Galloway takes the piss out of Senators

Politics International Politics
21

[quote=“fred smith”]Well Traveller:

What he says could in fact be true. All the facts are not in yet so we must wait. But I have a sneaking suspicion that a whole lot of people who were very anti-invading Iraq may be caught with some very vested reasons for doing so. What do you think? Perhaps, Galloway will be one of those people? Regardless, he is nearly as ridiculous as that Democrat representative from Ohio who was hounded out of office for corruption charges. They both represent the facile and smart-assy low life that appeals to some who like to see people “tell it like it is” but one really must scratch one’s head sometimes and wonder just what people such as Galloway really contribute to their nation, their society, their community or anyone’s wellbeing except their own.[/quote]

What utter twaddle! Who gives a flying fuck about George Galloway personally? So, according to your logic, if he sits around all day blowing bubbles out of his arse it’s OK to accuse him of giving money to and receiving money from Saddam Hussein and put him in jail in the absence of any evidence whatsoever?

Christ. At least the Soviets had show trials. I reckon Galloway’s days are numbered. What’ll it be? Concrete jeans? Classic brake failure going down a hill? Random “mugging” ending in unfortunate accident? A Dave Kelly “suicide”?

22

[quote=“TainanCowboy”]As further reports come in…
Interesting that I am seeing no mention of the portion of the Committee meeting where Coleman and government
witnesses presented reams of documents, including some with Galloway’s own signature, in which it was proved
that Galloway did, indeed, receive money from the OFF program, including one document with his signature in
which he agreed to the illegal surcharge to be paid to Saddam. These are not the same docu,emts as
presented in the UK hearings.

Galloway didn’t answer any questions, merely gave his ranting. Coleman ignored the bait and calmly kept asking
him questions as to his participation and remuneration in these activities.

Galloway, for all of his blustering, is in deep trouble.
That evidence will get forwarded to the UK, we’ll see what the results are there.
Galloway’s blustering was from someone who knew his goose is cooked.[/quote]

I think you may be pushing a little here.

The documents presented have not been verified. Galloway has not been given the originals and we have seen no independent expert analysis of said documents, so any claims to their validity are a little premature at best. In reality the documents at present fail to prove anything as they have not been put up to scrutiny. Most of the evidence seems to have come from former Iraqi regime elements - people who the US never trusted before but apparently do now. A little circumspection might be in order. (Please lord I hope I spelt that right)

I very much doubt that Galloway has been involved in what has been claimed. I say this not because I admire the man, but because he has never been close to power in the UK and has never had access to the establishment. I therefore doubt that he could have formed the networks needed to keep this kind of stuff covered up until now. He is a man who feeds of his image and the fight in general; he doesn’t strike me as a man who feeds off the pursuit of wealth. I could be wrong but none of the evidence so far has been very convincing. If there is a money trail then that might be worth considering but as things stand, gorgeous George will feel fairly confident that he can strut around the farmyard without much worry about being cooked too soon.

23

Neoconservatives get ever more bizarre and publicly insipid and there seems no bottom to it. I wouldn’t mind except that they’re doing it in the name of the United States.

If ever there were a time to produce evidence, it’s after you’ve accused a fiery, articulate critic of your policies of wrong-doing and he travels a great distance on his own to face you in a very public forum.

Is anyone aware of any evidence that was produced at the hearing? I heard only accusations and hearsay and that defining witch’s brew of neo-“conservatism” character assassination.

Maintaining that a witchhunt was a success because it was conducted in a calm and reasonable manner and that the evidence is “in the mail” is just clinically delusional. The real effect of the Senate hearings was to make the U.S. and its government look like a bunch of bungling stooges in front of the world with big “Kick Me” signs hung on their backs.


". . . you say in this document . . . that I am ‘the owner of a company which has made substantial profits from trading in Iraqi oil’. . .

. . . if you had any evidence that I had ever engaged in any actual oil transaction, if you had any evidence that anybody ever gave me any money, it would be before the public and before this committee today . . .

. . . Senator? Who paid me hundreds of thousands of dollars of money? The answer to that is nobody. And if you had anybody who ever paid me a penny, you would have produced them today.

Now you refer at length to a company names in these documents as Aredio Petroleum. I say to you under oath here today: I have never heard of this company, I have never met anyone from this company. This company has never paid a penny to me and I’ll tell you something else: I can assure you that Aredio Petroleum has never paid a single penny to the Mariam Appeal Campaign. Not a thin dime. . .

Whilst I’m on that subject, who is this senior former regime official that you spoke to yesterday? Don’t you think I have a right to know? Don’t you think the Committee and the public have a right to know who this senior former regime official you were quoting against me interviewed yesterday actually is? . . . "

24

I first of all want to merely laugh and laugh and laugh that now that charges are flying around that so many who vilified Bush and Blair without proof are outraged, yes outraged that such a thing could be happening! How dare people sling mud! What is the world coming to!

But as we requested that proof be given, we too must await proof before being able to proceed further with the likes of George Galloway, but don’t ask me to cry tears of pain at seeing this man’s reputation be dragged through the mud. Shall we replay any of his invectives against Bush or Blair? And shall we ask him just where his proof was for his many charges?

Quite frankly, at this point, I do not care if he is innocent or guilty but I am very amused at his predicament. Shall we just laughingly note that what goes around comes around?

Hmmm. Not entirely. There appears to be a very close relationship between Saddam and Galloway and let’s just say his efforts at “moderating” Saddam’s behavior were very curious. Shall we say that obsequiousness and sycophancy are effective tools for disarming dictators? haha

We have seen evidence that suggests note the word suggests that Galloway may have been involved in this Oil for Food scam. We have discovered that such a well orchestrated plan existed. We have the names of the people that were at the very minimum being targeted so I think that we need to do a bit more spadework to see if the money was actually delivered, the contracts issued, etc. etc. BUT given that so many were willing to condemn Bush and Blair with very little evidence (where there’s smoke there’s fire we were told) and despite the total exoneration of Bush and Blair (though we still are treated to new facts claiming this that and the other) I am sure that those inquiring minds will be equally inquiring when it comes to the possible shenanigans of Kofi Annan, his son, Charles Pasqua, George Galloway and others right?

Perhaps, true facts will be forthcoming but in the meantime, shouldn’t we also spend just as much press time examining and investigating preferably on the frontpages of every major news organization in the world these potential credible charges? hahahahahahahahaahah

I am LOVING this. More investigations! More charges! We must get to the TRUTH!!! hahahahahahaahah too bad that can of worms was opened, now let’s all go fishing!!! Hey, a new MFGRism! I am getting good at this!

25

Actually, the chairman of the committee, a former district attorney, said that there were numerous first-hand accounts from senior Iraqi officials, including Tariq Aziz, former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister that implicate Galloway. If you watch his “performance” in front of the committee a bit more carefully, you’ll see that it was just a well-crafted political show. He didn’t touch on the evidence or specific charges very much.

26

It’s funny…alot of the discussion around Galloway has nothing to do with the case itself. Clearly he’s cozied up with Saddam…which in itself can’t be too good, even if he didn’t take the money. If he did take the money, oil, what have you then there is nothing more to be said.

This is more to do with the fact that the Brit’s love to take the sutffing out of the US. Before the war when our Tony was debating in parliment Galloway was already being trashed by the BBC and other parlimentarians for his relationship with Saddam - now he’s some kind of hero because he was basically little more than rude to the senate? I heard little substance from his commentary other than polemics about the war. From what I’ve seen on the BBC, Parliment teaches you how to say nothing at all with great aplomb

27

I have no clue about the innocence or guilt of Galloway per se, but you have to applaud anybody who can speak like that and take the piss out of the US Senate so adroitly. They’re too full of themselves by half.

28

Sorry but I disagree. It is not a question of taking the piss out of the senators though I would imagine a bunch of hooligans, yobs and thugs might find that amusing. It is about finding out how Saddam was able to use a UN program to enrich himself, flout sanctions, evade compliance with UN resolutions, perhaps develop wmds and keep his people under his terrible and horrible reign for so long. I think that we deserve answers and I for one certainly do not mind in the least seeing this LONG and LENGTHY and DRAWN OUT investigation take place into Pasqua, Galloway and others of their ilk. I just hope (most sincerely) that all the PRESS and HEADLINES and CHARGES and ALLEGATIONS and INSINUATIONS do not cause them to lose sleep at night. It is incredible is it not how some people latch onto allegations and charges and then assume that the person is guilty? hahah Like I said, I am just going to have to sit back and remain incredulous that the world’s peoples can be so easily led into believing the worst about people. Ain’t it a shame?

How’s this for another MFGRism: If you are going to fry fish, expect to get “battered!” I kill myself. hhahahahahahahaah

29

Senator Coleman was a District Attoroney (prosecutor) before he went into politics. He has pursued the Oil for Food scandal single-mindedly for the lst year. He is also going after Kofi Annan.

Coleman said “as a PROSECUTOR, my goal wasn’t to debate him but to produce a record.” This is an important aspect of an ongoing investigation.

In essence, Coleman was treating this as the deposition stage, not the witness testimony stage. He simply let Galloway rant…as the noose tightened.
Galloway was very, very foolish to make this appearance, and especially foolish to do so without an attorney. No matter how innocent one might pretend to be, he should never go to a deposition without counsel. And his lawyer would have demanded to see ALL evidence against his client before letting him testify.

Senator Coleman called MP Galloways appearance as…“colorful but not credible.”

Lets remember, Galloway was removed for his advocacy of jihad against Coalition Forces - including calling the murder of British Soldiers as justified. Not for his ties with Saddam.

Much sound and fury…little content. If one is impressed by empty rhetoric, then Galloways performance meets this requirement.

More will out on MP Galloway - RENT A GOB.

30

I’m thrilled to find that you consider me, my elderly parents, and thousands of people in the United States “hooligans, yobs and thugs”. Might I ask precisely which category I fall into? Perhaps I could add it to my signature line? :raspberry:

31

[quote=“fred smith”]I first of all want to merely laugh and laugh and laugh that now that charges are flying around that so many who vilified Bush and Blair without proof are outraged, yes outraged that such a thing could be happening! How dare people sling mud! What is the world coming to!

But as we requested that proof be given . . . ![/quote]

Ask and ye shall receive. On the other hand, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink:

" Critics of the Bush administration have long argued that Bush appeared intent on invading Iraq long before Congress voted to authorize military action in October 2002 if Hussein didn’t abandon his alleged illegal weapons programs.

Former Sen. Bob Graham of Florida, who was chairman of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee when Democrats ruled, has written in his book, “Intelligence Matters,” about his visit to MacDill Air Force Base, home of the U.S. Central Command, on Feb. 19, 2002. He was going for a status report on Afghanistan, Graham wrote, but CENTCOM’S Gen. Tommy Franks called him aside to tell him, “Senator, we are not engaged in a war in Afghanistan.”

“Excuse me?”’ Graham replied.

“Military and intelligence personnel are being redeployed to prepare for an action in Iraq,” Graham quoted Franks as saying.

Graham wrote: “I was stunned. This was the first time I had been informed that the decision to go to war with Iraq had not only been made but was being implemented, to the substantial disadvantage of the war in Afghanistan.”

17 May 2005, Chicago Tribune

32

[quote=“porcelainprincess”][quote] In 1994 Mr Galloway stood before Saddam Hussein and said: “Your excellency, Mr President, I greet you in the name of the many thousands of people in Britain who stood against the tide and opposed the war and aggression against Iraq and continue to oppose the war by economic means, which is aimed to strangle the life out of the great people of Iraq … I greet you too in the name of the Palestinian people … I thought the president would appreciate to know that even today, three years after the war, I still meet families who are calling their newborn sons Saddam. Sir, I salute your courage, your strength your indefatigability. And I want you to know that we are with you until victory, until victory, until Jerusalem.” (The Times, January 20 1994.)

In 1994, Saddam was already well known (inter alia) for having gassed the Kurds, murdered thousands of his political opponents, practised brutal ethnic cleansing on the Marsh Arabs, attempted to expunge a member of the UN and kidnapped hundreds of Kuwaiti citizens (all later found to be murdered).

Saddam killed more Muslims than any other leader alive. Yet for years Galloway lobbied for Saddam. And now he has the effrontery to pose as a defender of Muslims. That is Mr Galloway’s offence and I suggest to Mr Greenslade that it is a very good reason for people to dislike and to criticise him.
Why the media is critical of Galloway[/quote]
George Galloway is a despicable human being.[/quote]
Sometimes there’s more to the story. You just can’t believe every letter to the editor you read.

[quote]http://politics.guardian.co.uk/interviews/story/0,11660,792915,00.html

He tells me of the time he returned from Iraq in 1994 to an unsurprising carpeting from the whips having told Saddam “Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability.” Galloway has always claimed he was addressing the Iraqi public rather than the leader, and that it was most infelicitous to use “you” instead of “youse”.

Galloway is quick to remind you that he, and his comrades on the left, were among the first to condemn Saddam’s human rights record, even if the chief motive was that the country had become a virulently anti-communist puppet of America. Until 1991, Iraq was the only Arab country he’d not visited. “I wouldn’t have been allowed in. I was a known opponent of the Iraqi regime because I was with the left, and the communists in Iraq who were shattered and sent into orbit in the late 70s.”
[/quote]

33

Richardm:

haha right. If you are going to believe Galloway’s “excuse” here you must cease and desist from every scoffing at anything anyone else believes. By the way, has the tooth fairy been to your house recently.

I just love this… I expect full well that the headlines are going to be dominated in the next year by Galloway, Pasqua, Zhirinovsky, Kofi Annan and his son Kojo (what is this a Stephen King fan?) and others of their ilk. Then for the crowing achievement which will result in a full week of wanton and carefree celebrations for me in Baden Baden (or maybe the Luneberger Heide to recommune with Nature!) I will toast the flames of Schroeder and Fischer’s failed attempts to make Germany into a Third World country.

34

I think this is a photo of Galloway meeting with Saddam.

35

There’s a real need for an old saying here to sum up this whole situation succintly. I don’t have time to look one up though so I’ll just make one up:

If you can’t make the charges stick in court, at least make them stick to the wall.

36

I think that there is a vast difference between Rumsfeld visiting Saddam during the height of the Iran Iraq war when the US was very concerned about the security and safety of the nations that we were treaty-bound to protect such as Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and the visit of George Galloway to suck up to Saddam during the period following the first Gulf War. What was Galloway doing in Iraq? Encouraing Saddam to comply with the UN resolutions? to stop using money that was supposed to feed his people and provide them with medicine rather than building new palaces and buying new weapons systems? What?

I just love this whole episode. the more these stories are revealed, the more I think we can show just how “disinterested” and “ethical” the “concerns” over war with Iraq had less to do with “international law” and more to do with “Swiss bank accounts” though I have no doubt many a patsy in the West truly did believe that the US and George Bush were evil incarnate. Unfortuantely, they do not seem to recognize the true face of evil. Oh to be able to wish them to such a country as Iraq was to experience the true folly of their mistaken and morally broken value systems. Remember all the “human shields” who came running back from Iraq? hahah too bad this cannot be a required course at all high schools and universities. We would see a lot less assine stupidity and moral posturing me thinks…

37

[quote=“TainanCowboy”] No matter how innocent one might pretend to be, he should never go to a deposition without counsel. [/quote] I’m guessing you are talking about Galloway here, and you imply that you know he is guilty. How do you know this?

[quote=“TainanCowboy”]Senator Coleman called MP Galloways appearance as…“colorful but not credible.”[/quote] Well if Senator Coleman says so then it must be true :wink: .

[quote=“TainanCowboy”]
More will out on MP Galloway - RENT A GOB.[/quote]

Where are you getting this inside info? Why not let us all in on the secret? Or is this just ‘empty rhetoric’ on your part?

38

He gets it from Ann Coulter. She knows all about McCarthy and stuff.

39

[quote=“butcher boy”][quote=“TainanCowboy”] No matter how innocent one might pretend to be, he should never go to a deposition without counsel. [/quote] I’m guessing you are talking about Galloway here,[/quote]Galloway is the topic of this thread so your guess here is correct. But that is sound legal advice for anyone.[quote=“butcher boy”]… and you imply that you know he is guilty. How do you know this?[/quote] As to any implications re:Galloway, you are just being specious. We are discussing his appearance. What formal charges is he facing? Did you read my entire post? “Getting things on the record” and all that?

[quote=“TainanCowboy”]Senator Coleman called MP Galloways appearance as…“colorful but not credible.”[/quote][quote=“butcher boy”] Well if Senator Coleman says so then it must be true :wink: .[/quote]Senator Coleman was speaking on a news program and giving his impressions of MP Galloways performance. He is allowed his opinion of the MPs address to Congress.

[quote=“TainanCowboy”]
More will out on MP Galloway - RENT A GOB.[/quote][quote=“butcher boy”]Where are you getting this inside info? Why not let us all in on the secret? Or is this just ‘empty rhetoric’ on your part?[/quote]Do you really believe this is the end of the Galloway story? Is that what you wish to believe? The good MP would certainly like to hope he can scuttle back to England with this being the last of it; however dollars to doughnuts he knows damn well theres more fire to come.
As to the RENT a GOB sobriquet, thats is an old name for him from the British press.
But I’m sure he will be comforted to know that even in Taiwan he has such a body of support.

Glad I could help you…looks like rain today. Stay dry. Although its just hot and cloudy now.

40

[quote=“Richardm”]He gets it from Ann Coulter. She knows all about McCarthy and stuff.[/quote]Ahh…a bit of a tag team…good…even the odds up a bit.

Not a Coulter fan. She is a bit too fast and loose with the facts for my liking. Although she certainly annoy those who I would also annoy.

As to McCarthy, any student of history, if they did their complete fact checking and sourcing would find that my statement is correct. He was shit for ceremony and upset quite a few people, but he was more correct than he incorrect.

I hear a mental rimshot everytime I read your one-line shots…brrrmmmump ting!!!