Galloway For President  

George Galloway has mounted a spirited attack on the US Senate over the UN Oil For Food program (see the full transcript or video). Its refreshing to see someone telling the truth about this for a change (and it actually getting reported). I doubt the real scandal is going to get investigated any time soon though - but if somone uses the Al Capone tactic of following the money rather than focussing on the bigger crimes, it could have interesting results.

The US Senate committee said it had "detailed evidence" Mr Galloway received about 20 million barrels of oil in allocations from the Saddam regime. Mr Galloway, who was drummed out of Britain's ruling Labour Party because of his opposition to the Iraq war, swept aside those charges.

"Who paid me hundreds of thousand of dollars? The answer is nobody," he said.

And far from being an avid supporter of Saddam, as congressional accusers have alleged, Mr Galloway said he had been an active opponent of the regime.

"I have a rather better record of opposition to Saddam Hussein than you do, and than any member of the British or American governments do. I was an opponent of Saddam Hussein at a time when British and American governments and businessmen were selling him guns and gas."

Mr Galloway proudly waved his anti-war credentials at the hearing. His scathing denunciation of the Iraq venture left some US politicians squirming in their seats, particularly when he urged them to refocus their UN investigations from the world body and onto the role played by Washington.

"Have a look at the real oil for food scandal. Have a look at the 14 months you were in charge of Baghdad when $US8.8 billion [$11.6 billion] of Iraq's wealth went missing on your watch," he said. "Have a look at the other American corporations that stole not only Iraq's money, but the money of the American taxpayer. Have a look at the oil that you didn't even meter, that you were shipping out of the country selling, the proceeds of which went who knows where."