Saddam cash scandal puts heat on PM (John Howard)

[rooboy]

A FORMER chief executive for Australia's wheat exporter, AWB Ltd, has drawn the Federal Government directly into the Iraq oil-for-food scandal, saying he could recall his staff travelling to Canberra to discuss contracts with Saddam Hussein's regime that included multimillion-dollar kickbacks.

On the opening day of the inquiry into the role of Australian companies in the scandal yesterday, the former chief executive for AWB, Murray Rogers, was also shown emails revealing the company's attempt to hide its secret payments to the Iraqi regime from the United Nations, including one suggesting that staff could set up a Jordan account with a "friendly bank" like ANZ or "buy a very large suitcase".

Mr Rogers repeatedly told the inquiry chief, Terrence Cole, QC, he could not recall the damning internal documents that showed AWB officers negotiating contracts with the Iraq regime that included inflated fees for kickbacks.

But Mr Rogers said AWB managers "went to Canberra to talk to , and that's about the only thing I can ever remember".

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/saddam-scandal-puts-heat-on-pm/2006/01/16/1137260005269.html

[rooboy]

1. kick n/t

[loudsue]

2. Now if we only had a REAL investigation in the U.S., I think Halliburton

and some of the domestic oil groups would prolly be "outted" for their complicity.

:kick::kick::kick: