LiSTNR has released Secrets We Keep: Baghdad Nights, an exploration of Australia’s biggest corruption scandal when a trusted Australian company funnelled hundreds of millions of dollars to dictator Saddam Hussein in the lead-up to the Iraq War.
The third season of the podcast follows multi-award-winning journalist Richard Baker and his investigation into the international trade scandal, told by the men on the inside.
Listeners will hear a thrilling and personal account of how Australia conducts its dirty business in far-flung places and who pays the price when scandal erupts.
The audience is taken into war zones, secret meetings, and the offices of the country’s most powerful people whilst hearing what it is like to have the nation’s media bearing down.
The scandal, which unfolded in the early 2000s, revealed a complex web of corruption and deceit involving the United Nations’ oil-for-food program in Iraq.
Episodes 1 and 2 are now available:
At the heart of the scandal was the Australian Wheat Board (AWB), a corporation responsible for selling Australia’s wheat crop to the world. AWB, once a pillar of the Australian agricultural industry, was implicated in a scheme to funnel $300 million to the regime of Saddam Hussein, which Australia and its allies ultimately declared war on.
The key players from AWB implicated in the scandal are integral voices in the series. The trio, including former AWB Chairman Trevor Flugge, have never spoken about their work in Iraq nor what it was like to go from being trusted government insiders to the poster boys of a national scandal.
“Secrets We Keep: Baghdad Nights takes you behind the scenes of how Australia conducts itself on the world stage – in making money and making war. It’s about how our country deals with scandal, who is held to account and who gets away with it,” Baker said.
“In telling this story, I’m hoping it will cause people to think about how quickly we leap to judgment to declare someone as good or evil. This especially applies to people like me in the media. The truth is there’s always more to the story.
“Stories like this matter. They matter because what Australian governments and companies get up to overseas, whatever’s done, it’s in all our names”.
LiSTNR’s head of factual, Clair Weaver, said an important Australian story has been omitted from this season of Secrets We Keep.
“The far-reaching consequences of the AWB scandal extended beyond financial loss and reputational damage. It eroded public trust in corporate governance and highlighted the urgent need for robust anti-corruption measures,” she said.
“Richard’s investigations and discoveries are a stark reminder of the importance of ethical conduct and transparency in business. It underscores the need for vigilant oversight and accountability to prevent such breaches of trust from recurring.”