(Australian ) PM knew of 'wheat kickbacks' (to Saddam Hussein)

[WearyOne2]

PM knew of 'wheat kickbacks'
From: By Caroline Overington and Jennifer Sexton
February 06, 2006

"John Howard ... knew of contract irregularities / Reuters THE Howard Government has known for years that Australia's wheat exporter AWB had been ordered by the United Nations to reduce the inflated prices on its wheat contracts by 10 per cent."

"The UN told AWB to cut $28 million from two contracts worth $300 million in July 2003 because it correctly assumed the extra money was a kickback for the benefit of Saddam Hussein's regime.
AWB told the Howard Government, via the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's Iraq taskforce, that it had agreed to the price reduction, without saying the money was a bribe.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18050318-2,00.html

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there you are folks & allies..while your young put their lives in the firing line, dodge road-side bombs and suicide bombers..we in Australia have been giving Saddam $300 Million Dollars to pay for it.

[rooboy]

1. If this charge sticks... Howard's fucked.

and not before time.

[foreigncorrespondent]

2. God...

...I hope the stupid sheeple don't listen to his bullshit spin and fall in line yet again.

[gemini_liberal]

3. The media have tried their hardest to make it a non-issue

The other week they were trying to play it as "Pesky Americans interfering in our affairs" - which was laughable considering the BS of the 2004 election.

My bet is that the findings will be of blatently illegal activity and Howard et al knew about it, but they will stay put claiming they did nothing wrong and let Australia's notorious short memory let it be yet another thing that gets swept under the rug and forgotten by the next election.

[biggles1]

4. Yep, combination of the Sergeant Schultz defence...

"I know nooothing!" and another round of tax cuts to keep all our hip pockets massaged, and Lyin' Johnny will get away with another whopper.......

[biggles1]

5. Interestingly, Johnny's great Hero, Bob Menzies, was known with distaste

in my home town as 'Pig Iron Bob' for his actions in allowing iron sales to Japan prior to their entry into WW2. That iron came back to us in the form of bullets fired at our troops.

I wonder if Johnny's involvement in the Wheat for Weapons scandal should earn him a name like 'Gluten John', perhaps.......

[cal04]

6. Kickbacks report 'went to PM'

PRIME Minister John Howard's office was told almost five years ago that Iraqi despot Saddam Hussein was trying to extract sanctions-busting kickbacks from wheat exporter AWB. The evidence, the first to suggest Mr Howard may have known Iraq was demanding illicit payments, also draws three Cabinet Ministers, two spy agencies and five government departments into the scandal.

The startling information was revealed by the inquiry into $300 million in kickbacks paid by AWB as the former judge heading the probe, Terence Cole, publicly challenged the Government to reveal its full knowledge of the scandal. And Mr Howard admitted that United Nations investigator Paul Volcker, a former US Federal Reserve chief, raised concerns about AWB more than a year ago during his probe into kickbacks paid under the UN's oil-for-food program.

Mr Howard said Mr Volcker's concerns, which were relayed to the government through the Australian embassy at the UN early last year, did not raise any alarm bells. "My response to that, when it was brought to my attention, was to say that there had to be full transparency and full cooperation with Mr Volcker's inquiry," Mr Howard said.

Mr Howard also said he met Mr Volcker at a function in New York last September – a month before the American's report named AWB as the biggest single provider of kickbacks under the oil-for-food program out of more than 2000 companies which made illicit payments. But Mr Howard said the two did not discuss the issue in any detail, describing their conversation as "chit-chat". The Volcker committee was set up in April 2004.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,18227998%255E1702,00.html