EARLY THIS MORNING, a committee of the British House of Commons suspended the flamboyant* George Galloway, member from Bethnal Green and Bow, for 18 days for concealing the Iraqi funding of his "charity," the Mariam Appeal. Founded in the late 1990s to bring attention to the suffering of Iraqis under U.N. sanctions, the Appeal was the platform from which Galloway pursued his anti-West campaign. The committee found that
the Oil for Food Programme was used by the Iraqi government, with Mr. Galloway's connivance, to fund the campaigning activities of the Mariam Appeal. In acting as he did, Mr. Galloway breached the advocacy rule and damaged the reputation of the House.
Galloway was courting Saddam Hussein well before the dictator fell out of power and into fashion in radical leftist circles. "Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability," Galloway told the tyrant in 1994. "And I want you to know that we are with you until victory, until victory, until Jerusalem." . . .
*Remember the catsuit photos? "Flamboyant" ain't the half of it!
