Posted on 04/25/2004 1:40:30 AM PDT by weegie
George Galloway is to fly to Washington and demand to be heard in the US congress in an attempt to clear his name over allegations he took bribes from Saddam Hussein.
The Glasgow Kelvin MP, expelled from Labour over his opposition to the Iraq war, was accused again on Friday of taking cash-redee mable oil vouchers from Saddam.
Galloway, now heading the anti-war Respect Party, fears the flow of allegations could damage his chances in the London region of the EU elections. In an interview with the Sunday Herald he has also revealed he wants to stand for Westminster again, probably in the new Glasgow Central seat in a fight against Labour MP Mohammad Sarwar.
In papers submitted to a US congress committee, Galloway is named along with hundreds of others as profiteering from the UN oil-for-food programme, which operated while the Iraq was under sanctions.
It is the third time in a year he has been accused of being in the pocket of Saddam. He has successfully sued the US magazine, Christian Science Monitor, over the claims and is meeting the Daily Telegraph in court later this year over allegations he received £375,000 from the Iraqi authorities.
This time he cannot claim libel as the allegations have been made under the cloak of privilege in congress. Instead he is to demand a hearing in front of the committee investigating claims made by the Iraqi Governing Council that the UN programme was misappropriated.
“If they don’t invite me I’ll turn up and bang on the door,” he said. “I’m demanding the congress hear me. I want to say to them … show me a coupon with my name on it, show me a businessman who sold me a coupon or a voucher – or dismiss these allegations.”
Galloway has always claimed the allegations are a smear by enemies in the US-funded opposition group, the Iraqi National Congress – led by Jordanian Ahmad Chalabi – and that the papers are a forgery. The Christian Science Monitor documents did turn out to be fakes and an Iraqi has since claimed he was paid $2750 to forge the names of foreigners on Iraqi Oil Ministry documents.
Galloway’s electoral opposition to Labour is a last, symbolic break from a party he thinks is now beyond saving from the “anti-Labour hijackers”.
-MP George Galloway- voice cries "peace," hand in Saddam's till...--
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.