So, Who Knew?

The first week of the inquiry into Australia’s monopoly Wheat exporter, AWB’s Iraq adventure, things are looking shaky for the corporation and the Federal Government.
True, there has been no direct linkage to government involvement or knowledge, just an ever widening credibility gap.

Aid to the enemy The Australian…”The question yet to be answered is: did AWB hide the truth from the Howard Government? Both Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and Trade Minister Mark Vaile met AWB executives many times in the lead-up to the Iraq War, which began in March 2003.
AWB had to submit its Iraq contracts with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for approval, and they had to be stamped by officials at Australia's mission to the UN in New York, before they would be approved by officials of the UN's oil-for-food program. DFAT officials in Canberra and New York were warned about allegations of corruption as far back as 2000 but conducted only cursory investigations.
Saddam's regime gained access to hundreds of millions of dollars, some of which went on palaces or Arabian racehorses for Saddam's son, Uday, or to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers, who blew up buses and restaurants in Israel. Some also went on weapons, such as machine guns for the Iraqi National Guard, who would soon be shooting at Australian troops. None of these obvious possibilities seemed to trouble AWB, however.”

SMH “…but as more documents emerge, it appears at the very least that Foreign Affairs Department officials should have been alert to AWB's determined attempts to funnel money to the Iraqi regime in violation of the sanctions. AWB worked hand in glove with departmental officials to win $2.3 billion in contracts under the program.
Under its UN obligations, Australia was bound to ensure AWB did not breach the UN sanctions for any reason - let alone keeping Iraq as a customer for Australian wheat. But under the department's nose, AWB became the biggest conduit for kickbacks to Saddam's regime in the lead-up to the Iraq War.
The key political question raised by the evidence is this: how could the Government not know what was going on? Despite warnings from the UN, Canada and the US, no departmental official detected the scandal that now threatens to shatter Australia's international reputation and damage its billion-dollar wheat trade. Did it turn a blind eye while AWB did whatever it took to hold onto its Iraq contracts as the Howard Government publicly railed against Saddam.”

That is the Australian end of the story, but this is an International saga. It was those warnings from the US and Canada in particular which reflect badly on the Howard Governments cries of innocence.
Canada actually canvassed the issue with the UN in 2002 when they were asked by Iraq to pay secret fees. The Canadian trade authorities knew what AWB was doing, but I doubt it came to the attention of then PM, Jean Chrétien. Relations between John Howard and Chrétien were always problematic and you would expect the latter to have a field day rubbing this scandal into Howard’s face.
The US is a different matter. In 2003, American lobby group US Wheat Associates made a formal complaint to secretary of state Colin Powell. We are told there was a flurry of diplomatic dispatches between the two countries, which went no where.
It is difficult to believe, given the close relationship between the two administrations, that there wasn’t some degree of secretary to minister communication.
US Wheat Associates should be demanding to know why their valid complaint was, in the end, ignored by both governments. But the vital point is, both governments where advised of the irregularities, if they were actually unaware prior to that time.

Of course the Bush administration and the Howard Government had bigger fish to fry, like a war with Iraq. Most likely, the trade cake had already been sliced and distributed under a previous deal. In the midst of serious saber rattling neither government would be inclined to open up details old trade undertakings, even when that trade was supplying weapons to the enemy.