UNSCAM UPDATE:

UNITED NATIONS — A U.S. Senate committee probing corruption in the U.N. Oil-for-Food program released new evidence purporting to show that two prominent politicians from Britain and France received millions of barrels of Iraqi oil in exchange for their support of Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Citing contracts, letters and interviews with former Iraqi leaders, the probe set out evidence Wednesday to back the claim that British lawmaker George Galloway (search) and former French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua (search) accepted oil allocations under the scheme.

Galloway and Pasqua have denied any wrongdoing in the Oil-for-Food program.

Pardon me if I’m not surprised to hear this. There’s more background here, including a link to the Senate report, and an observation that the BBC is downplaying the bribery bit. Pardon me if I’m not surprised to hear that, either. Paul Musgrave has more.

UPDATE: Interesting bit from footnote 5 of the Senate Report: “Terrorist individuals and entities who received allocations include the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Abu Abbas, and the Mujahedeen-e Khalq.” (Via Power Line, which has much more).

ANOTHER UPDATE: BritBlog The Daily Ablution has much more on Galloway, and his rather dubious statements in his own defense.