Galloway accepts Washington call

[bemildred]

British MP George Galloway has been challenged to appear before US senators to answer allegations that he received oil allocations from Saddam Hussein.

---

The committee said it would be "pleased" for Mr Galloway to appear at a hearing in Washington on 17 May.

The MP intends to accept the invitation, his spokesman said.

"Mr Galloway said 'book the flights, let's go, let's give them both barrels'," he said. "That's guns not oil."

BBC

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. I don't think that...

Norm Coleman really appreciates what he has unleashed. ;-)

[bemildred]

2. Buy some popcorn.

:popcorn:

[dicknbush]

17. This will be very cool.......Senate Smackdown

This guy will pull a Howard Hughes on these idiots. He will make them the ones who have to answere questions like:

WHY DID YOU GO TO WAR BASED ON A LIE

[leftchick]

20. LOL!

ya got that right!

:popcorn:

[DFLer4edu]

56. What are you talking about? He loves what he unleashed

Picking a fight with a low profile European is making him a high profile senator. It is a dream come true for him. We can only hope now that it will come back to kick his a**.

[Spazito]

3. Whoa, this could be the 'show of shows'!

Galloway will, indeed, give them both barrels! If the intent is to intimidate him, they know NOTHING about the man.

[JDPriestly]

4. Neither do I.

Please tell us about him.

[Spazito]

8. Here are some links about him

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/vote_2005/frontpage/4519575.stm

http://www.answers.com/topic/george-galloway

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article7939.htm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/voices/story/0,12820,1162935,00.html

[montanacowboy]

5. Galloway will put these fools in their place

They have NO idea about this guy - he is the Democrat we all dream about!

[bennywhale]

12. As a Brit i must say you are in for a hell of a treat.

So many of you Americans will enjoy this. Galloway is one of the finest orators i've ever heard and i bet he can't wait.

He'll be keeping some nuggets of information ready just for this. Its got to be live, rather than cut. I'd buy it on Pay per view.

Do these things go out live in America?

[dbt]

16. These things don't usually go out AT ALL in Amerika.

Wouldn't do to be distracting the sheep from their bread and circuses, you know.

[Richardo]

18. I heard him on NPR this morning - I've never heard a politician so angry

He'll give Coleman a molten lead enema he'll never forget.

[leftchick]

21. I have seen him on Wed. on C-Span....

He is indeed a force to be reckoned with. I hope Norm remembers his Depends...


:popcorn:

[burrowowl]

30. It will be on C-Span

Unless the maladministration blacks it out! Would not put it past them.

[CHIMO]

34. He Will Probably

Never get there on time. When he goes to board his flight he will most likely find out that he is on the no fly list.

[struggle4progress]

53. Maybe available on C-SPAN. Not on commercial networks. eom

[ngGale]

57. A Democrat we all dream about? Then I'm also...

getting out the popcorn.:popcorn:

[warrens]

6. Oh, my, this will be FUN

Maybe we'll find out who forged those documents. I'm willing to bet it'll reach right up into the Defense Dept.

[w4rma]

7. Awesome.

Galloway was smeared by Murdoch and Perle in Britain, but the Brits saw through the smear and reelected him.

[bushisanidiot]

9. When are these US senators going to start questions Cheney and his

illegal dealings with Saddam Hussein in the 1990's?

[whirlygigspin]

10. must see TV

give e'm hell George-

[LynnTheDem]

11. Oh this is gonna be GOOD!!! Galloway doesn't hold back his feelings...and

BOY does he despise bush & Cartel! And he knows something no one seems to have told the US government...the nation who had TOTAL CHARGE over the Oil for Food program was the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Oh yeah, this is gonna be SWEET! :D :D :D

rotflmao!!!

[bennywhale]

13. One of the finest orators

i've ever heard. He's going to murder them.

[LynnTheDem]

29. Oh yeah.

:D :D :D

[bennywhale]

14. Do you think he'll get through customs what with his communist backround.?

It may be an elaborate plot to jail the man for insubordination against the global oligarchy.

[quiet.american]

15. Gorgeous George goes to Washington

Ironically, I first became aware of Galloway when he stood up in the House of Commons amid boos and hisses and with shoulders back and chin jutted out, described Blair's partnering with the Big Dog in a strike on Saddam Hussein as:

"the UK diminished and degraded by having been reduced to the tail on this verminous and mangy Desert Fox."

Never a dull moment with George.

I'm marking my calendar for this one.

[truebrit71]

19. Norm is in for one hell of a reaming....

George doesn't suffer fools gladly, and is passionate in his opposition to the Iraq war, Lt AWOL and his British poodle...

This is going to be worth taping....

[daleo]

22. Sounds like the invitation might be retracted.

The comments on this thread are great. I wonder if this Senate committee will get cold feet?

[bennywhale]

24. Unforunately you may be part right

They will be aware of Galloway's reputation, so will probably set the remit for enquiry so tightly he won't have a chance to launch into Bush, Blair, the war and other past corruptions by both administrations.

Hope he just ignores their pleas for him to silence himself and hammers them all

[Spazito]

36. From what I have heard, he would not only ignore any pleas

to silence himself, he would respond more vociferously, more articulately, more devastatingly blunt (if possible). I don't honestly don't think there is a format that could hold him back and I would LOVE to see the repubs try, it would only increase his determination to tell them what he thinks of them, face to face. The SHOW OF SHOWS, I have no doubt.

[laylah]

23. What a wonderful

21st birthday for my youngest! :toast: :popcorn: I am not aware of the gentleman but from descriptions here, it will definitely be "Must See T.V.".

Jenn

[daleo]

25. Galloway successfully sued The Telegraph for defamation

They claimed that they found evidence of him being bribed at an Iraqi ministry building. I think they were shown to be fakes, and The Telegraph had to pay about 300,000 pounds (or dollars) in damages. He isn't a person to trifle with.

This is from memory. British DUers might be clearer on the details.

[CHIMO]

26. Galloway to defend himself in US

Former Labour MP George Galloway will appear before a US Senate committee to defend himself against accusations that he received vouchers for millions of barrels of oil from Saddam Hussein.

His spokesman quoted him as saying: "Book the flights, let's go, let's give them both barrels." He quickly added: "That's guns, not oil."

The investigative committee invited Mr Galloway to appear at its May 17 hearing, entitled "Oil For Influence: How Saddam Used Oil to Reward Politicians and Terrorist Entities Under the United Nations Oil-for-Food Programme". Committee chairman Norm Coleman said: "The hearing will begin promptly at 9.30am and there will be a witness chair and microphone available for Mr Galloway's use."

He told BBC Breakfast he wrote to the committee 11 months ago asking to speak but heard nothing. "They did not ask me a single question, they did not write to me, they have not spoken to me and they know nothing about me," he said, adding: "Don't you think the British security services would have known I, George Galloway MP, was becoming a billionaire trading in oil and don't you think if they did, they would not have told anybody?"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uklatest/story/0,1271,-5001486,00.html?gusrc=ticker-103704

Perhaps a chance to bring out a certain memo as well?

[pk_du]

27. Ahhhh Norm Coleman....turd in a suit n/t

[quiet.american]

28. "..lickspittle Republican committee, acting on the wishes of George Bush".

Gorgeous George is never at a loss for words.

The MP, who was re-elected to parliament last week in Bethnal Green and Bow running for his own Respect party, described the Senate committee as a "lickspittle Republican committee, acting on the wishes of George Bush".

[geek tragedy]

33. Someone ought to tell him that Carl Levin isn't a Republican. eom

[Nihil]

48. Lay down with dogs ...

Maybe George judges people by their actions rather than the letters
after their name? If Levin is a willing member of a senate panel
sending out more pro-Bush pro-Blair propaganda, is it any wonder that
he gets tarred with the same brush?

[geek tragedy]

52. Or maybe Galloway really is a crook?

I don't worship Galloway--unlike a lot of folks around here.

[LivingInTheBubble]

60. Perhaps he is

But since he has fought every allegation so far *and won* I suspect this is just another in the long line of smear campaigns against him.

[AlCzervik]

31. Oh please, pretty please let it be on cspan.

[geek tragedy]

32. It should be entertaining. But, folks ought to remember something:

Carl Levin is standing behind that report as well. It's not just Norm Coleman--who is an unprincipled piece of shit.

I hold Galloway in low, low regard, and tend to trust Carl Levin and his staff more.

[eridani]

37. His staff hasn't done their homework, then.

If they had, they'd have known about the buttload of money Galloway got in a libel suit because of forged memos from Iraq.

[geek tragedy]

39. The libel suit didn't prove that Galloway was innocent

It only proved that the Telegraph hadn't done its homework and was unfair in its coverage. The sources here are separate from those the Telegraph used.

[daleo]

40. I bet these sources can't be revealed for "national security" reasons

Which will put him in the usual Kafkaesque position of proving a negative, with allegations of invisible men against him. The U.S. media best beware of how they report it, though, as Galloway has shown he is willing to go to court and can win. Granted, the defamation laws in the two countries are different. It could all prove to be quite interesting.

[geek tragedy]

41. Here's the link from Levin's site:

http://levin.senate.gov/newsroom/release.cfm?id=237537

<snip>
"The staff report presents numerous documents from the Hussein-era Ministry of Oil that expressly identify Charles Pasqua and George Galloway as allocation recipients. In addition, the evidence shows that Pasqua sought to conceal these transactions because he "feared political scandals." The evidence also indicates that George Galloway may have used a children's cancer foundation in connection with at least one of his allocations."

"While, according to former Secretary of State Colin Powell, U.N. sanctions on Iraq successfully prevented Iraq from acquiring weapons of mass destruction, the sanctions program had some weaknesses as well," said Levin. "The Pasqua and Galloway oil allocations show how Saddam Hussein misused the Oil for Food program to reward people he hoped would work against U.N. sanctions. The United States and other U.N. Security Council members made a fundamental mistake in allowing Saddam Hussein to award Oil for Food contracts and issue oil allocations."

New evidence regarding oil allocations and other matters surrounding the misuse of the Oil for Food scandal will be presented at a hearing Tuesday, May 17, entitled Oil For Influence: How Saddam Used Oil to Reward Politicians and Terrorist Entities Under the United Nations Oil-for-Food Program. The hearing is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. in Room 562 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

The May 17th hearing will be the third hearing the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has held on the UN’s OFF Program. It will detail how Saddam Hussein manipulated the OFF Program to win influence and reward friends in order to undermine sanctions. In particular, this hearing will present evidence detailing how Saddam rewarded foreign officials with lucrative oil allocations that could be converted to money. The hearing will also examine the illegal surcharges paid on Iraqi oil sales, using examples involving the recently indicted U.S. company, Bayoil.
<snip>

Extraordinary accusations require extraordinary proof. It'll be interesting.

Edited to add link to actual report:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/11_05_05_psi_report.pdf

[daleo]

42. Thanks for the link, which I read through

A few observations:
- Fox news is used as a reference (just a general red flag for me).
- documents from Saddam's ministries are cited as evidence, which we know are unreliable from The Telegraph defamation trial. The document claims that they are using stuff from other ministries than the one shown to be fakes, but I think the phrase "poisoned well" comes to mind.
- they keep putting names in brackets, like an editorial opinion of who an unnamed reference actually is, which assumes what it tries to prove.

About the Galloway case specifically, the document says:

As detailed below, the Subcommittee has uncovered significant evidence that George Galloway was allocated millions of barrels of crude oil under the OFF Program. The evidence of Galloway’s allocations is primarily comprised of internal documents from the Hussein-era Ministry of Oil, documents from the Ministry of Oil created after the fall of the Hussein regime, interviews of senior officials of the Hussein regime conducted by the Subcommittee, and
interviews of Hussein regime officials conducted by the U.S. Treasury Iraqi Financial Asset Team.

Here is the footnote on one source (unnamed)
"Memorandum of Interview of former regime official by U.S. Treasury Iraqi Financial Asset Team on November 6, 2003 (Interview #17)."

Here is another, an official of the current regime, hardly unbiased:
In April 2005, the Vice President of Iraq, Taha Yassin Ramadan, told the Subcommittee that Galloway had been granted oil allocations “because of his opinions about Iraq” and because Galloway “want to lift the embargo against Iraq.”

And another:
82 Memorandum of Interview of former regime official by U.S. Treasury Iraqi Financial Asset Team on January 16,2004 (Interview #13).

Two more:
85 Subcommittee Interview of Senior Hussein Regime Official No.1.
86 Subcommittee Interview of Senior Hussein Regime Official No.1.

One more:
90 Subcommittee Interview of Senior Hussein Regime Official No.1.

Really, the only evidence I see other than this are the references to SOMO documents, whose credibility is not established. So, there seems to be:
- documents of unproven merit, from sources similar to those that have been shown to be forgeries.
- interviews with unnamed officials.
- interviews with members of the Iraqi regime put into place by the occupation force.

This is the very same sort of evidence used to justify the invasion in the first place - unnamed people, probably forged documents, and people who would benefit by the invasion.

P.S. A partial post got sent somehow earlier, this is my full post.

[geek tragedy]

43. My big question is whether Chalabi had his hands on this evidence

before they got it. Chain of custody, chain of custody, chain of custody. If the last person to have the evidence is a pathological liar and fraud, that kinda discredits the evidence.

[daleo]

44. Yes, Chalabi and curveball could well be lurking in the shadows.

They (he?) are like the Woody Allen character (Zelig?), popping up at key moments.

[geek tragedy]

45. Maybe they should invite John Bolton to sit in on the hearings

Now THAT would be pure entertainment gold.

[eridani]

46. Thanks for summarizing it better that I did

This is nothing but yellowcake redux.

[geek tragedy]

47. The credibility of these documents and witnesses should indeed be closely

examined. By no means should they be taken at face value.

At the same time, they shouldn't be dismissed out of hand as phony just because the Telegraph put a foot up its own ass. The fact that the Dan Rather memo was fake certainly didn't prove that aWol honorably served his country.

I would hope that the Democratic staffers would show much more caution in dealing with such documents.

[JanMichael]

54. It's a "fact" that the Rather memo was a "fake"?

Truthfully I didn't pay much attention to the mess but it's a 'fact' that the memo was a "fake"?

Really?

[Psephos]

55. Really

The memo was a fake, unless you want to bend yourself into a pretzel trying to pretend Microsoft Word and its font kerning tables were sent back in a time machine.

HOWEVER, that doesn't mean what it alleges about * was fake, which seems lost on many people.

Peace.

[geek tragedy]

61. Pretty much. eom

[JanMichael]

64. A "pretty much" "fact"?

Wow.

[geek tragedy]

65. It's pretty much a fact like evolution is pretty much a fact. eom

[UKCynic]

59. Geek, you are right but also possibly wrong

Galloway is not a good man and his campaign in the last election was a disgrace. However he is a brilliant attack weapon and can do a lot of damage when unleashed. He has never let truth or liberal values get in his way and as he is on the side of the righteous in this fight, light the blue touch-paper and stand clear. If he does damage, good. If he self-destructs, that also has its up-side.

[geek tragedy]

62. The problem is that he gets tied to the overall progressive movement

It seriously does not help the progressive movement to have the most prominent face of the opposition to the Iraq war be an unscupulous tankie.

[ebayfool]

58. 'documents from the Ministry of Oil created after the fall of the Hussein'

The words 'created after' kinda make you wonder ... created by whom?

Very convenient, yes?

[geek tragedy]

63. I certainly don't trust anything created when Chalabi and Curveball were

running the show. I don't even trust stuff created during Saddam's reign that Chalabi was in possession of.

[eridani]

35. A blast from the past--

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=460556


George Galloway, the MP expelled from the Labour Party, for his vehement opposition to the Iraq war, has been offered £96,000 in libel damages over claims that he was in the pay of Saddam Hussein.

The Independent has learnt that the sum has been offered by the US-based Christian Science Monitor newspaper, which alleged the MP had received $10m (£5.94m) from the former Iraqi ruler. The newspaper's report was based on documentation discovered in Baghdad after the fall of Saddam which subsequently proved to be forged. Mr Galloway is pursuing a second libel action, against The Daily Telegraph, over claims, also based on documents found in the Iraqi capital, that he had been receiving £375,000 a year from Saddam.


And then--ding ding ding ding, round two to Gorgeous George!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4061165.stm

MP George Galloway has won £150,000 in libel damages from the Daily Telegraph over claims he received money from Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq.

The Glasgow Kelvin MP had denied ever seeking or receiving money from Saddam Hussein's government, which he said he had long opposed.

[eridani]

38. Would one of the Brit posters here happen to have a reference--

--for his arrest in anti-Thatcher demos in the 80s? I heard that he was protesting the British sale of weapons to Saddam.

[Vladimir]

49. Galloway must be itching to get on that plane

not two weeks have passed since his historic election, and already he's been given the chance to make a humonguous media circus out of the US administration and the war on Iraq. Having read the report, I must say it struck me as rather loosely worded, with lots of journalistic language and a heck of a lot of pictures, but maybe I'm just too used to ultra-dry British reports (by comparison to the Hutton Inquiry's report, the Galloway report reads like a high-school assignment). I just hope its on telly, and I hope he really does give them "both barrels". Either way, its gonna be a blast!

[jmc777]

50. George should be careful...

He's probably been the most vocal anti-war campaigner in the UK, a pain in the arse to Blair's government. If I was George I'd be wary of flying in a plane. "Accidents" happen.

[D-Notice]

51. Just make sure

It's a commercial aircraft with loads of other passengers, not a light aircraft with only him & his lawyers in it...