May 17, 2005
British MP Galloway Rejects U.S. Congress Charges
By REUTERS 
Filed at 11:51 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - British MP George Galloway told the U.S. Congress on Tuesday he rejected charges he profited from the Iraq oil-for-food program and complained he was being treated unfairly by a Senate committee.
``I am not now, nor have I ever been, an oil trader, and neither has anyone on my behalf,'' he told the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations as he began refuting the committee's accusations.
``I have never seen a barrel of oil, owned one, bought one, sold one, and neither has anybody on my behalf,'' Galloway said.
Addressing the Republican chairman of the committee, Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota, he added: ``Now I know that standards have slipped over the last few years in Washington, but for a lawyer, you are remarkably cavalier with any idea of justice.''
Galloway was a witness before the committee that is examining how ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein used oil to reward politicians, particularly from Russia, France and Britain, under the United Nations oil-for-food program.
Galloway, a maverick kicked out of the British Labour Party for his fervent opposition to the Iraq war and for personal attacks on Prime Minister Tony Blair, has dismissed allegations by the committee that he benefited from the program.
The committee last week released documents it said showed Saddam gave Galloway the rights to export 20 million barrels of oil under the defunct humanitarian program.