Author: Aaron Maté

From The Grayzone:

Ian Henderson, a veteran OPCW inspector who challenged a cover-up of his organization’s investigation of an alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria, recently testified before the United Nations Security Council. At the meeting, Henderson was both attacked and ignored by U.S., UK, and French diplomats whose governments bombed Syria over allegations that Henderson’s censored investigation undermined.

At another UNSC gathering one week later, the U.S. and its allies continued their censorship campaign by voting to block the testimony of the OPCW’s former chief, José Bustani, who had come to speak out in support of the whistleblowers.

Pushback host Aaron Maté recaps the extraordinary events with excerpts of Henderson and Bustani’s comments, as well as those of the Western ambassadors who tried to silence them.

Read/watch José Bustani’s full statement for the UN Security Council

Aaron Maté’s UNSC remarks

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At an Arria-Formula Meeting of the United Nations Security Council, Aaron Maté of The Grayzone delivers remarks on the OPCW’s ongoing Syria scandal.

Veteran OPCW inspectors who investigated an alleged chemical attack in Douma, Syria in April 2018 say that their probe was censored and manipulated. Under direct US government pressure, the OPCW concealed evidence that pointed to the incident being staged on the ground, and instead released a report that suggested Syrian government culpability. The allegation against Syria led to the bombing of Syria by the US, France, and UK just days after the alleged Douma incident.

In his remarks, Maté calls this “one of the most important, and overlooked, global stories in recent memory” and urges the UN and OPCW to let the OPCW inspectors air their concerns, and present the evidence that was suppressed.

Pushback with Aaron Maté:

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell, discusses the connections between the global US empire and the record US death toll during the coronavirus pandemic. “We’re really not doing anything very well or right, and that’s a consequence in part at least of our fascination with an attempt to maintain and even expand this empire that we’ve created since 1945,” Wilkerson says. He also discusses the breakdown of US-Russia talks on expanding a key nuclear weapons treaty, and new revelations about the Bush administration’s drive to invade Iraq.

From The Grayzone

The report claims the UK government didn’t find evidence because it didn’t look for it, and backs increased powers for intelligence agencies and media censorship as a result. Afshin Rattansi, a British journalist and host of RT’s Going Underground, responds.

The British government has released a long-awaited report on whether Russia has interfered in UK domestic politics. For years, establishment Western voices warned that Russia may have duped British voters into supporting Brexit in 2016 – just like Russia, we were told, also decided the US election that same year.

In November 2017, the New York Times even warned that reports of Russian meddling “could raise questions about the legitimacy of the [Brexit] referendum” itself. That same month, then-British Prime Minister Theresa May issued a stern warning to the Kremlin.

Continue reading “UK ‘Russia Report’ Fear-Mongers About Meddling Yet Finds No Evidence”