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U.S. Report Claims: Galloway Given 18m Barrels Of Oil From Saddam:
By David Usborne and Kim Sengupta
10/28/05 "The
Independent" -- -- George Galloway faces fresh
allegations of benefiting from Saddam Hussein's regime in a report
into corruption in the United Nation's oil-for-food programme for
Iraq.
An independent investigation by the former US Federal Reserve
chairman Paul Volcker has charged that the MP received an allocation
of 18 million barrels of oil from the regime. It also claims that
$120,000 (£67,000) in revenues from oil sales was paid into the bank
account of Mr Galloway's estranged wife.
The money allegedly paid to Amineh Abu Zayyad is a separate sum from
the $150,000 that another investigation, by the US Senate, claimed
she had received from oil sales.
As Mr Volcker's report was published in New York yesterday, the
former government minister Denis MacShane demanded a joint committee
of the House of Commons and US Congress should inquire into the
"serious allegations" against Mr Galloway.
Mr MacShane, who compared the Respect Party MP for Bethnal Green and
Bow to wartime traitor and Nazi propagandist Lord Haw-Haw,
maintained that the reputation of the British parliament was at risk
if it failed to carry out the investigation.
Mr Volcker refused to comment on whether the alleged transactions
detailed in his report could be the basis for legal or disciplinary
action against Mr Galloway.
However, he appeared to suggest that his investigation has more
material regarding Mr Galloway which has not been published. "If the
legal authorities in Britain want to discuss with us what other
evidence we may have, that may not be in the report, then we would
be prepared to co-operate", said Mr Volcker.
The 500-page document, the final in a series of damning reports by
Mr Volcker into the oil-for-food programme for Iraq while it was
under UN sanctions, devotes nine pages to Mr Galloway and his links
with Iraq.
It states that payments of $445,000 were channelled through the "Mariam
Appeal", which Mr Galloway had set up for Iraqi leukaemia victims,
and which also became a platform for a campaign against sanctions.
The payments were made by Fawaz Zureikat, a wealthy Jordanian
businessman who is named as being a key player in negotiating Iraqi
oil allocations for Mr Galloway.
The report claims: " ... a total of over 18 million barrels of oil
were allocated either directly in the name of George Galloway, a
member of British Parliament, or in the name of one of his
associates, Fawaz Abdullah Zureikat, to support Mr Galloway's
campaign against sanctions ... Mr Zureikat received commissions for
handling the sale of approximately 11 million barrels that were
allocated in Mr Galloway's name." The report also claims an
Iraqi-born British businessman, Burhan al-Chalabi, deposited "a
portion of the profits from this allocation into an account of Mr
Galloway's wife, Amineh Naji Daoud Abu Zayyad, who was also involved
with the Mariam Appeal." Added to the claims made by the US Senate
inquiry, this means that $270,000 of oil-related money had allegedly
ended up in Dr Abu Zayyad's account.
Augusto Giangrandi, a trader in oil, claimed to Mr Volcker's
investigators that he had held informal meetings with Mr Galloway in
Baghdad, during which the MP had "asked him to explain how the oil
allocation process worked financially and how commissions were
negotiated".
Mr Giangrandi said that an Iraqi agent in his employ had told him
that "oil had been given to 'Abu Mariam' [as Mr Galloway was known]
and Fawaz Zureikat was acting as his representative". The report
further holds that: "Iraq officials identified Mr Zureikat as acting
on Mr Galloway's behalf to conduct the oil transactions in Baghdad."
However, Mr Volcker has not produced any evidence that any money was
paid directly into accounts held by Mr Galloway. The report also
acknowledges that "both Mr Galloway and Mr Zureikat have denied that
Mr Galloway was involved in obtaining the oil allocations or
receiving any proceeds from the oil sales".
Mr Galloway accused the report of being "untrue, unjust, misleading
and based on the same falsehood that has been levelled against me by
the same sources over the past two and a half years".
Mr Galloway said last night: "How many times must I repeat this;
I've never had a penny through oil deals and no one has produced a
shred of evidence that I have.
"I have never asked anyone to act for me, as Fawaz Zureikat, who is
alleged to be my intermediary, has said repeatedly. This is all a
tissue of lies and a lie doesn't become a truth through repetition."
In a letter to the investigation, Mr Galloway said: " I had nothing
to do with any oil deals done by Mr Fawaz Zureikat or anyone else.
He and any other company involved were trading on their own behalf
and not on mine. It follows I have no responsibility for any of
these transactions."
Turning to the claims against "my soon to be ex-wife Dr Amineh
Abu-Zayyad", Mr Galloway said: "I cannot speak on her behalf - the
divorce proceedings are under way and she is now undergoing
treatment for cancer - but I have ascertained that you have at no
time made any attempt to contact her, to ask her a single question
about the allegations ...
"I should inform you that Dr Abu-Zayyad says she has never received
$120,000 from Dr Burhan Chalabi or anyone else."
© 2005 Independent News & Media (UK) Ltd.
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