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| Home Front: Politix |
| Aziz Disputes Galloway |
| 2005-10-26 |
| WASHINGTON â An anti-war British lawmaker demanded that a Senate investigative panel charge him with perjury, responding to reports alleging he lied to Congress in his testimony about U.N. Oil-for-Food allocations. George Galloway, who denied the allegations, said if charged, senators will have to face him in court and âput up or shut up" in their accusations that he gave false testimony when he said he did not receive allocations from former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. âItâs a very serious charge and I demand them to charge me with perjury right now,â Galloway said in London. âIf they do, Iâll be on the next plane to the United States.â Galloway, a member of the British Parliament, was called to testify in May before the Senate committee looking into the Oil-for-Food scandal. During his testimony, he called the committee âthe mother of all smoke screensâ and repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. Congressional investigators said Galloway could face charges of perjury, making false statements and obstruction. Each charge carries a penalty of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., in a follow-up report to the May hearings released Monday, detailed the allegations against Galloway and others. Click here to read Coleman's report. The report says investigators uncovered a money trail, citing documents that follow bank statements and records that prove Galloway received allocations from Saddam. As evidence, Coleman cites documents he says show that Galloway personally solicited and received oil allocations in 23 million barrels from 1999 to 2003, which could be sold for a profit. âThese are the documents; they speak for themselves,â Coleman told FOX News. âThe records, the evidence says that he was paid off by Saddam Hussein.â Coleman, chairman of the subcommittee, said the documents show that Mariam Appeal, a political organization that Galloway established in 1998 to help a 4-year-old Iraqi girl with leukemia, and Galloway's wife, Amineh Abu-Zayyad, received about $600,000 from the oil allocations. The documents follow how oil allocations were given to a close friend of Galloway and later deposited into accounts of the British lawmaker. The Senate panelâs report also accuses Fawaz Zureikat (search), a Jordanian businessman and friend of Galloway, of funneling money from the Oil-for-Food program to Abu-Zayyad and Mariam Appeal. Senate investigators confirmed their evidence through interviews with Gallowayâs friend and former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz and former Iraqi Vice President Taha Yasin Ramadan. Other congressional committees are reviewing allegations that Hussein used the $64 billion Oil-for-Food program to help rally international opposition to U.N. sanctions against Iraq put into place after Saddamâs 1990 invasion of Kuwait. FOX News' Eric Shawn and Melissa Drosjack and the Associated Press contributed to this report. |
| Posted by:Danielle |