Well, one hopes this means George Galloway will never sully our shores again.
Although, really, how low does a man have to sink to be contemptible, to a US Senator?
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Via Instapundit:
UNSCAM UPDATE: “US Senate ‘finds Iraq oil cash in Galloway’s wife’s bank account’.” More here.
Did they pay taxes on this?????
That’s how Capone was brought down.
Via Roger L. Simon
Fausta has a round-up.
Samizdata is a daily read, where I expect and get reasoned and reasonable commentary.
I had a little fun when Galloway came to Madison, WI. A friend and I infiltrated the press conference and got some good Q&A on video
Mr. Galloway comes to Madison
Cordially,
Uncle J
LOL. Not very far, RCD, not very far.
That said, Galloway makes even the likes of Ted Kennedy seem a paragon of rectitude.
I look forward to this later-day Lord Haw-Haw falling and falling hard.
Anyone know what the legal barriers might be relating to extraditing a Member of Parliament? What kind of immunity does an MP have? Can Parliament vote to kick him out, thus stripping him of any such immunity? (The US Senate and US House can vote to eject members, but it’s extremely rare for them to use that ability.)
I am in little doubt he will be heading across the Atlantic once more.
This guy models himself on, and has more front than Robert Maxwell.
I once heard him shout down a real live General on radio. He lives by bluster and legal threat. Hopefully the truth is now going to overtake him
The High Courts are littered with people who tried to convict Galloway.
It will be interesting to see if this case has what it takes.
I mean to say the Libel Courts.
British courts and British libel law have no jurisdiction over members of Congress. Libel law here in the US is much more friendly to defendants (and to free speech). And there’s an explicit immunity for members of Congress when speaking in their official positions. For all intents and purposes, it’s impossible to sue a Senator or Congressman for what he says when it’s part of his official duties.
“… He was anything but straight with the American people. There was a lot of bombast. There was a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing,”
How low does a man have to sink to be compatible with a US Senator?
I should hope that with the precedent of the John Stonehouse case in the mid 1970’s they might allow for a Member of Parliament who has committed perjury, especially before the parliament of Britain’s closest ally, to be extradited. Obviously Galloway would have to be tried firstly in the UK for his case against the Daily Telegraph, which I presume was also based upon fiction.
IIRC, Galloway waived any immunity before he testified in May.
I’ve seen some speculation that the most serious charges are possibly in Britain. Namely, if he filed false financial records with Her Majesty’s Gov. The advantage there is it wouldn’t matter where the money came from, just that it exists. Coleman is claiming to have banking records, so we’ll see.
British courts and British libel law have no jurisdiction over members of Congress
Never meant to imply they did. Just pointing out that lots of people have often been very justified in things they’ve said about Galloway but failed to actually prove any of it in a court.
He’s a sneaky one, it will be interesting to see if anything gets stuck on him.
I’m pretty sure that British MPs don’t have any such protection.
Think Jeffrey Archer and his libel trial. Now apply that against a sitting MP who also lied under oath to obtain a pecuniary advantage.
It’s just a great shame that Galloway isn’t still a Labour MP, the scandal would have been so magnificent.
Galloway is merely a bit player in all this, eighty five grand in his wifes account? Peanuts!
The danger here is Gorgeous will become a focus whilst those who got the billions let him take the rap,prosecutors will make a name for themselves Georgeous will become a martyr to his Muslim constituency and this will be portrayed as an attack on Islam.
The odds are that Gorgeous was just a mouthpiece for Saddam Hussein’s regime and has no real connection with the bog operators in the scam.
Who got the real money?
Tax?
Of course he didn’t pay tax on it.
He’s a socialist, isn’t he?
I note the BBC’s lickspittle, pro-Galloway coverage which has persisted all day.
The story was broken, not with the allegations, but with a “brave Galloway rejects accusations” slant, since when he has been given increasing handouts of media manna with each succeeding news broadcast.
I hope the US manages to pin this cocksure little bully-boy, not least for the copious quantities of egg it will leave dripping from the faces of his numerous cheerleaders at the BBC.
Well, one hopes this means George Galloway will never sully our shores again.
Unless they have him extradited, and British laws on extraditing people to the USA are very much weighted against the defendent. I suspect that the intent of the law was that the US government points the finger at someone and the UK delivers him. There are a number of such cases being fought in the courts, some of them involving people (including, but not restricted to, terrorist suspects) who never set foot in the USA.
I’m not aware of MPs having any immunity from prosecution, so I’m sure they wouldn’t have immunity from extradition either.
I hope the US manages to pin this cocksure little bully-boy, not least for the copious quantities of egg it will leave dripping from the faces of his numerous cheerleaders at the BBC.
I’m not sure how many “cheerleaders” he has in the BBC, given that he has not hesitated to use his hectoring oratory on them as well. I remember his interview with Today on Radio 4 a few months ago, in which he responded to a hostile question by ordering the woman doing the interview “don’t you dare!”. He doesn’t seem to know the difference between speaking to people and making a speech; I’m not sure how well his oratory will go down if and when he is in the dock.
Yusuf Smith writes:
“I’m not sure how many “cheerleaders” he has in the BBC, given that he has not hesitated to use his hectoring oratory on them as well”
But did you hear Today…umm… today? Did you hear the R4 lunchtime news? Have you followed BBC News Online?
The entire slant was in his defence. Now that may be because the BBC is intimidated by his legalistic tactics. Or it may not.
GCooper,
Socialist Workers Party – BBC – Respect,everyone seems to be considering Galloway in isolation rather than as a front for the SWP and the Muslim Association of Britain.
Surely there is something illegal regarding his covert dealings with Saddam that would be prosecutable under British law, if US Senate investigators have managed to dig up evidence for the existance of such dealings. I think it would be better for all involved (except Galloway) that the UK government try him.
This is sleight-of-hand.
Look at the obnoxious guy with the big mouth, don’t look at what’s important.
I doubt the US Senate gives much of a damn about Galloway. In the greater scheme of things, hell, even in the minor scheme of things, he’s small change. Oh, he’ll get hung out to dry, but that’s icing- or maybe even the little sprinkles on the icing- not the cake (Jean-Bernard Merimee, now, he might be the icing- but still, not the cake).
I suspect this ties in with the oil-for-food prosecutor in NY, and probably with the Iraqi investigation.
I doubt the US Senate gives much of a damn about Galloway.
Oh yes they do. He committed the greatest sin possible. He made them look bad. On television. Hell hath no fury, etc.
This is perjury, not libel. Perjury is hard to convict in its own way, but much easier than libel in many ways.
I’m thinking we never actually bring him to trial here, but send the goods over to the Brits so they can nick him for tax evasion, Al Capone style. I would imagine the tax enforcers are the toughest, most tenacious SOBs going in British law enforcement, given the nature of the socialist state.
Might be interesting if this bears on the Telegraph’s appeal against Galloway’s successful libel action.
IF there are grounds for perjury on statements made in that trial, Galloway is stuffed (a la Jeffrey Archer).
It won’t be easy to land a punch of Gorgeous George. He’s slick, I’ll give him that.
Money may have been funnelled into the Mariam Appeal via oil for food, but that doesn’t prove it went to him pesonally or that he knew where the money came from.
The KGB used to make its useful idiots sign for their bungs. I doubt you will ever find a chit signed by George for any oil money, and if you did he’d argue it was a CIA forgery.
Read this and enjoy…Hitch is having some damn good fun with GG and some facts the Galloway-apologists will choke on.
I can’t stand the guy but I believe the charge he is facing is false, it’s just people throwing mud again and again until they get some to stick. He just annoys some people because they find him to be an annoying guy with disagreeable views.
I’m with Della on this. He’s a tough Glasgow fly boy and he’s got away with scams and he’s shown two fingers to the establishment, which has annoyed them.
I think he undoubtedly funnelled money off his Marion fund (Marion’s probably a grandmother by now) and he’s probably guilty of a few other scames to finance his taste for custom tailored suits. And he sucked up to Saddam, which is ghastly, but he didn’t do it in secret.
But actually, his circumstances, although worry-free, are not lavish. His house in Portugal is OK, and it still has a mortgage on it. I think I read it cost about £70,000 – hardly a swankienda. He’s flash – a slick opportunist and a wide boy. He’s amoral and he has a quick wit, which legislators also hate. He’s cheeky in a particularly Glaswegian way. Della, being Scottish, probably knows the type well.
I don’t think he’s an admirable person, but I don’t think he is an international millionaire mastermind either.
>I would imagine the tax enforcers are the toughest, >most tenacious SOBs going in British law >enforcement, given the nature of the socialist state.
It’s a shame we can’t put the TV licensing people onto him….
I think going after him for perjury on the Telegraph case might be the best approach.
I actually live in Galloway’s constituency, so the man in some sense represents me. One more thing to make me vomit.
Personally I think the Senate baited for shark and caught a sprat.
One phone call would have told them that the Telegraph had documents,authenticated and never disproved, of Georgeous’s involvement in Oil For Food.These they had many months before the Senate hearing.
Why the Senate bothered to call such a small time hustler is a mystery,it has the whiff of someone making a political name for themselves on an easy target.
Meanwhile,where is the real money?
Money quote from the Hitchens piece:
I agree with Peter. This is overblown. He’s a hustler, and he’s come by some money probably dishonestly but look at it this way: if he’d got his hands on a large amount of money from Saddam – money that could be taken away from him in the courts – he would have a house in Argentina, not down the road in Portugal. And he wouldn’t be schlepping around Bethnal Green & Bow. The US Senate has accorded him far too much importance. I too think someone is out to make their name on this – and I think they’re going to end up looking very foolish. He is too small time to be occupying the attention of US senators.
Verity,
Since authenticated documents were found by the Telegraph shortly after the fall of Baghdad,they we never disputed in court,why did the Senate call him in the first place?
There was evidence from the charities commission concerning the dubious workings of the Mariam Appeal,all this is in the public domain.
Why was not the French Ambassador to the UN called,instead of this mouth for hire hustler?
If they think that anything they can do will shame him they do not know the breed,he will turn any trial into a political trial,the mud will be slung everywhere.
That is if the US can extradict him,the European Human Rights Legislation will not help them,I believe also that the perjury charge in the Telegraph case would have priority.
The whole thing has been ill-thought out from the start,they should have left the tar baby to the civil courts.
The senators do not understand this breed of animal, Peter. I would imagine The Telegraph will win its case – given that David Blair discovered actual signed documents an’ all … And the Charities Commission will shut down the Mariam Fund, if it hasn’t already done so.
It’s my belief, from everything I’ve read, that Galloway has behaved disgracefully, but as that’s his stock in trade, it’s not news. He has also clearly taken money from the Saddam regime, whether it was filtered through the Mariam Fund or simply picked up in Baghdad in a brown paper bag, who knows? – but it was comparatively trifling amounts, so far as I can see. The French were the ones making out like bandits.
As I said, if Galloway had put away the amounts he is accused of putting away, he would not stick around his house in Portugal for a court case. And he wouldn’t be doing a lot of boring scut work in Bethnal Green. He’d be somewhere with no extradition treaties with Britain or the US. Yes, as (I think it was) Mark Steyn said, he could still be hoping to make a few more dinars from his substitute dictator-sponsor, Boy Assad, by trying to influence British policy (!), but even Boy Assad cannot be that stupid.
UHHH, the Senate didn’t call GG to appear, he was the one that demanded it, pace Sen. Coleman’s press release May 12th:
OOPS, forgot the link(Link)
‘He’s just a nobody’
‘he’s just a loudmouth’
‘the people who took the billions will get away while Galloway is hung out to dry’
‘He’s a bit of a rogue’
‘He may be a slippery customer, but he was right about the war’
This is why GGG would walk away free from a UK court – and he knows it.
He’s an obnoxious little s**t who has stashed away a few quid from a ME dictator.
And frankly, I don’t care about the money.
His crime; his real crime was to appear on arab TV and lend terrorism the seal of respectability from a British MP.
He was sanctioning the deaths of brave people who are trying to build democracy where the previous ruler tried to bury it, along with 300,000 of his own citizens
Cassander,
Shame isn’t it? In a more enlightened age we could have hanged him!
Cassander – yes. That is his unforgivable crime.
– Dear freedom-loving compadre,
You say the following about George Galloway: “I hope this means he’ll never sully our shores again!”
And I couldn’t agree more…these ideas actually occurred to me as well while as was watching our great video conf-calling El Presidente earlier today
Unlike the malicious Marxist George of Glasgow, George W. Bush has single-handedly turned the White House into a global freedom factory that churns out perfectly trained collaborators such as Baron Ahmad Chalabi a.k.a. the Thieve of Baghdad, Earl Hameed Karzai a.k.a. the Narcotic Merchant of Kabul, and our favorite new stooge on the block Lebanon’s “Sheikh” Saad-Ul-Dînn de Qoraytem y Riyadh y Bourbon, a perfectly groomed operative fluent in modern Saudistani, and ancient Hebrew- or vice versa I’m not certain…more vice than versa in the case of Dick Cheney’s decadently bashful Saudi princes friends but I’m digressing as usual
Dude you’re surely right to criticize the excesses of so-called “mainstream” journalists who deliberately choose to focus on the negative while ignoring all the good news coming every day from Iraq: Left coast liberals together with Euro-trash liberal pundits and their “Baathist dead-ender” friends at The-Jazeera and Al-BBC are just a bunch of decrepit sore losers!!
It’s high time for them to wake to reality : they must understand that the Gulf War is over: with the help of our “Liberty adoring” local allies such as Saudi Fahdistan- where women and Christians are officially treated as second-class citizen when they’re not beheaded publicly for “improper behavior”, and Israel- where Yahweh’s glorious occupation army regularly rids the civilized world of 25 Palestinian kids per week on average thus striking mighty blows for freedom in the Middle-East, we can now focus all our energy on the Baathist leftovers in Damascus.
Once we destroy the only secular/Republican government left in the whole Arab world, the new Syrian regime will surely be “free” to adopt Ubber-democratic political reforms such as the brutal imposition of Sharia Law on women, Christian, ‘Alawites and other social outcasts and establish diplomatic ties with the state of Israel.
Finally I want to leave a little personal note to Texas’ favorite son may Allah and Zeus always protect him from his enemies for eternity and beyond:
Mr. President Sir, you’re the best freedom-loving leader I have ever had the pleasure and the privilege to serve, Sir!
Eternally Yours in Liberty,
Barry W. Smith
Norman, Oklahoma
Deleted. Kindly fuck off
Gorgeous is a party of one.
Not so much a party as a PR stunt.
He is the SWP’s surrogate. They couldn’t win a Parish council under they’re true colours.
The real dupes here are the Muslims. They thinks he’s for them when he’s really for something else , mainly GGG (I liked that from someone up there).
But the bottom line is that Gorgeous is a mouthy nickle and dime merchant. All oratory but no imagination.
Yep I’m sure some of Saddams money came his way, but it was so paltry as to be risable (i.e. Saddam was taking the piss out of GGG!) The phase “useful idiot” springs to mind, but when both ends are playing against the middle, who is the idiot GGG or Saddam, or both?
Gorgeous will fade away. The trials if there are any, will be inconclusive . The money, Trillions of it gone else where, to people investigative journalists will find it too complicated or wearying to track.
The BBC like him, by the way, because he is GOOD COPY, pure and simple.
I Just spent a week around Pompeii, without a newspaper or a keyboard, and the only thing on the telly in english was BBC World. The left wing propaganda was relentless! And they are running advertising for companies and Countries!!
What’s going on? Should I be another Licence Fee Martyr?