Smokin' !

The Oil-for-Food program has become a hot right-wing cause célèbre, so much so that Senator Norm Coleman is holding a hearing today to "investigate." They called as a witness George Galloway, British Member of Parliament, whom they believe is one of the worst offenders in the corrupt system.

Sadly for Senator Coleman, MP Galloway comes from a political tradition where standing your ground and articulately blasting away the pomposity and preposterousness of your opponents is still respected. (I hope our Democrats were watching.)

Crooks and Liars (an incredibly valuable multi-media resource) has a terrific clip from today's hearing. You must see or hear it. (If only we still had politicians who could deliver a speech like this. And he didn't even need his notes, or a teleprompter. Sigh.)

And in case you haven't kept up with the latest, here's the story that Galloway refers to toward the end.

A report released last night by Democratic staff on a Senate investigations committee presents documentary evidence that the Bush administration was made aware of illegal oil sales and kickbacks paid to the Saddam Hussein regime but did nothing to stop them.

The scale of the shipments involved dwarfs those previously alleged by the Senate committee against UN staff and European politicians like the British MP, George Galloway, and the former French minister, Charles Pasqua.

In fact, the Senate report found that US oil purchases accounted for 52% of the kickbacks paid to the regime in return for sales of cheap oil - more than the rest of the world put together.

"The United States was not only aware of Iraqi oil sales which violated UN sanctions and provided the bulk of the illicit money Saddam Hussein obtained from circumventing UN sanctions," the report said. "On occasion, the United States actually facilitated the illicit oil sales.

I give Galloway extra points for not even focussing on this story, but pointing out that the Senator is not investigating a number of larger, more corrupt scandals involving our own activities since occupation.