Traitor Galloway and Saddam

The story that Galloway was involved in the illegal Iraqi oil-for-food scam first surfaced over a year ago in a story published in the Daily Telegraph. He sued the paper- successfully- and that seemed to be the end of the matter. Well, not quite- Galloway has now been named by a US investigation into the scandal and the Telegraph is now appealing against the ruling.

The Times has a pretty good background piece on the oil-for-food scandal here.

Galloway has not only aligned himself with the Hussein regime, he has been pro-Arab since a 1977 visit to Beirut when he stated- “"I made a pledge . . . to devote the rest of my life to the Palestinian and Arab cause, whatever the consequences for my own political future".” When he met with Saddam Hussein in 1994 he said, “"I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability. And I want you to know we are with you until victory, until Jerusalem.” (emphasis mine) That kind of makes his assertion that he was pro-Iraqi people and not pro-Saddam pretty much a lie. The BBC bio leaves out the "until Jerusalem" part of the quote and is remarkably favourable to Galloway, painting him as a bit of a rebel. This is the man who described the fall of the Soviet Empire as the “biggest catastrophe” of his life, who describes Ché Guevara as his “ultimate hero” and receives boxes of Havana’s finest Cohiba cigars from his friend Fidel Castro. So totalitarian dictators and terrorists are okay in his book.

That Galloway has again been accused of receiving payments from Iraq, one of only two European ministers named, would seem to indicate pretty strongly that something is afoot. Particularly when he is accused by former Iraqi ministers themselves, Tariq Aziz among them.

Galloway has of course claimed that Hussein was still the real leader of Iraq and that his trial was a "sham", conducted by "stooges, collaborators, hand-picked by the military occupation of Iraq". Seems like he really likes free elections in Iraq doesn't he? He also claimed that "Iraq is not a free country. There is a government that has been put in power in Baghdad by the Americans."

He also claimed that the accusations levelled at him were from a "lickspittle Republican committee, acting on the wishes of George Bush." Strange then that the committee is question is made of up both Democrats and Republicans? As they say, methinks the lady doth protest too much.