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http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAUDQBK5HD.html Christian Science Monitor Reports Documents Behind Reporting on British Lawmaker Were Forgeries The Associated Press Published: Jun 19, 2003 BOSTON (AP) - The Christian Science Monitor reported on its Web site Thursday that documents it relied on in reporting that Iraq authorized six payments to a British lawmaker totaling more than $10 million dollars were fraudulent. "When new information cast doubt on the documents, we conducted an extensive investigation of their authenticity which culminated this week in the virtual certainty that they were forged," Monitor editor Paul Van Slambrouck wrote in an editor's note accompanying the Boston-based newspaper's account of its internal investigation of the documents. On April 25, the Monitor said it had been given documents discovered in the Baghdad house of Qusai Hussein, one of Saddam Hussein's two sons, that showed Saddam's government authorized six payments to Labor lawmaker George Galloway totaling more than $10 million, between July 1992 and last January. According to the newspaper report, a document in January authorized a check of $3 million in recognition of Galloway's "courageous and daring stands against the enemies of Iraq, like (Tony) Blair, the British prime minister, and for his opposition in the House of Commons and Lords against all outrageous lies against our patient people." Galloway, a vocal opponent of the war to oust Saddam and a frequent visitor to Iraq before the conflict, repeatedly denied receiving payments from Iraq and called the Monitor report "fantastically untrue." Similar reports on Galloway allegedly receiving payments from Saddam were carried in The Daily Telegraph in London. As recently as Wednesday,the Telegraph reported that Galloway had confirmed he was in Iraq on the day that documents used by the Telegraph in its reporting showed he met an Iraqi intelligence officer. "I am not yet in a position to say they (the Telegraph documents) are forgeries, but I am in a position to say they are false," Galloway told the Telegraph. The Monitor said an initial investigation of the documents it received from a man who identified himself as Gen. Salah Abdel Rasool seemed to confirm their authenticity. But subsequent ink tests showed that the two documents carrying the oldest dates - 1992 and 1993 - "were actually written within the past few months." The Monitor said the "newest document - dated 2003 - appears to have been written at approximately the same time." Galloway has threatened libel suits against both the Telegraph and the Monitor. He was suspended from the Labor Party May 6 while it conducted an internal investigation. _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk