Desperate smears on George Galloway

GEORGE GALLOWAY, the Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow has only
been back in the Commons for a few weeks. But already, the knives are
out for him.

A US Senate investigative committee has accused Galloway of receiving
lucrative allocations of oil from Saddam Hussein. The Republican
Party-dominated committee said the Iraqi dictator used the UN’s
oil-for-food arrangements to ‘reward’ opponents of war and sanctions.

They use ‘evidence’ from former Saddam lackeys to suggest that
Galloway was offered allocations of up to 20 million gallons of oil,
commission on which would have netted hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Whatever differences socialists might have with George Galloway and
Respect – and the Socialist Party has many – these accusations have to
be seen for what they are, a desperate attempt to smear an
anti-establishment figure.

How much money have capitalist firms – especially in the USA – made
from Bush’s Iraq venture? Yet they act on tittle-tattle from Saddam’s
defeated henchmen to attack the war’s political opponents.

George Galloway told the Financial Times:

"Let me repeat, I have never traded in a barrel of oil, or any
vouchers for it. I have never seen a barrel of oil, apart from the one
The Sun newspaper deposited in my front garden. And no one has acted
on my behalf, trading in oil Middle Eastern, olive, patchouli or any
other or in vouchers, whatever they are."

The senate committee has now invited Galloway to appear at a hearing
in Washington on 17 May and he has accepted the invitation.