It's been 23 years since a serving Prime Minister has been called before a Royal Commission to explain himself. Not only John Howard, but his Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministers were all required to tell the Cole inquiry exactly what they knew about the $295 million paid in kickbacks by the AWB to the Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein.
JOHN HOWARD, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: I did not know, my ministers did not know, and on the information that I have been provided and the advice I have received from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, I do not believe that the Department knew that AWB was involved in the payment of bribes.
Tonight, a key player in the scandal tells Dateline that he had been meeting with the Australian Government Trade representative in Jordan since the mid '90s. His company, Alia, was a money launderer for the AWB, allowing it to funnel hundreds of millions in illegal payments in breach of United Nations sanctions.REPORTER: Do you believe that the Australian Ambassador and the Australian Embassy in Jordan, they knew the relationship with AWB that they understood that?
OTHMAN AL ABSI: Yes, yes. Because the Austrade - there is a company name here is Austrade, belong to the Embassy - they know about us.
REPORTER: Right from the beginning, the relationship?
OTHMAN AL ABSI: Yes, yes. And there is a guy - Ayyash, Ayman Ayyash - although I don't remember the first name, he sit with us, he came to our office here, and we sit in some restaurant in Amman with the AWB - it was a dinner or something - so they know about us and we know this guy from Austrade.
REPORTER: And this is right from the beginning of the relationship, this is when you were first setting it up, or this is some later time?
OTHMAN AL ABSI: No, it was since 1995, '96, something like that.
Ayman Ayyash was the Austrade representative in Jordan from 1994 to 2003. Austrade is the trade agency of the Australian Government.REPORTER: And for that reason you felt that you were essentially dealing with the Australian Government?
OTHMAN AL ABSI: Yeah, we are dealing with the Australian Government and everything is official, and everything is in the right way, let's say. That's what happened.
According to Mr al-Absi, this is not the first time that he has told of his early links with Austrade. In February this year, he was interviewed by an Australian Government solicitor.REPORTER: What did the Australian Government want to know, what did they want to talk to you about?
OTHMAN AL ABSI: About the same issue - about the relation between AWB and our company, and about the transferring that money and lots of questions. And we gave them a statement about all the questions they need.
Mr al-Absi told Dateline that he had informed the Government solicitor about his meetings with the Austrade representative, Mr Ayman Ayyash. But none of this made it into this statement tendered to the Cole Royal Commission.So what else can Alia Transportation, the mysterious Jordanian conduit in this scandal, tell us? When Dateline interviewed Mr al-Absi there was a reminder of the strong ties between his company and the AWB.
REPORTER: Is that a Christmas card from AWB?
OTHMAN AL ABSI: Oh, you could know.
REPORTER:Is it a Christmas card?
OTHMAN AL ABSI: This is for our... "Wishing seasons greetings, for the new year."
REPORTER: This is a Christmas card from AWB?Alia also has very strong ties to the Iraqi Government, which owns 49% of the company.
REPORTER: Right from the beginning, was the company a joint venture with the Iraqi government?
OTHMAN AL ABSI: Yeah, that's right. It was a joint venture between Ministry Of Transport of Iraq and our Sheik al-Khawam because at that time there is embargo and it's very difficult, communication, and they need some people from outside Iraq to work in transportation and especially in maritime. So this is the idea came off.
REPORTER: And it was well known - from what I understand - right from the beginning, that it was a joint venture with the Iraqi government - there was no secret about that?
OTHMAN AL ABSI: It's not secret. It's registered in Ministry of Trade in Jordan, and there is nothing to hide.
Alia has also emerged as one of the major front companies used by the Iraqi government to rort the oil-for-food program, set up when trade sanctions were imposed after the first Gulf War. And according to the UN investigation, between March 2000 and December 2003, around $1 billion flowed into accounts held by Alia at this branch of the National Bank of Jordan. Nearly $300 million of this were illegal payments from AWB disguised as either "after sales fees" or as bogus transport services that were never supplied. After taking a cut of between 0.25% and 1%, Alia transferred the money to an Iraqi government account at the al-Rafidain bank in Amman. Othman al-Absi doesn't dispute this money flow.
OTHMAN AL ABSI: As agent for AWB, I will receive that money officially through our bank in Jordan, and also this money, officially to al-Rafidain Bank, transfer it in Amman, Jordan, in account of Water Transportation Company of Iraq. It's not to any personal account, it's for a government account.
REPORTER: So you're not concerned with what those fees were for?
OTHMAN AL ABSI: I'm concerned that this is a fees, but fees for what, for whom? All what I know it is for government of Iraq, that's what we know. And in that time, because there are more than 200-300 companies they have a contract with Ministry of Trade, with Ministry of Transportation, with any ministries in Iraq, and they do the same procedure, so nothing to hide in that time. So where was the United Nations in that time? Why nobody said, "What you are doing?" or "What's that?". Because, as what I told you, it was official.
According to Mr al-Absi, his company was on the guest list to the Australian Embassy in Amman.
OTHMAN AL ABSI: The Embassy here in Jordan, they know us and they invite us as a famous company in Jordan, and they invite our chairman to the home of the Ambassador around two times, and they know about all our activities and our working. So we don't feel that it must be through official channel because all what we hear in that time - AWB also it's a part of the Government.
REPORTER: So did you think you were dealing with the Government, in one sense, with the Australian Government?
OTHMAN AL ABSI: That's what we felt. Because when any government gives the license to export the wheat to just one company, that means there's a relationship between the Government of Australia and this company.
REPORTER: When Sheik al-Khawam met with the Australian Ambassador, do you know what they spoke about?
OTHMAN AL ABSI: Actually it was a meeting about... to encourage the trading between Iraqi and famous guys with Australia. It's like a trading. It was a conference meeting in that time, the second time it was just dinner meeting and general talking.
REPORTER: And when was that meeting?
OTHMAN AL ABSI: Last year. Two meetings last year. What I would like to say, when the Embassy of Australia invite our company, or the chairman, that mean because he is famous and he is well known in Iraq, and he do a good business and that's why they invite him - to make a good relation between Iraq and Australia.
REPORTER: Some other Jordanian businessmen I've spoken to have said that it was well known that the Iraqi government imposed a 10% charge on top of everything that was going into Iraq, that this was not hidden, that everybody knew.
OTHMAN AL ABSI: It was not hidden, everything was clear for anybody, so in that time we didn't interfere in this or that. But my personal talking, any amount they were asking, we thought that's it's through MOU, through the United Nations.
Dr Labib Kamhawi is the managing director of Cessco, a Jordanian company supplying the oil and gas industries. His company was also identified by the UN inquiry as having made illegal payments to the Iraqi government in breach of sanctions. He claims these "taxes" were an unavoidable cost of doing business with Iraq.
DR LABIB KAMHAWI: But I'm talking about the tax itself, I mean, and the tax itself was not a secret, no. If it was a secret, it was the worst-kept secret on Earth.
REPORTER: So, you believe that the extra charges that Iraq was imposing were totally out in the open? Everybody knew about this, there should be no surprise about this?
DR LABIB KAMHAWI: It was mandatory on everybody and it was not a secret. And it was a tax, OK, which every contract had to pay. And the money went to the Iraqi government. This is not the responsibility of the business community, it is the responsibility of the United Nations to make sure that its regulations were observed, that its sanctions were observed.
According to Dr Kamhawi, Jordan had to break the sanctions regime simply to survive.
DR LABIB KAMHAWI: We cannot afford this luxury in Jordan, you have to understand this. If we do what we are told to do, we die. We cannot afford it.
REPORTER: What do you mean if you do what you were told to do?
DR LABIB KAMHAWI: For example, "Don't do this, don't do that, don't export, don't, don't, don't." It's not really a luxury. If we don't sell to Iraq, then we sell to somebody else.
REPORTER: There is no other choice?
DR LABIB KAMHAWI: Absolutely.
Mr Kamhawi's company, Cessco, is just one of the more than 2,000 identified by the United Nations inquiry as having made illegal payments to the Iraqi government. The list is a who's who of international business. But the granddaddy of them all, accounting for 14% of all the kickbacks paid by suppliers to Iraq, was the AWB. In 2004, when the United Nations announced its inquiry into the oil-for-food program, Alexander Downer wrote to the AWB to offer his support, and to:
ALEXANDER DOWNER, LETTER:.."congratulate AWB Limited in its impressive performance in securing exports to Iraq. This reflects... the close co-operation between AWB Limited and the Government. The Government remains committed to working closely with AWB Limited "in pursuing export opportunities in Iraq."
That close co-operation appears to have evaporated. But according to Othman al-Absi, the Australian trade agency on the ground in Jordan was well aware of the links between Alia and the AWB right from the beginning.GEORGE NEGUS: Dateline attempted to contact Ayman Ayyash, the former Austrade representative in Jordan, but he didn't return our calls. Some of our written questions to DFAT, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra remain unanswered. Late this afternoon, officers from the Cole Royal Commission into the oil-for-food scandal came here to the SBS studios and subpoena-ed Thom's interview, much excitement. The inquiry gets under way again in Sydney tomorrow.