Pentagon Report: Wolfowitz Did Not Abuse Position by Recommending Girlfriend for Contract

[Zandor]

Source: Fox News

Embattled former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz did not abuse his office by recommending his girlfriend for an Iraq reconstruction-related job four years ago, according to a report released Friday by the Pentagon's inspector general.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the IG's investigation two years ago found that Shaha Riza was "'uniquely qualified" for the position.

Whitman said the report found that Wolfowitz "may have recommended her" along with others for the 2003 contract...





Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,267415,00.html

---

The fox has completed it's investigation of the chicken coop massacre.

[54anickel]

1. Bwahaha --- "'uniquely qualified". Uh-huh, sure.....n/t

[unpossibles]

7. well, there can't be more than one person

who would sleep with Wolfie.

[Kikosexy2]

11. The thought...

of anyone kissing that slime (Wolfie) who licks his comb is just sooo disgusting....eeewwwwww!!

[saigon68]

16. Disgusting

[geomon666]

17. Maybe she licks it better.

*shudder*

[Kikosexy2]

18. Shaha..

Spit-licker....eeeewwww!!

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

35. Aagh!

[yellowcanine]

24. Like Joe Wilson was for the Niger trip? That didn't stop the wing nuts from falsely

maintaining that he got the trip as a result of his wife's influence.

[54anickel]

25. Not exactly the same thing is it?

Valerie Plame addressed this question in sworn testimony to Congress: "I did not recommend him. I did not suggest him. There was no nepotism involved. I did not have the authority...It's been borne out in the testimony during the Libby trial, and I can tell you that it just doesn't square with the facts."

But sure, I'll give Wolfie and Ms Riza the benefit of the doubt. Let's see what the investigation into his other contracts turns up....

Bank investigates contracts linked to Wolfowitz
http://www.guardian.co.uk/imf/story/0,,2062342,00.html

snip>

The decision increases the pressure on Mr Wolfowitz, since the board's move widens the investigation to include the employment contracts of two of Mr Wolfowitz's advisers. Robin Kellems and Robin Cleveland moved from working for the Bush administration to the World Bank alongside Mr Wolfowitz in 2005, and have formed part of his inner circle, leading to accusations by bank staff members of special treatment.
The investigation will also look into the revelations that Shaha Riza, a bank employee and Mr Wolfowitz's girlfriend, was given a large pay rise and promotion on his orders when she was seconded outside the bank to avoid rules barring employees in a relationship from working together.

Mr Kellems and Ms Cleveland are also thought to have received open-ended contracts with salaries substantially above their level of experience. They are said to have started on $250,000 (about £125,000) net of tax.

The bank's board said it would establish a working party "to consider immediately the arrangements made for the secondment of the staff member closely associated with the president" - a reference to Ms Riza. "In addition, the executive directors identified other issues that will need to be addressed, including the various public communications made by the bank on the matter and issues around employment contracts made in the office of the president," the statement concluded.

[yellowcanine]

26. Nope. That's why I said "falsely maintaining". It's another example of Republican projection.

They assume because nepotism is standard procedure for them it must also be so for Democrats.

[54anickel]

27. Ahhh, I get it now, missed the idea of "projection" the first read through

I misinterpreted your post...my apologies. :hi:

It will be interesting to see what, if anything, they turn up on the two Robins in this latest investigation.

[ck4829]

2. Geez, just as I predicted

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2812375&mesg_id=2812453

[Robbien]

3. We need to see whether the rest of the world accepts this crap

We already know that we put up with shit such as this.

[Montauk6]

4. "UNIQUELY qualified"

It's Friday, I ain't even gonna touch that one...

[Bozita]

5. Perhaps during intimate moments, she spits on his comb for him.

[calimary]

20. EEEEEEUUUUUUWWW! Can't think of too many things more

stomach-turning than that.

[aquart]

6. A position of doing nothing in a scam job? You betcha.

[underpants]

8. What about her security clearance?

Riza was unhappy about leaving the sinecure at the World Bank. But in 2006 Wolfowitz made a series of calls to his friends that landed her 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 the 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.

Exactly how this deal was made and with whom remains something of a mystery. The person who did work with Riza in her new position was Elizabeth Cheney, then the deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs. And Riza's assignment fell under the purview of Karen Hughes, undersecretary of state for public diplomacy. But these facts raise more questions than they answer.

The documents released by the World Bank do not include any of the communications with the state department. How did Elizabeth Cheney come to be involved? Did Wolfowitz speak with the vice-president, Dick Cheney, for whom he had been a deputy when Cheney was secretary of defence in the elder Bush's administration?

Riza, who is not a US citizen, had to receive a security clearance in order to work at the state department. Who intervened? It is not unusual to have British or French midlevel officers at the department on exchange programs, but they receive security clearances based on the clearances they already have with their host governments. Granting a foreign national who is detailed from an international organisation a security clearance, however, is extraordinary, even unprecedented. So how could this clearance have been granted?

State department officials familiar with the details of this matter confirmed to me that Shaha Ali Riza was detailed to the state department and had unescorted access while working for Elizabeth Cheney. Access to the building requires a national security clearance or permanent escort by a person with such a clearance. But the State Department has no record of having issued a national security clearance to Riza.

State department officials believe that Riza was issued such a clearance by the defence department after SAIC was forced by Wolfowitz and Feith to hire her. Then her clearance would have been recognised by the state department through a credentials transmittal letter and Riza would have accessed the state department on Pentagon credentials, using her Pentagon clearance to get a state department building pass with a letter issued under instructions from Liz Cheney.

But state department officials tell me that no such letter can be confirmed as received. And the officials stress that the department would never issue a clearance to a non-US citizen as part of a contractual requisition. Issuing a national security clearance to a foreign national under instructions from a Pentagon official would constitute a violation of the executive orders governing clearances, they say.

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/sidney_blumenthal/2007/04/dances_with_wolfowitz.html

[jilln]

9. not to mention they pre-arranged outstanding performance reviews for her...

In what universe is that not breaking some law or moral code?

[54anickel]

28. Forget looking for any moral code - they don't care. Anything goes

so long as it's legal in the end. Doesn't matter how many loopholes or back doors were implemented, and there's no crime in breaking ethical standards or moral codes so they don't care about those. "No harm, no foul" I believe is how the jingle goes.

[jilln]

31. True... it's just so disappointing that they come up with this crap

and others help them implement it. Whoever agreed to the prearranged reviews should be fired and barred from working for any public organization ever again.

[sinkingfeeling]

10. Of course, it's routine to give a foreign-born, non citizen a position requiring a high

security level, isn't it?

[tabasco]

12. LMAO. Bush yes-men attempt to cover Wolfie's ass.

I suppose the Iraq war is paying for itself too (one of Wolfshit's gems).

[ixion]

13. *snicker*

yeah. right. whatever. :rofl:

[primavera]

14. Yikes, you mean there's a woman on earth...

... who's been willing to sleep with Paul Wolfowitz for four years? :puke:

[momster]

22. He's Still Married!

""Wolfowitz married his wife Clare Selgin in 1968. But they have lived separately since 2001, after allegations he had an affair with an employee at the School of Advanced International Studies where he was dean for seven years. They are now believed to be legally separated.""

Off a British web site that came up when I googled Paul Wolfowitz wife

[EFerrari]

15. Why is the PENTAGON IG issuing this report? That's hilarious.

lol

[northzax]

32. cause it was a Pentagon contract

they are referring to?

I don't think the contract is the issue. I want to know how a British Citizen of Lebanese descent had un-escorted clearance in the US State Department? Who issued this security clearance, and why? (it is fairly common for British nationals to have certain floor unescorted clearance when they are seconded to Foggy Bottom from Whitehall, but, Riza had no UK clearance, and was apparently given, in essence, an all-access pass to State. that's your story.

[bobthedrummer]

34. So that the Pentagon can say it found nothing "improper" about SAIC

as can the DoJ Procurement Fraud Task Force chaired by Alice S. Fisher and co-chaired by House Oversight Committee witness at the Doan hearing Brian D. Miller-all working with Paul McNulty for AGAG-when you cut these tangled webs into managable pieces a PATTERN does emerge.

National Procurement Fraud Task Force press release 10-16-2006
http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/npftf/

Alice S. Fisher profile from SourceWatch
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Alice_S._Fisher

Brian Miller did prosecute Oracle and recover $98.5Mn
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2006/October/06_odag_689.html

All the loyal Bushies both in and out of uniform protect the WH connections and their own compromised souls above all else-that's another recognized characteristic of these traitors.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

19. What other garbage will they come up with?

plenty more I guess?

[Rowdy Church]

21. More NeoCon Hypocrisy

The hypocrisy of the neocons never ceases to amaze me ... immediately upon seeing this headline it struck me ... they continued to claim that CIA operative Valerie Plame *abused her position by recommending her husband* for the investigative trip to Niger.

Which is a talking point still used to this day - even though its long been discredited.

But when its a neocon who has actually *abused his position* ... whose the first to defend his sorry ass with terms like *uniquely qualified* and *may have recommended her* ...

Wolfowitz must go !!

:grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

[MGKrebs]

23. If she was so qualified, why did she need his recommendation?

He stuck his neck out and pulled strings to get her a job that apparently only she ("uniquely") is qualified for?

[HuffleClaw]

29. simply laughable

but just a typical day for BushCo.

[tiptoe]

30. Cheney's Pentagon: filth, treason -- FLUSH 'EM OUT!

[bobthedrummer]

33. "Elizabeth CHENEY was also a 'colleague' of Wolfowitz's partner Shaha Ali Riza"

crosspost from an interesting thread started by Fridays Child re clandestine RNC WH communications network
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x548152#651509

Robert Dreyfuss article on Liz Cheney from The American Prospect.org
"The Commissar's in Town"
http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewPrint&articleId=11540

fair use cited

[bobthedrummer]

36. kick

[MotorCityMan]

37. Well, color me shocked...

n/t

[bobthedrummer]

38. kick

[JNelson6563]

39. Breaking: Fox says "all good" in chicken house

Ugh.