Ray McGovern

MEMORANDUM FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) SUBJECT: Brinkmanship Unwise in Uncharted Waters The frenzy in America’s corporate media over Iran’s detainment of 15 British marines who may, or may not, have violated Iranian-claimed territorial waters is a flashback to the unrestrained support given the administration’s warmongering against Iraq shortly before the attack. The … Continue reading “Brinkmanship Unwise in Uncharted Waters”

MEMORANDUM FOR: Speaker of the House Senate Majority Leader FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) SUBJECT: Denouement on Iraq: First Stop the Bleeding In the coming weeks a Congress that is willing to assert its prerogative as a co-equal branch of government has a unique opportunity to stop the needless deaths and maiming of … Continue reading “Denouement on Iraq: First Stop the Bleeding”

More than five years have passed since President Bush labeled Iraq, Iran and North Korea the “axis of evil.” It is imperative that we try to piece together what role U.S. intelligence played in supporting the “axis” idea and the misguided policies and actions that ensued. For the “axis of evil” sobriquet morphed into axes … Continue reading “There’s Still Time to Rethink Iran”

Testimony at the Libby trial showed a vice president obsessed with retaliating against former ambassador Joseph Wilson for writing, in the New York Times op-ed section on July 6, 2003, that intelligence had been "twisted" to justify attacking Iraq. How to explain why the normally stoic, phlegmatic Cheney went off the deep end? Vice President … Continue reading “Why Cheney Lost It When Joe Wilson Spoke Out”

Iran: how far from the bomb? That was one of the key questions asked of newly confirmed Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell yesterday at a Senate Armed Forces Committee hearing. McConnell had avoided this front-burner issue in his prepared remarks. But when asked, he repeated the hazy forecast given by his predecessor, John Negroponte … Continue reading “Iran’s Very Bad N-Word”

An understated headline moved me yesterday; it was atop AP’s explosively formed story about the “explosively formed penetrators” traced to Iran that are killing our troops in Iraq: “Democrats Skeptical of Starting Row With Iran.” Yawn. Webster’s: “row” – “a noisy disturbance or quarrel.” Yawn. What about starting another unwinnable war – this time with … Continue reading “Wake Up!
The Next War Is Coming”

President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney are unwittingly playing Dr. Jack Kevorkian in helping the state of Israel commit suicide. For this is the inevitable consequence of the planned air and missile attack on Iran. The pockmarked, littered landscape in Iraq, Lebanon and Afghanistan and the endless applicant queues at al-Qaeda and … Continue reading “Helping Israel Die”

Have you noticed? Neither President George W. Bush nor Vice President Dick Cheney have cited any US intelligence assessments to support their fateful decision to send 21,500 more troops to referee the civil war in Iraq. This is a far cry from October 2002, when a formal National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) was rushed through in … Continue reading “Show Me The Intelligence”

At Tuesday’s Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the nomination of Robert Gates to be secretary of defense, I felt as though I were paying last respects to the Constitution of the United States. But there was none of the praise customarily given to the deceased. Rather, the bouquets were fulsomely shared round about among … Continue reading “Republic Takes Another Hit
at Gates Hearing”

The lame-duck Republican-led Senate Armed Services Committee seems determined to force through confirmation of Robert Gates to replace Donald Rumsfeld as secretary of defense. The hurry is synthetic – and totally unnecessary. I know, I know – everyone but Barney the dog wants Rumsfeld out of the Pentagon tout suite. According to a Pentagon spokesman, … Continue reading “Confirming Gates:
Why the Rush?”