Here's a bit of news that had Washingtonians choking on their coffee this morning: President Bush's neoconservative hawk Paul Wolfowitz, the Pentagon's architect of the US invasion of Iraq, is dating a Muslim!

While battle lines have hardened over President Bush's nomination of Wolfowitz to become president of the World Bank, what many say is really fueling the controversy is concern within the bank over Wolfowitz's reported romantic relationship with Shaha Ali Riza, an Arab feminist who is the acting manager for External Relations and Outreach for the Middle East and North Africa Region at the World Bank.

Political foes of Wolfowitz portray him as a leader of Washington's Jewish neo-conservatives driving a blindly pro-Israel policy in the Middle East.

Critics have also noted that his sister, Laura, a biologist, lives in Israel and has an Israeli husband.

But Wolfowitz, a married father of three, is said to be so blinded by his relationship with Riza, that influential members of the World Bank believe she played a key role in influencing the Pentagon official to launch the 2003 Iraq war.