[Media-watch] MoS on Galloway

Thu May 15 14:10:21 BST 2003

Thought I would send this as it is not available on the web.

Copyright 2003 Associated Newspapers Ltd.
MAIL ON SUNDAY 

May 11, 2003 

SECTION: Pg. 13 

LENGTH: 820 words 

HEADLINE: New doubts over claims that MP was paid millions by Saddam;
General behind Galloway allegations offers forged papers to journalists

BYLINE: Paul Henderson;Barbara Jones

BODY: 

CLAIMS that George Galloway received vast sums of money from Saddam Hussein
were thrown into doubt last night after The Mail on Sunday uncovered a plot
to sell forged documents incriminating the MP.

A former general in Saddam's elite Republican Guard is touting papers in
Baghdad which he says prove Mr Galloway was paid millions of pounds for
supporting the dictator.

But extensive examination of the documents by experts has proved they are
fakes, bearing crude attempts to forge the MP's signature.

The papers are also littered with factual and technical inaccuracies easily
spotted by experts with knowledge of Saddam Hussein's regime and
administrative procedures. The Mail on Sunday's investigation into the scam
casts serious doubts over reports in an American newspaper that Mr Galloway,
MP for Glasgow Kelvin, was paid GBP 6.3million between July 1992 and January
this year. 

The report in the Boston-based Christian Science Monitor was based on
documents provided by General Salah Abdel Rasool, the officer at the centre
of the forgery scam exposed by The Mail on Sunday.

The Monitor's story was written from Baghdad by journalist Philip Smucker,
also a correspondent for The Daily Telegraph, which first published
allegations that Galloway took payments from Saddam.

Smucker's story was picked up by media around the world, including British
newspapers, but the Telegraph did not report the claims of payments running
into millions of pounds, which Mr Galloway has described as 'fantastically
untrue'. 

It is, however, standing by the authenticity of its own story and the
documents on which it is based.  But Mr Galloway, suspended from the Labour
Party last week over his strident antiwar stance, is suing the paper for
libel. 

General Rasool has tried to cash in on the controversy surrounding Galloway
by offering journalists documents he claims to have found at the home of
Saddam's son Qusay.

He wanted to sell The Mail on Sunday six documents he said would prove
Galloway was paid $4million between 1999 and 2002.

The general claimed Galloway himself had signed receipts, although there was
no similarity between the scrawl on the eaglecrested paperwork and
Galloway's usual signature. Our reporter paid GBP 1,500 for the documents.

Two, dated November 10, 1999, allege Mr Galloway received $ 2million on
Saddam's orders with Qusay's signature of authorisation.

Another two, dated October 7, 2002, have the MP collecting another $
1million from Saddam, again with Qusay's authority and Galloway purportedly
signing for the money.

Two more, dated August 12, 2002, allege he received $ 1million.

In London, we had the papers examined by Dr Audrey Giles, former head of the
Questioned Documents Section of the Metropolitan Police Forensic Science
Laboratory. 

She reported: 'The signatures on the questioned letters are fundamentally
different from the examples of undisputed signatures of Mr Galloway provided
for me. 

'For the questioned signatures to be genuine, Mr Galloway would have to have
two entirely separate signatures differing not only in structure but also in
fluency. 

'There is very strong support for the view that the signatures on these
documents are poor attempts to simulate his genuine signature.' A
highly-regarded expert on documents captured from Saddam's regime during the
1991 Gulf War said: 'I believe the documents are a forgery by someone who
had no familiarity with the inner workings of the Iraqi intelligence
service. 

'They should be signed by the Presidential Secretary, Abid Hamid Mahmoud
al-Khattab. However, this name is misspelled as "Abdul Hamid Mahmoud" from
the Special Presidential Office. Not only that, but the letterhead belongs
to the Special Security Organisation when he is not even a member of the
SSO. 

'Qusay Hussein, Saddam's son, provides the second signature but he signs off
as the supervisor of the Republican Guard, when in fact his official title
is Director of the Special Security Organisation.

'Also, the final signature on the bottom of a page is from a Republican
Guard commander which guarantees the money was delivered to Galloway.

'Why would a military commander be responsible for financial affairs with a
British MP? 

'Such activities would be handled by Iraq's Intelligence Service, the
Mukhabarat.' Last night after being shown the documents, Mr Galloway said:
'The signature is not remotely like mine.

This is a pile of rubbish. How many millions am I up to now? Nobody will
believe these are my signatures. I have 10,000 people who receive mailings
every year and I sign the letters.

'I am placed on the payroll before I ever arrived in Iraq in May 1993.

These documents have even had me picking up nearly GBP 2million in 2003 and
I was never there in 2003.

'It would be absolutely reckless for any newspaper to accept that these are
authentic.' 

GRAPHIC: GENUINE ARTICLE: THE GLASGOW MP'S SIGNATURE ON A 1999 DOCUMENT
FAKING IT: 'SIGNATURE' OF GEORGE GALLOWAY, RIGHT, ON THE IRAQI PAPER FROM
1999. TOP, GENERAL
RASOOL 

LOAD-DATE: May 13, 2003