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Documents now available in abandoned Baghdad government offices reveal strong ties between Saddam Hussein's regime and two important British figures - a popular journalist and a Member of Parliament. Meanwhile, last week's homicide bombers in Tel Aviv were discovered to be carrying British passports. --- THE SCUD STUD --- The Times of London The Times of London reported Friday that the BBC's star Baghdad correspondent, Rageh Omaar, "developed a close and potentially embarrassing relationship" with the former Iraqi government. The Times obtained warm letters written by Omaar to the director of the Iraqi Ministry of Information, marked by effusive statements...

British Labour MP George Galloway has vowed to sue The Daily Telegraph for libel after it accused him of being on Saddam Hussein's payroll. The anti-war campaigner has dismissed claims that he was paid at least £375,000 a year by Saddam's Iraqi regime as "black propaganda" and "intelligence hocus pocus". Speaking to Albawaba, Galloway disclosed that a pan-Arab movement mobilizes for his defense. Galloway rose to Parliament from humble beginnings as a general labourer in the parks of Dundee. He went on to become a production worker for Michelin Tyres, becoming an active trade unionist and rising to be a...

Not that it should come as a surprise to anyone, but it turns out some of the staunchest international opponents of invading Iraq -- on principle, you understand -- were up to their eyeballs in secret deals with the now deposed regime of Saddam Hussein. Since the fall of Baghdad earlier this month, documents found at the Iraqi Foreign Ministry, at the headquarters of the Iraqi intelligence service, Mukhabarat, and elsewhere around the capital have revealed just how deeply involved were those who sided against the war at the United Nations -- France, Germany, Russia, China and the UN itself...

Here's what we have on the Dishonourable Mr. Galloway: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/897994/posts Labour Investigates Iraq Cash ClaimSky News ^ | 4/22/03 | Sky News     http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/886368/posts Or: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/886136/posts Victim of Saddam makes Galloway shut up (Galloway alert!) The Telegraph ^ | Filed: 06/04/2003) | unknown     http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/885700/posts British MP Galloway used fund for leukaemia girl to pay for Iraq trips (sickening) The Times (of London) ^ | April 05, 2003 | Dominic Kennedy     http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/897567/posts Galloway was in Saddam's pay, say secret Iraqi documents (PACIFISTS ON SADDAM PAYROLL)The Daily Telegraph ^ | April 22, 2003 | David Blair  ...

A pre-war flashback: Diane Sawyer's trusted guidepost to European disgust with President Bush, it turns out, was on Saddam Hussein's payroll to the tune of $3 million a year. As recounted in the February 28 CyberAlert, on Good Morning America Sawyer showcased Labor Member of Parliament George Galloway's swipe at how "this born again, right-wing, Bible-belting, fundamentalist, Republican administration in the United States wants war," a screeching she called "a wake-up call for me." She contended that such widespread disgust with President Bush and America "really raises the question about what it means to override the United Nations if we...

Mystery surrounded accusations last night that the Labour MP George Galloway was on the payroll of Saddam Hussein, taking hundreds of thousands of pounds from oil-for-food income intended to feed starving Iraqi children. A document purporting to be a confidential memorandum to Saddam by his head of intelligence and obtained by The Daily Telegraph from the floor of a looted ministry is reported to show that the MP for Glasgow Kelvin took up to £375,000 a year from the Iraqi regime's oil-for-food programme.But in a statement issued last night by the MP – who faces deselection and expulsion from the...

George Galloway conceded last night that intermediaries in his fund-raising activities could have siphoned off money from Saddam Hussein - but insisted he had never done so. As the Labour MP fought to counter allegations that he received up to £375,000 a year from the Iraqi regime, Mr Galloway revealed the full amount given to the Mariam Appeal - the organisation he founded to fly a young Iraqi leukemia victim to Britain for medical treatment and which then became a campaign against Iraqi sanctions - and pledged to release further figures today. Speaking to the Guardian from his holiday home...

The appeal founded by Labour MP George Galloway to pay for the treatment of an Iraqi girl suffering from leukaemia is to face investigation by the Charity Commission. The Attorney General's office said the commission would undertake "further fact finding" into allegations that the Mariam Appeal used charitable funds for non-charitable purposes. The move follows a complaint to the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, from a member of the public that money donated to the appeal was used to pay for Mr Galloway's travel expenses, despite a promise that it would be used to treat sick Iraqi children. A statement from...

SCATTERED AMONG the loose papers and bound files unearthed last week at the Iraqi Foreign Ministry in Baghdad was "letter no. 140/4/5," labeled "Confidential and Personal" and addressed to "The President's Office--Secretariat." The letter concerns George Galloway, a pro-Saddam member of the British Parliament, who founded a charity known as the Mariam Appeal, ostensibly to aid Iraqi children suffering under U.N. sanctions. The missive, from the Iraqi Intelligence Service, is a request that money be funneled directly to Galloway. It reads in part: His projects and future plans for the benefit of [Iraq] need financial support to become a motive...

Lawyers for The Daily Telegraph are to ask the American government to grant them access to Tariq Aziz to try to secure vital evidence in their forthcoming libel battle with George Galloway MP. Mr Aziz, the former Iraqi deputy prime minister and foreign minister who gave himself up to US forces yesterday, is named in Iraqi documents that the newspaper claims it obtained from the the country's Foreign Ministry last week. The newspaper alleges that Mr Galloway had struck a deal with Mr Aziz for the receipt of three million barrels of oil every six months, of which the MP's...