Paul D. Wolfowitz’s Continuing Embattlement at the World Bank

When embattled World Bank President Paul D. Wolfowitz pleaded with his critics at the Bank and others who are opposed to his continued leadership in the statement that he released Thursday, to separate his present job from his previous position as Assistant Secretary of Defense and a major architect of the invasion of Iraq, he was probably either mindless of or had forgotten that he has already established a track record since his arrival in 2005 to head the apex financial institution sufficient and clear to give his audience enough cause to believe otherwise.

Many in the Bank as well as beyond argue that what is being portrayed as his self-proclaimed penchant for wedging an anti-corruption campaign of sorts in poor countries of the world on the Bank’s auspices since he arrived there has not extended to Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, three countries that are in the center of the Bush White House’s global strategic interests in its "War on Terrorism" global campaign. His quick suspension of Bank program in Uzbekistan right after the latter refused to authorize landing rights to US military aircraft is said to be yet another dot in the said pattern. Many in the Bank and amongst its shareholders are convinced that he was nominated to use the Bank to implement the same Bush White House agenda which is in the center of US prickly relationships with the UN and the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA over the invasion of Iraq. Bush’s decision to send Mr. John Bolton as US ambassador to the UN, who is openly contemptuous of the world body is another fact being cited by many to buttress the argument that Wolfowitz’s presence at the Bank will only further the Bush agenda. It will be recalled that IAEA director Mr. Mohamed ElBaradei, became a target for removal from his job by the Bush White House over his agency’s report in 2003 that the claim that Saddam Hussien had reconstituted his nuclear weapons program was not supported by hard fact on the ground in Iraq. The Nobel Peace Prize that he jointly won with the IAEA is seen as a clear rebuke of the Bush White House for its over zeal by one of Europe's principal institutions.

Reports claim that even some members of the Bank’s 24-member board of directors have voiced their claim that Mr. Wolfowitz carried the Bush White House secretive style of doing business over to his new job as Bank president.

The revelation from documents released Friday that Mr. Wolfowitz's role in the Riza saga had been high handed, and unilateral even though he cast it after the fact as being otherwise in addition to enjoying the Bank’s blessing, haven’t helped matters at all for him talk less of smoothing ruffled feathers at the Bank and amongst some donor countries.

Many in Europe, including The Financial Times insist that Mr. Wolfowitz’s continued presence at the Bank as president will undermine its credibility and efficiency. But as the Bank’s annual meeting continues this weekend in Washington, DC, there doesn’t seem to be that kind of oceanic pressure from all quarters strong enough to orchestrate his ouster. Some stakeholders, most of whom are known friends of Wolfowitz have tepidly spoken out in his support. They include South Africa’s finance minister, Trevor Manuel who was disparaged by award-winning journalist John Pilger in his recent book Freedom Next as a recovering progressive activist. Excerpts from the book whose author was banned from South Africa by the apartheid regime, which is highly critical of post-apartheid economic policy in South Africa as having not changed from what it used to be during apartheid was published last summer in The Sunday Independent, published in Durban. Manuel was praised by Wolfowitz as a great leader during his recent visit to that country.