PM answers Congress critics

PRIME Minister John Howard has put the fate of himself and his two ministers embroiled in the oil-for-food scandal in the hands of AWB inquiry commissioner Terence Cole.

Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Howard said there would be "serious consequences" for any minister identified as knowing about the payments to the regime of Saddam Hussein and who had failed to act. "This includes me," he said.

This is yet another attempt by the Australian government to head of any serious investigation, by the US Congress, into this sordid scandal.

In the past Howard has relied on his diplomats and the Bush administration to save his arse from exposure to the congressional attack dogs.

To date Australia has played a ‘good cop – bad cop – dumb cop – whining cop’ game to deflect US attention. It is just surprising, given blame slated back to the US as a defence by Howard’s key ministers, that the issue is still largely ignored.

Whatever back room deals were made by the two governments were better kept out of the sunshine.

With Bush steadily losing his influence, and Republican congressmen looking to save their own positions of privilege, we can assume that the Washington beltway is closing in on the Aussies.

I guess, with their own positions under threat and the party generally on the nose, there will be little lost by exposing the Role of the Bush administration in a scandal which saw Australia’s monopoly wheat exporter hand over $300 million to Saddam’s war machine.

After all, it is just one more brick in a growing wall of lies a deceit.