In today's #vatnik soup I'll be introducing a British reality TV star and a propagandist, George Galloway (@georgegalloway). He's best known for his appearance on Big Brother, affiliation with Russia state-media & his love for various authoritarian regimes around the globe.
1/15
Galloway has been a MP in 1987-2010 and in 2012-2015. He's currently leading the Workers Party of Britain, a party which has never held any elected presentation at any level of government.
George also doesn't like it when he's connected to Russia-state affiliated medias.
2/15
George has been a fan boy of several totalitarian leaders since the 90's. In 1994, during his unauthorized trip to Iraq, he met with Saddam Hussein and ended up his speech with a famous statement: "Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability."
3/15
After Saddam's demise, Galloway defended Iraqi suicide bombers who targeted Western forces, calling them "martyrs". His political views are on the left & in 2002 interview he said that the collapse of the USSR was "the biggest catastrophe of my life". He's also stated that.. 4/15
... "I am a Socialist who doesn't like Capitalism and who likes Imperialism less. I am a revolutionary and I support the armed struggle where there is no alternative."
For being a socialist, Georgie sure loves money and luxury.
5/15
In 1986 he was claimed to have spent 20 000£ while "enjoying a life of luxury". He was later cleared of these accusations, but he did end up repaying 1720£ in contested expenses. While working for Press TV, Al-Mayadeen & RT, he had spent 70 000£ in flights and hotels.
6/15
Galloway was also a founder of the Mariam Appeal, a political campaign that provided medical assistance to the people of Iraq. Galloway faced several investigations related to the campaign, for example using the donation money for his personal travel expenses.
7/15
The campaign raised significant funds but was never registered as a charity organization. A 2017 claim stated that George's then wife Abu-Zayyad had received 84 000£ in salary and expenses without a contract of employment.
8/15
The Yorkhill NHS Trust received 54 000£ that was allegedly supposed to be spent on the leukemia treatment for Mariam Hamza. Galloway and his then wife, the trustees of the organization, claimed 3000£ in travel expenses.
9/15
Galloway has worked for several state-affiliated medias, including the Iran-state controlled Press TV, the Al Mayadeen TV station that's connected to both Iran and Assad's Syria, and of course the Kremlin-controlled RT. He's shown support for Putin, al-Assad and Hussein.
10/15
During 2014, Galloway had earned at least 293 450£ from his TV appearances, and between 2013 and 2015 George was paid 100 000£ for his appearances on RT - the highest salary to any British politician working for this Russia-affiliated media.
11/15
He presented his "The Mother of All Talk Shows" on RT UK, until it was shut down following the Russia's genocidal invasion of Ukraine in Feb, 2022.
George is strongly in the "NATO started the war in Ukraine" corner, and basically blames the US for the whole conflict.
12/15
This view lines him up with the Grayzone bloggers, Mick Wallace and Clare Daly, and they're organizing a "NO2NATONO2WAR" event in London in Feb, 2023. Their first venue, St Pancras New Church cancelled their booking because of the overwhelming criticism.
13/15
On the 14th of Feb, 2022, he tweeted that Russia is not about to invade Ukraine, and ridiculed people who claimed this. He's also called Zelenskyy a "cross-dressing coke-sniffing porn-actor" that's been turned into "Spartacus".
14/15
He's shared the idea that the Zelenskyy "government has given weapons to criminals who are robbing and raping".In his latest talk show, he interviewed pro-Russian blogger Max Blumenthal, a "political analyst" and a propagandist Garland Nixon, and propagandist Gonzalo Lira.
15/15
Afterword: I wanted to add some extra spice to today's soup, and share a little story about George and a program called Oil-For-Food. This program allowed economically sanctioned Iraq to sell limited amounts of oil in exchange for vital goods for the Iraqis. 1/4
The program was heavily abused, and these abuses included smuggling of oil and use of surcharges. Galloway was interviewed in the US Senate for his involvement. Several pro-Russian and Syrian accounts spread a video of George's testimony from this hearing, praising it,...
2/4
... and for example @sahouraxo called it "one of the greatest speeches in history". The Senate's report disagreed with this statement, and they concluded that Galloway "knowingly made false or misleading statements under oath".
3/4
Bank statements also showed that his wife Abu-Zayyad had received a payment of 150 000USD from the proceeds of the program. The report also stated that Galloway's Mariam Appeal had received 446 000 USD via the program. For some reason these vatniks always leave this part out. 4/4
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.