In a November 4, 2005 article on the Al-Jiran website titled "George Galloway Will Yet be Tried," Iraqi author Fadhil Rashad called for British Member of Parliament George Galloway to stand trial for robbing from the Iraqi people.
The following are excerpts from the article:
"For 35 years, the tyrant Saddam Hussein distributed the Iraqi people's money to the right, to the left, and to whoever applauded him… The best evidence of this is the Oil-for-Food scandal, where he distributed vouchers to whoever wrote in support of him and sang his praises in the press, and to whoever appeared on satellite TV to defend his rotten personality. It should be emphasized that the oil vouchers he gave out were for oil that was robbed from the Iraqi people at a time when it was in dire need of it, because of the sanctions imposed on it as a result of the wars [initiated by] this very same tyrant.
"[He gave the vouchers] to the sons of heads of state, to the heads of state themselves, and to editors who continue to fiercely defend Saddam when they are interviewed on satellite TV - and this despite the evidence of his crimes that surfaced after the downfall of his regime. This evidence includes mass graves and remote subterranean prisons… Indeed, they are not unappreciative of his favors…
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"Observers are looking forward to Iraq being a turning point in the spread of democracy in the Middle East. It is thus strange that on a daily basis I see and hear the leader of a democratic party in a large country plugging his ears and shutting his eyes, choosing not to hear the cries of tens of thousands of victims of those mass graves and the massacres of the Anfal [offensive] [1] and Saddam's other crimes. Instead, he appears on satellite TV stations and continues to defend Saddam.
"It is a truism that money can blind one to the truth… I know that George Galloway knows the truth, and that he is well aware of the [crimes] that Saddam perpetrated against his own people and against the neighboring countries. However, he turns a blind eye to them, because he wants to make the whole world turn a blind eye to them and to overlook the oil vouchers that he himself received from Saddam. I want to say in this article: George Galloway, leader of the Respect party - you defend your friend and benefactor Saddam and you will yet be tried just like your friend and benefactor Saddam. I assure you that the Iraqi people will never turn a blind eye to those who robbed them. You robbed from all of the Iraqis what amounts to approximately 20 million barrels of oil [that you received] in exchange for misleading public opinion concerning the crimes perpetrated by Saddam against his people.
"In this article, I call on the Iraqi government to open the file on the Oil-for-Food scandal and file criminal indictments with international courts against those who benefited [from the oil vouchers] and those who stretched out their hands and took those vouchers from Saddam.
"May the first [to be indicted] be George Galloway…"
[1] "Anfal" was the name given to a series of military actions and massacres against the civilian Kurdish population in Iraq in 1988. The campaign was named after a chapter of the Koran.
