Australia oil-for-food inquiry recommends charges for wheat execs, clears government News
Australia oil-for-food inquiry recommends charges for wheat execs, clears government

[JURIST] An Australian government commission investigating Australian participation in the now-defunct UN oil-for-food program [JURIST news archive] in Iraq has recommended that criminal charges be brought against 12 business executives for paying kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's former regime [JURIST report]. In a report [commission materials] formally submitted to Parliament [AG statement] Monday, the Cole Commission [official website] confirmed earlier UN reports that the Australian Wheat Board (AWB) [corporate website] paid roughly $220 million in kickbacks to secure $2.3 billion in grain contracts.

The report found no evidence of government misconduct, although an AWB executive testified [hearing transcripts] that Australian officials knew of the kickbacks by March 2001. Australian Prime Minister Howard, who has repeatedly any denied government wrongdoing, on Monday agreed to establish a police task force [transcript] to consider prosecuting the 12 executives, as proposed by the Cole Commission report. AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UN General Assembly approves Palestine partition plan

The UN General Assembly approved UN Resolution Resolution 181 (II) on November 29, 1947, recommending that the British Mandate for Palestine be split into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an international zone for Jerusalem. The vote in the assembly was 33 for to 13 against, with 10 abstentions. The resolution sparked a war between Palestinian Arabs and Jews in 1947 and a wider war after Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded the new State of Israel in 1948. Read Resolution 181 (II).

UN divided Palestine between Arabs and Jews

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab territories, leading to the establishment of a Jewish state the following year. Read UN General Assembly Resolution 181.

Defense Secretary Robert McNamara resigns during Vietnam Conflict

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