LONDON - Just a couple of months ago, one of the more vocal British opponents of the war in Iraq, MP George Galloway, stood before a crowd of millions of demonstrators, the object of warmth and admiration. However, last week, he was the object of a volley of eggs thrown at him as he delivered a speech in Liverpool: A few days later, Galloway was informed that he had been suspended until further notice as a member of the Labour Party.
The upheaval in the public attitude toward Galloway happened quickly after the Daily Telegraph found documents in Baghdad three weeks ago claiming he received bribes from Saddam Hussein. Galloway, the documents alleged, received hundreds of thousands of pounds from Iraq in the past few years, which were paid to him from revenues of the UN's Oil for Food program. Saddam Hussein, it has been charged, turned down Galloway's request for more money, but did issue orders to conceal traces of the MP's relationship with Iraqi intelligence to prevent his exposure. Several days later, the Christian Science Monitor (CSM) reported that Galloway received about $10 million from the Iraqis between 1992 and 2003. Galloway refuted the allegations and instructed his attorney to sue the two newspapers for libel. In response, the satirical magazine Private Eye put a photo of Galloway sitting next to Saddam on the cover of its latest issue, below the cynical caption: "Would you be a character witness at my trial?"
While still raising contributions to finance his legal battle, Galloway found himself tangled up among several new fronts. About two weeks ago, The Observer reported that the Crown Prosecution Service was considering the possibility of putting him on trial after he called on British soldiers to refuse to obey orders in the war in Iraq. At the same time, Labour announced it had initiated an internal investigation after having received complaints that Galloway had brought the party to disrepute during an interview he gave on March 28 to the Abu Dhabi television network, in which he called British Prime Minister Tony Blair and U.S. President George W. Bush "wolves." And the Charity Commission is investigating suspicions of apparent irregularities at one of the charitable organizations in which he is involved. The Parliament's standards commissioner is also investigating Galloway's actions in the wake of a complaint filed by the Conservative Party.
Summer home named after refugee camp
Is Galloway's career finished? Sources in the local Jewish community hope so. Although they might not come out and say so directly, Galloway is considered one of the most hostile MPs to Israel, a feeling that has been driven home in dozens of speeches to Parliament since his election in 1987. An internal report of the Jewish community, which surveyed his actions over the years, stated: "Galloway has not publicly made anti-Semitic statements. It is clear, however, that Galloway is a staunch anti-Zionist and will continue to `flaunt' his hate for Israel in public, without regard for the rest of the Labour Party. His current dislike of the relationship between Tony Blair and George W. Bush, and in turn, their relationship with Israel, will only go to fuel his hatred for Israel and the pro-Israel lobby in the West."
Galloway, however, denies the allegations against him in an interview with Haaretz. "I'm not against Jews," he says. "Not only do I have many Jewish friends, I have many Israeli friends. I supported the Oslo agreement. I hope that a two-state solution will emerge from the current road map, but I have no confidence it will."
Even after a number of conversations with Galloway covering several hours, it is hard to size him up. Recent profiles of the MP describe him as a hedonistic, skirt-chasing elected official who lives the high life. According to these profiles, he owns a summer home in Portugal, which he named after the Palestinian refugee camp Tel al-Zattar, and exploits the distress of others to glorify his own name. Conversely, Galloway presents himself as a maverick politician, a passionate supporter of liberation struggles, and a man who does not hesitate to take the side of the repressed and the weak, even if it comes with a personal and political cost.
Galloway, 48, has survived dozens of scandalous revelations throughout his career. Some have formed the basis of libel suits that have brought him a great deal of income. Galloway says he has no doubt that he will be able to prove his case again. ""When I saw the Telegraph translation of the documents on the first day of the attack, there was a lingering doubt in my mind that maybe somebody in Iraq had been, as it were, trading on my name; that might be an explanation for the purported deals referred to in the documents. When I saw the Christian Science Monitor, this at least, dispelled that suspicion in my mind, because the documents, as translated by the CSM, were such fantastic and crude forgeries that I had to conclude that this whole affair is a dirty tricks operation of some kind," he says.
"The CSM's documents have me already on the payroll - to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars - of the Saddam regime more than one year before I had ever set foot in Iraq or ever met any Iraqi official. The allegation in the documents includes my taking away three million dollars in cash from Iraq on the 14th of January, 2003. In fact, I haven't been in Iraq at any time in 2003. I haven't been Iraq since last year. The rhetoric supposedly in the documents accompanying the instructions to pay me $10 million over the period reads like a satirical spoof. These allegations are not only untrue, but lies on a fantastic scale."
Galloway does not directly accuse the Telegraph and CSM reporters of being behind the allegations, but he is convinced that someone is out to get him. "I am not saying that the people who delivered these forgeries to the world were the same people who manufactured them. I'm not in a position to say who manufactured them. I'm just in a position to say that the information in them is completely false. Somebody, somewhere, is involved in a dirty tricks operation against me. Who, I cannot say. Why? I don't think you have to be Einstein to figure it out."
Galloway charges that it is no coincidence that the report surfaced in the Telegraph. "The newspaper is owned by one of the most right-wing,hawkish, pro-Israel press magnates ever in Britain (Conrad Black - S.S.), married to one of the leading Zionist campaigners in the country (Barbara Amiel, the newspaper's foreign affairs commentator - S.S.) and having a board on which sit Mr. Richard Perle and Dr. Henry Kissinger," Galloway says. "So you have to be a blind man not to see that they have a pre-existing animus against me and what I stand for, so I suspect whoever was involved in dirty tricks was pushing an open door when they pushed on the Telegraph door." He also believes the U.S. and British governments are after him due to his anti-war stance.
Chummy with PLO leadership
Galloway joined the Labour Party when he was 13, and dropped out of school at 15, when he went to work at a tire factory. He then decided to devote himself to political activity. He quickly rose through party ranks, and in 1989, at the age of 26, became the youngest-ever chairman of the Labour Party in Scotland.
He places himself at the extreme left wing of the political map. In December 1982, he even called for a merger between Labour and the Communist party. His interests and endeavors extend to every corner of the globe, from Cuba to Pakistan. He consistently makes waves, issuing defiant statements that usually run contrary to the official party line. His demonstrative support for the Arab world and his loathing for the United States have brought him not only fame, but also numerous gifts from Arab rulers as a sign of esteem. The Guardian has called him, "Socialism's answer to Lawrence of Arabia."
His life took a sudden shift when he was 21. He was sitting in the Labour Party's office in Dundee, Scotland, when a young Palestinian walked in. The man said he represented Palestinian students at the local university, and wanted to tell his tale of woe to a party member. By the time the Palestinian departed two-and-a-half hours later, he had left a deep impression on Galloway. Ever since, he says, his fate has been tied to that of the Palestinians. In the summer of 1977, he visited Lebanon for the first time, staying for three months with Palestinian refugees via a tour arranged by BAZO, the British Anti-Zionist Organisation, which gained notoriety for its efforts to disseminate Holocaust denial literature. According to various reports, during his stay in Lebanon Galloway met with senior members of Black September and the Popular Front. Galloway says that, "We met with the political leadership of the different Palestinian organizations at the time."
Upon his return to Britain, Galloway devoted himself to promoting the interests of the PLO, even succeeding to establish a twin-city alliance between Nablus and Dundee in 1980. At the end of the alliance ceremony, he raised the Palestinian flag above the building housing the city council, which is dominated by Labour. In 1981, he paid two visits to the Middle East that were underwritten by the PLO, and since then has maintained close contacts with all of the organization's leaders, including PA Chairman Yasser Arafat.
Following his divorce from his first wife, Galloway married Dr. Amineh Abu-Zayad, the niece of the PA minister, Ziyad Abu-Zayad, in 2000. He met his second wife in 1991 when she was a biology student at the University of Glasgow.
Galloway is especially proud of his close friendship with Leila Khaled, who took part in the hijacking of an El Al airliner in 1970: he was one of the organizers of her visit to the House of Commons last year. He also introduced her to the tens of thousands of demonstrators at a pro-Palestinian rally held in Trafalgar Square last May as a true example of a Palestinian "freedom fighter."
In March 2000, he declared, along the Jordanian shore of the Dead Sea that, "I used to dream I would be part of the force that would wade ashore, Kalashnikov in hand, and return it to its rightful owners." When asked whether he still dreams of that, he answers: "No longer."
Despises bin Laden
In addition to his support for the establishment of a Palestinian state, Galloway has been notable for his pro-Iraqi activities. Although he states that he is motivated by humanitarian purposes - the desire to rescind the economic sanctions imposed on Iraq following the 1991 Gulf War - an interesting dualism was evident in his relations with the Iraqi regime. Despite his caustic denunciations of Saddam Hussein, the authorities placed limousines at his disposal and rounded up thousands of cheering Iraqis whenever he arrived for a visit. Abu Zeinab al-Qurairy, a brigadier-general in Iraq's security service, admitted in a December 2001 interview with The Observer that Saddam considered Galloway's visits an important propaganda coup, instructing the officer to ensure that the visits ran smoothly and attracted large crowds of enthusiastic supporters. Galloway says in response: "I have never met that gentleman, and I have no idea if he is who is says he is, but I do have a movie which records hundred of thousands who turned up to welcome our bus across its journey. And three million people who turned up in Baghdad to welcome the bus."
In 1991, Galloway expressed his opposition to the Gulf War, and in 1994 he visited Baghdad, ostensibly to try to get the sanctions repealed. To the astonishment of the Labour Party, he was documented by Iraqi television cameras telling Saddam Hussein: "Sir, allow me to salute your courage, power and indefatigability." Galloway says in response that, "the `your' was relating to the Iraqi people, not their president, whose name I have, over many years, in Parliament on the record excoriated variously as a bestial dictatorship, a tyrant, a tin pot tyrant, a broken down dictator, and so on." It has been reported that Galloway was severely reprimanded by the Labour Party for his statements, although he claims that was not the case.
However, these slips are nothing compared to BBC allegations reported during the past year that Galloway was in contact with fundamentalist Islamic activists, at least one of whom was suspected of aiding Osama bin Laden. Galloway was involved in a public campaign to prevent the deportation of an opponent of the Saudi regime, Mohammed al-Mas'ari. In 1995 and 1996, Galloway received 5,000 pounds in cash from another Saudi dissident, Sa'ad al-Faqih. The BBC disclosed in March 2000 that al-Faqih purchased a satellite phone for bin Laden. One of the terrorists who was implicated in the July 1998 terrorist bombing of the U.S. embassy in Nairobi placed a call to this satellite phone. Al-Faqih denied the claim.
Galloway confirms that he was in contact with al-Faqih, but says he does not support the head of Al-Qaeda. "I despise bin Laden, and I have no sympathy whatsoever for Islamic fundamentalist extremism. I know al-Faqih, and I had the costs of the campaign - the hiring of halls, the placing of adverts, and the moving of the campaign around the country - reimbursed by Dr. Sa'ad al-Faqih. The other allegations are groundless.
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