1 00:00:00,092 --> 00:00:03,046 The war drums are beating loudly in the halls of Congress, 2 00:00:03,046 --> 00:00:06,887 while leading Obama officials continue to try to convince the House 3 00:00:06,887 --> 00:00:11,071 to vote as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee did, for military strikes on Syria. 4 00:00:11,071 --> 00:00:16,721 If Congress votes ‘no’, the world will be watching to see if Obama has the audacity 5 00:00:16,721 --> 00:00:19,949 to take unilateral action without even the support of his own government. 6 00:00:19,949 --> 00:00:23,358 Now amidst the sea of propaganda and warmongering, 7 00:00:23,358 --> 00:00:27,480 there’s one politician in the UK that has been a vocal opponent to this new war. 8 00:00:27,480 --> 00:00:32,130 His name is George Galloway and he’s a founding member of the Respect Party in Parliament. 9 00:00:32,130 --> 00:00:36,715 Earlier, I spoke with him about the repercussions a military strike could have on the region 10 00:00:36,715 --> 00:00:39,111 as well as the rest of the world. Check it out… 11 00:00:39,111 --> 00:00:44,333 Sadly, my birthday wish doesn’t look like it’s going to come true. 12 00:00:44,333 --> 00:00:46,038 Let’s talk about the latest on Syria, 13 00:00:46,038 --> 00:00:51,174 there’s talk of using fighter jets and training rebel forces on the ground instead of just arming them. 14 00:00:51,174 --> 00:00:55,373 Why is it that the US is aligning itself with the same terrorist organisation 15 00:00:55,373 --> 00:00:57,752 [that] it claims to be fighting in the war on terror, George? 16 00:00:59,527 --> 00:01:06,886 Indeed, and the relatives of those who were lost on 9/11, who were cruelly murdered in their thousands, 17 00:01:06,886 --> 00:01:11,786 must be asking themselves how their country ended up in bed with Al Qaeda. 18 00:01:11,786 --> 00:01:14,813 And not just in bed, but arming them to the teeth, 19 00:01:14,813 --> 00:01:20,452 acting as their air force and their armourer and their financier. 20 00:01:20,452 --> 00:01:24,995 It is one of the most grotesque about-faces in all history 21 00:01:24,995 --> 00:01:29,944 and the people of the United States overwhelmingly oppose it, 22 00:01:29,944 --> 00:01:34,324 but their political leaders appear to be ready to endorse it. 23 00:01:34,324 --> 00:01:41,383 Behind me is the British Parliament, normally a lapdog, a poodle of American political leaders, 24 00:01:41,383 --> 00:01:49,314 but just the other week, we revolted and stood up and said ‘this far and no further. No war in Syria.' 25 00:01:49,314 --> 00:01:54,333 And that too reflected, overwhelmingly, the popular opinion in the country, 26 00:01:54,141 --> 00:01:57,550 but the United States has not been stopped, 27 00:01:57,550 --> 00:02:02,148 even by the failure of the British to show up in another shooting war. 28 00:02:02,148 --> 00:02:05,272 Yeh, I mean hypocrisy’s running really strong George, 29 00:02:05,272 --> 00:02:07,616 and I was surprised to see the criminal conspirators 30 00:02:07,616 --> 00:02:11,562 from doctoring the Iraq intelligence in the British parliament vote ‘no’, 31 00:02:11,562 --> 00:02:18,658 it made me really happy, a lot of proud moments there from the world leaders. 32 00:02:18,658 --> 00:02:21,561 And as we’ve seen unfold in Iraq post-occupation, 33 00:02:21,561 --> 00:02:25,896 there’s now a complete civil war rife with sectarian violence, it’s a complete disaster. 34 00:02:25,896 --> 00:02:30,501 Is it that the decision makers don’t understand the religion and the region, 35 00:02:30,501 --> 00:02:32,069 or is it that they just don’t care? 36 00:02:34,136 --> 00:02:37,183 I don’t think religion has anything to do with it. 37 00:02:37,183 --> 00:02:40,850 Religions believe in the prophets, peace be upon them, 38 00:02:40,850 --> 00:02:44,724 our leaders believe in the profits, and how to get a bigger piece of them. 39 00:02:44,724 --> 00:02:48,297 It’s about domination, it’s about Israel, 40 00:02:48,297 --> 00:02:55,866 it’s about the projection of American power and the terrifying of potential rivals and competitors, 41 00:02:55,866 --> 00:02:59,231 in this case, principally Russia and China. 42 00:02:59,231 --> 00:03:03,413 I don’t think that they’re acting very terrified at this moment, 43 00:03:03,413 --> 00:03:07,420 and so the United States is in for a contested war in Syria 44 00:03:07,420 --> 00:03:15,086 and that’s why the Congressional Representatives would be wise to heed the lesson of Iraq. 45 00:03:15,086 --> 00:03:21,298 The United States lost thousands of soldiers and tens of thousands of wounded soldiers maimed; 46 00:03:21,298 --> 00:03:24,626 many of them forever and many of them committing suicide 47 00:03:24,626 --> 00:03:28,201 or murdering people when they got home in the decade since. 48 00:03:28,201 --> 00:03:31,836 Many of them, of course, ending up on the streets, homeless and jobless. 49 00:03:31,836 --> 00:03:35,385 And the Congressional Representatives ought to beware 50 00:03:35,385 --> 00:03:39,608 that what will begin with a flurry of Tomahawk missiles- 51 00:03:39,608 --> 00:03:46,749 and how obscene is it that the United States calls its killing weapons after the people that it annihilated 52 00:03:46,749 --> 00:03:49,943 in order to occupy the country in the first place? - 53 00:03:49,943 --> 00:03:56,044 it will start with a flurry of Tomahawk cruise missiles but it will end in a shooting war on the ground, 54 00:03:56,044 --> 00:04:02,588 and with an occupation, and one in a country with twenty-three religious and ethnic groups within it, 55 00:04:02,588 --> 00:04:07,342 and in the most combustible possible piece of territory on the earth. 56 00:04:07,342 --> 00:04:11,841 The Syrian people will fight them back, Syria’s friends will fight them back 57 00:04:11,841 --> 00:04:15,424 and they will fight them back everywhere, not just in Syria. 58 00:04:15,424 --> 00:04:22,636 You know I say it’s like we’re killing Syrians to show the Syrian regime that killing Syrians is wrong, 59 00:04:22,636 --> 00:04:27,116 I just can’t wrap my head around it George, and the stakes are very high as you just outlined. 60 00:04:27,116 --> 00:04:30,434 Well put this one in your mind, Abby: 61 00:04:30,434 --> 00:04:34,367 the next time you see President Obama happy-clapping in a Christian church, 62 00:04:34,367 --> 00:04:39,342 that Al-Qaeda sacked a town called Malula, which I know very well in Syria, 63 00:04:39,342 --> 00:04:42,726 where the people are the last people on earth 64 00:04:42,726 --> 00:04:48,016 still conducting their Christian services in the language of Jesus, in Aramaic. 65 00:04:48,016 --> 00:04:52,499 It is one of the most serene and beautiful and peaceful places on the earth, 66 00:04:52,499 --> 00:04:56,070 filled with Christian churches and monasteries and nunneries, 67 00:04:56,070 --> 00:05:00,684 and the people there were slaughtered over the last four days; literally slaughtered, 68 00:05:00,684 --> 00:05:04,993 with their necks- their throats- cut, their heads sawn off. 69 00:05:04,993 --> 00:05:09,809 The Christian churches are on fire at the hands of Al-Qaeda- 70 00:05:09,809 --> 00:05:15,054 that’s Al-Qaeda- paid for and armed by the United States of America. 71 00:05:15,054 --> 00:05:17,898 It makes me physically ill to hear that, George, 72 00:05:17,898 --> 00:05:23,962 that we’re actually bombing the cradle of civilisation, the birthplace of humanity, 73 00:05:23,962 --> 00:05:27,330 we’re not respecting the birthplace of Christianity 74 00:05:27,330 --> 00:05:32,115 in terms of these leaders who claim that they’re Christian. George, we both... 75 00:05:32,115 --> 00:05:34,683 Yes, they’re never done, they’re never done telling us! 76 00:05:34,683 --> 00:05:39,972 They’re never done telling us how Christian they are! They wear it on their sleeves! 77 00:05:40,913 --> 00:05:45,176 Well you know we’ve both been reporting that a British firm allegedly sold nerve gas to Syria- 78 00:05:45,176 --> 00:05:46,744 let’s wrap our minds around this one- 79 00:05:46,744 --> 00:05:48,925 ten months after the civil war broke out. 80 00:05:48,925 --> 00:05:54,491 Also the digital journals reporting that the Saudi Intelligence gave the rebels chemical weapons. 81 00:05:54,491 --> 00:05:59,939 Why are these insanely contradictory facts not reported in such a serious climate of debate? 82 00:06:00,750 --> 00:06:05,135 Well we can’t even get them in the British so-called mainstream media. 83 00:06:05,135 --> 00:06:10,260 The fact that Carla Del Ponte, the United Nations rapporteur in May of this year, 84 00:06:10,260 --> 00:06:13,309 just a few months ago, the beginning of the summer- this summer- 85 00:06:13,309 --> 00:06:18,886 reported that the Syrian rebels had used the very sarin nerve gas 86 00:06:18,886 --> 00:06:23,254 that they’re telling us now must have been used by the Assad regime. 87 00:06:23,965 --> 00:06:28,281 The Turkish authorities captured a group of Syrian rebels 88 00:06:28,281 --> 00:06:33,788 making their way across the Turkish border bearing loads of this very sarin gas. 89 00:06:33,788 --> 00:06:38,994 They’re trying to pretend that you have to be a state to have your hands of sarin gas, 90 00:06:38,994 --> 00:06:46,933 but less than twenty years ago, a group of Shinto obscurantists living on the lip of Mount Fuji in Tokyo 91 00:06:46,933 --> 00:06:50,135 used this gas in the Tokyo Underground, 92 00:06:50,135 --> 00:06:55,101 killing and maiming a very large number of people in the name of Shinto. 93 00:06:55,444 --> 00:07:03,886 So any group, any gang, any mob of gangsters can get their hands on sarin gas, 94 00:07:03,886 --> 00:07:08,929 and I’m absolutely convinced that the Russian President Putin is correct- 95 00:07:08,929 --> 00:07:14,054 I don’t believe [that] he’d be continuing to insist upon it if he had any doubt about it- 96 00:07:14,054 --> 00:07:22,395 that this weaponry either was an accidental discharge from the rebel’s stockpile 97 00:07:22,395 --> 00:07:27,933 or was a deliberate provocation to bring in the Western powers into this war, 98 00:07:27,933 --> 00:07:33,975 which of course as soon as President Obama drew a red line on this issue, he was openly inviting. 99 00:07:33,975 --> 00:07:37,124 So that’s one point but the other point is this: 100 00:07:37,124 --> 00:07:40,702 behind me in the British Parliament, in the 1920s, 101 00:07:40,702 --> 00:07:47,369 Winston Churchill said this, upon dropping chemical weapons on Iraqi Kurds, he said, and I quote: 102 00:07:49,397 --> 00:07:57,066 ‘I don’t understand what all the fuss is about, dropping gas on rebel tribesmen in the north of Iraq.’ 103 00:07:57,066 --> 00:08:03,931 We have been dropping chemical weapons on people of the so-called Third World for the best part of a century. 104 00:08:03,931 --> 00:08:08,410 The United States dropped an ocean of chemical weapons on the people of Vietnam 105 00:08:08,410 --> 00:08:12,686 and their children are still being born today deformed as a result of it. 106 00:08:12,686 --> 00:08:19,325 The United States used chemical weapons against the Iraqi Resistance in Fallujah, just a decade ago. 107 00:08:19,325 --> 00:08:25,334 And Israel used chemical weapons against the Palestinian people in Gaza just three years ago. 108 00:08:25,334 --> 00:08:30,263 The hypocrisy is monumental, it’s of Everestian proportions. 109 00:08:30,263 --> 00:08:33,515 But the media simply will not report this. 110 00:08:33,515 --> 00:08:36,180 It’s astounding, I mean the toxic legacy in Fallujah 111 00:08:36,180 --> 00:08:39,835 is even astronomically more than Hiroshima, shockingly enough. 112 00:08:39,835 --> 00:08:41,918 And as you said on the Floor of Parliament, you said: 113 00:08:41,918 --> 00:08:46,991 ‘would Assad be insane enough to launch a chemical weapons attack 114 00:08:46,991 --> 00:08:50,569 on the exact same day that UN Weapons Inspectors arrived in Damascus, 115 00:08:50,569 --> 00:08:55,201 and if he is that insane, what’s going to happen when we do launch Tomahawk cruise missiles over the region? 116 00:08:55,201 --> 00:08:58,446 George, I wanted to move onto Israel, you mentioned Israel before; 117 00:08:58,446 --> 00:09:02,454 right now they are lobbying super hard on the Hill. 118 00:09:02,454 --> 00:09:06,374 AIPAC is going out on a full-on lobbying campaign for Syria strikes. 119 00:09:06,374 --> 00:09:08,254 How much of this war is about Israel? 120 00:09:09,902 --> 00:09:15,296 Well it’s a full-court press by the Israel lobby in Britain and in the United States. 121 00:09:15,296 --> 00:09:18,787 They failed in Britain, they appear to be succeeding in the United States, 122 00:09:18,787 --> 00:09:22,690 and at least it unmasks a pretty monumental conspiracy. 123 00:09:22,783 --> 00:09:30,262 John Kerry told the world that the Arab regimes in the Persian Gulf are going to pay for this war. 124 00:09:30,709 --> 00:09:35,703 Israel is lobbying hard for the war and getting ready for it. 125 00:09:35,703 --> 00:09:41,469 So we have the most grotesque coalition ever assembled in history: 126 00:09:41,469 --> 00:09:48,223 Al Qaeda, the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf states. 127 00:09:48,223 --> 00:09:51,296 Who could have made such a scenario up? 128 00:09:51,296 --> 00:09:53,899 But be careful what you wish for, 129 00:09:53,899 --> 00:09:59,474 because I’m certain that Israel will be in this war big time and very quickly, 130 00:09:59,474 --> 00:10:06,487 because I’m certain that Syria and its friends will immediately turn the war- take the war- to Israel, 131 00:10:06,487 --> 00:10:11,030 in the first hours after the United States’ bombardment of Syria begins. 132 00:10:11,030 --> 00:10:15,475 Israel, presumably, will retaliate and will enter the war. 133 00:10:15,475 --> 00:10:20,699 We’ll then have an Arab-Israeli war fought on top of the oil fields 134 00:10:20,699 --> 00:10:27,021 and in the midst of one of the worst depressions that the developed world has ever seen. 135 00:10:27,021 --> 00:10:34,539 So look out for the oil price rocketing, perhaps quadrupling as it did in 1973/4. 136 00:10:34,539 --> 00:10:41,583 Look out for the Straits of Hormuz being blocked and no oil moving out of the Gulf to the world 137 00:10:41,583 --> 00:10:46,115 Look out for the Suez Canal being blocked and attacked. 138 00:10:46,115 --> 00:10:48,719 Look out for war throughout the world. 139 00:10:48,719 --> 00:10:52,350 There’s going to be murder and mayhem throughout the world. 140 00:10:52,350 --> 00:10:57,516 That’s what happy-clappy, Mr Christian Barack Obama, 141 00:10:57,516 --> 00:11:01,497 who just the other day was hailing the memory of Martin Luther King, 142 00:11:01,497 --> 00:11:03,636 is about the visit on the world. 143 00:11:03,636 --> 00:11:05,849 Well it’s a disgrace and as Upton Sinclair said; 144 00:11:05,849 --> 00:11:11,349 when fascism comes to America it’s going to be wrapped in an American flag and on a Bible. 145 00:11:11,349 --> 00:11:15,080 George, I wanted to talk about your documentary. 146 00:11:15,080 --> 00:11:18,745 You’ve just started a Kickstarter for ‘The Killing of Tony Blair’. 147 00:11:18,745 --> 00:11:20,686 What does the movie- and you’re kind of a big deal, 148 00:11:20,686 --> 00:11:23,967 I’m sure you could have got a lot of corporate sponsors to make this film; 149 00:11:23,967 --> 00:11:25,395 why go the grassroots route? 150 00:11:26,725 --> 00:11:29,817 Well we wanted a democratic funding of the film. 151 00:11:29,817 --> 00:11:32,740 I could have gone to a few rich people and raised a lot of money 152 00:11:32,740 --> 00:11:38,710 but I decided to go to thousands of not rich people and raise a little money from each of them. 153 00:11:38,710 --> 00:11:44,731 And we reached our Kickstarter £50,000- that’s about $70,000- 154 00:11:44,731 --> 00:11:49,364 Kickstarter fund limit; we reached it in less than one week. 155 00:11:49,364 --> 00:11:52,132 So we have just under thirty days to go 156 00:11:52,132 --> 00:11:56,755 to raise the money that we need to make the equivalent of Fahrenheit 9/11. 157 00:11:56,755 --> 00:11:59,437 We intend- our goal is ambitious- 158 00:11:59,437 --> 00:12:05,453 we intend to put Tony Blair, the Middle East Peace Envoy- that’s going well, isn’t it Tony?- 159 00:12:05,453 --> 00:12:09,434 in prison, for crimes against humanity, for war crimes. 160 00:12:09,434 --> 00:12:14,142 He murdered the Labour Party, he helped murder a million people in Iraq, 161 00:12:14,142 --> 00:12:22,292 he has caused uncountable deaths in Afghanistan and in Lebanon and in Palestine and in Syria, 162 00:12:22,292 --> 00:12:25,668 where he’s egging Obama on for a new war. 163 00:12:25,668 --> 00:12:30,140 He sold his soul to the devil and sold his services 164 00:12:30,140 --> 00:12:33,828 to some of the most devilish corporations and dictatorships in the world. 165 00:12:33,828 --> 00:12:35,781 Quite a lot of meat for a documentary. 166 00:12:35,781 --> 00:12:39,422 Michael Moore watch out, I’m coming to take your laurels! 167 00:12:39,422 --> 00:12:42,947 So Tony Blair has made a killing, killing a massive amount of people 168 00:12:42,947 --> 00:12:45,420 and he, like many of his criminal cohorts here in the US, 169 00:12:45,420 --> 00:12:48,924 sit free while people who stand up to the system rot in prison. 170 00:12:48,924 --> 00:12:50,811 Seems like it’s completely upside down. 171 00:12:50,811 --> 00:12:52,353 We have about a minute left George, 172 00:12:52,353 --> 00:12:55,917 but you are an anomaly, you’ve been working within the system for years, 173 00:12:55,917 --> 00:12:58,144 you founded the Respect Party in Parliament. 174 00:12:58,144 --> 00:13:00,437 How is it that you’ve not been pushed out of office yet? 175 00:13:02,191 --> 00:13:06,982 Well I’ve been elected six times to Parliament; I know I’m older than I look. 176 00:13:06,982 --> 00:13:10,156 I was a very young man when I entered Parliament. 177 00:13:10,156 --> 00:13:15,452 It was a Parliament worth being a Member of then, I’m not sure if it is today, 178 00:13:15,452 --> 00:13:19,321 but I have stood firm with my principle 179 00:13:19,321 --> 00:13:24,614 and I share with Mr Churchill the distinction of being the only two men in British history 180 00:13:24,614 --> 00:13:30,167 to be elected six times in two countries in four different constituencies. 181 00:13:30,167 --> 00:13:33,787 That’s where the similarity between me and Winston Churchill ends. 182 00:13:33,787 --> 00:13:39,540 Well clearly people want to hear what you have to [say], they want you to stand up for the voiceless. 183 00:13:39,540 --> 00:13:44,612 Thank you so much, George Galloway, Respect Party, thank you so much. 184 00:13:45,414 --> 00:13:46,645 Happy Birthday Abby!