[Peace-discuss] Spending too much US money in Iraq? Let's spend other countries' money too!

[Stuart Levy]

Found this on commondreams.org:

    http://www.commondreams.org/news2007/0216-02.htm

Here are the first few paragraphs of the article:

The Government Accountability Project (GAP) has learned from inside
sources that World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz is currently
negotiating a contract with a new resident Iraq Country Director.
This step strongly suggests that Wolfowitz intends to expand
Bank-funded projects there dramatically in the near future, despite
the deteriorating security situation and recent disclosures of
massive corruption in “reconstruction” efforts.

This development bears out the fears expressed by senior career staff
and Board members when Wolfowitz was appointed by the Bush
administration in June 2005. Only three months after Wolfowitz’
arrival, the Bank’s Board tried to restrain his management of World
Bank operations in Iraq explicitly, issuing an unprecedented
directive to his office to “[K]eep the Board regularly updated on
developments in the country (Iraq) and implementation of the ISN”
(Interim Strategy Note, September 2005, see GAP Web site). One year
later, 30-year veteran Christiaan Poortman, vice-president for the
Middle East, resigned from the World Bank rather than comply with
Wolfowitz’s directives to prepare to increase lending and add staff
in Iraq.

The unilateral appointment of a resident Iraq country director can
only aggravate an already tense standoff between Wolfowitz and the
Bank Board. Members of the Board have already expressed concerns
about misuse of other donors’ funds in the country and emphasized to
the US-appointed President “…the need for compliance with the Bank’s
fiduciary and safeguard requirements,” also according to the ISN
2005.

“Wolfowitz’s apparent determination to use the World Bank to further
questionable American military goals in the Middle East is a
fundamental distortion of the Bank’s mission, a violation of its
founding Articles of Agreement, and a reckless waste of donor
resources,” said GAP International Program Director Bea Edwards.