Iraq: Australian PM Howard "knew about" AWB wrongdoing
bloomberg: Australian Opposition Moves Censure Against Howard Over AWB
Australia's main opposition Labor Party moved a censure motion against Prime Minister John Howard and two senior ministers over their failure to act on warnings the nation's monopoly wheat exporter was paying kickbacks to Saddam Hussein.
An inquiry headed by retired judge Terence Cole is probing allegations the wheat exporter, AWB Ltd., paid $221.7 million in kickbacks to Hussein's regime by inflating wheat contracts and funneling the money back to the dictator through a Jordanian-based trucking company.
Howard, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and Trade Minister Mark Vaile have denied they were warned AWB was breaching the United Nations Oil-for-Food Program.
"The prime minister, the foreign minister and the trade minister were the three wise monkeys: they saw no evil, they spoke no evil, they heard no evil but they knew all about it,'' Labor leader Kim Beazley told parliament in Canberra. "It's a sorry story of a government in a mode of reckless negligence.'' Read more
AWB overcharged for wheat
Australia's main opposition Labor Party moved a censure motion against Prime Minister John Howard and two senior ministers over their failure to act on warnings the nation's monopoly wheat exporter was paying kickbacks to Saddam Hussein.
An inquiry headed by retired judge Terence Cole is probing allegations the wheat exporter, AWB Ltd., paid $221.7 million in kickbacks to Hussein's regime by inflating wheat contracts and funneling the money back to the dictator through a Jordanian-based trucking company.
Howard, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and Trade Minister Mark Vaile have denied they were warned AWB was breaching the United Nations Oil-for-Food Program.
"The prime minister, the foreign minister and the trade minister were the three wise monkeys: they saw no evil, they spoke no evil, they heard no evil but they knew all about it,'' Labor leader Kim Beazley told parliament in Canberra. "It's a sorry story of a government in a mode of reckless negligence.'' Read more
AWB overcharged for wheat
posted by exoplanet at 9:57 AM
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