George Galloway addresses the Senate committee. Photograph: Dennis Cook/AP
Whatever your view of his defence, it was a barnstorming performance. George Galloway, Respect MP for Bethnal Green since May 5 and self-appointed leader of Britain's antiwar movement / Saddam-adoring demagogue / Portugal-dwelling irrelevance (delete as applicable) was giving evidence before the US Senate against charges that he profited financially from Iraqi oil sales.
In a fierce defence, as the anti-war east London MP addressed the Senate subcommittee he rarely consulted notes and looked the senators in the eye. Their accusations, he said, amounted to "the mother of all smokescreens" whose purpose was to obscure alleged US profiteering from Iraq's oil.
Some highlights:
"I have met Saddam Hussein exactly the same number of times as Donald Rumsfeld met him. The difference is that Donald Rumsfeld met him to sell him guns and to give him maps the better to target those guns."
"I was an opponent of Saddam Hussein when British and American governments and businessmen were selling him guns and gas."
"You have nothing on me, Senator, except my name on lists of names from Iraq, many of which have been drawn up after the installation of your puppet government in Iraq."
