George Galloway Testifies Before Senate Subcommittee on Investigations

TERENCE SMITH:

The subject was the U.N.'s scandal ridden oil-for-food program and on the witness stand was British M.P. George Galloway. Three Senate investigative reports charge that from 2000 to 2003, Galloway received vouchers to buy 20 million barrels of Iraqi oil at cut-rate prices, oil that could be resold for a substantial profit.

Galloway testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee today, chaired by Republican Sen. Norm Coleman from Minnesota. Galloway vehemently denied the allegations.

GEORGE GALLOWAY:

Senator, I am not now, nor have I ever been, an oil trader, and neither has anyone on my behalf. I have never seen a barrel of oil, owned one, bought one, sold one, and neither has anybody on my behalf. Now I know that standards have slipped over last few years in Washington, but for a lawyer you're remarkably cavalier with any idea of justice.

TERENCE SMITH:

In Britain, Galloway is famous as a radical who was kicked out of Tony Blair's Labour Party for his opposition to the Iraq War and his sharp, personal attacks on the prime minister.

Earlier this month, he won back a seat in parliament, this time running on an anti-war platform on the Respect Party ticket. In the 1990s, Galloway criticized the U.N. sanctions placed on Saddam Hussein after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. Here he is in a 1994 meeting with the Iraqi leader.

GEORGE GALLOWAY:

Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability.

TERENCE SMITH:

Later, Galloway said he was talking about the Iraqi people, not their leader. Today, he contended that he'd met Saddam only twice.

GEORGE GALLOWAY:

On the very first page of your document about me, you assert that I have had many meetings with Saddam Hussein. This is false. I have had two meetings with Saddam Hussein: Once in 1994 and once in August of 2002. By no stretch of the English language can that be described as many meetings with Saddam Hussein.

As a matter of fact, I've met Saddam Hussein exactly the same number of times as Donald Rumsfeld met him. The difference is Donald Rumsfeld met him to sell him guns and to give him maps, the better to target those guns.

TERENCE SMITH:

Galloway continued his offensive against the senators.

GEORGE GALLOWAY:

I gave my heart and soul to stop you committing the disaster that you did commit in invading Iraq. And I told the world that your case for the war was a pack of lies. I told the world that Iraq, contrary to your claims, did not have weapons of mass destruction.

Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong. If the world had listened to me and the anti-war movement in Britain, we would not be in the disaster that we're in today. Senator, this is the mother of all smoke screens.

TERENCE SMITH:

The questioning was terse, especially on which Iraqi officials and businessmen Galloway knew.

SEN. NORM COLEMAN:

Middle East ASI, that was Mr. Zarikat's company?

GEORGE GALLOWAY:

Middle East ASI is Mr. Zarikat's company. He may well have signed an oil contract. It had nothing to do with me.

SEN. NORM COLEMAN:

I'm asking you specifically in 2001, were you aware he was doing oil deals with Iraq?

GEORGE GALLOWAY:

I was aware that he was doing extensive business with Iraq. I did not know the details of it. It was not my business.

SEN. NORM COLEMAN:

So this is somebody who was chairman of committee that you know well and you're not able to say that he was…

GEORGE GALLOWAY:

Well, there's a lot of contributors – I've just been checking — to your political campaigns.

SEN. NORM COLEMAN:

There's not many at that level, Mr. Galloway –

GEORGE GALLOWAY:

I've checked your Web site. There are lots of contributors to your political campaign funds. I don't suppose you ask any of them how they made the money they give you.

GEORGE GALLOWAY:

Certainly not at $600,000 American.

TERENCE SMITH:

In addition to Galloway, the Senate reports also charged that Russian and French officials and a Texas-based oil company, Bayoil, allegedly profited from the oil- for-food program.