Some more of Saddam’s friends have been found in Britian this time, read about it here here.
GEORGE GALLOWAY, the MP who taunted the Prime Minister over Iraq after scoring an upset victory in the election, faced fresh accusations last night that he had received oil allocations from the Saddam Hussein regime and may have used his Mariam Appeal charity to conceal payments.
A US Senate committee published evidence from Iraqi documents and interviews with Iraqi officials that the former Labour MP, re-elected to Parliament for his Respect party, received allocations for millions of barrels of oil.
Taha Yassin Ramadan, the ousted Vice-President of Iraq, told Senate investigators last month that Mr Galloway had been granted the oil allocations because of his opinions about Iraq and because he wanted to lift the embargo against the country. Another Saddam-era official told US Treasury Department officials in 2003 that a British MP, identified as Mr Galloway, benefited tremendously from the illegal trade of oil by Iraq?.
This was the guys who compared our liberation of Iraq with the nazi occupation of france. All this while he was taking bribes by one of the worst dictators in the world.
This from American Future:
George Galloway, as a Member of the British Parliament, was an outspoken supporter of Saddam Hussein. Galloway told the Iraqi dictator: ?I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability.? Similarly, as a guest speaker at an annual international conference in May 2001 on lifting the sanctions against Iraq that was hosted by former Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, Galloway described Iraq as ?the center of a crusade against globalization backed by the U. S.? Galloway later called Mr. Aziz, ?my dear, dear friend.?
After the liberation of Iraq by the coalition led by the United States and the United Kingdom, Galloway compared the presence of U.S. and U.K. troops in Iraq with the Nazi occupation of France during World War II, and insisted that Iraqi insurgents had ?a legal and moral right to resist foreign occupiers of their country.? In October 2004, Galloway was expelled from the Labour Party because of his outspoken comments concerning the Iraq war.
After his expulsion from the Labour Party, Galloway founded the Respect party, an acronym for ?Respect, Equality, Socialism, Peace, Environment, Community, Trade Unionism.? Respect espouses a belief that ?there is an alternative to imperialist war, unfettered global capital, and the rule of the market.? On May 5, 2005, Galloway was re?elected to Parliament.
In 1998, Galloway established and served as the first Chairman of a foundation designed to help Mariam Hamze, a 4-year old Iraqi girl suffering from leukemia. Initially, Galloway declared that funds raised by the organization, called the Mariam Appeal, would be used to pay for the girl?s treatment in the U.K. and ?to demand the lifting of the sanctions on Iraq.? Galloway also indicated that, once Mariam?s treatment was funded, excess donations would be directed to medical aid for Iraqi children. Later, Galloway stated that the foundation was ?a political campaign that was involved in a life-or-death struggle against the might of the British and American State.?
In April 2003, the Charity Commission of England and Wales launched an investigation into the finances of the Mariam Appeal. Galloway indicated that the Appeal raised nearly 1 million pounds over four years. Of that sum, the United Arab Emirates allegedly contributed 500,000 pounds, a Saudi Arabia donor gave 100,000 pounds, and “the bulk of the rest” came from Fawaz Zureikat, a Jordanian businessman. Galloway insisted that Mariam?s Appeal ?received no money from Iraq.? The Commission?s investigation lasted for more than one year, and it ultimately determined that the Mariam Appeal should have been registered as a charity. The report also stated that: ?Some of the activities of the Appeal were political by nature, in particular a campaign to end the sanctions against Iraq.? It also noted that the ?books and records? of the Appeal had been taken out of England and moved to Amman, Jordan. The Commission also found that, although certain salary payments to Appeal employees were unauthorized, there was no evidence of bad faith on the part of the Appeal?s Executive Committee. According to evidence from the Ministry of Oil, both Zureikat and Galloway?s Mariam Appeal were involved in the oil allocations granted Galloway.
Another one bites the dust thankfully.
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