43 Comments

1. dubhail:

“You’ve got nothing on me” - the sort of thing a dope dealer might say after being stopped and searched after fortuitously emptying his pockets moments previously. He carries on denying it because he believes nobody could produce anything that would stand up in court. Unfortunately this is possibly true as the Miriam accounts for the period have conveniently vanished and the alledged front men are holed up out of reach of subpoena.

Oct 25, 2005 - 7:56 am 2. Fausta:

Thank you Roger!

Galloway’s is one of those stories that just keeps on giving.

Oct 25, 2005 - 8:16 am 3. Sandy P:

So, the statements disappeared from the bank’s microfiche, did they?

Oct 25, 2005 - 9:31 am 4. Pat Curley:

Anybody think he’s really going to come over here to face the charges, as he says?

You can already see his defense; he’s going to claim that his wife’s business dealings are her own affair.

Oct 25, 2005 - 11:13 am 5. dubhail:

Watching Galloway on C4 news London now. He’s deflated and on the ropes. Quite clear he’s hoping for an OJ Simpson style legal exit from this….reminds me of Chirac’s public squirmings. Pity George can’t get presidential immunity!

Oct 25, 2005 - 11:19 am 6. Bill:

Quite clear he’s hoping for an OJ Simpson style legal exit from this….

Makes ya wonder. Is he praying for a call from Alan Dershowitz offering his services?… or rather, one from Norm Finklestein. My money is on the latter. At that point it will be a sick delight for me to sit back and watch both implode before a real jury.

Oct 25, 2005 - 12:02 pm 7. ahem:

What happened? How’d they find out? Did one of them actually read the Wall Street Journal or something?

Oct 25, 2005 - 12:06 pm 8. MarkD:

How much longer can these charades continue? The UN is totally corrupt - there is ample evidence they were paid off by Saddam. Kofi of the reform plan is caught red handed rewriting the report on Lebanon right after promising not to.

Personally, I just refuse to do business with people I know to be dishonest. It’s just self preservation - if they’ll cheat somebody else, they’ll cheat me. So why bother with the UN? It was a noble idea, kind of like the Great Society. Then reality intervened. It’s time to learn and move on.

Oct 25, 2005 - 1:26 pm 9. Seixon:

I’ve got the goods on Galloway, in this <a href=”over at my blog“>quick and detailed overview of the “smoking gun” against him.

Galloway made a lot of noise about the UK Charity Commission looking at “every penny in, and every penny out” of the Mariam Appeal bank account and finding no impropriety. That’s fine and dandy, but I’m guessing that Galloway never imagined that the Senate would get bank account records on Zureikat’s account, whose “every penny in, every penny out” shows the detail of Galloway’s money-laundering operation.

Oct 25, 2005 - 1:37 pm 10. PeterUK:

Congratulations,you will be creating the first political prisoner in the War Of Civilisations

Oct 25, 2005 - 1:38 pm 11. Seixon:

Ooops, link here: http://www.seixon.com/blog/archives/2005/10/every_penny_in.html

Oct 25, 2005 - 1:40 pm 12. Terrye:

Has the man ever been able to explain how he got the money to buy that private villa in Portugal?

Norm Coleman may not be a big talker, but from what I hear he was a very good proescutor. Maybe Galloway should have been a little more honest and a lot less of an a**hole.

Oct 25, 2005 - 1:40 pm 13. tcobb:

Is there any basis for filing charges against Galloway in the U.N.’s International Criminal Court? After all, he has engaged in actions which were used to subvert the UN sanctions against Iraq. Is this a “crime” under “international law?”

Of course I know nothing would be done to him, but this would just help illustrate how corrupt and worthless the U.N. has come to be.

Oct 25, 2005 - 1:52 pm 14. Terrye:

tcobb:

Well you know, the Brits did sign onto it.

Oct 25, 2005 - 2:31 pm 15. legion:

Peter, you are describing a very sick culture that would idolize the likes of Galloway. Are you serious. Are the people there so depraved? You are describing more of a subhuman than any humans I am familiar with.

Oct 25, 2005 - 2:53 pm 16. exmaple:

“Quite clear he’s hoping for an OJ Simpson style legal exit from this….”

Doubt there’s much to gain from hauling him back to the US. If Congress won’t indict Raphael Palmeiro why would it chase a foreigner?

But there’s always the taxman.

Taxman yeah.

TAXMAN!

/end George Harrison impersonation.

Oct 25, 2005 - 3:01 pm 17. pjw:

Wretchard seemed to be the only guy who was on to what the senate was doing last spring when everyone else was scoring the round for Galloway.

http://fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com/2005/10/playing-to-galloway.html

Oct 25, 2005 - 3:13 pm 18. PeterUK:

Legion,

It was Americans who gave Galloway a tour.You have to understand that Galloway’s constituency is a largely Muslim immigrant area. His party respect is an amalgam of the extreme left wing Socialist Workers Party and the Muslim Association of Britain which has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood,which in turn has links with al Qaeda.

The SWP and MAB were the backers of the Stop the War Coalition,all three organistions have their own manifestations in the US.

Examine Galloway’s support in the US,you will probably find a direct connection with the anti-war faction.

Ther man is begging to be put on trial,by the time the MSM get through with it he won’t be the one in the dock

Oct 25, 2005 - 3:24 pm 19. Pat Curley:

Terrific post by Seixon.

Oct 25, 2005 - 3:26 pm 20. Kevin P:

Roger:

Galloway is a worm and we all know it. Of course he took money from OFF funneled through a third party. But both PeterUK and I warned before the Coleman hearings that he would be rewarded by many for facing down “a neocon liar from the Bushie cabal” and this low rent hack loved every minute of it. He went from a relatively minor Labor reject pol to an international hero to the Anti-American, anti-democracy crowd. It doesn’t matter that any sane thinking person knows he is full of crap. The Coleman hearings were the political equivalent of the lottery for this schmuck.

I am not a lawyer and I would appreciate a professional’s opinions on the chances of a perjury conviction. But what if he say’s he had no idea where that money came from? What proof is there that he knew that Zureigat’s donations were laundered OFF money. I know that it was. But can it be proven that he knew it in court? Unless the perjury conviction is a slam dunk I say do not risk it. This pig made too much money of the first hearing and if he walked out of court a free man it would be an utter dissaster.

Oct 25, 2005 - 6:09 pm 21. Terrye:

Peter:

If Galloway had not been so busy shooting his mouth off in Washington he might have realized that he was hanging himself.

Now I understand that you are saying we will make a hero out of him…whatever, but if the bastard broke the law he deserves to go to jail just like everybody else.

We don’t let our own get away with much of anything, why would we let some loud mouth commie Scot get away with this crap?

Oct 25, 2005 - 6:10 pm 22. Luther McLeod:

Well I agree that he should hang from the nearest yardarm (figuratively of course, OTOH, maybe not.) Galloway is as smooth an elocutionist as they come. I’m sure he thinks that that talent will suffice to sway any jury or Congressional sub-committee he may come up against. I hope we have undeniable evidence.

As mentioned above, a comment from an ‘internationalist’ lawyer would be a good thing. Is it legally possible for him to be extradited for a trial? (It must be, why else the Senate allegations) If so, who gets jurisdiction? Please don’t tell me DC Circuit.

Also, Terrye, could you please ease up on us poor Scot’s. We’re sensitive souls don’t ye know.

Oct 25, 2005 - 6:56 pm 23. Bostonian:

Mr. McLeod,

You’re not all commies, are ye?

Oct 25, 2005 - 6:59 pm 24. Luther McLeod:

Bostonian

Please, the appellation does not become me. I can only answer for myself, and that is no. A comment made in jest.

Oct 25, 2005 - 7:11 pm 25. PeterUK:

Terrye,

Galloway is a front for the highly organised extreme left SWP and MAB,please see my 3:24 post.As Kevin P says this man was a nobody until he got a shot at Celebrity Witnesses in front of the Senate,but what have you got,a man whse wife has 150 grand in her bank account.

The anti-war left are going to put everything they have into this trial in their ongoing attempt to bring down the prrsidency in the courts,for what a few ruffled feathers.

How long do you think Galloway can fight extradition for,through the courts,the High Court,the House of Lords,the European Court of Justice,at any point,the European Convention on Human Rights can be invoked,if that happens he won’t be coming without guarantees.

How long do you think a bit of Middle Eastern money and a few activist lawyers can drag this miserable affair accross the front pages of the MSM for?

Galloway wants his day in court,it will be a mud slinging match from day one,there is bound to be something damaging to Bush found or invented,journalists will be burning the midnight oil to connect him to the Texas oil magnate.

Best to let him get prosecuted for lying when he sued the Telegraph and dealt with like Jeffrey Archer.Don’t let him go down as Islam’s champion speaking truth to the power of the Great Satan,let him go down as a shifty, greedy little popinjay

The main point is that the bigger fish are not even on the horizon,this scam could only have been perpetrated by a nation state,a big corporation or organised crime.I doubt that Galloway has any connections there other than Saddam Hussein’s mouthpiece.

Oct 25, 2005 - 7:12 pm 26. Luther McLeod:

You are exactly right, I’m sure, PeterUK. The only thing I would add is that “nation state,a big corporation or organised crime” are not necessarily exclusive. The rot is deep out there.

Oct 25, 2005 - 7:22 pm 27. Kevin P:

Terrye:

If I knew that he would land in jail I would be jumping for joy. Galloway has been feeding of the ME teat and has no problem being supported by the thugs that spread so much evil all over the world. But I have a feeling in my gut that in a month or two Galloway will be appearing on the capitol steps daring Coleman to try to prosecute him. He wants the attention and unless he lands in jail any trial, no matter what facts come out, will be a win-win for him unless he he gets a new pair of orange PJ’s. It would be great if a lawyer examined his testimony in front of congress and the new facts and point out where the actual perjury was. It seems to me that all Galloway has to show is that he had no actual knowledge that those funds were OFF funds. I know that they are but what does Coleman have that shows that he knew they were, not just that he got them. He will lie. He will say his wife didn’t tell him. He will say that Zureigat didn’t tell him where he got the cash. I know that this doesn’t pass the smell test but does it get him a not guilty verdict. If he walks out of court a free man he will become a even bigger hero to the fools all over the world that swallow his Protocols of Zion swill.

Oct 25, 2005 - 7:25 pm 28. PJ:

I hope they have their ducks in a row…

Something tells me his estranged Pali wife is perhaps helping out here? Hell hath no fury and all that.

The committee must have had the bank information at the time of the hearing. Wretchard’s post is very good on that–Seixon as well.

Oct 25, 2005 - 7:28 pm 29. Seixon:

For those who feel that Galloway can get off by claiming he didn’t know where the money was coming from (as if that is really a defense), go to the link I provided earlier…

Galloway did not register that his intermediary, Zureikat, donated funds to his campaign with the British government. He registered that the governments of Saudi Arabia and UAE donated money to him in 1999. So the natural question to ask is: why didn’t he register Zureikat’s handsome donations?

Other obstacles for Galloway is to destroy the authenticity of the Daily Telegraph documents, which I do believe they have already authenticated. Then we have his “dear friend”, Tariq Aziz, confirming that those documents are genuine and corroborates what they state. They state that Galloway was asking for allocations of oil, and that the Saddam regime keep his and his wife’s name out of it because of political implications.

It was a pretty slick operation, really. Zureikat didn’t even receive money directly from the Iraqi regime. His monies came from those who bought oil. Thus the ties to the Iraqi regime get muddled. Whoever came up with the scheme is a genius, as it is very hard to trace and very hard to prove. A Class-A money-laundering scheme.

Conclusion: if Galloway is intent on claiming he didn’t know where Zureikat was getting the money, then he might want to answer the questions I posed to him back in May-July about why he concealed the role of Zureikat in funding his political campaign. And then lying about it afterwards…

Oct 25, 2005 - 8:44 pm 30. Rick Ballard:

Let us hope that the august and mighty Senate expends some resources on finding out who paid for the French whore deVillepin to turn tricks publicly in the UN brothel. Focusing attention on a flash pimp like Galloway is a distraction - good for headlines for the publicity hound Senators but ephemeral in essence. Galloway is a cheap hustler and following his little scheme diverts attention from the Canadian/French brothel masters.

Oct 25, 2005 - 9:31 pm 31. rosignol:

The anti-war left are going to put everything they have into this trial in their ongoing attempt to bring down the prrsidency in the courts,for what a few ruffled feathers.

So? They’re going to do that anyway, better for us that they put effort into something they cannot prevail on.

How long do you think Galloway can fight extradition for,through the courts,the High Court,the House of Lords,the European Court of Justice,at any point,the European Convention on Human Rights can be invoked,if that happens he won’t be coming without guarantees.

Nonsense. Perjury isn’t a capital offense in the US, so Galloway is hardly at risk of being executed. I fail to see any grounds for appeal to the ECJ or invoking the ECHR.

How long do you think a bit of Middle Eastern money and a few activist lawyers can drag this miserable affair accross the front pages of the MSM for?

Damned if I know, and I don’t much care. Lying to Congress is not an offense that is going to play well in the US media. If they try to get free press out of it, it will backfire badly in the US, no matter how well it plays overseas.

The leftist twits have to know that the only chance they have of winning is to turn the American electorate against what Bush is doing in the middle east. Trying to make a martyr out of a Scottish socialist who took money from Saddam is not going to accomplish that.

[...]

Oct 26, 2005 - 2:07 am 32. PeterUK:

Rosignol,

You might care about the US Senate but the rest of the world does not,there will be hundreds of cases where people lied to the Senate,Kennedy ans Kerry are Senators,how much credibility do you think the Senate has?Everyone remembers MacCarthy.

As Rick Ballard points out,all you have is a small time hustler,the big operators in ths will be quite happy to see Galloway rake as much dirt and sling as much mud as he can.

What you need to worry about is that either this is all the Senate has,so they are making a big deal out of it or that the process will get so messy that it will be discredited If any of the big operators are brought to book.

Lastly,all across the Muslim world being prosecuted by the US Senate will be seen as a badge of honour.

Play it smart,get the man buried quietly at night with no fanfares and trumpets,leave it to the libel case in London,the Telegraph can’t wait to send him down for ripping off their 150 grand.

Let him go down as the cheap,petty hustler he is,rather than the champion of oppressed Islam.

Oct 26, 2005 - 4:39 am 33. Terrye:

Luther:

My apologies to all non commie Scots.

Oct 26, 2005 - 4:57 am 34. rosignol:

[...]

You might care about the US Senate but the rest of the world does not,there will be hundreds of cases where people lied to the Senate,Kennedy ans Kerry are Senators,how much credibility do you think the Senate has?

Enough that most of the rest of the planet wanted Senator Kerry to win the last Presidential election here…

Everyone remembers MacCarthy.

Not well enough, unfortunately. If they did, ‘everyone’ would know that Senator McCarthy was right.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VENONA_project

[...]

In 1995, a bipartisan Commission on Government Secrecy, with Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan as chairman, was responsible for the release of Venona project materials (although many inside the NSA had also come to believe that the time had come to make it public, and argued internally for such a release).

Moynihan wrote “The Venona intercepts contained overwhelming proof of the activities of Soviet spy networks in America, complete with names, dates, places, and deeds.”

Oct 26, 2005 - 5:02 am 35. Terrye:

Peter:

I understand what you are saying. I honestly do.

And McCArthy has been dead for years, and I think it is safe to say he was the exception not the rule.

But if this bastard broke the law letting him get away with it for fear he will look all handsome to the loonies is no different than letting a rich man or a well connected man go free.

I like to think that most people are not above the law and that should include the likes of Galloway.

I think that is the reason we let guys like Mugabe rant at the UN about the evil Blair and Bush…nobody wants to give the guy a hard time because they just want him to go away. Meanwhile people suffer and die at his hands.

I did hear Hitchens say some interesting things about this. Needless to say he thinks Galloway is a liar and a thief.

Oct 26, 2005 - 5:02 am 36. PeterUK:

Terrye,

It is best that he goes down for defrauding the Telegraph out of

Oct 26, 2005 - 5:20 am 37. Tony:

Have you guys fallen for this again? Do you not remember the last time Coleman et al had the drop on Galloway? It was farcical. Now you are trusting them to get their ducks in a row and nail him. The evidence is highly suspect. That is why he has won his libel actions and why he can afford the Portuguese villa. If you remember the circumstances whereby an “independent” journalist stumbled across incriminating evidence (badly forged) in the first document box he opened in a room in Iraq, you will find a level of incredible coincidence which even Fennimore Cooper or Charlie Dickens at their most “blocked” would have been shamed to advance.

Why are you talking of extradition? Galloway would go to the USA on Airforce One to pick up a libel cheque from your guys. Some of you fear this outcome-getting your arses kicked again - but you keep sticking them out of the window, don’t you? That’s why you want the Telegraph/Torygraph to pursue him. They won’t ! -unless the CIA guarantee their losses.

The real shame in all this is that there is a lot wrong with Galloway’s world view but the actions of clowns like Coleman and yourselves as his cheerleaders is your desperation to take him down by discrediting him elsewhere. Just as you did with Clinton’s sex life. Why not be big enough and bold enough to just take him on re his political views. That’s the mature way. Forget about tying his charity work to corruption. Whatever his deficiencies, thanks to a good dose of Scottish sceptical education (we produced Adam Smith and wee Davie Hume, remember!), he is too clever to have taken personal benefit. If you are going to go after people who traded with Saddam and his minions for profit, you could do with selecting targets close to this failing administration.

Oct 26, 2005 - 10:32 am 38. PeterUK:

Interestingly the Telegraph is standing by the authenticity of the incriminating documents,which were never challenged by Galloway’s legal team.

His politics,he was a lickspittle apologist for Saddam Hussein,anti-semite and extreme “never had a proper day job” left winger.

But it isn’t his politics which are indictable,it is his alleged perjury,malfeasance of funds,involvement in a criminal conspiracy, possible support for a terrorist organisation,tax evasion and concealing his financial dealings from Parliament.Oh yes and spivvy dress sense!

Oct 26, 2005 - 1:14 pm 39. PeterUK:

Late in the day but the Telegraph article http://www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2005/10/26/do2602.xml

Oct 26, 2005 - 3:08 pm 40. Bostonian:

Tony: “If you are going to go after people who traded with Saddam and his minions for profit, you could do with selecting targets close to this failing administration.”

Such as? Do tell. Why insinuate? Name names.

***

And do you really think that we should let someone get away with taking a public stance against the war while secretly profiting from the status quo?

I think not.

Oct 26, 2005 - 5:15 pm 41. Tony:

Peter UKIP,

You wonder how The Torygraph managed to lose

Oct 27, 2005 - 11:15 am 42. PeterUK:

Tony,

The documents were never used in court,but the Telegraph is appealing,with the damning evidence from the Volcker report it looks like your boy will have to ask his wife nicely for the money in her account.

You mean he picked his scottish accent up in Iraq?

Oct 27, 2005 - 2:15 pm 43. Tony:

Peter,

The Volcker documents may be damning for the UN and a range of companies who used the time honoured business approach of bribing the local dictator, but not for Galloway.

No one denied he has a Scottish accent- if we are to have dialogue, you must refute the statements I made not some imagined ones of your own. I’ll give you a hint - you would lose any respect for the opinion of someone who described Beckham as speaking like a cornishman or that John Redwood had a register from the planet earth. Carelessness in marshalling an argument saw poor sen. Coleman et al come to grief. He may not be right but Galloway is educated and your side will have to do better than this.

Oct 27, 2005 - 4:25 pm

Write a Comment

Name:	(required, displayed)
Email:	(required, not publicized)
URL:	(optional, displayed) remember personal info?
Comments: