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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: NickSE who wrote (96157)	4/25/2003 4:52:20 AM
From: maceng2	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

This $400k Scott Ritter got for his book from a "Wealthy Middle East businessman. That would not be Fawaz Zureikat by any chance would it? And Galloway is in Portugal, writing a book on Iraq too according to reports. Fawaz Zureikat, dailytelegraph.co.uk politics.guardian.co.uk dailytelegraph.co.uk MP's partner linked to £80m trade in crude By Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor (Filed: 24/04/2003) Fawaz Zureikat, George Galloway's Jordanian partner who claims not to be involved in oil deals, is closely associated with a company that has traded Iraqi crude valued at millions of pounds, according to United Nations documents seen by The Daily Telegraph. Mr Zureikat has dismissed as a "forgery" an Iraqi intelligence report identifying him as the front man for Mr Galloway's secret contracts to buy Iraqi crude and sell humanitarian supplies under the UN's oil-for-food programme. The Jordanian businessman has repeatedly insisted that he does not deal in oil, although he does sell food and other civilian supplies to Iraq. However the UN register of companies allowed to buy Iraqi oil, obtained by The Daily Telegraph, includes the name of one firm closely associated with Mr Zureikat - Middle East Advanced Semiconductor Inc (Measi). Diplomats said Measi had bought 8.8 million barrels of Iraqi oil since December 2000. Depending on the price of oil, this would amount to between £80 million and £160 million worth of crude. Mr Galloway, who has yet to reveal his accounts, admitted on Tuesday that Mr Zureikat was a major donor to his political campaigns, alongside the governments of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. The Labour MP said Mr Zureikat, whose name frequently appears on Mr Galloway's campaign literature, gave about £200,000 over four years to the Mariam Appeal, set up to help a young Iraqi girl suffering from leukaemia. But he said he did not know whether he dealt in oil. Mr Zureikat shares premises in Amman and uses the same telephone numbers as Measi, which appears as number 610 in the UN's list of 1,129 oil purchasers as of March 11 this year. The UN's Office of the Iraq Programme said it would not release details of individual traders. But diplomats said the UN lists Measi's director as one Ziad Abdallah Zureikat, who appears to be a brother of Fawaz Zureikat. Fawaz Zureikat yesterday did not respond to a list of questions left by The Daily Telegraph. But he allegedly told a Jordanian journalist that he was a "partner" in Measi. He insisted, as he did a day earlier, that the company did not deal in oil and threatened to sue if the newspaper mentioned his name. The names of Fawaz and Ziad Zureikat appear as joint partners in another company - Ziad and Fawaz Zureikat Trading Company - listed by the Jordanian government's register of companies. Its postal address is the same as that of Measi. The two men share the same middle names, which in Arabic usually denote the names of the father and grandfather, implying that they are brothers. The ministry of trade lists several other companies headed by Fawaz Zureikat, some with Iraqi and British partners.