WASHINGTON - An anti-war British lawmaker gave false testimony to Congress when he denied receiving U.N. oil-for-food allocations from deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, a Senate investigative panel said Monday.
Sen. Norm Coleman (news, bio, voting record), R-Minn., chairman of the subcommittee, and his investigators presented evidence that they say shows British lawmaker George Galloway's political organization and his wife received nearly $600,000 from the oil allocations.
Congressional investigators said Galloway could face charges of perjury, making false statements and obstructing a congressional proceeding, with each charge carrying a penalty of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
A spokesman for Galloway, Ron McKay, said in an interview from London that the lawmaker denies the accusations and if charged with perjury is willing to appear in an American court.
"Put up or shut up," McKay said of Galloway's accusers, calling the report derogatory and defamatory.
During a May hearing, Galloway blasted Coleman's subcommittee as "the mother of all smoke screens," denying accusations that he profited from the oil-for-food program and accusing lawmakers of unfairly tarnishing his name.
Coleman, a critic of the United Nations, said his panel's evidence shows that Galloway personally solicited and was granted oil allocations totaling 23 million barrels from 1999 through 2003. Those allocations could be sold for a profit.
The report also alleges that Galloway's friend, Jordanian businessman Fawaz Zureikat, funneled money from the oil-for-food program to Galloway's wife, Amineh Abu-Zayyad, and to the Mariam Appeal, a political organization that Galloway established in 1998 to help a 4-year-old Iraqi girl with leukemia.
Coleman said his investigators confirmed their evidence in interviews with former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, a friend of Galloway's, and former Iraqi Vice President Taha Yasin Ramadan.
Several congressional committees are investigating allegations that Saddam Hussein manipulated the $64 billion oil-for-food program to get kickbacks and build international opposition to U.N. sanctions against Iraq imposed after Saddam's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
The program was created as an exception to the sanctions, allowing Saddam to sell oil and use the proceeds to buy food and other humanitarian items.
