As we previously reported, the U.S. Senate Subcommittee has made the testimony of all witnesses from last week’s hearings on the U.N. Oil-for-Food “scandal” available on their website.
All witnesses, that is, except for the stunning testimony given by British MP George Galloway, who tore Senator Norm Coleman (and the Bush Administration in general) a new one for their McCarthy-like witch hunt to distract from the Administration’s devastatingly failed and dishonest Iraq policy. Galloway called the hearings and the trumped-up scandal “the mother of all smoke-screens”.
As we reported originally, Coleman’s office passed the buck for the absense of Galloway’s testimony on the website by telling The BRAD BLOG that, “Senator Coleman is the chairman, but the committee makes their own decisions about what goes on the website.”
Our calls to “the committee” have yet to be returned, yet the website has now been updated at least twice with pathetic explanations.
The first update, just after our original article on the missing Galloway testimony, informed us that: “Mr Galloway did not submit a statement”.
A later update, currently available on the site, explains that (emphasis ours): “Mr Galloway did not submit a written statement”.
As a public service to the U.S. Senate subcommittee on Investigations whose transcribers are either very slow, or very inept when it comes to copying and pasting, and to the future ex-Senator Norm Coleman who has no say about what goes on his own committee’s website…Galloway’s Testimony has been available on this London Times page for nearly a week.
Video from portions of that testimony is available via this previous article.
Norm Coleman’s office can be reached at 202-224-5641 if you have any questions or wish to leave a message for “the committee” since there is no phone number online for “the committee”. Hopefully the chairman of that “committee” can help you.
so what is Galloway holding up in his hand in the photo…
and I find it extremely "strange" that he (Galloway) wouldn’t have presented the committee with a written statement as well as the verbal lashing.
Perhaps if 6 or 7 of us called Senator Colemans office they might be able to find a copy of the testimony.
More censorship, this time from Charlie Rose???
Have a look at Charlie Rose’s website for the schedule of May 17, 2005:
http://www.charlierose.com/thisweek.shtm
There are schedules and brief descriptions of interviews before and after this date but not for the one of the interview with "George Galloway".
Look at his shop site for recent shows:
http://www.charlierose.com/shop/
You can’t buy a video of that same program.
Haven’t tried to buy a transcript to see if that’s available.
{ed note: Post deleted. Same user using different names again. Pathetic.}
{ed note: Post deleted. Same user using different names again. Pathetic}
In case Smilin’ Norm never manages to get those transcripts posted, I’ve transcribed a couple of the best exchanges here.
Chin (#5),
Nice circular argument Chin. How exactly was Galloway supposed to sign anything if they never had a copy of the transcript that Galloway could review?
Hmm. Just out of curiosity, do you have any sources for your amazing scoop? Please back your statement or we will be forced to conclude that you are just making shit up.
Sorry for the OT, but Ohio’s heating up again, with the firing of a whistleblower and the uncovering of threats by Blackwell to all election officials. Air America broadcast this weekend from Columbus. Article by Fitrakis and Wasserman here.
Even C-Span doesnt have it the testimony video available on its site!!!! so much for the free and fair press we keep preaching to others!!!!! makes me sick!
Even C-Span doesnt have the testimony video available on its site!!!! so much for the free and fair press we keep preaching to others!!!!! makes me sick!
I’m have no idea how senate procedure works (I’m thinking that official statements are typically submitted in advance), but isn’t it possible that the Senate Subcommitte Website is correct (stating no "official statement" by Galloway), and that Galloway didn’t desire to submit a written statement so as to retain an element of "surprise"? This, though misleading, would provide them with an excuse to not post his remarks.
Truly, if they had any clue as to what he was going to say, they wouldn’t have cleared his visa, or they would have dropped their accusations, or at least would have shot his plane down (and blamed it on terrorists)…
Just a thought.
Hopefully a week from Wednesday Brad will be on my show and perhaps between his show and mine we can form some kind of alliance.
Shaun
Peg C.
Blackwell some how can refuse to speak under oath ,seemingly to any person or commitee ,what the hay!
the story by Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman was odd in some respects ie. "Blackwell’s highly publicized sanction","He has been widely criticized in Congress","Blackwell’s demand for sanctions evoked harsh national criticism" these phrases are a little overstated.About time somebody looks at Blackwells criminal action in Ohio before and after the elections.
Sherole Eaton will wait to be "fired" I hope .
I believe he is holding up his own dossier of his record against saddam and opposition to the saddam regime, during the tetomny he mentions that he has brought that for all the senators to read
Skinny #11 If the committee had a good reason for not posting the document, they’d use it and stick to it instead of coming up with a new equivocal excuse every day! (it’s just like the Bushit reasons for invading Iraq)
In case people are having a hard time finding it,
here’s the Galloway transcript
Man, I take my girl scouts on one little camping trip…and miss All the excitement! I thank my lucky stars that I can come home and see/read all about it anyway, especially considering I won’t be able to find it on the ‘news’. Thanks Brad!
I called Coleman’s office yesterday and got a rude staffer who told me Galloway left no statement, only documents as evidence for Senators to review. She said she was getting a lot of calls on this. Apparantly not enough, though, to post the testimony in a timely manner.
I spoke with Senator Coleman’s office and they said that unless the statements are sent in advance they are not printed. They put me in touch with the PCA office who repeated the same mantra but said that if Mr. Galloway submitted a statement it would be at the chairman’s perogative whether or not they chose to print the statement.
They did add that in 100% of the occasions that a statement has been presented it has been printed. Perhaps Mr. Gallaway should be contacted to release a statement to the committee along with a letter requesting that his statement be included in the official minutes and perhaps send a copy of that letter to the Bradblog so that it can then be printed so that the world knows without question that Senator Coleman alone is responsible for censuring the remarks.
To contact Mr. Galloway and request that he send a statement along with a letter with copies to the BradBlog email him at vote4george@respectcoalition.org
I posted this in the other section but you can watch the entire senate hearing on their website. Just open your eyes people! :crazy:
Operation Mindfck: Late last night I was reading an article in Playboy about this dude called "The Brain" so called mastermind of 911 under the control of the CIA for 2 years now. This tongue and cheek piece which i say that because it’s written as a secret "tell all" about this terrorist who no like like the US government. What hits me is not that there is a degree of truth that this American hating Alla lover hates us (America) for example because we only have friends who have economic importance to us otherwise we have looked (like Muslim Euro Ethnic Clensing of the 90’s) the other way. AND (2.) we were just lucky to catch the poor bastard. So what is my point? There is to much other unclaimed baggage to this story like the information espouted by this so called Operation Mindfck government operative plays into the attack as the act of someone who wants to make an exploding statement to get the attention of Americans. This story does not give credibility to any the of evidence supporting Bush’s role in 911 or his real plans for the "American Empire" and I think the article is BUSHIT mindcrime propaganda. The article doesn’t explore the path George W. chose for this country or all the unearthed Griffin evidence. While the excuse it what you initially wanted to believe, Grizzly Bear Dancer does not suscribe to this one sided Angry Arab with a bomb story and I say bring it on Mr. Galloway.
{ed note: This troll continues to post by different names, so his posts will be deleted. Pick a name, “Shasta”/”natkingcolelover”, stick with it, and you can say whatever silly nonsense you like, as long as you don’t abuse other posters. That you are unable to put a real name, even a consistent fake name behind your statements speaks volumes to the weakness of your arguments.}
I was able to find a link to the Galloway/Coleman testimony on C-Span, here’s the link.
rtsp://video.c-span.org/archive/iraq/iraq_051705_galloway.rm
Hi, Natkingcolelover #23 – Welcome – are you a "newby" to this site? If so, you have a lot of catching up to do. You will find a lot of informed people here, who provide a lot of information and research, so that we all can make more informed choices and formulate for ourselves new ideas and understanding about elections, elected representatives, and policies effecting the American people and the rest of the world.
To address your post: (1) there is no evidence to support that Galloway is a "Saddam lover". In fact, Galloway told Saddam he opposed his oppression of the Iraqi people; and he opposed the American/British sanctions that killed millions of Iraqis. (2) Bombing a country to smitherines with depleted uranium bombs, murdering more than 100,000 Iraqis, and stealing their oil is NOT freeing the oppressed. (3) Support for the military means bringing them home from an illegal attack on a country that couldn’t defend itself, and from an illegal occupation and rape of a sovereign country (4) There is no evidence that Galloway received money from terrorist organizations. The only evidence produced against him to date has been proven to be fraudulent.
There is a lot more information on a previous post at this site a few days ago, when Galloway first testified. Great reading/research material is referenced.
It is important in life to approach it with considerable sketicism. People tell you what they want you to believe, and it’s up to you to determine the truth. How do you do that? Starting with basic principles found in the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, teachings of Jesus Christ, many other sources, and simply "Do onto others as you would have them do onto you".
America has been hi-jacked by a pack of extremists whose only goal is money and power for themselves alone. The American people are being lied to daily by its so-called "leaders", and the young people of America are being used as cannon fodder. It is a terrible state of affairs.
You are being tested…and the truth will win out.
natkingcolelover,
So i take it that your anti islam and you think its perfectly ok to be that, i guess most of the people on here can tell the kind of left winger you are, why dont you admit your true colours and stop pretending be a left winger when your are in fact an extreme right winger supporting slaughter of thousands in the name of freedom.
So do you support freedom in Uzbekistan because the Bush/Blair Administrationa dont, they in fact are supporting financially and in millitary terms the Karimov regime a regime which has boiled people to death, the British Ammbassador in fact was practically sacked by blair after speaking out against the uzbek regime. What did the bush administration do last week after 700 people were slaughtered in Uzbekistan.
Where is the support for feedom there, or hows about freedom in Eygpt, Jordan and saudi Arabia no that will never happen because USA backs these regimes and needs them.
So before you make idiotaic statements about how bush is trying to free the opressed to a bit more research look at histroy countries always fight wars for national interest not to free people in far way lands only difference now is that the people of these nations are no longer willing to accept people dieing just so their nation can get richer, thats why the leaders have to give false reasons and exuses and idiots like you either believe them or just convince yourself its true so you dont fee guilty about supporting slaughter.
This is why we need people like Galloway to tell us how it is
I agree re: Blackwell. Getting the MSM to report on it has been like calling a deaf dog to dinner.
So — if MSM wanted to, they could have all the sizzling scandals they wanted from the last 5 years. They need to pump those stories out fast & furious. It would shock the pants off the "right", catch them off guard & I’ll bet more papers & magazines would be bought off the racks than in the last 10 years.
Maybe I’m dreaming, but … who knows? The majority didn’t vote for the scallywags.
Galloway is on record in the UK Parliament as being emphatically OPPOSED to Saddam’s regime, at a time when the US was arming him. Galloway’s meetings with Hussein were diplomatic, since he disagreed with the policy of punishing the Iraqi people through sanctions which only further enriched others without feeding ordinary citizens.
Comment #23 Yeh, so bombing Iraq was all about bringing FREEDOM and DEMOCRACY to their people while we stamp out those bad Arab guys with the oil. Comment #25: Interesting this person comes along after my last comment to you about how the majority does not know the truth about 2 stolen elections, rewriting Congressional laws against Americans, and single handedly destroying what’s left of the earth to line the pockets of a few wealthy benefactors, their war machine and "The Agenda" of careless, greedy, self richious murderers. We will cut down the Shrub with his own chainsaw of lies. Discussing alternative sources of information outside of what the government/wealthy owned and controlled mass media is feeding America, as well as a the mountains of evidence supporting a dissenting truth will eventually win the day. We the People see the Bushit administration for who they are based on their record. We will bring this government in line and jail the corrupt snakes.
To Natkingcolelover – you state you will do anything to free oppressed people. Well every military branch is needing you. I think you should rush down to the nearest branch and sign up TODAY.
Lets see you put your feet where your mouth is, oh maybe you have already.
Just to add one more bit to the fine posts by Peggy, Peg C, Safdar and Grizzly Bear:
The estimates of the number of Iraqis who died as a result of the U.S. lead U.N. sanctions are in the neighborhood of 750,000 to 1,000,000 people – 400,000 or more of them children. The sanctions weakened Iraq as a whole, but if anything strengthened Saddam’s iron grip on his own people; they were starving and he came up with a good food distribution system.
The sanctions were a ghastly evil perpetrated on the Iraqi people to punish their evil dictator. But two wrongs don’t make a right. Galloway was attempting to right the wrong for which our government was responsible. That hardly makes him a Saddam lover, but does speak volumes about his courage and love for humanity.
To save the Democrat Fillibuster from a Senate (Republican) Congressional vote, a 14 man bipartisan Senate Subcommittee agreed to OK 3 Bushit judicial appointments. What would someone like of Galloway say about this Congressional action if given a platform? Probably something like: When you lose a foot to save an arm you are still losing a foot. In other words Americans are STILL LOSING and someday this will kick them in the ace and they won’t be able to run. No matter which way you look at it, the ROBOTS in CONGRESS have struck again. Recently a movie article criticized George Lucas comparing Darth Vader to George W. Bush in the new Star Wars movie. The difference? Mr. Vader only plays a bad guy in movies and he’s not an inbred lyer responsible for the present and future irreversable repercussions of his tenure.
As I have mentioned before on this site on another blog there is no doubting Galloway’s oppositions to saddam even the Sunday Times in London has admitted in an article in Sunday 22nd May and this is a very pro war Murdock paper.
Just like to inform you guys in the states about a documentary “The power of Nightmares” because I read that no TV network in the states would touch it. It is very powerful three part BBC documentary which was converted to a movie and screened at Cannes film festival this year so therefore may be released across the states at the cinema.
The documentary basically gives a very powerful argument of how our politicians who used to always lie to us and gave us broken promises of a better future are now doing the same when it comes to nightmares like terrorism, the whole documentary looks at the rise of two groups of people the Neocons and Islamist, and basically points out how we are constantly fed lies to keep us in a constant state of fear to allow our leaders to pass laws they would never otherwise be able to do. No wonder no network in the states would touch it.
AND the link to the archived video is still wrong. The link tells you to go to "http://www.senate.gov/~gov_affa....ram". Clicking that link gives you a page not found error. The actual link is "http://www.senate.gov/~gov_affa....ram" (working link).
A few people have mentioned that the transcript can be read …>somewhere
Yes, it can. But the gist of this discussion is rather that the ‘official’ site has not managed to post Mr. Galloway’s presentation (or rather, that they have managed not to post it). A sad situation, which reflects poorly on the committee and its efforts.
Worm Coleman (R-Sociopath) probably thought the hard part was the plane crash and the absentee ballot fraud over Mondale. He probably didn’t realize he’d be held up to the world’s ridicule.
Sociopath’s are such good whiners.
Its a sad day for democracy when:
all the branches of the government become a rubber stamp for leadership
media is government controlled, censorship everywhere
personal freedoms are diminshed
i see it happening, its truly such a sad day
i wish we had more politicians who had the balls to "morally oppose" current leadership. who actually knew what "morals" actually means.
(1) George Galloway endorsed Saddam Hussein’s payment for suicide-murderers in Israel and the occupied territories.
(2) Galloway says that the worst day of his entire life was the day the Soviet Union fell.
(3) He has recently written that, "just as Stalin industrialised the Soviet Union, so on a different scale Saddam plotted Iraq’s own Great Leap Forward."
(4) Galloway visited Baghdad after the first Gulf war and, addressing Saddam, said: "Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability."
(5) Those who had alleged that a million civilians were dying from sanctions were willing, nay eager, to keep those same murderous sanctions if it meant preserving Saddam!
(all of the above taken from "Saddam’s Favorite MP"
by Christopher Hitchens)
Jose Chungs
I think you’ll find those payments were for the families of people who had been killed in the conflict with Israel which included suicide bombers and as supporter of the Palestinian cause I think you’ll find the whole Arab world not only supports those payments but also make those payments, including strong western allies like Saudi Arabia.
the comments towards saddam he says he has regretted but were said in diplomacy and intended for the Iraqi peopleThe sanctions if you look at facts actually empowered saddam, his people now had to go to him to get food rations it was another form of control handed to him.
And finally I would like to point out if you study your history saddam was an evil monster but look at his record before he lost the plot and started the war with Iran he was actually making a giant leap with Iraq with the best Health and education systems in the middle east he was also known for meeting the public in the late seventies and discussing the countries problems with his population……..but then what’s the saying say " power corrupts"…..so please don’t just quote idiots without having a look at history yourself
As a newbie to CSPAN watching…I am not surprised Coleman isn’t so forthcoming with a transcript. In a mere hour or so…Galloway dragged the whole administration under the bus with him. Loved it!
I’ve posted the full hearing transcript — not just Galloway’s opening statement — here: http://petty-larseny.blogspot.c...testimony.html