Food for Oil: UK MP fires both barrels
Scape @ Wed May 18, 2005 12:01 am
Galloway, guns blazing
8.8 billion missing?
British politician blasts U.S. senators at oil-for-food hearing
$1:
"Now, I know that standards have slipped over the last few years in Washington, but for a lawyer, you're remarkably cavalier with any idea of justice," Galloway told Coleman, chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs investigation subcommittee.
"You have nothing on me, senator, except my name on lists of names from Iraq, many of which have been drawn up after the installation of your puppet government in Baghdad," he said.
Asked if he knew that Zureikat was involved in oil deals with Iraq in 2001, Galloway said he knew Zureikat was doing extensive business in Iraq, but didn't know the details.
Galloway also said it was "beyond the realm of the ridiculous" that he would give $300,000 in kickbacks to Saddam.
When Coleman reacted skeptically, Galloway told him, "There are lots of contributors to your political campaign funds. I don't suppose you ask any of them how they made the money they give you."
"You have nothing on me, senator, except my name on lists of names from Iraq, many of which have been drawn up after the installation of your puppet government in Baghdad," he said.
Asked if he knew that Zureikat was involved in oil deals with Iraq in 2001, Galloway said he knew Zureikat was doing extensive business in Iraq, but didn't know the details.
Galloway also said it was "beyond the realm of the ridiculous" that he would give $300,000 in kickbacks to Saddam.
When Coleman reacted skeptically, Galloway told him, "There are lots of contributors to your political campaign funds. I don't suppose you ask any of them how they made the money they give you."
HOLY SHIT, the full testimony is on the bbc link and video. IT IS PRICELESS. I had to watch it twice, he tears right into the senate and takes no prisoners. This scathing assault was not at all expected.21 minutes into the 47.26.6 minutes of testimony he ...just...goes...off
$1:
Now, senator, I gave my heart and soul to oppose the policy that you promoted. I gave my political life's blood to try to stop the mass killing of Iraqis by the sanctions on Iraq, which killed a million Iraqis, most of them children. Most of them died before they even knew that they were Iraqis, but they died for no other reason other than that they were Iraqis, With the misfortune to be born at that time. I gave my heart and soul to stop you committing the disaster that you did commit in invading Iraq.
And I told the world that your case for the war was a pack of lies. I told the world that Iraq, contrary to your claims, did not have weapons of mass destruction. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to Al Qaeda. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to the atrocity on 9/11, 2001. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that the Iraqi people would resist a British and American invasion of their country and that the fall of Baghdad would not be the beginning of the end, but merely the end of the beginning.
Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong. And 100,000 people have paid with their lives, 1,600 of them American soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies; 15,000 of them wounded, many of them disabled forever on a pack of lies.
If the world had listened to Kofi Annan, whose dismissal you demanded, if the world had listened to President Chirac, who you want to paint as some kind of corrupt traitor, if the world had listened to me and the anti-war movement in Britain, we would not be in the disaster that we're in today.
Senator, this is the mother of all smokescreens. You are trying to divert attention from the crimes that you supported, from the theft of billions of dollars of Iraq's wealth. Have a look at the real oil- for-food scandal. Have a look at the 14 months you were in charge of Baghdad, the first 14 months, when $8.8 billion of Iraq's wealth went missing on your watch. Have a look at Halliburton and the other American corporations that stole Iraq's money, but the money of the American taxpayer. Have a look at the oil that you didn't even meter that you were shipping out of the country and selling, the proceeds of which went who knows where. Have a look at the $800 million you gave to American military commanders to hand out around the country without even counting it or weighing it. Have a look at the real scandal, breaking in the newspapers today. Revealed in the (INAUDIBLE) testimony in this committee, that the biggest sanctions busters were not me or Russian politicians or French politicians; the real sanctions busters were your own companies with the connivance of your own government.
And I told the world that your case for the war was a pack of lies. I told the world that Iraq, contrary to your claims, did not have weapons of mass destruction. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to Al Qaeda. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to the atrocity on 9/11, 2001. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that the Iraqi people would resist a British and American invasion of their country and that the fall of Baghdad would not be the beginning of the end, but merely the end of the beginning.
Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong. And 100,000 people have paid with their lives, 1,600 of them American soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies; 15,000 of them wounded, many of them disabled forever on a pack of lies.
If the world had listened to Kofi Annan, whose dismissal you demanded, if the world had listened to President Chirac, who you want to paint as some kind of corrupt traitor, if the world had listened to me and the anti-war movement in Britain, we would not be in the disaster that we're in today.
Senator, this is the mother of all smokescreens. You are trying to divert attention from the crimes that you supported, from the theft of billions of dollars of Iraq's wealth. Have a look at the real oil- for-food scandal. Have a look at the 14 months you were in charge of Baghdad, the first 14 months, when $8.8 billion of Iraq's wealth went missing on your watch. Have a look at Halliburton and the other American corporations that stole Iraq's money, but the money of the American taxpayer. Have a look at the oil that you didn't even meter that you were shipping out of the country and selling, the proceeds of which went who knows where. Have a look at the $800 million you gave to American military commanders to hand out around the country without even counting it or weighing it. Have a look at the real scandal, breaking in the newspapers today. Revealed in the (INAUDIBLE) testimony in this committee, that the biggest sanctions busters were not me or Russian politicians or French politicians; the real sanctions busters were your own companies with the connivance of your own government.
The Senate report found that US oil purchases accounted for 52% of the kickbacks paid to the regime in return for sales of cheap oil - more than the rest of the world put together.
Who is this crazy Scotsman?
-Mario- @ Wed May 18, 2005 3:07 am
The Senator got grilled.
Scape @ Wed May 18, 2005 4:22 am
$1:
In May 2005, he chaired the committee that was to investigate abuses of the Iraq oil-for-food program. The report claimed British politician George Galloway and French politician Charles Pasqua had been offered oil for money, against the rules of the oil-for-food program.
Great smile on this worm eh?
Sen. Coleman's $6,000 in dental work that he got at a 20% "politician's discount
Chigeeng @ Wed May 18, 2005 4:56 am
Again pro bush posters will avoid their governments complicity and drown out reasonable debate with "saddam needed to be taken out" or when they have run out of justifiable arguements its, "We have the largest military and America will get what it wants.'
Time and again the Bush administration's wrong doing is dismissed or ignored. You can't argue with that mindset.
GreatBriton @ Wed May 18, 2005 11:49 am
I think Galloway kicked the US Senate's ass, and I think he's innocent.
Galloway's best line was something like this - "I admit, I DID meet Saddam, but I met him the same number of times that Donald Rumsfeld met him only, unlike Rumsfeld, I didn't meet him to sell him guns."
I think it's hypocritical of the Americans to accuse a British politicians of buying oil from Saddam (and when they have no proof) when it was the Americans who profited buy selling deadly weapons and chemical weapons to Saddam, some of which he used on his own people.
GreatBriton @ Wed May 18, 2005 11:52 am
Galloway, who is the leader of the newly-formed political party Respect, surprisingly won a seat in the election just gone.
He presides over Bethnal Green & Bow, in London, after getting more votes than Conservative Oona King, who had that seat before him.
GreatBriton @ Wed May 18, 2005 12:00 pm
Here is the man who took on the US Senate and show them the truth they could not find after 12 months of investigation.
Quote:
(CNN) -- British Parliament member George Galloway on Tuesday angrily denied profiting from Saddam Hussein's regime and criticized the Senate panel probing alleged corruption in the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/05...food/index.html
Quote:
Galloway takes on US oil accusers
British MP George Galloway has told US senators who accused him of profiting from Iraq oil dealings their claims were the "mother of all smokescreens".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4556113.stm
Quote:
British Lawmaker to Congress: Back Off
WASHINGTON — The firebrand British member of Parliament who has been accused of accepting oil vouchers as part of the Oil-for-Food (search) scandal told U.S. lawmakers Tuesday he did nothing wrong and accused the United States of diverting attention from their own crimes in Iraq by implicating him.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,156803,00.html
Quote:
'MOTHER OF SMOKESCREENS'
British MP George Galloway launched a blistering broadside against the Senate committee which accused him of taking vouchers for millions of barrels of oil from the former Iraqi regime.
Appearing before the committee, he said senators had gone about their business in a "cavalier fashion"and accused them of "schoolboy errors".
http://www.sky.com/skynews/home
This was a one man show, some senator called Coleman was supposed to make us believe that Galloway was guilty of something. He got his ass kicked instead:
Quote:
Galloway bluntly confronted the Republican chairman of the committee, Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota, and challenged the attorney to back up claims the British MP profited handsomely from the now defunct oil-for-food program. Some of his harshest remarks concerned Coleman's support for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
"Now I know that standards have slipped over the last few years in Washington, but for a lawyer, you are remarkably cavalier with any idea of justice," Galloway said.
Galloway later told reporter he felt Coleman had failed in his cross-examination. "He's not much of a lyncher," he said.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsA...Q-UN-USA-DC.XML
------------------------
Galloway is probably now thinking - "Veni, Vidi, Vici." (I came, I saw, I conquered.)
Scape @ Wed May 18, 2005 12:03 pm
GreatBriton GreatBriton:
Galloway, who is the leader of the newly-formed political party Respect, surprisingly won a seat in the election just gone.
He presides over Bethnal Green & Bow, in London, after getting more votes than Conservative Oona King, who had that seat before him.
He presides over Bethnal Green & Bow, in London, after getting more votes than Conservative Oona King, who had that seat before him.
Galloway for PM!! Britain doesn't need another Tony
![[kissass]](./images/smilies/kiss_ass.gif "Kiss Ass")
Rule Britannia!
ridenrain @ Wed May 18, 2005 12:19 pm
Don't leave out the local connection:
Editorial: Strong ties bind Liberals to U.N. corruption scandal
May 17, 2005
It is likely to become the largest bribery and embezzlement scandal in world history.
But judging from the coverage given to it in the mainstream media and the insistence by Paul Martin‘s Liberals that the investigation should not resonate, chances are you are in the dark as to what this multi-billion dollar fiasco is all about.
So far, says a U.S. Senate investigation — one of five under way across the globe — former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is alleged to have skimmed US$21.3 billion (C$27 billion) from a UN humanitarian-aid program — which allowed Iraq to sell oil while it was under sanctions between 1996 and 2003.
Connected to this massive corruption is Canadian serial entrepreneur Maurice Strong, our prime minister‘s key advisor since the 1960s.
Strong, who has stepped aside pending the investigations broke United Nations rules by putting his stepdaughter on his diplomatic payroll, the UN says. She has also quit.
In addition Strong was linked to a South Korean lobbyist who is suspected of bribing UN officials with Iraqi money.
That lobbyist is South Korean businessman Tongsun Park who invested money in Cordex Petroleum, a Calgary oil company that was run by Strong‘s son Frederick.
Cordex is partly owned by Paul Martin‘s family company, The Canada Steamship Lines Group Inc. (Montreal, Canada).
http://www.asianpacificpost.com/news/article/420.html
Scape @ Wed May 18, 2005 1:07 pm
George has a history on not taking any bull
Watch the Paxman video on the top right. He put's paxman in his place!
Constantinople @ Wed May 18, 2005 1:09 pm
Sweet, the UK MP got his 15 minutes of fame...now on with the show. 
gaiter83 @ Wed May 18, 2005 10:32 pm
Of course, FoxNews lashes out the insults without any content...
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,156854,00.html
I watched the whole hearing... and agree completely with GreatBriton
Scape @ Wed May 18, 2005 11:44 pm
On the public stage, US politicians are not accustomed to serious challenge.
This highlights is the stark difference between what passes for a democratic process in the US any other country frankly. Now debate still happens in the US but it is usually behind closed doors of off the record. Healthy debate is stifled, usually you will hear, "I plead the 5th" sadly more often than not. The only reason why this happened was that Gallowway knew they had nothing on him and he was not in any way prop up the unsubstantiated allegations.
Full Video
However, this still all boils down to:
• Galloway's testimony against accusations leaves US Senate bewildered
• Respect MP used meeting as platform for vocal criticism of Iraq war
• US Senate remains unsure of Galloway's credibility and approach
Galloway bluster fails to convince Senate
GreatBriton @ Thu May 19, 2005 10:26 am
If these American Neocons put Galloway on trial for SUPPOSEDLY having oil deals with Saddam, when will they put Dick Cheney, one of their own men, on trial at the Senate for DEFINITELY making oil deals with Saddam through his oil company Halliburton?
Also, when will Rumsfeld go on trial for visiting Saddam in 1983 to sell him weapons, which Saddam eventually used on his own people?
Scape @ Thu May 19, 2005 5:40 pm
GreatBriton GreatBriton:
If these American Neocons put Galloway on trial for SUPPOSEDLY having oil deals with Saddam, when will they put Dick Cheney, one of their own men, on trial at the Senate for DEFINITELY making oil deals with Saddam through his oil company Halliburton?
Also, when will Rumsfeld go on trial for visiting Saddam in 1983 to sell him weapons, which Saddam eventually used on his own people?
Also, when will Rumsfeld go on trial for visiting Saddam in 1983 to sell him weapons, which Saddam eventually used on his own people?
