Mr George Galloway

24 February 2005

Q360  Sir Philip Mawer: We have touched earlier on the major contributors, who were the UAE, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia and Mr Zureikat, and then there were other no doubt minor contributions which came in from other sources. I mentioned Mr Zureikat as a major contributor and as Chairman because his role appears to me to be potentially key in all of this. I am rather frustrated that I have not heard from him in response to the three letters that I sent him. It is quite clear from your most recent letter to me that you are in touch with him.

Mr Galloway: Sure, and I conveyed your request.

Q361  Sir Philip Mawer: So it rests with him to decide whether to respond or not.

Mr Galloway: I very much doubt whether he will want to get further involved. I think if you put yourself in his shoes, he has, and probably "suffered" is not too strong a word, he has suffered quite a lot as a result of this whole affair. Neither you nor I have ever been, and I hope we never are, in a Jordanian dungeon under the control of the Jordanian intelligence apparatus. That apparatus is sufficiently robust that the Americans contract people from Guantanamo Bay that they cannot torture themselves to be tortured in Jordan. I am not suggesting he has been tortured, he has not been tortured, but he ended up in a Jordanian prison. He has suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous newspaper coverage even as late as the libel trial, as I mentioned in my letter. He was for two consecutive days in the London Times, the paper of record, described as an "Iraqi intelligence officer", quite erroneously by sloppy journalism. This was reported from The Times around the Arab world. He is now branded by The Times in the Arab world as an Iraqi intelligence officer instead of a Jordanian businessman. In these countries these things are very dangerous and he, the last time I spoke to him, laughed at the very idea that he would get himself involved in what he regards frankly, and you know my views, as a political game. There is no evidence at all that I did anything wrong. There is no evidence that he did anything wrong on my behalf and nobody has produced any, so why is this being prolonged? He believes it is being prolonged as a political game and he has already suffered quite enough, so I asked him again after I got your letter at least to reply to you, setting out his objections, if you like, but he has not done so.

Q362  Ms Barry: Possibly even a letter saying that he did not wish to reply would close the book.

Mr Galloway: Yes, that is what I said to him, "At least explain politely why you feel the way you do."

Q363  Sir Philip Mawer: It would be helpful rather than having it at second hand, as it were. You obviously know Mr Zureikat well, correct?

Mr Galloway: For a relatively short period of time since 1999.

Q364  Sir Philip Mawer: But you have come to know him well?

Mr Galloway: Yes.

Q365  Sir Philip Mawer: I think in the libel proceedings you called him a close friend or you did not demur when that description or suggestion was put to you.

Mr Galloway: I do not remember that, but I do not demur from that.

Q366  Sir Philip Mawer: Would you so describe him? You tell me.

Mr Galloway: I met him for the first time at the St Stephen's Entrance of the House of Commons in the summer of 1999 and events have thrown us close together, so he is a friend. I am able to have a friendly conversation with him, asking him to reply to you, which I did, but I am not able to force him to do anything.

Q367  Sir Philip Mawer: I understand that, and he is known to your wife, I think, originally. Is that right?

Mr Galloway: Since the 1980s.

Q368  Sir Philip Mawer: Do you know whether Mr Zureikat has in fact traded in oil or been in receipt of vouchers under the Oil for Food Programme in relation to Iraq?

Mr Galloway: Well, I think the phrase I used in my letter to you was that, like you, I have read this and I have got no reason to doubt it, but I took a decision long ago not to ask people about their business. It was not my business to do so and I never did so, but I have seen chapter and verse most recently in The Guardian that he was an oil trader and I have got no reason to doubt that. I see nothing reprehensible about it.

Q369  Sir Philip Mawer: There is clear information that he traded in oil which has come to me from two sources. One is from a report submitted by the Iraqi Oil Ministry to the Iraqi Governing Council which—

Mr Galloway: I think that is what The Guardian story is based on.

Q370  Sir Philip Mawer: Yes, which I think is what The Guardian story[25] referred to, in which both he and you are mentioned in a list of those given.

Mr Galloway: But you know that that is not true. You know that I have not traded in oil.

Q371  Sir Philip Mawer: You have told me that you have not traded in oil.

Mr Galloway: You know it. Let me put it another way—

Q372  Sir Philip Mawer: Please put it as you would.

Mr Galloway: Have you ever seen a document with me trading in oil? You have seen a piece of paper with my name written on it, but I refer you to a quotation from an unexpected source, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, at the bottom of the penultimate page, I think, of my letter to you. "People produced these bits of paper from the Oil Ministry, but you have got to have evidence that oil actually changed hands rather than bits of paper which do not mean anything. The Iraqis were perfectly capable of having all of our names on file on some nasty bit of paper." Now, I have never seen a barrel of oil, bought one or sold one, never profited from one, neither has anyone on my behalf, and whatever it says on that piece of paper that you have there, whoever put that on that piece of paper, that is a fact. No-one can produce it because no evidence exists. No-one can produce any evidence that I traded in oil. I have never bought or sold a drop of oil.

Q373  Sir Philip Mawer: No, but I think Mr Zureikat did.

Mr Galloway: That is a different matter. I was referring to your point that he and I were.

Q374  Sir Philip Mawer: The information available comes not only from the Iraqi Governing Council, but also from the UN because obviously, as you know, you are familiar with the Oil for Food Programme and, as you know—

Mr Galloway: Of course. I am not at all disputing that he traded in oil. I am merely telling you that I never asked him if he did. I am not at all disputing it.

Q375  Sir Philip Mawer: But you are disputing that (a) you traded, you are disputing that, and (b) you are disputing that you had ever received the benefit of any trading.

Mr Galloway: I am denying it, not disputing it.

Q376  Sir Philip Mawer: Denying it, okay. I should say that I am still in touch with the UN. You are aware about the Volcker inquiry into the Oil for Food Programme?

Mr Galloway: Sure.

Q377  Sir Philip Mawer: I am in touch with that and it may be that further information will emerge from there which I will

Mr Galloway: I can assure you, not about me. I have traded in nothing with nobody.

Q378  Sir Philip Mawer: If it emerges, it will relate to mentions of your name in this context.

Mr Galloway: Yes.

Q379  Sir Philip Mawer: And obviously I will let you know if any further evidence or information emerges from that source. I do have just a table[26] which shows the information which is in the Iraqi—

Mr Galloway: I have seen that.

26   Not printed. Back