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After weeks of speculation and buzz, it was reported this morning in the Houston Chronicle newspaper that Farouk Shami has announced he is running for the Democratic nomination of governor of the state of Texas. In an exclusive interview in the September issue of MODERN SALON, Farouk hinted at the possibility. When MODERN Editor in Chief Laurel Smoke asked about rumors surrounding Shami’s political ambitions, he answered, “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” A few weeks ago, Shami hosted thousands of guests, including current Texas governor Rick Perry and Houston Mayor Bill White, for the ribbon cutting of CHI USA, a...

"On June 30th Major Chris Galloway took his own life. He had come back from Afghanistan in April, and things just weren’t the same we’re told." "Why’d we lose him? Who the hell knows. There is no rational reason for doing such a thing, so using reason to figure it out is both impossible and ineffectual. It accomplishes nothing. In the end, he’s still gone. For the sake of his wife, his kids, and for ourselves it’s better to remember him for who he was. Given that he was so much to so many, there’s a lot to think about....

The comment thread about the loss of one of Flopping Aces' own, Maj. Chris Galloway, has all of us doing some head scratching as to what we can do as individuals. This sense of helplessness, *after* the loss, is simply not acceptable. Wordsmith did provide some extra insight in his remembrance of Chris with a YouTube link, but I felt that Major General Mark Graham - Commander, Division West and Fort Carson, Colo - and his suicide prevention program needs to be broadened with a grassroots movement. Below is the ACE card given to military members.. ASK, CARE and ESCORT....

Life and the internet are strange strange things. I've been trading emails and posts etc with Chris for years now. It wasn't at all uncommon for his duties, deployments, and family to make those virtual conversations sporadic from time to time. Well, Chris won't be returning emails anymore. He passed away suddenly on June 30, 2009. Last Fall he and his wife Shannon had a baby girl, Lilly. Chris was so happy. We teased him about how awful it is to step on Barbie Doll high heels in the middle of the night, and he bragged about how his...

A British Member of Parliament, George Galloway, has been actively courting support in the United States for a “humanitarian” convoy to provide cash and vehicles to representatives of Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organization that controls Gaza. The Viva Palestina convoy, led by Galloway, a member of the anti-Zionist “Respect Party” in the British Parliament, donated approximately $1.5 million and more than 100 vehicles to Hamas in March 2009. At a press conference in Gaza announcing the donations, Galloway said: “We are giving you now 100 vehicles and all of their contents, and we make no apology for what I am...

George Galloway responds to allegations from the Canadian government that he is a terrorist.

I would like to take this opportunity, as a resident of the Bethnal Green and Bow parliamentary constituency, personally to thank the Canadian government and in particular its immigration minister, Jason Kenney, for succeeding where many - including myself - have been struggling and failing in recent years: to find a word that adequately sums up George Galloway, my MP That word is "infandous". Roll it around your mouth. Savour it. Apparently it means "too odious to be expressed or mentioned". It came along with the filip that he was a "street-corner Cromwell". Oh. And they decided not to let...

OTTAWA -- An outspoken British MP who's opposed to the war in Afghanistan says he intends to take legal action against the federal government over its decision to refuse him entry to Canada. George Galloway, an MP for the U.K.'s Respect party, says he learned Friday he would not be allowed into this country for a speaking tour that's scheduled to bring him to Toronto and Ottawa later this month. A former Labour MP, Mr. Galloway is a contentious figure whose public support for Hamas and Hezbollah has led to accusations he is a terrorist sympathizer. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney...

TTAWA (AFP) – British lawmaker George Galloway has been blocked from visiting Canada because of his support of Hamas, which is banned here, the Canadian immigration minister's office said Friday. "I'm sure Galloway has a large Rolodex of friends in regimes elsewhere in the world willing to roll out the red carpet for him," Alykhan Velshi, spokesman for Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, told AFP. "Canada, however, won't be one of them," he said in an email. Galloway was to give a speech in Toronto at the end of the month, but has been denied entry over his opposition to...

-excerpt- Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says he won't use his authority to intervene in a decision to bar controversial British MP George Galloway from entering Canada. Speaking in Calgary Friday, Kenney said he wouldn't override a Citizenship and Immigration Canada decision to deny Galloway permission to enter the country based on security grounds. Kenney's office said the 54-year-old Scot has expressed sympathy for the Taliban in Afghanistan and provided financial aid to the Palestinian militant group Hamas. -excerpt- Galloway called the decision "irrational, inexplicable and an affront to Canada's good name," and said he would fight the ruling with "all...

British lawmaker George Galloway held a meeting Wednesday with Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh at an undisclosed location. Haniyeh has kept out of sight since Israel launched a three-week offensive against Hamas last December in Gaza.

George Galloway, the British Member of Parliament (I think he's from Scotland - and, no, I won't bother to fact-check that) gave his first speech since arriving in Gaza. While he jabbered on in an oratory reminiscent of great leaders like Chamberlain and Quisling amidst cries of "Allahu Akbar!", I couldn't help but think... can't they get the translator his own microphone? With leaders like Galloway, willfully submitting their culture to Islamification Britain is teetering on the edge of being a lost cause.

George Galloway was given a triumphant welcome today as he led an aid convoy into the impoverished Gaza Strip after a month-long journey across Europe and North Africa to the Hamas-ruled enclave. Having been made to wait for a day at the southern Rafah border crossing by Egyptian authorities, the staunchly pro-Palestinian Respect MP for Bethnal Green was finally allowed into the blockaded territory, where he was handed flowers and kissed by Palestinian well-wishers. Mr Galloway and his companions fell to their knees and bowed to the ground as they walked in. “I have entered Palestine many times but the...

A humanitarian convoy led by maverick MP George Galloway carrying medical supplies for Gaza has come under attack in Egypt The convoy, carrying aid worth £1 million, was pelted with stones and vandalised after it stopped in El-Arish, a small town around 28 miles from the Rafah border crossing with Gaza. "It's an absolute disgrace,'' convoy organiser Yvonne Ridley told AFP. "The power was cut. Under cover of darkness members of our convoy were attacked with stones. "Vandals also wrote dirty words and anti-Hamas slogans,'' she said. "Several people in the convoy were injured in the attack." (snip) "George Galloway...

THREE Islamist terror suspects who were arrested in northwest England on Friday night planned to leave the country under the cover of a humanitarian convoy to Gaza led by George Galloway, the maverick MP, senior police sources said. The three suspects were among nine men arrested in a joint operation by police and MI5 while they were driving two vans on the M65 near Preston, Lancashire. Six were later released and three men, aged 26, 29 and 36, remained in custody last night. The men had been under surveillance for some time as part of what police described as “an...

Author and McClatchy military columnist Joe Galloway will be at the Fort Lewis PX 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday to sign copies of his new book, "We Are Soldiers Still." (Review here.)It's a followup to his "We Were Soldiers Once ... And Young" with retired Lt. Gen. Hal Moore.If you don't have a Department of Defense sticker or ID, but you want to get a signed copy or meet the author, you can still get on Fort Lewis. Go to the visitor center at the main gate – Exit 120 off of Interstate 5 – and present your driver's license,...

BY the time you read this, I will be in Iran. I've never been there before, never met an Iranian leader - I don't even like the present Iranian leadership - so remember all that, because it might become important. I'm determined to do my bit for the anti-war effort. We need another war like Gordon Brown needs another by-election. But the Sunday papers were again full of Israeli war games and threats as speculation mounts of a massive bombardment of yet another Muslim country. I'm going for the first anniversary of Press TV, on which I present two programmes...

British MP George Galloway to Hamas TV: I Pray for Obama's Safety; Come November, Arab "Puppet Presidents and Corrupt Kings May Discover That the Ground Has Moved Under Their Feet, Allah Willing" "I Pray For the Safety of Barack Obama, And I Pray That He Can Shift the U.S.'s Attitude" George Galloway: "I hope that the new presidency in the United States... I pray for the safety of Barack Obama, and I pray that he can shift the United States' attitude to this question. But as you know, Palestine cannot free itself. It is a small country against a huge...

The latest outrage is a father's video of a U.S. Army barracks at Fort Bragg, N.C., the home of the 82nd Airborne Division. It shows the quarters where his soldier son and other soldier sons were sent to live upon their return from combat. Mold and mildew and peeling paint are bad enough, but what about a big barracks bathroom ankle-deep in raw sewage? Scandals like this latest one and an earlier eruption of public outrage over the miserably maintained quarters where wounded soldiers were warehoused at Walter Reed Army Hospital are an indictment of the core competency of our...

GUTTERSNIPE columnist and speak your weight machine shock jock ("OI Gaunty one at a time please") Jon Gaunt has taken, on national radio, to calling Barack Obama, Barack O'Bomber in the fashion of the hate machine that is the American right. As we approach the anniversary on Thursday of the assasination of Malcolm X (in five years in gun-crazed America President Kennedy and his brother Bobby, Martin Luther King and Malcolm were all gunned down), that's dangerous talk indeed. More immediately dangerous was batrachian squeak Gaunt's promise to "give Galloway a good slapping" (repeated thrice) in the boxing ring for...

WHILE most were asleep, we've walked to the brink of yet another war in the Balkans. Kosovo is a part of Serbia. That's a legal and political fact. It wants to break away and appears to have secured British and American agreement, but not, alas, the agreement of either Serbia, whose land it is, or Russia, which will veto any breakaway in the UN. The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) rules the roost and has said it will make a unilateral declaration of independence soon. The Serbs cannot allow Kosovo, sacred to their orthodox Christian heritage for 1000 years, to go...

Tehran Times Political Desk TEHRAN – British MP George Galloway says there is no indication that the U.S. is willing to enter talks with Iran over its nuclear program. Iran and the U.S. have held three rounds of talks in Baghdad to improve the security situation in Iraq. A fourth round of talks between the arch foes is also imminent. However, the U.S. has said Iran should first stop its uranium enrichment program as a precondition for direct nuclear talks, although, as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran has the right to enrich uranium for civilian applications. “There...

...Galloway's front organization, a "charity" known as the Mariam Appeal that campaigned against the sanctions on Iraq, had in fact received direct Iraqi subventions from the proceeds of the U.N.-sponsored "Oil for Food" program. Bank records established that Galloway's former wife had been paid at least $150,000 in this way. A completely separate U.N. inquiry chaired by former Treasury Secretary Paul Volcker identified another "Oil for Food" payment to the same lady, this time in the sum of $120,000.Snip...This raises two quite serious questions. The first is the extent to which the Iraqi Baath Party was able to purchase direct...

LONDON - The British Parliament's lower house on Monday suspended a lawmaker accused of concealing his financial dealings with Saddam Hussein's government. George Galloway, known for his fierce opposition to Britain's role in the invasion of Iraq, was suspended for 18 days, following an investigation which found that a charity he set up was partly funded by the Iraqi dictator. The decision, which came without a vote, followed a recommendation from a parliamentary disciplinary panel that investigated the charity. Galloway accused his opponents of hypocrisy. "Being lectured by the current House of Commons on the question of the funding of...

Maverick MP In Commons Bust-Up Updated: 21:16, Monday July 23, 2007 George Galloway has been kicked out of the Commons chamber and suspended for 18 days after a series of fiery exchanges. Galloway attacks watchdogThe Respect MP was "named" and ordered out after repeatedly clashing with Speaker Michael Martin. Mr Galloway angrily denounced the Commons watchdog over the motion to suspend him from the House for 18 days about his financial links to Saddam Hussein's regime. He accused the Standards and Privileges Committee of hypocrisy and of acting "unjustly" as he was repeatedly admonished by Mr Martin for attacking the...

July 19, 2007 LONDON: British MP George Galloway personally thanked Saddam Hussein for his regime's financial backing in a campaign against sanctions on Iraq, and even asked him to raise the payments, it emerged yesterday. Mr Galloway also offered to help set up with Saddam an Iraqi satellite television channel, broadcasting in English, months before the beginning of the Iraq war. An account of their meeting, published for the first time in a House of Commons report into Mr Galloway's failure to declare his financial backers, contradicts the MP's insistence that he was unaware of receiving money from the former...

George Galloway faces new funds investigation By Tim Shipman in Washington, DC, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 1:28am BST 22/07/2007 George Galloway faces renewed investigation by US authorities over the channelling of hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of payments from Saddam Hussein's regime to his Iraq charity. George Galloway denies he solicited oil allocations Three different bodies of prosecutors and the US justice department are preparing to examine the report by Sir Philip Mawer, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, and the House of Commons committee responsible for MPs' standards, published last week. Sir Philip found that, by turning a "blind...

George Galloway faces new funds investigation By Tim Shipman in Washington, DC, Sunday Telegraph  Last Updated: 11:57pm BST 21/07/2007  George Galloway faces renewed investigation by US authorities over the channelling of hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of payments from Saddam Hussein's regime to his Iraq charity.   George Galloway denies he solicited oil allocations   Three different bodies of prosecutors and the US justice department are preparing to examine the report by Sir Philip Mawer, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, and the House of Commons committee responsible for MPs' standards, published last week.Sir Philip found that, by turning a...

July 17th, 2007 - Washington, D.C. - The United Kingdom House of Commons Committee on Standards and Privileges has released a report today concerning MP George Galloway and his misconduct related to the Oil-for-Food Program. The Parliament report was highly critical of Galloway's activities related to the Program, ruling against Galloway on every charge. Finally, the Committee recommends that he be suspended from the House of Commons for eighteen working days – which is reportedly "one of the most severe [penalties] given to an MP" – and requests that he apologize for his misconduct. In arriving at its conclusions, the...

MP George Galloway is set to be suspended from Parliament over his links to a charity bankrolled by illicit deals involving Saddam Hussein's regime. He will be barred from the Commons for one month by Parliament's standards watchdog for failing properly to declare his connections with the Mariam Appeal, it was reported. Mr Galloway, who became an MP for his own Respect party after being expelled from Labour, may also be asked to apologise for his behaviour by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Sir Philip Mawer. Last month a damning report by the Charity Commission concluded that the Mariam Appeal,...

GEORGE GALLOWAY, the MP who campaigned against the Iraq war, is to be suspended from parliament over his links to the United Nations oil-for-food programme in Iraq. The parliamentary standards watchdog will rule this week that Galloway failed properly to declare his links to a charitable appeal partially funded from money made by selling Iraqi oil under Saddam Hussein, according to a source close to the inquiry. The one-month suspension for Galloway, often referred to as

Galloway criticised over appeal The Charity Commission has criticised George Galloway and other Mariam Appeal trustees for failing to make sufficient inquiries into the source of donations. It found the appeal had received significant donations connected with improper transactions made under the Iraqi oil-for-food programme. It said they had not been sufficiently vigilant but that all the charity's money was spent on humanitarian aid. Respect MP Mr Galloway said the allegations were "palpably false". The Mariam Appeal was set up by Mr Galloway in 1998 to provide medicine and medical help to Iraqis suffering under Saddam Hussein's regime and under...

Symposium: The Future of TreasonBy Jamie GlazovFrontPageMagazine.com | September 2, 2005 Jamie Glazov: When it comes to the agitations of the political left over the war in Iraq, Patriotism and Treason are the elephants in the room. And not just for the political left. Even the words “appeasement” and “capitulation” have been absent from the political debate over the war in Iraq, although although there have been prominent advocates for both. Have we seen, as Daniel Pipes has titled a recent column, “The End of Treason” because people identify with causes like Islam and Social Justice and no longer feel...

Met 'to investigate Galloway for taking cash from Saddam'Last updated at 10:27am on 14th February 2007 George Galloway is likely to be investigated by the Met Police over claims he broke US sanctions by receiving oil money from Saddam Hussein. The Serious Fraud Office has recommended that Scotland Yard open an investigation and talks are currently taking place with the Crown Prosecution Service. The Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow has denied any impropriety and will not be investigated on separate offences of corruption. Under UN sanctions oil sales were only permitted for approved humanitarian purposes. To prosecute,...

Al-Qaida's list of favorite, least favorite Westerners Latest warning video from terror group names enemies, friends in U.S., Britain WASHINGTON – In the latest video from al-Qaida warning of an imminent terrorist attack on the U.S., five specific "Zionist crusader missionaries of hate" are named, while three Westerners, including one American, are actually praised for their efforts toward "peace." Those singled out as enemies of al-Qaida are Daniel Pipes, Robert Spencer, Steven Emerson, Michael Scheuer and, of course, President Bush. The first three are WND contributors and outspoken media figures who warn about the growing threat of Islamo-fascism. Scheuer is...

MP George Galloway has congratulated Hizbollah on its "victory" in Israel. At a news conference in a Beirut hotel, the controversial politician said: "I came here to extend my congratulations to the Lebanese people on a great and historic victory against this aggression. "I want to congratulate the Lebanese resistance and their leading edge, Hizbollah, whose martyrs and her s have achieved this great victory. "And in particular to their leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, whose name now rings in joy around the world." Galloway is in Beirut to present a phone-in radio show for a British radio station. He also...

MP George Galloway has congratulated Hizbollah on its "victory" in Israel. At a news conference in a Beirut hotel, the controversial politician said: "I came here to extend my congratulations to the Lebanese people on a great and historic victory against this aggression. "I want to congratulate the Lebanese resistance and their leading edge, Hizbollah, whose martyrs and her s have achieved this great victory. "And in particular to their leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, whose name now rings in joy around the world." Galloway is in Beirut to present a phone-in radio show for a British radio station. He also...

Listen to George Galloway attack Bush and Blair over their "Lewinski like love affair" . Download the sensational interview with the firebrand British MP now. Galloway spoke exclusively to Mustafa Alrawi on Dubai Eye on Sunday August 20 2006... http://arnonline.com/arnnew/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=256&Itemid=440

TERROR suspect Waheed Zaman met controversial MP George Galloway many times, his sister said last night. Safeena, 24, said of her 23-year-old brother: “He saw it as his duty to stand up for his community and that’s what led him to know George Galloway. He has a lot of respect for him and has met him many times.” A spokesman for MP Galloway, left, said: “Waheed Zaman is not a name that George is familiar with. He is not known to him on a personal level.” There is no suggestion Galloway is an associate of Zaman.

British MP George Galloway Asks Al-Jazeera Viewers For Funds and Says: Bush-Blair Relations Resemble Clinton-Monica Relations; Arab Rulers are Fornicating With Foreign Occupiers The following are excerpts from an interview with British MP George Galloway, which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on August 8, 2006. TO VIEW THIS CLIP: http://www.memritv.org/search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=1228 Interviewer: "There is identity or harmony - and some even say subordinate relations - between the American and British policies, in a way that sometimes seems detrimental to British interests, or even to the popularity of the British prime minister. Could you explain this, at least from your perspective?" George Galloway:...

George Galloway has spoken out in support of Lebanon, saying he believes Hizbollah is justified in attacking Israel. The Respect MP also lambasted media coverage of the war and said the UN resolution means nothing.

“Expanding and strengthening” the onslaught against the people of Lebanon. That was Israel’s response to the international outcry over the slaughter of 56 civilians, most of them children, in Qana. And with the world’s eyes turned to the increasingly savage offensive in southern Lebanon, Israel has tightened the noose of collective punishment around the Palestinians in Gaza. Accompanying all this are the barely concealed calls in Washington for an assault on Iran and Syria. No one should be in any doubt which way the chain of cause and effect runs. George Bush, with Tony Blair at his heel, is backing...

  Galloway ... rallying with cleric   Hate cleric allowed into UK By GEORGE PASCOE-WATSON Political Editor A RADICAL Muslim cleric who claims Britain DESERVES suicide bombings has been allowed in the country by ministers.  The Foreign Office gave twisted Delwar Hossain Sayeedi a visa saying he “does not meet the criteria for refusal”.And today he will join an East London rally with Respect MP George Galloway.After the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, Sayeedi said: “Britain and America deserve all that is coming to them.”He has also declared: “So what if the Taliban is destroyed? The war against America will...

EXCLUSIVE Big Brother TV's evil eye Paranoid ... Sam     By EMMA COX Deputy TV Editor BIG Brother was blasted by mental health chiefs yesterday — after ANOTHER vulnerable contestant was put into the TV house. Show bosses have sent in pre-op transsexual Sam Brodie. He’s the fifth housemate — along with Shahbaz, Pete, Lea and Nikki — to have mental issues. One charity warned it was “only a matter of time” before the show was responsible for a tragedy.Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of Sane, added: “The show is playing fast and loose with people’s lives.”Sam, 18, has already...

In the current issue of British Gentleman's Quarterly, there appears an interview with somebody who could by no leap of the imagination be characterized as a gentleman. George Galloway is a man whose Catholic beliefs have not prevented him from expressing nostalgia for Stalinism and offering open support for the dictatorships of Saddam Hussein and Bashar Assad. Evidence that this support has not gone unrequited has been presented by two investigations into the prostitution of the U.N. oil-for-food racket, one of them conducted by Paul Volcker for the United Nations itself and another conducted by a U.S. Senate investigations subcommittee....

Controversial MP George Galloway has provoked a furious response over his remarks that bombing Tony Blair would be 'morally justified' over his decision to go to war in Iraq.Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell said the remarks could act as an incitement to crime, whilst Labour MP Stephen Pound called Galloway 'disgraceful' and 'twisted'. The row broke out after the Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow was interviewed for an article in GQ magazine. Mr Galloway was asked: "Would the assassination of, say, Tony Blair by a suicide bomber - if there were no other casualties - be justified...

LONDON: Killing British Prime Minister Tony Blair in a suicide bombing would be morally justified as revenge for the war in Iraq, firebrand lawmaker George Galloway has said. In a magazine interview that was widely reported on Friday, the MP for the anti-war party, Respect, was asked if it would be justifiable for a suicide bomber to blow up Blair provided there were no other casualties. Galloway told GQ magazine: “Yes, it would be morally justified. I am not calling for it - but if it happened it would be of a wholly different moral order to the events of...

George Galloway was facing calls for his expulsion from Parliament and a police inquiry yesterday following an interview in which he said the assassination of Tony Blair by a suicide bomber would be "morally justified". Asked if the killing of the Prime Minister in revenge for the invasion of Iraq could be justified if there were no other casualties, the Respect MP replied: "Yes, it would be morally justified. I am not calling for it, but if it happened I believe it would be of a wholly different moral order to the events of 7/7. It would be entirely logical...

By DAVID STRINGER, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 6 minutes ago LONDON - Maverick British politician George Galloway has claimed it would be "morally justified" for an assassin to target Prime Minister Tony Blair, but he said he was not advocating an attempt, according to a magazine interview published Friday. Galloway was quoted as saying an attack on Blair that caused no other casualties would be a justifiable response to Britain's support for the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. "It would be entirely logical and explicable — and morally equivalent to ordering the deaths of thousands of innocent people in...

THE assassination of Tony Blair by a suicide bomber would be morally justified as revenge for the War in Iraq, according to George Galloway. The Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow said that such an attack would be “morally equivalent to ordering the deaths of thousands of innocent people in Iraq — as Mr Blair did”. He was speaking during an interview for GQ magazine with Piers Morgan, the former Daily Mirror Editor. Morgan asked: “Would the assasination of, say, Tony Blair by a suicide bomber, if there were no other casualties, be justified as revenge for the war...