Letter to Levin

Dear Mr. Levin,

The website for the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs has seemingly removed testimony from UK MP George Galloway from its website on or about 20 May 2005, replaced by “Mr Galloway did not submit a statement”. All other witness testimonies for the hearings on the Oil for Food scandal are available on the Committee’s website in PDF form. But Galloway’s testimony is the only document not on the site.

We all know he did appear and make a statement, it was aired on CSPAN and the transcript is available elsewhere online. If it was an honest error the site would not have listed him as they did. Mr. Galloway clearly gave a statement to the Committee on May 17.

Now, regardless of your opinion on Mr. Galloway’s credibility as a witness, his testimony belongs on the Senate Committee website with the rest of the .pdf files there.

He has on numerous occasions defended his record with regards to the allegations (.pdf file) made against him, including in courts of law (Telegraph lawsuit), which the courts have decided in his favor. How can a Senate committee find any differently than a court of law, and then decide to strike his testimony from the public record of that committee, as if he never said anything at all, making him look guilty?

I find all of this deeply troubling, Mr. Levin. The omission casts doubts not about Mr. Galloway, but on the U.S. Senate Committee.