Axis of Logic Editorial
“I challenged everything that Sir Humphrey and Sir Bufton and Sir Tufton put to me because the points they were putting to me were false. I will not allow people to make false allegations against me ... I am not a punchbag. If you aim low blows at me I will fight back. That’s what I’ve done and that’s what I’ve been suspended for. [If I am suspended from the House of Commons] it will be painful, I assure you, but I intend to stagger on regardless.”
- George Galloway
Axis of Logic awards George Galloway, Minister of Parliament in the U.K. for his heroic stand against the U.S./British war on the people of Iraq. His opposition to the war began before the invasion of Iraq when he exposed the U.S./British lies that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. His opposition to the war has continued steadfastly to the present day. Today the British Parliament has recommended his suspension from the House of Parliament (article in its entirety below):
"The anti-war Respect MP was criticised by the Standards and Privileges Committee for 'concealing the true source of Iraqi funding' to a charity he set up and failure to co-operate with the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards"
On May 18, 2005, George Galloway confronted the U.S. Senate in Washington DC, with a solid defense against these trumped up charges against him, blasting the U.S. government for its war crimes. He opened his speech with these words:
"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 anyone on my behalf.
"Now I know that standards have slipped in the last few years in Washington, but for a lawyer you are remarkably cavalier with any idea of justice. I am here today but last week you already found me guilty. You traduced my name around the world without ever having asked me a single question, without ever having contacted me, without ever written to me or telephoned me, without any attempt to contact me whatsoever. And you call that justice."
More from Mr. Galloway's May 18, 2005 Historic Speech to the U.S. Senate
"But perhaps you were confusing the Daily Telegraph action with the Christian Science Monitor. The Christian Science Monitor did indeed publish on its front pages a set of allegations against me very similar to the ones that your committee have made. They did indeed rely on documents which started in 1992, 1993. These documents were unmasked by the Christian Science Monitor themselves as forgeries.
"Now, the neo-con websites and newspapers in which you're such a hero, senator, were all absolutely cock-a-hoop at the publication of the Christian Science Monitor documents, they were all absolutely convinced of their authenticity. They were all absolutely convinced that these documents showed me receiving $10 million from the Saddam regime. And they were all lies.
"In the same week as the Daily Telegraph published their documents against me, the Christian Science Monitor published theirs which turned out to be forgeries and the British newspaper, Mail on Sunday, purchased a third set of documents which also upon forensic examination turned out to be forgeries. So there's nothing fanciful about this. Nothing at all fanciful about it.
"The existence of forged documents implicating me in commercial activities with the Iraqi regime is a proven fact. It's a proven fact that these forged documents existed and were being circulated amongst right-wing newspapers in Baghdad and around the world in the immediate aftermath of the fall of the Iraqi regime.
"Now, Senator, I gave my heart 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 one 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 born at that time. 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. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to al-Qaeda. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to the atrocity on 9/11 2001. I told the world, contrary to 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 100,000 people paid with their lives; 1600 of them American soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies; 15,000 of them wounded, many of them disabled forever on a pack of lies."
Today, as the British Parliament maligns and punishes George Galloway we name him Featured Activist on Axis of Logic.
Axis of Logic Editorial Board
Galloway: 'I deserve medal, not ban, for Iraq'
George Galloway said today that MPs should give him a medal for his work on Iraq and not suspend him from the House of Commons for 18 days, as recommended today by a disciplinary committee.
The anti-war Respect MP was criticised by the Standards and Privileges Committee for “concealing the true source of Iraqi funding” to a charity he set up and failure to co-operate with the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards.
It backed a finding that there was “strong circumstantial evidence” that his Mariam Appeal received cash from the regime of Saddam Hussein, the payments delivered through the UN’s Oil for Food Programme “with Mr Galloway’s connivance”.
It said that the MP had been “complicit in the concealment of the true source of the funds” and had “damaged the reputation of the House” - and said that he was “clearly irresponsible” in refusing to look into the source of substantial donations to the fund.
Any ban - which requires the backing of MPs - would take effect from October when the Commons returns from its summer recess.
Speaking outside the Commons this morning, Mr Galloway said that what had upset the committee was that “I robustly defended myself” and if it were not for his criticism of the process, commission and witnesses, “I would merely been asked to apologise”.
He emphasised (sic) that it was found again that he did “not benefit by a single penny” from Iraq, from the oil for food programme or any other Iraqi source.
Mr Galloway said that he would not allow people to make false allegations against him. “I challenged everything that Sir Humphrey and Sir Bufton and Sir Tufton put to me because the points they were putting to me were false. I will not allow people to make false allegations against me," he said.
“I am not a punchbag. If you aim low blows at me I will fight back. That’s what I’ve done and that’s what I’ve been suspended for.”
If he is suspended, he said: “It will be painful, I assure you, but I intend to stagger on regardless.”
Last month the Charity Commission condemned Mr Galloway for “unacceptably” failing to prevent the Mariam Appeal, a charity established by him in 1988, from being bankrolled with money from the dictator’s regime.
The charity was founded to deliver medical aid to Iraq and arrange treatment outside Iraq for sick Iraqi children.
Mr Galloway may even have known that the campaign had received at least $376,000 dollars in improper donations, the commission found.
Mr Galloway has dismissed the commission’s allegations against him and the campaign as “palpably false” and has repeatedly denied receiving any funds from the Iraqi regime, or taking part in any oil deal.
The investigation by Sir Philip Mawer, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, also took into account evidence from a US Senate sub-committee which accused Mr Galloway and the Mariam Appeal of being granted oil allocations by Saddam’s regime.
Mr Galloway dismissed those claims in a famously fiery appearance before the sub-committee in 2005.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article2090185.ece
Axis of Logic Articles on George Galloway's
Heroic Stand Against the War
Americans losing in Iraq and Lebanon is on brink of civil war
Is the British corporate press taking a turn for the better?
These orchestrated attacks on Chávez are a travesty
The Straight Line Between Falluja and King's Cross Station: Bush and Blair's Orgy of Carnage
The London Bombings
Doing the Right Wing's Dirty Work
Britain: The May 5 general election and the failure of Labourism
Denouncing the liberal press
Shame on You!
Let's face it - the state has lost its mind
The Right's Assault on Kofi Annan
Panoptic Games
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