Ray McGovern | |
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![]() McGovern in 2015 | |
Born | The Bronx, New York City, U.S. | August 25, 1939
Alma mater | Fordham University (BA, MA) |
Awards | Intelligence Commendation Medal (1990; returned 2006) |
Raymond McGovern (born August 25, 1939) is an American political activist and former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer. [1] McGovern was a CIA analyst from 1963 to 1990, and in the 1980s chaired National Intelligence Estimates and participated in preparing the President's Daily Brief. He received the Intelligence Commendation Medal at his retirement, returning it in 2006 to protest the CIA's involvement in torture. [2] McGovern's post-retirement work includes commenting for RT and Sputnik News, among other outlets, on intelligence and foreign policy issues. In 2003 he co-founded Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).
Ray McGovern was born and grew up in the Bronx, New York City. McGovern earned a BA from Fordham University, and received a scholarship to earn a MA with honours in Russian Language, Literature and History. [3] and in the early 1960s served as a U.S. Army infantry/intelligence officer and in the analysis division on Soviet foreign policy, especially with respect to China and Indochina. [4]
McGovern is married to Rita Kennedy; the couple have five children and eight grandchildren. [5]
McGovern was a CIA analyst for 27 years (April 1963 to August 1990), serving seven U.S. presidents. [6] His CIA career began under President John F. Kennedy, and lasted through the presidency of George H. W. Bush. [7] McGovern advised Henry Kissinger during the Richard Nixon administration, and during the Ronald Reagan administration he chaired National Intelligence Estimates and prepared the President's Daily Brief. [8] [9]
At his retirement in 1990, McGovern received the CIA's Intelligence Commendation Medal. [2] [8] He returned the medal "in protest in 2006 over CIA use of torture." [10]
After retiring from the CIA, McGovern became a commentator on intelligence-related issues from the late 1990s onwards. [11] He was heavily critical of the government's handling of the Wen Ho Lee case in 2000. [12] 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. [13]
In 2003, together with other former CIA employees, McGovern founded the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), which is dedicated to analyzing and criticizing the use of intelligence, at first concerning the Iraq War. [14]
In 2006, McGovern confronted Donald Rumsfeld on a live CNN broadcast about his statements concerning weapons of mass destruction, an interaction later called the "vivisection of Donald Rumsfeld" by Keith Olbermann. [15]
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."
In 2006, McGovern returned his Intelligence Commendation Medal in protest of the CIA's involvement with torture. [2] He wrote then that he "abhor[red] the corruption of the CIA in the past several years, believe it to be beyond repair, and do not want my name on any medallion associated with it. [16] [ unreliable source? ]
On October 9, 2013, McGovern, along with three former winners, presented the Sam Adams Award for integrity in intelligence to Edward Snowden in a Moscow ceremony. [17]
In September 2015, McGovern and 27 other members of VIPS steering group wrote a letter to President Barack Obama lambasting Rebuttal: The CIA Responds to the Senate Intelligence Committee’s Study of Its Detention and Interrogation, a then-recently published book that challenged the report of the United States Senate Intelligence Committee on the CIA's use of torture.[ citation needed ]
In December 2015, McGovern participated in Russian state media outlet RT's tenth anniversary celebration, alongside then-retired director of the Defense Intelligence Agency Michael Flynn and frequent Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, hosted by Russian president Vladimir Putin. [18] [19]
During a 2011 speech at George Washington University by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, McGovern stood with his back turned during her remarks, blocking the view of some of the audience and media for about five minutes in "silent protest" of Clinton's foreign policy. [20] [21] McGovern refused to cooperate when asked to leave by security, which led to his arrest for disorderly conduct. [20] McGovern said that the State Department placed him on a "be on the lookout" list, and that such a list authorized law enforcement to stop and question him on sight. [21] The charges were subsequently dropped. In 2014, McGovern's lawyer filed a lawsuit against the campus police department for allegedly using excessive force and also against the university and State Department for allegedly violating his right to peacefully protest. [21] McGovern said the police officers had "brutalized" him and "rammed" him into a door. [22] The suit against the arresting officer was dismissed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which opined that police had probable cause to arrest McGovern, and that after viewing film made by news organizations of the event, that McGovern's version was "so utterly discredited by the record that no reasonable jury could have believed him." [23] It did not find that the police officer politely asking McGovern twice, "Sir, would you please come with me?" was police brutality. [24]
In 2014, McGovern was arrested by the New York City police department at a private event where former CIA director and retired Army General David Petraeus was giving a speech. McGovern said he wanted to ask Petraeus about his involvement in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the event's host told him he was not welcome. [25] He said he had a ticket to the event, but when he refused to leave, was charged with criminal trespassing and resisting arrest. [26] On February 4, 2015, McGovern accepted adjournment in contemplation of dismissal, meaning the charges would be dropped if McGovern did not commit any new offenses. [27]
On May 9, 2018, McGovern was one of several protesters who disrupted the Senate confirmation hearing of Gina Haspel to become CIA director. After he began yelling about waterboarding, McGovern was forcibly removed by Capitol Police and charged with disruption and resisting arrest. [28] [29]
In a 2003 interview with the UK's Independent newspaper, McGovern said that Lyndon B. Johnson seized on the Gulf of Tonkin incident as a "spur-of-the-moment thing" rather than as part of a calculated drive to war. [9]
A Catholic from birth, [30] McGovern was highly critical of Pope John Paul II conservative stance on women's rights in church. He saw the former Pope as a repressive force. McGovern had been teaching Sunday school and earned a certificate in theology from Georgetown University. He participated in Cursillo, and was district president of Bread for the City, but by standing during mass for several weeks he protested against the teaching on sex roles and sexual ethics which to him seemed oppressive. [31]
McGovern sharply criticised the 2003 invasion of Iraq and its justification by the Bush administration, which he described as a "very calculated, 18-month, orchestrated, incredibly cynical campaign of lies that we've seen to justify a war". [9]
McGovern testified at a Democratic National Headquarters forum in 2005 that had been convened by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) of the House Judiciary Committee on the Downing Street memo. The Washington Post reported in 2005 that, in his testimony, McGovern "declared that the United States went to war in Iraq for oil, Israel and military bases craved by administration neocons so 'the United States and Israel could dominate that part of the world.'" He said that Israel should not be considered an ally and that Bush was doing the bidding of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. 'Israel is not allowed to be brought up in polite conversation,' McGovern said. Genuine criticism of official Israeli policy is often portrayed as if it were anti-semitism: 'The last time I did this, the previous director of Central Intelligence called me anti-semitic.'" [32] He repeated the comments the following year in a television interview with Tucker Carlson on MSNBC. McGovern said: "I've been using the acronym O.I.L. for many—for two years now: O for oil; I for Israel; and L for logistics, logistics being the permanent—now we say "enduring"—military bases that the U.S. wants to keep in Iraq." [33]
When asked in 2010 on TVNZ whether Julian Assange was a hero or villain, he replied "hero." [34] [ non-primary source needed ] When asked the same year whether Julian Assange was a journalist, he replied to the CNN reporter: "Yeah, actually, with all due respect, I think you should be following his example." [35] [ non-primary source needed ] In 2010, he co-wrote an open letter of support for WikiLeaks and Assange, with Coleen Rowley, Lawrence Wilkerson, Craig Murray and others. [36] [ non-primary source needed ]
During the Syrian civil war, McGovern told Russian television channel RT and other outlets that the sarin used in the 2013 Ghouta chemical attack had not been manufactured by the Syrian government. [37] [38]
McGovern holds a position that the theft of the DNC emails was an inside job, and not the work of Russian agents. [39] [40] In McGovern's view, the metadata in the files released by Guccifer 2.0 (whom the US intelligence community identifies as a Russian military intelligence operation) originated from a computer in the Eastern United States but was manipulated to give the appearance that the documents came from Russia. With William Binney, McGovern released a VIPS report in support of his theory, which was taken up by The Nation and other outlets [41] and promoted by Russian state media. [42] Many of the VIPS members, however, did not sign the report. [43]
McGovern was skeptical of the allegation that Russia was involved in the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in 2014 over eastern Ukraine. [44]
Book chapters
Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) is a group of former officers of the United States Intelligence Community formed in January 2003. In February 2003, the group issued a statement accusing the Bush administration of misrepresenting U.S. national intelligence information in order to push the US and its allies toward that year's US-led invasion of Iraq. The group issued a letter stating that intelligence analysts were not being heeded by policy makers. The group initially numbered 25, mostly retired analysts.
William Scott Ritter Jr. is an American author, former United States Marine Corps intelligence officer, former United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) weapons inspector and convicted child sex offender.
Craig John Murray is a Scottish author, human rights campaigner, journalist, and former diplomat.
David Howell Petraeus is a retired United States Army general and public official. He served as director of the Central Intelligence Agency from September 6, 2011, until his resignation on November 9, 2012. Prior to his assuming the directorship of the CIA, Petraeus served 37 years in the United States Army. His last assignments in the Army were as commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and commander, U.S. Forces – Afghanistan (USFOR-A) from July 4, 2010, to July 18, 2011. His other four-star assignments include serving as the 10th commander, U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) from October 13, 2008, to June 30, 2010, and as commanding general, Multi-National Force – Iraq (MNF-I) from February 10, 2007, to September 16, 2008. As commander of MNF-I, Petraeus oversaw all coalition forces in Iraq.
David Charles MacMichael was a contract employee of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) who served two years as an analyst. A ten-year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, he was a counter-insurgency expert in South-East Asia for four years. He also served as an analyst for the National Intelligence Council from 1981-1983.
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Michael Joseph Morell is an American former career intelligence analyst. He served as the deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 2010 to 2013 and twice as its acting director, first in 2011 and then from 2012 to 2013. He also serves as a professor at the George Mason University - Schar School of Policy and Government.
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Julian Paul Assange is an Australian editor, publisher, and activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006. He came to international attention in 2010 after WikiLeaks published a series of leaks from Chelsea Manning, a former United States Army intelligence analyst: footage of a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad, U.S. military logs from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, and U.S. diplomatic cables. Assange has won multiple awards for publishing and journalism.
Derek J. Harvey is a retired US Army Colonel who previously served on the staff of Congressman Devin Nunes, ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Harvey is a former National Security Council (NSC) staffer in President Donald Trump's administration and was the first director of the Afghanistan-Pakistan Center of Excellence at U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), having been selected by General David Petraeus in 2009 to lead the new organization. Harvey was the previous senior analytical specialist for Iraq to Petraeus, then Commander, Multi-National Forces-Iraq. After being fired from both USCENTCOM and the NSC, he became a top aide to Republican congressman Devin Nunes on the House Intelligence Committee in September 2017. While in this role, Harvey worked to leak the name of the Ukraine whistle-blower, causing concern about their safety and legal protections of whistle-blowers.
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Robert James Woolsey Jr. is an American political appointee who has served in various senior positions. He headed the Central Intelligence Agency as Director of Central Intelligence from February 5, 1993, until January 10, 1995. He held a variety of government positions in the 1970s and 1980s, including as United States Under Secretary of the Navy from 1977 to 1979, and was involved in treaty negotiations with the Soviet Union for five years in the 1980s. His career also included time as a professional lawyer, venture capitalist and investor in the private sector.
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This is a timeline of events related to Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, sorted by topics. It also includes events described in investigations into the many suspicious links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies. Those investigations continued in 2017, the first and second halves of 2018, and 2019, largely as parts of the Crossfire Hurricane FBI investigation, the Special Counsel investigation, multiple ongoing criminal investigations by several State Attorneys General, and the investigation resulting in the Inspector General report on FBI and DOJ actions in the 2016 election.
This is a timeline of events related to Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.
John Kirk Wiebe is a former senior intelligence official with the United States National Security Agency and whistleblower on the matter of NSA mass surveillance of Americans. Kirk managed data collection, processing and analysis programs and has criticized the NSA's mass surveillance policies that continue today. Wiebe also agreed with Bill Binney's technical assessment that it was not true that the Russians had hacked the DNC's webserver in 2016.
According to former NSA technical manager Tom Drake, "Ray's determination to publish claims he wanted to believe without checking facts and discarding evidence he didn't want to hear exactly reproduced the Iraq war intelligence failures which the VIPS group was formed to oppose". He and other VIPS members refused to sign McGovern's report... Privately, Binney says his colleague Ray McGovern, who has also pushed the Forensicator theories, accepts that there is no evidence where the files were really copied. "Ray no longer argues that point – except to call it an 'alleged location'," said Binney. McGovern has refused to confirm this, or to answer questions about evidence for his claims. Despite accepting that there was no evidence, Binney and McGovern have not retracted the claims in the 2017 VIPS report at the time of writing