Shoot first, find target later
“Vice President Dick Cheney apparently broke the No. 1 rule of hunting: be sure of what you're shooting at. Cheney wounded fellow hunter Harry Whittington in the face, neck and chest Saturday, apparently because he didn't see Whittington approaching as he fired on a covey of quail in Texas.” — Associated Press, February 13.
Saddam is already on trial
“You can't blame anybody else. I'm the guy who pulled the trigger and shot my friend.” — Lord Darth Cheney’s first public comment on the shooting incident at his private Texas ranch, February 16.
Normal business expense
“The Cole inquiry investigating $300 million in illicit payments to Saddam's government by the wheat exporter today also revealed AWB claimed the kickbacks as a tax deduction.” — Melbourne Age, February 16.
Stopping weapons of market destruction
“Because our principle concern at that time was to stop American wheat growers getting our market.” — Prime Menzies John Howard, February 16, defending his government’s decision to pay former AWB boss Trevor Flugge nearly $700,000 for eight months work as an adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad after the US-British-Australian invasion of Iraq.
Keeping the free market working
“[Flugge] and AWB marketing chief Michael Long [who was also appointed by the Howard government as an adviser to the CPA] helped ensure a key Iraqi wheat official who was complicit in the kickbacks kept his government job.” — Melbourne Age, February 16.
From Green Left Weekly, March 1, 2006.
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