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| Britain |
| Intelligence experts claim Daily Telegraph find likely to be authentic |
| 2003-04-23 |
| Most intelligence experts claimed yesterday that the documents obtained by the Daily Telegraph are probably the real thing. And it couldn't have happened to a nicer Stalinist! However, eyebrows were raised at the fact that they were unearthed with relative ease by a reporter for a British broadsheet which would naturally be critical of George Galloway. Say, ya don't suppose that the feared CIA/MI6/KGB/Mossad/UNCLE/SMERSH/SPECTRE had anything to do with this, do ya? The Telegraph's correspondent, David Blair, says he found the papers as he and his translator searched the first floor of the Iraqi foreign ministry on Saturday. Mr Blair says the translator "happened upon an orange box file" labelled "Britain" in Arabic. I'm beginning to think that I should like, sight unseen, all Brits named 'Blair'. The reporter, a 30-year-old Oxford graduate whose previous postings for the Telegraph include Zimbabwe and Islamabad, says he then "happened upon" a letter from Mr Galloway nominating Fawaz Zureikat as his representative in Baghdad on matters concerning the Mariam Appeal, the fundraising Setting up his plausible deniability for later. Much more interesting, and potentially damaging to Mr Galloway, is a second document which purports to be from the head of the Iraqi intelligence — whose signature is "George, pick Shalalabad in the fourth race at Picadilly." However, there was little doubt that the letter was written by a natural Arabic speaker. So was it chance that Mr Blair found the documents? Almost as much of a chance as me boinking Christina Aguilera. He seemed to express some surprise at his find in his report. "Why the contents of the room with the box files survived is a mystery. Its walls are blackened by fire or smoke, yet most of the folders are intact." Man, the document forgers at SPECTRE are good. When asked on the BBC's Breakfast Show if the papers could be forged, he said the idea that someone would have planted them on the "off chance" a journalist would find them and translate them was "virtually inconceivable". Just like my boinking, well, you know. He also denied the timing of his find was odd, pointing out that anyone who wanted to was free to walk into government ministries and take whatever they wanted, including documents. "I was really upset, too, because I heard they had some new fax machines, and when I got there they was all looted!" And if the documents were planted, who stood to benefit? Mr Galloway has been the strongest Some of which turned out to be true, correct? Other correspondents in Baghdad were taking the find at face value, seeing Mr Blair as an industrious and credible journalist who had simply "struck lucky". Many have begun to go through papers at various government ministries and not been so fortunate. But even if the documents are genuine, it must be remembered that the information they contain may be false. The Guardian is reaching, really reaching, to help an old friend. Middlemen or Iraqi intelligence officers might have used Mr Galloway as an excuse to pocket the money for them selves. A classic scam by intelligence officers is to explain the need for money by pointing to the demands of an innocent third party. In truth, the full story of the Galloway documents may not be known for many years. Or until the libel trial starts. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #22 Meanwhile, in India..."He is a great friend of Pakistan. He has received the top award Hilal-e-Qaid-e-Azam. But the Pakistani government did not pay him," they said, shrugging off claims that Galloway was seen handing out signed receipts for cheques of 60,000 pounds on behalf of the National Lobby on Kashmir. |
| Posted by: Pink & Fluffy 2003-04-23 23:49:55 |
| #21 "CIA/MI6/KGB/Mossad/UNCLE/SMERSH/SPECTRE"-- You left out K.A.O.S. and K.O.N.T.R.O.L. Get Smart! |
| Posted by: J. G. Jackson 2003-04-23 16:47:13 |
| #20 Indeed, it is certainly true that the Soviets funded the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and that many of the leading lefties in the UK, then and now, were affiliated with the CND. Now, some of them were just useful idiots, but surely some of the CND people were essentially Soviet agents. |
| Posted by: John Thacker 2003-04-23 16:26:54 |
| #19 I wonder if anybody is sitting next to him in the benches these days. Did they all get up and move away, Georgie? Awwwww.... |
| Posted by: mojo 2003-04-23 15:52:56 |
| #18 So, he blamed our desire to free the enslavèd lands and bring tyrants to justice for 9/11. Jerk. Well, now this creep has had his true colors unearthed. Bet Blix couln't have unearthed that, now could he. |
| Posted by: KP 2003-04-23 14:18:58 |
| #17 Galloway's column was called "Reaping the Whirlwind" and was published in The Guardian 9big surprise, huh?). Go to today's "Best of the Web" column by James Taranto. http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/ Also, update on Georgie's whereabouts. Per the Sun tabloid, he's holed up in his bungalow in Portugal. |
| Posted by: ColoradoConservative 2003-04-23 12:13:21 |
| #16 Let's make double sure that Britain's vaunted "taxman" becomes fully aware of all those financial arrangements and compensation involving Mr. Gallway. That should do the trick - talk about "pit bulls!" |
| Posted by: Larry 2003-04-23 12:13:00 |
| #15 However, eyebrows were raised at the fact that they were unearthed with relative ease by a reporter for a British broadsheet which would naturally be critical of George Galloway. The Telegraph's correspondent, David Blair, says he found the papers as he and his translator searched the first floor of the Iraqi foreign ministry on Saturday. Mr Blair says the translator "happened upon an orange box file" labelled "Britain" in Arabic. Well duh. To think that a box labeled "Britain" in Arabic wouldn't naturally attract the attention of a Pom and his translator is......? |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2003-04-23 12:04:12 |
| #14 ColoradoConservative: What was that column? An "I'm glad they're dead?" A "Reward the terrorists?" |
| Posted by: KP 2003-04-23 11:48:11 |
| #13 Maybe Georgie has already taken the Chunnel train and is setting up his flat on the Left Bank? I can NEVER forgive or forget his vitiriolic anti-American column of Sept. 12, 2001. The man is beyond contempt and his actions - if found to be true - are grounds for the enforcement of England's treason laws. |
| Posted by: ColoradoConservative 2003-04-23 11:39:33 |
| #12 Sorry, Georgie Porgie, you've been found out. Send a postcard from Antenora. |
| Posted by: KP 2003-04-23 10:14:55 |
| #11 CIA doesn't publish what it finds. Somewhere in Langley there are a number of fellows snickering and chortling and rubbing their hands this very moment... |
| Posted by: Fred 2003-04-23 10:04:48 |
| #10 Gorgeous George does seem to have his ass in a wringer, right enough. English treason law doesn't require an "overt act" like the American version. See ya Georgie... Oh, and increase the S.M.E.R.S.H budget next year, Smithers... |
| Posted by: mojo 2003-04-23 10:04:31 |
| #9 telegraph also uncovered links from Iraq to Ugandan terrorists. DT doing a better job than the CIA?? |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2003-04-23 08:45:58 |
| #8 anon1, Don't know it you read this too, but more Telegraph Galloway-bashing can be found here. "...Under the tutelage of Galloway, Dundee - that austere and generally depressed city on the north shore of the Tay - twinned itself with Nablus on the West Bank of the Jordan. It was an unlikely union that saw the PLO flag flying over the Gothic splendour of Dundee's municipal buildings, but it quickly took on a farcical air when, as part of the twinning ceremony, the Mayor of Nablus was presented with a crate of whisky and a kilt by the Scottish delegation. What use a strictly teetotal Muslim, both of whose legs had been blown away in a terrorist explosion, would have had for whisky and kilts was never made clear..." |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2003-04-23 07:20:55 |
| #7 Once in a great while, the big wheel turns... Sweeeeeet. |
| Posted by: PD 2003-04-23 06:33:14 |
| #6 "CIA/MI6/KGB/Mossad/UNCLE/SMERSH/SPECTRE " Don't forget U.N.C.L.E & T.H.R.U.S.H. |
| Posted by: raptor 2003-04-23 06:11:17 |
| #5 great link, Bulldog, excellent article. The British media is without peer, I love it. They are like a pack of pitbulls. nothing gets beyond them. Sounds plausible, I guess it's true after all! |
| Posted by: anon1 2003-04-23 05:15:58 |
| #4 Raking the Galloway muck, the Telegraph's Opinions staff expound on Galloway's Gall this morning. It's worth a read. |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2003-04-23 04:01:06 |
| #3 There will be lots of collateral damage from all those files that authoritarian regimes so love. I am happy the Galloway is one of the first - he is a contemptable slimeball who has got away with his money-grabbing crap for far too long. Also on the collateral damage list is the UN's oil-for-palaces program, then France, Russia, Arafat! I love it! |
| Posted by: Phil B 2003-04-23 02:50:18 |
| #2 Galloway is a complete asshole and these documents are going to fry his ass. He's beloved by the Guardian, but he's not going to get away with this. Galloway has been in trouble before over money and lavishness...maybe he was getting a little short. Wonder how many Swiss bank accounts he has? |
| Posted by: R. McLeod 2003-04-23 01:46:33 |
| #1 ah yassss the truth will not be known for many , many years... not until everyone has forgotten all about Iraq, and the Left's job as Saddam's Little Helper in the West. Not until everybody is safely back to hating america and blaming Bush for the 'atrocity' of Iraq, can we come clean about the fact that Sammy was paying our hero Galloway. |
| Posted by: anon1 2003-04-23 01:12:42 |