The BBC reported this yesterday based on chat logs from Andrew Tate’s online space called the “War Room.” It cost $8,000 a year to join the War Room and according to Andrew Tate it was a space intended to “self-discipline, motivation and confidence building.” But the BBC review of the chat logs suggest it was just a place to teach men how to groom women into sex work.

Members are instructed by some of the War Room leadership – known as “generals” – to romantically seduce, emotionally manipulate and socially isolate women before luring them into performing on webcams – often taking all or most of the money they make…

It wasn’t all just manipulation. Violence was also condoned. One member who went by the alias Joe Lampton described what he did when one of his cam girls complained: “I took her keyboard and hit her in the head with it. She went into the room and worked 7 hours without any break.” The BBC was able to track down some of the women mentioned in the chat logs:

The BBC spoke to two women who said they were exploited by War Room members. Although they live thousands of miles apart, their stories indicate the men were following the same tactics.

Both women said they initially believed they were in a romantic relationship with these men – who then began gradually manipulating them into sex work, a strategy known as the “loverboy method”…

The women also say they were subjected to violence, isolated from friends and forced to perform menial tasks to demonstrate their subservience.

They also identified a woman on the west coast of the US who says she turned over 80% of what she earned to two of Tate’s “generals.” She said she was slapped in the face by one of them and provided photos of her bruises.

According to the leaked chats, War Room members appear to believe they are performing “Pavlovian conditioning” on women – “this is how you train dogs”, one leaked message reads. Instructions are typically provided by “generals”.

One surprising thing in the BBC report is that while the Tate brothers owned and operated the War Room, there was a person who went by the alias Iggy Semmelweiss who really seemed to be running things day to day. His real name is Miles Sonkin and he lives in LA.

“Iggy’s” real name is Miles Sonkin. Born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1961, he is a former member of at least two alleged cults, he developed an interest in the far right in the 2000s and appears to have met Andrew Tate around 2018.

Here’s a bit of the BBC special describing who Sonkin is and what he’s been teaching on Tate’s site:

Miles Sonkin is @Iggy_semmelweis: @Matt_A_Shea reveals the wizard pic.twitter.com/l0MiVMT3ga

— tateisguiltynew (@tateisguiltynew) August 31, 2023

There’s an image in the story showing some more of Sonkin’s wisdom directly from the War Room chat logs. This is grooming bordering on cultic behavior.

I don’t think any of this will get through to Tate’s fans who just want to see him blow cigar smoke in slow motion in one of his endless self-promotional videos, but for anyone who isn’t already a member of the cult it’s pretty clear what type of operation he’s been running. No one who has even a modicum of respect for women would train other men to treat them this way.