Wednesday, November 29, 2006
COUNTRY HONEST
NRO’s Claudia Rosett reviews the Cole Royal Commission:
While most of the alleged collaborators in Saddam’s global web of graft get a free pass, we have headlines about corruption in one of the few countries honest enough to conduct a public investigation — Australia. The silver lining is that the scandal may result in the breakup of the Australian Wheat Board, Australia’s domestic monopoly buyer of bulk wheat for export.
Via neoZionoid. Also, this from a correspondent close to events:
My firm acted for Howard, Vaile, Downer and their respective departments and agencies in the Cole Inquiry. I managed the team that prepared the matter, took statements from them, sat with them for hours over the course of weeks going through documents and file notes prior to their evidence.
Never once did I see a single indication from anything said, done or written that they had the faintest idea what AWB were up to. I saw plenty that suggested senior AWB Execs knew exactly what was going on and that they were desperate to keep it hushed from anyone outside and most within the company.