ROBERT WEISSMAN
Co-director of Essential Action, Weissman said today: “Wolfowitz brings no apparent development experience to the job, but does offer a record of unabashed militarism and unilateralism that represents exactly the wrong direction for the World Bank. Militarism and wasteful spending on weaponry is a huge problem in the developing world. The nomination of Paul Wolfowitz — who is emblematic of misplaced priorities in the United States — sends exactly the wrong message to poor developing countries that should spend far less money on military operations and instead invest to advance genuine national security interests, such as health care, education and providing for basic survival.”
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WILLIAM HARTUNG
Hartung is senior research fellow at the World Policy Institute and director of the Arms Trade Resource Center. He said today: “It looks like everyone who made a mess out of Iraq is getting golden parachutes. Paul Wolfowitz has a serious credibility problem. He understated the cost of the Iraq war, while promoting vast distortions about Baghdad’s weapons capabilities as a way to sell the conflict to the American public. He couldn’t remember how many U.S. causalities there were in Iraq, and he’s now slated to be head of a nominally humanitarian agency.” Hartung wrote the book How Much Are You Making on the War, Daddy? — A Quick and Dirty Guide to War Profiteering in the Bush Administration.
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NJOKI NJOROGE NJEHU
SOREN AMBROSE
Njehu is the director of the 50 Years Is Enough Network. She said today: “[Wolfowitz was] the most prominent advocate of imposing the U.S.’s will on the world — the architect of the disastrous invasion and occupation of Iraq. This appointment signals to developing countries that the U.S. is just as serious about imposing its will on borrowers from the World Bank as on the countries of the Middle East. Coming on the heels of the nomination of John Bolton as ambassador to the U.N., it reveals the contempt this administration has for the international community. … While the World Bank insists that borrowers institute ‘good governance,’ the president of the World Bank is chosen in a secret process by the U.S.” Ambrose is a senior analyst with the 50 Years Is Enough Network.
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NEIL WATKINS
Watkins is national coordinator of Jubilee USA Network. He said today: “If the World Bank is a development organization of more than 180 member nations, as it claims, it is unacceptable for one nation to unilaterally select its leader.”
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For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167