Two US veterans, Matthew Hoh and Daniel Sjursen, explain how the war in Afghanistan was lost, Afghans suffered, and military contractors profited -- all while the American public was kept in the dark. Guests: Danny Sjursen. Retired US Army officer, senior fellow at the Center for International Policy. He served combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and later taught history at West Point. His latest book is "A True History of the United States." Matthew Hoh. Former Marine and State Department offi...
Aug 22, 2021•56 min
Cuba's anti-imperial foreign policy helped end apartheid in South Africa and sustain liberation movements worldwide. Historian Piero Gleijeses says that's one of the main reasons why the US has terrorized the island nation through today. "There are very few examples [in history] of the idealism demonstrated by the Cuban government in its foreign policy in Africa," Gleijeses says. Guest: Piero Gleijeses. Professor at Johns Hopkins University. Author of "Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, a...
Aug 02, 2021•43 min
Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate A new open-source study concludes that Syrian insurgents carried out the Ghouta sarin chemical attack in August 2013 -- not the Syrian government, as the White House, U.S. intelligence, and other Western sources publicly alleged. Rockets carrying sarin killed hundreds of people and left thousands wounded. Based on their trajectories, the study traces all seven missile impact locations back to the most likely launch spot where they al...
Jul 26, 2021•1 hr 9 min
Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate A growing number of suspects in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse have US ties. At least one is a former DEA informant and several have received U.S. military training. Scholar Jemima Pierre of The Black Alliance for Peace discusses the unfolding mystery surrounding Moïse's killing and the context of longtime US, foreign intervention in Haiti. Guest: Jemima Pierre. Haiti/Americas Coordinator for The Black Alliance ...
Jul 16, 2021•47 min
Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate The US government is continuing to seek the extradition of Julian Assange even though a critical witness in its indictment has admitted to fabricating key claims. Bjartmar Alexandersson, the Icelandic journalist who broke this story, discusses the explosive confession of US witness Sigurdur "Siggi" Thordarson. Guest: Bjartmar Alexandersson. Journalist with Icelandic newspaper Stundin.
Jul 09, 2021•21 min
Facing growing outcry, OPCW Director General Fernando Arias went before the United Nations Security Council and told new falsehoods about his organization’s Syria cover-up scandal — along with more disingenuous excuses to avoid addressing it. Scholar and researcher Piers Robinson joins Aaron Maté to debunk Arias' latest evasions and distortions. Guest: Dr. Piers Robinson. Co-Director of the Organisation for Propaganda Studies, and convenor of the Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media.
Jul 05, 2021•1 hr 3 min
As Vice-President in 2014, Joe Biden backed the Maidan coup in Ukraine that set off an ongoing proxy war with Russian-backed forces in the Donbass region. Now as President, Biden met with Vladimir Putin at the Geneva summit to discuss key flashpoints, including Ukraine. Is Biden ready to make peace? Guest: Nicolai N. Petro. Professor of politics at the University of Rhode Island and editor of "Ukraine in Crisis."
Jun 20, 2021•33 min
At the Geneva summit, President Biden of the US and President Putin of Russia announced the restoration of their ambassadors and agreed to new talks on vital issues. Meanwhile in Washington and major US media outlets, Russiagate-addled hawks promoted increased confrontation. James Carden analyzes the talks and the bellicose US media response. "US media outlets seem to be egging biden on to take a harder line than than the President wanted to," Carden says. "It's a product of the last several yea...
Jun 19, 2021•25 min
In the last year, US government, intelligence, and Congressional bodies have accused former Paul Manafort aide Konstantin Kilimnik of being a "Russian intelligence officer" or "Russian influence agent" who passed secret Trump campaign polling data to Russia in 2016. The FBI has even issued a $250,000 reward for Kilimnik's arrest on a lowly witness tampering charge -- more than double the amount for six murderers on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list. In exclusive audio excerpts, Konstantin Kilimnik ...
May 30, 2021•48 min
Rather than pay up for a multi-billion dollar environmental damage ruling in Ecuador, the oil giant Chevron is persecuting one of the attorneys who defeated it in court. Steven Donziger has been subjected to nearly two years of house arrest in a Kafkaesque prosecution engineered by one of the world's top oil giants. Guest: Steven Donziger, human rights attorney now facing persecution after helping to win a landmark legal judgment against Chevron in Ecuador.
May 26, 2021•23 min
Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate Author and scholar Norman Finkelstein discusses the global outrage at Israel's murderous assault on Gaza and how Palestinian resistance and solidarity, after a dormant period, has been revived. (This interview was recorded before the Hamas-Israel ceasefire took effect.) Guest: Norman Finkelstein. Author and scholar whose books include "Gaza: an Inquest into its Martyrdom."
May 22, 2021•45 min
Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate Speaking from Gaza City, Hamas official and former Gaza Health Minister Basem Naim discusses the civilian toll of Israel's assault on Gaza and its damage to the besieged territory's medical system. Naim also addresses the Biden administration's support for Israel's assault; the world's indifference to non-violent Palestinian resistance; and Hamas' proposed terms for a ceasefire. Guest: Dr. Basem Naim. Hamas official who heads of the ...
May 18, 2021•32 min
Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate Full interview with Glenn Greenwald on the collapse of the "Russian bounties" story and the revival of the Trump-Russia conspiracy theory; his new book "Securing Democracy: My Fight for Press Freedom and Justice in Bolsonaro's Brazil"; and the decline of left media in the Russiagate era, where bastions of dissent have gone from challenging the national security state to promoting it. Guest: Glenn Greenwald. Journalist whose latest bo...
May 03, 2021•1 hr 15 min
Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate On the same day that the claim of "Russian bounties" in Afghanistan collapsed, another US intelligence-sourced, evidence-free claim was treated as vindication for conspiracy theories about Trump-Russia collusion. Glenn Greenwald and Aaron Maté discuss the predictable demise of the "Russian bounties"; the Biden administration's new evidence-free assertion that Paul Manafort associate Konstantin Kilimnik passed Trump campaign polling d...
Apr 30, 2021•35 min
Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate As Vice-President, Joe Biden pledged that all US troops would be out of Afghanistan by 2014. Seven years later, is President Biden's new withdrawal pledge any different? Scott Horton, editorial director of Antiwar.com and author of "Enough Already", discusses how the US has previously extended the war in Afghanistan and how it might continue it in new forms. Guest: Scott Horton. Director of the Libertarian Institute; Editorial Direct...
Apr 28, 2021•38 min
Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate Facing new outcry over the Syria cover-up scandal, OPCW chief Fernando Arias has been caught lying, while the US-UK-France are desperately trying to change the subject. Aaron Maté recaps recent meetings at the European Parliament and United Nations where the growing Douma controversy was center stage. The US-UK-France bombed Syria in April 2018 after accusing it of a chemical weapons attack in the city of Douma. Leaks later revealed ...
Apr 24, 2021•1 hr 7 min
Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate In remarks to the United Nations Security Council, two veteran, retired diplomats -- Hans von Sponeck of Germany and Lawrence Wilkerson of the US -- confront the OPCW and powerful state backers about the OPCW's Syria cover-up scandal. Hans Von Sponeck is the former UN Assistant Secretary-General and UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq. He spent 32 years as a UN official, from 1958 to 2000, when he resigned in protest of the US-led s...
Apr 19, 2021•33 min
Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate [Note to listeners: this is audio of a visual presentation to the UN. To watch the video, go to: https://bit.ly/2Q6chHs] Speaking to the United Nations Security Council, Aaron Maté of The Grayzone takes apart the OPCW's excuses for refusing to address the organization's Syria cover-up scandal. OPCW inspectors found no evidence to support allegations of a Syrian government chemical weapons attack in the city of Douma in April 2018. B...
Apr 18, 2021•28 min
Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate Amid a public relations campaign to rehabilitate the Al Qaeda franchise in Syria -- which rules Idlib, Syria's last militant-controlled province – former top US diplomat James Jeffrey has called the group a US "asset." Lindsey Snell, an independent journalist who escaped captivity by Al Qaeda in Syria, responds. Guest: Lindsey Snell, independent journalist covering the Middle East and North Africa. In 2016, she was kidnapped by the A...
Apr 11, 2021•33 min
Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate In its opening months, the Biden administration has targeted Russia and China with belligerent rhetoric, new sanctions, and continued military provocations. Lyle Goldstein of the US Naval War College discusses how the US is inflaming the key flashpoints of Taiwan, Xinjiang, the South China Sea, Ukraine, and nuclear weapons, and how Russia and China are deepening cooperation in response. Guest: Lyle Goldstein, research professor and f...
Mar 31, 2021•40 min
Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate Noam Chomsky weighs in on the Putin-Biden row; new US claims of "Russian interference"; the "savagery" of US sanctions on Cuba, Iran, Syria, Venezuela and other nations; US pressure on Brazil to reject Russia's COVID-19 vaccine and on Panama to reject Cuban doctors; and more. Chomsky's latest book is "Chomsky for Activists." Guest: Noam Chomsky, renowned linguist, author and political dissident. His latest book is "Chomsky for Activ...
Mar 24, 2021•45 min
Robert Ford served as US Ambassador to Syria from 2011 to 2014. On the tenth anniversary of the Syrian war, Ford speaks to Aaron Maté about the roots of the conflict; the US role; the current US sanctions that target Syria’s reconstruction; chemical weapons allegations against the Syrian government; and why he now supports the withdrawal of US forces. Guest: Robert Ford, retired US diplomat who served as US Ambassador to Syria from 2011 to 2014. Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.c...
Mar 20, 2021•55 min
Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate Five former officials from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons have joined a group of prominent signatories to urge the OPCW to address the controversy surrounding its investigation of an alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma, Syria in April 2018. Leaks from inside the OPCW show that key scientific findings that cast doubt on claims of Syrian government guilt were censored, and that the original investigators ...
Mar 14, 2021•25 min
While Joe Biden has faced some mild Congressional pushback for bombing the Iraq-Syria border, Tulsi Gabbard says her former colleagues are ignoring the larger issue: the ongoing US dirty war on Syria. After a decade of proxy warfare that empowered Al Qaeda and ISIS, the US is now occupying one-third of Syria and imposing crippling sanctions that are crushing Syria's economy and preventing reconstruction. While Gabbard has been vilified for her stance on Syria, many top White House officials -- i...
Mar 05, 2021•23 min
Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate Anne Sacoolas, a State Department official who fled the UK after killing British teen Harry Dunn in a car crash, is actually a US intelligence officer. An attorney for Sacoolas made the explosive admission to a Virginia court, where Dunn's family has brought a wrongful death lawsuit. Radd Seiger, a spokesperson for the Dunn family, says that the revelation that Sacoolas is a spy raises new doubts about the US government's claim that ...
Mar 01, 2021•22 min
Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate After The Grayzone's Max Blumenthal reported on newly leaked documents exposing a massive UK government propaganda campaign against Russia, Twitter added an unprecedented warning label that the material "may have been obtained through hacking." Although Twitter may have intended to restrict the article, the warning had the opposite effect: it quickly went viral. Max Blumenthal and Aaron Maté discuss the suppression effort and the da...
Feb 25, 2021•1 hr 5 min
Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate As a senior House Intel investigator and Trump administration official, Kash Patel helped unearth critical misconduct by the intelligence officials who carried out the Trump-Russia probe. In his first extended interview since leaving government, Patel tells Aaron Maté that still-classified documents expose more malpractice, as well as major evidentiary holes in the pivotal -- and largely unquestioned -- claims of a sweeping Russian i...
Feb 23, 2021•40 min
Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate Haitian president Jovenel Moïse has cracked down on a wave of popular protest as he tries to cling to power. While tens of thousands of Haitians have taken to the streets in the face of government repression, the Biden administration is backing Moïse's effort to remain in office for at least another year. Haitian activist and radio host Dahoud Andre discusses the background to Moïse's power grab; the continued US deportations to Hait...
Feb 18, 2021•46 min
Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate In a landmark ruling, the International Criminal Court has ruled that it has jurisdiction to investigate Israel for war crimes in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. However, scholar and author Norman Finkelstein warns that the ICC decision, while historic, is unlikely to deliver justice. According to Finkelstein, the Palestinian Authority's capitulation in the Oslo accords gives Israel room to flout the court's jurisdiction. Mean...
Feb 14, 2021•57 min
Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate The imprisoned Russian anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny has been held up in the West as the poster child of the Russian opposition. Two Russian leftists, Katya Kazbek and Alexey Sakhnin discuss why they don't see Navalny as a genuine alternative to Vladimir Putin, and instead as a representative of a different faction of the ruling Russian elite -- one more willing to cater to Western counterparts. Guests: Katya Kazbek. Write...
Feb 10, 2021•56 min
