The railroading of George Galloway (via tex), who is to be commended for these remarks to the gangsters in Congress, brings to mind a video I viewed when doing this post on Kevin Sites and Dateline‘s segment called Shoot the Messenger.
The Priest and the Prisoner tells the story of Father Jean-Marie Benjamin, a Catholic priest who is also under investigation in the oil-for-food scandal. This is an excerpt of the interview with former Price Waterhouse international chairman and adviser to the Iraqi Governing Council, Claude Hankes-Drielsma, who defends the list that was compiled under the watchfull eye of Ahmad Chalabi:
REPORTER: Why would Father Benjamin have been on the list?
CLAUDE HANKES-DRIELSMA: That is – nobody would be on the list unless the Iraqi Government wanted to carry favour with those individuals and gave them oil at advantageous prices.
REPORTER: Is it not possible, though, that his name was used so that somebody else within the regime could have benefited?
CLAUDE HANKES-DRIELSMA: Anything is possible. It’s highly unlikely.
REPORTER: Why is it highly unlikely?
CLAUDE HANKES-DRIELSMA: Because the purpose of the records was to understand exactly who had benefited and because the regime wanted to be quite clear who they’d given the favours to.
Despite the UN investigation, the involvement of Dr Chalabi in sourcing the documents has raised suspicions that the list is little more than political payback to damage those who supported Saddam’s regime. But Hankes-Drielsma vehemently denies it.
CLAUDE HANKES-DRIELSMA: I’m an adviser to the Governing Council and remain an adviser to Iraq. I’ve known Dr Chalabi for many years and have a very high regard for him.