GALLOWAY ACCUSED AGAIN

By Ray Fleming Exactly one week ago George Galloway was savouring his remarkable triumph at Bethnal Green in Britain's general election and intoning in resonant voice: “Mr Blair: this is for Iraq.” Now he has again been plunged into the oil-for-food scandal following allegations by a US Senate committee that he received vouchers for millions of barrels of oil from the regime of Saddam Hussein. These vouchers could be sold by those holding them to third parties wanting to purchase Iraqi oil outside the sanctions controls. Mr Galloway has strongly rejected the allegations, claiming that they are the same as those made by the Daily Telegraph which subsequently lost the libel case brought by Mr Galloway. He has poured scorn the “lickspittle committee” whose report he believes to be a “Republican Party dirty trick”. The chairman of this committee, Norm Coleman, is a Republican who is making the abuse of the oilfor-food programme something of a personal crusade; last December he called for the resignation of Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General. Mr Galloway claims that the Senate committee had never asked to interview him but it has now apparently invited him to appear on May 17th. It certainly seems odd that accusations of such seriousness could be made against a Member of Parliament before hearing what he has to say on the matter. However, Mr Galloway will not be able to rely on his assertion that the accusations are the same as those made by the Daily Telegraph. Those were based on Iraq foreign ministry documents but the committee says that it has reached its conclusion from papers found in the Iraq oil ministry. The fact that Mr Galloway's name appeared on a list of people entitled to vouchers for oil does not mean that he received or sold such vouchers. He has said categorically that he never received or traded in oil, or diverted money from the oil-for-food programme or used the Mariam Charity, which he founded, for his own personal gain.