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Iraq oil cash funded MPs' campaigns (GALLOWAY!)
Guardian ^ | 02/17/04 | David Leigh and David Pallister

Posted on 02/16/2004 7:48:52 PM PST by Pikamax

Iraq oil cash funded MPs' campaigns

Businessmen handed on money illicitly siphoned from UN deals to pressure groups run by George Galloway and Tam Dalyell

David Leigh and David Pallister Tuesday February 17, 2004 The Guardian

Money illicitly siphoned from the UN oil-for-food programme by Saddam Hussein was used to finance anti-sanctions campaigns run by British politicians, according to documents that have surfaced in Baghdad. Undercover cash from oil deals went to three businessmen who in turn supported pressure groups involving the ex-Labour MP George Galloway, Labour MP Tam Dalyell, and the former Irish premier Albert Reynolds, it is alleged in documents compiled by the oil ministry, which is now under the control of the US occupation regime.

Separately, a dossier from the oil ministry in Baghdad has been handed by the British Foreign Office to Customs and Excise, which has been asked to investigate. They were also referred to the Cabinet Office because of their political sensitivity.

"The government has been given copies of certain documents [from Iraq]," a Foreign Office spokeswoman said yesterday. "They are being passed to the appropriate authorities for consideration."

Two of the three businessmen involved in UK campaigns, Burhan al-Chalabi and Riad al-Tajir, were based in Surrey; the other, Fawwaz Zureikat, a Jordanian entrepreneur, had offices in London.

Mr Chalabi and Mr Zureikat gave money to the Mariam Appeal, run by Mr Galloway, the MP confirmed. Mr Tahir said he ran another anti-sanctions campaign called Friendship Across Borders, which had Mr Dalyell as its official patron and organised visits to Baghdad by supportive politicians.

The three businessmen are alleged to have received money from Saddam via oil allocations. They sold the oil rights on at a profit of more than $1m (about £530,000), in an exploitation by Saddam of loopholes in the UN's then oil-for-food programme.

Mr Tahir agrees he profited from the oil deals. Mr Chalabi refuses to comment. Mr Zureikat confirmed to Agence France Presse in Jordan last week that he had made the oil deals.

The oil-for-food programme was set up in 1995 amid fears of a humanitarian disaster after the first Gulf war. Under the scheme, Saddam was allowed to sell limited quantities of oil to pay for food and medicine for the Iraqi people.

The contents of the new documents shed light on Mr Galloway's libel battle with the Daily Telegraph. Last year newspaper reports based on purported Iraqi intelligence files led to him being accused of receiving an annual £375,000 in secret personal payments from Saddam.

Our investigations in Iraq, New York, Paris, Moscow and London indicate the new British-related documents are authentic, although their meaning is not always clear.

These files do not implicate Mr Galloway in personal corruption. Nor do they suggest that Mr Dalyell and Mr Reynolds, who always paid their own way, had any knowledge of what was going on.

Mr Galloway said he was unaware that his financial sponsors were getting oil cash from the UN programme. But he accepts that he knew his supporters had links with Saddam's regime, and regarded that as an inevitable price to pay.

Despite their importance in the bitter Galloway controversy, the contract documents seem unlikely to surface in the pending libel trial.

The so-called oil list has already caused worldwide embarrassment, with allegations made against prominent people and companies in France, Russia, Switzerland and South Africa, as well as employees at the UN.

Across the world, some of those named agree the lists seem authentic. Others deny it, or say details are exaggerated.


TOPICS: Breaking News; Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; United Kingdom; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: acrossborders; albertreynolds; alchalabi; antisanctions; barrelgate; bribery; burhanalchalabi; charities; dalyell; fab; fawwazzureikat; france; friendship; galloway; georgegalloway; iraqicharities; iraqioil; ireland; irishpremier; labor; labormp; labour; labourmp; london; ltajir; mariamappeal; miriamcampaign; oilforfood; reynolds; riadaltajir; russia; sanctions; southafrica; surrey; switzerland; tamdalyell; terrorcharities; uk; un; zureikat
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1 posted on 02/16/2004 7:48:54 PM PST by Pikamax
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To: Pikamax
hahaha

bye bye Mr.Galloway... I hope the british find a nice gulag for ya

2 posted on 02/16/2004 7:53:40 PM PST by GeronL (www.ArmorforCongress.com ............... Support a FReeper for Congress)
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To: Pikamax
Corrupt politicians. Do they come any other way?

BTW, what the hell is an MP?

3 posted on 02/16/2004 7:54:08 PM PST by Excuse_My_Bellicosity (If universities didn't teach worthless subjects, who would?)
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity
Member of Parliament
4 posted on 02/16/2004 8:00:22 PM PST by GiveEmDubya
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To: GeronL
Any bets on whether the pro-Saddam contingent in the US Congress were getting kickbacks as well?
5 posted on 02/16/2004 8:06:59 PM PST by ambrose ("John Kerry has blood of American soldiers on his hands" - Lt. Col. Oliver North)
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To: ambrose
I don't know, but they've been very, very quiet lately.
6 posted on 02/16/2004 8:10:03 PM PST by McGavin999 (Evil thrives when good men do nothing!)
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To: ambrose
the ultimate in cool, would be for documents implicating top Democrats opposed to the war to turn up "conveniently" close to the election
7 posted on 02/16/2004 8:12:16 PM PST by ghost of nixon
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Here's the whole list found in Iraq.
8 posted on 02/16/2004 8:15:36 PM PST by RandallFlagg (<a href="http://www.michaelmoore.com" target="_blank">miserable failure)
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To: Pikamax
I'm voting for Kerry because he said he would unite all these countries that were scarfing up the payola under the counter from Saddam.

I wonder how he's going to do that?

Did you know Kerry served in Vietnam?
9 posted on 02/16/2004 8:20:50 PM PST by CommandoFrank (If GW is the terrorist's worst nightmare, Kerry is their wet dream...)
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To: ambrose
See this flash animation...

http://www.jonathangullible.com/mmedia/PhilosophyOfLiberty-english_music.swf

10 posted on 02/16/2004 8:44:19 PM PST by GeronL (www.ArmorforCongress.com ............... Support a FReeper for Congress)
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To: Pikamax
I'm guessing they don't execute traitors in Great Britain, do they?
11 posted on 02/17/2004 6:29:03 AM PST by The G Man (John Kerry? America just can't afford a 9/10 President in a 9/11 world. Vote Bush-Cheny '04.)
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To: Pikamax
Well, well, well...I bet Galloway and Dalyell weren't the only MPs to get some of this money. Seems to me I recall a list of around a dozen MPs sucking up to Saddamn before the war, even making a trip to Iraq.
12 posted on 02/17/2004 6:32:56 AM PST by mewzilla
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To: ambrose
Why bomb when you can blackmail...?

Which is why character does count.

13 posted on 02/17/2004 6:33:35 AM PST by mewzilla
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To: Pikamax
There will likely be more on this very soon. There seems to be an AFP release somewhere. This is the only reference I've seen today to the report:

"Results of Saddam’s oil bribe probe to be made public"
BAGHDAD: Iraqi Oil Minister Ibrahim Bahr al-Ulum said on Monday he would soon make public the results of his investigation into the alleged oil bribes handed out to foreign political figures by former leader Saddam Hussein.

"I will soon present a detailed report including all the elements I have gathered so that everybody knows the truth in this affair," the minister told AFP.

>>snip<<

http://www.hipakistan.com/en/detail.php?newsId=en54225&F_catID=&f_type=source

14 posted on 02/17/2004 6:37:16 AM PST by Cap Huff
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To: Shermy
fyi

More on the Oil for Food scam where the blood $'s were used to bribe politicians around the world and mediots around the world to support the $oddomites.
15 posted on 02/17/2004 6:37:18 AM PST by Grampa Dave (John F' Kerry! You are not John F. Kennedy! You're just another $oreA$$ puppet.)
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To: Pikamax
Let's see... they claim that these documents, which the Guardian says are thoroughly legitimate, do not mean that Galloway was himself corrupt even though he knew that his financial sponsors had ties to Hussein. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, (excuse me, I have to catch my breath), ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha,
16 posted on 02/17/2004 6:38:06 AM PST by driftless ( For life-long happiness, learn how to play the accordion.)
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To: Pikamax
Mr Chalabi refuses to comment

Is this the same Mr Chalabi that is among candidates for leading Iraq's future government?

If so, I smell ... setup!

17 posted on 02/17/2004 6:40:14 AM PST by thinktwice (The human mind is blessed with reason, and to waste that blessed mind is treason.)
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To: Grampa Dave
Bosom buds.

The pic's from this link with a story on Galloway's trip to Iraq.

18 posted on 02/17/2004 6:40:44 AM PST by mewzilla
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To: mewzilla
Here's another pic of Galloway with his good buddy Tariq Azia...

Doesn't always help to have low friends in high places, though, does it?

19 posted on 02/17/2004 7:00:23 AM PST by mewzilla
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To: Pikamax
Heh heh..
turns out the only two not on this list were Bush and Cheney ;-)
20 posted on 02/17/2004 7:05:45 AM PST by evad ("You cannot divorce yourself from your record.")
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