"Greasegate", and CBC Newsworld on blogging

Further to this post, Maclean's writer Kady O'Malley was on CBC Newsworld's "Politics" Nov. 26 talking about how bloggers were dealing with "Greasegate" (my name for the affair). She quoted from my post above--go to 49:25 at the video--but then said that the Germans would be quite happy to have Mr Schreiber stay in Canada. As far as I know that is not true. This appears to be the situation from the German point of view:

...German authorities promised to make Schreiber available [in Germany - MC] for questioning in Canada's public inquiry should he be extradited.

Germany alleges Schreiber evaded income taxes on 46 million dollars by hiding commissions he earned for negotiating the sale of helicopters, aircraft and armaments.

Prosecutors also allege he bribed Germany's then-defence minister, Ludwig Holger Pfahls, to help secure the sale of 36 army tanks by German manufacturer Thyssen AG to Saudi Arabia, and defrauded Saudi Arabia by siphoning off large commissions in the deal...

Mark C.

Update: CTV's Mike Duffy, in an interview with Steve Madely of CFRA, Ottawa, makes it clear that the Germans do indeed want Mr Schreiber extradited promptly and are not pleased with our shenanigans:

The Germans are really put out. Speak to the diplomats at the German embassy privately, they'll tell you it's worse than a joke, they're very frustrated...

Lots more on the audio here, just after half-way through.

Posted by markc at November 26, 2007 09:10 PM