Editor's Note: Ray McGovern and 15 others took action today in the halls of Congress. The 16 donned orange jumpsuits similar to those worn by detainees at Guantánamo Bay. They wore gags over their mouths decorated with one word - torture. Not another word needed to be said as they walked the halls of Congress. McGovern, a 27-year veteran of the CIA, also returned his Intelligence Commendation Award medallion which was given to him for "especially commendable service." He delivered the medal to Congressman Pete Hoekstra along with the letter below. --smg/TO Thursday 02 March 2006 Hon. Pete Hoekstra, Chair House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Washington, DC Dear Congressman Hoekstra: As a matter of conscience, I am returning the Intelligence Commendation Award medallion given me for "especially commendable service" during my 27-year career in CIA. The issue is torture, which inhabits the same category as rape and slavery - intrinsically evil. I do not wish to be associated, however remotely, with an agency engaged in torture. Reports in recent years that CIA personnel were torturing detainees were highly disturbing. Confirmation of a sort came last fall, when CIA Director Porter Goss and Dick Cheney - dubbed by the Washington Post "Vice President for Torture" - descended on Sen. John McCain to demand that the CIA be exempted from his amendment's ban on torture. Subsequent reports implicated agency personnel in several cases of prisoner abuse in Iraq, including a few in which detainees died during interrogation. The obeisance of CIA directors George Tenet and Porter Goss in heeding illegal White House directives has done irreparable harm to the CIA and the country - not to mention those tortured and killed. That you, as Chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, show more deference to the White House than dedication to your oversight responsibilities under the Constitution is another profound disappointment. How can you and your counterpart, Sen. Pat Roberts, turn a blind eye to torture - letting some people get away, literally, with murder - and square that with your conscience? If German officials who were ordered to do such things in the 1930s had spoken out early and loudly enough, the German people might have been alerted to the atrocities being perpetrated in their name and tried harder to stop them. When my grandchildren ask, "What did you do, Grandpa, to stop the torture," I want to be able to tell them that I tried to honor my oath, taken both as an Army officer and an intelligence officer, to defend the Constitution of the United States - and that I not only spoke out strongly against the torture, but also sought a symbolic way to dissociate myself from it. We Americans have become accustomed to letting our institutions do our sinning for us. I abhor the corruption of the CIA in the past several years, believe it to be beyond repair, and do not want my name on any medallion associated with it. Please destroy this one. Yours truly, Ray McGovern Ray McGovern works for Tell the Word, the publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in Washington, DC. He was an analyst at the CIA for 27 years, and is on the Steering Group of VIPS. http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/030206A.shtml
U.S. Cites Exception in Torture Ban McCain Law May Not Apply to Cuba Prison By Josh White and Carol D. Leonnig Washington Post Staff Writers Friday, March 3, 2006; Page A04 Bush administration lawyers, fighting a claim of torture by a Guantanamo Bay detainee, yesterday argued that the new law that bans cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees in U.S. custody does not apply to people held at the military prison. In federal court yesterday and in legal filings, Justice Department lawyers contended that a detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, cannot use legislation drafted by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to challenge treatment that the detainee's lawyers described as "systematic torture." Government lawyers have argued that another portion of that same law, the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, removes general access to U.S. courts for all Guantanamo Bay captives. Therefore, they said, Mohammed Bawazir, a Yemeni national held since May 2002, cannot claim protection under the anti-torture provisions. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...30202054.html?nav=rss_politics/administration
Why does Ray McGovern, as extremely experienced CIA officer who used to personally brief President Bush I, do this? Doesn't he realize that if he does not support Dubya, he hates American and is supporting terrorism? Wit us or agin us. Maybe Basso, Hayes, TJ, Bigtexx can set him straight based on their knowlege.
I'd be happy to sit down with him. I am wondering how someone who doesn't want to be associated with the CIA worked there for 27 years. We're not talking about the Campfire Girls here. I am curious what a 'true American' is though.
I dunno, maybe a dose of reading comprehension for ya though. He NO LONGER wants to be associated...NOW, with any organization that has recently been involved in torture, which he associates the same level of nastiness to as rape and slavery. Its is instinctively EVIL. As Americans we ousted the Nazi's and supposedly Saddam for such atrocities. Now Bush wants to be exempt because he set up torture chambers outside of the US? Does this mean that Americans can do whatever they please as long as they are outside there own borders. Embarrasing to my country. Support Bush and his illegal, immoral torture. I guess true Americans DETEST torture, except if its so ordered by the Pres, or if its out of the country. Yeah, very fooking hero like of W.
My point is that if its instinctively evil I would imagine he'd have had misgivings about working for the CIA - BEFORE NOW. It's not as if the CIA are the Campfire Girls ie they were involved in all kinds of shady business during his tenure there. Please save your lame comments. They aren't particularly witty.
Lets play the "Blinded by Bush" game. How would you know what the CIA does? Other then speculation and spin, you couldnt possibly know more then this guy does. Whatever they were involved in obviously wasnt near the trechery of lets say....oh......torture. Please save your Shawn Hannity droning. It is particularly mundane.
