Posted on 04/21/2003 6:49:40 PM PDT by Pokey78
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 Labour Party over his outspoken opposition to the war – he said: "I have never solicited nor received money from Iraq for our campaign against war and sanctions. I have never seen a barrel of oil, never owned one, never bought one, never sold one."
The memorandum, which the Telegraph said was found by one of its reporters in the looted Foreign Ministry in Baghdad, allegedly shows that Mr Galloway had a secret relationship with Iraqi intelligence as he waged a fierce campaign against the war on Iraq and the previous UN sanctions regime.
The document, allegedly sent to Saddam Hussein's office on 3 January 2000, outlines talks between Mr Galloway and an Iraqi spy. In a meeting with the spy on Boxing Day 1999, Mr Galloway allegedly outlined the plans of his Mariam Appeal against sanctions, named after an Iraqi child he flew to Britain for leukaemia treatment.
The spy chief wrote that Mr Galloway had told him that he "needs continuous financial support from Iraq. He obtained through Mr Tariq Aziz [Deputy Prime Minister] three million barrels of oil every six months, according to the oil-for-food programme. His share would be only between 10 and 15 cents per barrel ... He [Galloway] also obtained a limited number of food contracts with the Ministry of Trade. The percentage of its profits does not go above one per cent."
The security chief, whose signature on the memo is illegible, said Mr Galloway was pressing for more money and recommended that his demands be met. "He suggested to us the following: first, increase his share of oil; second, grant him exceptional commercial and contractual facilities," the memo says.
A letter from Mr Galloway himself, allegedly also found in the Foreign Ministry, is reported to show that Mr Galloway's intermediary in Iraq was Fawaz Zureikat, a Jordanian businessman. The letter, on House of Commons notepaper, says: "This is to certify that Mr Fawaz A Zureikat is my representative in Baghdad on all matters concerning my work with the Mariam Appeal or the Emergency Committee in Iraq."
The intelligence chief's memo quotes Mr Zureikat as saying: "His [Galloway's] projects and future plans for the benefit of the country need financial support to become a motive for him to do more work and, because of the sensitivity of getting money directly from Iraq, it is necessary to grant him oil contracts and special and exceptional commercial opportunities to provide him with an income."
Mr Galloway's statement last night said he had never met Iraqi intelligence officials "to the best of my knowledge".
"Given that I have had access over the years to Iraq's political leadership, most often the Deputy Prime Minister, Tariq Aziz, I would have absolutely no reason to be meeting with an official of Iraqi intelligence.
"From the way they have been described to me, I can state that [the documents] bear all the hallmarks of having been either forged or doctored and are designed to discredit those who stood against the war."
Links on FR are not working at the moment, so I can't check out the source here. However, I am pretty sure it is his son-in-law, not his wife. In any event, there are far, far better things to beat Galloway over the head with than to go after his family.
"Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability"
--George Galloway, speaking to Saddam Hussein, 1994
To believe in the vast right wing conspiracy, all you have to do is believe that people of the character of Bill Clinton and Saddam Hussein are telling the truth.
Altogether now:
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
Nothing to kill or die for
A brotherhood of man
I'd bet my paycheck the US has a whole lot of information about such dealings with Saddam in their hands that they have not released yet.
Sounds like this guy is just practicing his evasive testimony for trial.
MadIvan: Are you UK folks familiar with what Texans call a "necktie party"?
hey, he only "laundered" the $$$ for the "hitlery for prez committee..."
klintoon wasn't disbarred in "limeytown"....he could represent his "commrade"...
it just depends on what your "definition of scum of the earth.....IS"
mark furman just keeps over doing the evidence...
And I am scots.
(For the rest of Ascher's comments, click on the link above.)Let’s stop playing childish games. Come on: I want hard proof that the Axis of Weasels had been helping Saddam to come out in the open as much as anybody else. But we have a saying in Brazil that could be translated like this: When a beggar is given too much money, the suspicions of the saint are aroused. (Believe me, it sounds much better in Portuguese).
The Telegraph’s scoop this Sunday (Revealed: Russia spied on Blair for Saddam) about the cooperation between the Russian secret services and Iraq, with documental proof that the Russians had been spying on Blair and sharing information with Saddam, is to good to be true.
Sorry, but doesn’t it sound rather unbelievable that, even before the shooting has stopped, a reporter goes to the headquarters of the Iraqi intelligence service in Baghdad, I mean, to a building that has been heavily bombed, that’s partly destroyed and burnt out, that had millions and millions of files of all kinds, imagine, tons and tons of paper, that has already been looted, that he then walks around for half an hour and, look!, finds exactly the information that will make it to the front page just in time for the Sunday edition?
It’s obvious that this doesn’t make sense.
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