speak no evil: 

Prime Minister, thanks for
joining Sky News, if I can just start with AWB. Former AWB Chairman Trevor
Flugge, we now know was paid by your Government almost a $1,000,000 for
10-months work in Iraq with the Coalition Provisional Authority. Can you
understand people thinking that 'that's a bit rich.' 

see no evil: 

Certainly in the context of the
allegations against AWB: yes. At the time we didn't for a moment dream that AWB
was paying bribes - the Government didn't. And although it is a lot of money,
it was a challenging assignment and a potentially dangerous environment and
there is a long list of precedents of where people for relatively short term
consultancies, if I can call it that, of this type have been paid significant
amounts of money. People's attitudes are understandably coloured by the
allegations against AWB. And against that background I can understand people
thinking it is too much. Clearly what is important is that we allow the Cole
Inquiry to finish its job. Mr Cole, a very good lawyer, he has got all the
powers of a Royal Commissioner and the blame will fall where it may and he
has made it very clear that he has got the power to make findings of fact about
the behaviour of anybody, including the Commonwealth. 

speak no evil: 

It is a dangerous place Iraq, no
doubt about that. But you compare it to a private in the army in Al-Muthanna,.
They earn about $50,000 a year. Now even before we knew of these allegations
against AWB, was almost a $1,000,000 too much to be paying?

see no evil: 

Well you have to look at the
availability of people, you have to look at the fact that we wanted to have
somebody in that position who knew a lot about the wheat industry generally,
about agriculture and certainly somebody who on his track record to them was
somebody who would look to the interests of the Australian wheat industry. When
you know and appreciate and acknowledge the value of wheat exports to this
country, having somebody with the background that Flugge had in the wheat
industry able to look after Australia's interests. And bear in mind that the
Americans and the Canadians and the Europeans are no shrinking violets when it
comes to trying to knock off our markets and to take away our wheat trade. I
mean it is a very tough business and you have to look at it in the context of
all of that without superimposing, with the benefit of hindsight, the
allegations and the knowledge that we have and in that context you can see the
reason why it happened. 

hear no evil: 

"I am not aware of any cash
payments that AWB made to the former Iraqi regime." he said. Asked about
evidence from other AWB managers that he was present when the contracts were
discussed with Iraq's grain board, Mr Flugge said he could not recall these
discussions. He said he was virtually deaf in the left ear and his right ear
was "somewhat impaired".  

This may have prevented him from
hearing discussions about "trucking fees " at a 1999 dinner of AWB
executives, he said.  

"In my experience, at a
dinner for a group of people, unless someone directly speaks to me, I am unable
to follow or keep track of a conversation in a restaurant environment," he
told the inquiry. Federal Parliament heard yesterday.  

Mr Flugge was paid almost $1
million from Australia's aid budget in 2003 for 10 months' work in Iraq as part
of the Coalition provisional authority.

Hi all...

I am sorry I have not posted anything in the recent few days but my server router was on the blink (still is) and I had to find an alternative to post stuff here... with the political scape in full overdrive considering the Howard Government lying through its teeth and the Opposition self destructing  before reconstruction... we're in for a rough ride if we care. If we do not care, all we can do is go to the beach and buy more stuff on credit. See you in a few hours...

From the ABC

Sanction breach info not perceived as problem: Downer
Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer says it appears information about breaches of UN sanctions against Iraq, gathered up to eight years ago, was not perceived as being a problem at the time.

The summarised, unassessed intelligence reports, released by the Cole inquiry, show Australian spy agencies received information indicating that trucking company Alia was involved in breaching United Nations (UN) sanctions on behalf of the Iraqi regime.

The reports span six years from 1998.

Mr Downer has told AM he was not aware of the intelligence reports until very recently, and it seems they were not judged to be important.

"What the assessment agencies do, is they assess the intelligence that they perceive at the time, and of course in the context of the time, that's likely to be useful to the Government in relation to the issues that we're dealing with," Mr Downer said.

"I mean this wasn't perceived, I guess, by anybody at the time as being a major problem."

-------------------

Gus boggles, "I guess" :
Not only these dust-gathering "intelligence" reports were judge non-important, at the SAME time we were engaged in preparing war against our customer with HOT "intelligence" about WMDs that was baloney but that was judged "important" enough to declare war...

Morons! Killers! Assassins! Murderers! Liars...

From the ABC

Howard defends UN inquiry cooperation delay
Prime Minister John Howard says it was a valid decision not to initially provide confidential cables to the United Nation's inquiry into the oil-for-food scandal.

The Federal Opposition says statements made by Mr Howard to the Parliament that the Government fully cooperated with the UN Volcker inquiry were untrue.

It has been revealed the Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer initially refused to hand over confidential cables and allow the UN to interview Australian officials.

Mr Howard has defended Mr Downer's actions.

"You have to see that in the context of Downer's legitimate concerns about making available foreign intelligence, and that was a reasonable concern, and bare in mind, and these remarks are not directed at Mr Volcker in any way, I have great regard for him, but bare in mind that the United Nations itself, in a lot of its agencies, was up to this thing to its ears," he told Southern Cross Radio.

The Opposition has accused the Mr Downer of trying to gag officials and says he has acted disgracefully in relation to the AWB scandal.

"At the end of last year, Mr Howard told Parliament that the Government had provided full co-operation and full documentation to the Volcker inquiry," Mr Rudd said.

"Both of those statements by the Prime Minister were untrue.

From the ABC

AWB secretary 'unable to locate documents'
The Cole inquiry has been told an apology written on behalf of a former boss at AWB was drafted by a crisis management expert.

The inquiry has also been told evidence that was to be presented has been misplaced.

Company secretary Dr Richard Fuller told the inquiry he has not been able to find documents, including some 30,000 emails, that emerged as a result of an internal inquiry into the kickbacks to Iraq.

The documents had been called by AWB's staff lawyer "as bad as it gets".

Lawyers for AWB were surprised to learn the inquiry had obtained a document drafted as a suggested statement to the commission from former managing director Andrew Lindberg.

Dr Fuller told the inquiry the document was written by a crisis management expert, who has a philosophy of "over-apology".

Dr Fuller says Mr Lindberg decided not to use the statement because it did not reflect reality.

Commissioner Cole will decide on Monday if the statement can be made public.

Commissioner Terence Cole is heading the inquiry investigating $300 million worth of payments made by wheat exporter AWB to the former Iraqi regime in contravention of UN sanctions against Iraq.
.................................

Gus sifts through the debris of 30,000 emails...
It is becoming obvious that by the end of the Cole inquiry the AWB should be hugely fined, disbanded, reconstituted and the ministers in charge plus the Prime Minister should resign, all for having mislead parliament and the Australian public...

In the past Honorable member of parliament resigned for erasing piddly things they'd written on a whiteboard... The Howard Ministerial code of conduct has now become a joke: see nofin; hear nofin, say nofin... We can only wonder why they are there doing everything to know nofin...

From the ABC

GM seed stance draws Greenpeace's ire
Environmental group Greenpeace has criticised Australia for promoting the experimental use of highly controversial "terminator seeds" derived from genetically modified plants.

The non-government group has given Australia its first Flat Ball Award for its defence of a seed that critics say undermines biological diversity and creates dependence among poor farmers.

Terminator seeds come from genetically modified plants.

The offspring of the plants are sterile, meaning they cannot be stored for use in future crops.

Environmental activists and several developing countries say the seeds will make poor farmers throughout the world dependent on multinational companies to supply them with the seeds annually.
---------------------

Gusgauff
Did we sell GM wheat with terminators gene to Saddam? AhAh...
No seriously this GM stuff as mentioned here and on this site before will create a huge dependency on multinational for what is the essential ingredients of life... But further more should something goes wrong in the termination department we'll be starving like never before. On top of that, GM crops are created so they are resistant to more potents herbicides and insecticides... In this process, natural food supplies will be dwindling by lack of pollination or killed by poisons, as is already recorded in some experimental patches... No more insects, no more birds in some areas... Is this what we want for the earth to be? A poisoned world where only the genetically altered bugger survives? More can be said, here...

From now on only buy ORGANIC food, encourage your neignbours to buy organic food and to tell his/her buddies. The price might go up in the short term because of the demand but in the long term your dwindling sperm count — due to female hormones and other poisons used in industrial food and medicinal processes that are infilrating the environment — might go back to normal...

Bugger these genetically meddled brains of our politicians who only see transactions, thus short term profits. Ah, the earth is still flat in their own shrinking genetically scrooge little minds...

From the ABC
Cole questions 'unsurprising', Downer says
Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer is declining to say what questions he has been asked by the Cole inquiry, but describes them as unsurprising.

Mr Downer and Trade Minister Mark Vaile have until Wednesday to provide signed written statements to the investigation into the Iraqi oil-for-food scandal.

The minister says he is also happy to appear at the inquiry, if asked, and he is now preparing responses to the written questions he has been sent.

"I'm not going into that, because I think that would be quite inappropriate and they have obviously asked for this material in confidence," he said.

"But they just asked me a series of, what I would describe as, unsurprising questions and I'm in the process of putting together the answers to those questions, nothing very dramatic though."

From the ABC

AWB threatens to challenge inquiry
AWB has announced that it is considering mounting a legal challenge to a ruling by the Cole inquiry.

The potential challenge relates to the grains trader's claim to the right to withhold material from the inquiry.

AWB claims that an internal inquiry called Project Rose, which looked into allegations into payment of kickbacks to Iraq, was for the purpose of getting legal advice.

The board decided it was subject to legal professional privilege and it has been withheld from the Cole inquiry.

The claim has prevented some AWB staff from answering questions about the grains trader's knowledge of any wrongdoing.

Commissioner Terence Cole says Project Rose was a collection of facts, the obtaining of legal advice and the development of strategy to respond to allegations against the company.

Today he ruled one document, which AWB says was mistakenly given to the inquiry, was not privileged material.

AWB will decide whether to challenge by tomorrow morning.

Ruling questioned
Also at the inquiry today, lawyers defending individual AWB employees questioned a ruling requiring them to request permission to question witnesses before getting access to all written statements.

The lawyer representing former AWB chairman Trevor Flugge asked to delay his decision on questioning Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) staff until he had read statements from the Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer and the Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile.

Gus thinks: do these people want to sing the same song from the same song book?

‘"We must hold this
corporation accountable for paying millions of dollars of kickbacks to Saddam
Hussein at the exact time that Saddam was trying to shoot down U.S. pilots who
were patrolling the no fly zones," declared Alan Tracy, the head of
American industry group U.S. Wheat, at a February 4 press briefing in San
Antonio. 

The AWB is not the Australian
government, nor is it a non-profit organization made up of hardworking Aussie
farmers," Mr. Tracy said. "It is a vast independent multinational
corporation that uses its monopoly control of Australian export wheat supplies
to compete unfairly against American farmers." 

In a report to the board of
directors of his lobby group Mr. Tracy said: "AWB's continued protestations
of ignorance do not pass the laugh test." 

"We need to speak up here in
the U.S., to protect the integrity of our programs, of our marketing system.
USW (US Wheat) strongly believes that it is time to put a stop to the abusive
power of the export monopolies. Knowingly paying kickbacks to prop up the
Saddam regime, if proven, would be a moral outrage."’ 

This is one of the most comprehensive reports on the AWB’s rorting
of the UN Oil-for-food Program that I’ve seen.

Australia Reaps Iraqi
Harvest

From the SMH
Downer felt 'responsibility' to defend AWB

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer felt a responsibility to defend AWB despite being warned it could be exposed as having paid kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime, the Cole inquiry heard today.

Mr Downer reassured AWB's managing director Andrew Lindberg and chairman Brendan Stewart he still supported the embattled wheat exporter during a meeting last June.

The AWB chiefs warned Mr Downer a United Nations investigation into corruption of its oil-for-food program in Iraq was likely to make adverse findings against the company.

Despite the warnings, Mr Downer indicated his "strong support" for the company and said that "... he saw it as his responsibility to defend AWB".

read more at the SMH

Gus ponders: There is now no choice but for Mr Clowner to resign for what appears to be selective incompetence, blind faith and wasting public money to support crook deals without proper investigation. Gus sticks to his earlier suggestions of massive fines for the company, for its directors and for whomever instigated the process of crook payments. Then these people can batttle it out with the government by exposing who was truly responsible in authority...

From the SMH

I didn't read AWB cables: PM
Prime Minister John Howard has denied he saw diplomatic cables warning up to six years ago that the wheat exporter AWB could be paying kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime.

Amid tight security, Mr Howard gave evidence for about an hour today to the Cole inquiry investigating $300 million in kickbacks paid by AWB.

It was the first time since Bob Hawke in 1983 that an Australian prime minister has fronted a judicial commission.

Mr Howard was questioned by counsel assisting the inquiry, John Agius SC, about cables sent to the government as far back as 2000 warning that Saddam's regime was rorting the United Nations oil-for-food program.

Some of the cables also warned that AWB might have been paying kickbacks to the Iraqis in breach of UN sanctions.

"I believe that I did not receive or read any of the relevant cables at any time during the relevant period," Mr Howard said in a statement to the inquiry.

"I believe that the contents of the relevant cables were not brought to my attention at any time during the relevant period."

read more "I know nothing" at the SMH

------------------------------

Gus: so there were cables, documents that specifically indicated the government was advised of the problem... but the Chief Perkiest did not see them... Excellent... See nothing, hear nothing say: "I know nothing" and the world is sweet...

So there were documents after all... Join the dots with old crafty cartoon that heads this line of blog and 1 + 1 = 0... Ah, the art of mathematics... applied to politics...

From the ABC

US wheat farmers sue AWB
A civil lawsuit has been lodged against wheat exporter AWB in the United States by a group of American wheat farmers.

Lawyers in the United States are seeking more than $1 billion in damages against the AWB for allegedly keeping North American farmers out of lucrative wheat markets in Iraq, Pakistan and Indonesia.

The AWB is alleged to have paid almost $300 million in kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, with details of the deals emerging at the Cole inquiry.

The US farmers' spokesman, Bill Fletcher, says the lawsuit has been filed in the District of Columbia, under laws designed to crackdown on criminal gangs.

From NineMSN

AWB wins documents decision in Fed court
Tuesday Jul 18 16:48 AEST

Grain exporter AWB has won a court battle to delay giving 1,300 secret documents to the head of the inquiry into the Iraq kickbacks affair.

In the Federal Court in Melbourne, Justice Neil Young said he did not accept the push by the Commonwealth to have the legal status of the documents determined by Commissioner Terence Cole, QC.

AWB is claiming legal professional privilege over the documents Mr Cole has asked for in his inquiry into kickbacks the wheat exporter paid to the regime of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, in breach of UN sanctions.

Last month, the government gave Mr Cole the power to demand the documents but he's now prevented from doing so by a court injunction until the matter is heard in full.

Justice Young said he would publish the reason for his decision later.

The federal court will now determine AWB's claim over the 40 volumes of documents and the matter has been set for a directions hearing on Wednesday morning.
------------------

What has the AWB got to hide? Commercial "sensitive" deals? Contracts? Pricing? Negotiations? Levels of crafty practices? Subsidies?... See cartoon at the head of this line of blogs...

From the Washington Post

No Drought Required For Federal Drought Aid
Livestock Program Grew To Cover Any 'Disaster'
By Gilbert M. Gaul, Dan Morgan and Sarah Cohen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, July 18, 2006; Page A01

CHANDLER, Tex. -- On a clear, cold morning in February 2003, Nico de Boer heard what sounded like a clap of thunder and stepped outside his hillside home for a look. High above the tree line, the 40-year-old dairy farmer saw a trail of smoke curling across the sky -- all that remained of the space shuttle Columbia.

Weeks later, de Boer was startled to learn that he was one of hundreds of East Texas ranchers entitled to up to $40,000 in disaster compensation from the federal government, even though the nearest debris landed 10 to 20 miles from his cattle.

SERIES: HARVESTING CASH
Reaping a Cash Crop
Reporters Dan Morgan and Sarah Cohen will discuss the Post's series examining federal agriculture subsidies that grew to more than $25 billion last year, despite near-record farm revenue.

SPECIAL REPORT

Working a Farm Subsidy
As Congress prepares to debate a farm bill next year, The Washington Post is examining federal agriculture subsidies that grew to more than $25 billion last year, despite near-record farm revenue.

BIRTH OF A SUBSIDY
Benefit for Ranchers Was Created to Help GOP Candidate
If not for a tight Senate race in South Dakota in 2002, there might have been no Livestock Compensation Program.

'INNOVATIVE RELIEF'
When Feed Was Cheap, Catfish Farmers Got Help Buying It
One of the more unusual offshoots of Congress's drought-relief efforts was a $34 million assistance program for catfish farmers.
The money came from the U.S. Department of Agriculture as part of the Livestock Compensation Program, originally intended as a limited helping hand for dairy farmers and ranchers hurt by drought. Hurriedly drafted by the Bush administration in 2002 and expanded by Congress the following year, the relief plan rapidly became an expensive part of the government's sprawling system of entitlements for farmers, which topped $25 billion last year.

read more of this overthere...

From our ABC

AWB letter says Govt backed trucking payments
An AWB letter tendered at the Cole inquiry says the Australian Government supported AWB payments of trucking fees which are now known to have been kickbacks to Suddam Hussein's regime.

The letter was from the wheat exporter's former chairman Trevor Flugge to the Iraqi trade minister.

The letter of April 2000 was retrieved from AWB computers on Monday afternoon.

It tells the minister, Mohammad Saleh, that the AWB chairman had met with the then agriculture minister, Warren Truss, about concerns about Iraqi/Australian trade.

It said Mr Flugge wanted to discuss with Iraqi officials, United Nations' concerns over allegations about trucking fees.

But it said AWB remained committed to the trade terms with the Iraqi grains board, and the Australian Government supported that commitment.

Mr Flugge denied any knowledge of the letter.

It was printed in 2000, but it is not known whether it was sent to Iraq.

Earlier, Mr Flugge has told the Cole inquiry he did know about transport fees being paid to a Jordanian trucking company in 2002 but he did not know at that time the payments were made through an indirect process.
------------

Gus see cartoon at the head of this line of blog...

From [http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20759968-2702,00.html|The Australian]

"Iraq has, according to UN officials, begun demanding kickback and illegal commission on contracts for humanitarian supplies," the cable says. "We asked the Norwegian mission (whose permanent representative chairs the UN sanctions committee) if and how the committee intended to address this issue.
"Norway said that although everybody knows about the kickbacks, given the lack of hard evidence it was difficult to address the issue directly."
The cable was sent to DFAT, the Defence Intelligence Organisation and the Defence Department, and marked for the information of the Prime Minister, the Trade Minister, Austrade, the Foreign Minister and the Defence Minister.
The Cole inquiry is due to hand down its report on November 24. Terence Cole is likely to recommend that charges be laid against AWB executives involved in the kickback scam, but no action is likely to be taken against ministers or government officials.
-------------------
Gus: see cartoon at top of this line of blog....

From the Sydney Morning Herald

 

Flugge knew invasion plans
Marian Wilkinson
November 23, 2006

ONE year before the invasion of Iraq, Australia's then ambassador to the United Nations, John Dauth, confidentially told AWB's former chairman, Trevor Flugge, that the Howard Government would participate in military action with the US to overthrow Saddam Hussein, new AWB documents reveal.

Details of the extraordinary conversation undercut previous statements by the Prime Minister that Australia had not agreed to join the war in Iraq before the UN debate in late 2002 and early 2003.

The conversation between Mr Dauth and Mr Flugge took place in early 2002 - 13 months before the war - and the details are contained in [http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/flugge-knew-invasion-plans/2006/11/22/1163871481920.html||confidential AWB board minutes] that were released without fanfare yesterday by the Cole inquiry.

The minutes record Mr Flugge telling the board on February 27, 2002, that Mr Dauth confided in him "he believed that US military action to depose Saddam Hussein was inevitable and that at this time the Australian Government would support and participate in such action".

With astonishing accuracy, Mr Dauth also predicted that the Iraqi regime's offer to invite UN weapons inspectors to return would be "likely to stave off US action for 12 to 18 months but that some military action was inevitable". The ambassador also told Mr Flugge the operation in Iraq would operationally be similar to that in Afghanistan, with "heavy use of air support followed by deployment of ground troops".

-----------------------

Gus: With astonishing accuracy, Gus knew by mid 2002 that Old Crafty was lying on the involvement of Australia in the future war in Iraq... We knew that Old Crafty was a liar way before that and that his nickname was "honest John" not because of telling the truth...  He has never stopped lying never ever since we (well not me, but the "majority" of fooled Australians) voted him to power four bloody times... and going for a big one yet again... More load of rubbish coming your way... Including some extraordinary ramblings about the Vietnam war in which this Liar Extraordinaire has the gall of misunderstanding the political realities... Yes voters, vote for the little Big Liar if you will, he'll still be lying to you forever after with never ever that are dead certs — coated with the whole prosperity illusion that you are paying in massive, real personal debt. His antics re the nuclear debate has already been framed as well... Dear voters, be fools by trusting Old Crafty if you wish but do not take the good people with you. I'd say Old Crafty has to go now for his official deceit of the Australian people.

 

See cartoon at the top of this line of blogs...

Yes Gus, but the fat lady might yet get to sing ......

Cole’s report hits the airwaves today & the AWB boys are hiring their lawyers & doubtless pursuing defensive financial risk management strategies, whilst contemplating life on the wrong side of the razor wire.

Whilst Canberra settles into holiday mode, key bureaucrats quietly resign & steal away, putting themselves beyond the reach of prying Senate Committees, whilst little johnnee’s criminal crew do their best to pretend that nothing happened, & if it did, well, certainly nobody told them.

But it’s all small change compared to the plans US wheat farmers are making for revenge & there’s little likelihood that the Democrats will do anything to impede their plans.

Ironically, Iraq might actually turn out to be a healthier climate for a whole lote of people, including our prime rodent & his gang.

See the report from this week’s Dateline …..

Wheat Wars

Yes John,
....
From the Sydney Morning Herald

AWB report in, now for the legal nightmare

Deborah Snow and Marian Wilkinson
November 24, 2006

    * AWB report in, now for the legal nightmare
    * Envoy's view was personal: PM
    * Cole report goes to Government tomorrow
    * Flugge knew invasion plans
    * AWB feels the pinch as its bills hit $34m

THE wheat exporter AWB is bracing itself for an avalanche of legal woes as Terence Cole, the head of the long-running inquiry into the oil-for-food scandal, hands his report to the Federal Government today.

Tax offences, money laundering, obstruction of Government officials, defrauding the Commonwealth, terrorist financing, breaches of the Corporations Law and criminal offences head a list of possible findings drawn up by senior counsel assisting the inquiry, John Agius, SC.

--------------------

Envoy's view was [http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/envoys-view-was-personal-pm/2006/11/23/1163871546536.html|personal]: PM

Marian Wilkinson
November 24, 2006
Other related coverage

THE Federal Opposition Leader, Kim Beazley, has expressed concern at revelations that the former AWB chairman Trevor Flugge was told of the Government's plans to join military action to overthrow Saddam Hussein more than a year before Iraq was invaded.

Details of Mr Flugge's briefing from Australia's former United Nations ambassador John Dauth were revealed in the Herald yesterday. They were found in confidential AWB board minutes from February 2002 that were released by the Cole inquiry this week.

The minutes record Mr Dauth telling Mr Flugge in New York that "US military action to depose Saddam Hussein was inevitable and that at this time the Australian Government would support and participate in such action".

He also told Mr Flugge he would do his best to give AWB "as much warning as possible" of military action.

The AWB minutes undercut long-standing claims by the Prime Minister, John Howard, that the Government had made no decision to join military action against Iraq until 2003. Yesterday a spokesperson for Mr Howard said: "Mr Dauth was expressing his personal view about what might happen."
-----------------------
Gus: It is quite impossible and totally improper for an envoy or a diplomat  to express "personal views" on a subject of this scale to a party who has interests at hand... War is serious business. It's not for an envoy to chit-chat about it in the manner recorded in the AWB minutes... It's most likely that our rodent had made some solid verbal remarks that would have thus filtered down the line into the AWB minutes via Mr Dauth... There is so much circumstantial evidence pointing to our PM, including "unread" secret service memos, that one can only imagine His Cleverness, sweeping all the debris around him including all the damning arrows pointing to him with a "I never" broomstick.