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Galloway Denies Oil Charges, Blasts US Policies
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Galloway
dismissed the hearing as “the mother of all smokescreens,”
saying it deflected attention from US missteps in Iraq. (Reuters)
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WASHINGTON,
May 17, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - British anti-war
lawmaker George Galloway on Tuesday, May 17, vehemently denied claims
of receiving Iraqi oil kickbacks, turning a Congress hearing into a
trial of US foreign policy.
“I
am not now, nor have I ever been, an oil trader, and neither has
anyone on my behalf,” Galloway emphatically told a US congressional
panel investigating the scandal-plagued UN-run Oil-for-Food program,
reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“I
have never seen a barrel of oil, owned one, bought one, sold one, and
neither has anybody on my behalf,” added the maverick British
legislator.
Far
from showing the usual deference of witnesses before Congress, he
defiantly told the Senate committee its evidence against him was
“utterly unsubstantiated and false.”
He
went on: “You have nothing on me ... other than my name on lists ...
many of which have been drawn up after the installation of your puppet
government in Baghdad”.
Galloway
said the biggest sanctions busters were American companies “with the
connivance” of the US administration.
The
congressional committee said last week it had “detailed evidence”
that Saddam Hussein’s regime gave 20 million barrels of oil in
allocations to Galloway.
Allegations
of wrongdoing in the 64-billion-dollar program, which was in operation
between 1996 and 2003, have led to repeated calls for the resignation
of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
The
program was intended to allow UN-supervised sales of Iraqi oil to buy
medicines and other essential supplies for the Iraqi population to
alleviate the impact of international sanctions against the regime.
Anti-Saddam
The
pugnacious British politician also refuted claims of being an avid
supporter of Saddam, asserting he has been an active opponent of the
regime.
“I
have a rather better record of opposition to Saddam Hussein than you
do and than any member of the British or American governments do.”
He
went on: “I was an opponent of Saddam Hussein at a time when British
and American governments and businessmen were selling him guns and
gas”.
Galloway
said he had met Saddam on two occasions - the same number of times as
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
“The
difference is Donald Rumsfeld met him to sell him guns and maps - the
better to target those guns. I met him to try to bring about an end to
sanctions, suffering and war,” he said.
Galloway,
who repeated a complaint that US lawmakers did not contact him to
corroborate the allegations against him, said he has been targeted for
his outspoken opposition to the Iraq war.
He
has accused British Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George
W. Bush of lying to the armed forces about the likely length of the
war.
During
the run-up to the US-led invasion of Iraq, Galloway also exhorted the
Arab public opinion to stand up before another puppet president or
corrupt king is installed in Iraq.
The
flamboyant British politician has fought a long campaign against
sanctions on Iraq, and was an adamant opponent of the 1991 Gulf War
and the military action in Afghanistan.
Mother
of All Smokescreens
Galloway,
50, also dismissed the hearing as “the mother of all
smokescreens,” saying it deflected attention from US missteps in
Iraq.
He
bluntly confronted the Republican chairman of the committee, Sen. Norm
Coleman of Minnesota, with harshest remarks concerned Coleman's
support for the US-led invasion of Iraq.
“Now
I know that standards have slipped over the last few years in
Washington, but for a lawyer, you are remarkably cavalier with any
idea of justice,” Galloway said.
He
also reminded the American lawmakers that Washington’s many
allegations for invading Iraq, starting with its possession of weapons
of mass destruction to its links to Al-Qaeda and involvement in the
9/11 attacks, were “a pack of lies”.
“Senator,
in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you
turned out to be wrong,” he pointedly told Coleman, whom he labeled
a “neo-con, pro-war hawk.”
A
US presidential report recently revealed that Washington was “dead
wrong” on Iraq’s alleged WMDs.
Galloway,
who set up his own left-wing Respect Party after being expelled from
the Labour Party of Prime Minister Tony Blair over the Iraq war, won
libel damages from a British newspaper last year after it made similar
claims.
On
Thursday, December 2, 2004, he got £ 150,000 dollars in damages after
winning a libel case against the Daily Telegraph over
unverified claims of being on Saddam’s payroll.
Galloway
had also received “substantial” damages and a public
apology over an article in the Christian Science
Monitor that alleged he accepted money from Saddam.
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