Thursday, April 29, 2004
"Food for spOILs" - the Australian connection
An interesting report in today's "Sydney Morning Herald":
"The Australian Wheat Board's long and lucrative relationship with Saddam Hussein's regime will be examined as part of the United Nations inquiry into Iraq's discredited oil-for-food program. The UN will investigate whether any of the money paid to the board was 'kicked back' to the ousted Baathist government by third parties in on the deals.
"A wheat board spokesman, Peter McBride, said the board was confident its contracts had been 'done under the guidelines of the UN oil-for-food program and had the approval of the UN'."
Ah, but that's precisely the problem - the whole scam was done "under the guidelines" and "had the approval of the UN" if only tacit, of the people who were supposed to have been supervising it.
For some background on Australia's wheat trade with Iraq, check out this article from almost two years ago.
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"The Australian Wheat Board's long and lucrative relationship with Saddam Hussein's regime will be examined as part of the United Nations inquiry into Iraq's discredited oil-for-food program. The UN will investigate whether any of the money paid to the board was 'kicked back' to the ousted Baathist government by third parties in on the deals.
"A wheat board spokesman, Peter McBride, said the board was confident its contracts had been 'done under the guidelines of the UN oil-for-food program and had the approval of the UN'."
Ah, but that's precisely the problem - the whole scam was done "under the guidelines" and "had the approval of the UN" if only tacit, of the people who were supposed to have been supervising it.
For some background on Australia's wheat trade with Iraq, check out this article from almost two years ago.
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