# "Galloway was in Saddam's pay" -- Is this the tip of the iceberg? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 22, 2003, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202 "2003-04-22T01:57:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![december](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/838e76/32.png) [@december](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/december)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2003, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202/1 "2003-04-22T01:57:42Z")
According to the [Daily Telegraph](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/04/22/ngall22.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/04/22/ixnewstop.html), a Labour MP was receiving money from Saddam Hussein in exchange for his support! Galloway denied the accusation. > [@](#): > > **Galloway was in Saddam’s pay, say secret Iraqi documents** > > George Galloway, the Labour backbencher, received money from Saddam Hussein’s regime, taking a slice of oil earnings worth at least £375,000 a year, according to Iraqi intelligence documents found by The Daily Telegraph in Baghdad. > > A confidential memorandum sent to Saddam by his spy chief said that Mr Galloway asked an agent of the Mukhabarat secret service for a greater cut of Iraq’s exports under the oil for food programme… > > He also said that Mr Galloway was profiting from food contracts and sought “exceptional” business deals. Mr Galloway has always denied receiving any financial assistance from Baghdad… > > In the papers, which were found in the looted foreign ministry, Iraqi intelligence continually stresses the need for secrecy about Mr Galloway’s alleged business links with the regime. One memo says that payments to him must be made under “commercial cover”. > > For more than a decade, Mr Galloway, MP for Glasgow Kelvin, has been the leading critic of Anglo-American policy towards Iraq, campaigning against sanctions and the war that toppled Saddam. This is dynamite (if true.) £375,000 a year is real money. In a way, it’s not surprising. US marines found something like $600 million in cash hidden in one of Saddam’s palaces. It stands to reason that with the kind of cash flow Saddam had, some would be used to bribe various people. I recall some pundit (Christopher Hitchens IIRC) who claimed that two inspectors working for Hans Blix were taking bribes from the Iraqi government. I bet there are others. Who else will be discovered? ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2003, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202/2 "2003-04-22T02:46:01Z")
The Carlyle Group? (I would take that as a definite epiphany: certain proof in the existence of a just and loving God.) ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2003, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202/3 "2003-04-22T02:47:28Z")
No! Wait! The Dixie Chicks! Yeah! The original Ba’athing Beauties! ---
**Author:** ![Beagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Beagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beagle)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2003, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202/4 "2003-04-22T03:11:25Z")
Puts [this](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;%24sessionid%24OOD4USO2V2P2HQFIQMFSFFWAVCBQ0IV0?xml=/news/2003/04/02/ngeorge02.xml) in perspective. > [@](#): > > Mr Galloway, Labour MP for Glasgow Kelvin, accused Britain and America of waging an “illegal” war against Iraq. “The best thing British troops can do is to refuse to obey illegal orders,” he said. …as they might find out about my illegal bribes, he failed to add. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2003, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202/5 "2003-04-22T03:47:23Z")
> [@](#): > > I recall some pundit (Christopher Hitchens IIRC) who claimed that two inspectors working for Hans Blix were taking bribes from the Iraqi government. I bet there are others. Who else will be discovered? Shit. You take one of your better posts and _trash_ it. Why? ---
**Author:** ![Fang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/96bed5/32.png) [@Fang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fang)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2003, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202/6 "2003-04-22T03:47:31Z")
Hm. Wonder what John Malkovich will do (maybe it’ll turn out good ol’ Bobby Fisk was on the payroll as well). ---
**Author:** ![Fang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/96bed5/32.png) [@Fang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fang)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2003, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202/7 "2003-04-22T03:52:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by samclem \* > \*\*Shit. You take one of your better posts and _trash_ it. Why? \*\* I fail to see how he trashed it. It turns out that Galloway was receiving illegal bribes from Iraq. **december** speculated that Iraq might have bribed other people too, and recalled a pundit who had suggested a similar thing, but did not specifically accuse anyone. I can’t understand why you think there’s something wrong with that - I don’t suppose you would have been upset at somebody speculating that large-scale corporate crime went deeper than Enron and Arthur Andersen? ---
**Author:** ![Urban\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Urban\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urban_Ranger)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2003, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202/8 "2003-04-22T03:55:42Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Fang_ > It turns out that Galloway was receiving illegal bribes from Iraq. _Alleged_. In other words, without basis. ---
**Author:** ![Urban\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Urban\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urban_Ranger)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2003, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202/9 "2003-04-22T04:00:51Z")
Of course, the money the US is paying the “coalition of the willing” from the US$7.6b are not bribes. No sir, the US is incapable of committing crimes by definition. ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2003, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202/10 "2003-04-22T04:04:33Z")
FWIW, [here’s the text of the documents.](http://www.dailytelegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/04/22/ndocs22.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/04/22/ixnewstop.html) It refers to the Mariam Campaign, which was apparently set up as a pro-Iraq lobby group. > [@](#): > > That needs great financial support because the financial support given by [a named Arab sheikh] is limited and volatile because it depends on his personal temper and the economic and political changes. Therefore he needs continuous financial support from Iraq. > > He obtained through Mr Tariq Aziz three million barrels of oil every six months, according to the oil-for-food programme. His share would be only between 10 and 15 cents per barrel. He also obtained a limited number of food contracts with the Ministry of Trade. The percentage of its profits does not go above one per cent. It isn’t clear who the _he_ referred to in the second paragraph is. It could be Galloway, but because of the subject matter, oil contracts and food contracts, it’s more likely to refer to the people actually funding the Campaign, i.e. Fawaz Abdullah Zureikat or the “named Arab sheikh”. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2003, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202/11 "2003-04-22T04:08:19Z")
Would this be the Hitchens of whom you speak?[Letter to a Lying, Self-Serving, Fat-Assed, Chain Smoking, Drunken, Opportunistic, Cynical Contrarian (AKA C. Hitchens)](http://www.counterpunch.org/mccarthy1022.html) DAMN! I’m in awe. I’m gonna get McCarthy to ghostwrite my next pit thread… My point was, that the OP took a perfectly good, possibly/probably factual event, and then crossed into the realm of “perhaps, maybe, I heard, …pundit said,” crap that he usually offers. **A** possibly/probably happened, so let’s throw in that B said that C did something to D and E, IIRC, said that his barber’s brother-in-law has a son in Iraq who says that they just found WMD. ---
**Author:** ![Fang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/96bed5/32.png) [@Fang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fang)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2003, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202/12 "2003-04-22T04:23:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by samclem \* > **Would this be the Hitchens of whom you speak?[Letter to a Lying, Self-Serving, Fat-Assed, Chain Smoking, Drunken, Opportunistic, Cynical Contrarian (AKA C. Hitchens)](http://www.counterpunch.org/mccarthy1022.html) DAMN! I’m in awe. I’m gonna get McCarthy to ghostwrite my next pit thread…** Ah yes, that was quite the article. So many lucid points, and such clear, intelligent language. (Note: I do not actually think repeatedly calling somebody a drunk in so many different ways constitutes a good argument.) \*\* > [@](#): > > My point was, that the OP took a perfectly good, possibly/probably factual event, and then crossed into the realm of “perhaps, maybe, I heard, …pundit said,” crap that he usually offers. > > **A** possibly/probably happened, so let’s throw in that B said that C did something to D and E, IIRC, said that his barber’s brother-in-law has a son in Iraq who says that they just found WMD. \*\* Idle speculation without any specific accusations. Pretty harmless I’d say. To go back to my earlier analogy, what would you think of the following statement: “It has been alleged, and there is evidence that, senior managers at Enron and Arthur Andersen engaged in serious coporate wrongdoing. I bet there are other heads of corporations engaging in similar actions.” ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2003, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202/13 "2003-04-22T12:31:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Urban Ranger \* > \*\*Of course, the money the US is paying the “coalition of the willing” from the US$7.6b are not bribes. No sir, the US is incapable of committing crimes by definition. \*\* Well, as far as I’m aware, the money the US is paying out is a matter of public record. Find me a case in which the US has paid secret money under “commercial cover” directly to the personal benefit of a foreign politican, and I’ll certainly agree we’re talking bribery here. And, in a larger sense, perhaps US payments are bribery. “Stop your country’s opium production, or we’ll withhold aid,” is bribery in a sense. But it’s not the same kind of thing as what’s being alleged here, **Urban Ranger**. Right? - Rick ---
**Author:** ![december](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/838e76/32.png) [@december](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/december)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2003, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202/14 "2003-04-22T12:47:51Z")
Here’s an [update from today’s Telegraph](http://www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/04/22/ninter22.xml), with a discussion of the Jordanian intermediary. > [@](#): > > George Galloway’s Jordanian intermediary has a family history of loyalty to Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath Party, according to his Iraqi intelligence profile. > > Fawaz Abdullah Zureikat, 53, would clearly be an ideal choice to conduct any business dealings with the Iraqi regime. > > His “Mukhabarat” profile, attached to the intelligence chief’s memorandum to Saddam’s office on Mr Galloway, refers to him warmly as a “sympathiser with Iraq”. > > It recorded that he came from a “Ba’athist” family - his brother was once jailed for his political beliefs in Syria - and commended him for having supplied the Iraqi government with “developed civil and military equipment”. > > But the profile gives no details of any weapons sales and does not state whether they occurred before or after the international arms embargo was imposed on Iraq after Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Andrew Sullivan calls Gallaway [“The chief left-wing anti-war campaigner in Britain’s parliament”](http://andrewsullivan.com/) If Gallaway was on Saddam’s payroll, then he was an anti-war person who truly was pro-Saddam – an embarassment to sincere anti-war folks. ISTM that the financial aspects of this allegation should be pretty easy to verify by means of an audit. The question is, will anyone investigate? In the US, lots of members of Congress have fishy financial doings, but they are seldom investigated. Younger posters may not remember the [Abscam Investigation of 1980](http://hcl.chass.ncsu.edu/garson/dye/docs/abscam.htm). > [@](#): > > the Federal Bureau of Investigation created a dummy corporation called Abdul Enterprises, Ltd., and used FBI agents posing as Arab businessmen to contact various public officials for the purpose of offering bribes in return for political favors. The FBI videotaped such meetings involving public officials. The much-publicized tapes were central to successful indictments brought in 1980. One senator and four members of Congress were convicted of bribery and conspiracy. A fifth member of Congress was convicted on other minor charges. Congress reacted by prohibiting the use of that sort of sting against Congress. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![TwistofFate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@TwistofFate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwistofFate)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2003, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202/15 "2003-04-22T13:08:13Z")
What the hell was a Daily Telegraph journalist doing rooting through files? ---
**Author:** ![SuaSponte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/67e7ee/32.png) [@SuaSponte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuaSponte)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2003, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202/16 "2003-04-22T13:16:04Z")
> [@](#): > > ## _by Urban Ranger_ quote: > > ## Originally posted by Fang It turns out that Galloway was receiving illegal bribes from Iraq. > > Alleged. In other words, without basis. Butcher the English language much, **Urban Ranger**? “Alleged” does not mean “without basis;” it means an accusation has been made, and the accusation has not yet been proven. There sure as hell is a basis for the allegation here, hun. It’s called “Iraqi intelligence documents.” That basis may later turn out to be faulty, but a freaking basis exists. Sua ---
**Author:** ![SuaSponte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/67e7ee/32.png) [@SuaSponte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuaSponte)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2003, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202/17 "2003-04-22T13:18:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by TwistofFate \* > \*\*What the hell was a Daily Telegraph journalist doing rooting through files? \*\* This happened a lot both in Afghanistan and Eastern Europe after the Wall fell; the Telegraph (and a mess of other journalists, I’m sure) are rooting through looted Iraqi government buildings, seeing what they can find strewn about. Sua ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2003, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202/18 "2003-04-22T13:20:55Z")
Please please please ignore the opinions of Andrew Sullivan, who is merely a tool of Murdoch. There may be truth in this, there may not be. If there is, then I’ll be utterly disgusted. Galloway is a prominent anti-war advocate, and also opposed the war in Afghanistan; I doubt he was getting kick-backs from the Taliban, but he was still very vocal about it. Galloway will be [suing the Telegraph for libel](http://media.guardian.co.uk/presspublishing/story/0,7495,941140,00.html), BTW. Anyone who knows about British libel law will know that these trials are fairly stringent, and have caused the downfall of several prominent plaintiffs - he’d therefore have to be pretty sure of his innocence. He also said the following (I precis from memory of this morning’s radio): “according to the alleged documents, the alleged payments were via the oil-for-food program. Therefore the barrels that were allegedly given to me had to be sold and paid via the UN. Find me the UN cheques with my name on them.” This may actually turn out to be “the tip of the iceberg” - of disinformation. ---
**Author:** ![kabbes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e99b99/32.png) [@kabbes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kabbes)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2003, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202/19 "2003-04-22T13:28:34Z")
Frankly I’m just impressed that **december** has such rapid knowledge of one British journalist’s allegations against a fairly obscure British politician. I would hardly have thought it was a story with much milage across the pond and I only heard about it on this morning’s news. pan ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2003, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202/20 "2003-04-22T13:30:16Z")
Well I have no opinion on the allegations, but I would like to observe that the Arabic document on their web page does not appear to match their translation. It is hard to tell given the poor scan quality, handwriting and all that, so I will have to sit down to take a closer look, but for example I read the opening line of that letter to be: “It’s profits [are] 15%, thus I suggest for us [unclear word] - First increase dividends from [unclear, prob. oil].” I don’t feel like ruining me eyes for nothing at the moment, but perhaps some less overheated speculation is in order until this is cleared up. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202.md?page=2)