"Bush Admin Taps Zoellick to Head World Bank
The Bush administration has announced plans to name former Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick to replace Paul Wolfowitz as head of the World Bank. Zoellick spent four years as the U.S. trade representative until 2005. He went on to the State Department before leaving to join the financial firm Goldman Sachs last year. Zoellick previously served as a paid advisor to the energy company Enron before its collapse. He was an early backer of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and a co-signatory of the neo-conservative Project for a New American Century letter calling for Iraq regime change. Public health advocates are criticizing the appointment. Dr. Paul Zeitz, Executive Director of the Global AIDS Alliance called Zoellick “a terrible choice”, saying: “He has been a close friend to the brand-name pharmaceutical industry, and the trade agreements he has championed block patients access to generic medication… As a market fundamentalist he is also much less likely to stand up for a strong and effective public sector.”"
* Amy:
April-May Deadliest 2-Month Period of Iraq War for U.S.* Amy:
In other Iraq news, the Pentagon has announced ten U.S. troops were killed in Iraq Monday. Their deaths make this month the third-deadliest for the U.S. military of the Iraq war. April and May now also mark the deadliest two-month period since the invasion, with at least two hundred and nine servicemembers killed.
Putin Denounces “Powder Keg” U.S. Missile Plan* Amy:
Tension is increasing with Russia over U.S. plans for a new missile shield in Eastern Europe. On Tuesday, Russia says it had successfully test-fired a new intercontinental ballistic missile designed to overcome missile defense systems. The test came as Russian President Vladimir Putin warned a U.S. missile deployment would have consequences.Russian President Vladimir Putin: “Our point is clear, we consider it harmful and dangerous to turn Europe into a powder keg and to stuff it with new weapons."
Iran Charges 3 U.S. Citizens With Espionage
In Iran, three American citizens have been charged with espionage and endangering national security. Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Middle East Program at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars, has been jailed since earlier this month. Also charged are urban planning consultant Kian Tajbakhsh and journalist Parnaz Azima. All three face the death penalty if convicted. On Tuesday, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice called the charges “a perversion of the rule of law.”
2 comments:
There's also this, which puts Zoellick right in there among Wolfowitz and Perle:
Selection of the Bush team began in August 1998, at a meeting arranged by former President Bush in Kennebunkport, Maine, between his son and Rice. Within months, Rice was helping Governor Bush assemble a group that even conservative columnist Robert Novak describes as a nest of hawks.
"If the brain trust reflects who the governor would put in office if elected president, his administration would be to the right not only of his father's but also of Ronald Reagan's," reported Novak to the Washington Post. The group includes Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Armitage, Richard Perle, Robert Zoellick and Stephen Halliday, all of whom served in senior national security posts in the Reagan and Bush administrations. Since Rice lacks a clear track record on Middle East matters, Wolfowitz and Perle will probably weigh in most on Middle East policy. Conspicuously absent from the roster are President Bush's secretaries of state James Baker, Lawrence Eagleburger and national security aide Brent Scowcroft, indicating Rice's preference for hard-right ideologues over more genteel Republicans with close corporate ties.
Perhaps the most telling decision in the selection process was picking Paul Wolfowitz over Richard Haass. "It [was] a fight for the soul of George W. Bush on foreign policy in general but also Middle East policy specifically," commented AEI's Middle East analyst, David Wurmser.
Link
thnx as always.
i didnt realise that Rice was instrumental in putting the team together (assuming that novak was reporting accurately)
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