Entered into the database on Monday, April 24th, 2006 @ 13:47:28 MST
Iraq war architect Paul Wolfowitz, who helped craft the suspension
of military aid to countries that refused to exempt U.S. military personnel
from prosecution by the International Criminal Court, has used his position
as World Bank President to reward with debt relief those nations that signed
the exemption agreements, so-called Bilateral Immunity Agreements, or "Article
98s, with the United States. Wolfowitz was the subject of a puff piece
in yesterday's Washington Post as part of a campaign to makeover his war hawk
image. But Wolfowitz's actions at the World Bank demonstrate he still takes
his orders from his right-wing neocon friends in the White House and Pentagon. The countries granted debt relief that signed the Article 98s with the United
States, include Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guyana, Honduras,
Madagascar, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Rwanda, Senegal, Uganda, and Zambia. Three
countries that have not signed Article 98s with the United States -- Mali, Niger,
and Tanzania -- are under intense pressure to do so and the Wolfowitz debt relief
action may be a tool to pressure them into signing the agreements. The Bush
regime is attempting to get Niger to amend its constitution to permit it to
sign an Article 98. Tanzania is embarrassed to sign such an agreement as the
host of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. The Bush administration
brought direct pressure on the Malian President to sign an Article 98 in exchange
for the financial assistance now being dangled by Wolfowitz and his neocon cabal
at the World Bank. Wolfowitz has isolated himself with two neocon advisers from the Iraq war planning
cabal and an old friend from East Asia policy planning, resulting in the same
type of exodus by senior officials that is plaguing the CIA, Pentagon, and State
Department. Wolfowitz's coterie of neo-cons include his one-time special adviser
at the Pentagon Kevin Kellems; Robin Cleveland, a radical right-wing White House
staffer with the White House Iraq Group who was also embroiled in a conflict of
interest with ethically-tainted former Air Force Secretary James Roche; and Karl
Jackson, an old Wolfowitz colleague on East Asia policy issues when Wolfowitz
was Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs during the
elder Bush administration.
Wolfowitz: Bringing his neocon "cabal" to the World Bank