Wolfowitz, now President of the World Bank, was in Paris for a couple of days and he gave a press conference a few minutes ago. As a banker in (formerly?) good standing, I had the opportunity to join that press conference – and to put a couple of questions to him on behalf of DailyKos.com. (I chose dK over ET or BT in the hope that more journalists around would take note the “blogging” part)

  • for the record, can you say when you knew that there were no WMDs in Iraq?

  • what do you say about the US habit of putting abortion-riders on help for Africa?

First, a couple of pictures (via my phone, sorry for the quality):

Before I give you his answers, which came near the end of the press conference, let me summarise the whole thing for you.

This was organised by the European-American Press Club and the audience was a mix of French and Paris-based international journalists, as well as a smattering of bankers and corporate guys invited by the law firm that helped sponsor the event – thus my presence.

Wolfowitz made a short 10-minute speech and then answered questions from the floor. Below is a reconstitution of what was said from my notes. It’s not necessarily verbatim, but it is accurate as far as I can remember it.

His speech
He started by noting the importance of the current Doha round of trade talks. He stressed that agricultural subsidies are very damaging to growth in the emerging markets and that it is very important to reduce them. He noted that lowering industrial bareers would also help development.

After suggesting some estimates of the potential gains (he gave the USD 300 billion figure), he also noted that emerging countries also had a lot to do to eliminate obstacles between themwelsves and within countries. He gave the example of a lorry loaded with goods which, on the road from Abidjan (Cote d’Ivoire) to Lago (Nigeria), has to go through 69 checkpoints.

He noted that Africa was the focus of the World Bank and that it was a good thing to be in Paris as there was no need to explain here how important Africa is (he was coming out of a meeting with Chirac). Poverty is twice as prevalent as 20 years ago on the continent, and 300 million people live with less than a dollar a day.

He was in Paris the day befroe for a joint WB/WHO/French government conference on the UN Millenium healthcare initiative and repeated that preventable diseases and AIDS were absolute priorities.

He noted that the World Bank was a very important and very sound instituion, and that it played a vital role with most African countries which are utterly dependent on its aid.

It also has a role to play in the coordination of the reaction to the avian flu, to support the costs associated with prevention measures (estimated at 1-1.5 billion dollars).

As president of the World Bank, he acknowledged the vital necessity to coordinate work with countries like France and institutions like the European Commission in Brussels.

Altogether, a very diplomatic and unsurprising discourse.

The Q&A

French TV: you said two years ago that France needed to be punished for its attitude on Iraq. Now you meet Chirac in the middle of riots. What did you tell him?

A: I hope they are only a temporary phenomenon. We’ve had our own episodes of troubles in the 60s and 80s and I certainly am in no position to give lessons. France is a great country and I am sure it will solve its problems.

Reuters: what do you think of the fact that a 100 billion dollar debt relief package for Iraq was put in place in record time, when the rich countries have so much trouble putting in place a smaller package for African countries that presumably need it more?

A: well, Iraq is different, it was Paris-club debt [i.e. bilateral government to government] linked to arms purchases. African debt relief is a multilateral effort involving the WB, which certainly needs to be pushed.

French Radio: What do you think of Chirac’s proposal for a tax on air traffic to finance the fight against AIDS?

R: The Director of WHO says that for AIDS, the problem is not money but the capacity for the healthcare systems of these countries to absorb it. The WB is working to improve the healthcare systems there.

Newsweek: You’ve been instrumental in starting the war in Iraq, which has cost upwards of $100 billion, and much less is made available for Africa. Don’t you regret that decision?

A: Question about Iraq come only when I do press conferences in the USA or Europe. Elsewhere, people are more interested in what the WB is doing. But Iraq is a fundamental fight, as demonstrated again recently in Jordan. These people are killers and we must fight them. Look at the heroes of last 30 January who took real risks to vote.

[a couple of questions on Africa and development which I missed]

He notes that there are two groups in the USA that care about what’s going on in Africa (and what the WB does): the African immigrants, and the evangelicals.

Here I go
Q: Jerome G., blogging for dailykos.com: what do you say about the US habit of putting abortion-riders on help for Africa? And, for the record, can you say when you knew that there were no WMDs in Iraq?

A: (slightly embarrassed) “I know only what the intelligence consensus told me. Going back over 15 years, everybody thought that there were WMDs. There are still lots we don’t know. There was lots of destructing stuff and lots of hiding stuff, so we still don’t know. I am telling you categorically that, when planning the war, our biggest fear was that WMDs would be used. Thus our need for speed and surprise. Again, this was the conclusion of 15 years of intelligence going back to the Clinton Presidency. I don’t know if there are WMDs in Iraq or not.”

“On abortion, this is more a congressional than an administration issue, not that I speak for either. There are no restrictions in the funds allocated by the USA to the WB. It is “unfortunate” that obstacles are put in the use of funds for abortion related reasons.”

There was one last question which I missed, and the press conference ended. Wolfowitz talked with a couple of people and was led to another room for an interview with CNN’s Jim Bittermann (who was co-organiser of the event) – so check it out and if anyone sees it, feedback will be appreciated.

So there, my début as journalist!

Altogether, he was mostly diplomatic and unsurprising. He was slightly annoyed at the number of questions about Iraq at first, but then he came back to the topic on his own to defend Bushco’s policies. I found him a bit embarrassed by my questions, but then that’s maybe some projection of mine. I was actually surprised that he answered anything on the WMD question, even if it was to peddle a debunked absurdity – as the whole think was in front of several TVs (although I doubt it was live).

I am especially proud to have spoken explicitly on behalf of bloggers – we’re going places, people!