December 4, 2006
Australian wheat scandal
Haven't heard about it yet? Here's a summary:
As scandals go in the annals of Australian business, the one over wheat sales to Iraq during the Saddam Hussein regime is huge. And the political fallout, both domestic and international, may prove to be even mightier. . .Australia was the main wheat supplier to Iraq while the United Nations Organization was trying to enforce sanctions in its oil-for-food program. As an inquiry has just revealed, it turns out that Australian kickbacks helped finance the Baghdad dictator in defiance of U.N. sanctions. . .
The Cole commission details how, between late 1999 and the start of the second Persian Gulf War in March 2003, AWB made secret payments of $ 224 million to a Jordanian-based trucking company, Alia. AWB knew Alia merely passed the money, less commission, on to the Hussein regime -- this at a time when Howard was preparing to send Australian troops to Iraq in support of U.S.-led coalition forces.
Posted by David on December 4, 2006 10:41 PM
Boy, are we Australians embarrassed. Don't forget, though, that
a) the AWB is actually a private corporation - and the behavior of some elements of the private sector in the occupation of Iraq has not been exemplary.
b) it is true that the regime made a LOT of money out of this - three hundred million dollars - but we shouldn't jump to the conclusion that it was spent on guns. The relationship is too simplistic.
c) there is a lot of faux outrage about this because American companies, in particular, want to smash the Australian single desk system because they want our markets. We claim our wheat is unsubsidised, while US agriculture is.
That said, the whole thing was very wrong. Worse, in my opinion, is the fact that Australia probably got into the war purely to protect the wheat market, which is very valuable to many Australian farmers. If we hadn't been involved, the Iraqi wheat market would have been a spoil of war, and we would have lost it.
As it is, our sales of wheat to Iraq were conducted by a bunch of venal, brain-dead chuckleheads who blew the whole thing anyway.
Anyway, I will stop ranting. This blog is about many more interesting things than the well-chewed bone of politics.
Posted by: david tiley on December 5, 2006 3:05 AM
cronaca.com