'Saddam did not fund me'

2003-04-22 10:40

London - Maverick British Labour MP George Galloway denied on Tuesday accusations from the Daily Telegraph newspaper that he received hundreds of thousands of pounds from Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq.

The Daily Telegraph said on Tuesday that a confidential memorandum sent to Saddam by his head of intelligence showed Galloway had asked a secret agent for a greater cut of Iraq's exports under the oil-for-food programme.

According to the right-wing newspaper, the spy chief wrote a letter to Saddam in January 2000, which revealed that Galloway took a slice of oil earnings worth £375 000 a year.

The newspaper said the firebrand left-winger, who fiercely opposed the US-led military action, entered into partnership with a named Iraqi oil broker to sell oil on the international market.

The Daily Telegraph said the papers were found by one of their journalists in the looted foreign ministry in Baghdad.

The documents suggested that while he was campaigning for his anti-war charity, the Mariam Appeal, Galloway was conducting a relationship with Iraqi intelligence behind the scenes.

In a statement, Galloway insisted the documents were either forged or doctored and were designed to discredit him because of his opposition to the war.

"I have never solicited nor received money from Iraq for our campaign against war and sanctions," he said.

"I have never seen a barrel of oil, never owned one, never bought one, never sold one," he said.

Galloway said that the newspaper's claim that he had met Iraqi intelligence officials was incorrect "to the best of my knowledge".

"Given that I have had access over the years to Iraq's political leadership, most often the deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz, I would have absolutely no reason to be meeting with an official of Iraqi intelligence," he said.

Galloway said he had not seen the documents because he was out of the country writing a book about Iraq.

"From the way they have been described to me, I can state that they bear all the hallmarks of having been either forged or doctored and are designed to discredit those who stood against the war," he said.

They were part of what he described as a "smear campaign against those who stood against the illegal and bloody war on Iraq and against its occupation by foreign forces".

"The idea that such documents have, as if to order, come to light just days after the massive assault on Baghdad, the looting and destruction of its ministries and government buildings and the chaos in the country, must be treated as highly suspect," he said.

Galloway, who represents a Glasgow constituency, was a high-profile figure in Britain's opposition to the war in Iraq who had long campaigned for an end to United Nations sanctions on the country. - Sapa-AFP

- SAPA