In the Belly of the Beast by Scott Ritter about Galloway

[ElsewheresDaughter]

Published on Saturday, May 21, 2005 by the Guardian (UK)
In the Belly of the Beast
by Scott Ritter

In the recent parliamentary elections, the British people, given the choice between standing for the rule of law or embracing partisan politics, chose the latter, voting with their pocketbooks, even though it meant re-electing a man who led Britain into an illegal war of aggression, based on lies and misrepresentation of fact.
Tony Blair is a man who has shown himself more subservient to an American president with empire in his eyes than to a British tradition of respect for the rule of law that dates back to the Magna Carta. There is at least one politician, however, that the citizens of Britain can today be proud of, regardless of how one views his politics. This is a man who, back in 2002, had the courage to stand up to Blair and George Bush, calling Blair a liar and declaring that both were behaving like "wolves" towards Iraq. For speaking the truth, he was castigated, thrown out of the Labour party and smeared with false allegations of corruption - at the same time as the US government hid its role in enriching Saddam Hussein's government with illegal kickbacks. He has now charged back, winning a parliamentary seat previously controlled by the very party that evicted him.

And now the same man has done something that no other British politician has been brave enough to do: cross the Atlantic and confront the United States over the lies spread about the reasons for war with Iraq, the oil for food agreement and the failure of US lawmakers to do their own job when it comes to the rule of law.

George Galloway, the politician in question, stared down the US Senate subcommittee on homeland security and government affairs, and its notoriously partisan chairman Norm Coleman, and blasted as totally unfounded the committee's allegations that he had profited from oil vouchers in exchange for his anti-war stance. He emerged from the hearing victorious. If only more politicians, British and American alike, were able to display such courage in the face of the atmosphere of neoconservative intimidation prevalent in Washington these days.

Galloway is now the darling of the American left, and has fed punch lines for late-night comics and generated headlines like the New York Post's "Brit fries senators in oil". But mainstream America still seems unable to digest the horrific reality that the MP's testimony underscored: that Senator Coleman's McCarthy-like hearings are but a smoke screen for a crime of horrific proportions.

<snip> So, Mr Galloway, please accept from this American three cheers for a job well done.



http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5198910-103677,00.html

[saltpoint]

1. Scott Ritter is tops in my book.

Good mind, strong heart, fine writer, ballsy spirit.

Does anybody know if there is a biography of him anyplace? I'd read it in a heartbeat.

Or does anyone know where I can write to him?

[OldLeftieLawyer]

5. Try this -

http://www.answers.com/topic/scott-ritter

[saltpoint]

7. Hey, I know you!

You're the bedrock decent human being who posted so eloquently in behalf of the young man in Nebraska whose life ended so tragically a short while back...

OldLeftieLawyer! How are you? Very nice to see you again on these boards.

And thank you for the link. I'll give it a try.

Fond tidings & good wishes to you.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

12. Hey, I know you, too!!

How's it going, mate?

That link looked good. Ritter's a hero......

[understandinglife]

13. Here is the link at DU that has his email address

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3672646&mesg_id=3673626

Peace.


www.missionnotaccomplished.us - Tragically on the path to MNA Day 4

[saltpoint]

17. Thank you.

Much appreciated.

[BrklynLiberal]

2. Kudos to Ritter and to Galloway...

:thumbsup: :headbang:

[whistle]

3. Very nice, so why was Galloway's testimony stricken from....

...the committee hearings records? I know that he spoke extemporaneously without a formal written scripted speech, but he did listen carefully, he spoke from notes and he answered questions from the two senators, Coleman (R) and Levin (D). Surely there were transcribers and senate reporters there to document and record his testimony. I've also seem a 47 minutes streamed video of Galloway testifying, but it has gaps and interruptions. I heard that his full testimony ran for over an hour as well and It was very difficult to make out much of what Coleman said and Levin asked during the testimony.

So, can anyone clear this up? Will Galloway's full testimony be in the committee records or not? And if they will, will they be complete and when will the public have access to them?

[rodeodance]

4. and another three cheers Mr. Galloway

[RC]

11. You are going to have to speak up.

I don't think anyone heard you.

[tavalon]

15. Because

they would rather not have people looking up this little moment in history. They didn't even score one point off of this guy and he hit a home run.

[Hello_Kitty]

19. Cuz it didn't make Cuckoobananas look good. Duh.....n/t

[patricia92243]

6. A Brit to finally bring down BushCo? Beginning of the end for Bush.

[Coexist]

8. Great stuff!

[Al-CIAda]

9. MP George Galloway: Named four "Mossad agents" working in Iraq

Undercover Mossad agents' in UN team

Tuesday, November 3, 1998
MP George Galloway: Named four "Mossad agents" working in Iraq
A UK MP has said that four members of the United Nations weapons inspection team in Iraq are Israeli spies. Labour's George Galloway, who has campaigned against air strikes on Iraq, named four people he alleged were agents of Mossad, the Israeli secret service, working under false names and papers with the Unscom team. But Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said he had "no corroboration" of the claims, which he said emanated from Baghdad.

Mr Galloway also said a senior UN official had told him that Unscom head Richard Butler was "a congenital liar" - an allegation "utterly" rejected by Mr Cook.
The clash came in Commons exchanges after the Foreign Secretary made a statement on the deepening crisis over Iraq's withdrawal of co-operation with the UN weapons inspectors.
Unscom's former chief of inspectors, Scott Ritter, has alleged the organisation received substantial aid from Mossad. Mr Galloway demanded: "Isn't the problem the total bankruptcy of Unscom as a credible player in this whole affair?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/207223.stm

[Al-CIAda]

10. Wayne Madsen -Special Report

Special Report

Galloway tongue-lashes Coleman; committee documents show Bush political friends and family paid Oil-for-Food kickbacks to Saddam Hussein

By Wayne Madsen
Online Journal Contributing Writer

----

George Galloway was correct when he called the Coleman Committee the "mother of all smoke screens." Major political contributors and friends of Bush not only paid illegal kickbacks to Saddam Hussein but personally profited from sanctions-busting with Iraq. Those involved in the scheme included individuals who date back to the Reagan/Bush 41 "cluster bombs and biological and chemical weapons-for-oil" scandal of the 1980s. Galloway is correct when he stated that there is enough evidence on Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair and their neocon advisers to park them in prison cells in The Hague for an awfully long time.



----

http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/052105Madsen/052105madsen.html

[understandinglife]

14. "But mainstream America still seems unable to digest the horrific reality

"... that the MP's testimony underscored: that Senator Coleman's McCarthy-like hearings are but a smoke screen for a crime of horrific proportions.

That's because "America" is past tense.

We must face the reality that, for those of us who care, the task is one of re-establishing "America":

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3688434#3690417

In Jan 2005, I posted here at DU that the outcome of allowing the stolen national election of 2004 to stand was essentially to render "America" to its status in Jan 1775. The message remains -- until we stop pretending we are a Constitutional democracy and begin acting to remove the ruthless, illegal, neocon plutocracy founded by Bu$h, Scalia and the other neoconsters, we will be the accomplices of even more atrocities.

This is just one of those atrocities, for those needing a reminder:


"May 19, 2005 | Dilawar was an Afghan farmer and taxi driver who died while in custody of American troops at a prison in Bagram, Afghanistan. This sketch by Thomas V. Curtis, a former Reserve MP Sergeant, shows how Dilwar was chained to the ceiling of his cell.
(Photo: Reuters)

Peace.


www.missionnotaccomplished.us - Tragically on the path to MNA Day 4

[Nothing Without Hope]

16. Kudos for DU from Galloway himself and also some Galloway links

These earlier threads are not to be overlooked by anyone who hasn't seen them yet:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=1793291&mesg_id=1793291
Thread title: “Absolutely WONDERFUL George Galloway entry at Wikipedia - fave quotes”

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3672646
Thread title: “MSNBC: UK's Galloway blisters US policy on Iraq - (VIDEO and AUDIO)”

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=1789359#1789452
Thread title: “Looks like entire Galloway testimony is posted (Video)”

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3674986
Thread title: “GALLOWAY TRANSCRIPT HERE”

And last but far from least:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3697411
Thread title: “He likes us, he really, really likes us! (Galloway)”
(Galloway cites emails from DU as indicating that not all Americans support Bush)

[Al-CIAda]

20. Nice assembly.

[norml]

18. Galloway Senate testimony PDF goes AWOL: Evidence 'missing' from Committee

Galloway Senate testimony PDF goes AWOL
Evidence 'missing' from Committee website

Iain Thomson, vnunet.com 20 May 2005
ADVERTISEMENT
The website for the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs has removed testimony from UK MP George Galloway from its website.

All other witness testimonies for the hearings on the Oil for Food scandal are available on the Committee's website in PDF form. But Galloway's testimony is the only document not on the site.

"I have met Saddam Hussein exactly the same number of times as Donald Rumsfeld met him," Galloway told the Committee.

"The difference is that Donald Rumsfeld met him to sell him guns and to give him maps the better to target those guns."





snip





http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2135483/galloway-senate-testimony-pdf-goes-awol