Mr George Galloway

30 November 2006

Q580  Sir Philip Mawer: Did you consider registering it?

Mr Galloway: No, it was The Mail on Sunday payment for my work as a journalist.

Q581  Sir Philip Mawer: It had nothing at all to do with your position as an MP?

Mr Galloway: I know this is a vexed subject. If I had thought it was registrable I would have registered it.

Q582  Sir Philip Mawer: Let me explain a bit of background to you. You may be aware that the former Iraqi regime has kept extensive records of meetings which the then President had with all who came to see him for one reason or another. Various accounts of some of the records of these meetings have been published in various places. I have obtained a copy—and I am going to share it with you—I have what purports to be the minutes [51]of the meeting you had with Saddam Hussein on 8 August 2002. I am going to give you the Arabic version and the translation which I have had prepared of it.

Mr McKay: Is that the original copy or a photocopy?

Q583  Sir Philip Mawer: I do not have the original copy but I have a photocopy of what I understand to be the original document. That is the document (same handed) I do not expect you to absorb it all now, but I do invite you to reflect on it and after this meeting let me have any comments you might want to make about it. I want to draw your attention to the final page of the translation, which you have just reached—I can see your thumbs are on it—and give you this opportunity to read the exchanges on that final page.

Mr Galloway: This is fraudulent; no such words ever crossed my lips.

Q584  Sir Philip Mawer: This is another document to add to the pile of fraudulent documents which you allege have been written about you in relation to this?

Mr Galloway: I am stating to you that no such words have ever crossed my lips and the words therefore are fraudulent.

Q585  Sir Philip Mawer: What are we referring to as "words"?

Mr Galloway: Any discussion of funding. The idea that I discussed funding and oil is ridiculous and has been fabricated after the event.

Q586  Sir Philip Mawer: Did you discuss the earlier matter, which was a reference to an Arab television station?

Mr Galloway: I have not read the document fully, as you sprang it on me. Although you were kind enough to provide me with the other documents, I have only just been handed this document, it would have been nice to have received it earlier.

Q587  Sir Philip Mawer: I have only recently obtained the document and its translation. I am giving you ample time after this meeting to give whatever response you want.

Mr Galloway: You are asking me for a reaction and I am telling you it is all false.

Mr McKay: If there is an original, where does it presently reside?

Q588  Sir Philip Mawer: The transcript?

Mr McKay: Yes.

Q589  Sir Philip Mawer: My understanding is that if there is an original then the original is with documents which are probably held in the Middle East at this point. I cannot say any more than that. Your immediate reaction is that this is fraudulent?

Mr Galloway: That paragraph is fraudulent.

Q590  Sir Philip Mawer: Is the earlier reference to the project for an Arab broadcasting channel also fraudulent, "an English language Iraqi satellite channel", and I am quoting from a line in that paragraph?

Mr Galloway: I have discussed the project of an Arab channel with Mr Saeed Al Sahhaf, that half is correct.

Q591  Sir Philip Mawer: Did you discuss it at this meeting with Saddam Hussein?

Mr Galloway: I already told you, I did not discuss it with Saddam Hussein. I concur with the sentiment however.

Q592  Sir Philip Mawer: Again, I repeat, if you have further recollections, I want you to have the opportunity to express them, so please do feel able to give them to me. That brings me to a new point in closing. We have not touched, as yet, on the evidence of Dr Al-Chalabi. [52] I have two particular points that I want to put to you in relation to that. The first is that Dr Al-Chalabi suggests that you met Tariq Aziz and the Minister for Health with Dr Al-Chalabi in December 1999. Is that correct to your recollection?

Mr Galloway: I do not recollect it but it is highly likely. I met Mr Aziz more or less every time and I also met with the Health Minister.

Q593  Sir Philip Mawer: The second point I want to make is that Dr Al-Chalabi's evidence indicates that he gave substantial sums of money, $120,000 from memory, to Dr Abu-Zayyad which he obtained as commission from an oil allocation which he received from the Iraqi Government.

Mr Galloway: Does he say that in here?

Q594  Sir Philip Mawer: Yes, he does.

Mr Galloway: I thought he said it came from—

Q595  Sir Philip Mawer: He said he was paid commission in connection with an oil contract, although he was not an oil trader. He says that he had intended the money to be used for a humanitarian flight. Because of another donation, the arrangements for the flight changed. The humanitarian flight was then cancelled, so he was left with the money. He disposed of it in two ways: one was to Dr Abu-Zayyad for use in connection with, he says, a humanitarian inquiry into the effects of depleted uranium in Iraq, and the balance of the money was, he says, used for other humanitarian purposes in connection with the people of Iraq. He was reluctant to specify the nature of those purposes to me. That is what he said. In the response you made to the Independent Inquiry Committee into the UN Oil-for-Food Programme, you denied, on behalf of your wife, that she ever received any money from Dr Al-Chalabi, but his evidence confirms that she did indeed receive money or certainly he sent her money. I wonder how you can reconcile these conflicting statements?

Mr Galloway: I am not in a position to deny that on behalf of my wife other than to go on the basis of what she has told me. I have to assume what she told me about the payment to be correct. I have no reason otherwise to doubt the point that the donation came from Switzerland and not from Dr Al-Chalabi. She maintains to this day that she did not receive money from Al-Chalabi. I infer from reading this that he was somehow involved with a source in Switzerland, but she got the money from Switzerland which is the basis of what you say about this so-called "independent inquiry".

Q596  Sir Philip Mawer: What is the basis for you saying that to them?

Mr Galloway: Just from what she told me.

Q597  Sir Philip Mawer: She has told you this?

Mr Galloway: She told me that at the time and not subsequently.[53] She told me long ago that she had received a donation from a trust in Switzerland.

Q598  Sir Philip Mawer: Did you check the point with her before you wrote the reply or sent it to the Independent Inquiry Committee or were you relying on memory?

Mr Galloway: I was relying on memory.

Q599  Sir Philip Mawer: Have you checked the question with her since Dr Al-Chalabi's evidence?

Mr Galloway: No.

52   Volume III, PCS Oral Evidence 1. Back

53   Note from Witness: On 25 January 2007 Mr Galloway requested the amendment of this sentence to read: "She told me that at the time and subsequently." Back