Shaha Riza
Encyclopedia
Shaha Riza, (born 1953 or 1954), is a World Bank
employee currently on external assignment at the Foundation for the Future, a "semi-independent foundation to promote democracy" in the Middle East and North Africa. She is the partner of Paul Wolfowitz
.
As of July 2008, Riza earned $180,000 salary after taxes and telecommutes from home.
, Libya
, to a Libyan-Turkish
father (Khalid Alwalid Algargany) and Syrian-Saudi mother. According to the Washington Post she grew up in Libya and attended Catholic boarding schools in England and on the island of Malta. She is a British national.
In the late 80s, Riza moved to the United States after her marriage to Bulent Ali Riza (also spelled Bülent Alirıza), (born 1952). Riza studied at the London School of Economics
before taking a master's degree
in International Relations
from the University of Oxford
(1983), where she studied at St Antony's College
. She speaks Arabic, Turkish, English, French and Italian. She is divorced and has one son. Her father was King Abdul Aziz
's (of Saudi Arabia) consultant as well as Saud's and Faisal
's.
countries. Before joining the World Bank, she worked at the National Endowment for Democracy
, where she set up and led the endowment’s Middle East programs.
Riza's position in the State Department was in the office of Elizabeth Cheney
(daughter of Dick Cheney
), who worked at the time for C. David Welch, the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs. Later she transferred from the State Department to the Foundation for the Future.
She started at the World Bank
as a consultant in July 1997 and became a full-time employee in 1999.
). In July 2002, she became the acting manager for external affairs and outreach for the World Bank's MENA region, a position she held until she relinquished her job after Wolfowitz was hired as president.
In 2004, in Beirut
, Riza organized a major conference of North African and Middle Eastern groups pushing freedom and reform after the fall of Hussein. Her view was that planting a democracy in Iraq would cause other regimes to become more democratic. "She was quite formidable because she almost single-handedly brought everyone together", recalled Chibli Mallat, a Lebanese law professor who also helped organize the initiative. "I would have never participated myself had it not been for my sense of her probity and professionalism, and indeed her vision."
’s oppressive regime."
At one point, she worked for the Iraq Foundation, which was a group of Iraqi exiles that supported the overthrow of Saddam Hussein
. There, she earned the admiration of Ahmed Chalabi
, an Iraqi dissident that the Bush Administration hoped would succeed the Iraqi dictatorship. Although Defense Department documents show that Wolfowitz helped send her to Iraq, allegations of impropriety have been dismissed by close analysts of the Middle East, who note that Riza's expertise would have made her a strong candidate for the job.
, was forced down for alleged improprieties in his handing of her pay increases as president of the World Bank
. After a lengthy discussion with the Board of the World Bank, the Board "accepted" that Wolfowitz acted ethically and that critically referred to the role and procedures of the Ethics Committee. Wolfowitz resigned June 30.
Critics of the World Bank's decision noted its double-standard and "ad hoc" arbitrary nature. Two former managing directors, Shengman Zhang and Caio Koch-Weser
, were allowed to have their spouses work at the World Bank without official comment. Riza herself pointed to the double standard, saying: “I could not understand at the time or now why I was being singled out for this treatment when the then managing director Shengman Zhang’s spouse . . . was working at the bank and before her . . . Caio Koch-Weser’s spouse, when he was managing director. Neither wife was asked to leave the institution.”
Riza, in her job at the World Bank did not require her to report to Wolfowitz, but he offered to sign a statement recusing himself of any involvement with her work upon his appointment. Ironically, that statement ultimately led to his own forced departure from the bank by creating the catalyst that led to his perceived conflict of interest. In 2005, the ethics committee rejected Wolfowitz's proposal and forced Riza to leave the World Bank altogether, forgoing a promotion for which she was highly recommended.
This was done despite bank staffing policy to the contrary. Rule 4.01, paragraph 5.2, states that spouses and registered domestic partners are barred from working in situations where "one supervises the other directly or indirectly", but informal relationships fall under rule 3.01, paragraph 4.02, which states that in such cases as Wolfowitz and Riza's relationship that the supervisor "shall be responsible for seeking a resolution of the conflict of interest."
Nonetheless, Riza was forced to leave her position as Senior Communications Officer (and acting manager of external affairs) for the Middle East and North Africa Regional Office at the World Bank when Paul Wolfowitz
was brought in as president. Riza had already been romantically linked to Wolfowitz when he was the Deputy Secretary of Defense under Donald Rumsfeld
in the Bush Administration.
In her defense, Riza noted as follows in a statement she released to The Wall Street Journal:
condemned the efforts to bring down both Wolfowitz and Riza. Christopher Hitchens
described the campaign to remove Riza and Wolfowitz as a "character assassination" and stated that he was forced out due to conflicts between the U.S. and European bank employees.
Hitchens was critical of the larger media's handling of the trial. In particular, Hitchens noted what he called
Hitchens considered it one of the worst political smears he had seen in his time in Washington and considers the whole affair as a kind of payback for Wolfowitz's support of the Iraq war. Robert Holland, formerly U.S. Representative at the World Bank, maintains that Wolfowitz's resignation had nothing to do with Riza's promotion. Holland, who served on the bank's board of directors until 2006, defends Wolfowitz, saying at the time that even if a hypothetical majority of the bank career staff disapproved of Wolfowitz's performance, "he's probably doing a lot of the right things." Holland thinks Wolfowitz unpopularity owes much to a "political bias against him and a defense of the culture and the status quo."
Meanwhile, Sari Nusseibeh
, a Palestinian academic and diplomat, in an open letter to the Washington Post, condemned the "unfair and vicious campaign against her." She was similarly defended by civil rights activist-turned congressman, Andrew Young
, who described Riza as "a British Muslim woman who is an admired World Bank professional and a champion of human rights in the Muslim world."
Even Wolfowitz ex-wife, Clare Selgin Wolfowitz
, praised Riza's work, saying, "Shaha Riza is a dedicated and serious reform advocate who has my respect. I hope she will be able to continue her work in spite of everything."
Former Supreme Cour Justice Sandra Day O'Connor
, who serves as a board member at the Foundation for the Future, the organization that employs Riza, describes Riza as "a very competent person and knows the region well." O'Connor specifically praised Riza's involvement in pro-democracy projects in Morocco and Lebanon, citing her knowledge of Arabic as "extremely helpful."
For her part, Riza kept her silence, though she did remark that her life and her career "were torn asunder" by arbitrary World Bank policies. In a statement, she pointed to the "irony of my working to ensure women's participation and rights through the work of the World Bank and to be then stripped of my own rights by this same institution."
According to the Washington Post, Riza's friends encouraged her to speak up in her own defense, but she refused. Says one friend who requested anonymity thanks to the sensitive nature of the attacks against her.
himself from all personnel actions or decisions that involved her. He also noted that there was, in fact, no World Bank rule governing informal relationships. To compensate Riza for the disruption caused by the Wolfowitz ethics panel, the committee advised an in situ promotion.
Riza's work was highly esteemed within the organization and she was shortlisted for a promotion. The ethics committee suggested that in light of forcing her on assignment she was to be granted "as part of a settlement of claims" an upgrade in job assignment and "an ad hoc salary increase. On July 27, the committee's chairman Ad Melkert
sent a memo to Wolfowitz guaranteeing that "the potential disruption of the staff member's career prospect will be recognized by an in situ promotion on the basis of her qualifying record."
In 2007, the Washington Post reported that Riza's salary had increased from $132,660 to $193,590 per year, tax-exempt. This article led to a cascade of news coverage and calls for Wolfowitz's resignation. A new ad hoc investigation was set up at the World Bank. Shaha Riza wrote the committee that she was a victim in the case, arguing that the conflict-of-interest concern was spurious from the beginning and that she never wanted to leave the World Bank.
On April 12, 2007, Wolfowitz apologized for what he called a "mistake", but would not comment about resigning as World Bank governors met on April 15. With the Board of Executive Directors still reviewing the details of the case, Wolfowitz commented, "I'm not going to preempt their [the Board's] deliberations. I will accept any remedies they propose."
On April 17, 2007, the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal published an op-ed that characterized the scandal as a witch hunt. Although Wolfowitz had had a prior friendly relationship with staff on the Wall Street Journals editorial page and often published guest op-eds in the past, others questioned the story, The Los Angeles Times published an op-ed
calling it "a non story" and a "bum rap".
The New York Times called for Wolfowitz's resignation on April 28, 2007, saying that "The best thing Paul Wolfowitz can do for the World Bank, the country and himself is to step down."
On May 17, 2007 it was announced that Wolfowitz would resign effective June 30, 2007. He currently works for a conservative think tank, AEI
.
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
employee currently on external assignment at the Foundation for the Future, a "semi-independent foundation to promote democracy" in the Middle East and North Africa. She is the partner of Paul Wolfowitz
Paul Wolfowitz
Paul Dundes Wolfowitz is a former United States Ambassador to Indonesia, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense, President of the World Bank, and former dean of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University...
.
As of July 2008, Riza earned $180,000 salary after taxes and telecommutes from home.
Early life
Riza was born in TripoliTripoli
Tripoli is the capital and largest city in Libya. It is also known as Western Tripoli , to distinguish it from Tripoli, Lebanon. It is affectionately called The Mermaid of the Mediterranean , describing its turquoise waters and its whitewashed buildings. Tripoli is a Greek name that means "Three...
, Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
, to a Libyan-Turkish
Turkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...
father (Khalid Alwalid Algargany) and Syrian-Saudi mother. According to the Washington Post she grew up in Libya and attended Catholic boarding schools in England and on the island of Malta. She is a British national.
In the late 80s, Riza moved to the United States after her marriage to Bulent Ali Riza (also spelled Bülent Alirıza), (born 1952). Riza studied at the London School of Economics
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
before taking a master's degree
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
in International Relations
International relations
International relations is the study of relationships between countries, including the roles of states, inter-governmental organizations , international nongovernmental organizations , non-governmental organizations and multinational corporations...
from the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
(1983), where she studied at St Antony's College
St Antony's College, Oxford
St Antony's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England.St Antony's is the most international of the seven all-graduate colleges of the University of Oxford, specialising in international relations, economics, politics, and history of particular parts of the...
. She speaks Arabic, Turkish, English, French and Italian. She is divorced and has one son. Her father was King Abdul Aziz
Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia
King Abdul-Aziz of Saudi Arabia was the first monarch of the Third Saudi State known as Saudi Arabia. He was commonly referred to as Ibn Saud....
's (of Saudi Arabia) consultant as well as Saud's and Faisal
Faisal
Faisal is an Arabic given name and means The separator between good and Evil.Faisal may refer to:* Faisal ibn Turki ibn Abdullah Al Saud -- one of the imams of the Second Saudi State.* Faisal bin Turki, Sultan of Muscat and Oman...
's.
Work prior to World Bank
Riza specializes in the Middle East politics and economics and has carried out field research in a number of ArabArab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
countries. Before joining the World Bank, she worked at the National Endowment for Democracy
National Endowment for Democracy
The National Endowment for Democracy, or NED, is a U.S. non-profit organization that was founded in 1983 to promote US-friendly democracy by providing cash grants funded primarily through an annual allocation from the U.S. Congress...
, where she set up and led the endowment’s Middle East programs.
Riza's position in the State Department was in the office of Elizabeth Cheney
Elizabeth Cheney
Elizabeth Cheney Perry , commonly called Liz, is an American attorney. During the George W. Bush administration years, she held positions in the State Department of the United States...
(daughter of Dick Cheney
Dick Cheney
Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States , under George W. Bush....
), who worked at the time for C. David Welch, the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs. Later she transferred from the State Department to the Foundation for the Future.
She started at the World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
as a consultant in July 1997 and became a full-time employee in 1999.
Work at World Bank
At the World Bank, she has worked with the Middle East and North Africa Social and Economic Development Group as a Senior Gender Specialist and then as a Senior Communications Officer in the Middle East and North Africa Regional Office (MENAMENA
The term MENA, for "Middle East and North Africa", is an acronym often used in academic, military planning and business writing.The term covers an extensive region, extending from Morocco to Iran, including the majority of both the Middle Eastern and Maghreb countries...
). In July 2002, she became the acting manager for external affairs and outreach for the World Bank's MENA region, a position she held until she relinquished her job after Wolfowitz was hired as president.
In 2004, in Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
, Riza organized a major conference of North African and Middle Eastern groups pushing freedom and reform after the fall of Hussein. Her view was that planting a democracy in Iraq would cause other regimes to become more democratic. "She was quite formidable because she almost single-handedly brought everyone together", recalled Chibli Mallat, a Lebanese law professor who also helped organize the initiative. "I would have never participated myself had it not been for my sense of her probity and professionalism, and indeed her vision."
Activism and views
Riza is an expert on democratization efforts and believes that the Middle East should not be exempt from the wave of democratization that affected the world in the 1990s. She has organized conferences around this and related themes in the Middle East and the United States. According to Ellen Laipson, president of the Henry L Stimson Center, a peace organization, "Shaha was a very early promoter of the idea that we should not exclude the Middle East from the process of democratic change." According to a profile of Wolfowitz published in the London Sunday Times of March 20, 2005, Riza "shares Wolfowitz’s passion for spreading democracy in the Arab world" and "is said to have reinforced his determination to remove Saddam HusseinSaddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
’s oppressive regime."
At one point, she worked for the Iraq Foundation, which was a group of Iraqi exiles that supported the overthrow of Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
. There, she earned the admiration of Ahmed Chalabi
Ahmed Chalabi
Ahmed Abdel Hadi Chalabi is an Iraqi politician. He was interim oil minister in Iraq in April-May 2005 and December-January 2006 and deputy prime minister from May 2005 until May 2006. Chalabi failed to win a seat in parliament in the December 2005 elections, and when the new Iraqi cabinet was...
, an Iraqi dissident that the Bush Administration hoped would succeed the Iraqi dictatorship. Although Defense Department documents show that Wolfowitz helped send her to Iraq, allegations of impropriety have been dismissed by close analysts of the Middle East, who note that Riza's expertise would have made her a strong candidate for the job.
Controversy at World Bank
Riza came to prominence in 2007 after her partner, Paul WolfowitzPaul Wolfowitz
Paul Dundes Wolfowitz is a former United States Ambassador to Indonesia, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense, President of the World Bank, and former dean of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University...
, was forced down for alleged improprieties in his handing of her pay increases as president of the World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
. After a lengthy discussion with the Board of the World Bank, the Board "accepted" that Wolfowitz acted ethically and that critically referred to the role and procedures of the Ethics Committee. Wolfowitz resigned June 30.
Critics of the World Bank's decision noted its double-standard and "ad hoc" arbitrary nature. Two former managing directors, Shengman Zhang and Caio Koch-Weser
Caio Koch-Weser
Caio Koch-Weser is a German politician, economist, civil servant and business executive. He was Secretary of State in the Federal Ministry of Finance 1999–2005...
, were allowed to have their spouses work at the World Bank without official comment. Riza herself pointed to the double standard, saying: “I could not understand at the time or now why I was being singled out for this treatment when the then managing director Shengman Zhang’s spouse . . . was working at the bank and before her . . . Caio Koch-Weser’s spouse, when he was managing director. Neither wife was asked to leave the institution.”
Riza, in her job at the World Bank did not require her to report to Wolfowitz, but he offered to sign a statement recusing himself of any involvement with her work upon his appointment. Ironically, that statement ultimately led to his own forced departure from the bank by creating the catalyst that led to his perceived conflict of interest. In 2005, the ethics committee rejected Wolfowitz's proposal and forced Riza to leave the World Bank altogether, forgoing a promotion for which she was highly recommended.
This was done despite bank staffing policy to the contrary. Rule 4.01, paragraph 5.2, states that spouses and registered domestic partners are barred from working in situations where "one supervises the other directly or indirectly", but informal relationships fall under rule 3.01, paragraph 4.02, which states that in such cases as Wolfowitz and Riza's relationship that the supervisor "shall be responsible for seeking a resolution of the conflict of interest."
Nonetheless, Riza was forced to leave her position as Senior Communications Officer (and acting manager of external affairs) for the Middle East and North Africa Regional Office at the World Bank when Paul Wolfowitz
Paul Wolfowitz
Paul Dundes Wolfowitz is a former United States Ambassador to Indonesia, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense, President of the World Bank, and former dean of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University...
was brought in as president. Riza had already been romantically linked to Wolfowitz when he was the Deputy Secretary of Defense under Donald Rumsfeld
Donald Rumsfeld
Donald Henry Rumsfeld is an American politician and businessman. Rumsfeld served as the 13th Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, and as the 21st Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. He is both the youngest and the oldest person to...
in the Bush Administration.
In her defense, Riza noted as follows in a statement she released to The Wall Street Journal:
Response to Wolfowitz and Riza controversy
Several prominent newspapers, among them The Financial Times and The Wall Street JournalThe Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
condemned the efforts to bring down both Wolfowitz and Riza. Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Eric Hitchens is an Anglo-American author and journalist whose books, essays, and journalistic career span more than four decades. He has been a columnist and literary critic at The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, Slate, World Affairs, The Nation, Free Inquiry, and became a media fellow at the...
described the campaign to remove Riza and Wolfowitz as a "character assassination" and stated that he was forced out due to conflicts between the U.S. and European bank employees.
Hitchens was critical of the larger media's handling of the trial. In particular, Hitchens noted what he called
- " an amazing breach of ordinary media etiquette (where longstanding unmarried couples are routinely described as being "partners" or sometimes "companions"), this very reserved and private lady has been called—in reputable newspapers—not only a "mistress" but a "girlfriend." One really is compelled to ask whether there is any decency left.
Hitchens considered it one of the worst political smears he had seen in his time in Washington and considers the whole affair as a kind of payback for Wolfowitz's support of the Iraq war. Robert Holland, formerly U.S. Representative at the World Bank, maintains that Wolfowitz's resignation had nothing to do with Riza's promotion. Holland, who served on the bank's board of directors until 2006, defends Wolfowitz, saying at the time that even if a hypothetical majority of the bank career staff disapproved of Wolfowitz's performance, "he's probably doing a lot of the right things." Holland thinks Wolfowitz unpopularity owes much to a "political bias against him and a defense of the culture and the status quo."
Meanwhile, Sari Nusseibeh
Sari Nusseibeh
Sari Nusseibeh , and raised in Jerusalem, is a Palestinian professor of philosophy and president of the Al-Quds University in Jerusalem...
, a Palestinian academic and diplomat, in an open letter to the Washington Post, condemned the "unfair and vicious campaign against her." She was similarly defended by civil rights activist-turned congressman, Andrew Young
Andrew Young
Andrew Jackson Young is an American politician, diplomat, activist and pastor from Georgia. He has served as Mayor of Atlanta, a Congressman from the 5th district, and United States Ambassador to the United Nations...
, who described Riza as "a British Muslim woman who is an admired World Bank professional and a champion of human rights in the Muslim world."
Even Wolfowitz ex-wife, Clare Selgin Wolfowitz
Clare Selgin Wolfowitz
Clare Selgin Wolfowitz is an expert on Indonesian anthropology. She currently works at the at the University of Maryland, College Park in the Governance Institutions Group, primarily on its projects in Indonesia and with the Programs and Policy Coordination office of USAID.In 1968, she married...
, praised Riza's work, saying, "Shaha Riza is a dedicated and serious reform advocate who has my respect. I hope she will be able to continue her work in spite of everything."
Former Supreme Cour Justice Sandra Day O'Connor
Sandra Day O'Connor
Sandra Day O'Connor is an American jurist who was the first female member of the Supreme Court of the United States. She served as an Associate Justice from 1981 until her retirement from the Court in 2006. O'Connor was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981...
, who serves as a board member at the Foundation for the Future, the organization that employs Riza, describes Riza as "a very competent person and knows the region well." O'Connor specifically praised Riza's involvement in pro-democracy projects in Morocco and Lebanon, citing her knowledge of Arabic as "extremely helpful."
For her part, Riza kept her silence, though she did remark that her life and her career "were torn asunder" by arbitrary World Bank policies. In a statement, she pointed to the "irony of my working to ensure women's participation and rights through the work of the World Bank and to be then stripped of my own rights by this same institution."
According to the Washington Post, Riza's friends encouraged her to speak up in her own defense, but she refused. Says one friend who requested anonymity thanks to the sensitive nature of the attacks against her.
- "What would you expect? How would you like to be portrayed as somebody's bimbo when you're a highly educated person who has actually worked hard to make life better for women and civil society in the Middle East and has actually achieved a lot."
Wolfowitz World Bank resolution
Wolfowitz was confirmed as World Bank President in June 2005. According to a dossier released by the World Bank, Wolfowitz had acknowledged his association with Riza in May. The relationship allegedly threatened to violate a World Bank ethics rule against personal relationships between bank employees and their supervisors, including indirect supervision through a chain of command. Wolfowitz's position was that Riza should be allowed to keep her job at the bank if he recusedRecusal
Judicial disqualification, also referred to as recusal, refers to the act of abstaining from participation in an official action such as a legal proceeding due to a conflict of interest of the presiding court official or administrative officer. Applicable statutes or canons of ethics may provide...
himself from all personnel actions or decisions that involved her. He also noted that there was, in fact, no World Bank rule governing informal relationships. To compensate Riza for the disruption caused by the Wolfowitz ethics panel, the committee advised an in situ promotion.
Riza's work was highly esteemed within the organization and she was shortlisted for a promotion. The ethics committee suggested that in light of forcing her on assignment she was to be granted "as part of a settlement of claims" an upgrade in job assignment and "an ad hoc salary increase. On July 27, the committee's chairman Ad Melkert
Ad Melkert
Adrianus Petrus Wilhelmus "Ad" Melkert is a Dutch politician of the Labour Party . He served as chair of the parliamentary party and Minister of Social Affairs and Employment for the social-democratic PvdA. He led the PvdA to a historic low in the contentious 2002 general elections, which were won...
sent a memo to Wolfowitz guaranteeing that "the potential disruption of the staff member's career prospect will be recognized by an in situ promotion on the basis of her qualifying record."
In 2007, the Washington Post reported that Riza's salary had increased from $132,660 to $193,590 per year, tax-exempt. This article led to a cascade of news coverage and calls for Wolfowitz's resignation. A new ad hoc investigation was set up at the World Bank. Shaha Riza wrote the committee that she was a victim in the case, arguing that the conflict-of-interest concern was spurious from the beginning and that she never wanted to leave the World Bank.
On April 12, 2007, Wolfowitz apologized for what he called a "mistake", but would not comment about resigning as World Bank governors met on April 15. With the Board of Executive Directors still reviewing the details of the case, Wolfowitz commented, "I'm not going to preempt their [the Board's] deliberations. I will accept any remedies they propose."
On April 17, 2007, the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal published an op-ed that characterized the scandal as a witch hunt. Although Wolfowitz had had a prior friendly relationship with staff on the Wall Street Journals editorial page and often published guest op-eds in the past, others questioned the story, The Los Angeles Times published an op-ed
Op-ed
An op-ed, abbreviated from opposite the editorial page , is a newspaper article that expresses the opinions of a named writer who is usually unaffiliated with the newspaper's editorial board...
calling it "a non story" and a "bum rap".
The New York Times called for Wolfowitz's resignation on April 28, 2007, saying that "The best thing Paul Wolfowitz can do for the World Bank, the country and himself is to step down."
On May 17, 2007 it was announced that Wolfowitz would resign effective June 30, 2007. He currently works for a conservative think tank, AEI
American Enterprise Institute
The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research is a conservative think tank founded in 1943. Its stated mission is "to defend the principles and improve the institutions of American freedom and democratic capitalism—limited government, private enterprise, individual liberty and...
.
Autobiography and publication list
External links
- Articles, publications and reports (items not related to Wolfowitz matter)
- "For Shaha Riza, a Feminist Fight", by Mary Lu Carnevale, The Wall Street Journal’s Capital Bureau, April 30, 2007.
- Transcript of appearance on The McLaughlin GroupThe McLaughlin GroupThe McLaughlin Group is a syndicated half-hour weekly public affairs television program in the United States, where a group of five pundits discuss current political issues in a round table format. It has been broadcast since 1982, and is currently sponsored by MetLife...
talk show, 24 July 2002 - World Bank photo of Shaha Riza
- Will a British divorcee cost 'Wolfie' his job? Sharon Churcher and Annette Witheridge, Mail on Sunday, 20 March 2005
- What Will the Neighbors Say? Wolfowitz Romance Stirs Gossip Richard Leiby, Washington Post, 22 March 2005
- Pressure grows on World Bank Boss BBC News, 13 April 2007
- The Purging of Paul Wolfowitz: An absurd non-scandal might cost the World Bank president his job Michael Weiss, Jewcy, May 9, 2007
- Worldbankpresident.org blog on the Wolfowitz affair
- A Brave Woman Scorned Christopher Hitchens, Slate, May 14, 2007
