Looks like the Foreign Affairs Minister is involved and the government is coving this up. Just think had it been a non-pigskin ****ry the US and the rest would be asking for sanctions for breaking the sanctions against Iraq.
Now the pigskins are also thing of ways to sell uranium to China.
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The AWB scandal widened yesterday, with an accusation that the wheat exporter encouraged staff not to give evidence to the inquiry into kickbacks paid to Saddam Hussein's regime, and a suggestion that foreign officials in Pakistan were bribed.
In Pakistan an agent was paid US $4 million ($A5.34 million), possibly corruptly and contravening laws against bribing foreign officials. The two responsible AWB employees - worried about legal consequences - insisted on and were granted legal indemnity when they resigned from the company in 2000.
The payment related to a one-tonne wheat shipment - and the $5 million commission was "high", according to a report prepared by consulting firm Arthur Andersen for AWB.
In the final minutes of a dramatic day's hearings yesterday, counsel buttisting the inquiry, John Agius, SC, revealed that under a deed of agreement prepared by AWB, employees and former employees could be forced to repay their legal costs if they were found to have acted dishonestly.
Mr Agius said a clause, approved by AWB managing director Andrew Lindberg, could encourage staff not to reveal details of the $300 million in kickbacks to Iraq.
"Does it occur to you that a clause like this might amount to a contempt of the commission?" Mr Agius asked Mr Lindberg.
Mr Lindberg agreed it was open to that interpretation and could be a disincentive to staff to reveal the truth - but insisted that was never its intention.
The clause states: "Where the commissioner makes a material adverse finding in respect to a former employee . . . the former employee must repay on demand the amount of any payment made by the AWB . . . "
AWB counsel, James Judd, QC, said that "there was no intention whatsoever for anyone to do anything other than tell the truth . . . " But Mr Agius said the clause was "quite unique" in his experience.
Commissioner Terence Cole said he did "not regard that clause as a usual clause" and if it was not intended to discourage employees from giving evidence it had been "very ill-drawn".
In his fourth day in the witness box, Mr Lindberg struggled to maintain his stance he did not know the AWB had routinely paid bribes in Iraq and elsewhere.
Mr Agius expressed disbelief about Mr Lindberg's stated lack of knowledge about the Pakistan payments - and the hundreds of millions paid to Iraq.
"I don't want to paint you as a person who was standing in your office looking out whilst the AWB burned, Mr Lindberg, but did you not take a personal interest in these matters?" he asked.
