Author Archive

Intelligence Vets Back Torture Probe »

By Ray McGovern on Sep 29, 2009 in Current Affairs | 19 Comments

Editor’s Note (via ConsortiumNews.com, which has also published this important memorandum): In reaction to the extraordinary appeal by seven ex-CIA directors that President Barack Obama halt a Justice Department inquiry into the use of torture by CIA interrogators, a dozen former U.S. intelligence professionals urge the President to ignore that appeal [...]

Colin Powell: No Good Samaritan »

By Ray McGovern on Jun 4, 2009 in Current Affairs | 22 Comments

Reprinted with express permission from ConsortiumNews.com.
Watching retired Gen. Colin Powell cite Jesus’s parable of the Good Samaritan during Sunday’s Memorial Day ceremonies on the Mall in Washington, it struck me that Powell was giving hypocrisy a bad name.
Those familiar with the parable of the Good Samaritan and the under-reported behavior of Gen. Powell, [...]

Note to Nancy Pelosi: Colin Powell Got Snookered at CIA, too »

By Ray McGovern on May 20, 2009 in Current Affairs | 41 Comments

Originally published at Op-Ed News with this message from Rob Kall, editor in chief:
I discussed this article with Ray McGovern and came away with this intro; We’re in a tough situation Ray McGovern says he’s never seen in his 40+ years of government service, The president of the United States and Leon Panetta are afraid [...]

Appeal to Adm. Fallon: Speak Out on Iran BEFORE »

By Ray McGovern on May 20, 2008 in Anti-Semitism, CIA, Commander in Chief, Dick Cheney, Flag officers, Gen. David Petraeus, Intelligence, Iran, Israel, Media, Media Bias, Nancy Pelosi, New York Times, Nuclear weapons, Pentagon, U.S. Constitution | 91 Comments

To Admiral William Fallon (USN ret.), With Respect
(Open Appeal for Straight Talk on Iran)
By Ray McGovern
May 19, 2008
Dear Admiral Fallon:
I have not been able to find out how to reach you directly, so I have drafted this letter in the hope it will come to your attention.
First, thank you for honoring the oath we commissioned [...]

Delusionary, Dancing Bush »

By Ray McGovern on Mar 31, 2008 in Bush/Cheney, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Gen. David Petraeus, Iran, Iraq, Israel | 6 Comments

By Ray McGovern
Events of last week offer a metaphorical glimpse at the delusion pervading President George W. Bush’s White House and other enclaves of Iraq supporters in Washington. Bush and the First Lady spent last Monday clowning with the Easter Bunny (White House counsel Fred Fielding having donned the costume).
At the American Enterprise Institute [...]

PBS’ Frontline Cop-Out »

By Ray McGovern on Mar 26, 2008 in Bush/Cheney, CIA, Colin Powell, Foreign Affairs, Gen. David Petraeus, Intelligence, Iraq, Israel | 16 Comments

Frontline: Too Timid, Too Little, Too Late: Frontline’s “Bush’s War” on PBS Monday and Tuesday evening was a nicely put-together rehash of the top players’ trickery that led to the attack on Iraq, together with the power-grabbing, back-stabbing, and limitless incompetence of the occupation.

Powell’s UN Fiasco: Fresh and Festering »

By Ray McGovern on Feb 6, 2008 in Alberto Gonzales, Bush/Cheney, CIA, Counterterrorism, Current Affairs, Hillary Clinton, Intelligence, Iraq, Media, Torture | 33 Comments

February 6, 2008
Powell’s UN Fiasco: Fresh and Festering
By Ray McGovern
Yesterday was a difficult day for Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. It was hard to celebrate the fifth anniversary of our first corporate memorandum, a same-day critique of Colin Powell’s Feb. 5, 2002 UN address, when we could not escape the reality that this speech greased [...]

Iniquities and Inequities of War »

By Ray McGovern on Feb 2, 2008 in Bush/Cheney, DoD, Guantanamo, Health Care, Iraq, Soldiers/Veterans, Torture | 35 Comments

“For the oppressors, what is worthwhile is to have more—always more—even at the cost of the oppressed having less or having nothing. For them, to be is to have and to be the class of the ‘haves.’”
Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Finally, the truth is seeping out. Contrary to how President George W. [...]

Hormuz, Tonkin, and Current Intelligence »

By Ray McGovern on Jan 13, 2008 in Uncategorized | 85 Comments

Gulf Shenanigans: No Laughing Matter
By Ray McGovern
When the Tonkin Gulf incident took place in early August 1964, I was a journeyman CIA analyst in what Condoleezza Rice refers to as “the bowels of the agency.” As current intelligence referent for Russian policy toward Southeast Asia and China, I worked very closely with those responsible [...]

Are Americans Really “Better Than That?” »

By Ray McGovern on Dec 13, 2007 in Bush/Cheney, Counterterrorism, Torture | 51 Comments

A boyish, inquisitive face with an innocent look peered out from the Washington Post’s lead story on torture. It was well groomed, pink-shirted John Kiriakou, a CIA interrogator who could just as easily pass for the local youth minister. …

So Who’s Afraid of the Israel Lobby? »

By Ray McGovern on Oct 6, 2007 in Current Affairs | 145 Comments

October 5, 2007
So Who’s Afraid of the Israel Lobby?
By Ray McGovern
Virtually everyone: Republican, Democrat—Conservative, Liberal. The fear factor is non-partisan, you might say, and palpable.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) brags that it is the most influential foreign policy lobbying organization on Capitol Hill, and has demonstrated that time and again—and not only on [...]

Bush, Oil — and Moral Bankruptcy »

By Ray McGovern on Sep 28, 2007 in Current Affairs | 31 Comments

It is an exceedingly dangerous time. Vice President Dick Cheney and his hard-core “neo-conservative” protégés in the administration and Congress are pushing harder and harder for President George W. Bush, isolated from reality, to honor the promise he made to Israel to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
On Sept. 23, former national security [...]

Greenspan Misses Cheney’s Memo: Spills the Beans on Oil »

By Ray McGovern on Sep 17, 2007 in Current Affairs | 22 Comments

For those still wondering why President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney sent our young men and women into Iraq, the secret is now “largely” out.
No, not from the lips of former secretary of state Colin Powell. It appears we shall have to wait until the disgraced general/diplomat draws nearer to [...]