Galloway to answer allegations
George Galloway is set to visit Washington to appear in front of a Senate committee that claimed he had been granted lucrative oil allocations by Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.
The invitation came after committee chairman Senator Norm Coleman rejected Mr Galloway’s claims that his requests to appear in front of the committee had been ignored.
Mr Coleman’s office said: “Contrary to his assertions, at no time did Mr Galloway contact the permanent subcommittee on investigations by any means, including but not limited to telephone, fax, e-mail, letter, Morse code or carrier pigeon.”
Mr Galloway has said he will take up the invitation – dependant on visas and flights.
Former French minister Charles Pasqua is also named in the report, which claims both men were handed the right to buy oil under the UN’s oil-for-food scheme.
But there is no evidence that either man received money from ill-gotten gains and both men deny involvement and any wrongdoing.
Mr Galloway last night said: “I have never traded in a barrel of oil.
“This is a lickspittle Republican committee, acting on the wishes of George W Bush.”
He added that he had written and emailed the committee asking for a chance to appear and answer the allegations but had received no reply.
The report alleges Mr Pasqua gained the right to buy 11 million barrels of oil, with Mr Galloway given a 20 million share. It also suggests that Mr Galloway may have used his Mariam Appeal charity to hide payments, saying “some evidence indicates that Galloway appeared to use a charity for children’s leukaemia to conceal payments associated with at least one such allocation.”
Mr Galloway has insisted the allegations were without foundation: “For the 500th time, I have never seen a barrel of oil, never owned one, never bought one, never sold one, and neither has anyone on my behalf.”
Mr Pasqua has also denied any wrongdoing.
But the committee says it has “significant evidence” for its allegations, based on interviews with former regime officials and documents from the Iraqi ministry of oil.
The UN oil-for-food programme was set up in 1996 and designed to provide a legal way for Iraq to raise revenue to buy medicines and food for the Iraqi people. Iraq had been prevented from selling its oil on the open market under sanctions imposed on the country in the aftermath of its invasion of Kuwait.
But in recent years numerous allegations of corruption in the programme have emerged.
Last year Mr Galloway won a High Court libel action against the Daily Telegraph after it had made similar allegations. The US Senate committee though says that its conclusions are based on different documents from those used by the Telegraph .
