http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10115934

Senator armed himself in Iraq

18.03.05
by Greg Ansley


CANBERRA - Australia has been gripped by the extraordinary account of a
visit to Iraq by a senator who accepted the use of a handgun, was pictured
holding an assault rifle with Kurdish fighters, and who is now preparing
legal action against reports that he smuggled money to the country on behalf
of oil giant Woodside Energy.

Ross Lightfoot, a Liberal senator from Western Australia and the acting
deputy president of the Senate, now faces a Federal Police investigation
into allegations he stitched US$20,000 ($27,000) into the lining of a jacket
in breach of Australian currency laws.

But his denials have satisfied Prime Minister John Howard, and Defence
Minister Robert Hill yesterday told the Senate that Senator Lightfoot had
neither smuggled the money into Iraq nor conducted business during his
visit, which would have contravened the rules of overseas parliamentary
visits.

But Mr Hill confirmed that Senator Lightfoot had accepted the use of a
pistol: "It is a dangerous environment and I'm not surprised that some
people look to protection in the form of firearms."

Senator Lightfoot, a former mounted policeman, Outback miner and pastoralist
well used to firearms, told Sydney radio station 2UE that he had no problems
accepting the use of a .38 calibre pistol. "This is not the [Australian
Capital Territory], this is not Manuka [a Canberra suburb] on a Sunday
morning," he said.

"These people play for keeps over there."

The tale of Senator Lightfoot's trip to Iraq in January to observe the
country's first democratic elections emerged from his report to Parliament
of the visit, reported in News Ltd newspapers and splashed across the front
page of Sydney's Daily Telegraph under the headline Smoking Gun.

The newspaper also carried a striking photograph of a smiling Senator
Lightfoot holding an AK47 assault rifle and flanked by Kurdish fighters of
the Iraq National Guard.

Senator Lightfoot said he would instruct his lawyers to take action against
News Ltd over the money allegations but News Ltd said it stood by its
report.