Yep, the same former deputy secretary of defense Paul Wolowitz who
sneered at a Congressional committee when he couldn't even estimate
within 35% the number of soldiers he'd killed in the illegal war he
"architected". Even though, at the time, the actual totals of his
murders were reported daily by every news outlets.
http://www.mercurynews.com/politics/ci_5657626
Wolfowitz under fire for role in pay raise
COMPANION'S SALARY TRIGGERS FUROR
By Steven R. Weisman
New York Times
Article Launched: 04/13/2007 01:32:11 AM PDT
WASHINGTON - Paul Wolfowitz's tenure as president of the World Bank was
thrown into turmoil Thursday by the disclosure that he had helped
arrange a pay raise for his companion at the time of her transfer from
the bank to the State Department, where she remained on the bank
payroll.
In a chaotic day of revelations and meetings at a normally staid
institution, Wolfowitz apologized for his role in the raise and transfer
of Shaha Riza, his companion, 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 events injected a new ugliness into what had already been a bitter
rift between 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.
The World Bank's 24-member executive board, the body that elected
Wolfowitz to the job after he was nominated by President Bush in 2005,
held hurried meetings throughout the day amid mounting speculation that
it might reprimand him or ask him to resign.
Wolfowitz apologized at a morning news conference and at the atrium
meeting after the staff association disclosed that it had found a dated
memorandum from 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 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 even the salaries of Cabinet members.
"In hindsight, I wish I had trusted my original instincts and kept
myself out of the negotiations," Wolfowitz said.
What drove the anger at the bank was not that Wolfowitz had denied
earlier that he had sought Riza's transfer, but that he had been less
than fully candid in discussing it until documents surfaced showing his
direct role. His earlier insistence that he had consulted with various
ethics officials has also been disputed by some of them, who say they
were not involved in the salary aspect of discussions.
Wolfowitz, who is divorced, has been close to 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
Wolfowitz arrived, and was transferred in September 2005 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 ***** Cheney, has been a longtime associate
of Wolfowitz. Riza now serves as a consultant to the foundation, known
as the Foundation for the Future, while still drawing her World Bank
salary, the State Department said.
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