Galloway in the dock

scotsman ^ | Sun 30 Oct 2005 | Fraser Nelson and Eddie Barnes

[Critical Bill]

HIS DENIAL was carefully worded from the first. "I have never seen a barrel of oil, never bought one, never sold one and neither has anyone on my behalf." But this, as George Galloway should have known, was never the accusation.

The bribery system set up by Saddam Hussein - and run with the connivance of United Nations officials overseeing the $64bn oil-for-food programme - was never so crude as to require its beneficiaries to trade oil, or ask anyone to do so. It offered vouchers which were handled through trusted local intermediaries and easily converted into cleanly-laundered money. For the discerning fraudster, Saddam, in his final days, was running the most discrete scam in the world. This is the picture now presented to us by Paul Volcker, respected former chairman of the US Federal Reserve, who, after 18 months of inquiry, has found Galloway prominent among a staggering list of 2,200 politicians and firms listed as complicit in the fraud. In company such as DaimlerChrysler and Volvo, little attention should perhaps fall on a British MP thrown out of the Labour Party and now the sole MP for Respect, a party he invented. But Galloway has a habit of making himself noticed.

An incurable self-publicist, revered as a crusader by his allies and reviled as an unprincipled demagogue by critics, Galloway has volunteered for the role of lightning rod in a scandal which - to many Americans - has exposed European politicians on the make.

[Critical Bill]

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The man we love to hate

[Critical Bill]

When he emerged from Senator Coleman's committee last May, Galloway declared the United States to be "tinder dry, waiting for a spark like this". This weekend the flames are drawing uncomfortably close to his own feet.

I knew Senator Coleman and LeVine(?) were staying cool for a reason.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Looks like an air tight case. Too bad there's no way to execute the little pr#*!.

[Proud_USA_Republican]

30 years in levenworth out to do wonders for his traitrous big mouth.

[Steve0113]

ping