Iraq oil cash funded MPs' campaigns (GALLOWAY!)

Guardian ^ | 02/17/04 | David Leigh and David Pallister

[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.

[GeronL]

hahaha

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

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Corrupt politicians. Do they come any other way?

BTW, what the hell is an MP?

[GiveEmDubya]

Member of Parliament

[ambrose]

Any bets on whether the pro-Saddam contingent in the US Congress were getting kickbacks as well?

[McGavin999]

I don't know, but they've been very, very quiet lately.

[ghost of nixon]

the ultimate in cool, would be for documents implicating top Democrats opposed to the war to turn up "conveniently" close to the election

[RandallFlagg]

Here's the whole list found in Iraq.

[CommandoFrank]

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?

[GeronL]

See this flash animation...

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

[The G Man]

I'm guessing they don't execute traitors in Great Britain, do they?

[mewzilla]

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.

[mewzilla]

Why bomb when you can blackmail...?

Which is why character does count.

[Cap Huff]

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

[Grampa Dave]

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.

[driftless]

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,

[thinktwice]

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!

[mewzilla]

Bosom buds.

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

[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?

[evad]

Heh heh..
turns out the only two not on this list were Bush and Cheney ;-)