|
|
home / subscribe / donate / tower / books / archives / search / links / feedback / events / faq
|
America's First Terror War
|
|
Today's Stories May 16, 2007 Patrick Cockburn May 15, 2007 Michael Neumann Patrick Cockburn Ashley Smith Marc Gardner Dave Lindorff Ben Terrall Ron Jacobs Harvey Wasserman Marcus Mabry Dr. Susan Block Website of the Day
May 14, 2007 Jennifer Roesch Jeffrey St.
Clair George Bisharat Diane Wachtell Ramzy Baroud Rosemary and
Walter Brasch Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed Roberto Rodriguez Jonathan Culp Website of
the Day
May 12 / 13, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Patrick Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Diane Farsetta Ralph Nader Jean Bricmont Marcus Breen Joe Bageant Conn Hallinan Fred Gardner Juan Santos
Eve Bachrach Missy Comley
Beattie Ron Jacobs Niranjan Ramakrishnan Susie Day Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend May 11, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Kathleen Christison Mike Ferner John Holt Laurie Hasbrook Christopher
Brauchli Margaret Kimberley Dave Lindorff Nicole Colson John V. Walsh Website of the Day
May 10, 2007 Tariq Ali Patrick Cockburn Neve Gordon Marjorie Cohn David Rosen Alan Farago John Hellman Kathy Rentenbach BANCO Richard Rhames Website of the Day
Jeff Leys Patrick Cockburn Glen Ford Paula Rothenberg Kathryn Weber John Chuckman Jordan Flaherty Dave Lindorff Stephen Lendman Website of
the Day
May 8, 2007 Dave Lindorff Patrick Cockburn Corporate Crime Reporter Ralph Nader Malini Johar Schueller Juan Santos Dave Zirin Joshua Frank Evelyn Pringle Eamonn McCann Website of the Day
May 7, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Monica Benderman Greg Moses Rannie Amiri Fitrakis / Wasserman Fred Wilhelms Ramzy Baroud Bruce K. Gagnon T. W. Croft Sonja Karkar Website of the Day
Alexander Cockburn William Blum Uri Avnery Franklin Lamb Fred Gardner Lawrence R.
Velvel Missy Beattie Robert Fantina Carla Blank Linn Washington,
Jr. Stephen F. Jackson P. Sainath Anthony Papa James T. Phillips John Ross Stephen Lendman Ben Terrall CounterPunch
Newswire Poets' Basement Website of
the Weekend
May 4, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Col. Dan Smith Norman Solomon Azmi Bishara Ron Jacobs Dave Lindorff Kevin Zeese Bob Fitrakis Janet Kauffman Website of
the Day
May 3, 2007 Jeff Halper Christopher
Brauchli Dave Zirin Corporate Crime
Reporter Robert Fisk Mike Ferner Mike Whitney Pham Binh Dave Lindorff Michael A.
Johnson Website of the Day
May 2, 2007 Saul Landau Dr. Susan Block Carla Blank Margaret Kimberly Kevin Zeese Carlos Villareal Michael Dickinson Tim Shorrock Alevtina Rea William S.
Lind Website of the Day
Andrew Cockburn Fred Gardner Chase Madar Ralph Nader John V. Walsh Joshua Frank Leslie Radford Shaun Harkin Dave Lindorff Peter Rost,
MD Peter Linebaugh Website of
the Day
April 30, 2007 Frank Menetrez Paul Craig
Roberts Ray McGovern Manuel Garcia,
Jr. Diana Johnstone Sherwood Ross Peter Rost, MD Robert Jensen Kevin Zeese Jane Stillwater Website of
the Day
April 28 / 29, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St.
Clair Fred Gardner David Orchard
Alan Maass Joe Bageant Robert Fantina Hanan Ashrawi Ron Jacobs Nicole Colson Ben Terrall Missy Beattie Harvey Wasserman Cindy Beringer Mike Roselle RAWA James McEnteer Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
Eva Liddell Phyllis Bennis Mike Whitney Michael F.
Brown Jordan Flaherty Margaret Kimberly Christopher Brauchli Jacob Mundy Website of the Day
Andrew Cockburn Franklin Lamb Patrick Cockburn Roger Morris Henry Siegman Alevtina Rea Paris Nikolas Kozloff Alan Farago Matthew S. Miller Website of
the Day
Sharon Smith David Price Diana Johnstone Brendan Cooney Sonja Karkar Brian Concannon Lee Gaillard Leah Fishbein Dave Lindorff Neal Galloway Website of the Day
April 24, 2007 Ishmael Reed Lila Rajiva Paul Craig Roberts Patrick Cockburn Ralph Nader Mike Whitney Website of the Day
April 23, 2007 Saul Landau Patrick Cockburn Robert Fantina Sam Husseini Corporate Crime Reporter Elizabeth Lalasz Harvey Wasserman Dave Lindorff Gary Leupp Stephen Lendman Website of the Day
Alexander Cockburn Fred Gardner Kristoffer Larsson Barbara Rose
Johnston Manuel Garcia, Jr. John Scagliotti Marjorie Cohn Patrick Cockburn Diana Johnstone Ron Jacobs Evelyn Pringle BANCO Paul Richards Dan Bacher Ben Terrall Sherwood Ross Remi Kanazi Aseem Shrivastava Poets' Basement Website of
the Day
April 20, 2007 Doug Peacock Diane Farsetta Tom Clifford Amira Hass Nicole Colson Sonja Karkar Heather Gray Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban Agustin Velloso Matthew Koehler Website of
the Day
April 19, 2007 Emad Mekay
/ Patrick Cockburn Larry C. Johnson Norman Solomon Saul Williams Sunsara Taylor Harvey Wasserman Christopher
Brauchli Anthony Papa Dave Lindorff Website of the Day
April 18, 2007 Lila Rajiva Landau / Hassen Charles Fisher
/ Diane Christian Kevin Prosen China Hand Peter Rost,
MD Justin Akers Chacón Jerry Kroth Sherwood Ross Niranjan Ramakrishnan Alice Cherbonnier Website of
the Year?
April 17, 2007 Jean Bricmont
/ Paul Craig
Roberts Frida Berrigan Alison Weir John Walsh Jason Hribal Evelyn Pringle Ben Terrall Stan Cox Soren Ambrose Website of the Day
April 16, 2007 John F. Sugg Ismael Hossein-Zadeh Carl G. Estabrook Paul Craig Roberts Uri Avnery Ralph Nader Eamon McCann Lee Sustar Mike Whitney Don Fitz Stephen Lendman Website of the Day
April 14 / 15, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Jorge Mariscal Jeffrey St. Clair Dave Marsh Dr. Trudy Bond Joe Bageant Fidel Castro Alfredo Molano Alan Farago Michael Neumann Fred Gardner Ron Jacobs Gail Dines Linda Ford Missy Beattie Dan La Botz Giuliana Sgrena Laura Carlsen Abu Spinoza Elizabeth Schulte Poets' Basement Website of
the Weekend
April 13, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Stephen Soldz George Ciccarriello-Maher Laith al-Saud Dave Zirin John Ross Ramzy Baroud Harvey Wasserman Lopez, Olivo and Garcia Dols, Fukumori,
Judd and Tillett-Saks Website of the Day
April 12, 2007 JoAnn Wypijewski Paul Craig
Roberts Marjorie Cohn Evelyn Pringle Ron Jacobs Norman Solomon Joe DeRaymond Nicola Nasser Nikolas Kozloff William S.
Lind Siegfried L. Sassoon Website of
the Day
R. T. Naylor Vijay Prashad Patrick Cockburn Winslow T. Wheeler Jack Balkwill Alan Farago Russell D.
Hoffman Peter Rost, MD Mike Whitney Dave Lindorff Susie Day Website of the Day
Subscribe Online
|
May 16, 2007 Disastrous Lending Policies with Goodfellas Style at the World BankWho's Afraid of Wolfowitz?By ASHLEY DAWSON The spectacle of Iraq War architect and World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz hoist on his own petard is certainly one worth savoring. After promising to make the struggle against corruption in developing nations his major objective while in office, Wolfowitz has come under fire for cutting a plush pay and promotion deal for his girlfriend of the time after his appointment as president in 2005. A recently released internal inquiry into the controversy has concluded that Wolfowitz broke World Bank rules and violated his own contract with the agency. For several weeks, staff members, NGOs, and former senior officials have been expressing dismay at the emerging news of Wolfowitz's revolving door policy. While the Bush administration's predictable response has been to treat all criticism of its appointees with contempt, powerful European members of the bank seem to be balking. Internal opposition is also reaching a tipping point. Wolfowitz's days at the Bank are clearly numbered. Yet although the Bank's official inquiry denounces the Goodfellas-style strong-arm tactics and scatological language he employed during his tenure as president, it fails to focus on the broader forms of corruption promoted by Wolfowitz. Nor does it allude to the disastrously wrong-headed lending policies that ensure that the Bank's baneful influence will linger long after Wolfowitz's exit. Since his acrimonious appointment
hearings in 2005, Wolfowitz has repeatedly stressed that there
are no conflicts of interest between his current role as Bank
president and his previous post as deputy Defense secretary under
George W. Bush. Indeed, in his self-defense over the last weeks,
he has alleged that calls for his resignation are driven by ire
at his But the rot does not stop at individual appointments. For decades, the World Bank's energy lending policies have helped open developing countries to Northern-based fossil fuel corporations. In 1981, the Reagan-era US Treasury insisted that the Bank play a leading role in "the expansion and diversification of global energy supplies to enhance security of supplies and reduce OPEC market power over oil prices." Instead of supporting diminished fossil fuel consumption and a switch to renewable energy, in other words, the Bank has led the drive to expand resource extraction to new geographical locales. Nor did this role end as the energy crisis of the 1970s wound down; $11 billion in financing was approved by the Bank for 128 fossil-fuel extraction projects in 45 countries in the period from 1992 to 2004. More than 82% of Bank financing for oil extraction has gone to projects that export oil back to the rich countries of the global North. Investment in fossil fuels outstrips that in renewable forms of energy by a ratio of 17 to 1. The Bank has thus played a crucial role in securing access for the unsustainable consumerist economies of the industrialized nations to the natural resources of the South. In addition, energy lending in non-fossil fuel-related areas such as thermal and hydro-power have hinged on large-scale, grid-based, and therefore centralized projects that have contributed to highly inegalitarian concentrations of power in both senses of the term in developing nations. Bank policies, tied to Big Oil cronyism in the rich nations, thus help to foster authoritarianism and corruption in the global South. Stung by criticism of its lending practices, the World Bank has repeatedly promised, and failed, to do the right thing. During the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, for instance, the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) was created within the World Bank with a mandate to compensate developing countries for their efforts to protect the Earth's climate and its flora and fauna. Yet GEF funding suggests that it is a thin green fig leaf designed to divert attention from the Bank's true priorities since financing of the GEF amounts to $10 million per year, while fossil fuel projects are funded to the tune of $2-3 billion annually. Moreover, the Bank has helped deflect pressure for a concerted switch to renewable energy by offering to take the lead in pursuing green initiatives and then quietly conducting business as usual. At the 2005 G8 meeting in Gleneagles, Scotland, leaders of the industrialized nations turned once again to the Bank, charging it with developing a framework for clean energy. The resulting policy, the "Investment Framework for Clean Energy," projects greenhouse gas emissions so high that they would unleash catastrophic climate change. Although the Bank admits that carbon dioxide concentrations above 450 parts per million would be disastrous for the planet, the "Investment Framework" adopts a 60% growth of emissions by 2030 as a reference case, and predicts atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide ranging from 450-1,000ppm. A revised version of the Bank's policy statement dropped any reference to carbon levels, as if global warming will go away if we simply ignore it. In addition to lining the pockets of fossil fuel corporations, the World Bank is embroiled in its own serious conflicts of interest around the issue of carbon mitigation. Through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), the Bank allows polluters in the industrialized North to offset their greenhouse gas emissions through the purchase of "emissions credits" that are intended to promote forms of carbon sequestration, typically in the poor countries of the global South. As a result of these twenty-first century pardons for ecological sins, the North can continue in its profligate consumerist behavior. In addition, the World Bank gets a commission of up to 10% on all the carbon credits it purchases. With over $1 billion in its carbon credit portfolio, the Bank has become the world's largest public broker of carbon purchases, profiting from while also influencing the CDM's rules. Thus far, CDM funds have succeeded in producing emissions reductions that constitute only a fraction of the pollution produced by its predominantly fossil fuel-based energy investment portfolio, accounting for less than 0.5% of global investments in renewable energy according to the World Wildlife Fund. Moreover, just as is true in the Bank's so-called renewable energy portfolio, CDM projects tend to foster inequality and corruption in the global South. In the eucalyptus farms established as carbon sinks in places like Minas Gerais, Brazil, for example, local indigenous people are displaced to make way for large single-crop plantations that destroy biodiversity, suck up ground water, pollute what remains with fertilizers and pesticides, and undermine national food sovereignty. It would be rash to imagine that the current crisis around Paul Wolfowitz's leadership will precipitate the collapse of the World Bank. Nevertheless, there are clear signs of a broader crisis brewing over the Bank's policies. After submitting to years of intrusive regulation by the Bank's structural adjustment policies while seeing minimal decline in poverty, for example, Latin American countries are moving to pay off their debts to the Bank and its sister institution, the International Monetary Fund. Earlier this year, Venezuela and Argentina announced the formation of the Banco del Sur (Bank of the South), whose governance structure is an explicit repudiation of the World Bank's non-democratic institutional architecture, which awards voting rights based on nation's financial contributions an arrangement that essentially hands over control of the World Bank to the U.S. Treasury. No matter what happens to Paul Wolfowitz, it is likely that the World Bank's broader crisis of legitimacy is likely to intensify. Crises such as that provoked by Wolfowitz's leadership are, however, an opportunity to underline the broader corruption that characterizes the Bank. In addition, they offer a chance to advance arguments for a truly international institution that is not dominated by the interests of the North. Perhaps most importantly, the current crisis underlines the need to abandon the World Bank's corrupt subsidies for fossil fuels, to address the energy needs of the poor in a genuine way, and to redirect public subsidies to energy efficiency and truly renewable energy projects. Paul Wolfowitz's corruption is, after all, just the tip of a quickly melting iceberg. Ashley Dawson is the co-author with Malini Johar Schueller of "Exceptional State: Contemporary US Culture and the New Imperialism" forthcoming from Duke University Press in June 2007. Dawson's book Mongrel Nation: Diasporic Culture and the Making of Post-Colonial Britain will be published in by the University of Michigan Press in June.
|
The Gang's All Here: Judy Miller, Bob Woodward, Jeffrey Goldberg, Rupert Murdoch, Bill O'Reilly...End Times Leaves No Reputation Unstained!  Buy End Times Now! CounterPunch Books! Saul Landau's Bush and Botox World with a Foreword by Gore Vidal  Click Here to Order!  Michael Neumann's Devastating Rebuttal of Alan Dershowitz Grand Theft Pentagon: Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror by Jeffrey St. Clair           The Occupation by Patrick Cockburn            CITY BEAUTIFUL By Tennessee Reed        Bruce Springsteen On Tour By Dave Marsh                   |
