THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The madness of George (GALLOWAY)

The Daily Telegraph ^ | April 24, 2003

[MadIvan]

Another day, another astonishing revelation in the Galloway story. Though an alleged request for more money, over and above the £375,000 per annum that George Galloway appears to have been receiving from the oil-for-food programme, was rejected by Saddam Hussein, the welfare of the Labour MP seems to have remained a high priority for the Iraqi regime.

According to the latest document to be published by our correspondent David Blair, Mr Galloway's interests were looked after by a committee that included four of Saddam's chief henchmen: his vice-president, his cousin (the late and unlamented "Chemical Ali"), the deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, and the then foreign minister, Mohammed Said al-Sahaf, better known for his role as information minister in the recent war, where he won the name "Comical Ali''.

A memorandum from this committee advises Saddam that Mr Galloway should continue to benefit from oil and other revenues, but that further contacts with Iraqi intelligence might damage him. This document provides an ironical gloss on Mr Galloway's repeated protestation that he never knowingly met an Iraqi intelligence officer, but dealt only with Iraq's "political leadership".

The evidence is stacking up against Mr Galloway, who now admits that he did spend Christmas 1999 with Tariq Aziz in Baghdad, the date when he apparently met an Iraqi spy to demand more money. The former head of Saddam's protocol says that the documents are genuine.

Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad. Ever since David Blair discovered the paper trail that led from Baghdad to Glasgow, the mind of George Galloway has increasingly retreated into fantasy. As more documents found in the Iraqi foreign ministry are published and the possibility that they could have been forged becomes more remote, so Mr Galloway's conspiracy theory becomes wilder.

He fulminates that this newspaper is "the sewer of choice for whoever is involved in these black arts of espionage", but his reputation is now such that he forfeits even the tribal loyalty that Left-wing mavericks normally enjoy. The Guardian yesterday praised David Blair's scoop as "a fine piece of enterprising reporting". The Labour Party is ominously silent. Even Mr Galloway's erstwhile patrons in Iraq have deserted him.

There are two groups who may be disposed to believe in Mr Galloway's innocence. The first is the paranoid Left. Mark Seddon, the editor of Tribune and a member of Labour's National Executive, was given space in the columns of The Times yesterday to hint at dark plots: "When the Telegraph publishes the 'Galloway files', I am reminded of the Zinoviev letter."

To draw parallels between the documents found in Baghdad and the notorious forgery that helped to lose Labour the 1924 election, would be infamous if it were not so absurd. Mr Galloway may also be counting on the Islamist fundamentalists, who are apt to blame literally anything on an American-British-Zionist conspiracy.

There is method in Mr Galloway's madness. He hopes to preserve a constituency of the faithful, on whose gullibility can be built a vast superstructure of myth. Incredible as it may seem, George Galloway - who toadied to tyrants from Bucharest to Baghdad, who devoted money intended for sick Iraqi children to his own globetrotting - now depicts himself as a martyr.

[MadIvan]

Get the rope.

Regards, Ivan

[MadIvan]

Bump!

[dogbyte12]

Could Tony Blair politically ask dear George to get hooked up to a polygraph to save his job? Would something like that fly?

[MEG33]

I got a tree for the rope.

[MadIvan]

Treason is the one crime for which the death penalty has not been eliminated. Oops, on Galloway's part.

Regards, Ivan

[Dog]

Ivan.........Galloway is a spy....why would they have so many higher ups tending to his every need and whim....he was their mole inside your government..

[Shermy]

The former head of Saddam's protocol says that the documents are genuine.

Sounds like Brit intel has decided to take a look at Blair's findings, and brought a prisoner by.

Are we going to hear about those other boxes???

[Dog]

Ivan what about the French and Security Council boxes..

[xm177e2]

There are two groups who may be disposed to believe in Mr Galloway's innocence. The first is the paranoid Left. Mark Seddon, the editor of Tribune and a member of Labour's National Executive, was given space in the columns of The Times yesterday to hint at dark plots: "When the Telegraph publishes the 'Galloway files', I am reminded of the Zinoviev letter."

To draw parallels between the documents found in Baghdad and the notorious forgery that helped to lose Labour the 1924 election, would be infamous if it were not so absurd. Mr Galloway may also be counting on the Islamist fundamentalists, who are apt to blame literally anything on an American-British-Zionist conspiracy.

The comparison is ludicrous because Blair is comfortably in power now--and sacking Galloway would only help his party, not hurt it.

[MadIvan]

Not yet. Apparently he's still going through the Britain boxes, and finding more on Galloway.

Regards, Ivan

[Congressman Billybob]

"Get the rope." I hope your three word analysis proves out. I understand that Galloway's district is being reduced from 10 members to 8 as a result of redistricting. Do you view as the simplest and least damaging way for Labour to dump Galloway as just seeing to it that he is no longer on the list when the reduction is made?

Congressman Billybob

Latest column, now up on FR, "Who's Next?"

Latest book(let), "to Restore Trust in America."

[aristeides]

UK still has the death penalty for treason? I didn't know that. By hanging? I wonder what the European Court will have to say on the matter.

[Dog]

The suspense is killing us here.........tell him to read faster....:-)

[MadIvan]

The Tories are squaring up to use this as a stick to beat the Labour Party with, if Blair does not remove him.

Regards, Ivan

[aristeides]

Galloway is making noises about running as an independent.

[Shermy]

Cancel # 9. The official reviewing the documents was a refugee, living in London.

[Grampa Dave]

Ivan remember the stuff that was found about Russia spying on Tony and other key Brits before this recent Iraqi war?

I will bet anything that Galloway enabled the spying on Tony and others.

[MadIvan]

Galloway doesn't have sufficient access to do any spying himself, nor any of his aides. What he certainly could do, is perhaps try to influence, say, the Home Office on the application of a "refugee" (Iraqi agent). But then again, the Home Secretary, David Blunkett, has no reason to like Galloway.

Regards, Ivan