Accused British MP questions US justice, denies oil-for-food allegations News
Accused British MP questions US justice, denies oil-for-food allegations

[JURIST] British Member of Parliament George Galloway [BBC profile] Tuesday vehemently denied charges [BBC video] that he benefited from the UN Oil-for-Food program while testifying during a hearing [agenda and prepared testimony] before the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee of Investigations [official website]. The subcommittee of the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs [official website] released a report [PDF text] last Thursday accusing Galloway of accepting "allocations" of 11 million barrels of oil from Saddam Hussein. Galloway sternly rejected all of the committee's allegations, informing the committee that the evidence they gathered against him was false and the investigation was fraudulent. The committee has also fingered French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua [official website, in French] for receiving kickbacks from the UN program [JURIST report], which has been abused by Hussein in order to gain Western influences. Like Galloway, Pasqua has called the charges against him false. Reuters has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UN General Assembly approves Palestine partition plan

The UN General Assembly approved UN Resolution Resolution 181 (II) on November 29, 1947, recommending that the British Mandate for Palestine be split into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an international zone for Jerusalem. The vote in the assembly was 33 for to 13 against, with 10 abstentions. The resolution sparked a war between Palestinian Arabs and Jews in 1947 and a wider war after Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded the new State of Israel in 1948. Read Resolution 181 (II).

UN divided Palestine between Arabs and Jews

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab territories, leading to the establishment of a Jewish state the following year. Read UN General Assembly Resolution 181.

Defense Secretary Robert McNamara resigns during Vietnam Conflict

On November 29, 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announced that he was resigning from his office to accept an appointment as head of the World Bank. The announcement came as the Vietnam Conflict was becoming increasingly unpopular in the United States and abroad.