This has been an interesting story to follow. There are certainly very direct links from the AWB Board into the highest levels of the Howard government.
Now this -
Spy files on wheat kickbacks kept secret
By Marian Wilkinson, National Security Editor
March 15, 2006
INTELLIGENCE reports that raised the alarm on oil-for-food kickbacks as long as six years ago have been suppressed by the Cole inquiry at the request of the Federal Government, which claims their release could jeopardise "national security".
The existence of the reports had never previously been disclosed by the Government. At the inquiry yesterday, 15 of the reports were handed to a senior Foreign Affairs official, Bronte Moules, to read in silence in the witness box.
Counsel assisting the inquiry, John Agius, SC, questioned Ms Moules on the documents, but she could not reveal their contents.
Ms Moules, a senior official who dealt with AWB and the UN's oil-for-food program in Iraq, said she had no recollection of seeing the reports, which were described as relating to the "circumvention" of the program. She said she knew the contents of a few of them "in broad terms" because they were raised by the UN committee enforcing economic sanctions against Iraq.
AWB's barrister, James Judd, QC, objected to the suppression of the intelligence reports, warning that it might lead to "a breathtaking denial of natural justice" for AWB and its executives, who are under investigation for paying almost $300 million in kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime.
The commissioner, Terence Cole, agreed to suppress the reports but said he had asked the Government for a sanitised "summation" of their contents, which he promised to make public. The Government argued that disclosure of the reports would reveal the "sources and methods" of intelligence collection.
It is believed they were produced by the overseas intelligence service, ASIS, the Defence Intelligence Organisation and possibly the Office of National Assessments. They appear to date back at least six years, when the UN first told Ms Moules AWB had been accused of paying kickbacks for wheat contracts. The UN warning followed a complaint by the Canadian government in 1999.
Mr Agius told the inquiry the intelligence reports related to "potentially relevant information" on the UN oil-for-food program, involving the "possible circumvention" of the program "during the relevant period". He said they might be relevant to finding out what the Government knew at the time of Canada's complaint.
However, the reports do not appear to have prompted an investigation of AWB's contracts by the Department of Foreign Affairs. Ms Moules said neither she nor other Foreign Affairs officials had "a role or any expertise" to examine the Iraq contracts.
She said the Australian UN mission in New York was "essentially a post box" to pass AWB's contracts to the UN's oil-for-food program. She did not believe it was her job to assess the contracts and left this to the UN even after Canada lodged its complaint.
Ms Moules showed a broad ignorance of AWB's dealings in Iraq, despite her key role as the intermediary between the wheat exporter and the UN. Her evidence is expected to be repeated by other Government witnesses.
Mr Agius told the inquiry this hands-off approach to AWB began only in 1996, shortly after the election of the Howard Government. He said until the mid-1990s documents suggested there was far more scrutiny by Foreign Affairs "to ensure there was no potential breach of UN sanctions".
Now for anyone who wants to, go digging to show that NZ has also had its IOF kickback allegations and you may well find them. Small ones. There was a total value of some NZD1 mill involved according to my memory of the UN reports. What you will NOT find is any governmental complicity...
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