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| Down Under |
| We had to pay Iraq cash: AWB |
| 2006-01-18 |
| AWB agreed to pay bribes to corrupt Iraqi officials, deciding that it could explain the deals to the Howard Government after the Iraq war, according to evidence before an inquiry into the scandal. Counsel John Agius produced an AWB memo outlining a plan to pay more than $US2 million to a man who would later become the Six of Hearts in the US's pack of cards of "Most Wanted Iraqis", and to discuss it with Canberra. The money, which was to be paid just months before Australian troops went to war in Iraq, was secretly added to the price of Australia's wheat contracts, which were then passed to the UN for approval. The AWB memo said managing director Andrew Lindberg - who was under fire yesterday for releasing, then withdrawing, a misleading statement to the ASX - should "tell the Australian Government about the deal at the appropriate time". It noted that "timing of such a disclosure" was unlikely to be "until after a war with Iraq". Transcripts: The Cole Inquiry The memo said the war "may allow us a further chance of renegotiation with a new regime" in Iraq. Mr Lindberg was asked 12 times whether he agreed to deceive the UN by inflating the cost of the wheat contracts. The first 11 times he said "No, no, no, no" and "I don't know" and "I don't recall" and "I can't remember" before conceding the point, saying: "We had to, we had to, we had no option." He said former Iraqi trade minister Mohammed Medhi Saleh - captured during the war and now believed to be in Abu Ghraib prison - had insisted the money be paid or he would not allow Australian wheat stranded at the port of Umm Qasr to be unloaded. The trade minister claimed the wheat was contaminated with iron ore, and that it would cost $2 million to clean. Mr Lindberg conceded that he never believed the wheat was contaminated, but that he agreed to inflate the cost of future contracts with Iraq, to cover the "cleaning fee". Opposition trade spokeman Kevin Rudd said the federal Government had been warned about the kickbacks to Saddam in 2000. "What happened here?" Mr Rudd said. "Did the Government just turn a blind eye to this? AWB also hatched a plan to extract more than $8 million from the UN to cover an old debt that was due to Tigris Petroleum, a Melbourne-based company with links to BHP. It was unclear whether Tigris - which is run by former BHP employees who are seeking oil deals in Iraq - was aware that the deal contravened UN sanctions. Senior counsel John Agius asked Mr Lindberg if anybody suggested that money be paid to make the contamination issue "go away". But Mr Lindberg was adamant. "No, no, no, no," he said. "Nobody suggested a monetary settlement?" Mr Agius said. "No, no, no." Mr Agius then produced documents that suggested otherwise and, under intense questioning, Mr Lindberg conceded: "I think there was an agreement, yes." "By you?" Mr Agius asked. "Yes." "In the presence of (international sales manager Michael) Long?" "Yes." "And (former chairman) Trevor Flugge?" "Yes." |
| Posted by:Oztralian |
| #1 Average White Band? They're still around? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-01-18 21:29 |