Australia oil-for-food inquiry to probe government knowledge of AWB bribes News
Australia oil-for-food inquiry to probe government knowledge of AWB bribes

[JURIST] The Australian judicial inquiry [Cole Commission website] looking into allegations that leading Australian wheat exporter Australian Wheat Board (AWB) [corporate website] provided over $200 million in kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's former regime [JURIST report] as part of the now-defunct UN oil-for-food program [JURIST news archive] has expanded its scope and will also try to learn what government officials knew about the alleged scam. Commission head Terence Cole [official profile] on Tuesday urged lawmakers and public servants to come forward with evidence in connection to the scandal.

Prime Minister John Howard [official profile] has insisted that the government had no knowledge of the alleged multimillion dollar scam that violated UN sanctions. An AWB executive, however, has testified [hearing transcripts] that Australian officials were aware of the company's payments to the Hussein regime as early as March, 2001. AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Fyodor Dostoevsky sentenced to death

Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky was sentenced to death on November 16, 1849 over his involvement in the progressive Petrashevsky Circle of intellectuals. Dostoevsky and his codefendants were scheduled to be executed on December 22 of that year, but their execution was stayed by Tsar Nicholas I after the execution ritual had been carried out. Dostoevsky was sent to Siberia instead to serve a four-year sentence. Learn more about the mock execution of Dostoevsky.

Canada executed Metis leader for treason

On November 16, 1885, the Canadian government executed Metis leader Louis Riel for high treason in the wake of the "Northwest Rebellion" that had pitted the Metis (descendants of French traders and native tribes) in what is now Saskatchewan against Canadian troops. Although Riel has lately been rehabilitated as an Indigenous francophone patriot of the Canadian West, his trial and execution remain sore points between English and French Canada.

US President Nixon signs Trans-Alaska Pipeline Act

On November 16, 1973, US President Richard Nixon signed the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Act into law. In addition to creating an oil pipeline across the state, the Act also quashed all environmental-legal challenges regarding its construction.