UK's Galloway arrives in U.S. to clear name on Iraq

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050516/ts_nm/iraq_un_galloway_dc_7

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Maverick British lawmaker George Galloway arrived in Washington on Monday and said he was determined to prove the "absurdity" of allegations that he benefited from the U.N.'s oil-for-food program for Iraq.

Galloway is set to answer questions on Tuesday at a hearing of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which released documents it said showed ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein gave Galloway the rights to export 20 million barrels of oil under the now-defunct U.N. oil-for-food humanitarian program.

A radical kicked out of the Labor party for his fervent opposition to the Iraq war and personal attacks on Prime Minister Tony Blair, Galloway said he was looking forward to telling his side of the story but had low expectations.

"I have no expectation of justice from a group of Christian fundamentalist and Zionist activists under the chairmanship of a neocon (President) George Bush who is pro-war," Galloway told Reuters on his arrival in the United States.

"I come not as the accused but as the accuser," he added.

more

[LynnTheDem]

1. "I have no expectation of justice from a group of Christian fundamentalist

and Zionist activists under the chairmanship of a neocon George Bush..."

GET EM, GG!

[Dover]

2. Lol! Give the man a megaphone! I hope AAR invites him for an interview

[rurallib]

3. Will C-span ( or anyone ?) cover this?

[umtalal]

7. I heard CSpan is not going to cover it.

Just heard that C-SPAN is not covering this Galloway Senate Hearing
tomorrow (Tuesday - May 17th, 2005):


This hearing with MP George Galloway is not being covered tomorrow
(Tuesday) by C-SPAN (please telephone C-SPAN [phone] and
[e-mail] - ask for Rob Harleston who covers the Congress -
and mention that C-SPAN should cover it)

[burrowowl]

15. Thanks for link

Actually it should be on C-Span2 which covers the Senate.

[burrowowl]

16. Just checked C-Span2

Other more important hearings, I guess.

[CottonBear]

4. Maybe the Newsweek brouhaha is a Galloway distraction.

as well as a distraction from the real story in Afghanistan (they hate us there too). Just a thought.

This Galloway guy is going to make some waves. :popcorn:

[MrPrax]

5. Hey George...Check the Houston Chronicle

Mr. Galloway, you might want to have a look at how the investigation is going so far...

Panel says BayOil key in Saddam scheme

Houston firm was 'puppeteer' in oil-for-food scam, investigators say

By DAVID IVANOVICH

WASHINGTON - Houston's BayOil (USA) was the "puppeteer" in a scheme to help Russian politicians profit illegally from the United Nations' oil-for-food program and pay kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime, Senate investigators say.

The Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations contends the trading firm, led by Houston's David Chalmers Jr., played a key role in helping Saddam curry favor with Russian leaders. At the time, Saddam was trying to win friends on the U.N. Security Council.

"They are involved in Iraqi oil from soup to nuts," a Senate investigator said.
<snip>
The subcommittee's allegations come one month after a federal jury in New York accused Chalmers and his colleague Ludmil Dionissiev — both of Houston — as well as BayOil trader John Irving of London of scheming with Baghdad to fix oil prices and pay millions in kickbacks to Saddam's regime.

more at
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3183233



Maybe George you can get some help tracking down this intriguing tidbit left at Friends of Saddam:
http://www.acepilots.com/unscam/archives/001959.html

When Chalmer's indictment was announced I searched out his company, Bayoil USA Inc. in Houston. Here is their #: 713.222.7100. Their Voice Mail system gives the name of their employees. I googled a one "John Overbey" (I later checked the spelling with someone who answered the phone a few days later) and found that a John Overbey and George Bush Sr. started an oil company called Bush-Overbey Oil Development Co. together in Houston in 1950.

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2000/081400a1.html

I wonder whether if it's the same John Overbey (or a relation), he'd have to be 75-85 years old, but wouldn't it be a bit embarrassing to the President?


"A few houses away from George Bush there lived a certain John Overbey. According to Overbey, the "people from the east and the people from Texas or Oklahoma all seemed to have two things in common. They all had a chance to be stockbrokers or investment bankers. And they all wanted to learn the oil business instead." Overbey made his living as a landman. Since George Bush would shortly also become a landman, it is worth investigating what this occupation actually entails; in doing so, we will gain a permanent insight into Bush's character. The role of the landman in the Texas oil industry was to try to identify properties where oil might be found, sometimes on the basis of leaked geological information, sometimes after observing that one of the major oil companies was drilling in the same locale. The land man would scout the property, and then attempt to get the owner of the land to sign away the mineral rights to the property in the form of a lease. ..."

http://www.tarpley.net/bush8.htm

Might be worth checking given that Papa Bush and Iraqi Envoy and Family 'fixer' James Baker had the Carlyle Group negotiating 'debt' consolidation...

The secret deal involves a complex transaction to transfer ownership of as much as $57 billion in unpaid Iraqi debts. The debts, now owed to the government of Kuwait, would be assigned to a foundation created and controlled by a consortium in which the key players are the Carlyle Group, the Albright Group (headed by another former Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright) and several other well-connected firms. Under the deal, the government of Kuwait would also give the consortium $2 billion up front to invest in a private equity fund devised by the consortium, with half of it going to Carlyle.

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml%3Fi=20041101&s=klein

Wonder why they are wasting their time forging documents to incriminate you, and not looking within the family 'trust'?

[Cha]

6. From what I know I

love George Galloway! I hope he finds justice over here.

I know he's on the Offense:P

[anakie]

8. I hope he doesnt have to fly in any small planes

this man is not scared to tell the truth and tell it in a forceful manner. MSM will laugh him off as an eccentric Brit and ignore any accusations he makes.

[bennywhale]

9. Is this going to be on anywhere?

Or are they going to save the embarrasement of an intellectual mauling?

[Jack Rabbit]

13. This was discussed on another forum last week

. . . where somebody suggested putting it on pay-per-vew.

I thought that was a good idea.

[bobthedrummer]

10. "Galloway hounded by AIPAC cell within U.S. Congress; Bolton tied to

same cell" by Wayne Madsen.
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/051305Madsen/051305madsen.html

[Al-CIAda]

12. interesting. n/t

[Darranar]

11. This should be fun. n/t

[bobthedrummer]

14. But the people won't be able to hear his statements here in the US.

Only the oft repeated mantras and bullshit, I can only hope that the UK media gives this wide coverage.

Freedom of the press is just about gone in US MSM.