Ray McGovern

In yesterday’s essay, "Why Plame Matters," we suggested that the White House assault on the reputations of former ambassador Joseph Wilson and his wife had much to do with "the particular lie that Wilson exposed," and we discussed the unusual role Vice President Dick Cheney played regarding the bogus "intelligence" about Iraq seeking to acquire … Continue reading “Plamegate: Dick Cheney’s Role”

The significance of the Plame affair is not about former U.S. ambassador Joseph Wilson; or his wife, Valerie Plame; or Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby; or even President George W. Bush’s alter ego, Karl Rove. White House v. Wilsons is about Iraq, where our sons and daughters – and … Continue reading “Why Plame Matters”

The editors of the New York Times this morning feign shock that in his speech at Fort Bragg yesterday evening President George W. Bush would "raise the bloody flag of 9/11 over and over again to justify a war in a country that had nothing whatsoever to do with the terrorist attacks." Kudos for that … Continue reading “Stay the Crooked Course”

With last week’s hearings on the Downing Street memos concluded, much work lies ahead. Now, the information in the Downing Street memos needs to be collated carefully with evidence from the mainstream media, on the Internet, and from other sources regarding what was going on in top policymaking circles in Washington in the preparations for … Continue reading “Fixed Is Fixed”

Yesterday, London’s Sunday Times published the text of another SECRET UK EYES ONLY briefing document prepared for senior British officials. This one was dated July 21, 2002, two days before British intelligence chief Richard Dearlove gave Prime Minister Tony Blair and his top national security advisers a briefing based on discussions with American counterparts in … Continue reading “The Secret’s Out – Now What?”

Few have more at stake in the expected Senate approval of John Bolton to be U.S. representative at the UN than the remnant of demoralized intelligence analysts trained and still willing to speak truth to power. What would be the point in continuing, they ask, when – like so many other policymakers – Bolton reserves … Continue reading “Bolton Confirmation Would Shatter Intelligence Analysts’ Morale”

What role did John Bolton play in the Bush administration’s efforts to manufacture the intelligence needed to justify the invasion of Iraq? As it turns out, a hidden but important role. Remember the “yellowcake from Niger"? Briefly reported last week in Steve Clemons’ The Washington Note was that a Congressional subcommittee, citing a State Department … Continue reading “John Bolton’s Yellowcake”

“Intelligence and facts are being fixed around the policy.” Never in our wildest dreams did we think we would see those words in black and white – and beneath a SECRET stamp, no less. For three years now, we in Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) have been saying that the CIA and its British … Continue reading “Proof the Fix Was In”

President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney are framing the trials of John Bolton, their nominee for ambassador to the United Nations, as a partisan political squabble. It is much more than that. It is rather a matter of life and death for the endangered species of intelligence analysts determined to "tell it … Continue reading “The War for Intel Independence”

Many have asked how it could be that a comparatively small group of intelligence analysts in the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) was able to get it right on several key Iraq-related issues, while larger agencies like CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency – with, literally, a cast of thousands – got … Continue reading “Paying the Price for Getting It Right”