Australia, Saddam's best friend?

"If the allegation is that DFAT [Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade] was helping AWB sell wheat - good on them, that's its job. And I will always support departments promoting and assisting the legitimate business activities of Australian agencies and Australian companies." John Howard, Australian Prime Minister

Prime Minister Howard is steadfast in his refusal to widen the terms of a judicial inquiry into Australia’s role in the UN ‘Oil for Food’ scandal. This refusal is despite increasing indications of tacit approval for the role of wheat exporter, AWB, by DFAT and government ministers.

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd today said Howard could not sustain his defence the United Nations had sole responsibility for policing the now discredited oil-for-food program.

"This is starting to fall apart at the seams, when he had his own officials into Iraq at this time in the company of the wheat board and the government has now confirmed that. That's why this commission of inquiry can't simply be allowed to turn into a cover-up."

There are new allegations that kickbacks paid by AWB, to Saddam’s regime, were put into a bank account used to finance a $10million slush fund for families of Palestinian suicide bombers.

“US Government and CIA documents reveal a trail of blood money flowing from companies now known to have taken bribes into bank accounts in Jordan, which were then used by the Iraqi Government to pay money for deadly bombings or to buy weapons.

“A separate CIA report suggests Saddam used the payments into the Jordanian bank accounts to buy weapons, which could have been used against US-led forces, including Australian soldiers, which invaded the country in March 2003.” Wheat bribes funded bombers The Australian

"Three hundred million went off into Saddam Hussein's back pocket to buy guns, bombs and bullets, thereby making the Howard Government, by definition, the best friend Saddam Hussein has ever had."

Kevin Rudd said, adding that the Government had at the least approved "culpable negligence" by turning a blind eye to the AWB's practices.

THE Pakistani Government has launched an inquiry into kickbacks made to government officials by the Australian monopoly wheat exporter, saying it believes several "very senior" officials were involved.
They are looking at allegations that officials from Pakistan's Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (MINFAL) had demanded payments from the AWB in exchange for wheat contracts.