The Biggest Scandal of Food for Oil Sanctions in Iraq
November 28th 2006 11:02
AWB exec in Iraq
The UN food for oil sanctions against Iraq were put in place to stop Saddam Hussian from rebuilding his armed forces and to limit his ability to build weapons of mass destruction. Whether it was the right tactic or the wrong tactic was made mute after the Coalition of the Willing invaded. At the time of the sanctions the ordinary Iraqis were put under extreme hardship and had to do without things like basic medicines. Yet as the sanctions were being enforced by a UN land and sea blocked secret deals were being done to get around these sanctions. Those deals were in direct violation of the UN sanctions and ensured that over $300 million dollars in kickbacks went directly to Saddam Hussain. The culprit of this funneling of cash was the AWB (The Australian Wheat Board). The AWB is legislated to be the monopoly that controls all wheat sales out of Australia.
300million reasons to be happy
The findings of the Cole Commission were tabled in the Australian Federal parliament
I don't know nuthin
What is of significance is what the Cole Commission left off it’s report, things that it had no power to investigate or pursue and perhaps no willingness either. The Australian government and its public servants that were responsible for ensuring that the UN sanctions were not broken were never fully investigated. The Prime Minister is quick to use the Cole Report as evidence that his government had done nothing illegal. Yet since it set up the commission, decided its terms of reference and chose the commissioner there could always be the accusation of a stitch up. The opposition has already accused John Howard of designing a commission that could never find fault with his party. If these accusation of trying to avoid scrutiny had no substance then they would have a very short life. Yet there are too many indications that implicate the Australian government as either a knowing observer of the kickbacks or at least an incompetent guardian of there moral responsibility to investigate.
Whitewash Howard?
What is clear about this whole sordid affair is that it is the largest abuse of the Food for Oil era. AWB was the biggest and the greediest of the abusers and squandered hundreds of millions of dollars in an unethical deal with Saddam Hussain. The reputation and credibility of the AWB has be destroyed and several international buyer refuse to deal with it. AWB will most likely lose its monopoly over the sale of Australian wheat to world. The reputation of Australia’s credibility in the build up to the Iraq invasion has also been damaged by this scandal. As such any investigation that leave any question over whether all the culprits were identified is a farce. Perhaps we still need a Royal Commission to investigate properly.
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