TONY EASTLEY: There was some unusual bluntness today in a US Congressional Committee when the British MP George Galloway appeared to try and clear his name of corruption allegations.
He's supposed to have profited from Iraq's oil for food program by steering hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks to Saddam Hussein, in exchange for oil allocations. Mr Galloway angrily denied the charges and accused the Republican committee chairman of trying to lynch him.
His appearance, while brief, was heated.
From Washington, John Shovelan reports:
JOHN SHOVELAN: Senators aren't used to the kind of treatment the fiery Scottish MP served up today.
GEORGE GALLOWAY: Senator, this is the mother of all smoke screens.
JOHN SHOVELAN: George Galloway, a member of the British House of Commons, came to Washington to clear his name and bluntly confronted the Republican Chairman of the committee, Senator Norm Coleman, challenging the lawyer turned senator to support the allegations that Galloway had profited from the oil-for-food program.
GEORGE GALLOWAY: Now, I know that standards have slipped over the last few years in Washington, but for a lawyer, you're remarkably cavalier with any idea of justice.
JOHN SHOVELAN: George Galloway is one of three prominent politicians named by a sub-committee as having received oil allocations from Saddam Hussein. In return, Senator Coleman says Mr Galloway paid surcharges, or kickbacks, directly to Saddam Hussein.
NORM COLEMAN: Surcharges of more than $300,000 were paid to the Hussein regime.
JOHN SHOVELAN: The tone of the hearing was set well before it began, when Mr Galloway – on his arrival in the country – described Senator Coleman as a "pro-Israel, pro-war, neocon hawk, and the lickspittle of George W. Bush.''
GEORGE GALLOWAY: Senator, I am not now, nor have I ever been, an oil trader. I was an opponent of Saddam Hussein when British and American governments and businessmen were selling him guns and gas.
JOHN SHOVELAN: The committee has named Mr Galloway, the Russian politician Vladimir Zhironovsky and the former French Foreign Minister Charles Pasqua as receiving oil allocations and participating in Saddam Hussein's corrupting of the scheme.
All have denied the charges, but only Mr Galloway did it in person, denying he was an apologist for the Hussein regime, and he said he'd met the former Iraqi dictator only twice – the same number of times as the US Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld.
GEORGE GALLOWAY: The difference is Donald Rumsfeld met him to sell him guns. I met him to try to bring about an end to sanctions, suffering and war – a rather better use of two meetings with Saddam Hussein.
JOHN SHOVELAN: But Mr Galloway at times appeared evasive.
NORM COLEMAN: I'm sorry, let me go back to my question. I don't want to…
GEORGE GALLOWAY: You want to talk about illegality?
NORM COLEMAN: No.
GEORGE GALLOWAY: You launched an illegal war which has killed 100,000 people.
NORM COLEMAN: Let's try…
GEORGE GALLOWAY: You want me to be troubled about…
NORM COLEMAN: No, I want you to answer questions which are fairly put and directly put to you.
GEORGE GALLOWAY: Alright.
JOHN SHOVELAN: George Galloway won re-election to the British Parliament as an independent after he was ejected from the Labour Party for being critical of the British Prime Minister Tony Blair and expressing support for the regime in Iraq at the time of the US-led invasion.
GEORGE GALLOWAY: In everything I said, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong, and 100,000 people have paid with their lives – 1,600 of them American soldiers, sent to their deaths on a pack of lies.
JOHN SHOVELAN: Senator Coleman said Mr Galloway wasn't a credible witness, and if it was found he'd been dishonest, there would be consequences.
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