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Galloway was in Saddam's pay, say secret Iraqi documents (PACIFISTS ON SADDAM PAYROLL)
The Daily Telegraph ^ | April 22, 2003 | David Blair

Posted on 04/21/2003 4:41:15 PM PDT by MadIvan

George Galloway, the Labour backbencher, received money from Saddam Hussein's regime, taking a slice of oil earnings worth at least £375,000 a year, according to Iraqi intelligence documents found by The Daily Telegraph in Baghdad.

A confidential memorandum sent to Saddam by his spy chief said that Mr Galloway asked an agent of the Mukhabarat secret service for a greater cut of Iraq's exports under the oil for food programme.

He also said that Mr Galloway was profiting from food contracts and sought "exceptional" business deals. Mr Galloway has always denied receiving any financial assistance from Baghdad.

Asked to explain the document, he said yesterday: "Maybe it is the product of the same forgers who forged so many other things in this whole Iraq picture. Maybe The Daily Telegraph forged it. Who knows?"

When the letter from the head of the Iraqi intelligence service was read to him, he said: "The truth is I have never met, to the best of my knowledge, any member of Iraqi intelligence. I have never in my life seen a barrel of oil, let alone owned, bought or sold one."

In the papers, which were found in the looted foreign ministry, Iraqi intelligence continually stresses the need for secrecy about Mr Galloway's alleged business links with the regime. One memo says that payments to him must be made under "commercial cover".

For more than a decade, Mr Galloway, MP for Glasgow Kelvin, has been the leading critic of Anglo-American policy towards Iraq, campaigning against sanctions and the war that toppled Saddam.

He led the Mariam Appeal, named after an Iraqi child he flew to Britain for leukaemia treatment. The campaign was the supposed beneficiary of his fund-raising.

But the papers say that, behind the scenes, Mr Galloway was conducting a relationship with Iraqi intelligence. Among documents found in the foreign ministry was a memorandum from the chief of the Mukhabarat to Saddam's office on Jan 3, 2000, marked "Confidential and Personal".

It purported to outline talks between Mr Galloway and an Iraqi spy. During the meeting on Boxing Day 1999, Mr Galloway detailed his campaign plans for the year ahead.

The spy chief wrote that Mr Galloway told the Mukhabarat agent: "He [Galloway] needs continuous financial support from Iraq. He obtained through Mr Tariq Aziz [deputy prime minister] three million barrels of oil every six months, according to the oil for food programme. His share would be only between 10 and 15 cents per barrel."

Iraq's oil sales, administered by the United Nations, were intended to pay for only essential humanitarian supplies. If the memo was accurate, Mr Galloway's share would have amounted to about £375,000 per year.

The documents say that Mr Galloway entered into partnership with a named Iraqi oil broker to sell the oil on the international market.

The memorandum continues: "He [Galloway] also obtained a limited number of food contracts with the ministry of trade. The percentage of its profits does not go above one per cent."

The Iraqi spy chief, whose illegible signature appears at the bottom of the memorandum, says that Mr Galloway asked for more money.

"He suggested to us the following: first, increase his share of oil; second, grant him exceptional commercial and contractual facilities." The spy chief, who is not named, recommends acceptance of the proposals.

Mr Galloway's intermediary in Iraq was Fawaz Zureikat, a Jordanian. In a letter found in one foreign ministry file, 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."

The intelligence chief's 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 is then quoted as saying: "His projects and future plans for the benefit of the country need financial support to become a motive for him to do more work and, because of the sensitivity of getting money directly from Iraq, it is necessary to grant him oil contracts and special and exceptional commercial opportunities to provide him with an income under commercial cover, without being connected to him directly."

Mr Zureikat is said to have emphasised that the "name of Mr Galloway or his wife should not be mentioned".


TOPICS: Breaking News; Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; US: District of Columbia; United Kingdom; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: aziz; blackshirts; bloodhounds; bribes; bushdoctrineunfold; communistsubversion; conservatism; energy; espionage; fawazzureikat; galloway; georgegalloway; intelligence; iraq; iraqifreedom; jordan; labour; mariamappeal; mukhabarat; oilforfood; peaceniks; prequel; saddam; scotland; tariqaziz; traitor; traitorlist; un; unlist; war; warlist; zureikat
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To: MadIvan
I hope they find files on every rat who's sold us down the river. BTW, if it's not too much trouble, would you add me to your ping list?
41 posted on 04/21/2003 5:02:32 PM PDT by MizSterious ("The truth takes only seconds to tell."--Jack Straw)
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To: MadIvan
Bookmark
42 posted on 04/21/2003 5:03:03 PM PDT by Saturnalia
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To: MadIvan
OMG, Ivan! Tip of the iceberg, probably.

I'll bet more than a few people are going to have some 'splainin' to do.
43 posted on 04/21/2003 5:03:32 PM PDT by texasbluebell
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To: MadIvan
While children are in the dungeon, this piece of dirt cries, "NO WAR". What a piece of crap this man of peace.
44 posted on 04/21/2003 5:03:54 PM PDT by bmwcyle (Semper Gumby - Always flexible)
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To: faithincowboys
Damn, this is what I call an "outing."
45 posted on 04/21/2003 5:05:04 PM PDT by July 4th
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To: cyncooper
They truly were like the Nazis in all respects, meticulous records and all.
46 posted on 04/21/2003 5:05:05 PM PDT by Ursus arctos horribilis ("It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees!" Emiliano Zapata 1879-1919)
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To: texasbluebell
I suspect a lot more of the money was converted to Euros than to pounds. A LOT more.
47 posted on 04/21/2003 5:06:14 PM PDT by AmishDude
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To: MadIvan
This is Hugh!
48 posted on 04/21/2003 5:07:29 PM PDT by Bogey78O (check it out... http://freepers.zill.net/users/bogey78o_fr/puppet.swf)
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To: Asclepius
what i wouldn't give to see the carter center or the clintoon library on some documents with an iraqi dictatorship letterhead. i think kucinich or some other backbencher might be our galloway. i think jesse jackson or farrakhan are most likely on the take from saddam. give me michael moore and www.moveon.com, people for the unamerican way. i want some ANSWER big on one of these papers. who knows, maybe the butchers were repulsed by these amoral agents and took no pains to destroy the evidence.
49 posted on 04/21/2003 5:11:15 PM PDT by faithincowboys (God Bless Our Troops!)
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To: Asclepius
I wonder how many Americans were on Saddam's payroll.

Haven't seen or heard Scott Ritter recently. Doubt he's just embarrassed about being wrong about everything. Probably trying to figure out where Scott Peterson was going to hole-up in Mexico, since that other Scott won't be able to use it now.

50 posted on 04/21/2003 5:12:39 PM PDT by Scott from the Left Coast
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To: Brian Mosely
Wow! This could realllyyy get fun!
51 posted on 04/21/2003 5:13:37 PM PDT by Tailback
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To: Scott from the Left Coast; knighthawk
Ritter was in the Netherlands a week ago.
52 posted on 04/21/2003 5:14:21 PM PDT by Shermy
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To: Krodg
"The truth is I have never met, to the best of my knowledge, any member of Iraqi intelligence. A friend of Clinton's?

Notice what he does NOT say. He says he never "met a member of Iraqi Intelligence". He does not say he didn't meet an Iraqi diplomat or any other person acting under instructions from the Iraqi government

53 posted on 04/21/2003 5:14:29 PM PDT by SauronOfMordor (Heavily armed, easily bored, and off my medication)
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To: MadIvan
I'd say this is unbelievable, but it isn't.

Can pictures of Chirac with a sheep be far behind?

54 posted on 04/21/2003 5:18:05 PM PDT by TomB
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To: Shermy
Netherlands...they're in the coalition...but a quick skip to Belgium.

I suspect he's over there for the night life, the "nether regions" if you get my drift.

55 posted on 04/21/2003 5:18:24 PM PDT by Scott from the Left Coast
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To: MadIvan
I've definitely wondered that about Ritter and just about anyone else in the anti-war "movement."

Many of them have gotten strangely ineffective since Saddam's demise. I wonder if they were buying their media access with Iraqi dollars?

56 posted on 04/21/2003 5:18:45 PM PDT by peeve23
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I don't know if this has been posted.

How David Blair found the documents

57 posted on 04/21/2003 5:20:10 PM PDT by The Hon. Galahad Threepwood
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To: MadIvan
Ivan, is there any chance these COULD be forgeries? Does this Galloway guy have enemies, maybe Blair's faction in the LP, that could perpetrate this?

Not that I'm giving it any credence; there's no way I could know, but he certainly seemed to be a cool customer when confronted with it.

How can these be authenticated?
58 posted on 04/21/2003 5:20:30 PM PDT by Illbay
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To: cyncooper
More of the "banality of evil" that is so fortunately available to hoist them with their own petards.
59 posted on 04/21/2003 5:21:19 PM PDT by Illbay
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To: adam_az
YOWZA!!!

Sure sounds like this guy is a good candidate for the Scott Ritter Butt-Kisser Award.
60 posted on 04/21/2003 5:22:22 PM PDT by Illbay
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