Dealing With The Devil: A Transparent Farce

On behalf of all the Iraqi people (despite the fact that only 1% actually support him), Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Chalabi has agreed to continue buying Australian wheat - as long as the disgraced Australian Wheat Board (AWB) is no longer involved.

Australian Deputy PM Mark Vaile, who was trade minister at the time when the government-controlled AWB was busting sanctions to deal with Saddam, clinched the deal with his counterpart Chalabi.

Both Vaile and Chalabi know full well that the Australian government was well aware of the AWB's deals with Saddam. Both find themselves in a situation where they are under political pressure to Do Something. A deal is in both their interests, but particularly Australia's.

So the solution: blame the AWB, hide the evidence of government involvemnet, and kill the controversy. Then shake hands on more Big Money deals.

But I can't help wondering, how much did we just pay Ahmed Chalabi?