Paul Wolfowitz

Paul Dundes Wolfowitz , born on December 22nd 1943, is an American politician , assistant secretary with Defense between 2001 and 2005 in the government of George W. Bush. He was president of the the World Bank on June 1st, 2005 and posed his resignation on May 17th, 2007 following his implication in a business of Népotisme. He left his functions on June 30th, 2007.

Biography

Paul Wolfowitz is the son of the mathematician Juif Polish Jacob Wolfowitz, itself immigrant with the the United States in 1920 whereas it is old only of one ten years.

Born the December 22nd 1943 with New York, Paul Wolfowitz makes initially studies of physics-chemistry before turning to political sciences to the Université of Chicago.

He is then politically a young person trotskist.

It is with the Université Cornell, where ensign his/her father, that Paul Wolfowitz meets the professor Allan Bloom, one of the disciples of the theorist Leo Strauss and reference of the Néo-conservatives.

Near Bloom, Wolfowitz becomes itself a disciple of Strauss and then rejects the philosophy of the Relativisme in vogue in the years 1960 and which would deny the “universal legitimacy of the American values and would put up itself with tyranny”.

At the university of Chicago, it is near Albert Wohlstetter, theorist of the nuclear strategy, that Wolfowitz wrote its thesis on the danger of nuclear proliferation to the the Middle East.

In 1972, Wolfowitz starts a career in the American federal administration. One as well finds it near the democratic S as Dean Acheson as near republican S. It is opposed as of the beginning with the Realpolitik of Henry Kissinger and enters to the Pentagone in 1977 under the administration of Jimmy Carter.

It underlines as of this time the factor of regional instability caused by the Iraq of Saddam Hussein, whereas the government of Casing wants to make of them a counterweight with the Iran of the Ayatollah Khomeiny.

The Wolfowitz democrat is disappointed by the administration of Jimmy Carter and it is with enthusiasm that it accommodates the victory of Ronald Reagan in November 1980. This one incarnates better in its eyes its democratic ideal.

Between 1982 and 1985, it finds Secretary of State associated with the businesses of the Asian East and the Pacific in the government of Reagan. It is with this function that it organizes the political transition of the Filipino after the inversion of Ferdinand Marcos, old ally of the United States.

In 1986, it is named ambassador in Indonesia where it opens with Islamic civilization.

Of 1989 with 1993, under the direction of Dick Cheney, he is under-secretary with Defense in charge of planning, where he works out a new definition of the strategy and organization of the American military force after the end of the Cold war.

In 1991, Paul Wolfowitz organizes the financing of the war of the Gulf and manages to convince Israel not to militarily intervene to maintain the coherence internal of the coalition which includes/understands many Arab countries. He also preached but without success honesty towards the Chiite S of the south and the Kurdish S of the north of the Iraq that the US government pushed to revolt against Saddam Hussein.

During the presidency of Bill Clinton, Paul Wolfowitz is senior of the School of advanced international studies of the Université Johns-Hopkins with Washington DC of 1994 at 2001.

The anglophone Israeli daily newspaper The Jerusalem Post elected it the man of the year 2003.

Role near the Bush administration

In February 2001, it is named by George W. Bush at the post of assistant secretary to Defense, under the orders of Donald Rumsfeld. It is at this station that it is made the craftsman and the burning defender of the inversion of the mode of Saddam Hussein and the military invasion of Iraq as of the shortly after the attacks of the September 11th, 2001.

Catalogued like one of most radical of the Néo-conservatives, it is charged to find the justifications legal of the invasion of Iraq and is regarded as the person in charge of the disappointments of the American army in particular in its research of the Armes of massive destruction. He affirmed whereas “the incomes of Iraqi oil during both or three next years were going to bring 50 to 100 billion dollars, which would come to refund the proper rebuilding of the country and more still”.

The April 15th 2002, in front of supporters of Ariel Sharon at a public meeting at Washington DC, it recognizes, under the hootings, the sufferings endured by the people Palestinian under Israeli occupation.

The October 26th 2003, during a visit with Baghdad, it escapes from accuracy from an attack. About thirty rockets are drawn against hotel Al Rachid where it placed. An American colonel dies during this attack and seventeen other people are wounded. Paul Wolfowitz is unscathed.

In January 2005, it engages personally in the deployment of the American assistance to the victims of the Earthquake of December 26th, 2004, in particular in Indonesia.

Role in the World Bank

In March 2005, George W. Bush prefers to move away it from her administration by offering a promotion to him, the succession of James Wolfensohn with president of the the World Bank (in general, this one is left with the the United States when the Fonds international currency is left to Europeans). It would owe its election with the support of Europeans, who accepted it in exchange of the nomination of Pascal Lamy to the head of OMC.

It was the subject of critical sharp within the the World Bank to be itself surrounded by collaborators come with him from the Pentagone and the White House. It for example named the former spokesperson of the Vice-président of the United States Dick Cheney, Kevin Kellems at the position of director of the strategy of the communication.

Crisis Chad ienne

December 29th, 2006 the National Assembly Chad ienne, under the presidency of Idriss Déby adopts several amendments with the law on the oil of 1999. Following this modification, Paul Wolfowitz, then president of the the World Bank, announce the program stop of financing to the Chad, that is to say 124 million dollars. The the World Bank question some of the operated amendments such removal of the funds for the future generations, the inclusion of safety and the administration like priority sector as well as the increase in the share returning to the Treasury.

At the request of the State Department, it gave up, the fight against corruption with the Chad to make it possible in this State to use the money of oil to counter the attacks come from the Sudan.

Family planning in Africa

Juan Jose Daboub, a senior official close to Paul Wolfowitz would have ordered that any reference to the Family planning is unobtrusive plan of long-term assistance relating to Madagascar.

Wolfowitz business with the the World Bank

Herald of the fight anti-corruption in the Developing country, Paul Wolfowitz was implied in a business of favoritism within the the World Bank concerning Shaha Riza, a collaborator with whom it maintained a connection. In 2003, according to American association fighting against corruption in the public administrations Government Accountability Project, Paul Wolfowitz, then Secretary with Defense, would have insisted that Shaha Riza obtains a contract of consultant for a firm of council deprived between March and May 2003, at the time of the release of the war and this whereas she worked for the the World Bank.

Three months after its arrival with the head of the the World Bank in 2005, Paul Wolfowitz obtained a station with the State Department for his/her friend Shaha Riza. Ex-person in charge of the communication of the the World Bank for the the Middle East, it remained nevertheless still paid by the World Bank.

During this transfer, it would have received, according to internal documents revealed by the press, a promotion and more than 60.000 dollars of pay rise carrying its emoluments with some 200.000 dollars per annum. At the time of its return to the the World Bank, it would also profit from promotions carrying it, in the long term, with the rank of Vice-président. The Financial Times revealed on April 12th, 2007 that it is Paul Wolfowitz himself which had ordered the increases.

When Paul Wolfowitz is named at the position of president of the the World Bank, its connection with Shaha Riza, a framework of the bank, is contrary with the ethical charter of the institution. It informs the directors immediately of them but the ethics committee refuses the solution which it proposes, to leave the things places from there while being seen withdrawing all decision-making power relating to the wages and the position of the collaborator. The commission proposes contrary to giving a station to Mrs. Riza out of the bank, only means of putting it “at the shelter” authority of its president, and of giving him a promotion to compensate for this accident of career. But they leave to the president the care to regulate the details of this recommendation, wages included/understood. Also, the conflict is born not from the principle of pay rise but of its amount, which returns to an annual increase of 8% instead of the 3,7% usual.

Concerning the charges of Nepotism, Paul Wolfowitz declared that they were a denigration campaign carried out by opponents to the intervention in Iraq, and with its fight against corruption in the countries in the process of development.

Its adviser Kevin Kellems had ensured that the pay rises granted Mrs. Riza on order of Paul Wolfowitz - carrying the wages of interested in nearly 200.000 dollars per annum - had received the approval of the board of directors (of September 2005). However on April 13rd, 2007, the administrators of the the World Bank contradicted this assertion and called with the resignation the president of the World Bank, whose mandate expired normally only in 2010.

He is also reproached the recruitment of two collaborators of the White House (of which Kevin Kellems) without experiment on the questions of development, with salaries higher than 200.000 dollars per annum.

April 20th, 2007, in order to help it in its defense, it engages Robert Bennett, famous lawyer having defended old the president of the United States of America Bill Clinton at the time of the business Paula Jones as well as the journalist American Judith Miller at the time of the business Valerie Plame.

May 7th, 2007 one as of its closer advisers, the former journalist Kevin Kellems gives its resignation. In the World Bank, it was responsible for the image of the president and had ensured the press that Paul Wolfowitz had received the downstream of the board of directors before deciding the wage increase of Shaha Riza.

Paul Wolfowitz accepts finally, on May 17th, 2007, to give up her functions, which it will leave on June 30th, 2007, at the end of a long crisis. Some, with the center even of its entourage, did not hesitate to say that its action has " completely sapped the principles of good gouvernance". Robert Zoellick, the old number two of the American State Department, was chosen by president Bush to succeed to him.

Hoax

In its edition of May 2007 the anglophone magazine Foreign Policy publishes a letter sent by Paul Wolfowitz to the personnel of the the World Bank in which it warns the personnel of the bank to attend the site Internet TradeSports.com, on which a bet is held whose title is “resignation of Paul Wolfowitz”. Many international newspapers the such French daily newspaper Le Monde relay information. It proved that this letter was a forgery produced by the professor in saving in Harvard, former chief economist of the the IMF, Kenneth Rogoff.

Family life

Paul Wolfowitz is separate since 2002 of his wife Clare Wolfowitz, anthropologist, specialist in the Indonesia. They had together three children. He lives today with Shaha Riza, a British feminist of origin Libya, previously in charge of the women's rights Arab to the the World Bank then integrated into the State Department of the United States.

References

External bonds

Biography of Paul Wolfowitz by the World Bank
Biography of Paul Wolfowitz by the Department of Defense
Biography of Paul Wolfowitz by the White House

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