- "The slimy Coleman tried to save face afterward
by telling the press that Galloway wasn't "a credible witness."
The hell he wasn't. It's Coleman and his subcommittee who lack credibility,
not to mention ethics or a sense of justice."
-
-
- If you would like a role model on how a manly person
should act in front of politicians and the media, I highly recommend the
Honorable George Galloway, a member of the British Parliament.
-
- A Senate subcommittee out to discredit the United Nations
made the mistake of inviting Galloway to appear before its members. They
had smeared him. Accusing a man of serious wrongdoing without a shred of
evidence is a smear job, plain and simple. Sen. Norm Coleman, like most
senators, is used to people either fawning or being timidly evasive. Boy,
was he in for a surprise. Galloway landed on him like a rattlesnake.
-
- Coleman had dredged up the old accusations that Galloway
made money off Iraqi oil or was otherwise receiving money from Iraq. A
little background is necessary. Long before Iraq became an issue, the outspoken
Galloway was a gallant defender of Palestinian rights. Both in England
and the U.S., to speak up for Palestinians will get you on the s-list right
away. Fanatical supporters of Israel are well-entrenched in both the British
and American establishments. Their standard response to supporters of Palestinians
or critics of Israel is character assassination.
-
- The Christian Science Monitor took a run at him and was
forced to admit that the documents it had based its story on were forgeries.
The British Daily Telegraph ran the same charges Coleman has dragged out
and lost a libel suit. It's too bad U.S. senators have immunity from libel
and slander suits.
-
- At any rate, Galloway laced into them: "Senator,
I am not now, nor have I ever been, an oil trader, and neither has anyone
on my behalf. I have never see a barrel of oil, owned one, bought one,
sold one and neither has anyone on my behalf."
-
- Galloway had led a campaign to get the sanctions lifted
from Iraq and also strongly opposed the war against Iraq. In the good old
corrupt United States, where dishonesty and deceit and greed have become
the norms, it's inconceivable to many people like Coleman that anybody
would do anything just because he or she believed in it.
-
- Galloway picked their report to pieces. They claimed
he had had "many meetings with Saddam Hussein." He had, in fact,
only two, and he pointed out that that was the same number that Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had during the Reagan administration. The difference,
he said, is that Rumsfeld was there to sell Saddam guns, and he, Galloway,
was there to promote peace and persuade him to allow U.N. weapons inspectors
to come in.
-
- He then pointed out that he had been an opponent of Saddam
when the U.S. was his ally, an ally that made excuses for the gassing of
Kurds, blaming those deaths on Iran. Oh, yes, I found the original story
about the U.S. investigation of the gassing in The Washington Post archives
years ago. Another blunder he pointed out was that the committee claimed
its documents (provided by the infamous Ahmad Chalabi, who has boasted
of having deceived the United States about weapons of mass destruction)
were current, while the Daily Telegraph's libelous story was based on documents
dating to 1992-1993. Galloway delighted in putting this lie to rest. Both
sets of documents covered the same period, and there wasn't even an oil-for-food
program in 1992-1993, he said.
-
- After exposing their errors, Galloway again laced into
them, pointing out that 100,000 people, including 1,600 Americans, have
died because of "a pack of lies" spread by Coleman and his neocon
allies. He pointed out that during the 14 months the U.S. was in charge,
$8.8 billion went missing. He pointed to the corruption of the American
corporations.
-
- The slimy Coleman tried to save face afterward by telling
the press that Galloway wasn't "a credible witness." The hell
he wasn't. It's Coleman and his subcommittee who lack credibility, not
to mention ethics or a sense of justice.
-
- Follow the example of a brave man. Don't let politicians
or the media browbeat you, intimidate you or lie about you. Be honest.
Tell the truth, and don't sugarcoat it. The world needs more Galloways
and far fewer Colemans.
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