Iraq War Forum: Ray McGovern

Ray McGovern worked as an analyst at the CIA for 27 years. He wrote the Presidential Daily Briefs (PDB's). He is an expert in the field of intelligence and was present at the creation of the policies which led this nation to invade Iraq. He spoke last evening in Warrington at one of three Iraq war forums sponsored by local Democracy for America groups.

Mr. McGovern was quite eloquent about his anger. Anger at what he witnessed about this war, the lies, the cooking of intelligence, and having the White House then blame the intelligence community for the Oval Office's misdeeds. He explained how the CIA was as certain as they could be that Saddam had destroyed his weapons of mass destruction way back in 1991. He spoke about how the CIA had turned the Iraqi Foreign Minister (Tariq Aziz, I believe) and how he was acting as as an agent for the U.S. He spoke about how Aziz told us there were no more wmd's. He also spoke about warning President Bush in PDB's about how intelligence was being cooked and misrepresented. He stated the White House knew there weren't any more wmd's in Iraq even as they terrorized Americans that Saddam had "reconstituted its nuclear weapon program." They knew this because he'd told them so.

McGovern also said when this information was given to the Oval Office six months before invading Iraq he was told it wasn't about wmd's any longer but regime change. Of course the Bush Administration didn't explain this major change of policy to the American people. Right up until the eve of the war they kept telling America we were invading because of the wmd's. This is very serious stuff.

He also warned not to trust Congress on intelligence matters. Pat Roberts, head of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence will do anything Bush asks him to do and will not conduct any oversight or regulation. He called Peter Hoekstra, head of the companion House Committee, a Hoax. Nice play on his name. He also told us about a clause in the current intelligence funding bill, inserted by Hoekstra, which would revoke Ray McGovern's government pension for speaking out about these matters. Call Senator Specter and express your outrage over this blatant intimidation.

Talking privately with Ray after the main event he explained what happened when he confronted Defense Secretary Rumsfeld at a speech he gave in Atlanta recently. You may have watched the confrontation on CNN. Ray asked Rumsfeld why he intentionally lied to the American people before the war. If you recall the SecDef said we knew where the wmd's were. Ray confronted him on this, Rumsfeld lied about saying it, and CNN then ran the tape of him making the statement.

At the Atlanta speech Ray says Secret Service agents tried for subdue him as soon as he began his question. He says one thug came up to him, blocked the tv camera view, then rammed an elbow into McGovern's solar plexus to disable him. Man, this is assault. Is this what happens in Bush's Amerika when a citizen dares asks a tough question? That's scary.