Lecture: Ray McGovern
Former CIA agent Ray McGovern visited NYU on February 9.
Photo: Megan Thompson.
Ray McGovern’s soft voice and unobtrusive appearance belie his bluntspoken opinions. In his February 9, 2006 lecture at New York University, McGovern drew on 27 years of experience as a CIA analyst to evaluate the Bush administration’s post-9/11 policies and the responsibilities of journalists during the war in Iraq.
“[The] founding fathers must be turning over in their graves” in light of the way the Bush administration has disregarded the Constitution, McGovern told an audience of students and faculty in the atrium of NYU’s Department of Journalism. The war in Iraq is a war of aggression, which the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg classifies as a “supreme international crime,” he said. According to McGovern, Bush and his administration have been planning to invade Iraq since the beginning of Bush’s presidency. Why? “I like to use a simple acronym,” he explained, “O-I-L.” The “O” is for oil. The “I” is for Israel, whose survival is a special concern for many neo-conservatives, McGovern noted. And the “L” is for logistics: the Bush administration is bent on setting up permanent military bases in Iraq, he said, in order to increase America’s influence in this volatile region.
Having worked under the administrations of John F. Kennedy, George H. W. Bush, and everyone in between, McGovern is well familiar with the presidential mindset. He characterized the current commander-in-chief as a “spoiled rich kid” and described his military strategy as short-sighted. According to McGovern, Bush’s plans for the Iraq war are based on the assumption that the U.S. military can out-muscle its enemies. Now that the invasion is a fait accompli, the administration needs to come up with a long-term plan to help stabilize the country, McGovern said-a plan that isn’t predicated on violence.
Prominently displayed at the entrance of the CIA’s Headquarters in Langley, Virginia is the Biblical passage: “You will know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” Yet, all too often, the truth seems to be obscured nowadays, McGovern asserted. “The lack of a free press” is the key to the Bush administration’s ability to suppress information, he said. Government officials often use intimidation to dissuade truth tellers, McGovern argued. Reporting facts that paint the administration in an unfavorable light can put a reporter’s reputation and career at risk, he claimed. But it is “absolutely necessary [that] people with a conscience say, ‘this is wrong,’” McGovern said.
McGovern encouraged aspiring journalists to follow their consciences and work “doubly hard” to expose the truth. But, he warned, journalists should choose their sources wisely. Consulting official sources is important, but reporters shouldn’t stop there, McGovern advised. Journalists should obtain information from any reliable source they can find.
As co-director of the Servant Leadership School, an outreach organization run by the ecumenical Church of the Savior, McGovern identifies candidates for the Sam Adams Award for Integrity and Intelligence. The Sam Adams Award recognizes the contributions of journalists and government insiders who have the courage of their convictions, “We don’t call them ‘leaks,’” he said. “They’re patriotic truth tellers.”
McGovern offered the example of author and New York Times’s reporter James Risen, who broke the story that the government was illegally eavesdropping on domestic communication. Risen did the right thing by informing the American people of the government’s secret program, said McGovern. But the Times’s failure to publish the information prior to the release of Risen’s book, State of War, was “unconscionable,” in McGovern’s opinion. Seeking the truth is always more important than bowing to political pressure, he observed. Stand up for what you believe is right, he said, even in the face of adversity. Thanks to people of integrity like Risen, McGovern said, “every now and then, the truth can get out.”