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.

UN torture expert on Julian Assange's persecution and the lies behind it

A news show hosted by Aaron Maté. Presented by The Grayzone.

News

International legal expert and ex-UN Office of Human Rights Commissioner whistleblower Craig Mokhiber joins the Grayzone's Aaron Mate and Max Blumenthal to discuss the ICJ's landmark ruling ordering Israel to prevent genocide by its forces in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Ordered to prevent genocide - The Grayzone live

Norman Finkelstein, historian and scholar, joins Aaron Maté for a live discussion about Israel's war on Gaza, the meaning of Hamas' atrocities, the question of genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, and U.S. complicity.  

Recorded live in NYC on Nov. 7th, 2023.

Norman Finkelstein on Gaza - live in NYC

A new report offers the most thorough exposé to date of the OPCW’s Syria cover-up scandal, in which the world’s top chemical watchdog manipulated an investigation to baselessly accuse Syria of a chemical weapons attack in the town of Douma.

In April 2018, after dozens of dead victims were filmed at the scene, the US, UK, and France alleged that the Syrian government had dropped gas cylinders on Douma and launched airstrikes in purported retaliation. But leaks from inside the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons show that international inspectors found no evidence of a chemical attack, raising the possibility that the incident was staged by the insurgents who controlled Douma at the time. The OPCW team’s findings were suppressed and replaced with unsupported conclusions that aligned with the US-led narrative. When two veteran OPCW inspectors who deployed to Syria for the probe challenged the manipulation, they were silenced and later publicly defamed. 

The report is authored by the Berlin Group 21, which is comprised of founding OPCW Director General Jose Bustani, former senior UN official Hans Von Sponeck, Princeton law professor Richard Falk, and academic Piers Robinson of the Organization for Propaganda Studies. Its release follows the Brazilian government's recent public shift in support of accountability over the OPCW's cover-up scandal. The report was submitted to members of the European Parliament as a contribution to discussions around the OPCW.

Aaron Maté speaks to Von Sponeck and Robinson about their new report, as well as the ongoing effort to challenge the OPCW's Douma deception and seek justice for the Douma victims. 

Guests: Hans von Sponeck and Piers Robinson. 

Support Pushback: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate

Report for European Parliament challenges OPCW’s Syria cover-up

John Mearsheimer, the eminent political scientist who has warned for years that NATO's Ukraine policy would lead to disaster, joins Aaron Maté to assess the state of the Ukraine proxy war and the dangers ahead.

Guest: John Mearsheimer. R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago.

Support Pushback: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate

John Mearsheimer: Ukraine war is a long-term danger

Former Ukrainian government official and diplomat Andrii Telizhenko joins Aaron Maté to discuss how, in his view, powerful US figures including Joe Biden have used Ukraine for personal corruption and the geopolitical aim of bleeding Russia -- all to the detriment of Ukrainians. 
 
Telizhenko worked for the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office in Kyiv before moving to Ukraine's US Embassy in 2015. He went on to work for Blue Star Strategies, a Democrat-run lobbying firm that  represented Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company that appointed Biden’s son Hunter to a lucrative board seat.

Telizhenko, who cooperated with Rudy Giuliani's effort to dig up information about the Bidens' alleged corruption in Ukraine, has been sanctioned by the US Treasury Department for "having directly or indirectly engaged in, sponsored, concealed, or otherwise been complicit in foreign influence in a United States election." 

Guest: Andrii Telizhenko. Political consultant who was previously a Ukrainian government official and diplomat.

Support Pushback: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate

UN torture expert on Julian Assange's persecution and the lies behind it

Download our free app to listen on your phone