Posted on 04/23/2003 12:33:28 PM PDT by SkyPilot
Blair says allegations of party member's links to Saddam are "serious"
Wed Apr 23, Add Mideast - AFP
LONDON (AFP) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) was treating as "serious," allegations that a member of his ruling Labour party was in the pay of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s regime, his official spokesman said.
Responding for the first time to reports in the Daily Telegraph newspaper that Scottish deputy George Galloway was paid more than half a million dollars a year by Saddam to promote the ousted leader's regime, the spokesman added: "Since I believe there is a prospect of legal action, I don't think you would expect me to comment any further at this stage."
The Telegraph reported Wednesday that Galloway -- who has been nicknamed "the MP for Baghdad Central" for his personal ties to Saddam and opposition to the US-led war on Iraq (news - web sites) -- had a request for more money turned down by the toppled leader.
The daily reported Tuesday that Galloway took a slice of Iraq's oil earnings worth 375,000 pounds (539,000 euros, 587,500 dollars) a year, and claimed Wednesday that Saddam found the MP's demands for additional funds unaffordable.
Saddam's response was outlined in a memo circulated by his most senior aide to four senior figures of his former regime, including deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz, the daily said.
The memo was found in Baghdad in the Iraqi foreign ministry by the same Telegraph reporter who had found a separate memo there outlining Galloway's alleged oil earnings and demands for more money.
Saddam's response, dated May 2, 2000, said that Galloway was someone who was "promoting the right path, even using western methods" who "needs exceptional support" but which the Iraqi regime "cannot afford."
Galloway is currently at his holiday home in Portugal.
The Telegraph's editor Charles Moore on Wednesday confirmed his paper was being sued by Galloway but insisted the revelations stood up.
"We certainly have had a legal letter and no doubt things will go forward from there. We look forward to that," Moore told the GMTV news programme.
"We will defend our journalism robustly. I think it is excellent journalism and a fantastic scoop."
Labour Party chairman Ian McCartney called the allegations "extremely serious," adding that they would be investigated by the party.
Galloway has vigorously denied the allegations.
"I have never solicited, nor would I have accepted had I been offered, any financial assistance of any kind from the Iraqi regime," he told BBC television on Tuesday.
my comment--on the radio, these words were prefaced by "to the best of my knowledge!"
The right-wing Daily Telegraph, which led a pro-US stance in the buildup to and during the war on Iraq, alleged that Galloway, 48, had entered into a partnership with an Iraqi oil broker to sell oil on the international market.
The paper said the details were outlined in a memo sent by the head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam's office in January 2000.
The documents suggested that while he was campaigning for his anti-war charity, the Mariam Appeal, Galloway was conducting a relationship with Iraqi intelligence behind the scenes, it said.
In 1998 Galloway set up the Mariam Appeal to fly young Iraqi leukaemia sufferer Mariam Hamza to Britain for treatment. The MP blamed uranium-tipped weapons used by coalition forces in the first Gulf War (news - web sites) for her condition.
According to a report Wednesday in The Times newspaper, Britain's top legal official Attorney General Peter Goldsmith was examining claims that Galloway had spent money raised by the Mariam Appeal to fund travel expenses.
The case was at a "very, very early stage" but if wrongdoing was found Galloway could be ordered to repay the money and face civil action, said a spokeswoman for Goldsmith.
A cigar?
It mentions the allegation, but the breaking news is that Blair is taking is as a serious charge--not tabloid journalism.
The story either "has legs" or it dies. Right now, it is SPIN SPIN SPIN time for the left to see what happens next. Expect a lot of "shoot the messenger" - see "right wing" reference above to the newspaper.
Very Clintonian... you have to wonder just where that cigar has been...
and what it's been used for...
If Tony cannot get 'im one way he surely can do an Al Capone caper. INCOME TAX EVASION. Oh by the way, if that is what good living does to a 48 year old- whoa, he looks 60.
Do you need proof of Sami al-Arian's arrest?
The son of a USF professor had to leave a White House meeting.
©Associated Press
© St. Petersburg Times, published June 30, 2001
WASHINGTON -- President Bush issued an apology Friday over the removal of Abdullah Al-Arian, son of a University of South Florida professor, from a White House meeting of Muslim officials.
"The president is very concerned that an action was taken that was wrong, inappropriate, and the president apologizes for it on behalf of the White House," press secretary Ari Fleischer said.
A uniformed Secret Service officer ordered Al-Arian, a congressional intern and Duke University senior, to leave a briefing Thursday of Muslim officials. Al-Arian's father, USF professor Sami Al-Arian, has been entangled in an investigation of terrorists. His uncle is Mazen Al-Najjar, a Palestinian who was jailed for three years on secret evidence the government said showed he had ties to terrorists. He was freed in December.
When Abdullah Al-Arian left the meeting, more than 20 Muslim leaders decided to walk out with him.
Secret Service spokesman Jim Mackin later said his agency erred in ordering Al-Arian out. Once the Secret Service realized its mistake, it offered Al-Arian re-entry. But the group, which was there to hear about the president's plans to contract with religious groups to run soup kitchens, health clinics and other social services, declined.
"In this one instance, the Secret Service made a mistake. The president is concerned about it to the point where he does apologize," Fleischer said.
Abdullah Al-Arian was inundated for requests for interviews Friday and talked to CNN and Fox TV, among others.
The assistant deputy director of the Secret Service, Paul Irving, apologized for the misunderstanding in person, Al-Arian said, visiting him in the Capitol office of U.S. Rep. David Bonior, D-Mich., where Al-Arian works as an intern.
"I have to be worried somewhat about what it means for my future," Al-Arian said of the incident that made him look like a suspect. "But I feel that it's something that I have to do now. It's given me a platform to speak -- something my uncle never had during three years in jail."
Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman of the Council on American-Islamic Relations who participated in Thursday's aborted meeting, welcomed Bush's apology and said, "We hope this will lead to better interaction between the White House and the Muslim community."
The council had sent Bush a letter after the incident asking him to meet personally with Muslim leaders and appoint a special White House liaison to the Muslim-American community to "dispel impressions within the Muslim community that there's some kind of exclusion from his policymaking circles," Hooper said.
Islam allows polygamy. Maybe Galloway secretly converted.
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