Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, the publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in Washington, DC. He writes and speaks for the arm of Tell the Word called “Speaking Truth to Power.”

Ray’s earlier career as a CIA analyst spanned 27 years—from the administration of John F. Kennedy to that of George H. W. Bush.  The ethos of intelligence analysis in those days was reflected in the scripture passage chiseled into the marble entrance to CIA headquarters—“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Ray’s activities are now directed at closing the growing gap between that ideal and current reality in the US intelligence community.

In January 2003, after it had become clear that intelligence analysis was being corrupted by political pressure to “justify” an unprovoked attack on Iraq, a handful of intelligence community alumni/ae, including Ray, created Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity.  VIPS now includes 55 former professionals from CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, Army Intelligence, the FBI, the National Security Agency, and other US and Allied intelligence agencies.

VIPS’ first paper, a Memorandum for the President sent on February 5, 2003, was a critique of Secretary of State Colin Powell’s address to the UN that same day. In the memorandum we warned that intelligence analysts were “increasingly distressed at the politicization of intelligence” and “were finding it hard to make themselves heard above the drumbeat for war.” We urged the president to “widen the discussion beyond violations of Resolution 1441, and beyond the circle of those advisers clearly bent on a war for which we see no compelling reason and from which we believe the unintended consequences are likely to be catastrophic.”

The thrust of VIPS’ next two pre-war memoranda can be gleaned from their titles: “Cooking Intelligence for War” and “Forgery, Hyperbole, Half-Truth: A Problem.” Documentary evidence that, eight months before the attack on Iraq, intelligence was doctored to justify the war appeared in the London press on May 1, 2005, when the Sunday Times published the official minutes of a July 23, 2002 meeting at 10 Downing Street. In the minutes, the chief of British intelligence, just back from talks with CIA director, George Tenet, in Washington, reported that “intelligence and facts were being “fixed” around President Bush’s decision for war. Further evidence of this is seen in a report (also in the London press and disputed by neither side) of a George Bush-Tony Blair conversation of January 31, 2003, which makes clear that the president had decided on war, whether or not there were any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Nine additional VIPS papers were produced after the war began in Iraq; a list of titles is appended. The texts of all 12 memos can be found at http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/. (Enter VIPS on the “search” line, and then go to “Publications of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity.”)

In addition to co-authoring most of VIPS memoranda, Ray has published a number of articles and op-eds.  These have appeared in newspapers around the country and in Europe— The Boston Globe, The Christian Science Monitor, The Miami Herald, The International Herald Tribune, the Suddeutsche Zeitung, and the Berliner Tagesspiegel, for example). Ray and his VIPS colleagues have also appeared in several video documentaries—notably, Robert Greenwald’s “Uncovered: The War on Iraq” and “Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror” (produced by John Pilger).

Ray’s TV and radio interviews have been aired in domestic and foreign media, including:

-- CNN (et al.) — Rumsfeld-McGovern Exchange in Atlanta: May 4, 2006
-- News Hour with Jim Lehrer (PBS): April 24, 2006
-- Washington Journal (C-SPAN): November 14, 2005
-- News Hour with Jim Lehrer (PBS): August 10, 2004 & June 16, 2005
-- Deborah Norville Tonight (MSNBC): August 19, 2004
-- Charlie Rose Show (PBS): August 20, 2004
-- Panorama (German TV—Erstes Programm): March 6, 2003

Many of Ray's more recent articles have been posted on TomPaine.com, Truthout.com, Commondreams.org, Counterpunch.org, Antiwar.com and other websites. A transcript of his presentation on January 20, 2004 to the World Affairs Council of Greater Dallas is posted on the council's website. http://www.dallasworld.org/archives/speaker/20040120_mcgovern.html. (It did not play well in Dallas...or in Peoria, but looks okay in retrospect.)

On May 4, 2006 Ray had a chance to ask Defense Secretary Rumsfeld pointed questions after quoting him back to himself. He lied once again—actually twice again. CNN and MSNBC did some fact checking and exposed the fresh lies. The other “mainstream media” took pains to finesse them.

Ray's responsibilities at CIA included chairing National Intelligence Estimates and preparing the President's Daily Brief (PDB) under presidents Nixon, Ford, and Reagan. These, the two most authoritative genres of intelligence reporting, have been alluded to in reporting on intelligence prior to the war in Iraq-and also on the still unresolved issue concerning to what degree the president was warned in advance about the attacks of September 11, 2001 and how he reacted-or didn't. (Indeed, both issues remain unresolved, largely because the docile chairmen of the intelligence oversight committees in Congress have refused to pursue these key questions).

During the mid-eighties, Ray was one of the senior analysts conducting early morning briefings of the PDB one-on-one with the Vice President, the Secretaries of State and Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. At his retirement ceremony Ray received the Intelligence Commendation Medallion and a letter of gratitude from then-President George H. W. Bush wishing Ray well in his transition to non-profit work. He returned to medallion on March 2, 2006, in a symbolic effort to dissociate himself from CIA participation in torture. http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/030206A.shtm

Ray's chapter, "A Compromised Central Intelligence Agency: What Can Be Done?" can be found in Patriotism, Democracy, and Common Sense: Restoring America's Promise at Home and Abroad, Rowman & Littlefield. In the chapter, Ray draws on his experience serving under nine Directors of Central Intelligence to discuss in some detail the qualities needed in an intelligence director, and improvements that can be made immediately to enhance intelligence analysis and protect it from politicization. One of the recommended improvements, re-establishing the rigorous discipline of media analysis, was partially implemented late last year.

More recently, Ray wrote the chapter, “Sham Dunk: Cooking Intelligence for the President,” in the book Neo-CONNED Again, published in early September. The text of Ray’s chapter can be found at http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/sham

On June 16, 2005 Ray gave testimony on the “Downing Street Memos,” before the hearing convened by Congressman John Conyers, ranking member of the House Committee on the Judiciary. The text of Ray’s remarks can be found at http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/289.

Ray received a B.A., summa cum laude, from Fordham College and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.  Designated a “Distinguished Military Graduate,” he was commissioned in the US Army and served two years as an infantry/intelligence officer.  He holds an M.A. in Russian Studies from Fordham University, a certificate in Theological Studies from Georgetown, and is a graduate of the Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program. A native of the New York City, Ray has been married to Rita Kennedy, also of New York City, for 44 years; they have five children and six grandchildren.

Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity

Issuances

1 Memorandum for the President, February 5, 2003
“Secretary Powell’s Presentation to the UN Today”

2 Memorandum for Confused Americans, March 12, 2003
“Cooking Intelligence for War”

3 Memorandum for the President, March 18, 2003
“Forgery, Hyperbole, Half-Truth: A Problem”

4 Memorandum, March 26, 2003
“Arafat Interviewed by the Christisons on Current Impasse”

5 Memorandum, April 24, 2003
“The Stakes in the Search for Weapons of Mass Destruction”

6 Memorandum for the President, May 1, 2003
“Intelligence Fiasco”

7 Letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, May 19, 2003
“On UN Inspectors and Weapons of Mass Destruction”

8 Memorandum for the President, July 14, 2003
“Intelligence Unglued”

9 Memorandum for Colleagues in Intelligence, August 22, 2003
“Now It’s Your Turn”

10 Memorandum for Colleagues in Intelligence, October 13, 2003
“One Person Can Make a Difference”

11 Memorandum for the President, January 13, 2004
“Your State-of-the-Union Address”

12 Memorandum for the President, August 24, 2005
“Recommendation: Try A Circle of ‘Wise Women’”