wolfowitz has also been undeniably weakened by his recent tangles with the board.

For example, as part of his broad anticorruption drive, Mr. Wolfowitz for a time suspended aid to India, Chad, Kenya and other countries without consulting the board. Uzbekistan’s aid was suspended after it ousted American troops in 2005, leading to charges of political motivation.

Last month, the bank adopted a new anticorruption policy that insisted that Mr. Wolfowitz consult board members, and it placed other restrictions on his ability to act. Resentment of Mr. Wolfowitz has extended to his two top aides, Robin Cleveland and Kevin Kellems, both of whom worked with him on defense matters in the Bush administration. Although some bank officials said the board might have decided to reprimand or dismiss one or both of them for the salary increase, that was no longer deemed a way out of the crisis for Mr. Wolfowitz.

He also appeared a victim of his own declaration that he would bring a new era of accountability to the bank. He boasted that he had doubled the staff of the public integrity division so it could prosecute cases of graft against corporations and bank employees, stirring resentment throughout the bank that he saw them all as corrupt.

Some bank officials, speaking anonymously so they could be candid, said that instead of ousting Mr. Wolfowitz, the board might prefer that he remain but in a weakened position.

“It’s a coin toss right now whether Wolfowitz stays,” one official said. “But the board might prefer to have a weak president dangling by the thread so they can run the policies themselves for the next two years.”

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پل ولفوویتز رئیس بانک جهانی می گوید به رغم جنجال افزایش غیرقانونی دستمزد دوست دخترش، قصد ندارد از سمت خود کناره گیری کند.
آقای ولفوویتز در مصاحبه مطبوعاتی در واشنگتن در حاشیه اجلاس سالانه بانک جهانی و صندوق بین المللی پول گفت: "من به ماموریت این سازمان اعتقاد دارم و می دانم توانایی اجرای آن را دارم. بسیاری از افراد از من حمایت کرده اند."

در پی اوج گرفتن انتقادها از آقای ولفوویتز به خاطر افزایش غیرقانونی دستمزد و ارتقای شاها رضا، دوست دختر رئیس آمریکایی بانک جهانی، فشار بر او برای استعفا افزایش یافته است.

این در حالی است که دقایقی پیش از سخنرانی مطبوعاتی آقای ولفوویتز، کشورهای عضو بانک جهانی با انتشار بیانیه ای در واشنگتن، از "نگرانی شدید" خود از اخبار منتشر شده درباره آقای ولفوویتز خبر دادند.

این بیانیه که به وسیله کمیته 24 نفره سیاستگذاری بانک جهانی منتشر شده خواستار ادامه تحقیقات هیأت حکام این بانک درباره این موضوع شده است.


آقای ولفوویتز به خاطر اعمال نفوذ در ارتقای اداری شاها رضا عذرخواهی کرده است
هیأت حکام بانک جهانی قرار است به زودی در این باره تصمیم گیری کند.

بیانیه این کمیته می افزاید: "باید مطمئن شویم که بانک جهانی توانایی ادامه موثر ماموریت خود را دارد و می تواند از اعتبار خود دفاع کند."

آقای ولفوویتز هم در مصاحبه اش از ادامه تحقیقات در این باره خبر داده و گفته قصد جلوگیری از آن را ندارد.

او پیش از این به خاطر این جنجال عذرخواهی کرده بود.

پل ولفوویتز که از نومحافظه کاران با سابقه آمریکایی و از نزدیکان جورج بوش رئیس جمهور آمریکا است، از سال 2005 با شعار مبارزه با فساد اداری و مالی عهده دار ریاست صندوق بین المللی پول شده است.

با انتصاب آقای ولفوویتز به این سمت، خانم رضا که کارمند بخش ارتباطات بانک جهانی بود با دریافت ارتقا از این نهاد بین المللی به وزارت امورخارجه آمریکا منتقل شد.

حقوق سالانه خانم رضا که با نظر آقای ولفوویتز تعیین شده از دستمزد وزیر امورخارجه آمریکا بیشتر است.

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World Bank President Paul D. Wolfowitz met yesterday with senior managers to promise unspecified changes in his leadership and to appeal for their help, even as he hired a prominent defense lawyer to represent him.

"I want to make sure his rights are fully protected," said Robert S. Bennett, whom Wolfowitz retained on Saturday. On Friday, the World Bank executive board named an ad hoc committee to consider "conflict of interest, ethical, reputational, and other relevant standards" in judging Wolfowitz's performance, including his role in setting the terms of a pay and promotion package for his girlfriend, a bank employee.

"He is not going to resign," Bennett said after meeting with Wolfowitz this weekend. "His mood is just fine. . . . He feels people are trying to interfere with his job to get at world poverty, and he wants to get this thing behind him so that he can concentrate 100 percent of his effort."

Bennett said the process should slow down and give Wolfowitz "an opportunity to present his side. . . . It would be grossly unfair to him and it would not speak well of the World Bank if they rush to judgment without giving us a reasonable time to put together an appropriate presentation."

The board has not set a timetable for deliberations, although finance ministers from donor nations urged a speedy resolution, warning of low staff morale and damage to the institution's reputation. Several ministers have indicated that they think Wolfowitz should resign, although President Bush has voiced his full backing.

More than three dozen former senior bank officials, including a number who served with Wolfowitz, signed a letter published yesterday in the Financial Times urging that he resign so the bank can "speak with the moral authority necessary to move the poverty agenda forward."

Bennett said the "stakes are very high" for Wolfowitz and the bank. A former federal prosecutor and a partner at the Washington law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom, Bennett was President Bill Clinton's personal attorney in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case.

"There's nothing there," he said of ethics complaints about Wolfowitz. Bennett, who spoke in an interview, emphasized that Wolfowitz had asked to be recused from personnel decisions regarding his companion, Shaha Riza, just before he formally assumed the presidency in June 2005. The board's ethics committee subsequently ruled that under ethics rules she would have to leave, and it instructed him to arrange temporary outside employment for her.

According to documents released by the board this month concerning Riza's subsequent job at the State Department, Wolfowitz dictated bank-paid salary increases and promotions for her that exceeded the bank norm.

Yesterday, Wolfowitz told the managers that he had hired Bennett to handle his personal situation and to present publicly his side of the story, freeing him to concentrate on the bank's primary mission of helping the world's poor.

At yesterday's brief meeting, Wolfowitz said he appreciated senior managers' "brainstorming" about ways to improve bank management and said he is considering a "coach" to assist him in changing his leadership style.

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A World Bank committee investigating president Paul D. Wolfowitz has nearly completed a report that it plans to give the institution's governing board, concluding that he breached ethics rules when he engineered a pay raise for his girlfriend, three senior bank officials said Friday.

Friday evening, the committee was debating whether to explicitly recommend that Wolfowitz resign, according to the sources, who spoke on condition they not be named, citing an ongoing probe into leaks.

Wolfowitz is scheduled to appear before the committee with his attorney on Monday morning and mount his defense, and the bank's 24-member board of directors will convene that afternoon to discuss the report. The sources suggested that a vote by the board could come that day.

Through his attorney, Wolfowitz vowed to continue the fight to keep his job. "He will not resign under this cloud," said his attorney, Robert S. Bennett, when told of the imminent completion of the committee's report. "He's not going to give in to these coercive tactics."

Bennett excoriated the panel for reaching conclusions before giving Wolfowitz the chance to defend himself. "If this is true, this is really unconscionable, and it just reflects that he's not having his day in court," Bennett said. "Is this invitation to him a sham?"

Bennett said Wolfowitz planned to submit documents to the committee on Monday that make clear that the pay raise he arranged for his girlfriend, Shaha Riza, had the full understanding and assent of the institution's ethics committee. It was not clear whether the investigating committee would revise its report after Wolfowitz's appearance.

The committee is composed of members of the bank's governing board. According to bank officials, the timing of the committee's report and its conclusions have been choreographed for maximum impact in what has become a full-blown campaign to persuade Wolfowitz to go.

The White House has so far remained resolutely supportive of Wolfowitz, even as his staff has staged an open revolt aimed at persuading him to leave and European officials have lobbied for his ouster. Already unpopular because of his role as a chief architect of the Iraq war, Wolfowitz's management style has antagonized both bank staff and European financial contributors.

On Monday, as Washington hosts a U.S.-European Union summit, President Bush is to hold a joint press conference with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, which is leading the charge for Wolfowitz's dismissal. As the bank officials described it, the board is betting that a rebuke from the committee and a call for his resignation will persuade Wolfowitz to depart voluntarily before the summit and perhaps encourage the White House to pressure him to do so.

Wolfowitz has been under increasing pressure to step down since acknowledging his role in securing a job change and salary increase for Riza, his longtime companion. Shortly before Wolfowitz assumed the World Bank presidency in June 2005, Riza, a World Bank employee, was transferred to the State Department at an annual salary of $193,000.

A draft of the report reviewed by the committee late Friday declared Wolfowitz had violated World Bank regulations in three areas: breach of contract, breach of ethics rules and undermining the reputation of the bank.

One source said that if Wolfowitz refuses to relinquish his post, the committee could take further action against him. While this report deals only with his handling of the pay raise for Riza, the source said, the committee is prepared to investigate a range of other alleged breaches of ethics and internal governance rules, including contracts for his senior staff.

This ties up the board for an extended period of time while they get to the bottom of this," one official said.

But Bennett, Wolfowitz's attorney, asserted that that strategy would ultimately backfire. "The board, through these unreasonable and unfair actions, can't create a fake crisis and say he has to leave because he's hurting the bank," Bennett said. "They're the ones who are hurting the bank. Even those people opposed to Mr. Wolfowitz will see how outrageous this is."

Monday was also shaping up as a test of the board's will on a controversial new bank strategy on health, nutrition and population.

In recent months, World Bank employees have shaped the strategy, which directs the institution's lending, to include the ready availability of "sexual and reproductive health services" for women in poor countries. That bit of jargon is widely known in some countries to refer, among other things, to access to safe and legal abortions.

But in recent weeks, Juan Jos? Daboub, a conservative Christian whom Wolfowitz appointed managing director at the bank, directed the staff to delete that reference, effectively eliminating the endorsement for access to safe abortions, according to two bank officials. Daboub did not return calls.

In a letter sent last week to the bank vice president overseeing the strategy, several members of the governing board, including those representing Germany, France and Britain, demanded that the original language be restored, asserting that the bank would otherwise be breaking with a 1994 consensus embracing family planning.

This week, the American representative on the board, Eli Whitney Debevoise II, pressed again to remove the reference to "services" and replace it with "care," to eliminate any potential endorsement for abortion, the officials said. Debevoise did not return phone calls.

On Monday, as the committee huddles with Wolfowitz to discuss his leadership, the board is scheduled to vote on the final health strategy, officials said.

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World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz has said he would not resign in the face of "bogus" charges against him.
In a statement to a panel of World Bank directors, the embattled chief said he was the victim of a "smear campaign".

Mr Wolfowitz was defending himself against accusations that he pushed through a huge pay package for his girlfriend without the Bank's consent.

The committee is due to report to the Bank's board of 24 representatives, who will decide on the president's fate.

Mr Wolfowitz has apologised for his actions, vowing to stay on to complete what he called "important work".

Earlier, US President George W Bush said he believed Mr Wolfowitz "ought to stay" in his job.

But a growing army of voices, including World Bank colleagues and the European Parliament, are calling for Mr Wolfowitz' resignation amid escalating concern the scandal embroiling the former Pentagon number two is damaging the credibility of the global lender.

International development group Oxfam called his continued presidency "untenable" in an open letter to the Guardian newspaper on Monday.

'Good faith'

Mr Wolfowitz said the World Bank's ethics committee had access to his decision to relocate his girlfriend, Shaha Riza, to the US State Department in 2005 "if they wanted it".

Mr Wolfowitz has previously said that Ms Riza's salary increase to almost $200,000 (£100,000) "was well within the parameters" of the World Bank's salary and benefits structure.

"I acted transparently, sought and received guidance from the bank's ethics committee and conducted myself in good faith in accordance with that guidance," Mr Wolfowitz told the panel.

"I will not resign in the face of a plainly bogus charge of conflict of interest," he added.

"The goal of this smear campaign, I believe, is to create a self-fulfilling prophecy that I am an ineffective leader and must step down for that reason alone."

Mr Wolfowitz appeared at Monday's meeting with Washington lawyer Robert Bennett, who is famous for helping former president Bill Clinton settle sexual harassment charges in 1998.

"We want to make a presentation to them to show that this conflict-of-interest allegation is absolutely false," Mr Bennett said ahead of meeting.

Mr Wolfowitz was a controversial nominee to the post of head of the World Bank because of his support for the war in Iraq.

[RedWine]

A senior aide to embattled World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz has announced his resignation.
Kevin Kellems said an ongoing scandal surrounding his boss made it difficult for him to remain effective in his role at the Washington-based institution.

Mr Wolfowitz has been mired in a controversy involving his handling of a pay package for his girlfriend.

Mr Kellems, who had also worked with Mr Wolfowitz at the Pentagon, is expected to leave his post next week.

"Given the current environment surrounding the leadership of the World Bank, it is very difficult to be effective in helping to advance the mission of the institution," Mr Kellems said.

"I have tremendous respect and admiration for the Bank staff and management," he added.

Conflict of interest

Mr Kellems' sudden departure comes at a critical point in the investigation into whether Mr Wolfowitz acted properly over the authorisation of his girlfriend's promotion and pay increase in 2005.

The lingering controversy over the potential conflict of interest involving Shaha Riza, who is on the payroll of the World Bank, has prompted a growing chorus of voices calling for his resignation.

Critics argue the scandal is damaging the credibility of the global lender, amid a recently launched anti-corruption campaign.

Kevin is known among his colleagues for his emphasis on team-building and mentoring

Marwan Muasher, World Bank

A special World Bank panel of directors has been looking into whether Mr Wolfowitz abused his powers and is expected to report its findings imminently to the wider 24-member board.

The Bank's shareholder governments will then decide on the president's fate.

The committee is also believed to be examining other controversial employment arrangements amid claims Mr Wolfowitz gave senior posts to trusted former colleagues, who did not have much relevant experience.

Mr Kellems was an adviser to the World Bank boss when he was Deputy Defence Secretary in the Bush administration and supported him in the run-up to the Iraq war.

"Kevin is known among his colleagues for his emphasis on team-building and mentoring, and for his work ethic and grace under pressure," said Marwan Muasher, senior vice president, external affairs at the World Bank.

"My colleagues and I enjoyed working with him and will miss him."

[RedWine]

هیات ویژه بانک جهانی طی گزارشی اعلام کرد که پل ولفوویتز، رئیس بانک جهانی با افزایش حقوق دوست دخترش، 'قوانین بانک جهانی را نقض کرده است.
این هیات گفته است که هیات مدیره بانک جهانی باید تصمیم گیری کند که آیا آقای ولفوویتز کماکان قادر است تا رهبری موثری در بانک جهانی داشته باشد یا خیر.

قرار است آقای ولفوویتز روز سه شنبه (امروز)، 15 مه در برابر هیات مدیره 24 نفری بانک جهانی قرار بگیرد.

هیات مدیره بانک جهانی توان برکناری و یا توبیخ آقای ولفوویتز را دارد و می تواند نسبت به ادامه رهبری وی ابراز تردید کند.

جنجال بر سر پرداخت مقادیر زیادی پول به شاها رضا، دوست دختر پل ولفوویتز که در بانک جهانی مشغول به کار بود، سبب شد که درخواست استعفای آقای ولفوویتز از سمت ریاست بانک جهانی مطرح گردد. مبلغ پرداختی به توصیه آقای ولفوویتز تعیین شده بود.

پل ولفوویتز پیش از این گفته بود که به رغم این درخواست ها، قصد ندارد از سمت خود کناره گیری کند.

پل ولفوویتز که از نومحافظه کاران با سابقه آمریکایی و از نزدیکان جورج بوش رئیس جمهور آمریکا است و از سال 2005 با شعار مبارزه با فساد اداری و مالی عهده دار ریاست بانک جهانی شد.

با انتصاب آقای ولفوویتز به این سمت، خانم رضا که کارمند بخش ارتباطات بانک جهانی بود، با ارتقا از این نهاد بین المللی، به وزارت امورخارجه آمریکا منتقل شد.

حقوق سالانه خانم رضا که با نظر آقای ولفوویتز تعیین شده از حقوق وزیر خارجه آمریکا بیشتر است.

در گزارشی که پیش از نشست هیات مدیره بانک جهانی انتشار یافت، هیات ویژه این بانک خواهان آن شد که هیات مدیره بانک جهانی درباره توانایی آقای ولفوویتز نسبت به ادامه کار خود در سمت رئیس بانک جهانی نظر بدهد.

جیمز وستهد، خبرنگار بی بی سی در واشنگتن می گوید که اوضاع به نظر چندان برای آقای ولفوویتز مساعد به نظر نمی رسد.

کاخ سفید در این مساله از پل ولفوویتز حمایت کرده است اما وی در میان کشورهای اروپایی که در هیات مدیره نفوذ زیادی دارند، محبوبیت چندانی ندارد.

[RedWine]

A panel of executives at the World Bank says its President Paul Wolfowitz broke bank rules in awarding a substantial pay rise to his girlfriend.
The directors said the full board of the World Bank should consider whether Mr Wolfowitz was still able to provide effective leadership.

He is due to appear before the full 24-member board in Washington.

The board has the power to dismiss Mr Wolfowitz, reprimand him or report a lack of confidence in his leadership.

In remarks released ahead of the board meeting, the panel said Mr Wolfowitz provoked a "conflict of interest" at the World Bank.

It ruled he had broken the bank's code of conduct and violated the terms of his contract.

The full board must address the issue of Mr Wolfowitz's ability to continue in his job, the panel urged.

A spokesman for the US treasury secretary said the panel's findings did not merit Mr Wolfowitz's dismissal.

Censure 'likely'

"[The board must consider] whether Mr Wolfowitz will be able to provide the leadership needed to ensure that the bank continues to operate to the fullest extent possible in achieving its mandate," the panel concluded.

The BBC's James Westhead, in Washington, says the signs do not look good for the World Bank head, with the tone of the panel's comments suggesting he will face at least some kind of censure.

Mr Wolfowitz has faced calls for him to step down since details emerged about his role in securing a pay rise for his partner, Shaha Riza, after he was appointed president of the World Bank in 2005.

When Mr Wolfowitz took over Ms Riza was transferred to work for the US state department, to avoid any conflict of interest.

But her salary rose quickly to about $193,000 (£98,000) - more than the $186,000 Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice receives before tax.

The World Bank has since been investigating the extent of Mr Wolfowitz's role in securing the pay increase.

Mr Wolfowitz has received the backing of senior figures in the US administration, including an endorsement by Vice-President Dick Cheney.

But he is less popular with European governments, which hold key positions on the board of the bank.

Mr Wolfowitz was considered a controversial choice ever since President Bush nominated him to head the World Bank, because of his high-profile role during the early part of the Iraq war.

[RedWine]

ولفوویتز از ریاست بانک جهانی کنار می رود


پل ولفوویتز به هیأت ویژه گفته فعالیت هایش با رعایت اصول اخلاقی و حسن نیت بوده است
هیات ویژه بانک جهانی در بیانیه ای اعلام کرده که پل ولفوویتز، رئیس بانک جهانی، در پایان ماه ژوئن - حدود یک ماه و نیم دیگر - از مقام خود استعفا خواهد کرد.
این هیات پیشتر گفته بود که آقای ولفوویتز با افزایش حقوق دوست دخترش، 'قوانین بانک جهانی را نقض کرده است.' با این حال در بیانیه تازه تاکید شده که هیأت ویژه اظهارات آقای ولفوویتز را که گفته 'با رعایت اصول اخلاقی و با نیت درست' عمل کرده، پذیرفته است.

کاخ سفید که در هفته های اخیر پس از جنجال بر سر میزان پرداخت به دوست دختر آقای ولفوویتز از وی حمایت کرده بود، از خبر استعفای وی ابراز تأسف کرده و گفته است نامزد دیگری برای احراز این پست معرفی می کند.

پل ولفوویتز که از نومحافظه کاران با سابقه آمریکایی و از نزدیکان جورج بوش رئیس جمهور آمریکا است، از سال 2005 میلادی با شعار مبارزه با فساد اداری و مالی عهده دار ریاست بانک جهانی شد.

جنجال اخیر پس از آن به وجود آمد که مشخص شد پس از انتصاب آقای ولفوویتز به این سمت، شاها رضا، دوست دختر وی و از کارمندان بخش ارتباطات بانک جهانی، ارتقاء یافته و دستمزد بسیار بالایی به توصیه آقای ولفوویتز برای وی تعیین شده است.

هیأت ویژه بانک جهانی در بخشی از بیانیه خود به تمجید از عملکرد آقای ولفوویتز در دو سال گذشته پرداخته و در عین حال نوشته است که اشتباهاتی صورت گرفته که ایجاد برخی تغییرات در ساختار این نهاد بین المللی را ضروری می کند.

با قطعی شدن رفتن پل ولفوویتز از بانک جهانی، فرایند انتخاب جانشین وی بلافاصله آغاز خواهد شد.

نام کسانی چون استنلی فیشر، از مقام های ارشد پیشین صندوق بین المللی پول و مدیر فعلی بانک اسرائیل، رابرت کیمیت، معاون وزیر خزانه داری آمریکا، و رابرت ب زولیک، از معاونین پیشین وزارت خارجه و از نایب رئیس بانک گلدمن ساکس، به عنوان گزینه های احتمالی کاخ سفید برای جایگزینی آقای ولفوویتز شنیده شده است.

[RedWine]

Paul Wolfowitz is to quit as president of the World Bank following a bitter promotion row involving his girlfriend.
After lengthy talks with the bank's board, Mr Wolfowitz said he would quit the global lending body on 30 June.

He had faced widespread calls for his resignation after being accused of a conflict of interest over a pay rise given to ex-bank employee Shaha Riza.

The White House, which had backed Mr Wolfowitz, said President George W Bush reluctantly accepted his decision.

Mr Bush's former deputy defence secretary joined the World Bank in 2005.

The bank said it would start an immediate search for his successor.

'Good faith'

In a statement, the board of directors said it accepted Mr Wolfowitz's assurances that he had "acted ethically and in good faith" in the handling of Ms Riza's role and remuneration.

But it acknowledged that a "number of mistakes" had been made.

I have concluded it is in the best interests of those whom the institution serves for that mission to be carried forward under new leadership

Paul Wolfowitz


Reaction to resignation
Q&A: Wolfowitz row

In response, Mr Wolfowitz said his decision to resign was "in the best interests" of the institution, which has more than 180 member countries worldwide.

The BBC's Justin Webb in Washington says that by accepting his claim that his actions were honourably intended, the bank has allowed Mr Wolfowitz to leave with, in theory at least, his reputation intact.

He has been under severe pressure for weeks, with a number of European politicians calling on him to step down to prevent the Bank's credibility from being eroded.

HAVE YOUR SAY
Wolfowitz was an embarassment to the US and his departure was long overdue

Bob Apthorpe, Austin, USA


Send us your comments

The White House strongly supported Mr Wolfowitz - although experts believed its influence would not be enough to save his position in the face of European hostility.

A spokeswoman for the bank's staff association - which had been at the forefront of calls for Mr Wolfowitz's resignation - said: "He has damaged the institution and continues to damage it every day that he remains as its president."

Conflict of interest

Mr Wolfowitz came under fire after details emerged about his role in securing a pay rise for Ms Riza, who used to work at the bank.

When appointed to his post in 2005, he notified the bank of a potential conflict of interest because of his relationship with Ms Riza.

He asked to be allowed to recuse himself, or step aside, from any decisions regarding her future.


Paul Wolfowitz's leadership of the World Bank has attracted critics
The bank's ethics committee acknowledged a conflict of interest but did not allow Mr Wolfowitz to recuse himself.

Mr Wolfowitz then proposed to move Ms Riza to the US state department, where she would be paid and promoted apparently in line with her prospects at the World Bank.

The bank accepted and Ms Riza was duly transferred. Her salary rose quickly to about $193,000 (£98,000) - more than the $186,000 that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice receives before tax.

A panel of the World Bank later found that Mr Wolfowitz had provoked a "conflict of interest" and broken its code of conduct.

The panel found that the salary Mr Wolfowitz arranged for Ms Riza had been higher than her due and that he had acted "in opposition to the rules of the institution".

While admitting he made a mistake in his handling of the case, Mr Wolfowitz says he has been the victim of a smear campaign and ought to have followed his initial instinct to recuse himself.

The board is made up of representatives of the Bank's leading members including the US, UK, Japan, France and Germany.

The bank gave no further details of its agreement with Mr Wolfowitz.

[RedWine]

london • Outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair could be a contender for the new president of the World Bank, a post traditionally reserved for an American, a former bank executive said yesterday.

Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel prize-winning economist and former senior vice president and chief economist at the Bank, told BBC radio that Blair “is one of the people that is clearly being discussed.”

Blair has just held talks with US President George W Bush in Washington on a range of foreign policy issues.

A spokesman for Blair, who leaves office June 27, declined to comment on the remarks, which come after World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz announced he would step down on June 30 to end a favoritism scandal.

“There is a large amount of wild and, in the main, inaccurate speculation out there and it is not going to be wise for us to comment on any of it,” said the spokesman.

Stiglitz said the World Bank could appoint Blair. “It wouldn’t rule him out,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live.

“But I would say that if I were going through a first-priority list of priorities, it would probably begin with somebody with real experience in development,” he said.

As a former political leader however, Blair did have the kinds of connections that one needed, he added. “That would be useful as head of the institution.”

In the meantime, the planet’s biggest development organisation is under pressure to end the tradition whereby the poverty-fighting bank is always led by an American and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by a European.

[RedWine]

توني* بلر احتمالاً رييس بانك جهاني مي شود

پس* از يك* ماه* بحران* در بانك* جهاني* و كناره* گيري* پل* ولفوويتز از رياست* اين* بانك** گفته* مي* شود توني* بلر*نخست* وزير كنوني* انگليس* بيشترين* شانس* را براي* احراز اين* سمت* دارد* .

به* گزارش* شبكه* تلويزيوني* يورونيوز*بسياري* از كارشناسان* و اقتصاد دانان* بانك* جهاني* پيشنهاد داده* اند توني* بلر كه* در حال* كناره* گيري* از نخست* وزيري* انگليس* است** به* عنوان* رئيس* بانك* جهاني* و جانشين* پل* ولفوويتز انتخاب* شود* .

از انجا كه* دولت* امريكا بيشترين* كمك* مالي* را به* بانك* جهاني* ارائه* مي* دهد و داراي* بيشترين* سهام* در اين* نهاد مالي* است* به* طور سنتي* رياست* ان* از سوي* دولت* امريكا و از ميان* شهروندان* امريكايي* انتخاب* مي* شود * .

چندي* پيش* كميته* تحقيق* بانك* جهاني* در گزارش* اخير خود از هيئت* مديره* بانك* جهاني* درخواست* كرده* بود صلاحيت* ولفوويتز را براي* ادامه* حضورش* به* عنوان* رئيس* بانك* جهاني* بررسي* كند*وي* سرانجام* به* دليل* موج* شديد اعتراضات* بين* المللي* و داخلي* از سمت* خود كناره* گيري* كرد* .

استعفاي* ولفوويتز با استقبال* بسياري* از كشورهاي* جهان* از جمله* المان* و نروژ همراه* بوده* است** .
پل* وولفويتز دستور داده* بود تا حقوق* يك* كارمند زن* اين* بانك* كه* با او رابطه* عاطفي* داشته* است* * افزايش* يابد* .

گفتني* است* ولفوويتز به* همراه* جرج* بوش* رئيس* جمهور امريكا و كاندوليزا رايس* وزير امور خارجه* اين* كشور يكي* از معماران* جنگ* عراق* بود* .

[RedWine]

Paul D. Wolfowitz, ending a furor over favoritism that blew up into a global fight over American leadership, announced his resignation as president of the World Bank Thursday evening after the bank’s board accepted his claim that his mistakes at the bank were made in good faith.
The decision came four days after a special investigative committee of the bank concluded that he had violated his contract by breaking ethical and governing rules in arranging the generous pay and promotion package for Shaha Ali Riza, his companion, in 2005.

The resignation, effective June 30, brought a dramatic conclusion to two days of negotiations between Mr. Wolfowitz and the bank board after weeks of turmoil.

“He assured us that he acted ethically and in good faith in what he believed were the best interests of the institution, and we accept that,” said the board’s directors in a statement issued Thursday night. “We also accept that others involved acted ethically and in good faith.”

In the carefully negotiated statement, the bank board praised Mr. Wolfowitz for his two years of service, particularly for his work in arranging debt relief and pressing for more assistance to poor countries, especially in Africa. They also cited Mr. Wolfowitz’s work in combating corruption, his signature issue.

Mr. Wolfowitz said he was grateful for the directors’ decision and, referring to the bank’s mission of helping the world’s poor, added: “Now it is necessary to find a way to move forward. To do that I have concluded that it is in the best interests of those whom this institution serves for that mission to be carried forward under new leadership.”

Mr. Wolfowitz’s negotiated departure averted what threatened to become a bitter rupture between the United States and its economic partners at an institution established after World War II. The World Bank channels $22 billion in loans and grants a year to poor countries.

But he left behind a place that must heal its divisions and overhaul a flawed, cumbersome structure that had allowed the controversy over Mr. Wolfowitz to spread out of control.

People close to the negotiations said that Mr. Wolfowitz had agreed not to make major personnel or policy decisions between now and June 30. Some bank officials said he might go on an administrative leave and cede day-to-day functions to an acting leader, but that might not be decided until Friday.

President Bush earlier in the day praised Mr. Wolfowitz at a news conference but signaled that the end was near by saying he regretted “that it’s come to this.” A White House spokesman, Tony Fratto, said, “We would have preferred that he stay at the bank, but the president reluctantly accepts his decision.”

More important for the bank’s future, Mr. Fratto said, President Bush will soon announce a candidate to succeed Mr. Wolfowitz, quashing speculation that the United States would end the custom, in effect since the 1940s, of the American president picking the bank president.

Many European officials previously indicated that they would go along with the United States’ picking a successor if Mr. Wolfowitz would resign voluntarily, as he now has.

Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. said Thursday that he would “consult my colleagues around the world” before recommending a choice to Mr. Bush, in what seemed to be an effort to assure allies that the United States would not repeat what happened in 2005 when Mr. Bush surprised them by selecting Mr. Wolfowitz, then a deputy secretary of defense and an architect of the Iraq war.

Leaders of Germany and France objected but decided not to make a fight over the choice and risk reopening wounds from their opposition to the war two years earlier. Some also argued that Mr. Wolfowitz, as a conservative seeking to write a new chapter in a career that had been focused on national security, might bring new support to aiding the world’s poor.

Soon after Mr. Wolfowitz took office, however, he engaged in fights in various quarters at the bank over issues including his campaign against corruption, in which he suspended aid to several countries without consulting board members, and his reliance on a small group of aides.

Mr. Wolfowitz’s resignation, while ending the turmoil that erupted in early April over the disclosure of his role in arranging Ms. Riza’s pay and promotion package, will not by itself repair the divisions at the bank over his leadership, bank officials said Thursday evening.

[RedWine]

بوش نامزد ریاست بانک جهانی را معرفی کرد


رابرت زلیک از جمله افراد مورد اعتماد آقای بوش است که در حلقه نومحافظه کاران قرار ندارد
جورج بوش رئیس جمهور ایالات متحده، رابرت زلیک قائم مقام سابق وزارت امور خارجه این کشور را برای ریاست بانک جهانی برگزیده است.
آقای زلیک جایگزین پل ولفوویتز رئیس سابق این بانک می شود که به خاطر جنجال افزایش مزایای دوست دخترش کناره گیری کرده است.

ماموریت آقای ولفووتیز در بانک جهانی در پایان ماه ژوئن تمام می شود.

آقای بوش قرار است چهارشنبه رابرت زلیک را به طور رسمی به عنوان نامزد خود برای ریاست بانک جهانی به هیات حکام این بانک معرفی کند.

آمریکا بزرگترین سهامدار بانک جهانی است و به طور سنتی ریاست این بانک بر عهده یک آمریکایی بوده است.

کارشناسان با اشاره به سابقه آقای زلیک به عنوان قائم مقام سابق وزارت امور خارجه و نماینده تجاری آمریکا و آشنایی او با بسیاری از مقام های بلندپایه بین المللی، پیش بینی می کنند انتخاب آقای بوش به راحتی آرای لازم برای ریاست بانک جهانی را به دست آورد.

آقای زلیک هم اکنون یکی از مدیران ارشد بانک سرمایه گذاری گلدمن ساکس است.

او تابستان سال گذشته از سمت خود در وزارت امورخارجه آمریکا استعفا داد و به رغم نزدیکی به محافل نومحافظه کار، به عنوان عضوی از آنها به شمار نمی رود و نقشی هم در طراحی جنگ عراق نداشته است.

این در حالی است که پیش از این انتصاب آقای ولفوویتز به ریاست بانک جهانی به خاطر سابقه او به عنوان معاون وزارت دفاع آمریکا و نقش او در برنامه ریزی برای حمله به عراق با مخالفت خیلی از کشورهای اروپایی مواجه شده بود.

در این حال، پول ولفوویتز در مصاحبه جدیدی جنجال رسانه ها را عامل استعفای خود دانسته و گفته هیات حکام بانک جهانی تصمیم او برای افزایش حقوق و مزایای دوست دخترش هنگام انتقال از این بانک به وزارت امورخارجه آمریکا را اخلاقی دانسته است.

[RedWine]

Why has it become impossible to admit a mistake in Washington and accept the consequences? The last time a senior government official quit over his own job failure was more than twenty years ago, when Robert McFarlane, President Reagan’s national-security adviser, resigned during the Iran-Contra scandal and, taking accountability to a Roman level, swallowed an overdose of Valium, out of “a sense of having failed the country.” (He survived.) Today, this mostly forgotten act of personal responsibility seems rather heroic. Recent years have seen such a steep decline in shame that a book like George Tenet’s “At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA,” for which the author was paid four million dollars, has become an expected destination at the end of a well-trodden path that leads from disaster through obfuscation and defiance to a well-rewarded self-justification.

The Bush Administration has come close to perfecting the art of unaccountability. Tenet’s memoir shows just one of several styles of evasion lately on display: last month, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s admission that mistakes were made in the firing of eight United States attorneys had the air of a schoolboy hoping that bogus contrition would get him off the hook. “I accept full responsibility,” he told the Senate Judiciary Committee, meaning only that he was sorry he had allowed the matter to become such a nuisance. He spent the next five hours explaining—through repeated memory failure and a steady refusal to acknowledge the contradictions and lies in which he kept entangling himself—why he bore no responsibility for anything else. Afterward, the President praised Gonzales for his “very candid assessment” and said that it “increased my confidence in his ability to do the job.” This is unaccountability as pure chutzpah, and so far it seems to be working.

Paul Wolfowitz, the World Bank president and former Deputy Secretary of Defense, in answering charges that he favored his girlfriend by giving her a promotion and a hefty pay raise at the bank while holding impoverished countries to a high standard of good government, has taken a different approach. Wolfowitz, in his most recent statement, prepared for an investigatory panel, conceded nothing, and denounced a “smear campaign” waged by his enemies inside the bank. “I acted transparently, sought and received guidance from the bank’s ethics committee, and conducted myself in good faith in accordance with that guidance,” he asserted. Assertion is the neoconservative style of avoiding accountability: don’t give an inch or they’ll tear you to pieces. Wolfowitz’s ally Richard Perle once said that to express public doubts about the Iraq war “would be fatal.” And, of course, the World Bank scandal is all about Iraq.

Wolfowitz is as responsible as anyone for that catastrophe, having been nearly perfect in getting every aspect of it wrong. When he left the Pentagon for the World Bank, in 2005, many saw an analogy to the move made by Robert McNamara in 1968, at the height of the Vietnam War. But McNamara was seeking atonement, while Wolfowitz wanted vindication—further evidence of the diminishing power of disgrace in American politics. Wolfowitz, who continues to enjoy the President’s full support, has never uttered any serious self-criticism about the war. Like Al Capone, who was nailed on tax evasion, and Alberto Gonzales, who as the White House counsel opened the door to torture, Wolfowitz is being hounded for the blunder because he couldn’t be got for the crime. The press is more comfortable with—in fact, is better at—catching important people in fibs and flip-flops than in making independent judgments about something like a war.

George Tenet’s style is more subtle and complex. In his book, not admitting a mistake begins with admitting a mistake, then creating an impression of anguished self-scrutiny, which almost immediately dissolves in a shower of equally anguished claims of mitigating circumstances. Addressing the C.I.A.’s failure to adequately alert the F.B.I. that a known terrorist, soon to be a 9/11 hijacker, had a visa to the United States, Tenet writes, “No excuses. However,” he adds, “overworked men and women who, by their actions, were saving lives around the world all believed the information had been shared with the F.B.I.” It is the same with the slam-dunk quote, with Colin Powell’s C.I.A.-approved speech to the United Nations, with the Medal of Freedom the President gave Tenet: the author agonizes just long enough to absolve himself of real blame. Tenet’s self-defense is that he’s a good-hearted, hardworking guy. And we can only assume from the book’s gentle treatment of Bush that he still has the confidence of the President.

These styles of unaccountability would be private moral failings if the stakes were lower. But under the Bush Administration no senior civilian official or military officer has been held responsible for what will probably turn out to be the greatest foreign-policy disaster in American history. (Donald Rumsfeld was thrown overboard only after he became too much trouble politically.) Those in highest authority have been kept in office (Dick Cheney), promoted (Gonzales, Condoleezza Rice), honored with medals (Tenet, General Tommy Franks, Paul Bremer), or sent off with encomiums (Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld). Generals who held command over chaos and looming defeat have received additional stars and more powerful posts, such as George Casey, Jr., who was promoted earlier this year to Army chief of staff. Recently, an Army lieutenant colonel and Iraq veteran named Paul Yingling published an essay in the Armed Forces Journal, entitled “A Failure in Generalship.” Yingling’s open indictment of a military leadership composed of yes-men was the first by an active-duty officer during the Iraq war, and it expressed in analytical terms a simmering rage among lower-ranking soldiers. “A private who loses a rifle suffers far greater consequences than a general who loses a war,” he wrote.

Eventually, war enforces its own accountability—though heads might not roll, bodies will render a final judgment—but the point in punishing failure is to correct mistakes before a war is lost. Bush’s refusal to do so has come at an unimaginably high cost, which will include his own legacy. The most common explanation for this stance is his loyalty to people loyal to him, but folly on this scale is never entirely personal. Bush represents the apotheosis, and perhaps the demise, of politics as war by other means. Bring overwhelming force to the political battlefield without apology, this deluded ideology holds, and reality—even a real war—will take care of itself. ♦

[RedWine]

انتصاب رابرت زلیک به عنوان رییس بانک جهانی


رابرت زلیک زمانی قائم مقام وزارت امور خارجه آمریکا در امور تجاری بود
هیات مدیره بانک جهانی نامزدی رابرت زلیک را برای به عهده گرفتن ریاست این بانک تایید کرده است.
آقای زلیک که از سوی رئیس جمهور آمریکا نامزد احراز این پست شده بود قبلا قائم مقام وزارت خارجه آمریکا بوده و جانشین پل ولفوویتز می شود که روز 30 ژوئن بانک جهانی را ترک خواهد کرد.

پل ولفوویتز پس از دو سال ریاست بانک جهانی، به خاطر جنجال افزایش مزایای دوست دخترش کناره گیری، کرده است.

آمریکا بزرگترین سهامدار بانک جهانی است و براساس توافقی نانوشته، انتخاب رئیس بانک جهانی به عهده این کشور است و در مقابل اروپایی ها رئیس موسسه موازی آن، صندوق بین المللی پول را برمی گزینند.

نامزدی آقای زلیک روز دوشنبه توسط هیات مدیره 24 نفره بانک جهانی بررسی شد.

با اشاره به سابقه آقای زلیک به عنوان قائم مقام سابق وزارت امور خارجه و نماینده تجاری آمریکا و آشنایی او با بسیاری از مقام های بلندپایه بین المللی، پیش بینی می شد وی به راحتی آرای لازم برای ریاست بانک جهانی را به دست آورد.

آقای زلیک گفت او "مشتاق است با افرادی که دستور کار غلبه بر فقر در کلیه مناطق جهان، با توجه خاص به آفریقا، را جلو می برند ملاقات کند."

وی همچنین گفت او مشتاقانه منتظر پیش بردن برنامه توسعه اجتماعی و اقتصادی، سرمایه گذاری در توسعه، و "تشویق امید، فرصت و سربلندی" مردم است.

وی افزود: "من از عشق کارمندان (بانک جهانی) به این ماموریت آگاهی دارم. و برای کارنامه افتخارآمیز آنها، ادامه تلاش آنها در جستجوی آموزش و بهبود زندگی، و تعهد به کسب نتایج ملموس، احترام زیادی قائلم."

'کارنامه غیرقابل تردید'

دوره ریاست بانک جهانی پنج ساله اما قابل تجدید است.

هیات مدیره بانک جهانی که از قبل پیش بینی می شد نامزدی آقای زلیک را به راحتی تایید کند در بیانیه ای نوشت: "آقای زلیک یک حس رهبری قوی با ویژگی های برتر مدیریتی و کارنامه ای غیرقابل تردید در امور بین المللی و انگیزه لازم برای پیشبرد اعتبار و کارآیی بانک را برای پست ریاست آن به ارمغان خواهد آورد."

هیات مدیره همچنین بر "نقش مهم بانک در رسیدگی به فقر و رشد اقتصادی" تاکید کرد.

آقای زلیک هم اکنون یکی از مدیران ارشد بانک سرمایه گذاری گلدمن ساکس است.

او تابستان سال گذشته از سمت خود در وزارت امورخارجه آمریکا استعفا داد و به رغم نزدیکی به محافل نومحافظه کار، به عنوان عضوی از آنها به شمار نمی رود و نقشی هم در طراحی جنگ عراق نداشته است.

این در حالی است که پیش از این انتصاب آقای ولفوویتز به ریاست بانک جهانی به خاطر سابقه او به عنوان معاون وزارت دفاع آمریکا و نقش او در برنامه ریزی برای حمله به عراق با مخالفت خیلی از کشورهای اروپایی مواجه شده بود.

در این حال، پول ولفوویتز در مصاحبه جدیدی جنجال رسانه ها را عامل استعفای خود دانسته و گفته هیات حکام بانک جهانی تصمیم او برای افزایش حقوق و مزایای دوست دخترش هنگام انتقال از این بانک به وزارت امورخارجه آمریکا را اخلاقی دانسته است.

[RedWine]

Both the U.N. Security Council and the International Atomic Energy Agency have found Iran in breach of its obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The IAEA reports that Iran ignored the Security Council's February deadline to stop enriching uranium and has even expanded its nuclear program.

As Iran's Atomic Energy Organization moves toward its announced goal of operating 50,000 uranium enrichment centrifuges in Natanz, the World Bank is funding nine government projects in Iran totaling $1.35 billion -- one of which operates in Isfahan, where Iran's nuclear program is headquartered.

While the World Bank is part of the U.N. family, the bank's board is disconnected from the policies of key U.N. agencies -- especially the Security Council and the IAEA. The United States remains the top investor in the World Bank, contributing $950 million in 2006 and $940 million this year. In June the House of Representatives approved another $950 million. Meanwhile, the bank will disburse $220 million to Iran this year, with more than $870 million in the pipeline for 2008, 2009 and 2010.

Presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush all certified that Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism. The Treasury Department's Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence spends considerable effort locating Iranian assets to freeze.

Yet published World Bank documents reflect a worldview toward Iran that is backward, uneducated and outdated. All current projects in Iran are based on a 2001 Interim Assistance Strategy, in which the bank wrote:

"There is a relatively animated and active political competition in Iran through which people express their views, choice of society, economic aspirations and political representation. . . . Since the 1979 Revolution, Iran has given strong and special emphasis to human development, social protection, and 'social justice,' with significant progress to date."

Freedom House, the global leader in assessing personal and political freedoms, had a different perspective in its 2006 Freedom in the World report:

"Iranians cannot change their government democratically. . . . Corruption is pervasive. . . . Freedom of expression is limited. . . . Religious freedom is limited. . . . Academic freedom in Iran is limited. . . . Although the constitution prohibits arbitrary arrest and detention, these practices are very common and increasingly routine."

The 2001 bank document notes that Iran has begun "an era of détente and greater openness to the outside world." The Security Council and the IAEA appear to disagree with that assessment.

One has to wonder why a country that exports 2.6 million barrels of oil a day needs World Bank development assistance. Iran's oil export revenue nearly doubled between 2003 and 2005, from $23.7 billion to $46.6 billion. That number grew to $50 billion last year. Iran's real gross domestic product grew 4.8 percent in 2004 and 5.6 percent in 2005. Why does Iran need World Bank aid?

Furthermore, the bank's investment in Iran stands in stark contrast to its work in Iraq. Iraq was a founding member of the World Bank in 1945, yet it took the bank 2 1/2 years after the fall of Saddam Hussein to approve one development project. To date, the board has approved only four projects, totaling $399 million, for the new Iraqi government -- and little of that money has been spent.

The World Bank's board is not only disconnected from the Security Council's policies but is also at odds with the Iran policies of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

As the Treasury acts to dry up funding for Tehran, the World Bank is providing support to the Iranian government through 2010. As President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad pledges the destruction of Israel, funds Hezbollah and Hamas, and defies Security Council resolutions, the bank's board will approve further Iran disbursements. U.S. law requires the American executive director at the bank to vote against any project for the Iranian government. However, since the United States has no veto power on the bank's board, this policy is largely symbolic. We need to do better.

This summer the bank has gotten a president who works well with allies -- former deputy secretary of state Robert Zoellick. It would be prudent for Zoellick to realign the bank's policies with Security Council resolutions on Iran. As long as the Security Council condemns the actions of Ahmadinejad, the World Bank should suspend funding for his government.

Multilateral organizations represent the best and greatest potential for U.S. and allied diplomacy. The success of this diplomacy will be enhanced if the United Nations and World Bank work together, particularly on Iran.

[RedWine]

Paul D. Wolfowitz, former president of the World Bank, will lead a high-level advisory panel on arms control and disarmament, the State Department said Thursday.

Mr. Wolfowitz, who has close ties to the White House, will become chairman of the International Security Advisory Board, which reports to the secretary of state. The panel is charged with giving independent advice on disarmament, nonproliferation and related subjects.

The portfolio includes commentary on several high-profile issues, including pending nuclear deals with India and North Korea and an offer to negotiate with Iran over its disputed nuclear program.

Mr. Wolfowitz was replaced as World Bank chief last June after a stormy two-year tenure. He is now a defense and foreign policy studies expert at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington research organization.