Report: Galloway Received Saddam Cash

Loathsome British hack George Galloway, good friend of the late Saddam Hussein, apparently was receiving money under the guise of a charity.

LONDON (AP) - A charity watchdog criticized fiery British legislator George Galloway Friday, saying a campaign he set up to fight sanctions against Iraq received money diverted by Saddam Hussein.

The Mariam Appeal, which the legislator set up in 1998 to help a four-year-old Iraqi girl with leukemia and to fight the sanctions, received at least US$376,000 dollars in improper donations, according to a report published by the Charity Commission.

The campaign’s chairman, Jordanian businessman Fawaz Zureikat, received illegal payments from the former dictator’s government in return for a major contract under the UN’s oil-for-food program, the report said.

Galloway said the report was false.

The commission said it would take no action against the charity, which has been disbanded, and prosecuting agencies said they were not planning to follow up the report.

The commission’s findings follow a 2005 UN-backed investigation that said Saddam’s government had allocated 18 million barrels of oil to Galloway, directly and through Zureikat, to support his campaign for the lifting of sanctions on Iraq.

Galloway has always denied the allegations.

"The commission is also concerned, having considered the totality of the evidence before it, that Mr. Galloway may also have known of the connection between the appeal and the (oil-for-food) program," the commission said in its conclusion.