Chalabi slams door on Australia over kick-backs to Saddam

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=b5434b0eee6214ea

The Iraqi government says it will buy no more Australian wheat until it is reimbursed for kickbacks paid to Saddam Hussein under the oil-for-food program.

Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Chalabi told The Australian that the A.W.B., formerly the Australian Wheat Board, paid $290 million Australian (about $214 million U.S.) to the Jordanian trucking group Alia knowing the money would go to Saddam.

'The justifications they make are lame,' Chalabi said. The excuses they are making are lame.

A U.N. investigation of the oil-for-food program found that the A.W.B. was responsible for 14 percent of the kickbacks received by Saddam, the largest single amount. Officials say the board was unaware that Alia was a front for Saddam and thought the payments were legitimate transportation costs.
more...

Chalibi is a hoot isn't he!!!

Swiss account. The filthy crook.

What a thankless bastard!

And why should he care? He came to the US at 14, long before Saddam came to power, and apparently because his Daddy was a crooked scumbag, too.

That's the thanks you get for being used as neo-con pawns.

Oh this is getting better all the time.

Is this someone else? A relative? Because I thought that last year the Bushies accused him of something and he was run out of Iraq on a rail.

CANBERRA, Australia (Reuters) -- Iraq has reassured Australia that it has no plans to suspend Australian wheat sales, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said on Sunday.

Downer said Australian embassy officials in Baghdad had spoken to the Iraqi government after reports Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Chalabi wanted to suspend future wheat orders because of wheat exporter AWB Ltd.'s role in alleged kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's former regime.

Downer said Australian officials had spoken to Chalabi, who denied any change to the treatment of Australian wheat.

"He made it clear that Australia was welcome to compete for wheat orders and that Iraqi consumers liked Australian wheat, and the long-standing commercial relationship with Australia and the Australian wheat industry was important to the Iraqi government," Downer told Australian radio.

more:http://www.cnn.com/2005/BUSINESS/11/13/iraq.wheat.reut/index.html?section=cnn_latest

:shrug:

The Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, says he has received confirmation that the Iraqi Government has not suspended future orders for Australian wheat.

A News Ltd newspaper yesterday reported that the Iraqi Government had suspended future orders until wheat marketer AWB repaid $290 million it sent to a Jordanian trucking company, which later turned out to be a front company for former dictator Saddam Hussein.

Mr Downer said today Australian officials in Baghdad had spoken with the Iraqi Prime Minister, along with his deputy Ahmed Chalabi, and future Australian wheat orders were safe.

"Mr Chalabi said that he denied emphatically that he said Iraq had suspended future orders of Australian wheat," Mr Downer told ABC radio.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/future-wheat-orders-safe/2005/11/13/1131816798849.html

Australia made a phone call to Bush!!!

Did THE PEOPLE of Iraq *specifically* vote for Chalabi, or was he part of some "party package" that DEEMED him Assistant Prime Minister?

No Joke = IMO this guy is truly scary. :scared:

deal!!!