Ray McGovern
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Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, the publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. He served as an Army infantry/intelligence officer in the early Sixties, and then for 27 years as a CIA analyst. He is now on the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).
Current Columns and Articles |
2015-07-23
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
07-23-2015
Is the 'military option' on Iran off the table?
If, as seems likely, President Barack Obama retains enough support to complete the nuclear deal with Iran, it will be largely because enough members of the House and Senate are persuaded by his argument that the only other real option is war.
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2015-05-09
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Ray McGovern: My Take
05-09-2015
Obama's Petulant WWII Snub of Russia
President Barack Obama's decision to join other Western leaders in snubbing Russia's weekend celebration of the 70th anniversary of Victory in Europe looks more like pouting than statesmanship, especially in the context of the U.S. mainstream med
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2015-04-14
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
04-14-2015
The Nasty Blowback from America's Wars
Brutality thrives in American police treatment of common citizens reflecting an ethos of violence that has flourished over the past dozen years with almost no one in authority held accountable.
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2015-04-03
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
04-03-2015
Why Iran Distrusts the US in Nuke Talks
The Iranians may be a bit paranoid but, as the saying goes, this does not mean some folks are not out to get them. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his knee-jerk followers in Washington clearly are out to get them " and they know it.
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2015-01-05
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
01-05-2015
Rebuilding the Obama-Putin Trust
The year 2015 will surely mark a watershed in relations between the United States and Russia, one way or the other. However, whether tensions increase " to war-by-proxy in Ukraine or an even wider war " or whether they subside depends mostly on P
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2014-12-23
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
12-23-2014
Torture's Time for Accountability
Rather than questioning Sony's wisdom in producing a film that jokes about something as serious as assassinating a nation's leader, Obama upbraided Sony's producers for the decision to pull the movie from theaters. "I wish they had spoken to
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2014-06-13
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
06-13-2014
How NSA Can Secretly Aid Criminal Cases
Though the NSA says its mass surveillance of Americans targets only "terrorists," the spying may turn up evidence of other illegal acts that can get passed on to law enforcement which hides the secret source through a ruse called "parallel constructi
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2014-06-03
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
06-03-2014
The Real Villains of the Bergdahl Tale
Bergdahl pointed out the main problem in these words: "In the US army you are cut down for being honest… but if you are a conceited brown nosing shit-bag you will be allowed to do what ever you want."
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2013-12-29
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
12-29-2013
Gen. Michael ‘No Probable Cause’ Hayden
Ex-NSA chief Michael Hayden, who once declared that “probable cause” is not part of the Fourth Amendment, is sure to hurl more stones at NSA leaker Edward Snowden, especially after a New York judge endorsed the NSA’s “metadata” as legal, says ex-CIA
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2013-12-11
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
12-11-2013
Obama Urged to Fire DNI Clapper
Last March " before Edward Snowden revealed the NSA’s sweeping collection of phone and other data " Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said no such operation existed. Now, a group of ex-national security officials urge President Obama to
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2013-09-14
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Ray McGovern: My Take
09-14-2013
How War on Syria Lost Its Way
What looked like another U.S. march to war in the Mideast has turned in the direction of a peaceful settlement... ...But some parties want to resume the drive toward a U.S. attack, ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern writes.
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2013-09-02
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
09-02-2013
An Appeal to Gen. Dempsey on Syria
Gen. Martin Dempsey, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, has spoken soberly about the dangers from any military strike on Syria, but press reports indicate President Obama is still set on launching cruise missiles in the coming days, an action that form
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2013-08-27
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
08-27-2013
The Broader Stakes of Syrian Crisis
Though some intelligence analysts still doubt that the Syrian government launched a chemical attack, the political momentum for a U.S. retaliatory strike may be unstoppable. Broader framework of the crisis involves the Israeli-Iranian dispute...
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2013-05-13
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
05-13-2013
The Deepening Shame of Guantanamo
For more than a decade, the Guantanamo Bay prison has been a blot on America’s conscience. President Obama vowed to close it but acceded to congressional demands to keep it open. Now, an emerging humanitarian crisis " a mass hunger strike " is drawin
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2013-03-18
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
03-18-2013
A Last-Second Appeal for Sanity
Ten years ago, the U.S. invasion of Iraq was only hours away, but the case for this unprovoked war was already falling apart with exposure of hyperbole, half-truths and even a forgery. On March 18, 2003, a group of U.S. intelligence veterans pleaded
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2013-03-13
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
03-13-2013
An Unheeded Warning on Iraq
Ten years ago, as the clock was ticking down to George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq, a campaign of U.S. government lies and exaggerations had convinced many Americans that they were the ones under threat.
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2013-03-13
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
03-13-2013
John Brennan’s Heavy Baggage
After a messy confirmation " which asked new questions about drone assassinations and old questions about enhanced interrogations " John Brennan has taken over at CIA. But his past may not be so easily forgotten in a world looking for accountability
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2013-03-05
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
03-05-2013
‘Talking Points’ for Hagel on Iran
Ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern suggests, "You may wish to draw on some of the following talking points for today’s meeting, cast in the first-person, as though you were speaking."
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2013-02-26
Magazine Article • Communities
Eyes Wide Shut on the Iraq War
by
Ray McGovern
As the tenth anniversary of the Iraq War approaches, it’s worth recalling one moment when the curtain was prematurely lifted on the lies justifying the invasion " and how quickly government officials and the complicit mainstream press pulled it back
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2013-02-22
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
02-22-2013
Brennan’s Loose Talk on Iran Nukes
MEMORANDUM FOR: Senator Dianne Feinstein, Chair, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
SUBJECT: Due Diligence on John Brennan
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2013-02-12
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
02-12-2013
To Obama: Close the Deal with Iran
Dear Mr. President: As you put the final touches to your State of the Union Address, I urge you to avoid overstating the “threat” from Iran.
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2013-02-10
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
02-10-2013
John Brennan’s Tenet-Like Testimony
Though false intelligence was at the center of the disastrous Iraq War, CIA Director-to-be John Brennan played fast and loose on Iran’s nuclear program in his Senate testimony, a troubling sign he might undermine the principle of honest analysis just
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2013-02-07
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
02-07-2013
Drone Memo Puts Brennan on Spot
President Obama is finally giving the congressional Intelligence Committees a look at a Justice Department legal opinion justifying the killing of Americans
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2013-02-05
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
02-05-2013
Colin Powell: Conned or Con-Man?
Ten years ago, Secretary of State Colin Powell addressed the United Nations in a speech which routed what was left of American resistance to the Bush/Cheney push for invading Iraq. The next day, the Washington Post’s editorial pages spoke for the con
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2013-01-15
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
01-15-2013
Post-Iraq-War US Intel Chief Praised
Giving the Fingar to Intelligence Fraud
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2012-12-28
Magazine Article • Stay or Go?
The Larger Question of Chuck Hagel
by
Ray McGovern
The up-in-the-air nomination of Chuck Hagel to be Defense Secretary has become a test of whether the Israel Lobby can still shoot down an American public servant who is deemed insufficiently passionate regarding Israel, a test that now confronts Pres
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2013-01-03
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
01-03-2013
Obama needs Hagel in the Pentagon
Former senator would be the only Secretary of Defense in 30 years with combat experience
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2012-12-28
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
12-28-2012
The Larger Question of Chuck Hagel
The up-in-the-air nomination of Chuck Hagel to be Defense Secretary has become a test of whether the Israel Lobby can still shoot down an American public servant who is deemed insufficiently passionate regarding Israel, a test that now confronts Pres
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2012-12-13
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Ray McGovern: My Take
12-13-2012
Growing Doubts About Susan Rice
Republicans have blasted U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice for her TV comments about the fatal attack in Benghazi, Libya, but her real unfitness to be Secretary of State rests in her excessive careerism and insufficient compassion, says ex-CIA ana
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2012-12-03
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Ray McGovern: My Take
12-03-2012
Why to Say No to Susan Rice
Key Republicans object to Susan Rice getting a promotion from UN ambassador to Secretary of State, citing her flawed account of the Benghazi assault. But a more legitimate concern is her lack of judgment on the Iraq War and other foreign policy decis
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2012-11-11
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
11-11-2012
Pundit Tears for Petraeus’s Fall
A day after the surprise announcement that CIA Director David Petraeus was resigning because of marital infidelity, the pundits continue to miss the supreme irony. None other than the head of the CIA (and former bemedaled four-star general) has becom
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2012-10-16
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
10-16-2012
The Real Blame for Deaths in Libya
If you prefer charade to reality, inquisition to investigation, trees over forest " the House Government Oversight Committee hearing last Tuesday on “Security Failures of Benghazi” was the thing for you.
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2012-10-01
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
10-01-2012
Silence of the Drones
A report quoted several Obama admin. officials admitting that all military-age males in a strike zone are counted as combatants, unless there is explicit intelligence posthumously proving them innocent. (Yes, you read that right " posthumously.)
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2012-09-29
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
09-29-2012
Netanyahu Backs Off on Iran
Netanyahu’s stunt with the poster also brought to mind Secretary of State Colin Powell’s infamous war speech in 2003 when he displayed crude graphics depicting imaginary mobile chemical weapons labs in Iraq.
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2012-09-17
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
09-17-2012
Why the Mideast Exploded, Really - ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern
The new conventional wisdom, in the wake of angry protests roiling the Middle East, is that Muslims are either way too sensitive or irrational. How else to explain the fury over an offensive anti-Islam video? But the video was just the spark that ign
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2012-09-07
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Ray McGovern: My Take
09-07-2012
Obama Ruling Shields Torturers
Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision not to prosecute CIA torturers in two high-profile homicides bows to the political difficulty of going after field agents while sparing superiors, including ex-President George W. Bush. But the all-clear on tor
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2012-08-21
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Ray McGovern: My Take
08-21-2012
Pussy Riot’s Appeal for Justice
A Russian judge has sentenced three female “punk” rockers from the group “Pussy Riot” to two years in prison for performing a protest song at a Moscow cathedral, what the judge called anti-religious “hooliganism.”
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2012-08-12
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Ray McGovern: My Take
08-12-2012
Israel’s ‘Bomb Iran’ Timetable
As the clock ticks down to the U.S. elections in November, another clock is ticking in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, whether Israeli forces should exploit the American political timetable to pressure President Obama to support an attack on Iran’s nuclear s
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2012-07-27
Magazine Article • Now What? Where Do We Go From Here...
Will Downing St. Memo Recur on Iran?
by
Ray McGovern
Recent remarks by Sir John Sawers, who heads Britain’s MI6 (the Secret Intelligence Service that is Britain’s CIA counterpart), leave us wondering if Sawers is preparing to “fix” intelligence on Iran, as his immediate predecessor, Sir John Scarlett,
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2012-08-02
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
08-02-2012
A Persian Gulf ‘Hot Line’ Proposed
With tensions again rising in the Persian Gulf, an accident or provocation around the narrow Strait of Hormuz could precipitate a war. In this memo for President Obama, 11 former U.S. intelligence officials urge a U.S.-Iranian system for communicatio
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2012-07-25
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
07-25-2012
Harassing the Whistleblowers
Controversy generated by recent reporting by Eric Lichtblau and Scott Shane of the New York Times about Food and Drug Administration spying on its doctors and scientists focuses on the blatant invasions of privacy, with Sen. Charles Grassley, R- Iowa
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2012-07-25
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
07-25-2012
Will Downing St. Memo Recur on Iran?
Recent remarks by Sir John Sawers, who heads Britain’s MI6 (the Secret Intelligence Service that is Britain’s CIA counterpart), leave us wondering if Sawers is preparing to “fix” intelligence on Iran, as his immediate predecessor, Sir John Scarlett,
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2012-07-11
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
07-11-2012
The Mystery of Arafat’s Death
We may never know with complete certainty whether the still unexplained health crisis that suddenly did in Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was due to natural or unnatural causes.
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2012-07-09
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
07-09-2012
How Iran Might See the Threats
In CIA jargon, “Aardwolf” is a label for a special genre of intelligence report from field stations abroad to headquarters in Washington. An Aardwolf conveys the Chief of Station’s formal assessment regarding the direction events are taking in his or
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2012-07-09
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Ray McGovern: My Take
07-09-2012
Julian Assange’s Artful Dodge
Barring a CIA drone strike on the Ecuadorian embassy in London, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s sudden appeal for asylum there may spare him a prison stay in Sweden or possibly the United States. Assange’s freedom now depends largely on Ecuadorian
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2012-06-29
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
06-29-2012
How Iran Might See the Threats
With half of 2012 behind us and the U.S. presidential election looming in just four months, I will try to be candid and blunt about what I see as the dangers facing the Islamic Republic in the coming months.
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2012-06-06
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
06-06-2012
Sorting Out the Facts about Iran
Neocons, including the Washington Post’s editors, keep playing games with the facts regarding Iran’s nuclear program. The plan apparently is to guide the U.S. into a military confrontation whether Obama and the American people want one or not.
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2012-06-01
Magazine Article • Conspiracies
The Moral Challenge of ‘Kill Lists’
by
Ray McGovern
So, like the Caesars of old or the generals of World War I, Obama consults a priest or minister before having folks killed. And in this case the “priest” is Brennan, “whose blessing has become indispensable to Mr. Obama, echoing the President’s attem
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2012-05-30
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
05-30-2012
The Moral Challenge of ‘Kill Lists’
Counterterrorism adviser John Brennan has been called President Obama’s “priest” as they wrestle with the moral dilemma of assembling a “kill list” of “bad guys,” a role that recalls how established religions have justified slaughters over the centur
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2012-05-18
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Ray McGovern: My Take
05-18-2012
Applying the Six-Day War to Iran
With the 45th anniversary of the Six-Day War of June 1967 coming early next month, pro-Israel pundits like syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer are again promoting Israel’s faux-narrative on the reasons behind Israel’s decision to attack its neig
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2012-05-16
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Ray McGovern: My Take
05-16-2012
Honoring a ‘Terror War’ Architect
Since even readers of the New York Times are aware of deputy national security adviser John Brennan’s open identification with torture, secret prisons and other abuses of national and international law, Fordham University’s invitation to him to give
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2012-04-10
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Ray McGovern: My Take
04-10-2012
Render to Caesar, Extraordinarily
Although the charges against Jesus of Nazareth were trumped up, the Romans decided to err on the safe side by going to the “dark side.” They applied enhanced torture techniques with the ultimate hanging.
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2009-03-28
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
03-28-2009
Welcome to Vietnam, Mr. President
I was wrong. I had been saying that it would be naïve to take too seriously presidential candidate Barack Obama’s rhetoric regarding the need to escalate the war in Afghanistan.
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2012-02-27
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Ray McGovern: My Take
02-27-2012
CNN Silences War-Skeptical Soldier
By obsessing over Iran gaining a nuclear weapon “capability” " even with no actual bomb " while ignoring Israel’s undeclared nuclear arsenal, the U.S. news media proves the point of its own bias.
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2012-02-07
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Ray McGovern: My Take
02-07-2012
Obama’s Super-Bowl Fumble on Iran
In a televised interview before the Super Bowl, President Obama had the chance to send a clear signal to Israel not to launch a preemptive war against Iran but instead offered ambiguous remarks that Israeli hard-liners might read as a partial green l
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2012-02-01
Magazine Article • WAR: About that War
Divining the Truth about Iran
by
Ray McGovern
Watching top U.S. intelligence officials present the annual “Worldwide Threat Assessment” before the Senate Intelligence Committee, I found myself wondering if they would depart from the key (if politically delicate) consensus judgment that Iran is N
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2012-01-31
Magazine Article • WAR: About that War
US/Israel: Iran NOT Building Nukes
by
Ray McGovern
Has Iran decided to build a nuclear bomb? That would seem to be the central question in the current bellicose debate over whether the world should simply cripple Iran’s economy and inflict severe pain on its civilian population or launch a preemptive
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2012-01-26
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
01-26-2012
US/Israel: Iran NOT Building Nukes
However, this joint assessment that Iran has NOT decided to build a nuclear bomb apparently represented too big a change in the accepted narrative for the Times and the rest of the FCM to process.
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2012-01-04
Magazine Article • Future Predictions
A Betrayal of the Founders
by
Ray McGovern
Though voicing “serious reservations” about encroachments on civil liberties in a military authorization bill, President Obama signed the law anyway to avoid a nasty veto fight with Congress
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2011-12-30
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
12-30-2011
Urging Obama to Stop Rush to Iran War - By Ray McGovern and Elizabeth Murray
President Obama needs to put an abrupt halt to the game of Persian Roulette about to spin out of control in the Persian Gulf. If we were still on active duty at the CIA, this is what we would tell him:
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2011-12-21
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Ray McGovern: My Take
12-21-2011
Pvt. Manning and Imperative of Truth
On Bradley Manning's birthday... nearly 300 Occupy people from around the country came to Jessup, MD Fort Meade for a rally in support of Manning.
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2011-12-04
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
12-04-2011
Are Americans in Line for Gitmo?
Ambiguous but alarming new wording, which is tucked into the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and was just passed by the Senate, is reminiscent of the “extraordinary measures” introduced by the Nazis after they took power in 1933.
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2011-10-24
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Ray McGovern: My Take
10-24-2011
Switching Focus from Iraq to Iran
President Barack Obama’s withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq is a blow to the neocons who had long dreamt of permanent military bases. But the neocons are now trying to spin the Iraq disaster into another excuse to confront Iran, writes Ray McGovern.
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2011-10-24
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Ray McGovern: My Take
10-24-2011
Plus ça change: Iraq Done; On to Iran!
One not-so-funny fact about Washington is that nearly all the news media stars who fell for neoconservative falsehoods about Iraq are still around to fall for new ones on Iran
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2011-10-07
Opinions
Ray McGovern: My Take
10-07-2011
The Moral Imperative of ‘Activism’
On Sept. 18, former CIA analyst Ray McGovern gave a talk about “activism”. He focused on the need to confront the military industrial complex. Now, as the occupation of Freedom Plaza in Washington gets under way, his words take on a special resonance
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2011-08-29
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Ray McGovern: My Take
08-29-2011
The Rise of Another CIA Yes Man
The recent tendency at CIA to give politicians what they want to hear rather than the hard truth is not healthy for the Republic that we were all sworn to serve.
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2011-08-21
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Ray McGovern: My Take
08-21-2011
Lemmingly, We Roll Along
“Two lemmings are chatting while standing in the line to the cliff. One says to the other, ‘Of course we have to go over the edge. Anything else would dishonor all the lemmings that have gone before us.’”
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2011-07-08
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Ray McGovern: My Take
07-08-2011
Gaza and a Liturgy for Justice
The Audacity of Hope, the U.S. boat among a small flotilla seeking to challenge the Israeli blockade of Gaza, was turned back by Greek authorities doing the bidding of Washington and Tel Aviv.
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2011-07-03
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Ray McGovern: My Take
07-03-2011
A July Fourth Shame on the Founders
A group of American humanitarians and activists are still trying to make their way to Gaza in protest of the harsh Israeli embargo on the 1.6 million Palestinians confined there.
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2011-06-30
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Ray McGovern: My Take
06-30-2011
Gaza: Cradle of Killing " Americans Too
Stuffing my backpack before setting out to board “The Audacity of Hope,” the U.S. boat to Gaza, I got a familiar-sounding call from yet another puzzled friend, who said as gently as the words allow, “You know you can get killed, don’t you?”
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2011-06-30
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Ray McGovern: My Take
06-30-2011
Spirits of Justice Going to Gaza
“There is for me an awareness of paying off a debt to the Jewish civil rights activists who faced death to come to the side of black people in the South in our time of need....
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2011-06-30
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Ray McGovern: My Take
06-30-2011
Gaza and Thoughts of a Starving Ireland
Israeli officials have actually bragged about “putting Gazans on a strict diet” " in other words, condemning them to a subsistence living just barely above the point where they would starve and perhaps subject Israel to charges of ethnic cleansing by
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2011-06-06
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Ray McGovern: My Take
06-06-2011
Gen. Keane Keen on Attacking Iran
...he would lobby leaders of the 41 NATO countries who, except for three, have been “unwilling to ask their people to sacrifice” in places like Afghanistan.
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2011-05-20
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Ray McGovern: My Take
05-20-2011
Obama, Tell Netanyahu " Don’t Mess With Flotilla to Gaza
The U.S. boat, “The Audacity of Hope,” will depart for Gaza next month with 50 on board, including Ray McGovern, who wrote this open letter to President Barack Obama after watching his speech Thursday on the Middle East.
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2011-05-05
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Ray McGovern: My Take
05-05-2011
What Has Bin Laden's Killing Wrought?
The U.S. might finally begin to wind down a near-decade-long war in Afghanistan, there is the countervailing prospect of the USA consolidating an official policy of assassination and violence as the way to impose Washington’s will on the Muslim world
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2011-04-29
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Ray McGovern: My Take
04-29-2011
Petraeus: Can He Tell It Straight?
The news that President Barack Obama has picked Gen. David Petraeus to be CIA director raises troubling questions, including whether the commander most associated with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will tolerate objective analysis of those two con
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2011-04-24
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Ray McGovern: My Take
04-24-2011
Surprise, Surprise! Iraq War Was About Oil
Afghanistan may be the graveyard of empires, but Iraq is home to a graveyard sense of humor. Iraqis wonder aloud whether the U.S. and Britain would have invaded Iraq if its main export had been cabbages instead of oil.
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2011-04-05
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Ray McGovern: My Take
04-05-2011
Military Tribunal May Keep 9/11 Motives Hidden
The Obama administration’s decision to use a military tribunal rather than a federal criminal court to try alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others means the real motives behind the 9/11 attacks may remain obscure.
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2011-03-28
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Ray McGovern: My Take
03-28-2011
Obama Muddling Thru Afghan War, But Clearly
Obama laced his speech of March 27, 2009, with nine uses of the words “clear” or “clearly,” but his protestations about clarity looked more like a smokescreen to obscure the image of him lurching naively into a Vietnam-style quagmire.
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2011-03-05
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Ray McGovern: My Take
03-05-2011
Pvt Manning: Is Army Aping Mafia?
If the Mafia comparison strikes you as a tad over the top, perhaps a seven-year trip down memory lane may prove instructive.
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2011-03-02
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Ray McGovern: My Take
03-02-2011
Prosecution of Ray McGovern is Dropped
He stood silently with his back turned to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when she delivered her address on Feb. 15 at George Washington University, in which she insisted other governments around the world not stifle free expression.
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2011-02-23
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Ray McGovern: My Take
02-23-2011
The Push of Conscience & Secretary Clinton
When reprinting the text of speeches by high Soviet officials, the Communist Party newspaper would regularly insert, in italicized parentheses: “Burniye applaudismenti; vce stoyat” " Stormy applause; all rise.
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2011-02-14
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Ray McGovern: My Take
02-14-2011
Mourning Iraqi Wives, Children on Valentine’s Day
Twenty years ago, as Americans were celebrating Valentine’s Day, Iraqi husbands and fathers in the Amiriyah section of Baghdad were peeling the remains of their wives and children off the walls and floor of a large neighborhood bomb shelter.
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2011-02-09
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Ray McGovern: My Take
02-09-2011
America's Stay-at-Home Ex-President - by Ray McGovern
As the news broke on Saturday that former President George W. Bush had abruptly canceled his scheduled appearance this week in Geneva to avoid the risk of arrest on a torture complaint, my first thought was " how humiliating, not only for Bush but,
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2010-12-14
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Ray McGovern: My Take
12-14-2010
'Giant' Holbrooke Flunked Afghanistan - By Ray McGovern
There will be many more dead and wounded in Afghanistan and Pakistan by the time you read this. Sadly, Holbrooke is one of the Establishment “giants” responsible.
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2010-12-03
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Ray McGovern: My Take
12-03-2010
NYT Still Stalking Bête Noire Iran
It would surely be helpful to those wishing to see an Israeli and/or U.S. attack on Iran, if U.S. intelligence could produce satellite photos showing those missiles in Iran. It’s a sure bet that if Washington had such images, they’d be all over the p
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2010-11-22
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Ray McGovern: My Take
11-22-2010
U.S. Intelligence Thwarted Attack on Iran - by Ray McGovern
As the Bush-book makes abundantly clear, that National Intelligence Estimate on Iran rammed an iron rod through the wheels of the juggernaut rolling toward war.
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2010-08-26
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Ray McGovern: My Take
08-26-2010
Obama Boxed In by Generals on Afghanistan
back from Afghanistan, Marine Commandant, Gen. James Conway held a news conference Tuesday to add his voice to the Pentagon campaign to disparage the July 2011 date President Barack Obama set for U.S. troops to begin leaving Afghanistan.
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2010-08-03
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Ray McGovern: My Take
08-03-2010
Ray McGovern - "Mr. President, pre-empt an Israeli attack on Iran by..."
August 3, 2010 - MEMORANDUM FOR: The President - FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) - SUBJECT: War With Iran
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2009-08-21
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Ray McGovern: My Take
08-21-2009
Putting Out Contracts on Folks, Sans Contract
CIA operative Gary Schroen said Cofer Black sent him to Afghanistan with orders to "Capture bin Laden, kill him, and bring his head back in a box on dry ice." As for other al Qaeda leaders, Black reportedly said, "I want their heads up on pikes."
Schroen had been stunned that, for the first time in 30 years of service, he had received orders to kill targets rather than to capture them. Black would not confirm the exact words of the order to Schroen, but did not dispute Schroen’s account.
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2009-07-15
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Ray McGovern: My Take
07-15-2009
Cheney Sweats Out the Summer
So far
the summer has been mild in the Washington, D.C., area. But for former Vice
President Dick Cheney the temperature is well over 100 degrees. He is sweating
profusely, and it is becoming increasingly clear why.
Cheney has broken
openly with former President George W. Bush on one issue of transcendent
importance " to Cheney. For whatever reason, Bush decided not to hand out
blanket pardons before they both rode off into the sunset.
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2009-07-07
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Ray McGovern: My Take
07-07-2009
Is Texas Harboring Torture Decider?
Editor’s Note:
Prior to giving a series of talks in Texas later this week, the author offered
the following op-ed to the Dallas Morning News and the Fort-Worth Star-Telegram.
Both newspapers in George W. Bush’s home state turned it down.
Seldom
does a crime scene have so clear a smoking gun. A two-page presidential
memorandum of Feb. 7, 2002, leaves no room for uncertainty regarding the
“decider” on torture. His broad-stroke signature made torture official
policy.
This should come as no surprise. You see, the Feb. 7, 2002,
memorandum has been posted on the Web since June 22, 2004, when then-White House
Counsel Alberto Gonzales mistakenly released it, along with other White House
memoranda.
The title seemed innocent enough " “Humane Treatment of al
Qaeda and Taliban Detainees” " but in the body of the memo President George W.
Bush authorized his senior aides to withhold Geneva Convention protections from
suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban detain
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2009-07-07
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Ray McGovern: My Take
07-07-2009
Dear President Bush,
Dear President
Bush,
With this note I hope to make sure you know that I have been
invited by the Dallas Peace Center to lecture next Thursday evening, July 9, at
a dinner at FunAsia in Richardson. You and Mrs. Bush are cordially
invited.
In my remarks I plan to focus on the subject of torture. I
shall draw on my thirty years in Army Intelligence and the CIA, as well as a
lifetime of trying to follow Jesus of Nazareth. I will take issue with your
decision of February 7, 2002 that the Geneva Convention Relative to the
Treatment of Prisoners of War (August 12, 1949) does not apply to al Qaeda and
Taliban detainees; and I will explore the implications of that
decision.
Somehow it seemed not quite proper to come to Dallas without
letting you know this in advance. I also wanted to tell you that I would
welcome a chance to discuss these issues with you"either privately or, better
still, at the dinner itself.
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2009-05-29
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Ray McGovern: My Take
05-29-2009
The Facts Thwart Rehab of Colin Powell
Watching retired Gen. Colin Powell refer to the 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.
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2009-05-14
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Ray McGovern: My Take
05-14-2009
“Ugly” Questions for Gen. Myers - By Ray McGovern
Tuesday evening offered an unusual opportunity to question the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (2001-2005), Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, at an alumni club dinner.
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2009-04-05
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Ray McGovern: My Take
04-05-2009
Holder and Powell Ain’t Misbehavin’
Why would they want to whitewash torture, given what blacks have suffered at the hands of torturers in this country and abroad?
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2009-03-11
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Ray McGovern: My Take
03-11-2009
Obama Caves to Israel Lobby
Freeman made it clear that he was withdrawing his “previous acceptance” of Blair’s invitation to chair the NIC because of the character assassination of him orchestrated by the Israel Lobby.
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2009-01-15
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Ray McGovern: My Take
01-15-2009
What’s Hayden Hidin’?
CIA Director Michael Hayden is going around town telling folks he has warned Obama “personally and forcefully” that if Obama authorizes an investigation into controversial activities like water boarding, “no one in Langley will ever take a risk again
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2009-01-08
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Ray McGovern: My Take
01-08-2009
Obama Picks a Conscience for the CIA
Leon Panetta to take charge of the CIA - First and foremost, the appointment gives hope that torture and “rendition” (a euphemism for kidnapping people for delivery to foreign torture chambers) is over " or will be in less than two weeks.
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2008-12-20
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Ray McGovern: My Take
12-20-2008
Deterring Torture Through the Law - By Coleen Rowley and Ray McGovern
A widespread lack of understanding regarding the purposes served by the criminal justice system"and the penal system"is a major obstacle to even entertaining the thought of prosecuting administration officials for torture.
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2008-11-23
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Ray McGovern: My Take
11-23-2008
Gates and the Urge to Surge
Every two years, if the commander-in-chief/elect says he wants to throw more troops into an unwinnable war for no clear reason other than his political advantage, panderer-in-chief Robert Gates will shout “Outstanding!”
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2008-11-19
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Ray McGovern: My Take
11-19-2008
Robert Gates: As Bad As Rumsfeld?
Just thought the Obama folks"and non-Obama folks too"might like to learn more about Robert Gates from someone who has known and watched him for almost 40 years.
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2008-11-08
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Ray McGovern: My Take
11-08-2008
Try These on Your CIA Briefer, Mr. President-Elect
He suggested that I focus on what I would tell President-Elect Barack Obama if I were Mike Morell, CIA’s Director of Intelligence, whom CIA Director Michael Hayden has assigned to brief Obama daily.
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2008-10-18
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Ray McGovern: My Take
10-18-2008
Attack on Iran Off the Table?
By Ray McGovern
On Sept. 23, the neo-conservative chiefs of the Washington Post’s editorial page mourned, in a tone much like what one hears on the death of a close friend, that “a military strike by the United States or Israel [on Iran is not] likely in the coming
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2008-09-11
Feature Article
Iran’s Road Less Traveled to Nukes - by Ray McGovern
Yet, it is the 64-dollar question"whether or not there is evidence that Iran has resumed work on the weapons part of its nuclear program since the startling judgment of the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) of November 2007 that it had stopped.
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2008-09-08
Feature Article
Trickle-Down Preemption: Baghdad on the Mississippi - by Ray McGovern
“Borrowing from the Bush administration’s ‘preemptive war’ playbook, police agencies in the Twin Cities have made ‘preemptive strikes’ against organizations planning to protest at the Republican National Convention.”
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2008-08-20
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Ray McGovern: My Take
08-20-2008
Musharraf Out, Like Nixon; Bush Still In, Like Flynn - by Ray McGovern
Very few newspapers carried the Associated Press item that put the real story up front; i.e., that Musharraf resigned “just days ahead of almost certain impeachment.” In other words, he pulled a Nixon.
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2008-08-17
Feature Article
Out Damned Blot: A Letter to Colin Powell - By Ray McGovern
Dear Colin, You have said you regret the “blot” on your record caused by your parroting spurious intelligence at the U.N. to justify war on Iraq. On the chance you may not have noticed, I write to point out that you now have a unique opportunity to
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2008-07-20
Feature Article
'Justifying' Torture: Two Big Lies - by Coleen Rowley and Ray McGovern
One can assume that former Attorney General John Ashcroft didn’t mean it to be funny, but his testimony on Thursday before the House Judiciary Committee might strike one as hilarious, were it not for the issue at hand " torture.
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2008-07-16
Feature Article
Obama, McCain Allergic to New Iraq Reality - by Ray McGovern
My guess is the Israeli leaders are apoplectic. The fiasco in Iraq clearly has made the region much more dangerous for Israel. There are actually real “terrorists” and “extremists” now in Iraq, and the prospect of US troops leaving has got to be a
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2008-06-20
Feature Article
Bomb Iran? What's to Stop Us? - by Ray McGovern
It’s crazy, but it’s coming soon " from the same folks who brought us Iraq.
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2008-06-20
Feature Article
Impeach Bush now? - by Ray McGovern
Congressional proceedings would help prevent another mistaken war
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2008-06-03
Feature Article
Australia Bolts Iraq Over Bush's Lies
Chastened because Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is now pulling no punches in decrying the subservience of his predecessor, John Howard, to Washington.
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2008-06-02
Feature Article
Bush Replays Iraq Games on Iran - by Ray McGovern
"Stop! Please. Get beneath the hype over former White House press secretary Scott McClellan’s book, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception. Don’t miss forest for trees."
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2008-03-31
Feature Article
Delusionary, Dancing Bush - By Ray McGovern
It is comfortable to stay in denial, and President George W. Bush basks in it
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2008-03-27
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Ray McGovern: My Take
03-27-08
Frontline's "Bush's War:" Too Timid, Too Little, Too Late
Viewers looked in vain for any explanation as to WHY Cheney and Bush decided to attack and occupy Iraq. Apparently, the acronym OIL (for Oil, Israel, and Logistical bases) still cannot be discussed in polite conversation, even though it is long sens
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2009-01-31
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Ray McGovern: My Take
01-31-2009
From Prison to Award for Iraq War Whistleblower
In 2002-2003, our profession of intelligence analysis was systematically corrupted in order to deceive Congress out of its Constitutional prerogative to authorize war.
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