Galloway to face US senate over Iraqi oil accusation

BRITISH MP George Galloway is to appear before a US Senate committee to defend himself against accusations that he received vouchers for 20 million 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 MP, who was re-elected to parliament last week in Bethnal Green and Bow running for his new Respect party, which unites far left and Islamist groups, described the committee as a "lickspittle Republican committee, acting on the wishes of George Bush".

Mr Galloway was expelled from the British Labour party after calling on troops to disobey orders in Iraq.

Former French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua also denied accusations that he had been allocated 11 millions of barrels of Iraqi oil.

Mr Galloway called the claim "patently absurd".

Mr Pasqua said he has denied having "received any benefit whatsoever in whatever form from the authorities or the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein".

The committee, citing contracts, letters and interviews, set out evidence yesterday to back claims that Mr Galloway and Mr Pasqua accepted oil allocations under the UN oil-for-food programme.

"This report exposes how Saddam Hussein turned the oil-for-food programme on its head and used the programme to reward his political allies like Pasqua and Galloway," Senator Norm Coleman, chairman of the Senate's permanent subcommittee on investigations, said yesterday.

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. But Saddam manipulated the programme to earn illegal revenues and peddle influence, by awarding former government officials, activists, UN officials and journalists vouchers for Iraqi oil that could then be resold at a profit.

The allegations against the pair, both outspoken opponents of UN sanctions against Iraq in the 1990s, have been made before, including in a report in October by US arms inspector Charles Duelfer.

But the report provided several new details. It also included information from interviews with former high-ranking officials, including former foreign minister Tariq Aziz and former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan.

Mr Galloway said the committee had done "a political hatchet job".

He also issued a statement saying he "never traded in a barrel of oil, or any vouchers for it."

He added: "And no one has acted on my behalf, trading in oil - Middle Eastern, olive, patchouli or any other - or in vouchers, whatever they are."

However, a committee spokesman rejected Mr Galloway's claims that he had written and emailed "repeatedly" asking for the opportunity to appear.

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".

Mr Coleman also said he 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. The Mariam Appeal was founded to help four-year-old Mariam Hamza.

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.