Linked with Fact-Based Intelligence Prevails on Nukes and Iran, with Ex-CIA: War with Iran in the offing, and with Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity VIPS;
Raymond (Ray) McGovern is a retired CIA officer turned political activist. He was a Federal employee under seven U.S. presidents over 27 years, presenting the morning intelligence briefings at the White House for many of them … (full text).
He says: « My former colleagues got really good, incontrovertible evidence that the (Iranian) program, such as it was, has been ordered stopped since 2003. The evidence was such that not even Dick Cheney could deny it. That’s why the report was not produced until three weeks ago, » McGovern said, adding that the Bush administration has been putting « spin » on their rhetoric ever since ». (full interview text).
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Raymond (Ray) McGovern – USA
See this videos: Interview with 27-Year CIA Veteran Ray McGovern, 56.29 min., January 14, 2007; Ray McGovern on the Neocons and Impeachment, 9.35 min., March 09, 2007; Ray McGovern 0wns Donald Rumsfeld, 3.15 min., May 04, 2006; Ray McGovern Confronts Rumsfeld, 9.50 min., May 5, 2006; Ray McGovern on Tucker Carlson, 1.11 min., April 30, 2007; Ray McGovern on need for independent intelligence Part 2, 8.42 min., July 27, 2007; and the rest of the 103 videos indicated by Google video-search with the key-word ‘Ray McGovern’.
He says also: « I’s actually very simple. There’s an inscription at the entrance to the CIA, chiseled into the marble there, which reads, ‘You Shall Know The Truth, And The Truth Shall Set You Free’. Not many folks realize that the primary function of the Central Intelligence Agency is to seek the truth regarding what is going on abroad and be able to report that truth without fear or favor. In other words, the CIA at its best is the one place in Washington that a President can turn to for an unvarnished truthful answer to a delicate policy problem. We didn’t have to defend State Department policies, we didn’t have to make the Soviets seem ten feet tall, as the Defense Department was inclined to do. We could tell it like it was, and it was very, very heady. We could tell it like it was and have career protection for doing that. In other words, that’s what our job was. When you come out of that ethic, when you come out of a situation where you realize the political pressures to do it otherwise ‘you’ve seen it, you’ve been there, you’ve done that’ and your senior colleagues face up to those pressures as have you yourself, and then you watch what is going on today, it is disturbing in the extreme. You ask yourself: Do I not have some kind of duty, by virtue of my experience and my knowledge of these things, do I not have some kind of duty to speak out here and tell the rest of the American people what’s going on ». (full interview text).
Former CIA Analyst: Government May Be Manufacturing Fake Terrorism: A Government openly promoting torture, A President acting like a King cannot be trusted, must be impeached.
He has been an outspoken commentator on intelligence-related issues since the late 1990s. He was heavily critical of the government’s handling of the Wen Ho Lee case in 2000. In 2002 he was publicly critical of President George W. Bush’s use of government intelligence in the lead-up to the war in Iraq … Intelligence Activism: In 2003, together with other former CIA employees, McGovern founded the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, or VIPS. The organization is dedicated to analyzing and criticizing the use of intelligence, specifically relating to the War in Iraq. In January 2006, McGovern began speaking out on behalf of the anti-war group Not in Our Name. According to the group’s press release, McGovern served symbolic « war crimes indictments » on the Bush White House from a « people’s tribunal ». (wikipedia).
Retired CIA Analyst Ray McGovern Takes on Rumsfeld Over Justification for Iraq Invasion.
He writes: But Are We Better Than That? – Sadly, that remains to be seen. With virtually all religious institutions, politicians, and educators all squandering what moral authority they have left, the Jack Bauer culture threatens to win out in the end. We cannot let that happen. The upcoming duel on the missing interrogation tapes will again bring the issue of torture front and center. And, strangely, waterboarding and other Jack Bauer tradecraft tools still enjoy a strong constituency. Here’s where we come in; for we are the ones we’ve been waiting for. As one of my intelligence alumni colleagues noted recently, this is about our country losing its soul. Let’s rise to the occasion and stop unconscionable policies like torture. True patriotism goes well beyond a flag-on-the-lapel. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. noted, « Sometimes you have to put your body into it. » Besides, we need to keep the water hose from pumping up our bellies and those of our loved ones. I only wish that were as remote a possibility as it was before President Bush and his associates came up with their « alternative set of procedures ». (full text, scroll down, December 13, 2007).
Truthdigger of the Week: Ray McGovern, May 5, 2006.
He writes also: … In those days, cooler heads prevailed, thanks largely to the deterrent effect of a then-powerful Soviet Union. Nevertheless, in proof of the axiom that bad ideas never die, 26 years later Kissinger rose Phoenix-like to urge a spanking new president to stoke and exploit the fears engendered by 9/11, associate Iraq with that catastrophe, and seize the moment to attack Iraq. It was well known that Iraq’s armed forces were no match for ours, and the Soviet Union had imploded. Some, I suppose, would call that Realpolitik. Akins saw it as folly; his handicap was that he was steeped in the history, politics, and culture of the Middle East after serving in Syria, Lebanon, Kuwait, Iraq, as well as Saudi Arabia-and knew better. The renaissance of Kissinger’s influence in 2001 on an impressionable young president, together with faith-based analysis by untutored ideologues cherry picked by Cheney explain what happened next-an unnecessary, counterproductive war, in which over 3,800 U. S. troops have already been killed-leaving Iraq prostrate and exhausted … (full text).
Listen to this audio: Retired CIA Official says, Bush is a War Criminal.
And he writes: I contacted a number of British friends who are close observers of the political scene, to get their opinion. Here is one recent email reply: “Nobody that I have come across here in London interprets the term ‘fixed’ in this context as other than cooked /manipulated /selected. Fixed refers to trickery – as in ‘the fix is in.’ What Woolsey and Co. may think…that is completely irrelevant. It is what we British think that counts. The memo was written to be read by us British, not by Woolsey. It appears that he and his “neoconservative” friends are getting a bit desperate. He would probably be one of the people to go to jail at the end of this, given the key role he has played”. Or, from VIPS colleague Col. Patrick Lang, USA (ret), who tends to be more succinct: “Fixed is fixed, man” … (full text).
A Miracle: Honest Intel on Iran Nukes, December 3, 2007.
His publications: on Google Book-search, on Google Blog-search, on Google Scholar-search; on Google Groups-search; on AlterNet; on wikipedia.
Ray McGovern to Rumsfeld: ‘Why Did You Lie?’. A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW, May 10, 2006.
PATRIOTI PER L’UNDICI SETTEMBRE.
links:
HPR online, the online site of the harvard political review;
Videos: 9/11 QUESTIONS (01 of 16), 8.17 min., November 25, 2006;
Listen by audio, read by text or watch by video: To Impeach or Not to Impeach? A Discussion with House Judiciary Chair John Conyers and CIA Veteran Ray McGovern, December 20, 2007;
Ex-CIA man predicts U.S. war with Iran;
Boston 9/11 TRUTH TEA PARTY AND CONFERENCE;