diff --git a/git_cl.py b/git_cl.py
index 143ad2854..9716ef125 100755
--- a/git_cl.py
+++ b/git_cl.py
@@ -16,7 +16,6 @@ import stat
 import sys
 import textwrap
 import urlparse
-import urllib
 import urllib2
 
 try:
@@ -756,6 +755,13 @@ def LoadCodereviewSettingsFromFile(fileobj):
             keyvals['ORIGIN_URL_CONFIG']])
 
 
+def urlretrieve(source, destination):
+  """urllib is broken for SSL connections via a proxy therefore we
+  can't use urllib.urlretrieve()."""
+  with open(destination, 'w') as f:
+    f.write(urllib2.urlopen(source).read())
+
+
 def DownloadHooks(force):
   """downloads hooks
 
@@ -773,7 +779,7 @@ def DownloadHooks(force):
         return
       os.remove(dst)
     try:
-      urllib.urlretrieve(src, dst)
+      urlretrieve(src, dst)
       os.chmod(dst, stat.S_IRUSR | stat.S_IWUSR | stat.S_IXUSR)
     except Exception:
       if os.path.exists(dst):
diff --git a/tests/git_cl_test.py b/tests/git_cl_test.py
index 0c3736e23..0a916c7d8 100755
--- a/tests/git_cl_test.py
+++ b/tests/git_cl_test.py
@@ -431,7 +431,7 @@ class TestGitCl(TestCase):
       # others paths, such as /usr/share/locale/....
       return True
     self.mock(git_cl.os.path, 'exists', Exists)
-    self.mock(git_cl.urllib, 'urlretrieve', self._mocked_call)
+    self.mock(git_cl, 'urlretrieve', self._mocked_call)
     self.calls = [
         ((['git', 'config', 'rietveld.server', 'gerrit.chromium.org'],), ''),
         ((['git', 'config', '--unset-all', 'rietveld.cc'],), ''),