Another George gets a voice

Whoa. British MP George Galloway blasted the U.S. Senate Committee that was investigating the Oil-for-food scandal. I wish I coulda seen it. I love it when outspoken controversial people who aren't afraid of the press hand the recipients' balls to them on a platter.

Accused of paying kickbacks to Saddam Hussein in exchange for oil, Galloway jumped in with both feet on the issue, accusing the U.S. of hypocrisy and complicity.

"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."

Galloway goes on to explain how the U.S., while portraying themselves as holier-than-thou in this scandal, are actually waist deep in the debris surrounding the issue.

Responding to reports of his meetings with Saddam Hussein, he states:

I have had two meetings with Saddam Hussein, one in 1994 and once in August of 2002. By no stretch of the English language can that be described as many meetings with Saddam Hussein.

As a matter of fact, I've met with 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 to better target those guns.

I met him to try to bring about an end to sanctions, suffering and war and on the second of two occasions I met him to try and persuade him to allow 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 Defense made of his."

Addressing accusations arising from captured Iraqi prisoners, he questioned the validity of their testimony:

I've never met Mr. Taha Yassin Ramadan, your subcommittee apparently has. But I do know that he's your prisoner. I believe he's in Abu Ghraib prison. I believe he's 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 air base, 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 managed to get from a prisoner in those circumstances.

All I can say is, "Rock On!" Any time someone has the cojones to stand up to conventional opinion to challenge the status quo, more power to them! Yeah, he's a politician, and just by moving his lips is suspect, but at least he's rocking the boat. And as long as he's garnering controversy - media wise - he's bringing attention to issues that those of us who want to raise these issues but don't have the clout to do so. It's a good thing.

So Rock on, brother George! Keep the attention on our hypocritical involvement in middle-east politics. Keep the focus on inconsistencies in U.S policy, and it'll be harder for the general population to forget inconvenient facts in order to support the administration in their quest for world domination.

Keep the truth flowing, and there's a chance for us yet. When no voices speak up to proclaim that the emperor has no clothes, then we're all doomed to obediently admiring the non-clothing.