Posted on 04/23/2003 4:43:16 PM PDT by Shermy
MP's wife introduced him to Saddam sympathiser, writes CAMERON SIMPSON and AARON HICKLIN GEORGE Galloway first met the shadowy figure of Fawaz Zureikat through his Palestinian wife. The fateful meeting was to propel the man who goes under the soubriquets of "Gorgeous George" and the "MP for Baghdad Central" into one of the biggest crises of his colourful career.
Dr Amineh Abu-Zayyad, 36, a Jerusalem-born scientist who married Mr Galloway in a secret ceremony in London in February 2000, had gone to the same university in Jordan as Mr Zureikat.
Mr Zureikat's name first surfaced in a letter from Mr Galloway found in Baghdad's looted foreign ministry. Mr Galloway wrote: "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."
But the stick of dynamite lay alongside the letter in the files - blue touch paper in the shape of a secret memo which claimed Mr Galloway had received £375,000 a year in pay-offs from the Iraqi government and wanted more.
Mr Galloway said yesterday: "The only thing extremely clear about this story is that it is clearly false and it will be demonstrated in the courts of law as false."
But what is not in doubt is Mr Zureikat's credentials to act as Mr Galloway's go-between for business dealings with the Iraqi regime. With a family history of loyalty to Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party - according to his Iraqi intelligence profile - Mr Zureikat, 53, was an ideal choice.
His Mukhabarat secret service dossier refers to him glowingly as a "sympathiser with Iraq". It recorded that he came from a Ba'athist family - his brother was once jailed for his political beliefs in Syria - and commended him for having supplied the Iraqi government with "developed civil and military equipment".
However, it does not reveal whether they happened after the international arms embargo was imposed on Iraq following Saddam's invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
Mr Zureikat was born in Jordan, but took a first degree in engineering at Basra University in southern Iraq. He went on to work in the Iraqi oil ministry and spent the 1970s with Iraqi oil exploration companies.
His later role at the Jordanian university was unclear last night, but it is known at the time of his tie-up with Mr Galloway that he was running a semi-conductors company with its head office in Amman, the Jordanian capital.
The company is referred to by Iraqi intelligence as a front for Mr Galloway's business dealings in Iraq. It is also claimed that he attended the alleged Boxing Day meeting in 1999 at which the MP is reported to have spelled out his demands for a bigger cut of Iraq's oil exports under the UN programme.
The Oil for Food Programme was originally intended as a temporary measure to alleviate the suffering of ordinary Iraqis by enabling Baghdad to sell oil for food and medicine. Activated in 1996, it has been overseen by the 661 committee, named after the Security Council Resolution by which it was established - a body subject to intense criticism for its secrecy and bureaucracy.
The 661 committee, which consists of representatives from each nation on the Security Council, is empowered to both monitor sanctions and grant humanitarian exemptions.
Any company that wants to sell humanitarian goods to Iraq must first submit their proposal to the committee, which meets in secret, and bars Iraqi representatives and potential vendors from attending.
However, there are concerns the Iraqi mafia have been marketeering on a scale experienced by Russia after its system collapsed.
One intelligence memorandum describes a meeting with Mr Zureikat in which he said that Mr Galloway's campaigning on behalf of Iraq was putting "his future as a British MP in a circle surrounded by many question marks and doubts".
Mr Zureikat was also the Jordanian chairman of the Mariam Appeal, a charity established by Mr Galloway to highlight the effect of UN trade sanctions on Iraq imposed after the Gulf war.
He is also the main financial backer of Arab TV, the London-based satellite station run by Ron McKay, a Sunday Herald journalist, credited with arranging an interview between Tony Benn and Saddam earlier this year.
His political activities include membership of the Jordan-based National Mobilisation Committee for the Defence of Iraq.
In a recent BBC Panorama programme on Iraq, Mr Zureikat fought Saddam's corner. He said Iraqis had voted 100% for Saddam, not because 100% wanted him, but because 100% were against aggression from outside by the US against their own state.
Challenged on Saddam's support, he said: "Even if he has 70%, he still has more than Bush himself in the US." He said there would be no dancing in the streets if American troops took Baghdad.
The roof came crashing in on his world last month in Jordan when he was arrested by the Dairat al Mukhabarat, the country's general intelligence department, during a sweep of suspected pro-Saddam activists. His arrest followed a raid on his offices in Amman in which police seized documents, accounts and computer disks relating to his businesses and political activities.
Mr Zureikat was held incommunicado for 30 days before being released. In the murky world of intelligence, he could have bought his freedom by turning on Mr Galloway.
Reached by mobile phone in Amman yesterday, he dismissed the claims against the Glasgow Kelvin MP as "propaganda".He said the Daily Telegraph memo had been "fabricated".
-April 23rd
But what is not in doubt is Mr Zureikat's credentials to act as Mr Galloway's go-between for business dealings with the Iraqi regime. With a family history of loyalty to Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party - according to his Iraqi intelligence profile - Mr Zureikat, 53, was an ideal choice.
His Mukhabarat secret service dossier refers to him glowingly as a "sympathiser with Iraq". It recorded that he came from a Ba'athist family - his brother was once jailed for his political beliefs in Syria - and commended him for having supplied the Iraqi government with "developed civil and military equipment".
And better than hanging out at those Peterson/Santorum threads. :)
Who has control of "the files"?
Are they in Baghdad, or in London?
The plot thickens. Why would the marriage need to be "a secret ceremony". Do we have a modern day Mata Hari here? Hmmm..
If the marriage was secret, how does this reporter know about it?
I don't know. Maybe Yasser administered the ceremonies?
Actually, wife isn't too religious. They were open about living together outside of marriage for many years. He called her his "partner."
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.