Galloway challenges the US Senate committee to charge him
The Respect MP George Galloway has thrown down a challenge to the US
Senate homeland security committee to charge him with perjury and
"I'll see you in court".
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Galloway challenges the US Senate committee to charge him
25/10/2005


The Respect MP George Galloway has thrown down a challenge to the US
Senate homeland security committee to charge him with perjury and
"I'll see you in court".

Galloway said that he was prepared to fly out immediately to the
United States if Senator Norm Coleman, who heads the committee, was
prepared to bring charges. The MP has just seen a press release from
the committee which alleges that he gave "false and misleading
testimony" on May 17. "I deny that absolutely. As I've said a thousand
times, I've never benefited personally. Let Coleman bring these
charges and I'll rebut them totally."

It is understood that senior Iraqi members of the deposed regime have
made statements to the committee, including Tariq Aziz, Taha Yasin
Ramadan, the former vice-president of the country, and Amer Rashid,
the former oil minister. "I've never met Ramadan or Rashid but I do
know that they are facing charges which may carry a death sentence. As
is Tariq Aziz. He has been held incommunicado for two years - and we
know what goes on in US-controlled prisons in Iraq - and we also know
from his lawyers that he has been offered a deal to testify," said
Galloway. "On the one hand the US government accuses these men of
being homicidal maniacs, on the other they assert that their coerced
testimony is utterly trustworthy. Well, let Senator Coleman bring them
and his unnamed sources to court in a case against me, and we'll see
what the world concludes."

Galloway denies soliciting oil allocations or receiving "one thin
dime" from the oil-for-food programme. He also denies any knowledge
that his estranged wife, Dr Amineh Abu-Zayyad, received approximately
$150,000 in connection with oil allocations. "I understand she has
made a statement denying this and it certainly came as news to me
because it has never been raised."

Galloway added that the fact that the Mariam Appeal, a political
campaign, had received more than $446,000 from Jordanian businessman
Fawaz Zureikat "cannot be news to anyone. The Charity Commission
investigated the Mariam Appeal, it scrutinised every penny in and
every penny out and totally exonerated me from benefiting financially
through the campaign."

"It's Groundhog Day. I've already comprehensively dealt with these
allegations – under oath in the High Court and the US Senate – to the
Charity Commission and in innumerable media inquiries. It seems that
Senator Coleman, raising them yet again, is suffering from acute
attention deficit disorder. Hell clearly hath no fury than a US
senator humiliated. It's a sneak revenge attack of the most
contemptible kind."

"He has not had the decency to let me know the conclusions he and his
cohorts have reached, nor even that he was holding a press conference
to smear me. For a lawyer he has a strange concept of justice."

Galloway continued: "Let me once again repeat. I have never benefited
from any oil deal and I have never asked anyone to act on my behalf. I
have not made a penny out of oil deals with Iraq or indeed any other
kind of deal. This ought to be dead, yet Norm Coleman parrots it once
more, from 3000 miles away and protected by privilege."

"These attacks are being mounted against me as a sideshow to divert
attention from the real grand larceny - $1.3bn missing from the
defence department and $8.8bn from the oil accounts. All of which
occurred under the US administration."

Galloway also cast doubt on the veracity and provenance of the
documents 'discovered' in Baghdad by the Telegraph journalist David
Blair. "At the conclusion of the appeal process in the libel case I
will be revealing important new information about this," Galloway
said. "However it is still the case that, despite Senator Coleman
promising to do so, I have still not been furnished with the originals
or been able to have them independently forensically examined. If you
can call them originals because I understand these are mere
photocopies. But even it these are genuine papers the fact remains
that anyone's name can be written on a document. It does not mean that
I received anything. How many more times must I say - I did not."

From Respect - The Unity Coalition national (UK) site at:
 http://www.respectcoalition.org/?ite=905

 http://photos1.blogger.com/img/21/6228/200/_40657142_georgeap203x3001.jpg
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Posted by Neil Williams from RESPECT - The Unity Coalition blog (UK) at:
 http://respectuk.blogspot.com/