Pushback with Aaron Mate

Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate As Donald Trump faces an impeachment trial for allegedly inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, critical questions remain over how the sprawling US national security state failed to stop it. Newsweek reporter William Arkin discuses the lingering issues surrounding one of the biggest domestic intelligence and security failures in US history. Guest: William Arkin. Award-winning reporter for Newsweek and author of a dozen books on national security policy. Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/2021/01/08/exclusive-how-officials-fear-donald-trump-paralyzed-intelligence-agencies-led-capitol-riot-1563221.html

Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate In his first major foreign policy move, President Biden has committed to renewing the New START treaty, which imposes the last remaining limits on the US-Russian nuclear weapons arsenals. The treaty was just days away from expiring -- and possibly setting off a new arms race -- after the Trump administration refused to renew it, and stalled negotiations. While saying that it will renew New START, the Biden White House also announced that it will conduct an intelligence assessment of various allegations against Russia -- including the SolarWinds hack, the poisoning of Alexei Navalny, and the debunked "Russian Bounties" in Afghanistan -- and respond with punitive measures if necessary. That pledge signals that despite Biden's nuclear diplomacy with Russia, more conflict could be ahead. Guest: William Arkin. Award-winning reporter for Newsweek and author of a dozen books on national security policy.

Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate Rather than prioritize accountability for US intelligence officials' failure to prevent the pro-Trump mob attack on the Capitol, the incident is instead being used to expand the national security state's powers. Max Blumenthal, who witnessed the Capitol mob and reported on a key participant, discusses his coverage of the attack and the dangers of a militarized, myopic response. Guest: Max Blumenthal, editor of The Grayzone and author of several books including his latest, "The Management of Savagery."

Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate Crippling US sanctions imposed under the Caesar Act are decimating war-ravaged Syrian civilians, are illegal, and should be lifted, the UN Special Rapporteur on sanctions says. An independent United Nations expert is calling on the US to lift its crippling sanctions on Syria. Under the Caesar Act, US sanctions explicitly target Syria’s reconstruction in the aftermath of a catastrophic 10-year war. Alena Douhan, the UN Special Rapporteur on the impact of sanctions, says that the US sanctions are illegal and depriving Syrian civilians of their basic needs. “People shouldn’t die, people shouldn’t suffer, and people shouldn’t fear whether they can survive after tomorrow, because they have neither medicine or food, because of the sanctions applied,” Douhan says. Guest: Alena F. Douhan, UN Special Rapporteur on sanctions, and a professor at Belarusian State University. Video/transcript: https://thegrayzone.com/2021/01/14/un-expert-crippling-us-sanctions-on-syria-are-illegal-and-hurting-civilians/

Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate A UK judge has rejected a US attempt to extradite Julian Assange, citing the Wikileaks' founder's risk of suicide and the poor conditions of US prisons. But Judge Vanessa Baraitser accepted the basis for the US government's espionage case against Assange and ruled against releasing him on bail. Nils Melzer, the UN Special Rapporteur on torture, discusses the longstanding persecution of Assange and the lies that have been used to justify it to the public. Melzer, who has visited Assange in prison, has played a critical role in exposing the deception surrounding Assange's initial Sweden extradition case. "Based on 20 years of experiences of visiting prisoners, many of whom are being exposed to to extremely severe conditions including ill treatment, it is a miracle that this man is still alive," Melzer says. Guest: Nils Melzer. UN Special Rapporteur on torture and Professor of International Law at the University of Glasgow.

President Trump is leaving office by overseeing a record level of federal executions, with 10 prisoners killed in 2020 and three more slated for this month. George Hale, who has covered the executions for NPR, discusses Trump's last-minute killing spree and witnessing the barbaric executions first-hand. Guest: George Hale. Reporter covering federal executions for NPR member station WFIU. https://twitter.com/georgehale Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate

For the first time, OPCW chief Fernando Arias was asked a series of direct questions at the United Nations about the cover-up of a Syria chemical weapons probe. Arias answered none of them. Russia's UN ambassador asked Arias about several damning leaks, some revealed by The Grayzone, as well as ongoing deceptive attacks on the veteran scientists who challenged the censorship of their investigation. Arias refused to answer in public session, and gave vague, non-substantive answers in private. Aaron Maté recaps the unanswered questions to Arias, as well as recent attacks on the OPCW whistleblowers via Western state-funded outlets Bellingcat and the BBC.

Pushback rounds out 2020 by airing an unpublished interview with Stephen F. Cohen, the eminent Russia historian and scholar who passed away in September at the age of 81. In an interview recorded one year before his death, Stephen F. Cohen discusses local elections and protests in Russia; opposition leader Alexei Navalny; as well as the state of Russia’s post-Soviet democratization and how US meddling undermines it. Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate Guest: Stephen F. Cohen. Professor emeritus of Russian studies at New York University and Princeton University, contributing editor at The Nation, and author of books including “War with Russia: From Putin & Ukraine to Trump & Russiagate.” This interview was recorded in September 2019, one year before his death.

Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate Veteran US diplomat Chas Freeman says that despite talk of a New Cold War between the US and China, the US in reality is reacting aggressively to a rising Chinese power whose economic gains threaten US global supremacy. Freeman, who served in top State Department positions and as Richard Nixon's chief interpreter on his historic 1972 visit to China, discusses the state of US-China relations and flashpoints such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the repression of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang. "Since around 1870, we have been the preeminent society on the planet -- the wealthiest and technologically most advanced, the most influential. And China's overtaking us," Freeman says. "So there's a psychological issue here. The good deal of what we're doing is better explained by psychology than by statecraft. China does threaten American economic supremacy, may have already passed us in many ways... Whether that's a threat or not depends on your perceptions. We've chosen to treat it as a national security or a military threat. It'll be very good for the military industrial complex for a while." Guest: Chas Freeman. Veteran U.S. diplomat and public servant who has served in many senior positions, including as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Director for Chinese Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, and as the principal US interpreter during President Nixon’s historic visit to China in 1972.

Syria and its allies prevented regime change, but the US and its allies are continuing to squeeze Syria's population with crippling sanctions on all aspects of civilian life and a US military occupation in Syria's northeast breadbasket. Peter Ford, the former UK Ambassador to Syria, analyzes the state of the Syria proxy war and the ongoing propaganda campaign to whitewash it. Guest: Peter Ford, veteran British diplomat who served as the UK Ambassador to Syria from 2003-2006.