Little bits of information are making their way past the restrictions imposed on the Harper government commission into the payments made by Karlheinz Schreiber to former PM Mulroney. The commission has a mandate which surprisingly limits it inquiries to the recently disclosed cash payments to our former prime minister in assorted hotel rooms.
Under no circumstances is it supposed to widen its inquiry into what happened to the payments allegedly made by Schreiber to various Canadians from the fees he was paid when Airbus sold planes to Canada.
But – like the proverbial little Dutch boy who tried to stem the leaking dyke by putting his finger in the fissure – driblets of information keep making their way from the Airbus fees into the discussion of exactly what Mulroney did to justify his $300,000 cash payments (Schreiber's amount) or $225,000 payments (Mulroney's number).
The Cat makes a fearless forecast: Karlheinz Schreiber will surprise the commission (and delight hordes of media types thirsting for the opening of the Airbus inquiry) by somehow placing into public view further evidence which tantalizingly suggests that the Airbus matter has not been finally resolved by the Mounties' investigation (an investigation which, by the way, did not turn up the cash payments in the hotel rooms to the former PM).
And then Karlheinz will sit back and wait for the public pressure to get to the bottom of the missing millions to swell yet again, perhaps resulting in a new inquiry.
And perhaps his disclosures, if he does make any and can make any, might lead the three opposition parties to legislate a new inquiry, designed to get to the bottom of Airbus in a full and frank way.
After all, everyone who is a stakeholder (Schreiber, Mulroney, Canadians whose faith in democracy need bolstering) has an interest in putting this to bed, after all possible facts and angles have been thoroughly explored.
Saturday, May 09, 2009
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3 comments:
Cat, I think the missing link is a dead man - Frank Moores. When I watched Schreiber before the ethics committee it dawned on me that he was drawing them a map to Moore's graveside. I think the only money Mulroney got from Schreiber could have been the $300,000. I want to know how much Airbus money flowed to Moores and from Moores to others. Moores is dead, Verchere is dead and GCI is long defunct. Those could be three extremely fortuitious events for some.
Oh, MOS, i BELIEVE, Karlheinz has a list of friends that stretch all the way to Alberta...and maybe beyond. I'm so hopeful I've put out feeler for tickets to the public execution of some of Karlheinz friends out here.
Karlheinz, a true friend of Canada.
foottothefire
MoS - I agree that we need to know a lot more about Moores, but I can't agree that it's unlikely Schreiber gave Mulroney money we haven't heard about. Why else did Mulroney meet with Schreiber so often while he was PM? Why did Mulroney do so much to make usre Air Canada would buy Airbus planes? Airbus may have been payback for Schreiber getting Mulroney the party leadership, but I can't imagine Mulroney did anything for free. He and Mila were going through too much cash. Even the $25K/month the Conservative party has admitted to giving him doesn't seem to account for it all.
The big picture is: Mulroney made sure Airbus planes were purchased, and Schreiber paid out a ton of money for the Airbus purchase. It's hard to imagine that Mulroney didn't get any of it.
While many of Schreiber's claims have been substantiated, we all know that he's a sleaze who's acting completely in his own self-interest, and he won't reveal anything that will cause him legal problems in Germany... so there's no way he's going to tell us the whole story. But I agree with the Cat that he's probably got a bombshell or two (or 7?) up his sleeve to keep himself in Canada.
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