Ray McGovern
Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, the publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in Washington, DC. During his career as a CIA analyst, he prepared and briefed the President's Daily Brief and chaired National Intelligence Estimates. He is a member of the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).
Articles by this author
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Views Monday, November 09, 2015 Bush-41 Finally Speaks on Iraq War Media reports on Jon Meacham’s biography of George H. W. Bush, the 41st President, have brought me a painful flashback to the deceptive, destructive – yet at the same time highly instructive – years 2002 and 2003, when his son George W. Bush, the 43rd President, attacked Iraq. Reality should trump... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, October 28, 2015 Seeing Syrian Crisis Through Russian Eyes “To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war,” as Sir Winston Churchill put it at a White House luncheon on June 1954. The aphorism applies in spades today as the U.S., Russia and other key countries involved in troubles in Syria decide whether to jaw or to war. Russia’s recent military... Read more |
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Views Monday, October 12, 2015 CNN Tools up Tools for Democratic Debate CNN, the sponsor of Tuesday’s debate among Democratic presidential candidates, has gone to extraordinary lengths to avoid being sullied with the stigma of “liberal bias.” The four CNN journalists handpicked to do the questioning have carefully protected themselves from such a charge. As Jeff Cohen... Read more |
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Views Monday, October 05, 2015 The Hope Behind Putin’s Syria Help Russia’s airstrikes on rebel strongholds in Syria, now in their fifth day, are a game-changer. To borrow an aphorism from philosopher Yogi Berra, “The future ain’t what it used to be.” Yogi also warned, “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” What follows, then, will focus... Read more |
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Views Tuesday, September 22, 2015 A Moral Challenge for Pope Francis Pope Francis could use his visit to the U.S. this week to make unmistakably clear that the Catholic Church’s teaching on the “sanctity of life” applies to more than just the first nine months of gestation. If he does so, he would face formidable opposition. The bishops appointed by Francis’s two... Read more |
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Views Tuesday, August 18, 2015 Propaganda, Intelligence and MH-17 During a recent interview, I was asked to express my conclusions about the July 17, 2014 shoot-down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine, prompting me to take another hard look at Official Washington’s dubious claims – pointing the finger of blame at eastern Ukrainian rebels and Moscow –... Read more |
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Views Tuesday, July 21, 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. This was the rhetorical gauntlet the president threw... Read more |
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Views Sunday, July 05, 2015 Still Waiting for USS Liberty’s Truth Israel’s chokehold over U.S. politics and politicians has been so powerful for so many decades that this obvious reality is routinely denied, a collective gagging of the truth that is itself a measure of how strong the Israeli grip is. The most potent and poignant example of how much American... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, June 10, 2015 Barack Obama: No Jack Kennedy Democratic Sen. Lloyd Bentsen’s “you’re no Jack Kennedy” put-down of Republican Sen. Dan Quayle in the 1988 vice presidential debate springs to mind on a day on which I cannot help but compare the character of President Barack Obama to that of John Kennedy, the first President under whom I served... Read more |
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Views Sunday, June 07, 2015 As G1+6 Opens in Bavaria, Will 'Junior Members' Act Like Adults? President Barack Obama arrives in Germany Sunday to meet with the leaders of Germany, France, Italy, the UK, Japan, and Canada for the “G-7 summit” at a resort in Bavaria. This particular genre of summit was formerly known as the “G-8.” But that was before the U.S. succeeded in blaming Russia for... Read more |