# "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:** 5
**Author:** ![Beagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Beagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beagle)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2003, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202/81 "2003-04-25T02:45:19Z")
Here is the [CSM](http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0425/p01s04-woiq.html) article. > [@](#): > > BAGHDAD – A fresh set of documents uncovered in a Baghdad house used by Saddam Hussein’s son Qusay to hide top-secret files detail multimillion dollar payments to an outspoken British member of parliament, George Galloway… > > …The most recent - and possibly most revealing - documents were obtained earlier this week by the Monitor. The papers include direct orders from the Hussein regime to issue Mr. Galloway six individual payments, starting in July 1992 and ending in January 2003. > > The payments point to a concerted effort by the regime to use its oil wealth to win friends in the Western world who could promote Iraqi interests first by lifting sanctions against Iraq and later in blocking war plans… I just skimmed this for quotes. Correct me if I’m wrong. I think this is new evidence found by the CSM which corroborates the Mirror story. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2003, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202/82 "2003-04-25T09:16:50Z")
Well on the balance of current information, it seems that there’s a lot of hints that Galloway was up to _something_ - whether it was personal gain or some other purpose, nefarious or otherwise. Either that or it’s an exceptionally well planned disinformation campaign. Where’s Occam when you need a shave? As for whether this is the tip of the iceberg - WRT the UK, it (hopefully) looks like it isn’t - otherwise the conveniently placed “Britain” box would have contained other prominent names that the Torygraph would have splashed on the front page. ---
**Author:** ![APB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2003, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202/83 "2003-04-25T10:49:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by casdave \* > \*\*‘The Telegraph’ is a very right wing rag, so much so it is nicknamed ‘The Torygraph’. > > I remember some years ago this ‘newspaper’ alleged that a senoir union leader, Mr Arthur Scargill, was recieving payments form the then wolrd bogeyman Colonal Ghadhaffi, he sued for libel and won, it was just a way to damage his reputation and like such campaigns, mud does not alawys wash off completely.\*\* > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by casdave \* > \*\*Like I remember what happened to Arthur Scargill and how the truth finally came out eight years after the untrue allegations were made, by the very same ‘newspaper’. > > I have a long memory… > \*\* However long your memory, it’s misleading you. It was the _Daily Mirror_ (helped by _The Cook Report_), not the _Telegraph_, which printed the allegations by the former NUM chief executive, Roger Windsor, although, of course, all the other papers then covered the story as well. Nor did Scargill sue, or at least didn’t sue the _Mirror_ or the _Telegraph_. What did happen was that the inquiry set up to investigate the allegations dismissed some of them, but that Scargill then sued the QC who had conducted the inquiry over matters only indirectly related to the original allegations and won. Moreover, the former _Mirror_ editor, Roy Greenslade, has since admitted that he was duped. So whatever else this proves, it’s not that the _Telegraph_ has form. As for Galloway, the _Telegraph_’s story is not as implausible as some of you want to believe - masses of paperwork filed together in bulk can be surprisingly resilient, even to bombing, fire and looting. The real question is whether the rest of the box’s contents stand up to scrutiny. Did the _Telegraph_ and/or the security services go to the trouble of faking those as well? ---
**Author:** ![TwistofFate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@TwistofFate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwistofFate)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2003, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202/84 "2003-04-25T11:52:36Z")
There were 3 boxes, one marked France, one marked britain, and one marked USA. Why is it the only scandal to come out of these three boxes is for Galloway? who wants to take bets that the contents of these boxes produces other “convenient scandals?” ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2003, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202/85 "2003-04-25T12:16:24Z")
Well, I gotta confess, Saddam has been paying me to oppose the war here on the Straight Dope and a few other online sites. But the pay hasn’t been fantastic. So far all I’ve gotten is a 4x8’ Thomas Kinkade painting of a gal in a chain mail bikini and a guy in armor who looks kinda like Saddam fighting with a dragon, and a ‘genuine sword of Damascus’ with “made in China” stamped on the pommel. ---
**Author:** ![Beagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Beagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beagle)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2003, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202/86 "2003-04-25T14:51:55Z")
## You got screwed. Uday sends me gold plated AK-47s just to keep my mouth shut. Generally, I’d just like to point out that the Christian Science Monitor is not some kind of rag (don’t let the name fool you). They found their own evidence of payments. Galloway fell victim to the hubris of Iraqi bureaucracy. “Those infidels will never enter Baghdad. They are committing suicide at the gates. Etc…” ---
**Author:** ![Beagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Beagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beagle)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2003, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202/87 "2003-04-25T16:11:04Z")
[Commission to examine how Galloway used charity fund](http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-658445,00.html) > [@](#): > > **[timesonline.co.uk](http://timesonline.co.uk) (4/25)**: THE Attorney-General has asked the Charity Commission to inquire into George Galloway’s fundraising activities after the MP disclosed some of the secrets of his Mariam Appeal. > Mr Galloway divulged that Fawaz Zureikat, a Jordanian businessman and close associate who was awarded millions of dollars of oil contracts by Saddam Hussein, donated nearly £400,000 to the appeal. The MP listed how some of the £1 million raised was spent on campaign activities, publicity, office expenses and healthcare, but has yet to account publicly for about £625,000. > > Mr Galloway said that it would be unworthy of Lord Goldsmith, QC, to join the atmosphere of a witch-hunt against him, and that it would be perverse to declare his anti-war work illegal. And the band played on. He’s toast. Nice little Portugese villa he has there. What is that, about 5,000 sq. ft. of pool deck? ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2003, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202/88 "2003-04-25T22:47:51Z")
I propose that we all go down to George Galloway MP (but not for long)'s place and boogie down! Who’s with me? ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2003, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202/89 "2003-04-26T02:08:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Beagle \* > **You got screwed. Uday sends me gold plated AK-47s just to keep my mouth shut.** Damn. You get paid more for not talking than I do for talking. I feel like one of those freaking farmers who’s losing money growing wheat while the farmer next door is getting paid by the gummint not to raise corn. ---
**Author:** ![december](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/838e76/32.png) [@december](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/december)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2003, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202/90 "2003-04-26T13:00:32Z")
Mark Steyn weighs in with this [amusing column](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2003/04/26/do2603.xml&sSheet=/opinion/2003/04/26/ixop.html). ---
**Author:** ![december](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/838e76/32.png) [@december](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/december)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2003, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202/91 "2003-04-27T17:59:11Z")
[This thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=178817) was pretty focused Galloway. I also wanted to discuss other possible recipients of Saddam’s largesse. Hence the new thread. This [article](http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/002/605fgcob.asp) agrees that Galloway was just the tip of the iceberg. > [@](#): > > **Saddam’s Cash – And the journalists and politicians he bought with it** …Saddam Hussein has a long history of bribing anyone who could help his regime–businessmen, diplomats, politicians, and journalists. Throughout the Iran-Iraq war, which lasted from 1980 to 1988, Saddam lavished Arab leaders with gifts and contracts in exchange for their support. Shortly before his 1990 invasion of Kuwait, he shipped 100 new Mercedes 200 Series cars to top editors in Egypt and Jordan. Two days before the first attack, he offered Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak $50 million in cash, ostensibly for grain. After the invasion, he sought to buy neutrality or at least complacency by promising Mubarak and other Arab leaders that he would forgive all Kuwaiti debts once Iraq annexed the tiny nation as its nineteenth province. > > As the Galloway affair makes clear, these practices continued throughout the 1990s, despite the increased scrutiny of Iraq’s financial dealings by the United Nations. Before the recent conflict, says Tareq al-Mezrem from the Kuwaiti Information Office, the Iraqi regime gave journalists luxury “villas in Jordan, Tunisia, and even Lebanon.” > > Some of the transactions were straightforward cash payments, often in U.S. dollars, handed out from Iraqi embassies in Arab capitals–luxury cars delivered to top editors, Toyotas for less influential journalists. “This was not secret,” says Salama Nimat, a Jordanian journalist who was jailed briefly in 1995 in that nation for highlighting the corruption. “Most of it was done out in the open.” > > Other transactions were surreptitious or deliberately complex–coveted Iraqi export licenses for family members of politicians, oil kickbacks through third parties, elaborate “scholarship” arrangements… > > “For years, the Iraqi leader has been waging an intensive, sometimes clandestine, and by most accounts highly effective image war in the Arab world,” wrote Wall Street Journal reporters Jane Mayer and Geraldine Brooks in an exposé published February 15, 1991. “His strategy has ranged from financing friendly publications and columnists as far away as Paris to doling out gifts as big as new Mercedes-Benzes.” > > …“To lots of people, Saddam Hussein and his regime was a godsend,” says a Washington-based columnist for a prominent Arabic-language newspaper. “Only a few journalists [in the Arab world] didn’t take money from him.” … > > Saddam bought good press in less obvious ways, too. “He would award big contracts to newspapers in Jordan to publish all sorts of stuff, like Iraqi schoolbooks and other things,” says Nimat. "The contracts were worth millions, and no one ever found out if they ever printed the books… > > “What Saddam did in Jordan, he did in other poor countries in the region like Egypt and Yemen and Mauritania,” says Nimat. … > > MANY OF THESE CORRUPT PRACTICES are confirmed in a CIA report entitled “Baghdad’s Propaganda Apparatus” obtained by THE WEEKLY STANDARD. The report indicates that the Iraqi regime redoubled its information efforts in 1998. > > …Ismail Mansour, a Pentagon-trained Iraqi American working with coalition forces in Iraq, says the regime’s money reached well inside the United States, going to journalists and others. > > …He got his wish two years later, when he accompanied Reps. Jim McDermott, Jim Thompson, and David Bonior to Baghdad last fall. > > McDermott, in particular, caused quite a fuss when in a September 29 appearance on ABC’s “This Week” from Baghdad, he claimed, “The president of the United States will lie to the American people in order to get us into this war.” > > …Of course, no one can say what the congressmen’s motives were for their trip. But judging from a press release the trio issued before they left, on September 25, it’s clear it wasn’t to secure unfettered inspections. Although the congressmen warned about the “dangerous implications of a unilateral, preemptive strike,” they didn’t mention inspections once. > > On October 25, McDermott received a check for $5,000 from Shakir al-Khafaji… > > No one has accused McDermott of being a mouthpiece for Saddam Hussein simply for financial reasons. Indeed, McDermott has been saying stupid things for years with no evidence anyone has paid him to do so. A spokesman for McDermott says he “doesn’t know off the top of [his] head” whether McDermott has plans to return the money. Will anyone else be caught up in this scandal? What’s the prognosis? ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2003, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202/92 "2003-04-27T20:51:15Z")
I doubt that there are that many more people in the US that could be caught up. Thompson appears to have gone to Iraq almost as some sort of holiday (he hasn’t been in the press as much as the other two), and Bonior was probably just being grouchy (he had his district destroyed from under him, and he did poorly in the Dem primary for Governor of Michigan.) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2003, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202/93 "2003-04-28T12:24:10Z")
Sharing this with you all. A rather badly written article, but does give you a local response: [http://www.menareport.com/story/TheNews.php3?sid=248069&lang=e&dir=mena](http://www.menareport.com/story/TheNews.php3?sid=248069&lang=e&dir=mena) ---
**Author:** ![Mojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Mojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mojo)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2003, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202/94 "2003-04-28T17:55:57Z")
From what I’ve read Galloway has still only threatened to sue for libel; he has not gone ahead and done so. And as Aussie columnist Tim Blair noted, “The charity spent £860,000 on anti-sanctions campaigns, expenses and administration, and only £100,000 on the kid. She was effectively used as a front for a propaganda operation.” I wholeheartedly agree. ---
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2003, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202/95 "2003-06-20T11:23:33Z")
[Link](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/3006166.stm) Christian Science Monitor apologises to Galloway. > [@](#): > > The newspaper said two of the “oldest” documents - dated between 1992 and 1993 - were actually written within the past few months. I knew, in the interests of fairness, you’d want to apologise and retract. ---
**Author:** ![TwistofFate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@TwistofFate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwistofFate)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2003, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202/96 "2003-06-20T13:00:26Z")
When come back, bring humble pie. ---
**Author:** ![december](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/838e76/32.png) [@december](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/december)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2003, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202/97 "2003-06-20T13:21:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tagos \* > \*\*[Link](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/3006166.stm) > Christian Science Monitor apologises to Galloway. > > I knew, in the interests of fairness, you’d want to apologise and retract. \*\* The CSM said their documents were forged. But, [the CSM didn’t say that the _Telegraph’s_ documents were forged](http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0620/p01s03-woiq.html). > [@](#): > > However, the Monitor’s documents were different in many details from those of the Daily Telegraph, and came from a different source. Monitor contract reporter Philip Smucker obtained them from an Iraqi general, who in turn said he had captured them after his men shot their way into a home once used by Qusay Hussein. The Monitor screwed up, but Galloway isn’t off the hook. ---
**Author:** ![TwistofFate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@TwistofFate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwistofFate)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2003, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202/98 "2003-06-20T13:28:33Z")
of course, The Telegraph found them in a box marked “UK” that had miraculously escaped being destroyed, like everything else in the room where they were found (along with two other boxes, conveniently marked “France” and “US”). ---
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2003, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202/99 "2003-06-20T15:31:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by december \* > \*\*The CSM said their documents were forged. But, [the CSM didn’t say that the _Telegraph’s_ documents were forged](http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0620/p01s03-woiq.html). The Monitor screwed up, but Galloway isn’t off the hook. \*\* Yea right, The Telegraph got the good forgeries. Show some class, just for once in your life and admit you’ve rushed to libellous judgement yet again. Anyone with a micron of common sense could see this was a fit-up from the off but no, it’s the tip of a handy club shaped iceberg for you to beat on the anti-war crowd. Now it’s melting in your hands, so much scotch mist, like the one made out of Niger uranium. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![TheMemeWarrior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@TheMemeWarrior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMemeWarrior)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2003, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202/100 "2003-06-20T17:43:06Z")
ok i tlooks pretty obvious that the papers were forged but this raisises some big questions. This could indeed be the tip of another type of iceberg. Who would want to frame this guy? He thinks its western intelleginece agents and I’m usually not that paranoid, but can anyone else come up with a plausible source? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/galloway-was-in-saddams-pay-is-this-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/170202.md?page=6)