Investigations Subcommittee and Galloway testimony
In December 2004 in connection with his position of Chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Coleman called for United Nations Secretary-general Kofi Annan to resign because of the "UN's utter failure to detect or stop Saddam's abuses" in the UN's Oil-for-Food program and because of fraud allegations against Annan's son relating to the same program. In May 2005 Coleman's subcommittee held hearings on their investigation of abuses of the UN Oil-for-Food program, including oil smuggling, illegal kickbacks and use of surcharges, and Saddam Hussein's use of oil vouchers for the purpose of buying influence abroad. These hearings covered certain corporations and several well-known political figures, but are much remembered for the appearance of British Member of Parliament George Galloway, a member of the RESPECT The Unity Coalition (Respect), a then-new British political party, in which the MP forcefully rejected the allegations:
"We have your name on Iraqi documents, some prepared before the fall of Saddam, some after, that identify you as one of the allocation holders," Coleman accused. "I am not now nor have I ever been an oil trader" retorted Galloway, stating that the charges were false and part of a diversionary "mother of all smoke screens" by pro-Iraq war U.S. politicians to deflect attention from the "theft of billions of dollars of Iraq's wealth... on your watch" that had occurred not during the Oil-for-Food program but under the post-invasion Coalition Provisional Authority by "Halliburton and other American corporations... with the connivance of your own government." Galloway claimed that the subcommittee's dossier was full of distortions and rudimentary mistakes, citing, for example, the charge that he had met with Saddam Hussein "many times" when the number was two.[41] This unusual appearance of a British MP before a US Senate committee drew much media attention in both America and Britain.[42]
The Majority Staff of the subcommittee prepared a subsequent report pertaining to Galloway, which was released in October, 2005. It elaborates on allegations and evidence of the committee and includes disputed [43] testimony from former Iraqi foreign minister Tariq Aziz. It also alleges that another officer of Mariam Appeal, Galloway's then-wife, received $150,000 in oil kickbacks, which she denies.[44][45] Senator Coleman transmitted these reports to the U.S. Department of Justice, the Manhattan DA, the Washington DC and New York federal prosecutors, the UK Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, and the Charity Commission.[46][47] None saw fit to pursue charges. On June 2, 2006, Senator Coleman responded to criticism that he had insufficiently investigated the Australian Wheat Board for sanctions busting, saying that there were legal and cost hurdles and that as the Prime Minister of Australia at the time, John Howard, was also a Neocon' as well as a supporter of the Bush administration and a friend of President Bush, and as there was a strong possibility that the Howard Government was involved in the sanction busting, he did not want to pursue it.
AL FRANKEN?!?!? He has so much baggage and issues, why in the world would anyone want Al Franken to go up against Norm Coleman? Norm Coleman has a pretty strong base here in MN, it will take a strong Dem to knock him out of his seat, but Al Franken is NOT that guy, IMO
or 
Shows you that thruth is stranger than fiction! 
