CANBERRA, Australia, April 12 (UPI) -- Australia's foreign minister has been forced to concede he did nothing to prevent Aussie firms giving Saddam Hussein money in the years prior to the Iraq war.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer admitted he had not established any mechanism for ensuring Australian wheat trader AWB was not breaching U.N. sanctions in its Iraq dealings, The Australian reported Wednesday.
His evidence to the inquiry directly contradicted a statement he made to parliament Feb. 28, when he said of several key cables, "Of course, I would have read them."
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd said Downer had misled the parliament or the commission of inquiry.
In his testimony, Downer defended the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for acting as a "post box" for Australia's inflated wheat contracts, sending them on to the United Nations without noticing they were bloated by $212 million in bribes.
In a written statement to the inquiry, Downer used the term "I have no recollection" 27 times.
In particular, he said he could not recall seeing any of the 21 top-secret cables, although he suspected he might have seen one from Washington, since he made a point of reading mail from Washington.
