Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

nath · May 13, 2005, 01:06 PM

UK MP George Galloway to appear before the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4541061.stm

Next Tuesday, apparently. The claims made in their report (PDF) have been said by the Senate committee to be entirely separate from those made by the Daily Telegraph, who recently paid Galloway £150,000 in a libel settlement brought by the MP over said allegations.

However the source - 'high-ranking Hussein regime officials' - is the same, so it will be interesting to see exactly where these allegations differ, and how (or whether) the committee will attempt to stand them up in the presence of the accused.

It's hard to see how the UK govt. would have passed up the chance to royally screw Galloway if there were any substance to the accusations, given the problems he has caused Blair and co. over the past couple of years. And also interesting that 'high-ranking Hussein regime officials' deemed completely unreliable in their claims regarding WMD proliferation before the war are now blindly trusted concerning allegations of corruption amongst foreign politicians.

I can't help suspecting that possibly the committee think they are taking on a woolly lefty of the US Democratic variety. They do things a little differently in Glasgow.

Should make interesting viewing regardless of your viewpoint...

nath · May 17, 2005, 02:17 PM

Update: we have smackdown.

British Lawmaker to Congress: Back Off (Fox News)

George Galloway said he met Saddam Hussein "as many times as Donald Rumsfeld met him. The difference is Donald Rumsfeld met him to sell him guns and give him maps.

"I met [Saddam] to try and persuade him to allow U.N. weapons inspectors back in the country, a rather better use of the meetings than your own secretary of Defense," Galloway told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Investigations Subcommittee.

"You have the gall to quote a source without ever having asked me if the allegations were true, that I am the 'owner of a company which has made substantial profits from oil for food,'" Galloway said, noting that he owns no companies besides a media firm in London.

"This is beyond the realm of the ridiculous," Galloway said, denying additional allegations that Galloway paid $300,000 for surcharges for the transaction through Mariam Appeal.

After accusing politicians from France, Britain and Russia of involvement in Oil-for-Food, the committee also focused on alleged American complicity in a report released Monday night.

The report claimed that Washington looked the other way as Texas oil company Bayoil bought Iraqi crude and sold it to American refineries. As a member of the U.N. Security Council (search), the United States allowed Saddam to pocket billions of dollars smuggling oil to Jordan, Turkey and Syria, it said.

"There's a pattern here of erratic and inconsistent enforcement of sanctions on Iraq. On the one hand, the United States is at the U.N. trying to stop Iraq from imposing illegal surcharges on oil-for-food contracts; on the other hand, the U.S. ignored red flags that some U.S. companies might be paying those same illegal surcharges," Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., ranking minority member of the committee said.

Anyone with an interest in the topic who hasn't seen Galloway's appearance yet should do so immediately. It's one of the funniest illustrations I've ever seen of the difference between transatlantic political traditions.

bubblewrap · May 17, 2005, 02:30 PM

Eh, it's a witch hunt.
I think he's no more guilty than any other member of the UN.

nath · May 17, 2005, 02:36 PM

Originally Posted by bubblewrap

Eh, it's a witch hunt.
I think he's no more guilty than any other member of the UN.

Um, he's not 'a member of the UN'.

The second part of the Fox report mentioned the new report released by the committee on Monday, which outlined US involvement in sanctions-busting. Doesn't seem to have attracted much attention round these parts, strangely.

Troll · May 17, 2005, 05:00 PM

Video of the appearance is available on the BBC website as well as some quotes (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4557279.stm)

I bet those Senators are regretting ever having let him pitch. He absolutely grilled them to a cinder!!

mr. natural · May 17, 2005, 05:36 PM

I found this Galloway quote apt:

"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."

It's all rather polite, if you ask me. I'd say he didn't go far enough in describing the absolute stupidity of this self-proclaimed Greatest Nation on Earth and especially the sycophant corporate toadies now running this Weapons of Mass Destruction leaden banana republic.

Beam me up, Scotty.

eklipse · May 17, 2005, 05:38 PM

Galloway own3d,

lil'babykitten · May 17, 2005, 05:58 PM

The result: "Galloway by a knockout - before round five."

zigzag · May 17, 2005, 10:59 PM

Wow - I don't know anything about the guy, but that was one hell of a performance.

I see that he's going to run for a seat in Bethnal Green. Isn't that where the Krays were from? Fun!

lil'babykitten · May 18, 2005, 02:51 AM

Originally Posted by zigzag

I see that he's going to run for a seat in Bethnal Green.

He's already won it!

nath · May 18, 2005, 03:06 AM

Originally Posted by zigzag

Wow - I don't know anything about the guy, but that was one hell of a performance.

I see that he's going to run for a seat in Bethnal Green. Isn't that where the Krays were from? Fun!

It's next door to me!

Reggie Kray's funeral procession came down our road in 2000. Honour-guard of skinheads.

(but they lahved their mum!!)

The more you find out about Galloway, the less you'd probably like him. He's egotistical, vain and an attention seeker. He's also a campaigning MP with a history of charity work in Iraq, who once made the mistake (like Donald Rumsfeld) of allowing himself to be manipulated into a photo op with the Moustachioed Menace.

But he certainly put the drivellings of that committee into perspective. You can't make accusations like that based on the unsubstantiated allegations of a conquered dictator's groupies. Does anyone else remember the credibility the US government attached to the likes of Tariq Aziz before the war?

midwinter · May 18, 2005, 05:39 AM

Before the hearing began, the MP for Bethnal Green and Bow even had some scorn left over to bestow generously upon the pro-war writer Christopher Hitchens. "You're a drink-soaked former-Trotskyist popinjay," Mr Galloway informed him. "Your hands are shaking. You badly need another drink," he added later, ignoring Mr Hitchens's questions and staring intently ahead.

Heh. Linky.

Skip Breakfast · May 18, 2005, 02:27 PM

There should have been a better name for this thread, and this should be a lead story in the news.

SVass · May 18, 2005, 02:54 PM

"Have a look at the real oil-for-food scandal. Have a look at ... the first 14 months [during the time of the Coalition Provisional Authority] when $8.8 billion of Iraq's wealth went missing on your watch. Have a look at Halliburton and other American corporations that stole not only Iraq's money, but the money of the American taxpayer."

from Galloway to Coleman sam

Millennium · May 18, 2005, 03:05 PM

Originally Posted by SVass

"Have a look at the real oil-for-food scandal. Have a look at ... the first 14 months [during the time of the Coalition Provisional Authority] when $8.8 billion of Iraq's wealth went missing on your watch. Have a look at Halliburton and other American corporations that stole not only Iraq's money, but the money of the American taxpayer."

You know, there seems to be a lot of pot-kettle-black in Galloway's commentary. He spends very little time refuting the allegations against him, instead trying to distract people from them by claiming that his accusers are trying to distract people.

I'm not exactly sure how the issue he mentions parallels the oil-for-food scandal, anyway. Sounds like misdirection to me. I don't claim to know if he's any guiltier than the Senate he's blasting, but he's not acting like an innocent man, that's for sure.

SVass · May 18, 2005, 03:14 PM

Originally Posted by Millennium

You know, there seems to be a lot of pot-kettle-black in Galloway's commentary. He spends very little time refuting the allegations against him, instead trying to distract people from them by claiming that his accusers are trying to distract people.

I'm not exactly sure how the issue he mentions parallels the oil-for-food scandal, anyway. Sounds like misdirection to me. I don't claim to know if he's any guiltier than the Senate he's blasting, but he's not acting like an innocent man, that's for sure.

Actually, he just won a libel lawsuit over the same claim. Apparently no proof was provided in court that he had any knowledge of the payments. Iraq was scammed by a con man. sam

zigzag · May 18, 2005, 05:37 PM

Originally Posted by midwinter

Heh. Linky.

That's pretty funny. I like Hitchens but I have to hand it to a guy who's willing to go toe-to-toe with him. Hitchens isn't exactly a wallflower.

midwinter · May 18, 2005, 05:39 PM

Originally Posted by zigzag

That's pretty funny. I like Hitchens but I have to hand it to a guy who's willing to go toe-to-toe with him. Hitchens isn't exactly a wallflower.

Yeah. Hitch is too drunk to be a wallflower. Maybe more of a wall-leaner. Or a wall-puker.