UN accuses Glasgow wide-boys

Well actually Galloway comes from Dundee but he's integrated into the culture very well since he came to Glasgow. From the Scotsman:

"THE controversial MP George Galloway and one of Scotland's leading companies were last night facing the threat of prosecution after they were named in a devastating United Nations report into the Iraq oil-for-food scandal.

The report identified Mr Galloway as a political beneficiary of the oil-for-food programme and concluded that thousands of pounds from companies involved in oil deals with Saddam Hussein's regime were paid into the Mariam Appeal which Mr Galloway chaired and which funded his anti-sanctions campaigning."

So far, Galloway's hardly original defence has been to use the Scottish pupil's favourite plaintive cry, "it wasnae me". I will as mentioned before, despite increasing reasons to be skeptical, reserve judgment. Perhaps Mossad, or the people who covered-up the alien autopsy at Roswell, have infiltrated the UN?

Overcoming constipation

Also mentioned in the UN's report was the Glasgow-based engineering firm the Weir Group:

'It accused the Glasgow-based engineering company Weir Group of paying $4.5 million in kickbacks to Saddam's regime in return for contracts, and of refusing to co-operate with the inquiry.
(...)
The 630-page report also provided evidence that Weir Group made $4.5 million of secret payments to Saddam's regime.

Copies of contracts signed by Weir employee Andrew Macleod were produced in response to the firm's claims that secret payments were made via an agent.

The report said: "Despite Weir's insistence that its agent was to blame and there was no agreement by its own employees, documents obtained ... from Iraq reveal Mr Macleod signed several agreements to pay kickbacks on Weir's behalf."

The committee also interviewed the agent used by the Weir Group, who said the company was aware of the "illegal nature of the payments it made".

Mr Macleod told the committee: "I did as I was told ... I did what was required in Baghdad".

Mark Selway, chief executive of the Weir Group International, said the naming of his company was "not new news".

He said: "We tightened controls. The problem has been cleared up."'

Well that's reassuring. They are, after all, a company who have as part of their 'visions and values' a commitment to "Integrity: Consistency, openness and honesty applied across all our relationships, always meeting our promises." As above, I'll reserve judgment: I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation as to why a firm committed to "openness and honesty" refused to cooperate with the UN's inquiry.