2008 Woodie Awards
The Iraq War, Consequences Closer to Home
McGovern Offers New Perspective on War Debate
Lelia Walsh
Issue date: 9/27/06 Section: News
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"You will know the Truth, and the Truth shall set you free." So reads the marble entrance to the headquarters of the United States' Central Intelligence Agency and the truth is what Ray McGovern, former high-level CIA analyst for 27 years, sought to give to his large audience last Thursday evening.
McGovern was invited as a guest speaker to address the Iraq War in a forum named "Iraq: Stay the Course or Withdraw?" The event was sponsored by several organizations, some of which include: the College Republicans, the College Democrats, Frostburg State University, Allegany College of Maryland, and West Virginia University.
As a high ranking intelligence analyst and former Army Infantry Intelligence Officer in the Vietnam War, McGovern was able to work at very senior levels within the Agency. He was also actively engaged in the writing the intelligence briefs for the president from the John F. Kennedy to the George H. W. Bush administrations. Because he was so intimately involved with the intelligence community, McGovern brought a valuable perspective to the Iraq debate, with which many students were unfamiliar.
Instead of emphasizing the international aspect of the Iraq War, McGovern chose to call attention to the circumstances under which President Bush entered Iraq, and to the domestic consequences which are now reverberating throughout the United States as a result.
McGovern made a point to explain the role played in presidential decision making of the CIA and the role that the CIA played in presidential decision making.
"[In] it was the one place that the president could go for a straight answer. Now, the president is hardly obliged to heed the advice of the intelligence community; there are lots of political and other pressures on him, but in those days we would give it to him straight, we had career protection for giving it to him straight," said McGovern.
After explaining how the CIA was supposed to work with straight intelligence, he lamented the misuse of intelligence information, in regards to Iraq after the terrorist attacks on September 11th. He noted that, on July 29, 2001, Condoleezza Rice had stated that they were so far successful in keeping weapons from Saddam Hussein and that he was not a threat, even to his immediate neighbors.
McGovern was invited as a guest speaker to address the Iraq War in a forum named "Iraq: Stay the Course or Withdraw?" The event was sponsored by several organizations, some of which include: the College Republicans, the College Democrats, Frostburg State University, Allegany College of Maryland, and West Virginia University.
As a high ranking intelligence analyst and former Army Infantry Intelligence Officer in the Vietnam War, McGovern was able to work at very senior levels within the Agency. He was also actively engaged in the writing the intelligence briefs for the president from the John F. Kennedy to the George H. W. Bush administrations. Because he was so intimately involved with the intelligence community, McGovern brought a valuable perspective to the Iraq debate, with which many students were unfamiliar.
Instead of emphasizing the international aspect of the Iraq War, McGovern chose to call attention to the circumstances under which President Bush entered Iraq, and to the domestic consequences which are now reverberating throughout the United States as a result.
McGovern made a point to explain the role played in presidential decision making of the CIA and the role that the CIA played in presidential decision making.
"[In] it was the one place that the president could go for a straight answer. Now, the president is hardly obliged to heed the advice of the intelligence community; there are lots of political and other pressures on him, but in those days we would give it to him straight, we had career protection for giving it to him straight," said McGovern.
After explaining how the CIA was supposed to work with straight intelligence, he lamented the misuse of intelligence information, in regards to Iraq after the terrorist attacks on September 11th. He noted that, on July 29, 2001, Condoleezza Rice had stated that they were so far successful in keeping weapons from Saddam Hussein and that he was not a threat, even to his immediate neighbors.
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