Australian PM faces corruption inquiry

SYDNEY, Australia -- Two of Prime Minister John Howard's senior aides have told a commission investigating alleged bribes to Saddam Hussein's regime in defiance of U.N. sanctions that they knew nothing of the scandal. Now it's Howard's turn to testify.\nHoward on Thursday will become the first Australian head of state in more than two decades to face an official inquiry. He will answer questions from the commission probing whether Australia's monopoly wheat exporter illegally paid millions of dollars in bribes to win contracts from Saddam's regime.\n"The Cole Commission of Inquiry has requested that I appear at its hearings," Howard said in a 43-word statement Wednesday. "As I have said previously, I am happy to do so."\nThe commission is investigating whether the Australian Wheat Board, now known as AWB Ltd., gave $220 million to Saddam to secure grain contracts worth more than $2.3 billion between 1997 and 2003 under the U.N. oil-for-food program.\nHoward, who is serving his fourth term in office, was elected in the mid-1990s.\nHe already has submitted a written statement to the commission. It was not published, but he said he will be questioned on it Thursday.\nThe commission is investigating whether AWB knowingly paid millions of dollars in kickbacks to a Jordanian trucking company that was part-owned by Saddam's government. Such payments were illegal under the U.N. sanctions slapped on Baghdad after the 1990 invasion of Kuwait.\nHoward, a staunch ally of President Bush who sent 2,000 Australian troops to join the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, was likely to be questioned about 21 diplomatic cables sent between 2000 and 2004 warning the government about possible irregularities in AWB's wheat contracts with Iraq.\nTwo of Howard's senior ministers -- Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer -- have already testified in the inquiry.\nBoth Vaile and Downer said they had no recollection of ever reading or receiving the cables, maintaining the government's long-standing position that it knew nothing of the alleged corruption.\nPeter Costello, the deputy leader of Howard's ruling Liberal Party, said the prime minister had agreed to testify because he was true to his word that the inquiry would be transparent.\n"Nobody in the government is hiding," Costello said after Howard announced he would testify.\nHaving ministers "submit themselves to cross-examination is, I think, an indication as to the fact that the government is being fully transparent," he added.\nThe inquiry is led by former Judge Terence Cole, who attended law school with Howard. Cole does not have the power to file charges but can recommend that executives be prosecuted if they are found to have broken Australian laws.\nOn Tuesday, Cole said the ministers were only being questioned because any evidence that the government knew about corruption could be used as a defense by AWB executives if they are found to have deliberately paid kickbacks.\nLabor lawmakers accuse the government -- which gave the inquiry its powers -- of creating a toothless tiger that cannot recommend charges against anybody other AWB executives.