Australia Denies Guilt in Oil-For-Food

[NVMojo]

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -

Prime Minister John Howard on Monday rejected claims that his government was guilty of negligence for allowing Australia's monopoly wheat exporter to pay multimillion-dollar kickbacks to former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

Howard made the comments ahead of the release of a government-commissioned report into payments by the Australian Wheat Board, now known as AWB Ltd., under the U.N.'s corruption-riddled Iraq oil-for-food program.

The media have predicted the report will recommend criminal charges against several AWB executives, while Howard's government is likely to escape formal censure over the scandal.

Opposition leaders have accused the government of failing to respond to a string of diplomatic cables sent from Australian officials at the U.N. and in the Middle East warning that AWB may have been violating the sanctions imposed on Baghdad after its 1990 Kuwait invasion.

more...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-aus/2006/nov/26/112602838.html

[williesgirl]

1. Nice to see Australia's government is as honest/aboveboard as ours.

It's whatever the traffic will bear - everywhere.

[acmavm]

2. Hee hee! This is hilarious. Our whore administration calling the

Aussie whores on their lack of oversight and ethics.

Somewhere the God of Irony is busting a gut.

[NVMojo]

3. Irony is right. It's all about greed at the end of the day ...

[lovuian]

4. It shows that Saddam served his purpose but their greed

wanted it all...