More Iraq bribery

And this time it wasn't the Australian Wheat Board.

One of the "defenses" run by the Howard government to deflect criticism over its apparent complicity/complaceny in the AWB affair is that Australia is notably honourable in shedding light on Australian bribery in Iraq, suggesting that everyone else is turning an even more blind eye to the connivances of their citizens.

Not so.

Sex and money bought Iraq contracts, By T. Christian Miller in Washington:

A CONTRACTOR in Iraq has pleaded guilty to providing money, sex and designer watches to US officials in exchange for more than $US8 million ($10.8 million) in reconstruction contracts.

Philip Bloom faces up to 40 years in prison after admitting paying more than $US2 million in bribes to US officials with the Coalition Provisional Authority, which ruled Iraq after the US-led invasion in 2003.

Bloom's guilty plea on bribery and money-laundering charges is the latest development in a widening corruption scandal centred on a network of US civilians and military officials who worked out of a coalition outpost in the south-central Iraqi town of Hillah.

Under the plea agreement, Bloom must pay $US3.6 million in restitution and forfeit $US3.6 million in assets. His guilty plea "sends a message to Iraqis that US oversight will track down, arrest and prosecute American citizens who committed crimes in Iraq involving Iraqi money", said Stuart Bowen, who heads the office of the Special Inspector-General for Iraq Reconstruction.

Two officers in the US Army Reserve, Lieutenant-Colonel Michael Wheeler and Lieutenant-Colonel Debra Harrison, have already been arrested in connection with the case and more arrests are expected, investigators said.

From January to June 2004, when the coalition government was replaced, Bloom provided Stein and officers with first-class air tickets, real estate lots, weapons, new four-wheel-drive vehicles, cigars, designer watches, alcohol, prostitutes at Bloom's Baghdad villa and cash bribes.

In return, Bloom's company, Global Business Group, received $US8.6 million in contracts to refurbish a police academy in Hillah, a library in Karbala and other reconstruction projects. In some cases the work was never done, and in others it was shoddy, audits by the inspector-general reveal.

The contracts were paid with Iraqi funds held in the Development Fund for Iraq, which has been at the centre of many of the corruption scandals in Iraq.

Top gun female pilot under fire over conflict of interest

When Jay Garner arrived as the first US administrator in Iraq after the 2003 invasion, he chose a highly decorated air force officer named Kimberly Olson as his right arm because he considered her among the best America had to offer.

One of the first female pilots in the air force, she was a hard charger with an unblemished reputation for honesty, a high profile in the Pentagon and a commitment to the US goal of creating a new democracy in the Middle East.

Now Colonel Olson stands accused of one of the most audacious acts of impropriety in the corruption-plagued reconstruction of Iraq - profiting from the post-invasion chaos by using her position to benefit a private security company that she helped operate, interviews and government documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times show.

Pentagon investigators allege that, while on active duty, Colonel Olson established a US branch of a South African security company after helping it win more than $US3 million ($4 million) in contracts to provide protection for senior US and British officials as well as for a subsidiary of Halliburton.

Colonel Olson has spent more than a year fighting the charges. In military proceedings last year, she denied abusing her position to enrich herself or the company but agreed to plead guilty to lesser charges.

She was reprimanded and allowed to resign from the air force with an honourable discharge and no reduction in rank. She was also banned from receiving further government contracts for three years. She is now appealing.

Colonel Olson said the military's version of events contained "numerous factual statements and conclusions that are not accurate".

So, here we have a US citizen facing 40 years in jail for paying a US$2 million bribe to get Iraq business. We have a highly decorated career officer blackballed for using her position in the reconstruction effort in a conflict of interest. And we have Jack Thomas spending time in an Australian gaol because he got A$3,500 from a terrorist organisation.

What dya reckon will happen with the boys at AWB who have apparently been involved in bribery/kickbacks in Iraq to the tune of $300 million +/- and the AWB boys the Government seconded to the Iraq reconstruction program?

Anything?