[A-List] Fw: George Galloway

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

>From Ian Willmore via Marxmail:


It is now possible to state with some certainty what lies behind the George
Galloway
story.

For those on your list who have not followed it, Scottish left MP Galloway,
a prominent
critic of the invasion of Iraq, has been turned over by the Daily Telegraph
newspaper,
which allegedly found documents in Baghdad stating that he had received
funds from
Saddam's regime.

The facts seem to show that this is neither the "CIA stitch-up" suggested by
naive
leftists nor the "treachery" alleged by the absurd Charles Moore, editor of
the Daily
Telegraph. Much of the truth was in fact admitted by Galloway himself to
yesterday's BBC
Newnight Programme.

None of the following facts are disputed:

1.    Galloway set up an organisation called the Mariam Appeal (MA), named
after an eight
year old Iraqi child suffering from leukemia. This was not in fact a charity
but a
political campaign group.
2.    Galloway has not published accounts for MA but it is known that it
paid for, inter
alia, a number of his political trips to the Middle East, some of which
concerned protests
against sanctions on Iraq. Galloway likes a good hotel - he was previously
involved in
controversy over expenses when running the UK aid campaign group War on
Want.
3.    In the past, the House of Commons Ethics Committee (yes it does
exist!) has
criticised the opacity of the MA.
4.    It is known that MA gets much of its money from three sources, the
Saudi Government,
the UAE Government, and Mr Fawaz Zureikat. Zureikat is registered to trade
in the UN oil
for food programme in Iraq. Galloway supplied Zureikat with a letter
authorising him to
act as Galloway's business agent in Iraq.
5.    Zureikat is now Chair of the MA, and has donated large sums to it in
the past -
Galloway has estimated at least £200,000 over four years.

My analysis is as follows:

1.    Mr Zureikat has close ties to the Iraqi regime. He has certainly been
involved in
setting up trips by Galloway to Baghdad in the past, and other Iraq-related
campaign
activities undertaken by the MP.
2.    Mr Zureikat almost certainly has ties to Iraqi intelligence. A copy of
Galloway's
letter of comfort (see point 4 above) was found in the Baghdad file. I guess
he offered
Galloway to the Iraqi regime as an "agent of influence", to borrow an old
KGB term.
Galloway almost certainly knew nothing of this - I find his amazement at the
Telegraph's
revelations quite credible. However, Galloway did know that Zureikat was
dealing with the
regime and that some of the resulting money was coming back to MA
3.    Iraqi intelligence knowingly funded Zureikat, probably to the tune of
£375,000 a
year or thereabouts, as suggested by the Telegraph, using oil for food
revenues. They did
this believing they were funding Galloway's political activity.
4.    The discrepancy between the sums in the Telegraph report and the sums
admitted as MA
income by Galloway may be explained by (a) vagueness about figures on both
sides, and (b)
a large amount of cash sticking to the person of Mr Zureikat.
5.    Galloway derived no personal benefit from the Iraqi cash, unless you
count stays in
Baghdad hotels and the chance to spend Xmas with Tariq Aziz (which must have
been a bunch
of fun).
6.    But if you take money from dodgy regimes, and from businessmen who
deal with them,
you cannot expect to escape censure when these things are discovered.
Galloway was at
least one step too close to the Iraqi regime, and indeed to the equally
nasty Saudi regime
and the more benign but hardly progressive rulers of the UAE.
7.    Galloway has hubris written on his forehead in letters a foot high.
But his nemesis
may discredit not only him but the UK peace movement as well. Grrrr.

Ian Willmore
23rd April 2003