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The press highlighted “street fighter” Galloway as catching the Senate committee off-guard. (Reuters)
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CAIRO,
May 18, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The press, both
in Britain and the United States, highlighted Wednesday, May 18, the
spirited defense by British anti-war lawmaker George Galloway, to US
Senate accusations on receiving oil kickbacks from the former Iraqi
regime, turning the table on his US accusers.
“Galloway
not only defended himself robustly but also threw the charges back in
the face of the American administration,” Britain’s
mass-circulation Daily Mirror said.
During
a voluntary hearing session Tuesday, Galloway vehemently denied US
claims that he received Iraqi oil money from ousted Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein.
The
British daily, which vehemently opposed the US-led war on Iraq, added
that what stung the US Senate was “when Galloway pointed out that
their own Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had twice met Saddam to
sell him arms”.
The
flamboyant British lawmaker said, during the hearing session, that he
had met the former Iraqi president on two occasions - the same number
of times as US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
“The
difference is Donald Rumsfeld met him to sell him guns and maps - the
better to target those guns. I met him to try to bring about an end to
sanctions, suffering and war,” he said.
“Street
Fighter”
Top-selling
The Guardian said the 50-year-old Scotsman’s “counter-attacks”
against the US Senate looked like as if he (Galloway) was “in street
fighting form”.
“He
(Galloway) scored several points, especially with his jibe at
Rumsfeld,” the British daily said.
“Galloway
insisted under oath that he had never benefited from any oil sales,”
a point he has made in successful libel actions against the Daily
Telegraph and the Christian Science Monitor and on many other
occasions,” it recalled.
Galloway,
who set up his own left-wing Respect Party after being expelled from
the Labour Party of Prime Minister Tony Blair over the Iraq war, won
£ 150,000 dollars in damages against the Daily Telegraph over
unverified claims of being on Saddam’s payroll.
Galloway
had also received “substantial” damages and a public
apology over an article in the Christian Science Monitor
that alleged he accepted money from the former Iraqi president.
In
the May 5 British election, Galloway won a seat in parliament from a
constituency in London where many Muslims live under the banner of his
own left-wing Respect party.
Turning
the Table
On
the other side of the Atlantic, US dailies said that Galloway’s
strong testimony before the Senate was a scold to the Bush
administration on the Iraq war, according to Agence France-Presse
(AFP).
Under
a headline reading “British Lawmaker Scolds Senators on Iraq”, The
New York Times said that the Senate committee appeared to be caught
off-guard when Galloway used his testimony “to turn the table on his
accusers.”
The
Washington Post, for its part, described Galloway in his forceful
denial of US Senate allegations as “a formidable debater.”
The
Wall Street Journal also qualified Galloway’s rare intervention in
the US Senate as “a bitter exchange between lawmakers of two
allies.”
Galloway
has repeatedly accused British Prime Minister Tony Blair and US
President George W. Bush of lying to the armed forces about the likely
length of the Iraq war.
During
the run-up to the US-led invasion of the oil-rich country, Galloway
also exhorted the Arab public opinion to stand up before another
puppet president or corrupt king is installed in Iraq.
The
flamboyant British politician has fought a long campaign against
sanctions on Iraq, and was an adamant opponent of the 1991 Gulf War
and the military action in Afghanistan.
A
congressional committee said last week it had “detailed evidence”
that Saddam Hussein’s regime gave 20 million barrels of oil in
allocations to Galloway.
“I
am not now, nor have I ever been, an oil trader, and neither has
anyone on my behalf,” Galloway emphatically told the US
congressional panel investigating the scandal-plagued UN-run
Oil-for-Food program.
Allegations
of wrongdoing in the 64-billion-dollar program, which was in operation
between 1996 and 2003, have led to repeated calls for the resignation
of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
The
program was intended to allow UN-supervised sales of Iraqi oil to buy
medicines and other essential supplies for the Iraqi population to
alleviate the impact of international sanctions against the regime.
