(Live Thread) British Parliament member George Galloway to face oil-for-food accusers (Live Thread)

CNN.com ^ | 5/17/05 | Phil Hirschkorn

[Libloather]

British Parliament member to face oil-for-food accusers
From Phil Hirschkorn
CNN
Tuesday, May 17, 2005 Posted: 0746 GMT (1546 HKT)

Galloway speaks to the media after arriving Monday at Dulles International Airport outside Washington.

(CNN) -- British Parliament member George Galloway will face his accusers when he testifies Tuesday before a U.S. Senate panel probing the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq.

Galloway is due to appear before the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which stated in a report last week that deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein granted him vouchers for 20 million barrels of oil between 2000 and 2003.

**SNIP**

Galloway is scheduled to appear late Tuesday morning in Washington as the final witness in a hearing that begins at 9:30 a.m. ET.

**SNIP**

Galloway, 51, who met with Saddam several times in the 1990s, has been a leading critic of British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his alliance with U.S. President George Bush in the war with Iraq. He was re-elected on an anti-war platform earlier this month.

**SNIP**

A new report from Democrats on the Senate subcommittee concludes the United States ended up with a majority of the oil lifted from Iraq after vendors paid illicit surcharges of 10 cents to 30 cents a barrel to Saddam.

**SNIP**

The Democratic report found Bayoil shipped a lot of oil allocated to a company called Italtech run by Augusto Giangrandi, a sometime Florida resident with dual Chilean-Italian citizenship.

[cyncooper]

I think you're speaking to the wrong person. I merely quoted what someone else said and then responded to that.

I did not and never had made a big deal out of the issue you decided to come after me, of all people, over.

I believe on this issue my comments are quite spot on and a reasonable person would not take it into their heads to attack me for them.

I'll accept the apology I'm sure you'll hastily offer.

[cyncooper]

To help you out...the comments I quoted are italicized and are directed to post #1.

My remarks then follow and are not in italics.

[cyncooper]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1404717/posts?page=800#800

The above links you right to your post #800 where you come after me for making a point which I had not made. I was addressing someone else who made it.

You then took issue with ME and you owe me an apology.

[kabar]

You have a good memory. Actually, my grandmother was from Liverpool, but she was Irish. She had ten children and lived to age 87.

I enjoyed Hitchens' comments on Galloway's performance before the Senate. Particularly, the following:

"In a small way--an exceedingly small way--this had the paradoxical effect of making me proud to be British. Parliament trains its sons in a hard school of debate and unscripted exchange, and so does the British Labour movement. You get your retaliation in first, you rise to a point of order, you heckle and you watch out for hecklers. The torpid majesty of a Senate proceeding does nothing to prepare you for a Galloway, who is in addition a man without embarrassment who has stayed just on the right side of many inquiries into his character and his accounting methods."

Unmitigated Galloway

[Libloather]

Looks like C-Span will replay a good portion of it around noon EST on Sunday.

12:02 PM EDT 0:48 (est.)
Senate Committee
United Nations Oil-for-Food Program
Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs, Permanent Subcmte.on Investigations
Carl Levin , D-MI
George Galloway , Labour, United Kingdom

Senate Committee
United Nations Oil-for-Food Program
Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs, Permanent Subcmte.on Investigations
Washington, District of Columbia (United States)
ID: 186834 - 05/17/2005 - 0:48 - $29.95

Levin, Carl, U.S. Senator, D-MI
Galloway, George, Member, House of Commons, Labour, United Kingdom, Glasgow Kelvin
Coleman, Norm, U.S. Senator, R, Minnesota

British Member of Parliament George Galloway testified at a hearing on how Saddam Hussein manipulated the United Nations' Oil-for-Food Program to win influence and reward friends in order to undermine sanctions imposed on Iraq following the Persian Gulf War. A committee report on alleged abuses of the program had named Minister Galloway as one of several foreign officials who had received lucrative oil allocations in the scheme.

Mr. Galloway harshly criticized the report and challenged members to produce evidence of the allegations. He also broadly criticized U.S. policy in Iraq and the decision to use military power to oust the Hussein government.

This is not a complete record of the hearing, but contains Mr. Galloway’s opening statement in its entirety.

http://inside.c-spanarchives.org:8080/cspan/schedule.csp

[Miss Marple]

"This is not a complete record of the hearing, but contains Mr. Galloway's opening statement in its entirety."

So, C=SPAN is going to re-play Galloway's rant, but omit the preceding testimony where Coleman and various witnesses list the evidence for Galloways' involvement.

[Libloather]

So, C-SPAN is going to replay Galloway's rant, but omit the preceding testimony where Coleman and various witnesses list the evidence for Galloway's involvement.

Norm Coleman just ran down Galloway's perp involvement in only a few minutes. Yep, the Galloway rant is on now...

[piasa]

Back to Galloway's pal Saad al Faqhi / al Faqih / al Faghi / al Fagih

http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/js2164.htm

FROM THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

December 21, 2004
JS-2164

"U.S. Treasury Designates Two Individuals with Ties to al Qaida, UBL ; Former BIF Leader and al-Qaida Associate
Named Under E.O. 13224"

PRESS RELEASE SNIPPET: "The U.S Department of the Treasury today announced the designation of Adel Abdul Jalil Batterjee and Saad Rashed Mohammad al-Faqih for providing financial and material support to al Qaida and Usama bin Laden (UBL).

The U.S. is submitting both names to the United Nations 1267 Committee, which will consider adding them to the consolidated list of terrorists tied to al Qaida, UBL and the Taliban. Batterjee and al-Faqih are not linked to each other."