"I have never solicited nor received money from Iraq for our campaign against war and sanctions," Galloway

LONDON, April 22 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Britain's most active and anti-war campaigner Labor MP George Galloway denied press claims that he was on deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime's payroll, saying he would sue for libel.

"I have never solicited nor received money from Iraq for our campaign against war and sanctions, … I have never seen a barrel of oil, never owned one, never bought one, never sold one," Galloway, the most outspoken opponent to the U.S-British military occupation of the Arab country, told BBC News Online in a telephone interview Monday, April 21.

Galloway slammed in a statement the  Daily Telegraph report claiming that Iraqi intelligence documents found in Baghdad and suggested that he received £375,000 a year from the oil for food program as "preposterous".

He said the documents, also suggesting that Saddam funded his campaigning activities, are a possible forgery or as having been designated to discredit him.

"From the way they have been described to me, I can state that [the documents] bear all the hallmarks of having been either forged or doctored and are designed to discredit those who stood against the war," 

A confidential memorandum, which the Telegraph said was found by one of its reporters in the looted Foreign Ministry in Baghdad, allegedly shows that Galloway had a secret relationship with Iraqi intelligence as he waged a fierce campaign against the war against Iraq and the previous U.N. sanctions regime.

The document, allegedly sent to Saddam Hussein's office on 3 January 2000, even outlines talks between Galloway and an Iraqi spy, the paper said in the report.

But Galloway's statement said he had never met Iraqi intelligence officials "to the best of my knowledge".

"Given that I have had access over the years to Iraq's political leadership, most often the Deputy Prime Minister, Tariq Aziz, I would have absolutely no reason to be meeting with an official of Iraqi intelligence," read the statement.

"Libelous"

Dismissing the allegations as "libelous", Galloway said would instruct his lawyers to begin legal proceedings against the British paper.

He said he had not seen the documents because he was out of the country writing a book about Iraq.

They were part of what he described as a "smear campaign against those who stood against the illegal and bloody war on Iraq and against its occupation by foreign forces".

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Thursday, April 18, that he branded anti-war comments by Galloway as "disgraceful and wrong".

A security chief, whose signature on the memo is illegible, said Galloway was pressing for more money and recommended that his demands be met.

"He suggested to us the following: first, increase his share of oil; second, grant him exceptional commercial and contractual facilities," the memo said, according to the paper.

But Galloway said that the idea that such documents had come to light just days after the massive assault on Baghdad, the looting and destruction of its ministries and government buildings and the chaos in the country, "must be treated as highly suspect."

"Wolves"

Galloway is known for his vociferous opposition to the war against Iraq despite threats of being expulsed from the Labor as a Glasgow Kelvin MP.

He said in a recent interview that Blair and U.S. President George W. Bush of lying to the armed forces about the likely length of the war.

He criticized the upcoming war against Iraq saying that a “quarter-million man crusader invasion” of Iraq is being planned just because a “particular dictator doesn’t obey our orders”.

Questioned the legality of the war and urging British soldiers to refuse to obey "illegal orders.", Galloway said the two leaders have lied to the British Air Force and Navy when they said the battle of Iraq would be very quick and easy.

"They attacked Iraq like wolves. They attacked civilians," he said.

Seething with fury at the remarks, Blair said that Labor Party "has got its own rules for dealing with that. The National Executive will deal with it".

"I am not going to set him up as a martyr to me. Let the party look at it on behalf of ordinary Labor Party members. People were very angry."