The recent discovery of Iraqi documents linking British MP George Galloway from Glasgow to Saddam Hussein has caused him to strenuously deny these allegations, claiming the documents are frauds.

That begs some intriguing questions though:
1) Why would Iraqi officials take the time to fabricate documents implicating him with Saddam Hussein?
2) If the Iraqi’s did not “plant” this supposed false information, then who did? Possibly the British news reporter who found them? Very unlikely!

Consider some recent reports about Mr. Galloway’s involvements in the Middle East, and think about his lavish lifestyle including a £250,000 villa in Portugal, a total of £80,000 was spent on the campaign's offices overlooking Trafalgar Square in central London, £35,000 was spent on three conferences, and £50,000 on sanctions-monitoring publications, publicity and advertisements.

George Galloway conceded last night that intermediaries in his fund-raising activities could have siphoned off money from Saddam Hussein - but insisted he had never done so. As the Labour MP fought to counter allegations that he received up to £375,000 a year from the Iraqi regime, Mr Galloway revealed the full amount given to the Mariam Appeal - the organisation he founded to fly a young Iraqi leukemia victim to Britain for medical treatment and which then became a campaign against Iraqi sanctions - and pledged to release further figures today.

It has been alleged that he had spent the money - purportedly intended to treat sick Iraqi children - on extensive travelling expenses. Mr Galloway revealed that the Mariam Appeal had received about £800,000 over the past four years. More than £500,000 was provided by the United Arab Emirates and about £100,00 by Saudi Arabia.

The bulk of the remainder had been provided by the Jordanian businessman, Fawaz Zureikat, a long-time opponent of sanctions against Iraq and the campaign's chairman. The rest came from a number of small donors, said Mr Galloway. As for expenditure, £150,000 was spent on the "Big Ben to Baghdad" bus - which travelled from London to Baghdad in 1999 - and about £60,000 on a sanctions-busting flight to Baghdad the following year. Mr Galloway insisted the Great Britain Iraq Society, an organisation linked to the Mariam Appeal and cited by the MP as funding foreign trips in the Commons register of members' interests, had spent just a few thousand pounds in one year.

George Galloway has rejected the latest allegations linking him to the former Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein, and claims he has been the victim of a set-up. The Labour MP has confirmed he intends to sue The Daily Telegraph, which has published new evidence suggesting Saddam tried to shield him from the potential scandal of being linked to Iraqi intelligence. The newspaper reported that an official letter, from Saddam's deputy in the then ruling Baath Party's Revolutionary Command Council, showed the Iraqi regime was seeking to shield Mr Galloway from damage. It said that the document, recovered from the burned-out Iraqi foreign ministry, added to the evidence that Mr Galloway was paid hundreds of thousands of pounds by the former dictator.

However Mr Galloway said the provenance of the document was extremely suspicious, and confirmed that he would be pursuing his libel action against the newspaper.

The BBC, also obtained documents apparently acknowledging the receipt by Mr Galloway of cheques for £60,000 on behalf of the National Lobby of Kashmir. But the MP denied that it was a receipt, claiming it was only a letter he had written outlining how the group had spent its annual budget. He had then accused BBC of "shabby, downmarket journalism".

So what do you folks think about this? Is George Galloway an innocent victim of a smear campagin? Or has he been exposed as a politician selling his votes to the highest bidders?

Comments anyone?

A.
I would like him to a victim in all honesty because he has had the courage to be outspoken against the war with Iraq, especially when there was a huge public outcry at the start which was quickly swept under the carpet by the media saying get behind our boys (of course we all did) but to continue to oppose the war it is insinuated that you are a traitor. Are the media just propaganda puppets for the government.

B.
However there is always the chance that he is a sneaky politician and is against the war because he will lose his cut of the oil to Pinky and the Brain. What if the Miriam? appeal was just a publicity smokescreen. But maybe I'm being overly synical.

I'll roll the dice and go with A. because I don't like what's happening just now in the middle east and we can't do anything about it.

Anyone familiar with Scottish politics (particularly in the cities where, like urban Wales, you can pin a red rose on a pig and it will be elected) will know that merely to become a Scottish Labour politician is to have passed all known tests in deceit, corruption, venality and cupidity.
He's being "fitted up" because he's something of a threat in what is Blair's and Brown''s home turf ( and where an eye is always kept on the Scots Nats); but he is undoubtedly a 24 carat thief and liar.

And, yes: cyber-chums, this really is "conspiracy" in action.

Estragon anticipates that the appalling Mother Short (sustained in power purely by pork-barrel gerrymandering in a Birmingham constituency where white English people are on the Endangered Species list) will be next.

The British broadsheet newspaper has recently published 4 Intelligence stories alledging embarassing new imformation.

First Russia,then France were the targets of these "scoops".The Anti-War MP George Galloway became the third victim.The forth story alledged a definitive connection between Saddam Hussein and Bin Laden.

Each story would have been music to the ears of Coalition leaders.

How long can The Daily Telegraph publish these stories from shadowy sources as facts?

And How long before a secret document tells us what happened to the Weapons of Mass Destruction in a way that gets Bush and Blair off the hook?

The Telegraph(though not my cup of tea)has a good reputation.
They need to do something to substantiate these claims or stop being the mouthpiece for the Coalition's Black Propaganda campaign.

George Galloway MP for Baghdad central. This man is one of the few exceptions to my rules. I really don`t care if he has been fitted up or not he deserves a good spanking.

Quotes from Estragon

"to become a Scottish Labour politician is to have passed all known tests in deceit, corruption, venality and cupidity."

" but he is undoubtedly a 24 carat thief and liar."

These seem to me to encapsulate who and what George Galloway is. It may seem like a "conspiracy" when a man like this gets the finger pointed at them. I would, however, contend that a man like this probably did not need to be fitted up and his own stupidity did it very well.

"The British broadsheet newspaper has recently published 4 Intelligence stories alledging embarassing new imformation."
"The Telegraph(though not my cup of tea)has a good reputation."

Its a tricky one because as you point out the telegraph has a good reputation and very rarely has to make an apology to anyone involved in articles it writes. Whilst I may think GAlloway deserves this, the number of stories
leaked or obtained by one paper (however god its reputation) makes me ever so slightly suspicious

"And How long before a secret document tells us what happened to the Weapons of Mass Destruction in a way that gets Bush and Blair off the hook?"

I think they already have to be honest. I don`t see Russia, China or anyone else preparing to give us a good whopping for invading Iraq. They may lose re-election but their personal fortunes outside of politics will not suffer but increase.

While I am not a supporter of Galloway I do disagree with you,Cassini,when you say he deserves this.
The number of libel actions he has already fought and won shows just how careful a charactor he is.

You rightly point out that he would probably been caught for something sooner or later.Which is why it is so unseemly to see him stitched up like this.

If someone as openminded as you is willing to not let a lack of evidence stand in the way of perceived justice then as a society we lose the very essence of what we claim to be fighting for.

Today it may be someone on the political extremities who is hounded by the media at the behest of the Government.Tomorrow it may be you or I just for opposing vocally policies that we disagree with.

Estragon rightly points out the political situation in some areas of Scotland.It will not become a more democratic system by perceived interference from London Media and Westminster Government.Unless anyone believes driving Scotish citizens into the arms of Scotish Nationalist is an improvement?

What about the documents? Are they false fabrications planted to ensnare an innocent man, and for what purpose?

Is Mr. Galloway such a threat to U.K. interests to be singled out for these allegations, if they are not true?

We will never know if they are real or not that is why it is such a nasty slur.
I have no doubt the courts will make the point that The Telegraph were wrong to publish because there is no way they can be verified.
They could well have been planted by the CIA,MI6,or the newspaper itself.
Remember the Hitler Diaries?The Times took the bate because it was just too good a story.
Well here we are again.

Is Galloway a danger??

Not really.He is an embarassment to his party's leadership,and a well known Anti-American scalp for the most Pro-American newspaper in Britain.

In short he has no friends in influential positions.
They want to bring him down because they think they can.

I seen a quote from a Tory MP who has a holiday home next to him & who was backing him up.

She said :
"George bought a hovel from a local peasant and drives a second hand car. You don't do that if you have squillions."

A Tory MP backing up George Galloway...
Will wonders never cease?!

[Edited on 29-4-2003 by kegs]