Do the US Senate Realise What They're In For?

US Senate have invited UK MP George Galloway to give evidence & defend himself against unfounded allegations they've made against him based on constructed / paid for evidence that he received oil trading benefits from saddam in return for his anti-war stance.

George is 'rather good' on camera /stage and I foresee mucho embarrassment ahead!

news.bbc.co.uk...

17/05/05 should be an interesting day!

R

Great post btw, wrong forum.

To the point though: Its about time for a little embarrassment I think.

He won't show up.

He's already said that he wasn't contacted and isn't going.

But I agree, it'd be entertaining.

Originally posted by Nygdan
He won't show up.

He's already said that he wasn't contacted and isn't going.

But I agree, it'd be entertaining.

This says he is going: www.forbes.com...

Cool. THe news reports this morning made it out like he said he hadn't been contacted and would go, even tho the senate was saying yes he was contacted. Perhaps it was confusion on my part.

'Mr Galloway said: 'Book the flights, let's go, let's give them both barrels',' the spokesman said, adding 'That's guns. not oil.'

'Assuming we get visas and flights sorted, we are going there to confront the Joe McCarthy committee,'

Personally, I think that he did receive payments, tho thats based on admitedly very little evidence, and my opinion could change.

Either way, this is gonna be great.

Galloway, who set up his own left-wing Respect Party after being expelled from the Labour Party of Prime Minister Tony Blair after criticising the government's involvement in the Iraq war, branded the accusation a 'big lie'.

He's crazy, and now has nothing left to loose. Awesome.

Yeah I wondered which forum - I think it is WOT-related as George is being criticized / accused for his defiance of the US / UK agenda for the invasion.

I'm sure George will see it that way too!

As a dissenter will the CIA let him in though? - could be interesting

Think the confusion was whether he'd been asked to contribute initially. He's certainly there now. 'Go George'

news.bbc.co.uk... (includes link to video).

I doubt he convinced the hawks but think he proved to most intelligent observers that if anyone supporting Saddam is guilty he's less guilty than others.

The guy is certainly no saint but the accusations have about as much credence as reports of WMD / an Anglo invasion being welcomed by Iraqis.

Well, sorry, guys, he showed up.
I'm not entirely sure I understand why he was invited, doesn't the US Congress read ATS? Cuz then they'd know what to expect from this guy

"I am not now nor have I ever been an oil trader and neither has anyone on my behalf," Galloway said. "I was an opponent of Saddam Hussein when British and American governments and businessmen were selling him guns and gas."

www.canada.com...

other views:
news.yahoo.com...
newsfromrussia.com...

I liked what he said.

Specifically this:

As a matter of fact, I have met Saddam Hussein exactly the same number of times as Donald Rumsfeld met him. The difference is Donald Rumsfeld met him to sell him guns and to give him maps the better to target those guns. I met him to try and bring about an end to sanctions, suffering and war, and on the second of the two occasions, I met him to try and persuade him to let Dr Hans Blix and the United Nations weapons inspectors back into the country - a rather better use of two meetings with Saddam Hussein than your own Secretary of State for Defence made of his.

You quote Mr Dahar Yassein Ramadan. Well, you have something on me, I've never met Mr Dahar Yassein Ramadan. Your sub-committee apparently has. But I do know that he's your prisoner, I believe he's in Abu Ghraib prison. I believe he is facing war crimes charges, punishable by death. In these circumstances, knowing what the world knows about how you treat prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison, in Bagram Airbase, in Guantanamo Bay, including I may say, British citizens being held in those places.

I'm not sure how much credibility anyone would put on anything you manage to get from a prisoner in those circumstances.

www.timesonline.co.uk...

and this:

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 earlier 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.

transcripts.cnn.com...

//ed to add links that Frith supplied to me//

[edit on 18-5-2005 by DontTreadOnMe]

Dear all,

I am no great fan of GG back here in Scotland but I was glad to see him stand up to the US Senate committee.

He did himself proud and showed up the crassness and downright lies that make up the US political scene at this time.

Go Georgie!!!

Cheers

BHR

Originally posted by BillHicksRules
I am no great fan of GG back here in Scotland but I was glad to see him stand up to the US Senate committee.

He did himself proud and showed up the crassness and downright lies that make up the US political scene at this time.

Go Georgie!!!

Cheers

- Spot on BHR.

Just as he has dealt with those in the UK who have reduced themselves to lying about him to attack him so he dealt with the committee.

Like you say there is plenty one can criticise George for but when people stoop to the weakest smears and outright forgery and lies I have to say I love to see George stare them down and 'slap it up 'em!'

Hopefully one or two of them have a big enough pair/are dumb enough to repeat the accusations in an arena where George can sue, and win, again.

shame
i wanted to see what
skippytjc and djohnsto77 had o say about the out come



its nice to see someone stand and voice out to lies brought up americans with a very large over active imagination

He came. He saw. he conquered.

Bush sycophants and apologists, and ignoramuses at large, had this to say:

"Who'se George Galloway? He doesn't count. He's not even American."

George Galloway efficiently debunked the mother of all smoke screens

CTID56092, looks like you called it right.
Great entertainment, Galloway was less abrasive but no less entertaining on Question Time a few weeks ago.

Dear all,

What is the current state of play with that particular committee/investigation?

Has it moved on since GG's appearance?

Cheers

BHR