The allegations against George Galloway

By ROBERT VERKAIK in LONDON

Q: What are the allegations against George Galloway MP?

A: The Labour MP for Glasgow Kelvin is accused of profiting by more than £375,000 ($1.06 million) a year from a secret deal with Iraq over oil and food contracts.

The Daily Telegraph claimed yesterday to have uncovered documents which show that Mr Galloway met a member of the Iraqi secret services in Baghdad on Boxing Day 1999.

The key document states that during this meeting Mr Galloway is said to have asked for an increase to the £375,000 a year worth of oil revenues he is alleged to have already been receiving from the Iraqi government.

In return, it is alleged, Mr Galloway promised to continue his work in support of the Iraqi regime.

Under a deal struck with Tariq Aziz (the former Iraqi deputy prime minister) the MP is said to have "obtained" three million barrels of oil every six months of which his share was between 10 and 15 cents per barrel.

The paper calculates this to amount to £375,000 a year.


Q: Was Mr Galloway in Baghdad at the time of the alleged meeting?

A: On this question the Labour MP is equivocal.

Although he denies that such a meeting ever took place, he told the Telegraph he could not remember if he was in Iraq during Christmas 1999. He says he has spent at least one Christmas in Baghdad but does not specify the year.

He goes on to deny ever meeting a member of the Iraqi secret services but qualifies this by suggesting that if he had he done so it would have been without his knowledge.


Q: What does Mr Galloway say about this oil money?

A: Although he claims he has "never seen a barrel of oil, let alone owned, bought or sold one" this does not answer the central question about whether or not he has benefited from the oil.

He could have received a commission without necessarily having any direct dealings with the purchase or sale of oil.

Later he tells the newspaper: "I have never solicited nor received money from Iraq for our campaign against war and sanctions." But this still leaves open the question as to whether he has personally benefited from any oil money.

And the denial appears to depend on whether "soliciting" includes a more informal or indirect request for commercial help for another purpose.


Q: If the documents, including a letter written by the Iraqi agent to Saddam Hussein, are genuine, could the money Mr Galloway was allegedly demanding have been meant for a charitable purpose?

A: Mr Galloway founded a campaign organisation, the Mariam Appeal, which he began in 1998 when he was raising funds to help a young Iraqi girl suffering from leukaemia receive treatment in Britain.

The fund was never granted charitable status in the UK and therefore its accounts have never been made fully available for public scrutiny.

Although the medical fund has now been wound up, the name of the organisation is still used in support of his campaign against UN sanctions against Iraq.

But Mr Galloway, who says all the incriminating documents are forgeries, is categorical that "I have never asked Iraq for money to help our campaign. Our campaign was funded by private donations and governmental donations friendly to Britain and the United States." He also says that he has never asked anyone in the Iraqi regime for money "either directly or indirectly." But the documents published by the newspaper specifically allege a personal benefit to Mr Galloway.

The Iraqi agent's memo says that the "oil contracts and special and exceptional commercial opportunities" should provide the Labour backbencher with a "financial income under commercial cover without being connected to him directly."


Q: What is the alleged involvement of Fawaz Abdullah Zureikat, a Jordanian businessman described as a key figure in the alleged negotiations between the Iraqi regime and the MP?

A: One of the letters found by the newspaper is alleged to have been written by Mr Galloway, who describes Mr Zureikat as "my representative in Baghdad on all matters concerning my work with the Mariam Appeal or the Emergency Committee in Iraq….." Mr Zureikat is alleged to have told the Iraqi spy that the name of Mr Galloway or his Palestinian wife "should not be mentioned." Mr Galloway tells the Telegraph that Mr Zureikat, 53, is a "politically committed person who is politically committed to lifting the embargo and opposing the war.

If you are asking me did I ask him to account for donations made to our work, no I didn't." This last answer allows Mr Galloway to raise the possibility that Mr Zureikat, whose family is loyal to Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party, has been acting without the Glasgow MP's authority.


Q: Could the documents be forgeries or part of a plot in which Mr Galloway is the victim rather than the chief architect?

A: There is not enough information available to show that this is the case.

But questions remain unanswered. The Daily Telegraph's account of how it obtained the papers makes no mention of how the reporter and his translator came to be in the office of Iraq's foreign minister.

It is also perhaps odd that so much of the material found in the foreign ministry was "burned to a cinder" and yet the Galloway documents were saved.

Who is the Iraqi agent? The newspaper makes no attempt to identify the Iraqi spy, whose signature it says is illegible but whose account is central to the story.

There must always be a question mark about the veracity of information supplied by Iraqi agents who answer directly to Saddam Hussein.

Many would have felt the need to justify their existence by exaggerating the importance of the intelligence they had gathered.

Others may have worked under threats to themselves and to their families.

One explanation is that the agent was on the take and was using Mr Galloway to siphon funds from the oil-for-food programme and other commercial contracts connected with the Iraqi regime.


Q: Does Galloway have a lifestyle which requires funding of more than £375,000 a year?

A: The MP is paid £70,000 ($198,000) for a newspaper column he writes for the Mail on Sunday and receives an MP's salary.

He owns a house in south London and a holiday home in Portugal.

The House of Commons members' register shows that he is also a paid director of Finjan Ltd, a media company.

In the 1980s he was accused of running up extravagant expenses while travelling around the world while he was general secretary of the charity War on Want.

He strenuously denied any wrongdoing, and although he was cleared by an independent auditor of misusing funds, he later repaid £1,720 ($4868) in disputed expenses.

- INDEPENDENT

Herald Feature: Iraq