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Wolfowitz and World Bank look to avoid confrontation
International Herald Tribune ^ | 29 April 2007 | Steve Weisman

Posted on 04/29/2007 6:07:00 PM PDT by Kitten Festival

WASHINGTON: On the eve of what appeared likely to be an ugly showdown between Paul Wolfowitz, president of the World Bank, and the bank's board of directors, both sides were increasingly talking about trying to avert a confrontation that could cripple the bank and its mission of aiding poor countries.

For a week at least, the bank's board has seemed determined to force Wolfowitz out on grounds that he showed favoritism to his companion, a bank employee, in giving her a raise and promotion when he became bank president in 2005.

More recently, however, there has been talk at the bank of avoiding a confrontation by having Wolfowitz resign in return for a reprimand that acknowledges that he acted in good faith at the time and, in addition, that ethics officials at the bank approved of his actions when they examined them in 2005 and 2006.

"I think the board has been looking for a way out of this," said a bank official who had been briefed on the board's thinking. "The directors do not want to set a precedent by ousting Wolfowitz. I'm convinced that they are hopeful that he will see the light and give a way out by resigning or proposing something palatable from a political perspective."

(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Government
KEYWORDS: bobbennett; corruption; hestoast; wolfowitz; worldbank
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IHT seems to think he's toast, and is just trying to save his pride now. I think Bennett's solution of sharing the blame is probably the right one, I see blame and incompetence on both sides. But a leader needs to lead.
1 posted on 04/29/2007 6:07:03 PM PDT by Kitten Festival
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To: Kitten Festival

They are looking for a way to get rid of him because he is there to clean up their corruption. I sure wish he had not given them the stick which with to beat him.


2 posted on 04/29/2007 6:13:09 PM PDT by Bigg Red (You are either with us or with the terrorists.)
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To: Kitten Festival
World Bank President blog says that Bennett's threatening to take the whole ship down with him if Wolfie goes. No objection from me here!
3 posted on 04/29/2007 6:14:28 PM PDT by Kitten Festival
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To: Kitten Festival
Its obvious that the world bank should be defunded completely. It is just an organization to funnel money into the pockets of European fat cats and they hated Wolowitz because he planned to clean it up. They forced him to handle something that they then turned right around and accused him of doing even though he was specifically instructed to do it.

The charges are insane and it just shows how corrupt and conniving the organization is. We just don't belong giving them a single additional dollar.

The best thing possible for that place is to publish the Salaries of every person working there paid over $100,000. We would find out how little aid actually even gets out of the building.

4 posted on 04/29/2007 6:18:21 PM PDT by dalight
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To: Bigg Red

What puzzles me is this belief that no one ever cared about corruption before wolfie came and anyone who opposes wolfie has got to be pro-corruption. Neither of these are true.

Wolfensohn before him launched his ‘cancer of corruption’ campaign well before wolfowitz showed up.

And, it was a corruption-angry staff, seeing all that stuff going on in the personnel office that first brought this stuff up, so you can’t say they were indifferent to corruption. Some of them were quite clean and naturally this made them mad. They only needed the fuse of bad management (which he exemplifies, remember, Bush wouldn’t let him run the Iraq operation for this reason) to blow the whole thing up and out.

The idea that the next bank chief won’t care about corruption doesn’t really hold water either. How do we know the next guy won’t care? The other thing is, how do you lend any money to africa (which is the bank’s only growth area anyway) without corruption? You’d have to yank ALL bank loans. The only reason these third world hellholes don’t qualify for REAL bank loans is that they are corrupt and disgusting and don’t believe in paying anyone back. They’ll blame the west for the loans before they’ll ever pay anyone back. They all get debt forgiveness anyway after all the cash has made its way to switzerland. The loan officers, on the other hand, go right without penalty, it’s a riskfree job for them. Wolf only cared about corruption in some places anyway, he didn’t care about corruption in all of them. Tajikistan? Gimme a break! Iraq? They rank rock bottom on the transparency international corruption scale so you can’t say those are clean loans. But Iraq is his baby and that’s why he wants to lend there. He’s just turning iraq into another africa, which a lot of good that will do for us who’ve expended so much blood and treasure on that miserable hellhole.

I just don’t see him as inexpendable, nor as the benchmark of noncorruption. Others can do the job better than he can, of that I am certain.


5 posted on 04/29/2007 6:22:51 PM PDT by Kitten Festival
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To: Kitten Festival
The girlfriend was definitely overpaid. Two hundred grand - for a supposed women's lib 'expert'? Gimme a break! You can get an activist to do what she did for free!
6 posted on 04/29/2007 6:36:54 PM PDT by Kitten Festival
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To: Bigg Red

Funny how the party of privacy and loves to peer into the bedrooms of the opponents.


7 posted on 04/29/2007 6:53:14 PM PDT by AliVeritas (Pray for Tony Snow, Liz Edwards, cancer patients, their families and support.)
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To: Kitten Festival
....and, in addition, that ethics officials at the bank approved of his actions when they examined them in 2005 and 2006.

"I'm convinced that they are hopeful that he will see the light and give a way out by resigning or proposing something palatable from a political perspective."

There you go - - pure, scumbag, Democrat, Euro-socialist politics.
Wolfowitz must really be hampering the corrupt activities of the scum associated with this "bank" for them to take their fabricated "scandal" to this point. I certainly hope Wolfowitz never resigns. I also hope he has plenty of dirt on these scumbags.

8 posted on 04/29/2007 7:03:06 PM PDT by Lancey Howard
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To: Kitten Festival
World Bank President blog says that Bennett's threatening to take the whole ship down with him if Wolfie goes. No objection from me here!

Congratulations! You finally posted something I agree with 100%.

9 posted on 04/29/2007 7:04:40 PM PDT by Lancey Howard
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To: Lancey Howard

Where is that from? It’s not the wsj overhyped emotionalistic propaganda, is it? They slanted the editorial for their pal, they have no credibility. The put in stuff they liked and left out stuff they didn’t. what is your source?


10 posted on 04/29/2007 7:07:48 PM PDT by Kitten Festival
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To: Kitten Festival

???
Put down the crack pipe, scroll up to the top of the thread, and read the story.
In fact, you can go straight to the last paragraph you see.


11 posted on 04/29/2007 7:16:04 PM PDT by Lancey Howard
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To: Lancey Howard

Scrap the insults, idiot, I asked you a question.


12 posted on 04/29/2007 7:21:30 PM PDT by Kitten Festival
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To: Kitten Festival

He called their bluff—and they are folding is the way I see it.


13 posted on 04/29/2007 7:25:56 PM PDT by the Real fifi
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To: Lancey Howard
As long as you're going to be posting quotes, here are the more essential ones:

out on grounds that he showed favoritism to his companion, a bank employee, in giving her a raise and promotion when he became bank president in 2005. More recently, however, there has been talk at the bank of avoiding a confrontation

They're going to make it LOOK LIKE he got the ok from the ethics committee, when in reality, the ethics committee said it did not know all about the gargantuan pay package way out of line with her wimmin's lib "skill" set. As if wimmin's lib could add $200K worth of value but only if done by an 'expert.' Totally ridiculous. I think they are moving toward compromise, because they really want that incompetent out.
14 posted on 04/29/2007 7:27:48 PM PDT by Kitten Festival
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To: the Real fifi

He’s going out in a blaze of glory. /s


15 posted on 04/29/2007 7:28:33 PM PDT by Kitten Festival
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To: AliVeritas
Funny how the party of privacy and loves to peer into the bedrooms of the opponents.

Giving your girlfriend $200K/yr. of someone else's money is not a bedroom mater. unless her high-paid job was in the bedroom, and that's a whole different kind of scandal.

16 posted on 04/29/2007 7:33:18 PM PDT by ReignOfError (`)
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To: Kitten Festival

I don’t think he’s going out. I think they tried to pull a fast one and he called their bluff.

And they may grumble and bitch and carr y on but he’ll leave when he said he would in three years time.


17 posted on 04/29/2007 7:35:08 PM PDT by the Real fifi
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To: the Real fifi

He said that recently. He signed a 5y contract a year and a half ago and was making big plans for staying 10y (with shaha’s big promotion package to vice president if he did a condition). Now he says three years, it’s a new face-saving offer of compromise. I don’t know what’s going to happen, I know they want him out pretty soon. If he leaves in 3y, i do not think he will succeed in rasing the $3 billion in development money he says he wants to raise. Maybe he wants three years because it will affect his severage package. Merkel and her crew are dead set against all this but they don’t have the balls to confront bush so I don’t know how this will go. wolf must be resigned to the fact that he is going early and now saying it was exactly as he wanted it. Does not fool me but probably makes him feel better.


18 posted on 04/29/2007 7:40:48 PM PDT by Kitten Festival
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To: Bigg Red
I sure wish he had not given them the stick which with to beat him.

He didn't give them anything. He fully disclosed the relationship before he started there, the board recommended action and he took it. This is just throwing mud trying to get something to stick.

19 posted on 04/29/2007 7:51:21 PM PDT by cryptical (Bruce Schneier can smell weak keys.)
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To: cryptical
Why the apologies then? Why not a 20% raise instead of a 36% raise? Why the angry staff which at first was complaining over their 2% raises while seeing this bimbo, who'd been passed over for promotion multiple times, glide to the top when boyfriend arrived? You are forgetting how this whole thing got started? If he did nothing wrong, why was he out apologizing? No leader in corporate america would be in the fix he's in, because they already know full well about conflict of interest. This guy's ignorance of it just goes to show that he was not leader material, only looking for how much he could get away with. He wasn't managerial material.
20 posted on 04/29/2007 8:00:17 PM PDT by Kitten Festival
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