Saturday, July 17, 2010

Anwar Ibrahim and the Bush Neocons

Written by Our Correspondent
Friday, 16 July 2010
ImageA Washington, DC NGO bares some awkward questions for Malaysia's opposition leader

A 42-page report by a Washington, DC-based whistle-blower organization is proving a major embarrassment for Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim by alleging that the Foundation for the Future, which Anwar headed for a time in the middle of the last decade, was actually established and funded by the US Department of State at the behest of Elizabeth Cheney, the daughter of then-Vice President Dick Cheney, and the Bush administration's neoconservatives.

The Government Accountability Project report, titled The Foundation for the Future: What FOIA Documents Reveal, and released July 8, is based on hundreds of documents delivered to the organization under the US Freedom of Information Act. It says the Foundation for the Future was established and operated in a "highly irregular manner" by Bush administration officials and employees including Shaha Riza, the girlfriend of Paul Wolfowitz, who was forced to leave the World Bank after it became known that he had promoted Riza to triple the World Bank's salary guidelines. The full report can be found here.


Whacker Wolfowitz and his whack Riza

Ostensibly, matching money to fund the Foundation for the Future was supposed to come from 11 countries led by Qatar at US$10 million, and Bahrain, with another US$2 million. Jordan was to put up another US$1 million, Turkey US$500,000 and the rest was to be scattered among several European Union countries including Denmark, Greece, Spain, the Netherlands and the European Union itself. But neither Qatar nor Bahrain ever came through. Of the US$22.26 million pledged, only about US$6.4 million ever materialized. The rest apparently was made up from US State Department funds.



Anwar has previously disavowed any US funding of the organization, established in 2005 as "an essential front on the global war on terror" and part of President George Bush's "freedom agenda" to promote democracy and reform in the Middle East and Africa. Anwar served as chairman and acting president of the organization's board in the period when he was out of politics following his incarceration on corruption and sexual perversion charges.



The Government Accountability Project report lends considerable ammunition to Anwar's opponents in the United Malays National Organization, who have long charged that Anwar was connected to the US Central Intelligence Agency, although neither the CIA nor the US government as a whole has ever exhibited any particular desire to bring down the Malaysian government, and in fact considers Malaysia, as a moderate Muslim democracy, to be one of its staunchest allies in the region.



In particular, UMNO Youth Chief Kairy Jamaluddin called attention to Anwar's statements disavowing US funding of the foundation and demanded that Anwar explain himself. He accused Anwar of misleading the US government in a memorandum of understanding saying the foundation had agreed to get other countries to commit funds to match those the US government was providing.

"For me, it is a serious matter that the opposition leader has tried to mislead the US government to get grants for a foundation that he was chairman of," Khairy told the Malaysian newspaper The Star.

An Anwar associate said the opposition leader would decline to comment, adding that there was little to be gained by saying anything about the matter. Nonetheless, he characterized Anwar's role as blameless.

"There is nothing wrong going on," he said. "This is part of the campaign to get Wolfowitz out of the World Bank and to do so they threw Anwar under the bus."

The report characterizes the Foundation for the Future as part of a vast and tragic misconception among the Bush administration neoconservatives, particularly Wolfowitz, that a slight push – the elimination of Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein from power – would result in a dramatic change in the Middle East. That of course has resulted in the deaths of more than 4,000 US soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians and a realignment in the Middle East that nobody in the west wanted – the growing power of Iran in the region and particularly in Iran's influence over the Iraqi government itself.

But the Foundation from the start appears to have been a mess, according to the report. It apparently was the brainchild of Shaha Riza, who was seconded from the World Bank by Wolfowitz to run it. As has been widely reported, Riza's salary increases during external service far exceeded those allowed under World Bank regulations, Wolfowitz allegedly instructed the Department of Human Resources to pay her three times the allowable increase for her grade and circumstances, so that she ended up making more money that Condoleezza Rice, her nominal superior, by about US$7,000, according to the report. Continue reading.

3 comments:

Purple Haze said...

All the more reason why Malaysia should also have a similar Freedom of Information Act.

Cucu said...

Hehehe...what goes around comes around.Anwar can fool some people some times,most people most of the time but not ALL the people ALL the time!! Perhaps Uncle Sam- the CIA in particular, has gotten tired of Brader Anwar Bin Ibrahim- he has failed to deliver and has missed some keys deadlines set out ambitiously by him and his handlers in Washington.The US will ditch Anwar without nary a thought just like they ditched Noreiga,Chalabi and The Shah Of Iran-personal friendship notwithstanding.But Anwar is yet to read the writing on the wall-believing his handlers will remain faithful to him till the end.

eddy said...

Malaysia is an important strategic ally of the US having its coast straddling the whole length of the Straits of Melaka, one of the world's most busiest sea lane. It is of utmost importance for the Americans that they have a friendly leader in Malaysia who are willing to engage with them.

During Dr Mahathir's time he was not too friendly with the Americans hence Anwar Ibrahim filled that vacuum, Abdullah Badawi failed to be friendly as Anwar and his supporters had the ears of Bush and his neocons. I think when Obama became President things changed for Anwar, the Neocons in Washington lost their influence and when Najib became Prime Minister and managed to meet with US President Obama, the US found a PM of Malaysia who looks to having good relations with the US.

So Anwar got dumped, he shot himself when he disparage APCO who he knew was doing a lot of fantastic PR work for Najib and his Government in Washington. In disparaging APCO he took cheap shots at the Jews, bad mistake, the Jews controls the Press in the US and its downhill for Anwar now despite his apology/kow tow tour.

Anwar's fate in his relationship with the US, were sealed when Obama smiled at Najib when they shook hands in Washington.The USA now have a Malaysian PM who is US friendly and that is a good thing for us as well, why make enemies with the most powerful nation the civilised world has ever known.

Its just business to the US Government Bro,nothing personal...Sorry Anwar.