From the ABC
The federal Opposition says Mr Downer has given evidence today at the Cole inquiry which does not match a statement he made during Question Time (QT) in Parliament.

Mr Downer told the inquiry he had no recollection of receiving or reading a cable in January 2000 that mentioned Canadian concerns that AWB was paying kickbacks to Iraq.

Labor's foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd says Mr Downer told Parliament in February he would have read that cable.

"So in Parliament Mr Downer said that he has read this critical cable containing warnings, but in the inquiry he makes a statement saying that he has not read it at all," he said.

"There is only one of two alternatives here: either the Foreign Minister has misled the Australian Parliament; or he has misled the Cole Commission of Inquiry."

A spokesman for Mr Downer says there is no contradiction.

Meanwhile, AWB has announced that its two company secretaries have resigned.

The departure of Dr Richard Fuller and Jim Cooper was announced in a statement to the stock exchange by AWB.

read more at the ABC

From the ABC

Labor urges Downer, Vaile to quit
The Federal Opposition says evidence given to the Cole inquiry by the Foreign Affairs Minister and the Trade Minister shows the men are not fit to hold office.

Alexander Downer gave testimony yesterday to the inquiry into $290 million of sanction-breaking payments made by wheat exporter AWB to the regime of Saddam Hussein.

Like Mark Vaile, who appeared before the inquiry on Monday, he said he did not remember reading a series of diplomatic cables relating to allegations against AWB.

Mr Downer also said his department's ability to investigate AWB was limited.

But Labor's foreign affairs spokesman, Kevin Rudd, says Mr Downer and Mr Vaile have been neglectful.

"Mr Downer read none of the cables which were relevant to this scandal, he set up no systems in his department to honour his obligations ... and as a consequence this $300 million scandal unfolded," he said.

"That's why Mr Downer and Mr Vaile are no longer fit to hold office as Cabinet ministers in this government."

read more at the ABC

Govt warns China, Taiwan on Solomons
April 26, 2006 - 6:20PM

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer
has warned China and Taiwan to stay out of Solomon Islands politics, saying
chequebook diplomacy is unacceptable.

"We don't want to see chequebook diplomacy entering the Pacific," he
said in an address at the National Press Club attended by China's ambassador to
Australia, Fu Ying. 

Sirry Iriot Clowner!!! Fu Ying
Yu!!! 

We’re warning China!

Maybe Howard is sending warships & aircraft carriers to blow Beijing apart?

Didn't John Howard say, only weeks ago when he signed the China uranium treaty,
that he trusts China not to use the uranium for nuclear weapons.?

Will John Howard take the treaty back?

What is this warning? I bet it is
a pointy finger wiggled in the air. 

China has more men its army that
we have people in Australia.

from today’s
Crikey, Michael Pascoe writes:
 
BHP's efforts in ruling off its involvement in arguably the most egregious
aspect of the AWB Iraq scandal – the Tigris deal – have suddenly come undone.
The BHP case to the Cole Inquiry basically came down to pointing the finger at
a rogue executive who wouldn't take “no Iraq” for an answer, plus a mysterious
grey spot where the word “gift” became “loan”.

That case has been compromised by the Cole Inquiry releasing documents
showing BHP was hot to trot on Iraq with all lobbyists blazing when the
invasion still looked like a victory. Marian
Wilkinson covers it in The Smage:

A highly confidential record of the meeting between Mr
Downer and BHP Billiton executives written by the Department of Foreign Affairs
details their discussion of the project in London in May 2003, only weeks after
the Saddam Hussein government fell.

The executives meeting Mr Downer included the
company's Middle East experts, David Walker and David Regan, its
vice-president, Tom Harley, and a top lobbyist, the former British foreign
secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind.

The document reveals an extraordinary effort
by BHP Billiton to get its share of the Halfayah oilfield, one of the richest
in the country, by lobbying the key players in postwar Iraq.

The executives told Mr Downer the company had
already lobbied Arthur Sinodinos, the chief adviser to the Prime Minister, John
Howard, and were about to approach Downing Street and the US Vice-President
Dick Cheney.

Of particular concern to BHP will be the document's
disclosure that Tigris was still happily up and running as part of the plans.
Says Wilkinson:

The document also clearly sets out of the first time that
real relationship between BHP Billiton and the controversial company Tigris,
its joint venture partner in Iraq.

Tigris has been accused in evidence to the
Cole Inquiry of being involved in a major fraud in the UN's Oil For Food
program to assist Australia's wheat trader, AWB.

According to the document, Mr Harley told Mr
Downer: "Tigris was responsible for maintaining relationships with [Saddam
Hussein's] Iraq by working Oil for Food projects until a normal political situation
could be established in Iraq.

"This arrangement was judged by all
parties to give Australia the maximum chance of securing the Halfayah field
investment."

Whoops. BHP is back in the poo. Other documents indicate
further knowledge by AWB of just what it was up to – but AWB has never been out
of it.

In the SMH today (6/07/06) our illustrious Mr Clowner had a letter published...

Here it goes:

""""""""""""Trade and war

Your editorial suggesting the Australian Government went to war in Iraq to protect its wheat market is deeply offensive and utterly untrue ("Trade's cannon fodder", July 5).

Your readers would know this if your newspaper had bothered to report my repudiation of these claims in my comments to the media in Melbourne on Monday. This Government does not make military deployments contingent on trading interests, in Iraq or elsewhere. What we did seek were assurances that, after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime, the Iraqi wheat market would be open for free and fair competition, including for Australian wheat growers. This is what has happened, and we have been satisfied with that outcome.

Alexander Downer Canberra"""""""""""""
----------------------

Well, If Gus is not deeply offended by this chunderish drivel! First the Clowner "forgot" to mention the reason to go war... So what was it?

Find some WMDs that he knew did not exist? If he didn't know that, then he should not be impersonating a Foreign Minister. Everyone with intelligence and his dumb dog knew there were no WMDs in Iraq (even a docile lying media wanting to report some biffo no matter what, of course)...

So the other reason brought forward at the last minute, was to "liberate" Iraq... Hey? From what? From itself?

Bring "freedom" to the Iraqi people? You had to be an imbecile-first-class not to know that CHAOS would engulf the place as soon the occupation/invading forces declared "mission accomplished" on the deck of USS PressRelease...

War is serious business. People die! so far the count is around 160,000 combined during and after the war!

War on whim is F%$#@*ing mad! Any F*&^%*$@#@ing words I could use here would not be as F*^&%^$#@ing offensive as your stupid offensive letter! Repudiate whatever you like, you and that despicable government you work/spruik for! You do not deserve one F^%#@*&^ing word more...

Go and wash you mouth with soap, Mr Clowner... or at least, stop dipping your pen in the toilet bowl when writing to the Sydney Morning Herald...

Please review Howard's bad dream, and, for good measure, Mission accomplished, before the ABC Board has them sanitised for reasons of deep offensiveness and utter crudity.

And Ted Rall makes a good point, one that will be lost on Ms Bishop Snr.