World Bank's Wolfowitz heckled for Iraq role

Atlanta, Dec 11: Iraq war protesters interrupted a speech by World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz calling him a war criminal and saying he lied during the run-up to the war.

Wolfowitz, who was a deputy US defence chief to Donald Rumsfeld and a key advocate of the Iraq war, was in an Atlanta synagogue yesterday to speak about the relevance of Africa for Americans.

At one point a man stood up silently at the front of the audience wearing an orange jumpsuit, seen by protesters as symbolic of clothes worn by prisoners at the US jail at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

''You lied about the Iraq war! You are a war criminal!''shouted another woman as she was escorted from the synagogue.

Some in the audience booed while a few said silent protests should be allowed.

Outside around 20 protesters held up signs condemning Wolfowitz and the war.

Wolfowitz said his current job prevented him from speaking about Iraq but during questions discussed the World Bank's policy on Iraq and defended Washington's decision to go to war.

''When it comes to Iraq I think it is fair and accurate to say that we did not go to war for oil,'' he said.

''The essential concern is to make difficult decisions about the security of the United States and that's what they did,'' he said in an apparent reference to official debate in the run-up to the 2003 war over whether Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.

Reconstruction efforts were impeded by the security situation but the World Bank was advising Baghdad on how to distribute its oil wealth, he said at the Ahavath Achim temple.

''The biggest question that Iraq faces in many ways is ...

policy decisions about public resource management,'' he said referring to the country's oil revenue.

Democrats, who will control Congress starting in January, have promised to conduct vigorous reviews of US policy on Iraq, including post-war reconstruction and stabilization.

Wolfowitz, who was appointed president of the World Bank last year, could be called to testify.

REUTERS

Related Stories