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To: Raymond Duray who wrote (63811)	5/13/2005 1:02:09 PM
From: maceng2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

Got ringside seats? ============================================== Galloway heads for lions’ den to give them hell theherald.co.uk MICHAEL SETTLE, Chief UK Political Correspondent May 13 2005 A DEFIANT George Galloway is to defend himself before US senators next week in the oil-for-food row, and last night predicted he would "give them hell" when he enters the lions' den. Their allegations are that he received vouchers for millions of barrels of oil from Saddam Hussein. The Scottish MP, who dismissed the claims as absurd, told his aides when he heard of an invitation from Washington: "Book the flights, let's go, let's give them both barrels," adding quickly: "That's guns, not oil." The offer to appear before the homeland security subcommittee on investigations, which is examining the alleged abuse of the UN's oil-for-food programme, followed an outcry from Mr Galloway that he had been found guilty of the allegations without having been able to defend himself. A committee spokesman rejected claims by Mr Galloway, leader of the anti-Iraq war Respect party, that he had repeatedly written and e-mailed to ask for the opportunity to appear and provide evidence to rebut its assertions. He insisted that at no time did Mr Galloway contact the committee by any means "including but not limited to telephone, fax, e-mail, letter, Morse code or carrier pigeon". However, Norm Coleman, the Republican committee chairman, later said: "The hearing will begin promptly at 9.30am and there will be a witness chair and microphone available for Mr Galloway's use." Last night, he told Channel 4 News he was convinced the MP had received money. "He benefited from doing business with Saddam." But he also admitted: "No . . . we don't have his bank statements." Mr Galloway successfully overturned a 10,000 Labour majority to take the East London seat of Bethnal Green and Bow on an anti-war ticket. After returning from his holiday home in Portugal yesterday to rebut the charges, the former Glasgow Kelvin MP said: "I'm going to go over there and give them hell. I'll be taking them on in their own lions' den. I'll be Daniel and I'll be triumphant." He branded the US report "an absurdity", and added: "This committee has never spoken to me, written to me or asked me a single question. I have been found guilty and slandered across the world. "No country in the world acts with such arrogance. Joe McCarthy would be proud of this committee. It's intent on revenge against anyone who stood against the war. It's a witchhunt." The subcommittee's report, specifically into claims of corruption against Mr Galloway and Charles Pasqua, a former French minister, repeats the charge the MP received vouchers worth hundreds of thousands of pounds from illegal sales of oil under the OFF programme. It bases its claims on official documents and interviews with officials before and after Saddam's fall. The report paints Mr Galloway as a Saddam sympathiser, who received oil allocations for up to 20 million barrels from 2000 to 2003 "because of his opinions about Iraq". Some documents, the report suggests, indicated Mr Galloway might have used the Mariam Appeal, set up to help a young Iraqi girl get cancer treatment, "to conceal payments" from oil transactions. Mr Galloway has denied this. Last year the Charity Commission, after a year-long investigation, found no wrongdoing regarding the management of the appeal. Tony Blair, at his monthly press conference, played down the prospect of a UK inquiry into the allegations. "We have got no plans to do that," he said. In December, the MP won a libel action against the Daily Telegraph over claims he was in the pay of Saddam. Last month, the paper won permission to appeal against the ruling to pay him £150,000 damages and £1.2m in costs