Wolfie Digs in Heels. Olmert, Abbas Dig Each Other.

By Ward Harkavy Sun., Apr. 15 2007 at 6:25 PM

Categories: BODY COUNTS, WORLD BANK

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Displaying the same contempt toward "old Europe" that the Bush regime showed during its Iraq invasion plotting and the disastrous aftermath, chief war architect Paul Wolfowitz resisted continued pressure Sunday for his resignation from the World Bank presidency.

"I believe in the mission of this organization, I intend to carry it out, I have had many expressions of support," Wolfie said late this afternoon during a D.C. press conference.

Yeah, well, both of his supporters are wrong. Wolfie's corruption has always been too heavyhanded to work at the World Bank, which needs to have a president who at least has the appearance of propriety. The documents now being revealed show him playing extreme hardball on behalf of his gal even before he got the job in the first place. Check out this page on the valuable watchdog site, Bank Information Center, for the official docs and statements.

Wolfiegate (yes, the lies have now become worse than the original crime) overshadowed potentially monumental news from the Middle East: Israeli and Palestinian leaders actually talked face to face and seriously about peace for the first time in several years. As the Daily Star in Beirut reports:

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas held talks on Sunday, addressing the broader outlines of a possible peace deal for the first time since full-scale talks between the sides collapsed in 2001. Hours earlier, the Israeli premier had said the Jewish state was ready to talk with Arab states over their revived peace plan. . . .

In the first in a series of planned biweekly talks, Olmert and Abbas focused mostly on day-to-day issues such as travel and trade restrictions, but also raised broader issues for the first time since the collapse of peace talks in 2001.

"It was a good beginning," Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said of the meeting, which lasted over two hours.

Jews and Arabs haven't officially gotten so close since the first time Wolfowitz got his swerve on with his Arab girlfriend, Shaha Ali Riza.

Meanwhile, as the Daily Star also reports, residents of Baghdead, among others, continue to get fucked in a different sense:

Six bombs exploded in predominantly Shiite sections of Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least 43 people, while two British military personnel died a pair of helicopters crashed north of the capital. On Sunday, health officials raised the toll from a bombing Saturday close to the holy Shiite city of Kerbala, saying 47 people were killed and 224 wounded.

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