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10/26/2005:

"Galloway pledges to take fight to clear name into enemy territory"

George Galloway is considering taking his fight with Senator Norm Coleman to the Republican's heartland by booking a venue in Minnesota and challenging him to a debate.

Mr Coleman is chairman of a senate permanent sub-committee on investigations that yesterday accused Mr Galloway of lying under oath about Saddam Hussein's multi-million pound oil-for food programme.

The senate investigation claimed Mr Galloway, the Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, was granted eight oil allocations totalling 23 million barrels between 1999 and 2003. Mr Galloway said he had never received a penny in oil money.

Ron McKay, Mr Galloway's assistant, said that a hall could be booked for Minnesota possibly for as early as next week. The two could fly to the US and challenge Senator Coleman to turn up for a debate.

Mr Galloway said that the debate was one of a number of options and a final decision had not been taken. "We want to take the fight to the enemy," he said. He expressed little confidence that Mr Coleman would agree to such a debate.

Mr Galloway surprised Mr Coleman in May by flying to Washington to confront him directly in the senate over the oil allegations. Last month he flew to New York to debate Iraq with the writer Christopher Hitchens.

Mr Galloway described the senate's report as "politically motivated".

He also repeated his challenge to Mr Coleman to make his allegations outside the protection of the senate, to accuse him of perjury and let a court decide.

"I have no confidence that Coleman will charge me. That would require [Tariq] Aziz [the former Iraqi deputy prime minister being held in jail in Iraq and one of the senate committee's alleged sources] and others appearing in court." He said the senator would be "terrified of that".

"If they say they are going to charge me I'll head for the airport and I'm calling for them to do so, begging them to do so," he said. "The charge against me in this sneak attack is that I lied under oath in front of the Senate when I went there in May and trounced this group of lickspittle pro-war Bushites. I am unequivocally stating here and now I'll head for Heathrow now, pausing only to pick up my toothbrush, if they will promise to charge me with perjury. It is very clear what they said, I lied under oath. It is a criminal offence which is what they told me when I swore the oath. It is put up or shut up time. See you in court Senator Coleman."
guardian.co.uk