Fed: Kickbacks paid to Saddam funded families of suicide bombers

AAP General News (Australia)
12-08-2005
Fed: Kickbacks paid to Saddam funded families of suicide bombers

SYDNEY, Dec 8 AAP - Kickbacks paid by Australia's monopoly wheat exporter to Saddam
Hussein's regime was used to finance a $US10 million ($A13.29 million) slush fund for
the families of Palestinian suicide bombers.

US government and CIA documents show money paid by companies now known to have taken
bribes flowed into bank accounts in Jordan that were used by the then Iraqi government
to pay for deadly bombings or weapons, The Australia newspaper reported today.

The US inquiry into the corrupt UN oil-for-food program found companies such as Jordanian
firm Alia paid money into front accounts held under false names.

The accounts were then emptied each evening into Iraqi government accounts and used
for international transactions.

AWB paid hundreds of millions of dollars to Alia, saying it thought it was a trucking company.

"According to information provided to the committee, Saddam paid $US25,000 rewards
to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers through the Iraqi ambassador to Jordan,"

Republican Henry Hyde, chairman of the US House of Representatives Committee on international
relations told an oil-for-food hearing last November.

"(Saddam did so) out of accounts in the Rafidain Bank in Amman (the Jordan capital)
which held kickback money Saddam demanded from suppliers to his regime," he added.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani government has launched an inquiry into kickbacks made to
government officials by AWB, saying it believes several "very senior" officials were involved,
The Australian also reports.

Officials from Pakistan's Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock had demanded
payments in exchange for wheat contracts, sources had told the paper.

AAP ved/cdh

KEYWORD: AWB PALESTINIAN

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