Return of Paul Wolfowitz, Anwar Ibrahim's old buddy

FMT - Washington insider: Malaysia likely paid for access to President Trump (extracts):

Paul Wolfowitz (foreground) 

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is known to pay money to enable meetings with US presidents, a Washington insider says in reference to the meeting between Prime Minister Najib Razak and US President Donald Trump.

Paul Wolfowitz, a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute who served seven US administrations, suggests that the meeting was arranged by a former Trump aide.

Note the carefully written:

"... is known to pay money ..."

"... suggests that the meeting was ..."

These are words to tip-toe through the legal tulips.

Note also Paul Wolfowitz criticised both Mahathir for his 'paid' meeting with Bush and Najib for a host of things including a golfing game with Obama and the latter's visit to Malaysia, but not Anwar who alone among Malaysian leaders received a 19-gun or 21-gun salute in Washington.

Paul Wolfowitz has been Anwar Ibrahim's best Jewish-American friend. He got Anwar a job as chairperson of the Foundation of the Future an institute which led to a juicy scandal with his Iranian sweetheart Shaha Riza that eventually costed Wolfowitz his job at the World Bank.

Wikipedia reports:

On May 14, 2007 the World Bank committee investigating the alleged ethics violations reported (in part):

• "Mr. Wolfowitz's contract requiring that he adhere to the Code of Conduct for board officials and that he avoid any conflict of interest, real or apparent, were violated";
• "The salary increase Ms. Riza received at Mr. Wolfowitz's direction was in excess of the range established by Rule 6.01";
• "The ad hoc group concludes that in actuality, Mr Wolfowitz from the outset cast himself in opposition to the established rules of the institution"; and
• "He did not accept the bank's policy on conflict of interest, so he sought to negotiate for himself a resolution different from that which would have applied to the staff he was selected to head."

Wolfowitz appeared before the World Bank Group's board of executive directors to respond on May 15. Adams speculated that "With Mr Wolfowitz so far refusing to step down, the board may need to take radical action to break the stalemate. Members have discussed a range of options, including sacking Mr Wolfowitz, issuing a vote of no confidence or reprimanding him.

Some board members argue that a vote of no confidence would make it impossible for him to stay in the job."

By Wednesday, May 16, 2007, The New York Times, reported that "after six weeks of fighting efforts to oust him as president ... Wolfowitz began today to negotiate the terms of his possible resignation, in return for the bank dropping or softening the charge that he had engaged in misconduct ..."

After expressions from the Bush administration that it "fully" supported Wolfowitz as World Bank president and its urging a "fair hearing" for him, President Bush expressed "regret" at Wolfowitz's impending resignation.

On May 17, 2007 the World Bank Group's board of Executive Directors announced that Paul Wolfowitz would resign as World Bank Group president at the end of June 2007.

The Guardian reported:

The Washington Times called on Mr Wolfowitz to step down as his leadership had been "rendered ineffective" by the scandal. "Mr Wolfowitz has lost the reputation for ethical impeccability on which the World Bank relies."

This man had lost all credibility. 

I had previous blogged on Wolfowitz, saying:

The US government 9/11 Report showed that Paul Wolfowitz had urged the US to attack Iraq after the 9/11 incident when clearly no such evidence of Iraqi involvement existed. The Report continued with the observation that there was no credible evidence supporting Paul Wolfowitz’s argument that Iraq was involved in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Centre.

Wolfowitz was obviously eager for the US to attack and occupy an already weak Iraq, that suffered more than 10 years of crippling US-led sanction leading to several hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children dying of dseases and malnurition. The invasion plan was hardly surprising as Wolfowitz has been a member of the ultra right-wing American think-tank, Project for the New American Century(PNAC), which has urged and strived for US world hegemony. Part of the plan called for the domination of the Middle East region.

And Anwar Ibrahim had backed his candidature for the presidency of the World Bank.

Anwar had said in an interview in Hong Kong on March 18 last year: “I certainly would welcome him to the bank. He passionately believes in freedom and understands the issues of poverty, environment degradation, living conditions and health issues which (are) very much a World Bank agenda.''

This is really unexpected when American Nobel Prize laureate Joseph Stiglitz, former chief economist of the World Bank, who is considered one of the most influential economic thinkers, had resoundingly condemned the appointment of Paul Wolfowitz as the president of the World Bank. Even the Bank’s staff had raised their opposition to Wolfowitz’s appointment.

He was also mentioned as the chief architect and strategist for the US invasion and occupation of Iraq.

But his war-mongering notoriety has been so repulsive that Europeans have told him he, the president of the World Bank would not be welcome at a World Bank forum (for Africa)!

I couldn’t help sticking it in further by saying what further insult could beat that, when the president of a World Bank has been snubbed and told not to appear at a forum for which his organisation has sponsored.

He now works for the American Enterprise Institute, an ultra right wing think tank of neoconservative, most of whom have been seen to be ultra pro-Israel and very anti-Palestine.

Naturally he would not be friendly to those who had/has been unkind to his best Malaysian buddy, Anwar Ibrahim. Hardly surprising.