Corruption Down Under

FrontPageMag.com ^ | 1/25/2006 | Sharon Lapking

[TASMANIANRED]

When Saddam Hussein threatened to terminate massive imports of Australian wheat in 2002, Australian Wheat Board (AWB) executives rushed to Iraq in a panic. Reuters reported that Iraq’s Minister wished “to resume and increase future business with AWB on the basis that the Australian government supports diplomatic solutions to the current situation in Iraq.”

Then a peculiar thing happened. Australia did not change its foreign policy but after the meeting with Iraqi officials, the AWB emerged with a new deal. Iraq had agreed not only to continue buying Australian wheat but also to pay more for it.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard ordered an Inquiry into AWB in late 2005, after it was named by the Volcker Inquiry as one of the companies paying kickbacks to the former Iraqi regime under the UN oil-for-food programme.

During the ongoing Cole Inquiry in Australia, AWB managing director

....snip.... And, if AWB isn’t dirty enough, there is evidence to suggest the money paid in bribes to the Iraqi regime was used to finance a $10 million slush fund for the families of Palestinian suicide bombers. The Australian claimed “US Government and CIA documents revealed a trail of blood money flowing from companies now known to have taken bribes into bank accounts in Jordan.” These accounts, it claims, were emptied each evening into Iraqi Government accounts” – which were used for its international transactions – including payments of $25,000 rewards to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers.

.....snip

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=21028 complete article

[TASMANIANRED]

Australian wheat board undercutting the WOT .

[HiJinx]

Those investigations have led to some oil folks in Texas, too.

There's something utterly seductive about money that causes folks to lose their moral compass at the worst times, y'know?

[TASMANIANRED]

In some people, corruption goes to the bone.

[HiJinx]

Yes, it does.