Galloway named in US Iraq oil report

[Vladimir]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4538735.stm

A US Senate report says two veteran French and British politicians were granted potentially lucrative oil allocations by Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

It says British MP George Galloway and former French minister Charles Pasqua were given the right to buy oil under the UN's oil-for-food scheme.

<snip>

"I have never traded in a barrel of oil," said Mr Galloway, formerly a Labour member of parliament but re-elected as a MP for his own Respect party last week after campaigning against the Iraq war.

<snip>

For his part, Mr Galloway said: "These are the same false allegations which are still the subject of a libel action with the Daily Telegraph - so far I'm £1.6m up".

comment: I can't decide whether this is boring or hilarious...

[Old and In the Way]

1. What was Dick Cheney's take?

He made $24MM in profits trading with Saddam....who can top that?

[andino]

2. I have been looking for a link to that.

Mind sharing?

[Old and In the Way]

5. Sorry, make that $24MM in sales, trading around the US embargo

http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/news/columnists/molly_ivins/3432437.htm

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. A bit more detail in a Guardian article

"Moreover, some evidence indicates that Galloway appeared to use a charity for children's leukaemia to conceal payments associated with at least one such allocation."
...
Mr Galloway said last night that the oil allocation vouchers were given to a Jordanian businessman, Fawaz Zureikat, who was chairman of his Mariam Appeal, a charity he set up to help a young Iraqi girl suffering from leukaemia.

The MP said the appeal, part of a campaign against United Nations sanctions in Iraq, has already been investigated by the Charity Commission and no impropriety had been found. "In other words, no money ended up in my pocket," Mr Galloway said.
...
The report said: " stated that George Galloway, Labour Party, was the owner of a company that was involved in the Iraqi oil trade scheme."

Mr Galloway last night said that claim was "preposterous". "I do not own any companies."

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12956,1482099,00.html

In case anyone missed it during the election campaign, the Telegraph has been allowed to appeal the High Court decision against it, which is why the case is still ongoing.

[Englander]

4. "Woohoo! 20 million barrels of oil!"

Just think how many Com'nist-Cuban-Cigars
you could buy with that....:silly: :smoke:

/sarcasm.

[bennywhale]

6. I love Galloway's

insults. He's just described the compilers of the report as "Lick-spittle Republicans"

[vota]

7. Expect fireworks

Galloway has threatened to visit the Senate committee and tell them what 'liars' they are.
I reckon you Americans are going to have some fun! Galloway's style is lively, as you'll see at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/vote_2005/frontpage/4519575.stm#
if you click on 'Watch George Galloway's clash with Jeremy Paxman'
or listen to his debate with defeated candidate Oona King at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/news/general_election/bethnalgreen_debate.shtml

[mrfrapp]

20. Paxman

I respect Paxman but that interview was bang out of order. I've not seen it before so thanks for linking to it.

[Briar]

8. A rare objective assessment of the media's Galloway witch hunt

No need for balance

The media and political elite now regards George Galloway as beyond the pale. So the normal rules of the game don't apply

Roy Greenslade

...here will be many who snort contemptuously when I say that Galloway is now more sinned against than sinning because he has become so unpopular with both the media and political elites that they regard him as outside the normal rules of the game.

Indeed, to defend him places the defender beyond the pale too. But the victim of what has all the hallmarks of a media feeding frenzy deserves a fair hearing, not only for his personal benefit, but for those he now represents - and in order to confront journalists with their own misguided agendas.

In quick succession since his election victory last week in Bethnal Green and Bow, Galloway has been subjected to a television mauling by Jeremy Paxman, a radio sandbagging by the MP he defeated and a raft of newspaper headlines about a set of reheated allegations which he has not only strenuously denied but which ended with him winning a major libel action...

Galloway has achieved the dubious honour of being the media's new leftwing whipping boy, following in a line that includes Arthur Scargill, Tony Benn and Ken Livingstone. Like them, he has dared to confront not only the old establishment but also its Labour alternative (or, in his eyes, the new establishment), having been expelled from the party on the basis of what might be charitably described as rather dubious reasoning.


...

more at

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1483073,00.html

[mr blur]

9. And of course we can all trust

the US government's information - they've been so right about Iraq all along.

[Briar]

10. Of course - you can trust every word they say...

The attack on Galloway seems to be a side-effect of the American Right's push to sack Kofi Annan and further marginalise the UN using dubious documents and interviews hoovered up by the ISG when they failed to find WMDs. Not that Bliar will mind.

[Vladimir]

11. An update: Galloway says he'll give them 'both barrels'

http://www.respectcoalition.org/?ite=780

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12956,1483173,00.html

[D-Notice]

13. ... Of oil?

;-)

[Vladimir]

14. That would be 20 million barrels comrade!

incidentally, has anyone else noted that since crude was trading at 20-30 bucks a barrel at the time, that would make Galloway worth around a 500 million dollar bribe? That sure is a lot of money...

[muriel_volestrangler]

16. I think it's commission on the oil that he would allegedly get

The oil trading deal seemed to involve Iraqi oil being sold at slightly less than market price to whoever Iraq nominated, who could then sell it on - without ever having to take delivery of the mucky stuff.

From The Telgraph's allegations last year:

There is no suggestion that the alleged beneficiaries of Saddam's oil vouchers ever saw a barrel of oil. Under the scheme, a friend of the regime, or their agent, would be given a voucher or chit by senior aides to Saddam, entitling them to purchase Iraqi oil.

They could then stroll across Baghdad and sell the voucher to local middlemen working at the al-Rashid hotel. A voucher for one million barrels translated into an instant profit of as much as £200,000 at the then-prevailing exchange rate. The papers presented to the US Congress state that Mr Galloway and Mr Zureikat received vouchers for 19 million barrels.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/04/24/ngall124.xml

So it's £4 million we're talking about. The present allegations seems to be over a year old, and thus known when Galloway won his libel case. If they didn't help the Telegraph 6 months ago, I doubt they'll have much substance now.

[Vladimir]

17. Cheers for the clarification n/t

[D-Notice]

12. If Galloway's in the US

when Parliament comes back, will he be allowed to take his seat as he could miss the swearing of the loyality oath to Liz, in a similar fashion to Sinn Fein.

By a complete co-incidence, this would increase Bliar's majority...

[Vladimir]

15. He can do it later...

http://www.parliament.uk/works/new_parliament.cfm

shame, it sounded like a fun conspiracy theory... :evilgrin:

[Oggy]

21. Good point

We'll have to keep an eye out for any news. I presume he'll be OK though. He may have lots of enemies, but after that performance he'll now have many more friends.

[vota]

18. Yahoo! / Sky news link to story

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/050512/140/fiod1.html

[Nihil]

19. Heh heh heh ...

> The United States administration turned a blind eye to extensive
> sanctions-busting in the prewar sale of Iraqi oil, according to a new
> Senate investigation.
>
> A report released last night by Democratic staff on a Senate
> investigations committee presents documentary evidence that the Bush
> administration was made aware of illegal oil sales and kickbacks paid
> to the Saddam Hussein regime but did nothing to stop them.
>
> The scale of the shipments involved dwarfs those previously alleged by
> the Senate committee against UN staff and European politicians like
> the British MP, George Galloway, and the former French minister,
> Charles Pasqua.
>
> In fact, the Senate report found that US oil purchases accounted for
> 52% of the kickbacks paid to the regime in return for sales of cheap
> oil - more than the rest of the world put together.

And this isn't even from George's reply, this was from the Senate!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1485546,00.html

Go George!