AWB: The Jig Is Up

Army lawyer 'warned of AWB scandal':

Colonel Kelly says he emailed "it looks like the jig is up on AWB and the oil-for-food scandal" to Australia's Baghdad mission in May 2004.

He says he told officials in Australia that AWB was up to its eyeballs in illicit payments and said the investigations would reveal that.

Colonel Kelly says he told Australian officials that AWB would be caught, and suggested the Australian Government should immediately set up its own inquiry.

That advice was not taken up, and Colonel Kelly says he was never asked about his specific knowledge of AWB transactions.

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade officials involved in promoting the wheat trade say the Colonel did not give them specific details of improper dealings by AWB.

It is now known AWB paid more than $290 million in kickbacks to Saddam's regime.