Australia and Kickbacks-for-Food.
CorpWatch reports that the Australian Wheat Board has been identified as the worst abuser of Iraq's failed Oil-for-Food program. They report...
But while U.S. French, Russian, and African politicians, businessmen and companies benefited from Saddam's profiteering, the program's worst corrupter was the Australian Wheat Board (AWB), the largest importer of food into Iraq under Oil-for-Food.
What this article highlights, is that it was individuals and corporations who really did the dirty work in the corruption that has characterized the Oil-for-Food scandal. Again from the article...
THE DEAL
According to memos admitted as evidence to the Cole inquiry, Former AWB managing director Andrew Lindberg and other AWB executives met the Iraqi minister for Trade in 2002, when it was agreed that AWB would inflate transport prices to repay $A 8 million owed to Iraq by Tigris Petroleum, a partner of Australian resources megalith BHP Billiton.
An $A 82 billion company led by American Charles "Chip" Goodyear (from the Goodyear lumber family, rather than the Goodyear tire clan,) BHP digs or drills for just about everything on every continent on the planet except Antarctica. Coal, gold, diamonds, iron, oil, gas  if it's in the ground, BHP gets it out. The company employs 36,000 people in 25 countries. Last year it reported an $A11 billion profit, the largest in Australian corporate history.
The governmnet officials who profited from letting guys like "Chip" get away with this crap were actually small players in this thing. The suggestion that Russia and France profited from this, and thus opposed the invasion, is ludicrous.
If it had been the level of corruption within the government bodies of the countries that opposed the war that had been the determining factor in those states policy on Iraq, Australia would top the list of countries standing in opposition.
Let us be sure to lay the blame for this malfeasance on the corporations and specific individuals within the various governments that not only invented these schemes, but ulitimately benifited from them more than anyone else, except perhaps Saddam himself.
But while U.S. French, Russian, and African politicians, businessmen and companies benefited from Saddam's profiteering, the program's worst corrupter was the Australian Wheat Board (AWB), the largest importer of food into Iraq under Oil-for-Food.
What this article highlights, is that it was individuals and corporations who really did the dirty work in the corruption that has characterized the Oil-for-Food scandal. Again from the article...
THE DEAL
According to memos admitted as evidence to the Cole inquiry, Former AWB managing director Andrew Lindberg and other AWB executives met the Iraqi minister for Trade in 2002, when it was agreed that AWB would inflate transport prices to repay $A 8 million owed to Iraq by Tigris Petroleum, a partner of Australian resources megalith BHP Billiton.
An $A 82 billion company led by American Charles "Chip" Goodyear (from the Goodyear lumber family, rather than the Goodyear tire clan,) BHP digs or drills for just about everything on every continent on the planet except Antarctica. Coal, gold, diamonds, iron, oil, gas  if it's in the ground, BHP gets it out. The company employs 36,000 people in 25 countries. Last year it reported an $A11 billion profit, the largest in Australian corporate history.
The governmnet officials who profited from letting guys like "Chip" get away with this crap were actually small players in this thing. The suggestion that Russia and France profited from this, and thus opposed the invasion, is ludicrous.
If it had been the level of corruption within the government bodies of the countries that opposed the war that had been the determining factor in those states policy on Iraq, Australia would top the list of countries standing in opposition.
Let us be sure to lay the blame for this malfeasance on the corporations and specific individuals within the various governments that not only invented these schemes, but ulitimately benifited from them more than anyone else, except perhaps Saddam himself.
posted by Praguetwin at
1:11 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home