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Britain
Intelligence experts claim Daily Telegraph find likely to be authentic
2003-04-23
Most intelligence experts claimed yesterday that the documents obtained by the Daily Telegraph are probably the real thing.
And it couldn't have happened to a nicer Stalinist!
However, eyebrows were raised at the fact that they were unearthed with relative ease by a reporter for a British broadsheet which would naturally be critical of George Galloway.
Say, ya don't suppose that the feared CIA/MI6/KGB/Mossad/UNCLE/SMERSH/SPECTRE had anything to do with this, do ya?
The Telegraph's correspondent, David Blair, says he found the papers as he and his translator searched the first floor of the Iraqi foreign ministry on Saturday. Mr Blair says the translator "happened upon an orange box file" labelled "Britain" in Arabic.
I'm beginning to think that I should like, sight unseen, all Brits named 'Blair'.
The reporter, a 30-year-old Oxford graduate whose previous postings for the Telegraph include Zimbabwe and Islamabad, says he then "happened upon" a letter from Mr Galloway nominating Fawaz Zureikat as his representative in Baghdad on matters concerning the Mariam Appeal, the fundraising scam effort launched by Mr Galloway to fly an Iraqi girl to Britain for medical treatment. There is no reason to doubt that the letter, on House of Commons notepaper, is genuine and in itself it is not controversial for an MP to consort with Saddam. Mr Galloway admits writing such a letter.
Setting up his plausible deniability for later.
Much more interesting, and potentially damaging to Mr Galloway, is a second document which purports to be from the head of the Iraqi intelligence — whose signature is regrettably conveniently illegible — to Saddam Hussein detailing financial arrangements the MP allegedly had with the regime. Elements of the letter yesterday troubled some experts in Arabic and the Iraq regime. They expressed surprise that its heading included the name of the organisation — Iraqi Intelligence Service (IRIS) — in English, together with a rather amateurish logo showing an eye. They were also surprised at the letter's elaborate border, though some suggested this may contain hidden messages.
"George, pick Shalalabad in the fourth race at Picadilly."
However, there was little doubt that the letter was written by a natural Arabic speaker. So was it chance that Mr Blair found the documents?
Almost as much of a chance as me boinking Christina Aguilera.
He seemed to express some surprise at his find in his report. "Why the contents of the room with the box files survived is a mystery. Its walls are blackened by fire or smoke, yet most of the folders are intact."
Man, the document forgers at SPECTRE are good.
When asked on the BBC's Breakfast Show if the papers could be forged, he said the idea that someone would have planted them on the "off chance" a journalist would find them and translate them was "virtually inconceivable".
Just like my boinking, well, you know.
He also denied the timing of his find was odd, pointing out that anyone who wanted to was free to walk into government ministries and take whatever they wanted, including documents.
"I was really upset, too, because I heard they had some new fax machines, and when I got there they was all looted!"
And if the documents were planted, who stood to benefit? Mr Galloway has been the strongest looney critic of the UK and US during the war. Conspiracy theorists might try to argue that as work to rebuild Iraq begins, destroying Mr Galloway's credibility would remove one strong wanker nutjob dissenting voice. A number of prominent leftwing MPs, including Michael Foot, former leader of the Labour Party, have been the subject of smears, encouraged directly or indirectly by the security and intelligence agencies, including false claims they were Soviet agents.
Some of which turned out to be true, correct?
Other correspondents in Baghdad were taking the find at face value, seeing Mr Blair as an industrious and credible journalist who had simply "struck lucky". Many have begun to go through papers at various government ministries and not been so fortunate. But even if the documents are genuine, it must be remembered that the information they contain may be false.
The Guardian is reaching, really reaching, to help an old friend.
Middlemen or Iraqi intelligence officers might have used Mr Galloway as an excuse to pocket the money for them selves. A classic scam by intelligence officers is to explain the need for money by pointing to the demands of an innocent third party. In truth, the full story of the Galloway documents may not be known for many years.
Or until the libel trial starts.
Posted by:Steve White

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