A former Australian intelligence officer yesterday said it was ``absolutely impossible'' the federal government didn't know about millions of dollars in alleged kickbacks paid to former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein under the UN oil-for-food program.
A government inquiry is investigating whether Australia's monopoly wheat exporter, AWB Ltd., knowingly paid up to US$222 million in alleged bribes to secure valuable wheat deals in Iraq.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard's center-right government has repeatedly denied any knowledge of the alleged corruption, but a former officer with the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, Warren Reid, said the government would have been well aware of AWB's oil-for-food dealings.
``It's absolutely impossible that they didn't know,'' Reid said.
``In fact, if you look at the core part of the governmental system in Canberra, foreign affairs, defense ... the whole intelligence apparatus, that's geared to knowing these things,'' said Reid, who worked for the security agency for 10 years in Asia and the Middle East.
Any senior minister who wasn't aware of such high-level dealings wasn't doing his job and should be reprimanded, he added.
Originally the inquiry was called to examine whether AWB officials knowingly paid millions of dollars to a Jordanian trucking company that was part-owned by the Iraqi government.
The company, Alia, says it took the money but says it never moved Australian wheat into Iraq.
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