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Britain
Galloway ordered out of Commons by Speaker
2007-07-24
George Galloway, the Respect MP, was ordered out of the House of Commons last night during a debate on a motion to suspend him for 18 days over his alleged financial links to Saddam Hussein's regime.

Michael Martin, the Speaker, "named" Mr Galloway for repeated infringements of the Commons rules and attacks on the integrity of the MPs on the Commons standards and privileges committee.

As the debate continued, Sir George Young, the Conservative chairman of the committee, told MPs that Mr Galloway was "trapped in a fantasy world of conspiracy and victimisation for his views".

Sir George upheld the account of David Blair, The Daily Telegraph's diplomatic correspondent, who entered the foreign ministry in Baghdad shortly after Saddam's overthrow and found documents purporting to show that Mr Galloway had taken money from the Iraqi regime for the Mariam Appeal charity.

The cross-party committee last week accused Mr Galloway of damaging Parliament's reputation. The 18-day suspension, which will run from Oct 8, was later approved without a vote.

Mr Galloway said the committee was a "politicised tribunal". Mr Martin intervened repeatedly and as the MP was ordered from the chamber, he shouted that he would continue his speech outside for anyone who wanted to hear it.

The committee censured Mr Galloway for failing to register an interest and "excessive" use of facilities for the charity.

It also said that he should be punished for "conduct aimed at concealing the true source of Iraqi funding of the Mariam Appeal".

Sen. Norm Coleman has the last laugh on Scurrilous George in the WSJ today. Turns out the Brits used a forensic scientist to validate the documents found in Baghdad.
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Britain
Galloway may face criminal charges
2007-07-19
Scotland yard is to take the first steps toward a possible criminal investigation against George Galloway, who faces an 18-day suspension from the Commons over his financial links to Saddam Hussein's regime, The Daily Telegraph can disclose today.

Detectives are to seek documents from the Serious Fraud Office, which carried out a previous investigation, to establish whether there are grounds to prosecute Mr Galloway. The police may seek his bank accounts after a report by Sir Philip Mawer, the Parliamentary Standards Commisioner, concluded yesterday that Mr Galloway's Mariam Appeal charity received large sums from Saddam's manipulation of the United Nations oil-for-food programme.

Sir Philip said: "Mr Galloway has consistently denied, prevaricated and fudged in relation to the now undeniable evidence that the Mariam Appeal, and he indirectly through it, received money derived, via the Oil for Food programme, from the Iraqi regime."

He added: "Mr Galloway through his controlling position in the appeal, benefited from those monies, in terms of furtherance of his political objectives." He went on: "He [Mr Galloway] had received such support at least recklessly or negligently, and probably knowingly." But Sir Philip said there was no evidence that Mr Galloway had benefited personally from the programme or that any funds had entered his personal bank account.

The 181-page report said that the Respect MP had "consistently failed to live up to the expectation of openness and straightforwardness".

The investigation was triggered by The Daily Telegraph in April 2003 when David Blair, a foreign correspondent, discovered documents purporting to be about Mr Galloway in the Iraqi foreign ministry in Baghdad shortly after Saddam's overthrow. The papers claimed to show that he received funds from Saddam's regime for the Mariam Appeal. The committee report demands that Mr Galloway apologise to David Blair, who he accused of perjury, and to the Commons. In December 2004 The Daily Telegraph lost a libel action brought by Mr Galloway who was paid £150,000 in damages.

Detectives are studying the section of the report where Sir Philip referred to Mr Galloway's bank accounts which he had not seen. The report said: "I have not pressed for access to bank accounts . . . primarily because I believe that embarking on such action could take me into matters more properly within the jurisdiction of other agencies."
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Britain
Galloway suspended from House of Commons
2007-07-17
Garin Hovannisian & Alec Mouhibian, The Weekly Standard

EARLY THIS MORNING, a committee of the British House of Commons suspended the flamboyant* George Galloway, member from Bethnal Green and Bow, for 18 days for concealing the Iraqi funding of his "charity," the Mariam Appeal. Founded in the late 1990s to bring attention to the suffering of Iraqis under U.N. sanctions, the Appeal was the platform from which Galloway pursued his anti-West campaign. The committee found that

the Oil for Food Programme was used by the Iraqi government, with Mr. Galloway's connivance, to fund the campaigning activities of the Mariam Appeal. In acting as he did, Mr. Galloway breached the advocacy rule and damaged the reputation of the House.

Galloway was courting Saddam Hussein well before the dictator fell out of power and into fashion in radical leftist circles. "Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability," Galloway told the tyrant in 1994. "And I want you to know that we are with you until victory, until victory, until Jerusalem." . . .


*Remember the catsuit photos? "Flamboyant" ain't the half of it!
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Britain
Gorgeous George to be suspended from Commons over Iraq
2007-07-15
GEORGE GALLOWAY, the MP who campaigned against the Iraq war, is to be suspended from parliament over his links to the United Nations oil-for-food programme in Iraq.

The parliamentary standards watchdog will rule this week that Galloway failed properly to declare his links to a charitable appeal partially funded from money made by selling Iraqi oil under Saddam Hussein, according to a source close to the inquiry. The one-month suspension for Galloway, often referred to as “Gorgeous George”, is one of the most severe given to an MP.

In 1998 Galloway founded the Mariam Appeal, which campaigned for the lifting of sanctions on Iraq. The appeal, which paid Galloway’s wife and funded international travel for the MP, received almost £450,000 from Fawaz Zureikat, a Jordanian businessman who was also a trustee of the appeal. It subsequently emerged that more than half of this money came from the proceeds of Iraqi oil sales. An investigation by the American Senate alleged that the Mariam Appeal was used by the Iraqi regime to finance Galloway.

The Mariam Appeal, which raised more than £1.4m, has never filed any accounts and the parliamentary authorities have been unable to account for some of the expenditure.
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Britain
Galloway will not face police investigation on oil for food
2007-03-26
George Galloway will not face a criminal investigation by Scotland Yard into allegations he broke United Nations sanctions by taking oil money from Saddam Hussein, The Herald can reveal. The Metropolitan Police, after liaising with the Crown Prosecution Service, has dropped any idea of investigating claims of corruption against the 52-year-old anti-war Respect MP, or anyone else, and has handed the file back to the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).

It is thought it would be better for a single agency to investigate allegations involving the discredited UN oil-for-food (OFF) programme. While the SFO has decided to expand its £22m probe into alleged fraud concerning humanitarian aid contracts to take in oil contracts, it made clear Mr Galloway, who has consistently denied any wrongdoing, would not figure in investigations. A spokesman for the SFO said: "For us to get involved, it would have to involve a complex fraud inquiry. In relation to Mr Galloway, he does not come within the scope of our inquiry." He explained this was because the claims against the MP did not involve complex fraud - but corruption.

The SFO, however, did reveal that, following talks with Scotland Yard, its inquiry, the existence of which was exclusively revealed in The Herald last month, has now been "expanded to include not just the humanitarian contracts but oil contracts as well". No individuals were being investigated - only companies.

Last night, Mr Galloway, the MP for Bethnal Green and Bow in east London, was unavailable for comment. However, Ron Mackay, his spokesman, said the decision not to investigate the back bencher came as no surprise. "He's had no contact or e-mail, not a visit, not an inquiry by anyone in an official position - be it the SFO or Scotland Yard. It's a complete utter non-event," he said.

The former Glasgow MP will not be investigated by either Scotland Yard or the SFO, but Sir Philip Mawer, Westminster's parliamentary commissioner, is still looking into whether, in light of the OFF programme allegations, Mr Galloway breached any Commons rules. Furthermore, the Charity Commission is continuing its inquiry into the Mariam Appeal, the £1m political fund set up by the Respect leader, to see if it received any funds via the OFF programme and, if so, whether they were right and proper. It's thought the SFO will target those companies whose names appeared in the UN report of 2005, which accused various organisations of taking kickbacks under the OFF programme.
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Britain
Probe into British link to oil-for-food scandal
2007-02-12
Scotland Yard is in talks with prosecutors about launching a full criminal investigation into the United Nations (UN) oil-for-food scandal and its possible links to Britain.

For the past year, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has been looking into whether to launch its own inquiry on the back of two American-based reports which criticised the oil-for-food (OFF) programme for being riddled with corruption and mismanagement. Thanks to a promise of £22m funding by the Treasury it has now decided to investigate the humanitarian aspects'' of the OFF scheme.

The highest profile British figure mentioned in the US documents was George Galloway, leader of the anti-Iraq war Respect Party, over claims he received more than 18 million barrels of oil to fund his campaign against Iraq sanctions. In May 2005, the MP for Bethnal Green and Bow famously testified before the US Senate investigations sub-committee and vehemently denied any wrongdoing. He declared: "I have never seen a barrel of oil, never bought one, never sold one, and neither has anyone on my behalf."

The US-based investigations also detailed alleged banking evidence that Amineh Abu Zayyad, the back bencher's estranged wife, and the Mariam Appeal, his £1m political fund, received large sums from Saddam Hussein via under-the-counter oil allocations. Again, Mr Galloway forcefully denied the claims as has Ms Zayyad, a 40-year-old scientist and former lecturer at Glasgow University. She said: "I have never solicited or received from Iraq or anyone else any proceeds of any oil deals, either for myself or for my former husband." However, the general spotlight on the OFF programme appears undimmed.

Last night, the SFO revealed it had received a promise of £22m from the Treasury to launch a full-scale inquiry into allegations of corruption in relation to the provision of humanitarian services to Iraq under the OFF programme.

A SFO spokesman said the agency had, with the support of Attorney General Lord Goldsmith and thanks to the Treasury money, decided to "take on an investigation just a matter of days ago, looking at the OFF programme relating to humanitarian aspects". He explained this would consider allegations of "underlying fraud" in relation to contracts, say, for the building of bridges and the provision of medical supplies. The spokesman noted how the Volcker report had references to around 70 British organisations which were linked to the provision of humanitarian aid. However, he made clear the Mariam Appeal, currently the subject of an investigation by the Charity Commission, was not one of them.

The spokesman explained that the second part of the SFO's preliminary inquiries had now passed to the Metropolitan Police. "The Met are in discussion with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and are seeking their advice. We are considering a request to investigate the matter. We are not investigating at this time", a spokeswoman for Scotland Yard said.

She also revealed discussions with the CPS involved the 1977 Criminal Law Act and how it related to a potential breach of the UN sanctions. She highlighted two possible offences - "making funds available to the Iraqi regime without a licence granted by the Treasury" and "facilitating" the availability of such funds.

The spokeswoman would not say who made the request for the Met to consider a full investigation or what or who might be investigated. A CPS spokeswoman confirmed it was in contact with Scotland Yard about the OFF programme but stressed it "won't be discussing the nature of these discussions at this stage".
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Britain
Galloway faces new inquiry into Iraq charity
2005-12-22
LONDON - British MP and anti-Iraq war campaigner George Galloway is to face a fresh investigation into the funding of his campaign against UN sanctions in Iraq, a report said on Thursday. The Daily Telegraph said the Charity Commission, the regulatory body for not-for-profit organisations in England and Wales, had launched another probe into the now wound-up Mariam Appeal created by the former Labour MP in 1998.

The commission concluded last year that no funds for the appeal, which provided medical aid to Iraqi civilians, had been misused or acquired from improper sources. But its head of legal services said in May the commission would look at new information from a US Senate sub-committee, which has accused Galloway of taking illegal kickbacks from the former Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein.
I've been waiting for the hearing to be used in a productive way ...
In October, a probe into the UN’s now defunct oil-for-food programme in Iraq alleged that Galloway was allocated more than 18 million barrels of oil under the scandal-tainted scheme. The allocations -- vehemently denied by Galloway -- were allegedly made either directly in his name or that of his associate, Jordanian businessman Fawaz Zureikat, to support the Mariam Appeal against sanctions.

A spokesman for Galloway was quoted by the Telegraph as saying the fresh investigation was “a complete waste of time” and had been launched at Washington’s behest. The Mariam Appeal had been “entirely legitimate”, as were all donations, the spokesman told the newspaper, insisting that the Charity Commission would find nothing new.
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Britain
The rats begin to desert the HMS Galloway
2005-11-04
George Galloway's attempts to clear his name over the oil-for-food scandal suffered another setback yesterday when his spokesman confirmed that he had received payments from a businessman identified as a beneficiary of the scheme. Ron McKay said he had received $15,666 from Fawaz Zureikat, an associate of Mr Galloway, in August 2000.
Nice knife you have sticking out of your back there, George.
Mr McKay had previously questioned the allegation, levelled against him by US investigators, telling one newspaper that the payment did not "ring any bells". The former journalist has acted as a spokesman for Mr Galloway throughout the [investigation]. Earlier this week Mr Galloway was also named as a political beneficiary of the scheme by the independent committee investigating the scandal for the UN. The committee found that Mr Galloway and Mr Zureikat had between them been allocated 18 million barrels of oil. Mr Galloway has denied profiting from the scheme. Among the many accusations levelled by the independent inquiry committee led by former US Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker was that Mr Zureikat had paid $120,000 into Mr Galloway's wife's account in 2000. It was also alleged that the Mariam Appeal, which Mr Galloway chaired, received at least $446,000 in connection with several allocations granted under the oil-for-food programme. Yesterday Mr McKay said he had now checked his bank statements and was able to confirm he had received a payment from Mr Zureikat and $15,666 had been transferred into his personal account in August 2000.
"Oh, that bank transfer. I used to be a journalist. I'm not really good with numbers, you know."
He said the payment went into a personal account by mistake and that it was intended to be sent to a business account, into which it was later moved. "I've had many midnight trysts business dealings with Fawaz Zureikat over the years. He was a director of a company that we were in together," he said. "The payment was nothing to do with oil. I have not benefited from it. It was later channelled to Switzerland where it should have gone." And he said that his confirmation of the payment should not be seen as in any way corroborating the claims made against Mr Galloway. "I'm not going to be used as a stick to beat George Galloway with," he said.
"But I'll happily throw him under the bus."
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Britain
Gorgeous George hit by US criminal investigation
2005-10-31
George Galloway is under criminal investigation over allegations that he lied to the US Senate about his role in the Saddam Hussein oil-for-food bribery scandal, American prosecutors have disclosed. The controversial MP now faces the full weight of the US justice system. Scotland on Sunday can reveal that Galloway has been referred to the US Department of Justice, two federal prosecutors and to the district attorney in Manhattan, New York, over claims that he has committed perjury.

The Respect MP told senators under oath in May that neither he nor anyone on his behalf had benefited from the oil-for-food regime conducted by Saddam. Last week, however, two reports - one from the US Senate, the other from the Independent Inquiry Committee (IIC) of the United Nations - claimed his wife and a close friend working in Iraq had received oil funds granted by Saddam for Galloway. The chairman of the Senate Committee, Norm Coleman, sent a dossier containing both his evidence and that provided by the UN to prosecutors on Friday. As perjury is a felony in America, Galloway could face trial in front of a jury, and a prison sentence of up to five years.

They have also sent their report, with the findings by the IIC, to Sir Phillip Marr, the standards commissioner for the House of Commons, and to the Charity Commission for England and Wales. The Charities Commission has stated it wants to examine the claims that illegal Iraqi oil money was laundered through a charity - the Mariam Appeal - on which Galloway was a trustee. Galloway denies the appeal was operating as a charity.
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Home Front: Politix
Aziz Disputes Galloway
2005-10-26
WASHINGTON — An anti-war British lawmaker demanded that a Senate investigative panel charge him with perjury, responding to reports alleging he lied to Congress in his testimony about U.N. Oil-for-Food allocations.

George Galloway, who denied the allegations, said if charged, senators will have to face him in court and “put up or shut up" in their accusations that he gave false testimony when he said he did not receive allocations from former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

“It’s a very serious charge and I demand them to charge me with perjury right now,” Galloway said in London. “If they do, I’ll be on the next plane to the United States.”

Galloway, a member of the British Parliament, was called to testify in May before the Senate committee looking into the Oil-for-Food scandal. During his testimony, he called the committee “the mother of all smoke screens” and repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

Congressional investigators said Galloway could face charges of perjury, making false statements and obstruction. Each charge carries a penalty of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., in a follow-up report to the May hearings released Monday, detailed the allegations against Galloway and others.

Click here to read Coleman's report.

The report says investigators uncovered a money trail, citing documents that follow bank statements and records that prove Galloway received allocations from Saddam. As evidence, Coleman cites documents he says show that Galloway personally solicited and received oil allocations in 23 million barrels from 1999 to 2003, which could be sold for a profit.

“These are the documents; they speak for themselves,” Coleman told FOX News. “The records, the evidence says that he was paid off by Saddam Hussein.”

Coleman, chairman of the subcommittee, said the documents show that Mariam Appeal, a political organization that Galloway established in 1998 to help a 4-year-old Iraqi girl with leukemia, and Galloway's wife, Amineh Abu-Zayyad, received about $600,000 from the oil allocations.

The documents follow how oil allocations were given to a close friend of Galloway and later deposited into accounts of the British lawmaker.

The Senate panel’s report also accuses Fawaz Zureikat (search), a Jordanian businessman and friend of Galloway, of funneling money from the Oil-for-Food program to Abu-Zayyad and Mariam Appeal.

Senate investigators confirmed their evidence through interviews with Galloway’s friend and former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz and former Iraqi Vice President Taha Yasin Ramadan.

Other congressional committees are reviewing allegations that Hussein used the $64 billion Oil-for-Food program to help rally international opposition to U.N. sanctions against Iraq put into place after Saddam’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

FOX News' Eric Shawn and Melissa Drosjack and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Fifth Column
Galloway faces new Iraq charges
2005-10-25
As was discussed here during Galloway's Senate appearance, the whole point was to get to perjure himself under oath. Now comes the evidence.
Maverick British lawmaker George Galloway solicited and received nearly $600,000 in profits for himself and a charity he ran from secret deals under the Iraq oil-for-food program, Senate investigators charged yesterday.

The new charges, released by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs permanent subcommittee on investigations, come five months after Mr. Galloway, a fierce critic of U.S. policy in Iraq, emphatically denied under oath to the panel that he had taken bribes from Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein or participated in any Iraq oil deals.

Subcommittee Chairman Sen. Norm Coleman, Minnesota Republican, said the new findings "clearly demonstrate that the testimony given by Mr. Galloway in May was false and misleading." "We heard a lot of bombast at that hearing, but Mr. Galloway has been anything but straight with Congress or with the American people," Mr. Coleman told reporters.

The outspoken British lawmaker, who was expelled from the ruling Labor Party for his criticisms of Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Iraq war, denied the charges in written responses to the new report.

The new findings were based in part on interviews with three senior officials under Saddam, including Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, as well as on bank account records. The evidence details what investigators said were direct transfers of oil-for-food profits to bank accounts controlled by Mr. Galloway's wife and by the Mariam Appeal, a charity and political organization founded by Mr. Galloway.

Among the subcommittee's findings:
• Mr. Galloway personally asked for and received from Mr. Aziz and others eight allocations from 1999 to 2003 for the rights to 23 million barrels of oil.

• Amineh Abu-Zayyad, Mr. Galloway's wife, received $150,000 in the summer of 2000 from Fawaz Zureikat, the Jordanian businessman Mr. Galloway acknowledges was his business representative in Baghdad.

• The Mariam Appeal was given at least $446,000 in bank transfers from Mr. Zureikat. These transfers and the one to Mrs. Abu-Zayyad came almost immediately after Mr. Zureikat was paid commissions for deals he brokered under the oil-for-food program.

• Two unidentified oil traders interviewed by the subcommittee said Mr. Zureikat met with them in summer 2000 and that it was made clear to them that the Jordanian was marketing Iraqi oil on Mr. Galloway's behalf. The deal fell through.
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Home Front: WoT
Galloway accused of Senate 'lies'
2005-10-25
The US Senate committee which accused MP George Galloway of receiving oil money from Saddam Hussein has accused him of lying under oath.
Mr Galloway gave evidence to a Washington hearing in May, where he ridiculed its claims. Now the senators claim they have fresh evidence linking the Respect MP and his wife to Iraq's oil-for-food programme.
Mr Galloway said: "I did not lie under oath in front of the senate committee." His wife has previously issued denials.
"I did not have sex with, oh, sorry. Wrong committee."
Mr Galloway told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "The specific allegation against me is that I lied under oath in front of a senate committee. "In this case the remedy is clear - they must charge me with perjury and I am ready to fly to the US today, if necessary, to face such a charge because it is simply false."

The committee says it has seen bank records linking Mr Galloway and his wife Dr Amineh Abu-Zayyad with Iraqi government vouchers. Chairman Norm Coleman said documents it had uncovered were "the smoking gun". Mr Coleman claimed that Mr Galloway had "been anything but straight" with the committee.

But the Bethnal Green and Bow MP launched an attack on senate investigators. He said: "They have been cavalier with any idea of process and justice so far, but I am still willing to go to the US and I am still willing to face any charge of perjury before the senate committee." However, in regards to the claims levelled at his estranged wife, Mr Galloway said he had "absolutely no idea" about her alleged business dealings. "I am not responsible for my wife," he said.
The MP, who said he was not in a position to answer questions on her behalf, went on: "I am bemused at the news that I see on the front of the newspapers."

Mr Galloway appeared before a US Senate committee on 17 May. The former Labour MP travelled to Washington after senators accused him of receiving credit to buy Iraqi oil. One of the main allegations raised by the senate sub-committee was that Mr Galloway received oil allocations with the assistance of Fawaz Zureikat. Mr Zureikat, who was chairman of the Mariam Appeal set up by Mr Galloway to help a four-year-old Iraqi girl with leukaemia, has strongly denied making any arrangements linked to oil sales on behalf of the MP.

BBC Washington correspondent Justin Webb said the development meant the senators' confrontation with Mr Galloway had "reached a new and more serious stage". Mr Galloway has always denied funds from the sale of Iraqi oil were funnelled through the Mariam Appeal. In December, Mr Galloway won £150,000 in libel damages from the Daily Telegraph over its separate claims he had received money from Saddam's regime. The paper is currently awaiting the result of its appeal against that ruling.
An entertaining second round to come ??
Get the popcorn in...
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