George Galloway: Bluster and Fabrication

Picture credit: http://news.bbc.co.uk
You may remember George Galloway's testimony in front of the Senate committee investigating the UN Oil-for-Food debacle. In a manner more accustomed to Parliament's House of Commons, the MP went on offense, blustering, accusatory, and piercing.

For a brief, shining moment, Galloway became an icon of the mainstream media/DNC (a singular noun). The San Francisco Chronicle went so far as to label him a "media hero".

Galloway's bluster couldn't obscure the facts, however. Galloway was in front of the Senate because he ran the controversial Mariam Appeal, which raised enormous amounts of money and then (apparently) disappeared. The Mariam Appeal, according to Sexion, was the political organization set up to "protest" the Iraq sanctions.

According to the Telegraph, Saddam's precious oil-for-food vouchers included the names of intended beneficiaries. Among the parties listed: Zureikat, Galloway and "Mariam's Appeal".

And, coincidentally, "Galloway moved the financial statements and other documents of the Mariam Appeal from the UK to the Middle East".

The seedy involvement with Oil-for-Food financier Zureikat was the question before the MP on the day of his testimony. Let's listen in.

SEN. COLEMAN: So Mr. Galloway, you would have this committee believe that your designated representative from the Mariam's Appeal becomes the chair of the Mariam's Appeal, was listed in Iraqi documents as obviously doing business, oil deals with Iraq, that you never had a conversation with him in 2001 or whether he was doing oil business with Iraq. GALLOWAY: No, I'm doing better than that. I'm telling you that I knew that he was doing a vast amount of business with Iraq... He was an extremely wealthy businessman doing very extensive business in Iraq. Not only did I know that, but I told everyone about it. I emblazoned it in our literature, on our Web site, precisely so that people like you could not later credibly question my bonafides in that regard. So I did better than that. Galloway, knowing full well that his website was down, told the Senate committee that he had "emblazoned" on his website that his partner in the organization had extensive business dealings with Iraq and was a donator to the campaign. Thus he most likely believed that there would be no way to check if he was lying or not. He couldn't have been more wrong. Using an awesome website called the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, we can look up how the Mariam Appeal website appeared throughout the past few years. I'm fairly certain that Mr. Galloway was not aware of this, for if he was, I'm not certain he would have made the statements he made...

Sexion effectively tears Galloway's testimony to shreds... in a manner reminiscent of Genghis Kahn. It would appear that Galloway's ersatz indignation was as genuine as his testimony. Which is to say his statements were as valuable as a Hillary Clinton three dollar bill.

It goes without saying: read the whole thing and suckle at the teat of wisdom.

Seixon: With all due RESPECT, Mr. Galloway…