Schreiber papers reveal 'last warning' to Mulroney
A wrathful letter penned by Karlheinz Schreiber to Brian Mulroney stands out amid stacks of documents as the smoking gun that links the former prime minister to the Airbus affair, opposition MPs say.
Evidently upset that Mulroney had not intervened to help him on his extradition case, Schreiber warned in a May 8, 2007, letter he is "prepared to disclose … that I was asked by Fred Doucet to transfer funds to your lawyer in Geneva (Airbus)."
Doucet was Mulroney's former chief of staff.
"This is my last warning," Schreiber wrote to Mulroney, adding, "you asked me through my lawyers to commit perjury to protect you."
In an apparent contradiction from that letter, the 73-year-old Schreiber testified on Tuesday beforea federal ethics committee that $300,000 in cash he paid to Mulroney was not a kickback from Air Canada's $1.8-billion purchase of jets from Airbus.
Schreiber also handed over to the committee nearly 4,000 pages of detailed documents, many of themsimplycopies of old newspaper clippingsabout hisinterest in startinga pasta franchise.
After sorting through the pages on Wednesday, though, the Liberals pounced on the May letter as apparent proof that Airbus was somehow involved.
"What's new in here is that while Schreiber said that he hadn't given any Airbus money to Mulroney, he is suggesting in this letter that others have," Nova Scotia Liberal MP Robert Thibault said Wednesday on Parliament Hill.
Still, the chair of the parliamentary ethics committee probing the Mulroney-Schreiber affair noted the May letter only raises more inconsistencies with Schreiber's allegations.
"There may be some contradictions to other statements that he made, and I would think the other members [on the committee] are anxious to pursue this … with regards to the May letter," Paul Szabo told CBC News on Wednesday from Ottawa.
Contradictions on Airbus story
In the May letter, the German-Canadian businessman appeared to change his tune from an earlier letter to Mulroney, dated Jan. 29, 2007, in which he stated that "the Airbus story was a hoax."
It also doesn't square with Schreiber's July 20, 2006 written apology to Mulroney, in which Schreiber states "there is no Airbus affair involving Brian Mulroney and furthermore there is nothing to hide."
Schreiber alleged that the 2006 letter was drafted at Mulroney's request, and that he wrote it under the false impression that, if shown to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, it might sway Harper to step in and stop the former arms dealer's deportation.
Schreiber is wanted on fraud, bribery and tax evasion charges in his native Germany. He has been released on bail.
Heis due back Thursday for his third day of testimony before a panel of MPs on the ethics committee.
None of the allegations against Mulroney have been proven in court.