Posted on 04/22/2003 5:38:17 PM PDT by Shermy
Saddam Hussein rejected a request from George Galloway for more money, saying that the Labour backbencher's "exceptional" demands were not affordable, according to an official document found by The Daily Telegraph in Baghdad.
The letter from Saddam's most senior aide was sent in response to Mr Galloway's reported demand for additional funds. This was outlined in a memorandum from the Iraqi intelligence chief disclosed yesterday in The Daily Telegraph.
Mr Galloway denies receiving any money from the regime. He claims that any documents purporting to show this are forgeries planted by western intelligence agencies to try to discredit him.
The latest document purported to convey a personal decision from Saddam and was circulated to four of the most senior figures in the former regime, including Tariq Aziz, the deputy prime minister. It indicates that Mr Galloway's affairs were discussed at the highest level.
Its disclosure, if accurate, shows that there were limits to Mr Galloway's success in wresting commercial opportunities from Iraq. But it adds to the impression that he was working closely with the most senior apparatchiks of a regime that he repeatedly professed to oppose.
The letter, which was found in the files of the foreign ministry, was dated May 2, 2000, and marked "Confidential and Personal". It refers to the date and reference number of the intelligence chief's memo, which specifically asked for Saddam's decision on Mr Galloway's alleged requests.
The letter opens by saying that "Mr President, our leader, God bless him", was ordering a committee to look into the matter. The committee's members were the recipients of the letter and read like a who's who of the elite of the Saddam regime.
Taha Yassin Ramadan, the vice-president, Izzat Ibrahim, Saddam's deputy on the Ba'ath Party's Revolutionary Command Council, Ali Hassan al-Majid, a senior general who ordered gas attacks on Kurdish villages, and Mr Aziz were all included.
So was Mohammed Said al-Sahaf, then foreign minister, who was later nicknamed "Comical Ali" when he served as the ever-optimistic information minister.
But Saddam pre-empted any conclusions that the committee might have reached. Referring to Mr Galloway in the dictator's familiar idiom as the man "promoting the right path", the letter says: "The belief is that . . . even using western methods [he] needs exceptional support which we cannot afford and I do not think we can promise to do that if we consider it according to our policy. Please act and let us be informed."
The letter is signed by Gen Abid Hamid al-Khattab, of the president's secretariat. Gen al-Khattab ran Saddam's private office and was included in the handful of officials who had constant access to him.
He was widely viewed as one of themost powerful figures in Iraq. A copy of the letter was sent to the foreign minister, Mr Sahaf, hence its presence in the foreign ministry files. It was found in the same pale blue folder, stamped with the Iraqi eagle, as the intelligence chief's memorandum.
Saddam was rejecting two specific requests allegedly made by Mr Galloway, as recorded in the intelligence chief's memorandum. The first was for a greater share of the profits from oil exports.
The memorandum said that Mr Galloway was already receiving between 10 and 15 cents per barrel of three million barrels exported every six months: an annual sum of at least £375,000.
Mr Galloway's second reported request was for "exceptional commercial and contractual" opportunities with three ministries and the state electricity commission. These requests for more sources of income fell on deaf ears, but Saddam's decision not to allow them did not apply to Mr Galloway's existing deals.
Before Saddam issued his rejection, Mr Galloway sent his "work programme" for 2000 to Mr Aziz. Saddam's office had approved it and Mr Aziz passed the document to four cabinet ministers and the intelligence chief.
• George Galloway was in Baghdad in the weeks before Iraqi foreign ministry papers say he met one of Saddam Hussein's representatives and discussed money.
Mr Galloway arrived in Baghdad in November 1999 with a red London double- decker bus on a high-profile visit to deliver medical supplies for those suffering in Iraq under sanctions.
Among documents found in Iraq's foreign ministry this week was a memo from the country's secret service to Saddam's office outlining talks between the MP and an agent on Boxing Day 1999, during which Mr Galloway is alleged to have said he needed "continuous support from Iraq".
The MP has told this newspaper that the meeting did not take place but said he did spend one Christmas in Iraq, but could not be sure which one.
We'll have to capture a few Columbian drug lords' villas to find out. I'm sure they find the Galloway example worrisome.
Yeah, it was cutting into Saddam's budget for Scott Ritter payoffs.
So Baghdad Bob was apparently involved in some important decisions.
Chirac, his family and a host of related business entities are tops on my list. I wonder whether we've already found such documents, and are beginning to use them "creatively."
(In a completely unrelated matter, the French have suddenly decided that sanctions restraining Iraqi oil production aren't such a good idea any more).
Hmmmmmm....how did western intelligence agencies come to pick Galloway? Did they do the eenie-meenie-miney-mo thing? Did they pick his name out of a hat? Did they throw darts at a poster of Parliament? Flip through the phone book and randomly jam a finger down?
Sayyyyyyyy.....you're not talking about people like Jim McDermott (RAT-WA) and David Bonior (RAT-MI) are you?
Yes, indeed.
Eric Shawn on Fox has been reporting for two days that he has found documents showing how some of the "Oil for Food" money was spent. Naturally it was NOT on food or medicine for regular Iraqi citizens.
Among the expenditures were sizable amounts directly to Baghdad Bob, (and Shawn just cuts to the chase and refers to him as such in his on camera reports), in the form of cash and media items. Including cartoon making equipment which Shawn surmised would be put to use making propaganda cartoons.
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