[CTRL] Australia & Irangate

[William Shannon]

http://www.thewest.com.au/20010808/news/state/tw-news-state-home-sto19238.html Cash for guns - Beazley denies spy's claims � By Anne Burns � � A SECRET agent's claims that Labor got an $8.5 million pay-off for the Hawke government's role in illegal arms dealing with Iran is set to be probed by a parliamentary inquiry. The claims are a potential time bomb for Labor leader Kim Beazley in the lead-up to the Federal election. Australian Democrats Senator Andrew Murray, a member of the joint standing committee inquiry into electoral funding, said the committee had to look into the allegation. The committee is chaired by Liberal Senator Chris Pyne and dominated by Liberals and Australian Democrats. If it agrees to a probe, allegations which implicate former prime minister Bob Hawke, failed tycoons Alan Bond and Yosse Goldberg and WA Labor's 1980s fundraising record will come under the spotlight. Senator Murray has called for political donations from foreigners to be banned because they cannot be monitored. Mr Beazley was the Hawke government defence minister when US-backed arms for Iran were allegedly shipped through Fremantle and stored at WA defence facilities. Brisbane-based investigative journalist Marshall Wilson's submission to the committee, which was tabled in Federal Parliament yesterday, said the allegation that the Labor Party accepted a big donation, either in return for or in appreciation of participation by the Australian government in illegal arms trading, had never been thoroughly investigated. The claims were made by ex-Israeli Mossad agent Ari Ben-Menashe, whose application for political asylum in Australia was rejected by the Labor government in 1992. Mr Ben-Menashe, an Israeli military intelligence agent for 10 years until 1989, gave evidence about illegal arms dealing with Iran and Iraq to the US Congressional inquiry into the Iran-Contra affair. He has alleged that the WA Labor Party's discredited fundraising arm, the Curtin Foundation, got $8.5 million from a CIA-linked company in 1987 as a reward for Labor government complicity in Iran arms shipments. He claims Mr Hawke was aware of the arms shipments and the payment - a claim Mr Hawke denies - but then treasurer Paul Keating did not know. Mr Ben-Menashe says he is not aware if Mr Beazley knew. Mr Wilson said the allegations should be investigated by a royal commission if the committee did not take up the case. He said Prime Minister John Howard knew of the allegations because he had interviewed Mr Ben-Menashe when in opposition. Mr Howard was told that arms had been shipped through Fremantle for four months in 1987, including 4000 American missiles and Vietnamese and North Korean artillery. Senator Chris Evans, WA ALP secretary at the time, and former premier Brian Burke dismissed the claims yesterday. A spokesman for Mr Beazley said the allegations were as bizarre as they were untrue: "It's the sort of thing Jeffrey Archer might make up - and he's in jail." Mr Bond has described the allegation that he was the link man in a CIA pay-off to the John Curtin Foundation as absolute rubbish.