Paul Wolfowitz's nomination as president of the World Bank earlier this year met with outrage. The neocon-servative's record as a leading Bush administration advocate for invading Iraq inflamed development experts, most of whom considered the war to he illegal. Anxious Bank staff rifled off 1,300 e-mails within 48 hours to an internal comment line, expressing everything from worries about the institution's credibility to fears that the appointment of Wolfowirz could incite terrorist attacks on its offices. Officials in Europe, the Bank's biggest financial backer, reacted with dismay at the choice of the deputy Defense secretary and at the lack of any consultation from Washington. "The way his nomination came across was seen as a provocation," says one senior European official.
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