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Is There a Breach of Nat'l Security Protocol in the Wolfowitz Girlfriend Scandal?

Sidney Blumenthal has an excellent article in Salon today about the Wolfowitz girlfriend scandal. The outrage this far has focused on these facts:

In 2006 Wolfowitz made a series of calls to his friends that landed [his girlfriend, Shaha Ali Riza] a job at a new think tank called Foundation for the Future that is funded by the State Department. She was the sole employee, at least in the beginning. The World Bank continued to pay her salary, which was raised by $60,000 to $193,590 annually, more than the $183,500 paid to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and all of it tax-free. Moreover, Wolfowitz got the State Department to agree that the ratings of her performance would automatically be "outstanding." Wolfowitz insisted on these terms himself and then misled the World Bank board about what he had done.

Okay, old hat, right? Well, not exactly. In order to get the job Riza got at the State Department, she'd need a security clearance. And those aren't given to foreign nationals who formerly worked for international aid organizations. Riza is "a Libyan, raised in Saudi Arabia, educated at Oxford, who now has British citizenship" and according to Blumenthal, "Granting a foreign national who is detailed from an international organization a security clearance, however, is extraordinary, even unprecedented." Did Paul Wolfowitz compromise national security just to get his lover a job?

Blumenthal is calling for an investigation. It would be downright Al Capone-esque if the disgrace that finally rid us of Paul Wolfowitz's nefarious influence came about NOT because of the ill-advised and disastrously-executed war he schemed up, but because he gave away a few too many perks on the way to the bedroom.

Comments

There is a discrepancy as to the salary received by Ms. Riza. Some reports state that it is a monthly salary, others like Mr. Bleumenthal quote, has it as an annual salary. Some reports state that World Bank staffers are up in arms because they are convinced that they cannot work for the $193,590.00 in a year. Therefore, which is correct? Monthly or annual?

Posted by: cecil Archer on 04/19/07 at 9:32 PM

Wolfowitz is a republican and a neocon; nothing more needs to be said since they all will give away america for their own benefit. Republican Party first and America last, if at all. And the Catholic Church, my church just keeps supporting these people. Exactly what is their involvement as they are nose deep in the slime of politics. Shame on both Popes.

Posted by: bobt on 04/20/07 at 11:18 AM

Shame on Mr. Wolfowitz and all his ilk. Same old do as I say and not as I do. Isn't it enought that you were party to starting a war based on lies and then you breach national security procedures in pursuit of your sex life?
You disgrace your county before the world in a post you didn't deserve in the first place. President Bush is there no end in sight to your rewarding people based on the loyalty to you and not whether they deserve the assignment?

Posted by: Patricia Diaz on 04/20/07 at 12:11 PM

Comment on 04/19/07 post at 9:32 PM
"Some reports state" sidetracks the intelligent discussion of the issues covered in the original author's piece.

It is a good way to preface erroneous information when you want to have it included in a blog.

It's right up their with a favorite headline lead often cited by news-comic John Stuart (sp?), "Experts question" in small caps followed by preposterous statement in large caps.

e.g. Might the better lead be "Funny-looking short guy funds sexual escapade with unmarried Libyan."

The issue here is another neo con nationalist using undeserved power and authority for personal gain.

Posted by: BobK on 04/20/07 at 12:20 PM

Shaha Ali Riza worked at the National Endowment for Democracy before she came to the World Bank (Wolfowitz was a board member). She was formerly married to a man who is the Turkish policy expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The "Foundation for the Future" is headquartered in Beirut, is at least partly funded by a big contribution from Bahrain, has not spent any recorded money except to hold meetings of its own board.

No-longer-blogging but occasionally-commenting Billmon said recently on a DailyKos diary on this topic:
put this together with Sy Hersh's recent reporting on covert CIA support for anti-Hezbollah Sunni militia groups in Lebanon. Then go back and look a little more closely at the Iran-Contra scandal, and the use of nonprofit false front foundations both to steer money to the contras AND provide sinecures for various neocon hangers on.

Security clearances? These people don't need no steenking security clearances! They're part of The Enterprise, the off-the-shelf covert ops capability that's been around since the 1980s, and certainly very much revived under Bush 2.

(h/t Bernhard at Moon of Alabama)

Posted by: Nell on 04/20/07 at 12:21 PM

Maybe Mr. Wolfowitz doesn't care to "disgrace his couintry" because he doesn't feel the US to be his country. It seems that Wolfowitz was more concerned all along in the security of a foreign nation rather than his own.

Posted by: Jaime Galarza on 04/21/07 at 5:12 PM