Help get a Bush crony fired!

From a recent e-mail from Avaaz.org:

Paul Wolfowitz -- President Bush's key architect of the Iraq war, now president of the World Bank and self-styled fighter of corruption -- was caught red-handed in a corruption scandal of his own. He pushed a huge pay raise for his girlfriend, and hid the facts from his organization and the world.

He's got to go.

The World Bank's board, made up of our governments from around the world, is now deciding whether Wolfowitz should keep his job. An immediate, massive, and global outcry could make the difference. Our petition is three words long: "Sack Paul Wolfowitz." Sign it here:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/sack_wolfowitz/

When Paul Wolfowitz was a top official in President Bush's Department of Defense, he was one of the Iraq war's biggest backers. When the war became a fiasco, instead of firing Wolfowitz, Bush gave him a promotion--to president of the World Bank. At the Bank, he vowed to make corruption his top issue--but alienated the world by delaying aid packages to India, Kenya, and other countries without consulting the bank's Executive Board.

Now we've learned that he didn't practice what he preached.

Wolfowitz's girlfriend was a senior World Bank employee. When he became president, the Bank's ethics rules would not allow him to keep her on staff under his supervision. So he transferred her to the US State Department--but kept her on the Bank's payroll, and gave her a US$60,000 pay raise. Her salary rose to US$193,590, higher than Condi Rice's. What's more, it appears that Wolfowitz hid the evidence of what he'd done.

Fighting corruption is a key to ending poverty. But there can't be one standard for the rich and powerful and a different one for everybody else.

The 24-member board of the World Bank, which uncovered Wolfowitz's corruption through a special investigation, is now deciding his fate. Bush is likely pulling strings to help Wolfowitz keep his job. It's time for global public opinion to weigh in--which means it's all up to you.

Click here now to sign the petition, and then send this email to ten friends:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/sack_wolfowitz/

Wolfowitz claimed the Iraq war would spread democracy, but it sparked a civil war. He promised to fight corruption, but engaged in it himself.

He talks a lot about accountability. It's time to bring some accountability to Paul Wolfowitz.

You can also see a very cool video about this here.

Please - sign the online petition if you agree that Wolfowitz should be fired. An Avaaz petition has made a big difference already in another much-needed area:

Last week, Avaaz campaigners hand-delivered our 100,000-signature climate change petition to the environment ministers of the world's most polluting countries. It worked. The chair of the meeting waved the petition in the air, calling on his fellow ministers to act--and they agreed that climate change would be the #1 issue at the G8 summit in June.