you were warned!!! you were warned!!!, page-14

government to inquire into claims Sunday November 13, 5:27 AM

Australia probes report of Iraq wheat suspension
CANBERRA, Nov 12 (Reuters) - The Australian government on Saturday said it will investigate a report Iraq wants to suspend future wheat orders because of wheat exporter AWB Ltd.'s (ASX: AWB.ax) role in alleged kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's former regime.

The recent UN report by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker said AWB had been involved in illegal kickbacks of up to $220 million to the former regime, paid through contracts to a Jordanian trucking company to transport wheat within Iraq.

The Australian newspaper on Saturday reported that Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister, Ahmed Chalabi, wanted AWB to pay the new Iraqi government compensation for the trucking payments and had said future wheat sales would be suspended.

"I don't want to be specific, but they should organise compensation, because that money, the $220 million, belonged to Iraq and the Iraqi people," Chalabi told the Australian from Washington.

A spokesman for Australia's Trade Minister, Mark Vaile, said the Australian embassy in Baghdad would investigate the report.

AWB, Australia's monopoly wheat exporter, has said it knew nothing of any kickbacks. The Volcker report said there was no evidence that AWB was knowingly involved in kickbacks, but said it should have known.

Prime Minister John Howard said as far as the government was concerned, Australia's wheat trade with Iraq was proceeding as normal.

"AWB does have a contract with the Iraqi government, so there are obligations, and those obligations just can't be torn up willy-nilly," Howard told reporters in Brisbane. The government on Thursday appointed former judge Terrence Cole to lead an inquiry into AWB's role in any kickbacks under the UN's food-for-oil programme, and whether any Australian laws had been broken.

AWB spokesman Peter McBride said wheat exports to Iraq would continue and officials would seek an explanation from the Iraqi Grains Board.

"We've got a contract in place and we are delivering against that contract. That will take us into the new year," McBride told the AAP news agency.

Australia was among the first countries to commit troops to the U.S.-led war on Iraq. Australia still has more than 1,000 military personnel in and around Iraq, providing security for Japanese engineers and training the Iraqi military.