AWB Fiasco II

From the Australian: Angry US slams Iraq bribe denials. Well they would say that, wouldn’t they?

THE chairman of a powerful US Senate committee is demanding Australian ambassador to Washington Dennis Richardson explain the Howard Government’s role in the Iraqi wheat affair, saying he is “deeply troubled” by an apparent attempt to cover up the scandal.

It’s not quite the ‘US’ it is Republican Senator Norm Coleman, who is chairing the Senate’s inquiry into “illegal, under-the-table” payments to Saddam Hussein’s regime and I would suggest he is not so much ‘deeply troubled’ as ‘very excited’ at the possible damage to Australia’s wheat trade. The good Senator represents Minnesota that just happens to produce 15% of the US Spring wheat crop.(scroll down) Now let’s see; spring in the US would be autumn in Australia which must be about when our summer harvest is ready for sale. I’m not suggesting the man has any vested interests in knocking Australia’s wheat sales. I don’t have to, it’s obvious. Neither am I suggesting the enquiry shouldn’t run it’s course but the media needs to point out obvious connections when they splash headlines scross their pages. Maybe if Caroline Overington and Geoff Elliott, the authors, had spent five minutes googling they might have been able to point out the Senator’s vested interests. Just a thought.