World Bank President: Wolfowitz turns on Shaha Riza.

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Wolfowitz turns on Shaha Riza. Paul Wolfowitz has been using his lawyer Robert Bennett, and other "friends", to point fingers at everyone around him in a desperate and unseemly attempt to divert attention from his own role in the Shaha Affair.

After pointing fingers at ethics committee chairman; Ad Melkert, former general counsel ; Roberto Dañino ,outgoing HR vice president Xavier Coll, bank staff, excutive directors, Europe ,and what he now calls `Ambiguous' World Bank Rules ( see Here, Here, and Here). Today he finally turned on his girlfriend; Shaha Riza.

In an interview with NewsWeek, Robert Bennett, Wolfowitz' lawyer and spokesman says:

" It was Riza herself who pressed Wolfowitz to impose the generous terms of her new posting, according to Bennett. “She said she worked up the numbers, not Mr. Wolfowitz. She was outraged that she had to leave,” says Bennett."

In another telling part of the article, Michael Hirsh writes:

"Riza, says the longtime friend of the couple, is “very temperamental, very self-righteous, and very critical of the bank. It was amusing at first; then, it got aggravating after a while. You walk in the door admiring this Islamic woman who is very smart, and who was against the worst practices of the religious Islamic world. She had everything going for her. But I found her greedy in terms of power.”

A Washington source ~ May 04, 2007

Comments

this finger pointing would be funny if it weren't so pathological... and pathetic. i don't know what bennett's game is anymore; and pee-wee has no more self-respect to lose. this damages the institution beyond description. and before the anti-whatevers chime in, the notion of multilateralism -- an idea that people from 185 nations can actually work together towards a common goal -- deserves better than this farce.

wbstaffer ~ May 04, 2007, 02:47 AM

Could it be that PW has taken up with another woman?

Robin Cleveland, perhaps?

Perhaps Scheherazade Riza, I mean Shaha, ran out of stories to tell PW.

Maybe she will suffer the same fate as the other women in PW's life?

PW's next target will probably be Robert Bennett.

Then, there is always himself as a target?

Maybe someone could give him a copy of the code and suggest he do the right thing?

None ~ May 04, 2007, 03:01 AM

to clarisse in the other topic: oh, clarisse, silly child! didn't you know? the bank has some of the most progressive gay rights policies in the world? it's an international org and recognizes dometic partnerships, regardless of gender, because a lot of other countries do. or didn't you realize that people involved in development tend to be pretty left-of-center? (drat, i guess PW's lawyer might be right about us after all.)

wbstaffer ~ May 04, 2007, 03:22 AM

At the WB, the story is well known. PW has another woman: Suzanne Folsom Rich, the head of INT. This is another incompetent woman who has been flying in PW's wings, for big promotions and salary increases.

Milton Mawani ~ May 04, 2007, 03:23 AM

That's true: Suzanne Folsom Rich is PW's known girlfriend in the Bank. PW has been hanging out with her in all directions. No shame whatsoever. What kind of President of the WB is this? A gigalo???

Anna Mfume ~ May 04, 2007, 03:27 AM

I am wondering whether the Ad Hoc committee asked Riza to explain the SAIC contract - why she did not tell her supervisor that she had such a contract, and why the SAIC contract was for 3 months when she only took leave for 1 month? Since she obtained the contract at the request of Wolfowitz (then at US DoD), the 2003 case is material to the Ad Hoc Committee's current deliberations, since it shows a pattern of behavior. If it's not a matter for the Ad Hoc Cttee, then HRVP should investigate? Or INT? And SAIC and DoD still need to explain whether she was paid. Are some journalists pursuing this matter with SAIC and DoD?

is INT investigating this? ~ May 04, 2007, 03:32 AM

The Financial Times, in its early reporting, around April 10, noted that Shagga, I mean, Shaha, was Wolfie's then-girlfriend. I suspected the pair had broken up.

By the way, this wouldn't be the first time Wolf's been done in by a woman. He was led along by his first wife, Clare, to Indonesia where he proceded to try a repeat of his regime-change program as US ambassador, same as he'd done in Phils. Clare was a scholar on Indonesia, but Wolf was not, so he might have just gone along to do something to please her. He gets led along by women a lot, I am not exactly sure why. As the writer James Easterly noted: Poor Wolfie - every time he tries regime change, he gets insurrection.

Shana ~ May 04, 2007, 03:34 AM

If PW's hanging out with Suzanne Folson, why hasn't he disclosed that relationship to the ethics board, pray tell?

Can they get him on that violation?

Shana ~ May 04, 2007, 03:37 AM

funny... PW and shaha left the building together this afternoon.... around 4?

wbstaffer ~ May 04, 2007, 03:42 AM

Does anyone ever talk to them? I can't imagine them having friends.

Shana ~ May 04, 2007, 03:44 AM

Geeze... if it really is Suzanne Folsom Rich that is PW's newest squeeze, that opens another can of worms...

She happens to be married to George (at the International Repubican Institute --- did I spell that right ??? LOL)

Another problem: can you imagine the investigations that Suzanne Folsom Rich does ? Geeze, she must have PIs keeping track of every move that her husband makes while she is busy with PW....

I am liking this story more and more...

Corruption at the World Bank is approaching New Jersey levels under Governor McGreevey.

The Bank needs to start making loans to the US so it can start lecturing the US about the importance of transparency (not just in Shaha and Suzanne's or Robin's clothing either), rule of law, reducing budget deficits, and liberalization (not in morals either).

The big question is what is Scheherazade Riza going to do now that PW has turned on her.

When they were walking out the Bank together today, was PW being frog marched?

Wouldn't it be funny if she did a Lorraine Bobbitt on him?

None ~ May 04, 2007, 03:55 AM

The Newsweek article says that Wolf and his girl were an item since 2000. Wolf divorced his wife, at least according to some accounts if he did it at all, in 2002. That means he was carrying on with Shaha for two years before the breakup with his wife. Oh you sneaky Pete, you, Wolfieboy.

Nun ~ May 04, 2007, 04:39 AM

Am I the only one who has been following this soap opera simultaneously with the case of the DC Madam, and found myself wondering if ABC's "20/20" show Friday night, May 4th, will establish the linkage in the form of a list of "who's who" among all those pre-emptive war, macho (yeah, right!), erstwhile 1960s-era draft-dodger Neocons.

I mean, Henry Kissenger as Beltway stud was ridiculous enough, but Pee-Wee on Cialis ("don't worry if the Ad Hoc Committee calls right after you dropped the pill...")?

The Mahdi ~ May 04, 2007, 04:43 AM

Actually whether or not Wolfie is divorced is something in dispute.

Claire Selgin Wolfowitz never publicly confirmed or denied that they are divorced, preferring to dodge the question with something evasive.

There is no public documentation that they are divorced.

Hence, it is reasonable to presume that they are in fact still married, and separated.

There is also the question of the mysterious woman he was suppose to be seeing at SAIS that is suppose to be a paid staffer.

That woman is not Shaha Riza.

Enjoy.... the latest rumors is he is seeing Suzanne Folsom Rich.... who is married to someone else.

Then there is Robin Cleveland.... Ana Palacino...

Basically PW chose the wrong business to be in. If he is in Fashion or Hollywood, he would fit in perfectly.

None ~ May 04, 2007, 04:46 AM

That Randall Tobias guy, who lost his job at USAid over the Washington Madame case due to all his 'massages' was a frontrunner to run the world bank before Wolfie got the gig. See here:

http://www.worldbankpresident.org/archives/000006.php

Nun ~ May 04, 2007, 04:51 AM

"She was not going quietly" according to the Newsweek article...what was she going to do? What did the bank have to fear from her? It seems that if she was threatening a shakedown, she had leverage with her boyfriend, not the bank. Why else would he be so eager to try and appease her? After reading Blumenthal and Clemons, I'm wondering why Shaha is still roaming the streets of this country. After her secondment, no one seems to know what she has been doing besides collecting big paychecks. I, for one do not wish to support her lifestyle anymore. She needs to work for a living and she should do it in one of the countries of her "expertise".

Marlene ~ May 04, 2007, 04:54 AM

What I want to know is who she was threatening to sue, and why PW didn't just let her. The WB isn't subject to US laws, so whoever it was whose court she wanted to sue in would have offered her a lot less than a typical US court. PW went to great ends to say he was just protecting the bank from a lawsuit, assuming that a US audience would think it was a US-style tort jackpot but she could not have sued in a US court. Sue? Why didn't he just let her, given how casually he throws around WB money? Why would it matter? It's only taxpayer money, not his own anyway.

Nun ~ May 04, 2007, 04:59 AM

Aninymity gives every pipsqueak with a computer a chance to slander, I take it.

As for the Bank's position an gay rights. I am sure that's true. Which is exactly why Zhang's explanation of the different treatment the Bank offered his wife as opposed to Shaha is so risible.

I am sure that is way over your head wbstaffer.

clarice ~ May 04, 2007, 05:09 AM

Nun, I think we're on the same page. I can't figure why PW thought the bank needed him to run interference. That must be a smokescreen. Shaha was going to make trouble for him personally and he needed to calm her

Marlene ~ May 04, 2007, 05:39 AM

The oldest defense:

Blame the Woman.

William Congreve, in The mourning bride, 1697:

As you'll answer it, take heed
This Slave commit no Violence upon
Himself. I've been deceiv'd. The Publick Safety
Requires he should be more confin'd; and none,
No not the Princes self, permitted to
Confer with him. I'll quit you to the King.
Vile and ingrate! too late thou shalt repent
The base Injustice thou hast done my Love:
Yes, thou shalt know, spite of thy past Distress,
And all those Ills which thou so long hast mourn'd;
Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd,
Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman scorn'd

Adam and Eve ~ May 04, 2007, 08:54 AM

"Keep track of the rumored candidates, power plays and buzz."
The Washington Post

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