George Galloway, British Parliament Member, to the American Senate oil-for-food subcommittee of the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs; May 17, 2005:
Now Senator,
I gave my heard and soul to oppose the policy that you promoted.
I gave my political-life’s blood to try to stop the mass killing of Iraqis by the sanctions on Iraq – which killed a million Iraqis, most of them children.
Most of them died before they even knew that they were Iraqis. But they died for no other reason other than that they were Iraqis. With the misfortune to be born at that time.
I gave my heard and soul to stop you committing the disaster, that you did commit in invading Iraq.
He has more to say – read on …
And I told the world that your case for the war was a pack of lies.
I told the world that Iraq, contradicting your claims, did not have weapons of mass destruction.
I told the world, contradicting your claims, that Iraq had no connection to Al Queda.
I told the world, contradicting your claims, that Iraq had no connection to the atrocity on 9-11 2001.
I told the world, contradicting your claims, that the Iraqi people would resist a British and American invasion of their country.
And that the fall of Baghdad would not be the beginning of the end, but merely the end of the beginning.
Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong.
And a hundred-thousand people have payed with their lives.
Sixteen-hundred of them American soldiers sent to their deaths, on a pack of lies.
Fifteen-thousand of them wounded, many of them disabled forever, on a pack of lies.
If the world had listened to Kofi Annan, who´s dismissal you demanded, if the world had listened to President Chirac, who you want to paint as some kind of corrupt traitor, if the world had listen to me and the antiwar movement in Britain, we would not be in the disaster that we are in today.
Senator, this is the mother of all smoke-screens.
You are trying to divert attention from the crimes that you supported, from the theft of billions of dollars of Iraqis wealth.
Have a look at the real oil-for-food scandal.
Have a look at the fourteen month you were in charge of Baghdad, the first fourteen month. When eight-point-eight billion dollars of Iraq’s wealth went missing, on your watch.
Have a look at Halliburton and the other American corporations that stole not only Iraq’s money, but the money of the American tax payer.
Have a look at the oil that you didn´t even meter, that you were shipping out of the country and selling, the proceeds of which went who-knows-where.
Have a look at the eight-hundred million dollars you gave to American military commanders to hand out around the country without even counting it or weighting it.
Have a look at the real scandal, breaking in the newspapers today, revealed in the earlier testimony at this committee, that the biggest sanctions busters were not me, or Russian politicians, or French politicians.
The real sanctions busters were you own companies, with the connivance of your own government.
Transcribed from a video provided via
Crooks and Liars – well worth to watch
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Asked whether Galloway violated his oath to tell the truth before the committee, [subcommittee chairman and Minnesota Republican Norm] Coleman said: "I don’t know. We’ll have to look over the record. I just don’t think he was a credible witness."
British Lawmaker Denies Oil-For-Food Claim
UPDATE:
America Sedation has a much more extensive transcript. (hat tip to Fran)