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US shuns détente and arms reduction policy
World views Washington's
nukes plan provocative
Eli Clifton in Washington
The US announcement earlier this month that it would pursue the design and construction of new nuclear weapons has not been warmly embraced by the rest of the world.
In fact, most people outside the country view the move as more evidence of a policy favouring unilateralism and the pursuit of absolute military superiority, according to a report written last December but just released recently on global perceptions of U.S. nuclear policy.
The report, commissioned by the Pentagon's Defence Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), used focus groups and written and oral interviews with participants in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America to assess international feelings toward the plan for a new generation of nuclear warheads.
It found that China and Russia, in particular, are watching the scope of U.S. missile deployments with concern that Washington might be attempting to move away from a deterrence posture through more effective defences.
Under the new Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) programme, older nuclear warheads currently maintained under the Stockpile Stewardship Programme will be replaced by simpler weapons meant to be more reliable, easier to manufacture and more robust than current models. They would reportedly be ready for production by 2012.
The decision to upgrade the U.S. nuclear arsenal is being opposed by some members of the U.S. Congress, who believe it sends a message that Washington is pursuing first strike capabilities instead of a policy of détente and arms reduction, as was the case during the Cold War.
"The whole name of the reliable replacement warhead is insidious since it suggests the current weapons are not reliable," Stephen Schwartz, editor of the Nonproliferation Review at the Centre for Nonproliferation Studies, told IPS.
The Union of Concerned Scientists says that the plan to update the U.S. nuclear arsenal is unnecessary because the current arsenal's reliability is not degrading. Changing the design of nuclear warheads is expensive and dangerous, the group argues, and political pressure within the United States could lead to the testing of new nuclear weapons before they replace existing weapons.
The new warheads are based on a design that was detonated in underground tests during the 1980s.
Although part of the George W. Bush administration's rationale for the RRW is a need to have a more flexible arsenal to engage and deter so-called "rogue states", such as North Korea and Iran, the DTRA report concludes that Russia and China's future decisions about their nuclear arsenals will be dependent on "their perceptions of U.S. strategic intent, plans, and commitments."
The departure from a policy of nuclear deterrence has also caused concern in Japan and Turkey, where U.S. commitments of extended deterrence are seen as essential security guarantees. The new policies have led both countries to question the credibility of a U.S. nuclear guarantee, says the report.
Focus groups and written responses from U.S. allies and friends "oppose U.S. development of new, tailored, low-yield nuclear weapons as unnecessary, potentially dangerous, politically divisive, and adversely impacting non-proliferation," says the report.
While the DTRA's report is one of the first to address the geo-strategic effect the new weapons will have on non-proliferation and global stability, there are also concerns here that the new weapons will eventually require potentially dangerous testing.
The U.S. Senate has not ratified the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), which bars nuclear weapons tests, and some fear that the Bush administration's plan to develop new nuclear weapons could seriously undermine the possibility of a Senate ratification of the treaty.
"A number of people have raised the point that even if the scientists are confident the weapon will work, many military leaders will be a bit sceptical and demand actual proof," warned Schwartz.
There are no current plans to test the new weapons, but the development of new warheads does make some countries doubt the United States and other nuclear weapons powers' commitment to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which includes disarmament obligations such as ratification of the CTBT.
The U.S. government, in the past, has implied that the development of more reliable nuclear warheads will allow it to reduce its total number of nuclear warheads and comply with reductions required in the NPT.
"[But] if you're looking at this from the outside (of the U.S.) you'll see the U.S. has 10,000 nuclear weapons and is going to build more," said Schwartz.
The DTRA study concludes that the message from U.S. allies to Washington is that "a greater U.S. readiness to engage on nuclear disarmament issues would pay off in increased support from other third parties in pursuing U.S. non-proliferation objectives."
"Building these new warheads will restart the Cold War cycle of designing and producing new nuclear weapons. Instead, the United States needs a thorough review of its outdated nuclear weapons policy, under which it keeps thousands of warheads on high-alert status. Rather than building new nuclear weapons, the United States should be looking for ways to reduce its reliance on them," said Dr. Robert Nelson, a senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, in a statement.
On March 18, a panel composed of retired nuclear weapons laboratory directors and former defence and energy department officials also weighed in on the debate, recommending that "any decision to proceed with RRW must be coupled with a transparent administration policy on nuclear weapons, including comments concerning stockpile size, nuclear testing and nonproliferation." The panel's full report is expected next month.
- Inter Press Service
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Study finds UK's policy on Muslim prisoners counterproductive
Hamed Chapman
A gaping hole in the Government's policy to tackle terrorism has been exposed by the first in-depth study of the experiences of Muslim prisoners that found attempts to curb the supposed growth of radical Islam in jails were counterproductive.
Author of the report, lecturer in Antropology of Religion, Gabriele Marranci, challenged claims that Muslims are radicalised by Imams while in prison, saying that he found "no evidence to suggest that Muslim chaplains are behaving or preaching in a way that facilitates radicalisation."
"On the contrary, my findings suggest that they are extremely important in preventing dangerous forms of extremism. However, the distrust that they face, both internally and externally, is jeopardising their important function," said Marranci, who is the founding editor of the Anthropological Journal of Islamic Studies, Contemporary Islam: Dynamics of Muslim Life.
The findings were also endorsed by one of the Muslim chaplains interviewed in the four-year study, Imam Khalil Kazi, who said that his personal experience at HM Prison Leeds for over a decade was that faith-based projects can reduce re-offending and assist individuals to become law abiding citizens of society. "It is a common myth that faith is used as a tool to radicalise young Muslim prisoners to become radicalised and extremist," Kazi told The Muslim News.
The study revealed that Muslim prisoners are subjected to stricter security and included restrictions on prayers and reading the Quran, which were found to backfire. "In particular, the decision in high security prisons to suspend access to certain TV programmes or newspapers has produced the opposite result that the establishment desired," Marranci said.
It was instead suggested that it was the lack of freedom of expression suffered by Muslim prisoners and the continuous atmosphere of suspicion around them, which has the "effect of increasing a sense of frustration and depression that a strong view of Islam can help to overcome."
The lecturer from Aberdeen University in Scotland held interviews with over 170 current and former Muslim prisoners while researching how being locked up behind bars impacted on the identity of Muslim prisoners in the face of being singled out for stricter restrictions than other inmates. "Muslims who openly show their Muslim identity through symbols suffer more discrimination in general, from both staff and other prisoners, than those who keep a low profile," he said. Even growing a beard was interpreted in almost all of the establishments he visited as the "radicalisation of the individual."
"The respective Prison Services have tried to do something to address the issue of radicalisation but they're heading in the wrong direction," Marranci warned. He further warned about the dangers of Muslim prisoners having less support when they leave jail. "The mass media over emphasise and politicians overestimate the danger of extremism within prison as well as the danger of extremists' recruitment within prison, overlooking the real problem: the process of re-integration within society," he suggested.
- The Muslim News
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'US media have lost the will to dig deep'
Greg Palast
A changed news culture has let several important investigative stories slip through the cracks.
In an e-mail uncovered and released by the House Judiciary Committee earlier in March, Tim Griffin, once Karl Rove's right-hand man, gloated that "no [U.S.] national press picked up" a BBC Television story reporting that the Rove team had developed an elaborate scheme to challenge the votes of thousands of African Americans in the 2004 election.
Griffin wasn't exactly right. The Los Angeles Times did run a follow-up article a few days later in which it reported the findings. But he was essentially right. Most of the major U.S. newspapers and the vast majority of television news programs ignored the story even though it came at a critical moment just weeks before the election.
According to Griffin (who has since been dispatched to Arkansas to replace one of the U.S. attorneys fired by the Justice Department), the mainstream media rejected the story because it was wrong.
"That guy is a British reporter who accepted some false allegations and made a story up," he said.
Let's get one fact straight, Mr. Griffin. "That guy" is not a British reporter. I am an American living abroad, putting investigative reports on the air from London for the British Broadcasting Corp.
I'm not going to argue with Rove's minions about the validity of our reporting, which led the news in Britain. But I can tell you this: To the extent that it was ignored in the United States, it wasn't because the report was false. It was because it was complicated and murky and because it required a lot of time and reporting to get to the bottom of it. In fact, not one U.S. newsperson even bothered to ask me or the BBC for the data and research we had painstakingly done in our effort to demonstrate the existence of the scheme.
The truth is, I knew that a story like this one would never be reported in my own country. Because investigative reporting - the kind Jack Anderson used to do regularly and which was carried in hundreds of papers across the country, the kind of muckraking, data-intensive work that takes time and money and ruffles feathers - is dying.
I've been through this before, too many times. Take this investigative report, also buried in the U.S.: Back in December 2000, I received two computer disks from the office of Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris. Analysis of the data, plus documents that fell my way, indicated that Harris' office had purged thousands of African Americans from Florida's voter rolls as "felons." Florida now admits that many of these voters were not in fact felons. Nevertheless, the blacklisting helped cost Al Gore the White House.
I reported on the phony felon purge in Britain's Guardian and Observer and on the BBC while Gore was still in the race, while the count was still on.
Yet the story of the Florida purge never appeared in the U.S. daily papers or on television. Until months later, that is, after the Supreme Court had decided the election, when it was picked up by the Washington Post and others.
U.S. papers delayed the story until the U.S. Civil Rights Commission issued a report saying our Guardian/BBC story was correct: Innocents lost their vote. At that point, protected by the official imprimatur, American editors felt it safe enough to venture out with the story. But by then, George W. Bush could read it from his chair in the Oval Office.
Again and again, I see this pattern repeated. Until there is some official investigation or allegation made by a politician, there is no story.
Or sometimes the media like to cover the controversy, not the substance, preferring an ambiguous and unsatisfying "he said, she said" report. Safe reporting, but not investigative.
I know some of the reasons why investigative reporting is on the decline. To begin with, investigations take time and money. A producer from "60 Minutes," watching my team's work on another voter purge list, said: "My God! You'd have to make hundreds of calls to make this case." In America's cash-short, instant-deadline world, there's not much room for that.
Are there still aggressive, talented investigative reporters in the U.S.? There are hundreds. I'll mention two: Seymour Hersh, formerly of the New York Times, and Robert Parry, formerly of the Associated Press, who uncovered the Iran-Contra scandal. The operative word here is "formerly." Parry tells me that he can no longer do this kind of investigative work within the confines of a U.S. daily newsroom.
One of the biggest disincentives to doing investigative journalism is that it jeopardizes future access to politicians and corporate elite. During the I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby trial, the testimony of Judith Miller and other U.S. journalists about the confidences they were willing to keep in order to maintain access seemed to me sadly illuminating.
Expose the critters and the door is slammed. That's not a price many American journalists are willing to pay.
It's different in Britain. After the 2000 election, when Harris' lawyer refused to respond to our evidence, my BBC producer made sure I chased him down the hall waving the damning documents. That's one sure way to end "access."
Reporters in Britain must adhere to extraordinarily strict standards of accuracy because there is no Bill of Rights, no "freedom of the press" to provide cover against lawsuits. Further, the British government fines reporters who make false accusations and jails others who reveal "official secrets."
I've long argued that Britain needs a 1st Amendment right to press freedom. It could, of course, borrow ours. We don't use it.
Courtesy: The Los Angeles Times
Greg Palast is the author of "Armed Madhouse: From New Orleans to Baghdad - Sordid Secrets and Strange Tales of a White House Gone Wild."
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Islamophobic : Muslim graves
vandalised in UK
Elham Asaad Buaras in London
Bereaved relatives have been left devastated after vandals targeted Muslim graves in Leeds. Police are treating the desecration in a Muslim section of Cottingley Cemetery as Islamophobic.
Families were distraught to find around 30 Muslim grave headstones (approximately 85 per cent of Muslims graves) kicked over, memorial plaques removed, rubbish scattered around and even a bin placed over one of the graves.
Sunjeeda Hanif discovered the vandalism on March 31, when she came, with husband Ashfaq Qamar and dad Khwaja Mohammed Hanif, to visit the grave of her mum, Surraya Jabeen, who died in 2003. She told The Muslim News, "Her wooden plaque had been taken out and thrown across the graveyard, and the stick has been broken. It's shocking to see. We were all in tears and wondering where her plaque had gone. It took my dad and husband half an hour to find it."
Footprints were still visible on one headstone engraved with Qur'an verses that had been kicked but stayed upright.
Hanif, community and policy development manager for charity, Policy Research on Aging and Ethnicity, called on Leeds City Council to install CCTV over the site.
Two pensioners, Raiz Begum and Asia Suleman, said it was "very painful" to see the damage to the graves. Three members of Begum's immediate family are laid to rest at the cemetery. Hanif's family arranged a meeting the following day with other bereaved family members and local councillors. She criticised Cottingley Cemetery for ignoring her telephone message, "I called them on Saturday and left a message, telling that we've found vandalised headstones but I've yet to receive a telephone call."
She added, "We've paid for the plots. It's not the job of relatives to protect the headstones. Just because we've been in contact with council members it doesn't mean the cemetery doesn't have a responsibility."
A spokesman from Leeds City Council told The Muslim News cemetery officials had already contacted them adding "the cemetery is run by the Council. We have been informed by the cemetery officials after Ms Hanif called them."
Another grieving relative, Irene Majid, whose husband's headstone was vandalised, told The Muslim News, "My husband Mukhtar has been here for two years and I am frightened to put a headstone on."
Sajid Rashid, whose father is buried there, told The Muslim News there had been incidents before and he wanted the area to be fenced off. "It's hurtful that someone should do it. My father's headstone had been pulled down and a basket of flowers kicked off."
In a statement to The Muslim News Councillor Patrick Davey, said, "It's obviously very distressing for the families involved. I have contacted Paul Rogerson, Chief Executive of Leeds City Council, to make him aware and he can discuss the situation with senior officers at the Council."
He said that the same sort of damage happened at graveyards across the city serving all different faiths.
Sergeant Damien Miller told The Muslim News the damage was being treated as an Islamophobic attack as it was limited to the Muslim area of the cemetery. "Damage caused to the graves of people's loved ones is particularly offensive and we would like anyone with information to contact us. We do feel it might have an Islamophobic motive as only the Muslims graves were targeted."
He said they had stepped up patrols in the area, including at the cemetery, following the searches in Beeston, which came after recent arrests of three men alleged in connection with the July 7 London bombings.
- The Muslim News
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Tamil air raid escalates
Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict
Jehan Perera in Colombo
When the Sri Lankan cricket team was battling against the odds against their Australian counterparts at the World Cup finals in Jamaica, the night sky in Colombo was set alight and bursts of anti-aircraft gunfire from numerous places in Colombo were heard. In a tragic and unconscionable manner, the unity that the country's multi-ethnic cricket team had demonstrated in both victory and defeat, was once again not matched by the protagonists in Sri Lanka's long drawn out ethnic conflict.
In the run up to the World Cup finals, the international media ran stories representing the hope and lack of understanding of the international community about the mutually destructive war in Sri Lanka. They speculated that the goodwill and euphoria generated by the cricket team would translate into political initiatives that would take this beautiful and talented country to peace. But the international media wrongly assumed that the positive social and cultural relationships that bind the ethnic communities in Sri Lanka together could translate into a political vision and commitment to secure a power sharing formula to resolve the ethnic conflict.
The decision of the LTTE to use its limited air power to bomb Colombo on the night of the World Cup finals was undoubtedly a carefully calculated one. The Commander-in-Chief of the Sri Lankan armed forces, President Mahinda Rajapaksa was himself in Jamaica along with his entourage to cheer on the Sri Lankan team and to encourage them to victory. The eyes of virtually all Sri Lankans were glued to the television screen.
Fortunately the bombs that the Tamil guerrillas' light aircraft dropped on the oil storage facilities on the outskirts of Colombo failed to cause serious damage unlike the LTTE attack in 2001. In that year Tamil Tigers' ground attack squads caused a near catastrophe when they successfully penetrated the oil storage facilities and set them on fire. The wheels of the economy came to a virtual standstill at that time. Although past experience has shown that Tamil Tigers' ground attacks have been much more severe in their destructive potential, their new tactic of air attacks brings with it an unprecedented dimension.
Unconventional warfare
The LTTE bombing raid on Colombo was unsuccessful in destroying their targets. However, they have once again been successful in demonstrating their ability to engage in unconventional warfare. The chaos in Colombo on the night of the attack, the firing on a commercial airliner by over-excited anti-aircraft gunners, and the massive international media coverage of the event will do much to harm the country's prospects. Two major international airlines have already suspended their flights to Sri Lanka with immediate effect. Neither tourists nor foreign investors are likely to be prepared to visit the country in the current circumstances.
No government or society can tolerate a situation where its capital city is subjected to periodic bombing raids by an enemy force. There is no question that such threats have to be neutralized. The manner in which the government has been approaching this task over the past year and a half of President Rajapaksa's rule is primarily, if not solely, through its military. Unfortunately, the ruling party's proposals for political reform that are to be unveiled are reported to be regressive seemingly designed to appease Sinhalese nationalists.
The government's immediate response of sending its own air force to heavily pound LTTE-controlled areas may satisfy governmental leaders and nationalist sections of the population. They would wish the LTTE to be severely punished for the unexpected exercise of bombing Colombo which had united the multi-ethnic population behind the multi-ethnic cricket team. On the other hand, most of the people living in the LTTE-controlled areas would not have been able to watch the cricket match in any event.
The war-related destruction of infrastructure in the LTTE-controlled areas is such that the people there live fifty to several hundred years in the past in relation to economic facilities and democracy. The regular air force bombing to which those areas have been subjected is of a different order of magnitude in comparison to the few small bombs dropped by the LTTE air force. At least three hundred thousand people have been displaced from their homes and live in the most wretched conditions since the commencement of hostilities between the government and LTTE in April last year.
On each occasions the LTTE has acknowledged its air raids, it has sought to justify them by claiming they are in retaliation for the bombing of their areas by the government. It is this type of logic that Mahatma Gandhi totally rejected by saying that if the attitude of an eye for an eye was followed the whole world would go blind. Unfortunately the militarists on either side of the divide tend to get stronger when equivalent if not greater retaliation is seen as the appropriate mode of response.
Human costs
If large scale civilian suffering and displacement can be ignored, the military strategy of the government up to now has been relatively successful in the east of the country. The government has militarily captured those parts of the east that were administered by the LTTE. The next theatre of confrontation is likely to be the north where the LTTE's military and administrative assets are presently concentrated. The aircraft and airfields that have caused chaos and apprehension in Colombo are located in the LTTE-controlled areas of the north.
The government may soon send in its ground troops into the north to seek out and destroy the LTTE's military and administrative assets there, as they have in the east. There are indications that the government's military campaign against LTTE strongholds in the north has already commenced. One of the first targets appears to the Madhu area of the north which is currently under LTTE control and where there is a large refugee welfare centre in the vicinity of the Catholic shrine of Madhu. As a result the situation there has become very tense.
Adding to the woes of the people is the fact that the presence of LTTE cadres has increased substantially with recruitments and abductions of young people into their ranks taking place even from public places. Forced abductions are taking place on a regular basis and it is reported that up to 3,500 youths are being targeted for recruitment. The LTTE is also reported to be interfering with the work of NGOs and stating that they need to function under their diktat. Many NGOs are afraid of sending their staff to the field due to harassment by the LTTE.
What this goes to show is that the human costs of continued confrontation between the government and LTTE are very high. The escalation of the war into the north would add significantly to those human costs. There is a desperate need for an alternative path to conflict resolution, but at the present time neither the government nor the LTTE appears to have either the political vision or commitment to carve out that path. Instead they appear to be mutually engaged in a cycle of violence from which the people have no escape.
It is indeed regrettable that the ruling party's political proposals to resolve the ethnic conflict offer even less in terms of power sharing than the existing system of provincial councils set up under the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord of 1987. The ruling party proposals seek to limit power sharing to the district level and to the village level. Even today the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord, with its provisions for the establishment of provincial councils, and for the temporary merger of the Northern and Eastern provinces, stands as a reasonable model of ethnic accommodation.
The main burden of keeping hope alive therefore falls on the UNP which as the main opposition party has stood consistently for a negotiated political solution based on the federal formula of the Oslo declaration that was agreed on by the government and LTTE negotiating teams in December 2002. The left coalition partners of the government and civil society groups that stand for a negotiated political solution also need to continue voicing their commitment to a viable power sharing framework that meets the just demand of the Tamil people for their rights.
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ISLAMABAD DIARY
Jonaid Iqbal
Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao was attacked last Saturday at about 7 in the evening at Charsadda, his home town in the NWF Province, where the CIA periodically sights Osama bin Laden taking a walk or going to marriage feasts. Mercifully the Minister survived the deadly attack, but 32 poor people died and 52 were injured, including the Minister, and his son. The National Assembly, the President, the Prime Minister, and all other important gentries of the government have condemned the gory incident. The perpetrator walked over near the Minister when he was conversing with workers of his (PPP-Sherpao group) and detonated his vest filled with six to eight kilograms of Russian-made explosives, and loaded with pellets and bolts to make the explosion more terrifying.
Now, a woman scholar is reminding us folks that terrorism was creeping on us even at Islamabad. Next day, the Opposition took turns in expressing sympathy with a brother parliamentarian, whose life God Almighty had spared. The incident happened right after Sherpao had addressed a meeting, attended by about 200 people, including the bomber. Parliamentarians ascribed the reason for the frequent gory terrorist attacks to the lack of democracy.
Among those who were foremost in asking for the restoration of democracy were followers of Mohtrama Benazir Bhutto who is now confusing the nation with the riddle as to whether she has made a deal with President Musharraf. There was no need for her to go public on this issue after President had denied a deal he had made with her and her loyal followers had been swearing the denial and were saying that the rumour was spread by government sources at a time when President Musharraf was feeling a little down under with the intensity of lawyers' protest decrying the reference he sent to the Supreme Judicial Council against non-functional Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. But Benazir now says that she will have to establish normal working relationship with the President (in or outside uniform) after she is invited to take oath as Prime Minister. That she said would be good for democracy and Pakistan.
But a parliamentarian we talked to the other day in the Assembly quipped that it might shower on PPP another status as the greatest PML-Q party, second only to the clerics of MMA. By the way, the reference matter had taken a new turn, and in his recent move Chief Justice (non-functional) has entered a plea of Contempt against the President. On Wednesday the SJC is meeting again to proceed with the reference. However, Justice Iftikhar's counsel Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan -PPP) in a press interview with a journalist said that he would make a protest in the hearing of the case that the SJC wait until the question of jurisdiction has been decided.
The CJ has filed a petition in the Supreme Court that the dispatch of the reference was in excess of law, the President is not authorised to file a reference, and the SJC has no locus standi to hear the reference case. The country awaits the outcome of the reference that has become the most powerful challenge to President Musharraf who has agreed that he would abide by the decision. However, he is scheduled to address a rally at Islamabad on May 12 apparently to convince the electorate or his voters in the Assembly, Senate, and four Provincial Assemblies that the people of the country are still overwhelmingly in his favour. All indications are that he would field himself as a candidate for the next Presidential election in uniform, and the chief minister of Punjab is on record that he would have him elected in uniform and the Chief Election Commissioner, who may have a problem in his hand with every one, including the US and Commonwealth, seeking an assurance that the election would be fair and free. People in the election have always certified the election as well as the former referendum of President Musharraf as clean and fair. So may God help us in going through the election.
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WB's corruption fighters
facing image crisis
Emad Mekay in Washington
Dozens of World Bank employees in a department entrusted with charting anti-corruption policies weighed in recently on the nepotism scandal surrounding Bank president Paul Wolfowitz, saying that their credibility was wearing away because of the escalating controversy.
The statement was sent in late April to Wolfowitz and to the 24-member Board of Executive Directors, who help with running the Bank's day-to-day affairs, from the World Bank Group's Governance and Anti-corruption (GAC) Strategy Team.
The message was signed by 46 staff members who say they also represent an even greater body of Bank employees and field officers. They cite reports that they are now facing increasing questioning of their role and of the authenticity of their mission of fighting fraud in borrowing nations.
"We are deeply concerned by the impact of the current leadership crisis on the Bank's credibility and authority to engage with governments, non-government stakeholders, and donor partners on the GAC agenda," says the letter, seen by IPS.
Wolfowitz is facing accusations of abusing his power to promote and enrich his girlfriend and Bank staffer, Shaha Riza, with a compensation package that went above and beyond Bank protocols.
The controversy has become especially acute because Wolfowitz, best known for his role as an "architect" of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, sought to make fighting corruption a landmark of his tenure at the helm of one of the world's most powerful financial institutions. The nepotism charges were added to a long list of complaints about his management style that have triggered an open revolt from Bank staff.
Calls from across the world, including from foreign officials, have been pouring down on the World Bank, asking for his ouster. Wolfowitz admitted making a mistake but has so far resisted quitting.
But the call Monday from those at the forefront of the World Bank's fight against corruption is likely to particularly embarrass Wolfowitz, who has received backing during the scandal from some advocates who approved of his anti-corruption campaign.
The situation also shows how difficult it is to get back to business as usual at the institution, which employs more than 10,000 people.
The signatories say the corruption strategy cannot be implemented under current circumstances.
"The present crisis is a critical test of the Bank's own commitment to the principles of sound corporate governance," they said.
The department reiterated the difficulty of preaching transparency and good governance when the Bank itself was embroiled in the same malaise.
Last month, the World Bank's board adopted Wolfowitz's new anti-corruption strategy to scale up loans to improve governance in borrowing countries. The strategy was unanimously endorsed by the Board members.
The Bank, which lent more than 23 billion dollars last year, has already produced a number of "Country Assistance Strategies" - an agreement that forces borrowing nations to follow certain policies in return for loans - that have focused on governance and anti-corruption issues. Those include deals with Albania, Bangladesh and Indonesia.
Such an approach was expected to be applied in more CAS agreements with borrowing nations later this year.
But the now the anti-corruption staff say all this work could be at risk because of the Wolfowitz-Riza scandal.
"There are reports from the field offices of concrete cases where the Bank's policy dialogue and operational work on governance and anticorruption are being undermined," said the letter.
In their letter, the staff members said they want the Board, which is probing the corruption accusations against Wolfowitz, to uphold the highest standards. They didn't call for Wolfowitz's resignation however.
"Our own governance standards must be upheld and enforced impartially and without exception by both the Bank's senior management and the Board of Executive Directors, even when they touch the highest levels of this institution," the letter said.
"We call upon the Board of Executive Directors and the President to take clear and decisive actions to resolve this crisis quickly in a way that demonstrates to all our stakeholders the Bank's commitment to the highest standards of integrity in leadership and accountability."
Off balance for weeks, Wolfowitz announced his latest move in a message he sent to his staff asking for their "continued patience." It is the first public comment Wolfowitz made since the stormy annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund last week when he admitted he had made "a mistake". At issue is a scandal involving excessive pay he coordinated for his girlfriend and then-Bank employee Shaha Riza before seconding her to the U.S. State Department as a part of an exorbitant compensation package.
Another shot in the battle over his ouster came in a leaked document from the World Bank showing a new, revised family planning and reproductive health language, different from earlier versions where Wolfowitz's allies have deleted references to family planning - outraging European Bank directors and gender groups on the way.
IPS reported on the originally proposed family planning strategy that reflected the ultra-conservative line embraced by Wolfowitz-appointee managing director Juan José Daboub.
Bank insiders say the new language was provided by Joy Phumaphi, World Bank vice president, according to the "Wolfowitz Resign" campaign, where Bank staff members take part and share information with the public online.
It talks about "providing financial support and policy advice for comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services, including family planning, and maternal and newborn health."
Phil Hay, a communications advisor to the Bank in a message also seen by IPS says: "European board members are understood to be pleased to see this language."
Another front activated by Wolfowitz is the sudden revival of the Volcker Panel, established in February and led by Paul Volcker, former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, to probe complaints by Bank staff over how the Department of Institutional Integrity (INT) was conducting its business.
The INT is the office that investigates allegations of internal fraud and corruption. It is run by Suzanne Rich Folsom, another Wolfowitz's appointee, who prompted many protests inside the Bank for her heavy-handed style. In face of rising resentment, the 24-member Board of Directors, representing the Bank's shareholder governments, was forced to mandate an investigation in 2006 to be carried out by the Volcker Panel.
- Inter Press Service
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