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Pushback with Aaron Mate

In UN return, veteran diplomats Hans von Sponeck and Lawrence Wilkerson confront OPCW Syria cover-up

Pushback with Aaron Mate

Pushback with Aaron Maté

News

4.7594 Ratings

🗓️ 19 April 2021

⏱️ 33 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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 sanctions on Iraq. “The manner in which this serious controversy has been handled by OPCW management… has sought to cover up any serious questioning of the OPCW through stonewalling and unacceptable smear tactics,” Sponeck says. “The Security Council can not be surprised that there is increasing public pressure for UN leadership to find an unbiased resolution of this troubling controversy.” Lawrence Wilkerson is a retired Army Colonel who served as Chief of Staff to Secretary State Colin Powell. In 2003, Wilkerson helped prepare Powell's infamous speech to the United Nations making the phony case for invading Iraq. Wilkerson has since renounced those Iraq war fabrications. "This OPCW business really needs to get settled," Wilkerson says. "Here we have an egregious situation that from everything I can, really calls on people of concern to straighten it out." Sponeck and Wilkerson are among the signatories of a Statement of Concern about the Douma scandal, joined by notable global voices including five former OPCW officials. In a podcast-exclusive edition of Pushback, we hear both Sponeck and Wilkerson's UN comments. Related: At UN, Aaron Maté debunks OPCW’s Syria lies and confronts US, UK on cover-up https://thegrayzone.com/2021/04/18/at-un-aaron-mate-debunks-opcws-syria-lies-and-confronts-us-uk-on-cover-up/

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to Pushback. I'm Erin Mate. This is an audio-only version of Pushback, where we recap

0:10.4

the appearance of two veteran diplomats at the UN Security Council speaking about the OPCW's

0:17.9

Syria cover-up scandal. The diplomats are Hans von Sponeck.

0:22.0

He is a veteran UN official,

0:24.7

the former UN Assistant Secretary General

0:27.6

and Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq,

0:30.4

and Lawrence Wilkerson, the retired Army colonel,

0:33.7

who served as the chief of staff

0:35.6

to Secretary of State, Colin Powell.

0:44.7

And both von Sponak and Wilkerson appeared at a recent meeting of the UN Security Council,

0:51.8

organized by Russia and China, to discuss the ongoing scandal about the cover-up of a chemical weapons investigation in Duma.

0:56.5

If you follow my work, you know the story well. In April 2018, Syria was accused of committing a chemical attack in the city of Duma, the U.S.,

1:04.5

Britain and France, bombed Syria based on that allegation. The OBCW put out a report that aligned with the U.S.-led narrative.

1:13.2

But then we got a series of leaks showing that the actual inspectors who went to Duma

1:17.9

found no evidence of a chemical attack and that their findings were suppressed in a blatant

1:24.7

active censorship and that the team itself was sidelined from their own probe.

1:30.3

So Hans von Sponeck and Lawrence Wilkerson appeared at the UN to speak about this.

1:35.5

I spoke as well.

1:36.6

And if you want to see or hear my remarks, you can go to the gray zone.com and they are linked below.

1:42.4

And first we will start with Hans von Sponck and his comments to the UN Security Council.

1:47.0

Hans von Sponick again is the former UN Assistant Secretary General and former UN humanitarian

1:54.0

coordinator for Iraq.

...

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