Mr. Chairman, thank you. As you pointed out, the Subcommittee has now had three hearings examining issues re- lated to the Oil-For-Food Program and...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I have been unable to attend as many of these hearings as I would like and I will have to slip out of this one to...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to commend you and the Ranking Member for your diligence and persistence in this endeavor.

I was State Auditor...

I do. Mr. GROVES. I do. Mr. BERKOVITZ. I do. Senator COLEMAN. Thank you, gentlemen. As you are well aware,

your written testimony will be presented...

Good morning, Chairman Coleman, Senator Levin, and Members of the Subcommittee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today regarding the Subcommittee’s...

Thank you again for the opportunity to present additional evidence. This presentation will introduce evidence that the Subcommittee obtained establishing...

That is Exhibit 14. Once again, this document indicates that Galloway received the allocation and that Fawaz Zureikat’s company signed the contract...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Senator Levin. My name is Dan Berkovitz. I am Minority Staff Counsel to the Subcommittee.

The Minority Staff report...

Exhibit 13, then, is——

And that one was to Fawaz Zureikat and George Galloway——

And I don’t think we can see it in that chart, but I believe in footnotes, because of where you have Middle East Advanced Semiconductor blown up over...

So what we have here—this chart was pre- pared after the fall of the Hussein regime, is that correct?

What you have on this chart, Zhirinovsky al- locations, is that correct?

What I am trying to do here is going through the exhibits, and what we see is a pattern, whether it is Zhirinovsky or Voloshin or Galloway or Pasqua,...

And this is with the stamp of the Ministry of Oil, is that correct?

And then you would have the same for Ex- hibit 12. Then at Exhibit 12,2 again, same form, same letter, same stamp——

The name in parentheses being (George Galloway)——

And Iraqi officials have identified the name in parentheses uniformly as the person who received the allocation, is that correct?

And then would you have similar documents, then, for Voloshin and Zhirinovsky, again, documents from the Ministry of Oil, same stamp, same parentheses?

Can you talk to me a little more, then, about how these patterns fit together?

And how do we know that these documents are genuine?

And reference specifically to the Galloway documents that we verified the signature of the Minister of Oil on these Ministry of Oil letters?

Mr. Groves, in dealing with the Russian com- panies, we appear to have a number of sham companies that are simply set up for the purpose of facilitating...

Can you give me a better understanding? I know that we have looked into some of these companies. I think it was Impexoil, the Russian engineering company,...

But with the Russian transactions, because with Bayoil, an American company, we were able to get those docu- ments, is that correct?

And as a result of getting those documents, we know exactly how much was paid.

And then we were able to break it down to divide what was paid to whom and what was left over, the amount left over for the allocation holder.

Which is consistent with the testimony of the regime officials that the allocation holder got value from passing on those allocations to others.

Mr. Greenblatt, the letters, the charts, the summaries, all that we see in the Galloway case completely con- sists of what we see in the Zhirinovsky...

One last question, Mr. Greenblatt, for this round. Several officials identified as allocation recipients have issued categorical denials. I think they...

Thank you. Senator Levin.

That is right.

Sure.

We do not actually have the actual initial con- tact between Bayoil and Zhirinovsky. We do have subsequent cor- respondence between them. What we do...

According to the testimony of the senior Hus- sein regime officials, yes.

Yes.

Surcharge, payable within one month of the date of loading each shipment.

That is right.

That is standard language.

That is right.

Exhibit 12.

It says, ‘‘Surcharge: As per the instructions of your Excellency,’’ meaning the Minister of Oil, ‘‘over the phone on 12/11/2001, of not...

That is exactly correct.

That is right.

Absolutely.

Yes.

All of these manipulations, the surcharges and the allocations were designed to do that, yes.

1 See Exhibit No. 9, which appears in the Appendix...

Yes.

That is correct.

No, Senator.

Yes, sir.

The events were reported almost contempora- neously in the oil trade press. There was a Wall Street Journal ar- ticle about it that shortly followed....

Yes, sir. Senator LEVIN. And have they answered that letter at all? Mr. BERKOVITZ. No. Senator LEVIN. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Senator COLEMAN....

We have in this hearing, a French former In- terior Minister. Was he a friend, or did they think he would help undermine U.N. sanctions, or both? Zhirinovsky,...

I see. Mr. GREENBLATT. But there was a general sense of support. Senator BENNETT. Yes, sir. Mr. BERKOVITZ. Senator, you asked from the perspective of...

OK. We have Mr. Reddaway’s comment that in Zhirinovsky, they didn’t get a very good investment. Off the top of your heads, do you have any sense...

Well, just one last observation. They may have done it for political influence and for friendship to reward those that were on their side, but they...

Saddam Huseein felt that the middlemen were making excessive profits off of Iraqi oil and that it was really money that belonged to the Iraqi people,...

That is correct.

But there wasn’t any sense that they were looking for leniency by naming names. Rather, they were clearly af- firming, this is the way we did business....

The question Senator Bennett asked of wheth- er there was evidence of specific actions regarding the allocations, I do believe as I review the record...

Thank you, Mr. Groves.

I just want to make a statement, actually to the benefit of Sen- ator Levin. Mr. Berkovitz, I think it is important to...

Thank you. Thank you for both of those state- ments, Mr. Chairman.

I would like you to look at some documents which don’t have ex- hibit numbers....

Which report? Oh, on the Russian Presidential Council. Is that something you can get at real quickly?

OK. And I am going to ask you to do the same thing on three other documents.

This says we have entered into a contract with Rosnefteimpex Company,...

I understand. Mr. GROVES. He was the point man on many of these contracts. Senator LEVIN. OK. I would like to make this document and a

number...

It shows a pattern here. I mean, this is the same type of document that we have referred to before. It shows we have entered into a contract with a...

He contracts with the company, as it must be under the Oil-For-Food Program rules, I see, is that right?

1 See Report on Oil Allocations Granted...

OK. So it is a pattern. They name a company, which could be a phony company, could be real, either one. It could be a real company, is that correct?

But it is an entity other than an individual. But then it says down here on all these documents, destination of crude oil, and it says Europe and/or...

But they go through the appearance in their own public statements, or their own documents that are filed, that they don’t deal with an American company...

It is just a charade that they were putting on publicly, is that correct?

But even their own documents don’t even try to maintain that charade.

All right. Now, the same thing is true, is it not, with three other documents which I will give you. These are the documents in the same report. First...

And there are three different companies used here, is that correct?

MachinoImport is one, Lukoil is another—I take it back. The third one is the same as the first, MachinoImport. So there are two different companies.

All right. But Zhirinovsky’s name appears in pa- rentheses in all of them——

And all of them show that the des- tination is Europe and/or America, is that correct?

I do.

Senator, I am not now, nor have I ever been, an oil trader, and neither has anyone on my behalf. I have never seen a barrel of oil, owned one, bought...

I know him very well. Senator COLEMAN. In fact you were best man at his wedding? Mr. GALLOWAY. I was. Senator COLEMAN. And at some point in time he...

Roughly 375,000 English pounds. Senator COLEMAN. Is that about $600,000 American? Mr. GALLOWAY. I do not know the conversion but it is 375,000

Sterling....

I was aware that he was doing extensive busi- ness with Iraq. I did not know the details of it. It was not my busi- ness.

Well, there are a lot of contributors, I have just been checking, to your political——

Let me assure you, I have checked your web site. There are lots of contributors to your political campaign funds. I don’t suppose you ask any of them...

First of all, I have only seen this document today, and I am telling you that insofar as my name is in a paren- theses, the information in it is false....

I told you in my previous two answers, I knew that Mr. Zureikat was heavily involved in business in Iraq and elsewhere but that it was none of my business...

No, I am doing better than that. I am telling you that I knew that he was doing a vast amount of business with Iraq; much bigger, as I said a couple...

Yes, I was. I have never known until the Daily Telegraph story appeared that he was alleged to be doing oil deals. But his oil deals are about one-tenth...

Not before this Daily Telegraph report, no. Senator COLEMAN. Senator Levin. Senator LEVIN. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Galloway. Mr. Galloway, could you...

Before Mr. Zureikat, if I am looking at the right exhibit.

I apologize, Senator. Senator LEVIN. That is all right. Now that document, assuming it is an accurate translation of the

document underneath it,...

Yes, although there is an academic quality about all this, Senator Levin, because you have already found me guilty before you actually allowed me to...

Let us be clear about something, Senator——

1 See Exhibit No. 12, which appears in the Appendix on page 1498.

VerDate 0ct 09 2002

12:03...

If you give me the original. This is not—presum- ably you wrote this English translation.

It turns out from your own testimony that prac- tically everyone in the world, and especially the United States, was paying kickbacks.

That is a good question and will you allow me to answer it seriously.

Not in a yes or no fashion, because I could give you a glib——

Here is my answer and I hope it does delight you. I opposed the Oil-for-Food program with all my heart. Not for the reasons that you are troubled by...

It is Mr. Zureikat’s problem, not mine. Senator LEVIN. It would not trouble you. Mr. GALLOWAY. It is Mr. Zureikat’s problem, not mine. Senator LEVIN....

It troubles me that it might put him in difficulty. It troubles me that it might now lead to a prosecution of him. It troubles me that this will be...

Please, Senator, you supported the illegal attack on Iraq. Do not talk to me about illegalities.

I am collectively talking about the Senate, not you personally.

Why not? You want to talk about illegality? Senator LEVIN. No. Mr. GALLOWAY. You launched an illegal war which has killed

100,000 people. You...

All right.

No. Senator LEVIN. Thank you. I am done. Thank you. Senator COLEMAN. Just one follow-up on the Tariq Aziz question.

Describe your relationship...

I think you have quoted me as saying a dear, dear friend. I do not often use the double adjective.