Trump’s Iran Gamble with George Galloway | DEEP FOCUS with John Kiriakou - DEEP FOCUS with John Kiriakou

John Kiriakou Introduces George Galloway on Rising Iran Tensions This is a world historic moment. It either could be the resolution of the Israel driven hostility of the United States to the Islamic Republic of Iran or it could be the precursor. Speaker 2 Of a war throughout the world. Speaker 1 Hi, I'm John Kiriakou, and welcome back to another episode of Deep Focus. We're recording this on Thursday, February 12th. And the reason why I give you the date is that this is a very important day in Washington. Benjamin Netanyahu is in town, obviously, to lobby President Donald Trump to to bomb Iran and to do Israel's dirty work for it. But also this morning, the president announced that he was giving very serious consideration to moving a second aircraft carrier battle group to the Persian Gulf. Right now, the USS George HW Bush is off the coast of Norfolk, VA. It is supposed to remain in the Atlantic Ocean for the next couple of months, doing maneuvers and exercises. Instead, it looks like it's going to be steaming E through the Mediterranean, through the Suez Canal, around the Arabian Peninsula, and right up to Iran's borders. This is a very troubling, troubling development because the United States can't make war against Iran. 1 aircraft carrier battle group. The USS Abraham Lincoln and it's 11 accompanying ships are in the Arabian Sea right now, but it can make war against Iran with two aircraft carrier battle groups. We're going to talk about this with one of the most important, one of the most insightful political analysts anywhere in the world. I am very proud today to tell you that George Galloway is joining us. Mr. Galloway is a British politician. He's a broadcaster and a writer. He has been the leader of the Workers Party of Britain since he founded that party in 2019. He's a former leader of the Respect Party. Until 2003, he was a member of the British Labour Party. From 1997 to 2010, from 2012 to 15, and again in 2024, he was a Member of Parliament for five different constituencies. Mr. Galloway does not join us from the UK, he's joining us from Moscow. Why? Because he was harassed and detained at Gatwick Airport for more than five hours recently, just like our friend, Ambassador Craig Murray, constantly harassed as he enters and leaves his own country. So, George Galloway, thank you so much for joining us. The honor is mine, John. I've followed your work for many years, and I'm a great admirer of yours. Thank you. And I'm very happy to be with you this evening. Thank you so much. I feel exactly the same way about you. You have a way of cutting directly to the chase in your analysis. And there's so much that I want to ask you about. And so much of it is is intertwined with with other issues. You can't talk about Iran without talking about Israel. You can't talk about Israel without talking about Gaza. George Galloway Warns of 'Gates of Hell' if Diplomacy Fails So let's start with Iran. I've been in touch over the last several weeks with with an Omani official and the Omanis are great peace loving people. They always, always act as the intermediary between the United States and Iran. They always offered to host talks between the United States and Iran and and have done that more times than I can recall. We hear from both sides that the first round of indirect talks between the United States and Iran that took place in Muscat about a week ago were were positive. Those talks were positive even if they were indirect. I'm not really sure what positive means, whether it means neither side ran screaming from the room or if if that there was some kind of substantive component to it that they could agree on. I I think just the former is the truth. But give us your thoughts on the current situation between Iran and the United States and how you assess what appears to be the deployment of a second aircraft carrier battle group now. Well, first of all, I share your admiration for the Sultan of Oman, my favorite Arab country and the only country which has a door open to both sides and therefore a very strategically important place. And we must all pray and hope that their mediation efforts will succeed this time, because if they don't, the gates of hell will open, and not just in the Persian Gulf, but across the world. This is a world historic moment. It either could be the resolution of the Israel driven hostility of the United States to the Islamic Republic of Iran, or it could be the precursor of a war throughout the world. Not a World War, but a war throughout the world. Because Iran is no pushover, as they proved in the 12 Day War last year and are ready to prove in multiples if the shooting war begins again. So of course Donald Trump is negotiating. We know his style of negotiation is to browbeat and bludgeon and maybe even bribe the parties to bow to his demands. The Iranians, on the other hand, are in no need of his money, and certainly not the kind of people who could be bludgeoned or browbeaten. I think something that I should say that isn't widely appreciated, the Iranian leadership are entirely religiously devoted people. Therefore, death in conflict with the Great Satan is, is a positive thing for them. It's a ticket to heaven for them. So you can't really intimidate someone who is ready to fight you to the death and moreover, believes that it's a ticket to paradise. I think a lot of Western commentators underestimate that point. I mean, we've had Trump last year and again recently explicitly and implicitly threatening the supreme leader of Iran, as if such a man can be meaningfully threatened, threatening him with with death when such a death would be a glory to him. So it's important that we walk a mile in the other fellow's shoes and the other fellow's shoes are that this is the 47th year of war. This is not something that happened just last year or at the advent of the October 7th post October 7th relations. Iran has been at war with the United States and the broader W it's satrapies in Europe and indeed in the Persian Gulf itself. Every year of the 47 years now of the Iranian Revolution has been a year of confrontation, either a kinetic confrontation or terrorist proxy confrontation, and all of the 47 years under economic sanction, quarantine, embargo and siege. So the fact that the Iranian revolution is still standing and is entirely uncorrupted, politically speaking, still holding to the principles that founded the revolution. Speaker 2 Gives you some idea of the adversary that Donald Trump has picked. Speaker 1 The adversary that he's chosen to fight. Israeli Pressure on Trump: No Enrichment, No Missile Program Now, if I may segue to the point you made in your introduction, that Benjamin Netanyahu is in town. But when? Speaker 2 Is he not in town? This is the seventh time that Netanyahu has visited Washington and Donald Trump's only been in for a year and two weeks now. I mean, that's a level of intimacy that would be troubling in any circumstances, but troubling more because it's self-evident that Netanyahu is not there to see what he can do to help the people of the United States. He's not there to help you with the infrastructural problems that are in abundance in your countries. He's not in the United States for any positive purpose, but merely to procure more money to hold out that begging bowl, but even worse, to seek the United States to agree to risk the lives of its men and women in these these battleship groups, these floating coffins that you call aircraft carriers. Not one, but now 2 giant floating coffins either in the area or sailing towards it. So in part, this is the Trump style of negotiation. You could call it The Sopranos, but it doesn't have the class of The Sopranos. It's it's a low level gangsterism of the kind that wouldn't look good even in a Hollywood movie. It is do what I tell you or I'll kill you. And I just think that they've chosen the wrong adversary on this occasion. It may be that Donald Trump has spent so much time with the neighbors of Iran that he thinks they're all cheap, cheap dates. He thinks they'll all fall into his deadly embrace at the whiff of Donald Trump perfume. But the Iranians are not like that. And if this war begins, it will be a long time before it ends. And it will not end without very severe losses on the Western Empire side. Speaker 1 Let me ask you about about Israeli demands. First of all, I want to preface it by saying that the CIA has written not one but two national intelligence estimates, the highest level sense of the intelligence community publication that exists in the US government. 2 National Intelligence estimates both concluding that the Iranian government has not and is not seeking a nuclear weapon #1 we have the the CIA saying this directly to the president. The Iranians do not have a nuclear weapons program. So now the demand is that the Iranians not enrich any uranium at all. And whatever uranium has been enriched has to be turned over to the United States. Now, that's changed from a year ago. A year ago it was, it had to be turned over to the United Arab Emirates or to the Saudis or who knows. The second demand is that the Israelis, I'm sorry, the second demand is that the Iranians forgo any missile program at all. I'm, I'm hard pressed to think of any other country on earth that has had this demand placed before it where it is not permitted to defend itself. Now I'm I'm thinking this is because the Israelis were surprised that the Iranians were able to defend themselves during the 12 day war, and indeed the conventional wisdom is that the Israelis used all of their own defensive missiles and have not yet had the chance to replace them. I'd love to hear your take on this. Are these are these points non starters? Well, don't forget, John, that Donald Trump already destroyed all of Iran's nuclear material in a Top Gun raid that he boasted about endlessly just in the last less than 12 months, 7-8 months. So how how then did Iran become again a nuclear threat? Now, you're right to say that the national intelligence findings that Iran does not have and does not seek a nuclear weapons option, more fool them, I say. The reason you and I are talking now about the imminent perhaps attack on Iran, but never have we discussed any imminent threat to attack North Korea, is because North Korea does have a nuclear weapon. The whole of that story is not hard to grasp. I mean, a schoolboy schoolgirl could conclude that the only way to stop the United States bullying you or invading and attacking you is to have a nuclear weapon. So more fool them for religious reasons, theological reasons, because nuclear weapons, weapons of mass destruction are weapons unlimited in space and time. The previous leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini, declared them UN Islamic. And that's a fatwa to which they hold. And despite my advice, they are definitely holding to it as your own national intelligence services have testified. So that's a a complete red herring. First of all, the nuclear material was destroyed last year, according to the president. Was he lying then or is he lying now? That's a question you'd need to ask him. But in any case, whatever enriched uranium they possess, they are not seeking to turn it into a nuclear weapon. And the IAEA, the referee that's supposed to judge these things, repeatedly reported that in the the previous P5 plus one nuclear agreement that President Obama concluded with the Iranians. So it's a big red herring. The second of the demands, as you rightly infer with the scepticism in your voice, is a demand that could not possibly be accepted by any country, that certainly any country that had enemies could not agree not to have any missile defences. This is a recipe for Iran being entirely at the mercy of Benjamin Netanyahu and not many people would agree to that proposition. Why Trump Might Avoid War: Iran's Allies and Family Business But there is 1/3 proposition which is equally unacceptable, a non starter if ever there was 1. The third demand is that Iran has to cut all its relations with friendly countries and friendly movements. In other words, it's got to tell the brave Yemenis, the only Arab country to stand up for the people in Gaza in the last couple of years at great cost to themselves. The only people in the world who actually acted on the decisions of the International Court of Justice to oppose and interdict the Commission and the carrying out of genocide by their economic sanctions. That's what they were. They said nobody will be allowed to sell across our waterways with material that could be used in a genocide. So they were the only country in the whole world that did that. So Iran has to cut relations with that has to cut. Speaker 2 Relations with Iraq. You and I both came in on this point, John, I warned Tony Blair. Speaker 1 And George W Bush. Speaker 2 The destruction of Arab power in Iraq could only lead to a massive enhancement of Persian power in Iraq. And so it came to pass. They did destroy the Arab power that was there. And the Iranians now have the closest possible relations with their neighbor in Iraq. And why shouldn't they? So according to the demands of Donald Trump, they should cease to have such relations with their neighbor Iraq. So there's three demands, none of which are negotiable. And if that's the sticking point, well, it's war. But one must assume that they don't really expect Iran to break relations with its allies. Iran is a massive soft power country. It has soft religious and soft national power right across the Muslim world. I mean, there are people in Pakistan right now, there are people in England right now that are praying for the for the safety of the Islamic Republic of Iran. They are. They are a global soft power which could turn into hard power if a shooting war begins. Of course, it's unlikely that the Yemenis will allow the United States to pulverize Iran without themselves intervening in the war. It's unlikely that the Iraqi militias will do so. It's unlikely that the Hezbollah, their other ally in South Lebanon, will do so. It's unlikely that their coreligionists everywhere in the world will sit on their hands whilst the United States warplanes and missiles rained down on Iran. So we must assume that saner voices than are evident in Donald Trump's hourly press briefings have told the president this, including in the Pentagon. Because everything that I know and you know, the Pentagon knows. Everything that I know and you know, the CIA knows so. One must assume that they haven't abrogated their responsibilities and have told the president this and here's a point you might find controversial. I don't think Donald Trump wants to go to war with Iran. I agree why Netanyahu is in the Oval Office right now because he knows that Donald Trump would prefer a negotiated outcome to. Speaker 1 This. Speaker 2 And for a reason, for all the reasons I've given. But for an additional reason. Trump and his family, his grasping in laws included, have real material interest in the Arab countries in the Persian Gulf, which will no longer exist as we know them if a war begins. All these countries that empty their gold and and diamonds and pearls and gifts of aircrafts and golden camels and all the rest, all these countries will will cease to exist as we know them if a war begins between the United States and these Arab countries in the Gulf are effectively a bank for the Trump family business. So that's an additional reason for not creating, when there is absolutely no need to, a shooting war, the consequences of which are incalculable and the end result of which is unfathomable. Speaker 1 I think you're 100% correct. Hypersonic Missiles and the Risks to US Aircraft Carriers And you know, one of the ironies in this whole thing too, is when the media speculate about what kind of of settlement we could possibly see were one to be negotiated, looks almost identical to the JCPOA that was, that was negotiated between the Obama administration and and the Iranian government. The the JCPOA was working in terms of, of keeping controls on the Iranian nuclear program. It's exactly the same settlement that was negotiated between the IAEA and the Iraqi government, the same kinds of seals, the same cameras that were that were mounted at the entrances to the to the different nuclear sites. It was exactly the same. And it was all verifiable and it was working. And then Donald Trump withdrew from it unilaterally and is trying to force the Iranians to go right back into it. But along with these other Israeli demands of no ballistic missile program, no uranium enrichment and the cut off of relations with Iran's closest friends in the region, I I also have to agree with you, George, that there's real danger here for Bahrain, for the United Arab Emirates, for Saudi Arabia, especially in the Eastern Province, which is where most of the oil is. This isn't going to be a country of 92 million people just just rolling over and accepting defeat, you know, without a shot being fired. And and one final point too, I don't know why the Western media are not talking about the fact that Iran has developed hypersonic missiles. the United States doesn't have hypersonic missiles. We're working on one, but we don't have any idea what a hypersonic missile might do to an aircraft carrier, for example. I have an idea even the even the Yemenis have hypersonic missile capability. It's extraordinary that the United States does not. But these hypersonic missiles are essentially undefendable. They can only be defended at disproportionate cost at the exhaustion of scarce anti missile weaponry and systems. So they are as George W Bush would put it, they are mis underestimating the Iranian military capability which has of course been greatly enhanced since the 12 day war of last year. First of all China and Russia have been shipping in like bilio big transporters with electronic warfare with anti aircraft capability. Iran is much stronger than it was in the 12 day war and Iran did not use its cutting edge missiles in the 12 day war, but we'll certainly use them in the in the next war if war there is. So there are multiple reasons for not beginning this war. I'm so old, I remember the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War cost the United States of America 58,000 of its soldiers and airmen. It cost the United States blood and treasure of unimaginable proportions. And it was begun by people who had no idea how it would end, when it would end, in what circumstances it would end. And we all know it ended with the scramble on the roof of the American Embassy in Saigon, as was with the helicopters lifting off with people hanging on to the legs of the chopper. And it ended in total ignominy and defeat for the United States. And I remember cheering it, if you'll forgive me saying so, with that, with great heartiness. But the consequences of a war on Iran are incalculable. I described your two aircraft carriers as floating coffins. They're floating coffins, by the way, without the use of hypersonic missiles. Irans, missile, drone, hypersonic capacities are being gravely underestimated and they're all dug very, very deep. No one will be able to pre emptively destroy them. So every way you dice it, John, it's really better not to do this. 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It explains what's happening behind the scenes and how physical assets like gold could help protect your savings from centralized control. Go to johnlovesgold.com to get your free copy, or call 888 Gold 053 to request one by mail. That's John Loves gold.com or 888 Gold 053. Underestimating Iran's Military After the '12 Day War' You know, I want to ask you too about lessons learned from the 12 Day War because I think that the United States has missed a lot of the lessons that should have been learned during the 12 Day War. You'll recall that Israel attacked Iran and the Iranians responded by sending a wave of drones. It was something like 600 drones. The Iranians warned the Israelis in advance that the drones were coming, but they had to save face because they had been attacked. Well, all of those drones were were shot out of the sky. But seven, that's very valuable intelligence that these slow moving drones that you have six hours advance notice are on their way over still penetrated that vaunted Iron Dome. And then we see reports that the Israelis used literally all of their surface to surface missiles, their surface to air missiles. They have to replenish them. It seems like it would be an incredibly stupid thing to do to launch another war because it's not going to turn out the way the last one did. And when you attack a a country of 92 million people, which has very strong allies, especially in Russia and China that can resupply their missiles, I just don't see the upside for the Israelis and especially for the Americans to want to go to war in the 1st place. Well, neither can I, but of course they, both Israel and the United States frequently act against their own interest. Indeed, the whole MAGA platform program idea concept has has MAGA as the last thing it is. It is not America first, it's Israel first. It's not MAGA, it's mega. I know these are cheap slogans, but they happen to be true, and therefore you cannot rule out the United States doing something extraordinarily stupid. Now they may imagine, I advise them to unimagine that, but they may imagine that they can fire some desultory broadside against Iran and then declare victory and then retire telling everyone again like they did before, that the top guns have done the job. But I think the Iranian warning should be taken seriously, that any attack on Iran will be treated as full scale war and with the response to the best maximum of their capabilities. I don't think the Iranians are bluffing over that. And I don't think the American allies hosting the US military bases in the Arab countries nearby, and maybe not so nearby because Iran has missiles that can travel many thousands of kilometres. A lot of American bases, a lot of American interests will be in the Direct Line of fire. And of course, you rightly pointed out something which I merely accentuate now that the Eastern province of Saudi Arabia is where all the oil is, but it's also where all the Shiites are. The Shiites being the core religionists of the Islamic Republic of Iran. So it's bad luck for the Americans that God put Saudi Arabia's oil underneath the land that is populated by by a Co religionists of the Islamic Republic of Iran. So you'll have Iraq, you'll have the eastern province of Saudi Arabia. You'll have Qatar, where the biggest American military base in the world is situated. You'll have the United Arab Emirates target, which is the subject of particular ire in Tehran. They feel particularly betrayed by the United Arab Emirates and its closeness to Israel, its constant intrigue with Israel and, and the extent I mean, one of the reasons why is the Iranians built Dubai and having built it, they may very well feel that they have the right to destroy it if if the UAE is as it clearly is, in league with the Americans in any, any new war. So as I say, given that all these countries are the source of much largest not just for the United States, but for the Trump family personally, for Kushner personally, it would be 1 hell of a risk. Speaker 2 To launch a war against Iran which might lead to the killing of the golden goose that lays so many golden eggs for Trump's own family? Yes, that would. Speaker 3 Be dangerous. The Illegality of Gaza Real Estate and Ethnic Cleansing I, I want to switch if we could, or shift, I should say, to the issue of, of Gaza and the Israeli occupation of, of Palestinian lands. We're seeing a resurgence here in the United States of, of what what are being euphemistically called real estate seminars. Now these are being held at at synagogues in New Jersey, New York, Toronto, advertising land that's available for purchase at very low, low prices in the West Bank and in Gaza. Of course, this is Palestinian land that is being stolen by the Israeli government and turned over to settler groups. And we we still see, like we have for years, Israeli settlers bulldozing Palestinian olive, olive trees, for example, setting fire to homes and building new settlements. And in the meantime, Benjamin Netanyahu seems to be getting away with this policy of not just allowing Palestinians to leave, but encouraging them to leave and not allowing them back in. Where do you? Speaker 3 Think this is going this. Speaker 1 Is the very definition of ethnic cleansing for sure. I wouldn't be investing if I were the people attending these seminars for multiple reasons. I'll leave aside the moral reasons because I know that most of these investors would not be interested in any moral argument that I have to make on it. But first of all, the Gaza Strip is Hiroshima. It's actually Hiroshima times 5. It is entirely toxic and contaminated land as a result of five Hiroshimas worth of high explosive and of course, the consequent death of hundreds of thousands of people, many of them unburied, many of them having seeped not to put too fine a point on it, into the water table, into the soil. It will never be glad confident morning in the Gaza Strip, even if you buy a condominium built on the skulls of Palestinian children. And even if that does not haunt you, and I hope it does, you may very well find that it's not the healthiest place to live. 2nd, the Palestinian resistance hasn't gone away, you know, And a Trump Tower or a casino or a bordello or a condominium is going to be prime targets forevermore for Palestinian resistance groups who will be the grandsons of the martyrs who were slain in the conflict that we saw since October 7th. Thirdly, and I hesitate almost to make this point because international law seems to have gone out of fashion, but it would be flatly illegal to buy land from people. Indeed whose property it does not, it is not. And of course, whose property it is has already just last year been reemphasized by the highest court in the world, the International Court of Justice, which has again declared, reaffirmed, that this is Palestinian land. It is occupied territory under international law. Now that might mean nothing to Netanyahu, clearly means nothing to Donald Trump, but it might not mean nothing to a judge somewhere who is called upon to adjudicate a land dispute between someone that says that condominiums built on my land and I never agreed to sell it. It might be a problem for governments, including my own, which have already recognized a Palestinian state based on the borders agreed in the Oslo agreement. Now, those borders include the entirety of the Gaza Strip. So how do you buy a piece of land, and from whom do you buy it? And there's an additional piquan, say, here. Speaker 2 Netanyahu. Speaker 3 Said just the. Speaker 1 Other day that Israel fully intends to take full control of all of the Gaza Strip, but Donald Trump says he already owns it. His board of peace already owns it. Now that's a therefore a double land dispute. Speaker 2 Netanyahu thinks it belongs to him. Donald Trump thinks it belongs to him. But international law says it belongs to the Palestinian people as part of what has now been illegally occupied territory since 1967. It's a very, very long time, but it doesn't cease to be. Speaker 1 Occupied territory just because the thief has managed to hold onto it. Speaker 2 For a very long time, folks, before we move on. Medical Freedom and Preparedness with All Family Pharmacy To our next question, I want to bring you another word from our other sponsor. I want to talk to you about something that's important to me and that's medical freedom and being able to make your own healthcare decisions. That's why I'm proud to partner with All Family Pharmacy. They're AUS based licensed compounding pharmacy that works with licensed providers to give people access to medications like ivermectin and mebendazole and they ship directly to your door. Let's be honest, when flu season hits or when the system gets overwhelmed, the last thing you want is to be scrambling, dealing with delays, or being told that you can't get what you and your family might need. Being prepared is not political, it's just smart. I like all family pharmacy because they believe, as I do, that patients should have options. They should have privacy and the right to be proactive about their health. You don't wait until your house is on fire to buy a fire extinguisher. What's the same idea here? So take control and get prepared today. Go to allfamilypharmacy.com/john and use my code John 10 to get 10% off your order. That's all Family pharmacy.com/john and the promo code is JOH N10 George. Why the Palestinian Cause Will Never Die Despite Policies Is there any? Reason at all to be optimistic about any facet of what's happening in the Palestinian territories. Just yesterday, day before yesterday, Minister Smotrich, the Minister of Finance, who's also the national security Minister of the the West Bank or whatever his silly title is, said that the. Speaker 3 That the Israeli. Speaker 1 Government's policy would be to expel all Palestinians, all of them, and they've made no attempt to hide the fact that that's the policy. But we have Oslo on the books. We have countless United Nations Security Council resolutions and General Assembly declarations. Is there any reason to be optimistic? Well. Speaker 3 I wish I could say yes. Speaker 1 But I have to say no, I have been involved in this Palestinian issue for 50 years, 50 years, and we're in a worse position now than we were 50 years ago on multiple levels. There are some levels on which we're better off. The height of support for the Palestinian cause in Western countries, agreed, is of course exponentially greater now than it was 50 years ago. But the Arab, the Arab side of the equation is immeasurably weaker than it was 50 years ago. So on most levels we are worse off than we were when the Palestinians had a PLO, which was the, if you like, holding group for all Palestinian resistance factions when the Palestinian cause was situated within the. Speaker 4 Broader. Speaker 1 Progressive movement when there were socialist countries that would support it diplomatically and in other ways. The Palestinian under Arafat with the PLO were far stronger than they are now with this 93 year old joker. I always say 16 years into a four year term. When I first knew Mahmoud Abbas, he was an old man and that was 40 years ago. He looked and sounded and acted like an old man when I first met him 40 years ago, and he's still acting at least as the Palestinian president. But I, I shouldn't be too rude. I'm often, I'm often chastised for that. But I'm trying to make the point that my friend Yasser Arafat was in a much stronger position even though the Palestinians were not on the land. The liberation movement was not present on the land. They had no kind of government on the land. But what has been gained by having Abu Mazen's government on the land? What has been gained by having his goons using their weapons on the Palestinian resistance in the West Bank, acting as the security force of Netanyahu's Israel? Well, not very much has been gained by that. The only thing that I could say to cheer you up is that the Palestinian cause will never die, Arafat used to say. In fact he said it 1000 times to me, even though every time I chastised him that it was not very politically correct. Arafat used to say we are not the Red Indians, we are not going into the museum. We we will not be an object of the people's fascination inside a glass case. I used to tell him we don't say Red Indians anymore German, but it the next time he still repeated the offence. But the but the point that he was making is true. Speaker 2 The Palestinians will never surrender, and I mean never surrender. I mean the grandsons and the great grandsons of the people who fell. Speaker 1 In Gaza over the last couple of years, they will still be fighting for their rights. The I tell you a story. I was on a speaking. Speaker 2 Tour of Canada. I was in the Arctic Circle in Yellowknife. In the Arctic Circle it was 47° below. I went out onto the Great Slave Lake where someone had drilled in the ice a nice fishing hole for me to try my hand, and as I approached the young woman who was doing the drilling in the Arctic Circle in Yellowknife, Canada, I saw that she was an Arab. I said to her, where are you from? She said I am from Haifa. No, she wasn't from Haifa. Even her parents had never seen Haifa. Her grandparents had been expelled from Haifa. But that girl and her children and her grandchildren will still be from Haifa. This is a 'cause that will never die. And so the apartheid state, the settler state, the ideology that stole the land will never have a moment's peace. They will never be able to relax and think that they have gotten away with this gigantic crime and now neither will their their descendants George. Peter Mandelson, Keir Starmer, and the Epstein Scandal If you don't mind. Speaker 1 I want to switch over to something that has become an important domestic political issue here in the United States, and that is the the release of at least half of the Jeffrey Epstein files. There are no good guys in this in this situation. The Democrats and Republicans are equally guilty of either committing crimes against children or covering up crimes against children or pretending to normalize crimes against children. But one of the one of the areas of fallout that that we're seeing is, is really the the implosion of Peter Mendelsohn, the the former British ambassador to the United States, former senior Labour Party leader. There's been some coverage in the UK press highlighting the fact that there are Labour Party backbenchers who are questioning the judgement of Keir Starmer. You knew what kind of person they're saying Mendelsohn was. He's a crook, He's always been a crook, and now he's a pedophile and a crook. So the buck has to stop somewhere, as we say here in the United States. Do you think this is the beginning of the end for Keir Starmer as the as the head of the Labour Party? And what kind of broader fallout might this have in British politics? Speaker 3 Well, he he might be. Speaker 1 Gone by the end of the evening, but didn't even last as long as the head of cabbage. Yes, but I'll come back to that. Far be it from me to correct a master as such as yourself. But in fact, it was 2,700,000 pages that were released, not the 3,000,000, not 3,000,000 that they said they were releasing. So there's a missing 300,000 there and it definitely wasn't the 6,000,000 pages that they earlier told us existed. So we're missing 3,300,000 pages. And if they are anything like the the 2,700,000, then crowned heads and prime ministers and and oligarchs of all kinds, in business, in in media and in diplomacy, the Royal Courts of Scandinavia and so on, God knows who will be the next casualty. But to deal precisely with your question, Keir Starmer was in a whole lot of trouble before the Mandelson scandal. His premiership has resulted in a an approval rating amongst the general public of precisely 10.5% and another .6 of a percent and he's in single figures. There have never been statistics like this in the whole history of polling. He is the most hated Prime Minister of my lifetime and probably since democracy, if we can call it that, was introduced in our country. He is reviled not just because he is singularly incompetent, but because he lacks even the basics of political leadership. I mean, as you know, I I hated Tony Blair. He expelled me from the Labour Party after 36 years of membership because of my role opposing the Iraq war. But I would be the. Speaker 2 1st to concede that. Speaker 1 Tony Blair was pretty good at what he did. He looked and sounded and acted the part of a British Prime Minister. He had some finesse. He had some Felicity or verbal Felicity, physical Felicity. Starmer is a block of wood, and he started off as a block of wood, and it's gotten worse and worse and worse. The wood worm is well and truly eating him up from the inside. Then comes along this grotesque error of judgment which he now claims he stumbled into, Didn't know then what he knows now, and these are all lies. All he had to do was read my social media and I know that he does or people do on his behalf. I've been exposing Peter Mandelson's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein 4 years before Starmer gave him the plum post as ambassador to Washington. So he really has no excuse and the British people know he has no excuse. And believe it or not, you know you wait a long time for a London bus and then two come along at once. Well, only a day later, another paedophile Lord. Speaker 2 Was unmasked by the media Who? Speaker 1 Are in full full throated pursuit now. A bit too late, but they are. It turns out that man that Starmer appointed another guy as a member of the House of Lords. For your American viewers, that means a member of the legislature for life. And A and a red and white ermine coat to go with it, to look grand and medieval when you're doing it. He appointed him as a peer, knowing, as he has now acknowledged, knowing that this guy was intimately linked to a multiple child sex offender. So. Speaker 2 I mean, Starmer had not much to commend him, but he's now on such a run of bad luck that, as I say, he'll be lucky to last the evening. As a former British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan once said, it's not this damn thing. It's not one damn thing. It's one damn thing after another. And that's the grip that Keir Starmer is now in. George Galloway Detained Under British Counter-Terror Laws And I want to. Speaker 4 Ask you, George, about. Speaker 1 Your own situation, my my good friend Ambassador Craig Murray has had problem. Speaker 3 After problem. Speaker 1 After problem just entering and exiting his own country because he has had the unmitigated gall to stand up for Julian Assange, for WikiLeaks, for the Palestinians. Now you're facing the same challenges that he's facing. Tell us about what's happening with you and and the and the things that you've had to do to protect yourself. Speaker 3 Well, he's even. Speaker 1 Higher ranking than me. An ambassador is the equivalent of a cabinet minister. That's why you call them Excellency. I still call Craig Your Excellency in. In British constitutional terms, an ambassador is the equivalent of a member of the cabinet. And yet that Ambassador Craig Murray was arrested under the terrorism legislation and his devices confiscated and told that he was under investigation for terrorism. Now I was a mere humble member of Parliament, but I was elected 7 times. I was a Member of Parliament across 5 decades from the 1980s, nineteen 87 until just over a year ago. Seven times elected Member of Parliament, if I may say so, one of the better known people in the country with a big audience, The leader of a political party which obtained 1/4 of a million votes in just a few constituencies that we contested. I, as I say, swore allegiance against my better judgement to Her Majesty the Queen, to His Majesty King Charles as recently as as 2024. So for me to be arrested at gunpoint by anti. Speaker 2 Terror police told that I was not under arrest but I was not free to leave, that I had no right to silence. If I refuse to answer any question, I would automatically imagine that automatically be guilty of a terrorist offence and. Speaker 1 Would. Speaker 2 Never fly on an airplane again. Try getting on an aircraft with a conviction for terrorism, the policeman said. And unknown to me, my good. Speaker 1 Wife was held for even longer than. Speaker 2 Me in an adjacent room without any. Speaker 1 Knowledge on my part that she also had been taken and we were grilled on in her. Speaker 2 Case her Palestinian fingernail. She has a fingernail painted in the Palestinian colours on her. Speaker 1 Islam. How faithful to Islam was she? What practice? What? What? Speaker 2 Tendency in Islam. Did she support? She's not even a British citizen by the way, she's an Indonesian national, had no intention of ever becoming a British citizen. And I told the police, you have now made it impossible for me to live in this country because my wife will not remain in Britain, having been held at gunpoint by cops under the terrorism laws. That's just not something she'll be prepared to do. And so it has turned out I was grilled on 30% of the questions were on China. Why do I have relations with China? What are those relations? What exactly are? Speaker 1 My attitudes. Speaker 2 To this or that issue between Britain and the People's Republic of China. They grilled me about Chinese spying in the Houses of Parliament, about the intentions for the Chinese embassy in London. Speaker 1 And so I. Speaker 2 Mean 30% of the questions were about China and what did I find when I was in Shanghai Just last week I found Keir Starmer whose police officers they were following me around in Shanghai begging the Chinese leadership for a strategic partnership. Whilst for the policeman in October China was a danger to Britains national security, last week Keir Starmer and I were both in Shanghai and he also in Beijing meeting the Chinese president begging for some crumbs off the Chinese table. 70% of the questions were about Russia. I'll give you a laugh at one point, the police officer. This is the political police, by the way, not just a Bobby off the street. Speaker 3 He said to me, why do you admire? Speaker 2 The Russian foreign Minister Lavrov, why have you said repeatedly that you admire him? My answer was everybody admires Lavrov. Every ambassador in the world regards him as a master of his craft. When did you last? Speaker 4 Meet. Speaker 2 Lavrov, they asked me only a couple of months ago, I said. I shared a platform with him and the cop actually said to me on camera what a railway platform. Speaker 3 I didn't know whether to laugh or. Speaker 2 Cry. This is the calibre of the political police sent to grill me a 7 times member of Parliament. So after I laughed, I said no. A stage, a platform, an event, He thought. I meant a railway platform. Oh my God, he was serious. Speaker 1 George, he was totally serious. I thought he was just taking a swipe at you. Serious. These people are not James Bond. Speaker 2 Oh, this is they're Austin Powers or Mr. Bean, and they are have the gall to question me, a figure in the land, to send a policeman of that calibre. With his gun on. Speaker 1 Show throughout to ask me. Speaker 2 Questions about China and Russia and if I didn't answer? Speaker 1 Them I'd be automatically guilty of a terrorist offence. George Galloway Declares Exile, Praises Sergey Lavrov So to answer your question, John, we have declared ourselves in exile. You, you might say, if you were being humorous, I'm the British government in exile in China and elsewhere, and I intend to stay out of Britain until I have an assurance from the British government that no such indignity will happen to me again. I don't think my wife will go back to Britain in any circumstances, but for me to go back I would need that assurance. I'm certainly not at the age of 71, going to be held at gunpoint by a policeman that thinks meeting Lavrov on a platform was a chance encounter in a Moscow railway station. I, I will add, before I let you go, I was stationed at the United Nations when Sergey Lavrov was the Russian ambassador to the United Nations and literally everybody respected him. He's one of the he is one of the most accomplished diplomats anywhere on the planet. I've never met any anybody that didn't have respect for Sergey Lavrov. Exactly. I wish I'd said that. Yes, that's what I'll tell. Speaker 3 Them when they stop. Speaker 1 Me next time in London. Oh, yeah, Yeah. George, I am proud to call you a friend. George Galloway is a British politician, A broadcaster, a writer, a legendary freedom fighter. He's been a member of Parliament covering 5 different constituencies over the course of more than 27 years. Glad to have him. George, thanks so much for joining us. Welcome. Speaker 3 An honor to be on. Speaker 1 The John Kiriakou Show the The honor is Mine. Thank you.