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Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (48490)	5/12/2005 6:53:53 PM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Respond to of 50167

Dirty linen-Were Galloway and Pasqua in bed with Saddam? The oil-for-food program was designed to let Saddam's government sell oil in exchange for humanitarian goods to help the Iraqi people cope with U.N. sanctions imposed in 1991 following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. But Saddam manipulated the $64 billion program to earn illegal revenues and peddle influence, by awarding former government officials, activists, U.N. officials and journalists vouchers for Iraqi oil that could then be resold at a profit. Coleman's committee said Pasqua had received allocations worth 11 million barrels from 1999 to 2000, and Galloway received allocations worth 20 million barrels from 2000 to 2003. The allegations against Pasqua and Galloway, both outspoken opponents of U.N. sanctions against Iraq in the 1990s, have been made before, including in a report in October by U.S. arms inspector Charles Duelfer. But Coleman's report provided several new details. It also included information from interviews with former high-ranking officials now in U.S. custody, including former Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz and former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan. Among the claims: New evidence suggests that a children's leukemia charity founded by Galloway was in fact used to conceal oil payments. Coleman claimed Saddam also approved Pasqua's allocations himself. The report cites Ramadan as saying in an interview that Galloway was allocated oil "because of his opinions about Iraq." Pasqua, 78, headed the Interior Ministry from 1986-88 under then-Prime Minister Jacques Chirac and again from 1993-95 under Edouard Balladur. Once a Chirac loyalist, Pasqua supported Balladur against Chirac in presidential elections in 1995. Now a senator, Pasqua appeared to suggest in his statement refuting the Senate committee's allegations of corruption that other French politicians should shoulder responsibility. "Having not exercised governmental responsibilities in France since 1995, I expect that those who have directed the country's affairs since that date assume theirs," he said. Pasqua said the Senate committee's investigation reiterated previous accusations against him "in large measure." "I deny them one more time," Pasqua said. Galloway called the probe was a "witch hunt." "I've never seen a barrel of oil, never bought one, never sold one, never traded one," Galloway said. "I've never traded in any commodity of any kind with Iraq. I've never profited one cent out of my work with Iraq." yahoo.com