Rice Launches Wolfowitz Defense

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has launched a behind-the-scenes campaign in defense of World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz against calls he relinquish his job.

While President Bush and other senior administration officials have publicly praised Mr. Wolfowitz, Ms. Rice has begun a quiet but concerted effort to reverse low European support for his leadership.

Over the last week, Ms. Rice "spoke with several European foreign ministers about her positive impression of Paul Wolfowitz and the job he is doing at the World Bank," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

Other U.S. officials said the involvement of the U.S.'s top diplomat reflects a deepening concern within the Bush administration that the fight over Mr. Wolfowitz's fate could cloud anew relations between the U.S. and Europe, where Germany has come out strongly in favor of Mr. Wolfowitz stepping down.

Mr. McCormack declined to specify what foreign ministers Ms. Rice has buttonholed, but it is clear she intends to continue her campaign in support of Mr. Wolfowitz

Bank officials said yesterday that the board appeared ready to agree to Mr. Wolfowitz's request for an extension, and was likely to give him until at least Friday to respond.

The stepped-up defense came as Democratic leaders of the Senate signaled their "grave concern" with the leadership crisis at the World Bank. In a letter to President Bush, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and three other top Democrats stopped short of calling for Mr. Wolfowitz to step down, but urged Mr. Bush to "take decisive action" to avoid an "unprecedented" vote within the bank on Mr. Wolfowitz. "We do not think the bank's mission or U.S. interests would be advanced by such a vote," the senators wrote.

He and his view of the world are corrupt?

I am sure if you get more familiar with this WB case, you’ll find out it’s exactly the opposite - he is fighting corruption in World Bank, which not unlike Oil For Food UN corruption earned him a lot of enemies, mostly liberals and Euro-Socialists.

http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB117911371512901682.html
“Corruption Fighter”
May 14, 2007

JAKARTA — Fighting corruption is a hazardous mission. In poor and developing countries you can be assassinated, which happened to journalists Georgy Gongadze in Ukraine and Carlos Alberto Cardozo in Mozambique in 2000. Even in France there is danger, as magistrate Eva Joly discovered.

.....

Now it is Mr. Wolfowitz who is having a very difficult time. As president of the World Bank, he is accused of secretly helping his girlfriend, Shaha Riza, get a hefty pay raise; some former high officials of the bank have demanded his resignation. I was shocked when I read the news. I have known Mr. Wolfowitz for more than two decades and I have never doubted his personal integrity. I have also known Ms. Riza for more than a decade. We share a passion: advocating for a more liberal and democratic interpretation of Islam than what is now prevalent in the Middle East. Since I have been covering news for more than a quarter century, my reporter instinct automatically went to work.

The material available to the public shows that Mr. Wolfowitz declared his special relationship with Ms. Riza to the bank’s ethics committee when he first took his position and asked to be recused from matters relating to Ms. Riza, a longtime bank employee. The ethics committee denied this request and recommended that Mr. Wolfowitz have her leave the bank promptly and be compensated fairly. Mr. Wolfowitz followed this advice and, subsequently, the chairman of the ethics committee sent him two letters, thanking him for his action and acknowledging that the matter was considered closed.

Judging from all the documents that are available to the public, it seems to me it is the conduct of the ethics board, and not that of Mr. Wolfowitz, that should be investigated by an independent team. Perhaps headed by Eva Joly. This should be done promptly in order to save the World Bank from losing its effectiveness in its main goal of eradicating global poverty.

In fact, this crisis can turn out to be a great opportunity to show the world how to handle problems of conflict of interest in high places. This is a common problem among World Bank clients, the developing countries.

.....

He has found many champions in this endeavor. Nuhu Ribadu, the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission of Nigeria, is one. Under his leadership, and with $5 million of assistance from the World Bank, his commission has been able to recover $5 billion worth of stolen assets, and to prevent further aid money from being corrupted. It is not by coincidence that Mr. Ribadu has publicly stated his support for Mr. Wolfowitz to remain the president of the World Bank.

Many critics of Mr. Wolfowitz’s anti-corruption policy argue that suspending a loan is bad policy, even if there is indication of corruption, because poor people will suffer the most. But consider one of the most successful World Bank projects in my country: the Kecamatan Development Project (KDP), which has given more than $1.3 billion to millions of poor people in 35,000 subdistricts. The poor people decide by themselves, in a very democratic way, which project the money should be spent on. Not a single penny goes through government coffers and, therefore, nothing can be stolen by public officials.

.....

In Indonesia, it is widely believed that around 30% of foreign loans disbursed in the past were stolen. The World Bank has given $25 billion in loans to my country since 1968, which means almost $8 billion of these loans ended up in the wrong places. Imagine how much more effective the World Bank would be if its entire loan program was free from corruption.

Fortunately, some of the stolen money may still be recovered if countries like Indonesia can learn from the Nuhu Ribadu experience and are assisted by the bank. This is an exciting challenge and all the more reason to support the Wolfowitz presidency. I am writing this not just to support a friend in need, but to help save a great institution. Mr. Wolfowitz is on the right track and has the passion needed to succeed in the difficult task of changing the mistaken and deeply embedded paradigm at the World Bank.

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