George Galloway at The Senate - 2005-05-17

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Galloway to give evidence in oil-for-food row
12 May 2005
dailymail.co.uk

Former Labour MP George Galloway will appear before a US Senate committee to defend himself against accusations that he received vouchers for millions of barrels of oil from Saddam Hussein. His spokesman quoted him today as saying: "Book the flights, let's go, let's give them both barrels." He quickly added: "That's guns, not oil."

The investigative committee invited Mr Galloway to appear at its May 17 hearing, entitled "Oil For Influence: How Saddam Used Oil to Reward Politicians and Terrorist Entities Under the United Nations Oil-for-Food Programme". Committee chairman Norm Coleman said: "The hearing will begin promptly at 9.30am and there will be a witness chair and microphone available for Mr Galloway's use."

A committee spokesman rejected the MP's claims that he had written and emailed "repeatedly" asking for the opportunity to appear and to provide evidence to rebut their assumptions. He said that "at no time" did he contact them by any means, "including but not limited to telephone, fax, email, letter, Morse code or carrier pigeon".

The committee has cited several documents and interviews with former Iraqi leaders which it alleged showed Mr Galloway accepted oil vouchers under the oil-for-food programme. Mr Galloway has branded the allegations "absurd", and said he had never traded, or even seen, a barrel of oil in his life. His spokesman said that assuming they could get visas and flights in time, he fully intended to take up the invitation to appear at the hearing next Tuesday. "We are going there to confront the Joe McCarthy committee," he said.

Oil allegations
Ex-Iraqi vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan gave testimony to the committee which stated Mr Galloway received the oil "because of his opinions about Iraq". According to the report, the MP received allocations for up to 20 million barrels from 2000 to 2003. Senator Coleman also said it had uncovered new evidence which suggested a children's leukaemia fund set up by Mr Galloway was used to conceal the transfer of three million barrels of oil. The Mariam Appeal was the charity the ex-Glasgow Kelvin MP founded to help four-year-old girl Mariam Hamza.

The MP, who was re-elected to parliament last week in Bethnal Green and Bow running for his own Respect party, described the Senate committee as a "lickspittle Republican committee, acting on the wishes of George Bush". He claimed he had never even heard of one of the companies he is linked to in the report, Aredio Petroleum, and had certainly had no dealings with them. He said the other company, Middle East Advanced Semiconductors, was owned by Fawaz Zureikat, who was chairman of the Mariam Appeal.

"It is well-known that Mr Zureikat traded with Iraq but he did not do so on my behalf," Mr Galloway said. "I have not received a penny piece or any oil voucher from Iraq, directly or indirectly. You would have thought that natural justice would have demanded that these allegations would have must have been put to me, but they haven't been. Senator Joseph McCarthy would have proud of this committee."

He told BBC Breakfast he wrote to the committee 11 months ago asking to speak but heard nothing. "They did not ask me a single question, they did not write to me, they have not spoken to me and they know nothing about me," he said. Speaking by telephone from Portugal, he added: "Don't you think the British security services would have known I, George Galloway MP, was becoming a billionaire trading in oil and don't you think if they did, they would not have told anybody?"

'Old story'
Mr Zureikat said it was an "old story without a shred of truth to it" and claimed there was no connection between him and his company and George Galloway. "He certainly did not receive any money or benefits from me," he said, in a statement issued through Mr Galloway's party press office. "Our link is the Mariam Appeal and anti-sanctions activities. And like Mr Galloway, I have never been approached by this committee to tell them the truth and put an end to these slanderous allegations."

At his monthly Downing Street press conference, Prime Minister Tony Blair played down the prospect of an investigation by the UK authorities into the allegations against Mr Galloway. "We have got no plans to do that. It depends what emerges but I don't feel in a position to comment on it particularly because I haven't analysed the evidence myself," he said.

The UN-backed oil-for-food scheme enabled Saddam to export oil to pay for essential humanitarian goods to help the Iraqi people cope with UN sanctions imposed in 1991. The regime could not legally sell its oil for cash. Saddam sold the vouchers at below market prices to favoured parties, who were able to sell them on at a profit. The senate committee also alleged that former French interior minister Charles Pasqua received allocations for 11 million barrels in oil.

In December last year Mr Galloway won a libel action against the Daily Telegraph over claims relating to the oil-for-food programme. Last month the newspaper won permission to appeal against the ruling to pay £150,000 damages and £1.2 million in costs.

I'm posting this again as I'm sorting the features option in the archive pages. It's the highest quality streaming version that's available.

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stream updated with a full length version (with the introductory segment removed).

Youtube have given me unlimited-length video uploads again, so I'll try to get a few more of these specials sorted.

[joepiano]

This appearance by George Galloway at the US Senate should be studied for many generations to come...everything one needs to know about not getting into wars for resources is here, and no one who watches this should ever find a reason to doubt who was right about the negatives about the 'west' getting into this terrible war in Iraq...GG was so right, and so well spoken, and so courageous, that there should be a special place in heaven just for him...forever!

Thanks for updating this Faceless!