Wednesday, May 18, 2005 12:00:58 AM
British MP Galloway Shames Sen. Coleman & Bush's 'Oil-for-Food' Sycophants in Remarkable Testimony!
Calls Oil-for-Food 'Scandal' the 'Mother of All Smokescreens'!
Stunning Testimony Reminscent of McCarthy Hearings!
Blogged by Brad on 5/17/2005 @ 4:51pm PT...
Not since attorney Joseph Welch confronted the soon-to-fall Anti-Communist Crusader/Idealogue, Joseph McCarthy in 1954 with his now famous "Have you no sense of decency, sir?" testimony [ http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/welch-mccarthy.html ] can we recall such a direct shaming of a Congressional Committee as that which took place earlier today in a Senate Subcommittee Hearing on the trumped-up U.N. Oil-for-Food "Scandal" which Bush Lackeys and Fox & Friends have been flogging ever since it became apparent that there were no WMD in Iraq, and thus, no justification for this trumped-up war.
Also mirroring McCarthy's shameless use of the Senate for his Anti-Communist Witchhunts is the cavalier way by which the NeoCons and their sycophantic supporters are all-too-willing to destroy innocent lives with the stroke of an irresponsible pen or an out-and-out fallacious public statement in complete disregard for those whose lives and reputations they smearing and defaming under false pretenses.
The hearings today, by the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs investigation subcommittee, shamefully led by Democrat-turned-Republican Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota, turned into a stunning embarrassment when British MP George Galloway gave his remarkable rebuttal to the unsubstantiated charges made against him by the Committee "investigating" the Oil-for-Food "scandal" which Galloway appropriately described as "the mother of all smoke-screens".
A video of a portion of the testimony is here (Streaming RealPlayer Broadband [ http://www.edwardsdavid.com/BushVideos/msnbc_uk_galloway_blisters_us_on_iraq_050517-01.ram ], Dial-up [ http://www.edwardsdavid.com/BushVideos/msnbc_uk_galloway_blisters_us_on_iraq_050517-56-01.ram ] or Audio Only MP3 [ http://www.edwardsdavid.com/BushVideos/msnbc_uk_galloway_blisters_us_on_iraq_050517-01.mp3 ]). The full transcript [ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1616578,00.html (F6 note -- my next post, a reply to this post)] (and we strongly recommend you read the entire thing to get the full impact of Galloway's statement!) is available via The Times of London.
For the attention-span impaired, however, here is Galloway's extraordinary closing statements:
"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 one 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 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 paid with their lives; 1600 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 are 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 Haliburton and other American corporations that stole not only 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.
Galloway didn't say the precise words, so we will...
To Senator Norm Coleman, Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Rupert Murdoch, George W. Bush and All the Rest of you evil-doers:
You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?
====================
READER COMMENTS ON
"British MP Galloway Shames Sen. Coleman & Bush's 'Oil-for-Food' Sycophants in Remarkable Testimony!"
(21 comments so far...)
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COMMENT #1
...Fred Woolsey said on 5/17/2005 @ 5:23pm PT...
To Sen. Coleman, et. al.,
ALL THE WAY WITH A RED HOT POKER!!!!!
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COMMENT #2
...Robert McLendon said on 5/17/2005 @ 5:53pm PT...
The bbc has a video link at their site. I saw it and it was f'ing GREAT ! Funny how it took a Scot to finally deliver the smackdown these scoundrels deserve. If they allow Ahnold to run for prez, then Galloway has got my vote.
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COMMENT #3
...Winter Patriot said on 5/17/2005 @ 6:02pm PT...
That's a great post, Brad. On your final question, I wouldn't presume to answer for the evil-doers, but from where I sit the answer appears to be "NO" ... Cheers for George Galloway, the Respect Party and telling the truth no matter what!
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COMMENT #4
...js said on 5/17/2005 @ 6:05pm PT...
What? Now we have to outsource decency and courage?
Where the h--l are the Dems?
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COMMENT #5
...Peg C said on 5/17/2005 @ 6:14pm PT...
JS -
You mean those cowardly "lions?"
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COMMENT #6
...Peg C said on 5/17/2005 @ 6:17pm PT...
I wish that lambasting HAD come from one of our own. The outrage, the outrage, the OUTRAGE...
One thing he didn't mention: the smear was accomplished with the connivance of Bliar's people.
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COMMENT #7
...Evelyn said on 5/17/2005 @ 6:27pm PT...
AT LAST....someone gutsy enough to tell it like it is and where it counts. I want to shake George Galloway's hand and shout "job well done"! But like everything else that doesn't suit this administration's web of deceit, I fear these facts will get swept under the rug and forgotten.
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COMMENT #8
...Floby said on 5/17/2005 @ 6:41pm PT...
Here is a link to the video of the complete testimony:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4556113.stm
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COMMENT #9
...Will Sheridan said on 5/17/2005 @ 6:51pm PT...
What I found amazing about Mr. Galloway's testimony, was not so much what he said, although my heart sang as he delivered the truth at last, what impressed me was the way he delivered the truth.
I don't think I have ever seen a more composed and passionate response made by anyone under oath. And I know I have never before heard more articulate and fluent use of the language.
I think this was a landmark speech that will be remembered by the British and in particular the Scottish people in the same way as Churchill's 'Fight them on the beaches...' and Kennedy's Inaugural address is remembered and taught to small children as an illustration of how educated men defend themselves and their ideals.
How much more powerful were Mr. Galloway's words, than all the bombs that were dropped on innocent Iraqi people.
I wept when he said, “I gave my political life's blood to try to stop the mass killing of Iraqis by the sanctions on Iraq which killed one 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 born at that time.”
The children have committed no crime, sold no oil, chanted not a word of defiance against the American people. They have only cried, and many have died, in all innocence and with out understanding why they have been orphaned and left without siblings.
How will we reply to these babies, in years to come, when they ask the British, American and Australian people why we did not stop the men of war when they sent men to kill their fathers and brothers? Will we say, that a man from Saudi Arabia, who led his men from Afghanistan, attacked America and killed our fathers and brothers first? Will we continue to try to make two wrongs into a twisted idea of what is right? Won't they then ask us why then did we attack Iraq? Why not Saudi Arabia? Why not look harder for this Afghani man?
Will
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COMMENT #10
...Val said on 5/17/2005 @ 6:52pm PT...
How remarkably wonderful to hear the truth! Since no one in our own government or media has the "balls" to speak truth it must be spoken by others. Why don't all those sniveling, self riighteous, spineless
bastards just crawl back under their rocks and let people like Galloway lead the way!
Bravo Galloway!!!
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COMMENT #11
...Panzo said on 5/17/2005 @ 6:59pm PT...
Write a well-deserved thank-you note. I did.
gallowayg@parliament.uk
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COMMENT #12
...benon sevan said on 5/17/2005 @ 7:02pm PT...
It's about time someone stood up to these know-nothing scumbags who masquerade as legislators and perform as puppets for the Bush planet-eating machine. If these Senators actually thought they could get good press by dragging Georgie boy before their Committee, they really are as stupid as everyone assumes. Given how easy it is to paint the Oil-for-Food fiasco as the political greed frenzy it was, one can only imagine the Senators have about as good a handle on the issue as the pea-brains who implemented US policies in Iraq which have squandered far more US taxpayer money than the UN scheme. It's clear the permanent UN security council members and many other knew of the ongoing oil fraud. Everyone knew. There was just no way to document it as the UN avoided audits of any section of the program like the plague. Anyway, the point is that old Georgie Boy spit in their face and shat on their heads and I only hope the morons who comprise the US electorate wake up and realize how stupid they've been and cut their own heads off.
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COMMENT #13
...normanx said on 5/17/2005 @ 7:17pm PT...
here is the whole testimony of George Galloway. Finally, someone who is willing to stand up to those criminals, and call them criminals....
rtsp://video.webcastcenter.com/srs_g2/govtaff051705.rm?start="2:02:00"
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COMMENT #14
...Matt said on 5/17/2005 @ 7:19pm PT...
I have to agree, some of these senators are out of their mind. Many others are deceived by a very strange and evil man Senator Bill Frist, who apparently got his thrills from operating on cats!
How could someone this insane be heading up the majority!???
Plus, read this article. Dick Cheney and Karl Rove's Halliburton scandal has been exposed and tarnished all through the mud.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1438564,00.html
http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=118&contentid=2175
""We would like to know why this audit report - and audit reports on nine additional task orders - are being withheld from Congress," they wrote.
"We also want to know what steps you are taking to recover these funds from Halliburton."
In a second public letter yesterday, Mr Waxman accused Bush administration officials of deliberately withholding information on overcharges by Halliburton from UN auditors - at its behest. Some $1.6bn of the $2.5bn Halliburton contract was funded from Iraqi oil revenues overseen by the UN.
"The evidence suggests that the US used Iraqi oil proceeds to overpay Halliburton and then sought to hide the evidence of these overcharges from the international auditors," the letter says.
The audit, released by the congressmen on Monday, offers the most definitive glimpse so far of overbilling by Halliburton, once run by the vice president, Dick Cheney.
In the most startling transaction, it charged the Pentagon $27.5m to ship $82,100 worth of cooking and heating fuel to Iraq from Kuwait - 335 times the actual cost of the liquified petroleum gas, a charge the Pentagon auditors said was "illogical".
The firm and its subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR), face several investigations, including a fraud inquiry from the justice department. A preliminary Pentagon audit, focused on the immediate aftermath of the US-led invasion, found KBR overcharged the Pentagon by $61m for kerosene and other fuels.
Critics of Halliburton are convinced this represents just a fraction of the overcharges.
The audit released this week covers only one of 10 task orders undertaken under the $2.5bn no-bid contract awarded immediately after the invasion of Iraq.
However, the overcharges identified in the single task order already dwarf the $61m (£32m) in previously discovered overcharges. Halliburton charged army corps of engineers $875m (£457m) to supply fuel from May 2003 to March 2004. Auditors questioned $108.4m (£56.6m) of those costs.
As the Congressmen note, the auditors criticised charges in nearly every area, saying the firm misled auditors and failed to supervise sub-contracts. "Halliburton failed to demonstrate its prices for Kuwaiti fuel were 'fair and reasonable'," the auditors say. They also note Halliburton refused repeatedly to provide information on costs of obtaining fuel from Turkey and Jordan, or reveal how it selected its contractors in Kuwait.
A Halliburton spokeswoman, Wendy Hall, said it was forced into paying, and charging, high costs because of the security situation following the war. "Transporting fuel into Iraq was a mission fraught with danger, which increased the prices that firms were willing to offer for trans portation," she told reporters. "The report fails to take into account the fact KBR performed an urgent mission at the army's request and the mission took place in a wartime environment."
The lawyer for an army corps of engineers whistle-blower said that his client was set to be interviewed for a second time by Pentagon investigators on April 4 over her claims of contracting abuse involving KBR."
The dead mainstream media may not care, but BBC news sure does and they also know the bunch of thugs manufactured all of the WMD and IRAQ threats!
Matt
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COMMENT #15
...Robert Lockwood Mills said on 5/17/2005 @ 7:20pm PT...
Positively Churchillian. I hope the whole world was watching...if not, there's always instant replay.
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COMMENT #16
...Peg C said on 5/17/2005 @ 7:31pm PT...
This is 'way OT, but you really aren't going to believe the news. Bush wants to sell Hawaii to Japan to pay for his "war on terror!!!
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COMMENT #17
...Matt said on 5/17/2005 @ 7:37pm PT...
:cry:
:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
It just got me thinking, if that article wasn't satire I bet alot of people would move to hawaii. Instant secession!
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COMMENT #18
...Gerry Hanako said on 5/17/2005 @ 7:39pm PT...
BRAVO..THE TRUTH HURTS, BUT DAMN REFRESHING WHEN SOMEONE FINALLY HAS THE BALLS TO SPEAK IT!
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COMMENT #19
...Peg C said on 5/17/2005 @ 7:39pm PT...
Benon Sevan #12 -
"The morons who comprise the US electorate..."?
Thank you, kind sir. I do believe you are addressing them. And the "moronic" US electorate did not actually, EVER, vote this administration into office. Read a bit more at this site, please!
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COMMENT #20
...roni said on 5/17/2005 @ 7:46pm PT...
I love you, George...
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COMMENT #21
...Peg C said on 5/17/2005 @ 7:46pm PT...
Matt #17 -
We were wistfully thinking that he might agree to sell Maine to Canada, but no...Massachusetts is more "valuable," I suppose.
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COMMENT #22
...Barbara Steinberg said on 5/17/2005 @ 8:43pm PT...
Oh my GOD I am so overwhelmed with feelings of love and relief that someone had the guts to pierce the stranglehold of paranoia in the American media and hand it to the Bush Administration on a plate.
Thank God for George Galloway. I wish he were in the US Congress.
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COMMENT #23
...Bejammin075 said on 5/17/2005 @ 8:43pm PT...
Can anyone recommend a "one stop shop" for info on what the administration knew about WMD? With good sources?
For example:
1. that the US had disproved the niger uranium story, which was why * said "we have learned from British intelligence that", because the UK still believed it while the US did not.
2. Curveball/Mobile labs.
3. Aluminum tubes - I thought I heard Boxer say at Rice's sec of state confirmation that 5 of 6 agencies had reviewed the aluminum tube info and said that it definitely could not be used for enriching uranium. I think Boxer aleged that Rice knew about the 5 of 6 opinion before she went on TV and said the opposite.
And anything similar. I think these sorts of items would be good to bring up when we call our Reps, Sens, the WH, the media, and our friends and family.
Cheney should have to add a little detail to what he meant by Iraq, in fact, reconstituting nuclear weapons. WTF? If they didn't have a program, how could they build a weapon? Mr. Cheney, could you share with us what it was that actually convinced you that there was a nuclear weapons site and the cabability to build a bomb. Any photos? Any evidence? We have a need to know.
Republican leadership should all be asked "When do you have enough power before you start to get to work for America?"
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COMMENT #24
...MMIIXX said on 5/17/2005 @ 8:43pm PT...
Fighting fire with FIRE
or Fighting George with George ,no less.
Bouncing off the walls with joy.
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COMMENT #25
...Bejammin075 said on 5/17/2005 @ 8:45pm PT...
Saw the video. That guy was on fire.
====================
Copyright © 2005 Brad Friedman (emphasis of select comments added)
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001398.htm
[F6 note -- in addition to the post to which this post is a reply, see also e.g. http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=6376932 ]
Calls Oil-for-Food 'Scandal' the 'Mother of All Smokescreens'!
Stunning Testimony Reminscent of McCarthy Hearings!
Blogged by Brad on 5/17/2005 @ 4:51pm PT...
Not since attorney Joseph Welch confronted the soon-to-fall Anti-Communist Crusader/Idealogue, Joseph McCarthy in 1954 with his now famous "Have you no sense of decency, sir?" testimony [ http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/welch-mccarthy.html ] can we recall such a direct shaming of a Congressional Committee as that which took place earlier today in a Senate Subcommittee Hearing on the trumped-up U.N. Oil-for-Food "Scandal" which Bush Lackeys and Fox & Friends have been flogging ever since it became apparent that there were no WMD in Iraq, and thus, no justification for this trumped-up war.
Also mirroring McCarthy's shameless use of the Senate for his Anti-Communist Witchhunts is the cavalier way by which the NeoCons and their sycophantic supporters are all-too-willing to destroy innocent lives with the stroke of an irresponsible pen or an out-and-out fallacious public statement in complete disregard for those whose lives and reputations they smearing and defaming under false pretenses.
The hearings today, by the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs investigation subcommittee, shamefully led by Democrat-turned-Republican Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota, turned into a stunning embarrassment when British MP George Galloway gave his remarkable rebuttal to the unsubstantiated charges made against him by the Committee "investigating" the Oil-for-Food "scandal" which Galloway appropriately described as "the mother of all smoke-screens".
A video of a portion of the testimony is here (Streaming RealPlayer Broadband [ http://www.edwardsdavid.com/BushVideos/msnbc_uk_galloway_blisters_us_on_iraq_050517-01.ram ], Dial-up [ http://www.edwardsdavid.com/BushVideos/msnbc_uk_galloway_blisters_us_on_iraq_050517-56-01.ram ] or Audio Only MP3 [ http://www.edwardsdavid.com/BushVideos/msnbc_uk_galloway_blisters_us_on_iraq_050517-01.mp3 ]). The full transcript [ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1616578,00.html (F6 note -- my next post, a reply to this post)] (and we strongly recommend you read the entire thing to get the full impact of Galloway's statement!) is available via The Times of London.
For the attention-span impaired, however, here is Galloway's extraordinary closing statements:
"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 one 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 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 paid with their lives; 1600 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 are 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 Haliburton and other American corporations that stole not only 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.
Galloway didn't say the precise words, so we will...
To Senator Norm Coleman, Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Rupert Murdoch, George W. Bush and All the Rest of you evil-doers:
You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?
====================
READER COMMENTS ON
"British MP Galloway Shames Sen. Coleman & Bush's 'Oil-for-Food' Sycophants in Remarkable Testimony!"
(21 comments so far...)
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COMMENT #1
...Fred Woolsey said on 5/17/2005 @ 5:23pm PT...
To Sen. Coleman, et. al.,
ALL THE WAY WITH A RED HOT POKER!!!!!
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COMMENT #2
...Robert McLendon said on 5/17/2005 @ 5:53pm PT...
The bbc has a video link at their site. I saw it and it was f'ing GREAT ! Funny how it took a Scot to finally deliver the smackdown these scoundrels deserve. If they allow Ahnold to run for prez, then Galloway has got my vote.
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COMMENT #3
...Winter Patriot said on 5/17/2005 @ 6:02pm PT...
That's a great post, Brad. On your final question, I wouldn't presume to answer for the evil-doers, but from where I sit the answer appears to be "NO" ... Cheers for George Galloway, the Respect Party and telling the truth no matter what!
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COMMENT #4
...js said on 5/17/2005 @ 6:05pm PT...
What? Now we have to outsource decency and courage?
Where the h--l are the Dems?
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COMMENT #5
...Peg C said on 5/17/2005 @ 6:14pm PT...
JS -
You mean those cowardly "lions?"
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COMMENT #6
...Peg C said on 5/17/2005 @ 6:17pm PT...
I wish that lambasting HAD come from one of our own. The outrage, the outrage, the OUTRAGE...
One thing he didn't mention: the smear was accomplished with the connivance of Bliar's people.
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COMMENT #7
...Evelyn said on 5/17/2005 @ 6:27pm PT...
AT LAST....someone gutsy enough to tell it like it is and where it counts. I want to shake George Galloway's hand and shout "job well done"! But like everything else that doesn't suit this administration's web of deceit, I fear these facts will get swept under the rug and forgotten.
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COMMENT #8
...Floby said on 5/17/2005 @ 6:41pm PT...
Here is a link to the video of the complete testimony:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4556113.stm
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COMMENT #9
...Will Sheridan said on 5/17/2005 @ 6:51pm PT...
What I found amazing about Mr. Galloway's testimony, was not so much what he said, although my heart sang as he delivered the truth at last, what impressed me was the way he delivered the truth.
I don't think I have ever seen a more composed and passionate response made by anyone under oath. And I know I have never before heard more articulate and fluent use of the language.
I think this was a landmark speech that will be remembered by the British and in particular the Scottish people in the same way as Churchill's 'Fight them on the beaches...' and Kennedy's Inaugural address is remembered and taught to small children as an illustration of how educated men defend themselves and their ideals.
How much more powerful were Mr. Galloway's words, than all the bombs that were dropped on innocent Iraqi people.
I wept when he said, “I gave my political life's blood to try to stop the mass killing of Iraqis by the sanctions on Iraq which killed one 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 born at that time.”
The children have committed no crime, sold no oil, chanted not a word of defiance against the American people. They have only cried, and many have died, in all innocence and with out understanding why they have been orphaned and left without siblings.
How will we reply to these babies, in years to come, when they ask the British, American and Australian people why we did not stop the men of war when they sent men to kill their fathers and brothers? Will we say, that a man from Saudi Arabia, who led his men from Afghanistan, attacked America and killed our fathers and brothers first? Will we continue to try to make two wrongs into a twisted idea of what is right? Won't they then ask us why then did we attack Iraq? Why not Saudi Arabia? Why not look harder for this Afghani man?
Will
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COMMENT #10
...Val said on 5/17/2005 @ 6:52pm PT...
How remarkably wonderful to hear the truth! Since no one in our own government or media has the "balls" to speak truth it must be spoken by others. Why don't all those sniveling, self riighteous, spineless
bastards just crawl back under their rocks and let people like Galloway lead the way!
Bravo Galloway!!!
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COMMENT #11
...Panzo said on 5/17/2005 @ 6:59pm PT...
Write a well-deserved thank-you note. I did.
gallowayg@parliament.uk
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COMMENT #12
...benon sevan said on 5/17/2005 @ 7:02pm PT...
It's about time someone stood up to these know-nothing scumbags who masquerade as legislators and perform as puppets for the Bush planet-eating machine. If these Senators actually thought they could get good press by dragging Georgie boy before their Committee, they really are as stupid as everyone assumes. Given how easy it is to paint the Oil-for-Food fiasco as the political greed frenzy it was, one can only imagine the Senators have about as good a handle on the issue as the pea-brains who implemented US policies in Iraq which have squandered far more US taxpayer money than the UN scheme. It's clear the permanent UN security council members and many other knew of the ongoing oil fraud. Everyone knew. There was just no way to document it as the UN avoided audits of any section of the program like the plague. Anyway, the point is that old Georgie Boy spit in their face and shat on their heads and I only hope the morons who comprise the US electorate wake up and realize how stupid they've been and cut their own heads off.
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COMMENT #13
...normanx said on 5/17/2005 @ 7:17pm PT...
here is the whole testimony of George Galloway. Finally, someone who is willing to stand up to those criminals, and call them criminals....
rtsp://video.webcastcenter.com/srs_g2/govtaff051705.rm?start="2:02:00"
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COMMENT #14
...Matt said on 5/17/2005 @ 7:19pm PT...
I have to agree, some of these senators are out of their mind. Many others are deceived by a very strange and evil man Senator Bill Frist, who apparently got his thrills from operating on cats!
How could someone this insane be heading up the majority!???
Plus, read this article. Dick Cheney and Karl Rove's Halliburton scandal has been exposed and tarnished all through the mud.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1438564,00.html
http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=118&contentid=2175
""We would like to know why this audit report - and audit reports on nine additional task orders - are being withheld from Congress," they wrote.
"We also want to know what steps you are taking to recover these funds from Halliburton."
In a second public letter yesterday, Mr Waxman accused Bush administration officials of deliberately withholding information on overcharges by Halliburton from UN auditors - at its behest. Some $1.6bn of the $2.5bn Halliburton contract was funded from Iraqi oil revenues overseen by the UN.
"The evidence suggests that the US used Iraqi oil proceeds to overpay Halliburton and then sought to hide the evidence of these overcharges from the international auditors," the letter says.
The audit, released by the congressmen on Monday, offers the most definitive glimpse so far of overbilling by Halliburton, once run by the vice president, Dick Cheney.
In the most startling transaction, it charged the Pentagon $27.5m to ship $82,100 worth of cooking and heating fuel to Iraq from Kuwait - 335 times the actual cost of the liquified petroleum gas, a charge the Pentagon auditors said was "illogical".
The firm and its subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR), face several investigations, including a fraud inquiry from the justice department. A preliminary Pentagon audit, focused on the immediate aftermath of the US-led invasion, found KBR overcharged the Pentagon by $61m for kerosene and other fuels.
Critics of Halliburton are convinced this represents just a fraction of the overcharges.
The audit released this week covers only one of 10 task orders undertaken under the $2.5bn no-bid contract awarded immediately after the invasion of Iraq.
However, the overcharges identified in the single task order already dwarf the $61m (£32m) in previously discovered overcharges. Halliburton charged army corps of engineers $875m (£457m) to supply fuel from May 2003 to March 2004. Auditors questioned $108.4m (£56.6m) of those costs.
As the Congressmen note, the auditors criticised charges in nearly every area, saying the firm misled auditors and failed to supervise sub-contracts. "Halliburton failed to demonstrate its prices for Kuwaiti fuel were 'fair and reasonable'," the auditors say. They also note Halliburton refused repeatedly to provide information on costs of obtaining fuel from Turkey and Jordan, or reveal how it selected its contractors in Kuwait.
A Halliburton spokeswoman, Wendy Hall, said it was forced into paying, and charging, high costs because of the security situation following the war. "Transporting fuel into Iraq was a mission fraught with danger, which increased the prices that firms were willing to offer for trans portation," she told reporters. "The report fails to take into account the fact KBR performed an urgent mission at the army's request and the mission took place in a wartime environment."
The lawyer for an army corps of engineers whistle-blower said that his client was set to be interviewed for a second time by Pentagon investigators on April 4 over her claims of contracting abuse involving KBR."
The dead mainstream media may not care, but BBC news sure does and they also know the bunch of thugs manufactured all of the WMD and IRAQ threats!
Matt
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COMMENT #15
...Robert Lockwood Mills said on 5/17/2005 @ 7:20pm PT...
Positively Churchillian. I hope the whole world was watching...if not, there's always instant replay.
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COMMENT #16
...Peg C said on 5/17/2005 @ 7:31pm PT...
This is 'way OT, but you really aren't going to believe the news. Bush wants to sell Hawaii to Japan to pay for his "war on terror!!!
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COMMENT #17
...Matt said on 5/17/2005 @ 7:37pm PT...
:cry:
:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
It just got me thinking, if that article wasn't satire I bet alot of people would move to hawaii. Instant secession!
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COMMENT #18
...Gerry Hanako said on 5/17/2005 @ 7:39pm PT...
BRAVO..THE TRUTH HURTS, BUT DAMN REFRESHING WHEN SOMEONE FINALLY HAS THE BALLS TO SPEAK IT!
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COMMENT #19
...Peg C said on 5/17/2005 @ 7:39pm PT...
Benon Sevan #12 -
"The morons who comprise the US electorate..."?
Thank you, kind sir. I do believe you are addressing them. And the "moronic" US electorate did not actually, EVER, vote this administration into office. Read a bit more at this site, please!
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COMMENT #20
...roni said on 5/17/2005 @ 7:46pm PT...
I love you, George...
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COMMENT #21
...Peg C said on 5/17/2005 @ 7:46pm PT...
Matt #17 -
We were wistfully thinking that he might agree to sell Maine to Canada, but no...Massachusetts is more "valuable," I suppose.
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COMMENT #22
...Barbara Steinberg said on 5/17/2005 @ 8:43pm PT...
Oh my GOD I am so overwhelmed with feelings of love and relief that someone had the guts to pierce the stranglehold of paranoia in the American media and hand it to the Bush Administration on a plate.
Thank God for George Galloway. I wish he were in the US Congress.
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COMMENT #23
...Bejammin075 said on 5/17/2005 @ 8:43pm PT...
Can anyone recommend a "one stop shop" for info on what the administration knew about WMD? With good sources?
For example:
1. that the US had disproved the niger uranium story, which was why * said "we have learned from British intelligence that", because the UK still believed it while the US did not.
2. Curveball/Mobile labs.
3. Aluminum tubes - I thought I heard Boxer say at Rice's sec of state confirmation that 5 of 6 agencies had reviewed the aluminum tube info and said that it definitely could not be used for enriching uranium. I think Boxer aleged that Rice knew about the 5 of 6 opinion before she went on TV and said the opposite.
And anything similar. I think these sorts of items would be good to bring up when we call our Reps, Sens, the WH, the media, and our friends and family.
Cheney should have to add a little detail to what he meant by Iraq, in fact, reconstituting nuclear weapons. WTF? If they didn't have a program, how could they build a weapon? Mr. Cheney, could you share with us what it was that actually convinced you that there was a nuclear weapons site and the cabability to build a bomb. Any photos? Any evidence? We have a need to know.
Republican leadership should all be asked "When do you have enough power before you start to get to work for America?"
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COMMENT #24
...MMIIXX said on 5/17/2005 @ 8:43pm PT...
Fighting fire with FIRE
or Fighting George with George ,no less.
Bouncing off the walls with joy.
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COMMENT #25
...Bejammin075 said on 5/17/2005 @ 8:45pm PT...
Saw the video. That guy was on fire.
====================
Copyright © 2005 Brad Friedman (emphasis of select comments added)
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001398.htm
[F6 note -- in addition to the post to which this post is a reply, see also e.g. http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=6376932 ]
Greensburg, KS - 5/4/07
"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."
from John Philpot Curran, Speech
upon the Right of Election, 1790
F6
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