The World Bank released its files in the case of President Paul Wolfowitz's ethics on Friday, and what a revealing download it is. On the evidence in these 109 pages, it is clearer than ever that this flap is a political hit based on highly selective leaks to a willfully gullible press corps.Please read the whole thing here.
Mr. Wolfowitz asked the World Bank board to release the documents, after it became possible the 24 executive directors would adjourn early Friday morning without taking any action in the case. This would have allowed Mr. Wolfowitz's anonymous bank enemies to further spin their narrative that he had taken it upon himself to work out a sweetheart deal for his girlfriend and hide it from everyone.
The documents tell a very different story--one that makes us wonder if some bank officials weren't trying to ambush Mr. Wolfowitz from the start. Bear with us as we report the details, because this is a case study in the lack of accountability at these international satrapies.
As Melanie Phillips sees it:
The truth of the matter, however, is that faced with an obvious conflict of interest he asked to be removed from Ms Riza’s case altogether — but his request was turned down by the bank’s ethics committee (sic), which itself advised him that she should leave the bank and be compensated for this blow to her career. [my emphasis]
In other words, in this respect Wolfowitz behaved honourably; the Bank itself was responsible for Ms Riza’s promotion but chose to smear Wolfowitz — who has been campaigning against corruption at the Bank — by claiming falsely that this was the outcome of his secret machinations.
See the last post for more of the same.
