bump
Has anyone seen this yet too?
And by the way--about a year ago--maybe longer--before I was sick and out of action for those 8-9 months wondering what I would do if I pulled through--I had spent ALOT of Energy and time and lost alot of personal time doing a SERIES of articles condensing and gathering EVERY article related to the OIL FOR FOOD SCANDAL!--and I posted the threads HERE! In FR!--has anyone seen it?? How can I briong it back up?
Anyhow--here's a New article:
SUNDAY TIMES--
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BHP launches internal probe
By Andrew Trounson
20jan06
MINING giant BHP Billiton has been forced to launch a high-level internal investigation into its involvement in sponsoring the wheat sale to Iraq in 1996 that has become the centre of the AWB kickbacks scandal.
BHP Billiton chairman Don Argus is to head the investigation and the company has vowed to co-operate with the Cole inquiry into the scandal, which could result in current and former BHP executives being called to give evidence.
It has emerged that BHP and other major Australian oil companies still maintain relations with secretive Gibralter-based Tigris Petroleum, which has been named as a go-between in efforts to retrieve the $US8 million ($10.7 million) debt owed to BHP by a bankrupt Iraqi Government.
AWB collected a fee of at least $500,000 to help retrieve the debt.
In late 2004, BHP introduced Tigris to oil companies Woodside and Santos when the four companies signed a two-year agreement with the Iraq Oil Industry to evaluate potential projects in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq. BHP is also in a joint venture with Tigris and oil giant Shell to increase output at the Halfayah oil fields in Iraq.
BHP yesterday said it was "extremely concerned" about the inquiry's revelations and was "working hard to clarify the facts as soon as possible".
Tigris was formed in 1995 by two then-BHP executives, Middle East petroleum expert Norman Davidson Kelly and Alan Taylor. According to former company insiders, Mr Davidson Kelly worked closely with BHP's current head of corporate development, Tom Harley.
Mr Davidson Kelly and Mr Taylor are believed to have only left BHP in 1997, two years after Tigris was formed. When contacted by The Australian Mr Harley declined to comment, but he is likely to be interviewed as part of Mr Argus's internal inquiry.
The inquiry, involving lawyers from Freehills for external advice, is also likely to want to interview current AWB head of rural services, Charles Stott, who was AWB's marketing manager for the Middle East at the time of the sale. After the wheat deal, Mr Stott was recruited by BHP for his Middle East experience, before later returning to AWB.
BHP is likely to have to resort to calling in several former employees. Mr Argus himself only joined the board in 1996 after the controversial wheat sale. Of the current senior executive team headed by chief executive Chip Goodyear, only iron ore and coal chief Bob Kirkby was with the company at the time.
BHP has described its involvement in the wheat sale as a "humanitarian gesture", but at the time many oil companies were seeking favour in Iraq following the 1991 Gulf War.
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A Lib is: you and he are trapped on a crashing airplaine-they'd offer to cut the last chute in half to SHARE it-but NOT before asking YOU for $1 so as to buy the scissors