JAY FITZGERALD REPORTS that the Christian Science Monitor is set to release a big story on anti-war MP and Iraq, er, “sympathizer” George Galloway. No fair asking how he obtained a copy early.
Josh Chafetz reports that Galloway probably can’t be charged with actual treason under British law. Sounds like Galloway had better hope Chafetz is right.
UPDATE: The story’s up now at this link:
BAGHDAD – A fresh set of documents uncovered in a Baghdad house used by Saddam Hussein’s son Qusay to hide top-secret files detail multimillion dollar payments to an outspoken British member of parliament, George Galloway.
Evidence of Mr. Galloway’s dealings with the regime were first revealed earlier this week by David Blair, a reporter for the Daily Telegraph in London, who discovered documents in Iraq’s Foreign Ministry.
The Labour Party MP, who lambasted his party’s prime minister, Tony Blair, in parliamentary debates on the war earlier this year, has denied the allegations. He is now the focus of a preliminary investigation by British law-enforcement officials and is under intense scrutiny in the British press, where the story has been splashed across the front pages. . . .
The three most recent payment authorizations, beginning on April 4, 2000, and ending on January 14, 2003 are for $3 million each. All three authorizations include statements that show the Iraqi leadership’s strong political motivation in paying Galloway for his vociferous opposition to US and British plans to invade Iraq.
The Jan. 14, 2003, document, written on Republican Guard stationary with its Iraqi eagle and “Trust in Allah,” calls for the “Manager of the security department, in the name of President Saddam Hussein, to order a gratuity to be issued to Mr. George Galloway of British nationality in the amount of three million dollars only.”
The document states that the money is in return for “his courageous and daring stands against the enemies of Iraq, like Blair, the British Prime Minister, and for his opposition in the House of Commons and Lords against all outrageous lies against our patient people….”
Read the whole, damning, thing. I’ll bet there are a lot of people worrying about what else will turn up in those Iraqi files.
And yeah, I guess these could turn out to be fakes. For Galloway’s sake they’d better be, and he’d better be able to prove it. Stay tuned. Meanwhile, here’s a Galloway overview from the New York Times, which offers a broad perspective though it isn’t as up to date as the CSM piece.
UPDATE: Well, Galloway must be guilty. Scott Ritter is defending him. . . .
ANOTHER UPDATE: Hey, but maybe this guy will vouch for him!
YET ANOTHER UPDATE: And the Arab News is taking his side!
ONE MORE: Zach Barbera emails with the suggestion that someone match up Galloway’s travels to Iraq with the dates in these documents.