Ray McGovern, the CIA veteran who publicly challenged Donald Rumsfeld last week, tells Buzz Flash in an in-depth interview that the canned applause that accompanied Rumsfeld’s lies reminded McGovern of cold war Russia.
Buzz Flash:
Twenty-seven-year CIA veteran and BuzzFlash contributor Ray McGovern confronted America’s Secretary of Defense in a public forum in Atlanta on May 4, asking the questions that are on all of our minds. He peppered Rumsfeld with facts that clearly contradicted Rumsfeld’s own words. He asked Rumsfeld whether he lied, or was misled, about Saddam having weapons of mass destruction and significant ties to al Qaeda. As Rumsfeld obfuscated, he urged him to be up front with the American people, adding: “These people aren’t idiots. They know the story.” Like Stephen Colbert the week before, Ray McGovern laid out the truth for all to see. Ray McGovern spoke with BuzzFlash about that experience, about the lead up to the Iraq war, and about what he fears may come next.
* * *
BuzzFlash: After Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld spoke at a forum in Atlanta, there was a question-and-answer period. You lined up to ask a question, and got your chance. How did you begin?
Ray McGovern: Rumsfeld had wrung his hands and reacted most somberly when a woman accused him of telling lies. He pointed out that the President would never tell lies, and this is very destructive, as he put it, of the trust between the people and their leaders. It struck me that this was really disingenuousness? cynicism in the extreme.
I had been preparing a couple of talks to give in Atlanta, and one of the things in my notes was a New York Times report of September 2002 in which Don Rumsfeld says the evidence linking Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda is “bullet-proof.” That was extraordinary, in the extreme, since the CIA had long since concluded there was no evidence of that. At that time, Brent Scowcroft, Chair of the President?s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, was saying that such evidence as there was was “scant” - that was his word ? scant.
My colleague Paul Pillar, national intelligence officer for the Middle East for counterterrorism, had allowed himself to say to the Spanish newspaper El Pais, that the campaign to link Saddam Hussein with al Qaeda, and by extension with 9/11, was a gross manipulation, and one indeed might call it a lie - which is about as far as Paul Pillar will go. So I thought, I should ask Secretary Rumsfeld about this particular piece. I would ask him where he got this “bullet-proof” business ? where did it come from, and was it a lie, or was he misled?
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By Masher1, May 11, 2006 at 10:32 pm Link to this comment
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And please try to not miss the REACTION on the voices of the other reporters in the room after ray threw down. They were SHOCKED that anyone would DARE to try using TRUTH on rummy. Get real familiar with this stuff Bush admin. it will be dogging you for the remainder of your days.
Report thisBy RS, May 10, 2006 at 6:28 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
It is odd that we now feel the need to celebrate when citizens question there government.
Report thisBy anonymous, May 10, 2006 at 12:43 pm Link to this comment
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If not for this interview, I’d have never known that the neocons were right about Iraq being a cakewalk. They were comparing it to the upcoming invasion of Iran. Man, do I feel stupid! If I watched FOX, I’d have probably know it a long time ago.
Report thisBy albiegf13, May 10, 2006 at 11:20 am Link to this comment
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Read the article on buzz-flash… I’m not shocked or outraged at all. Why should we be surprised when criminals comit crimes. Lying, stealing, kidnapping, murder, I thought that that’s what criminals do. Isn’t it…?
Report thisBy C Quil, May 10, 2006 at 8:57 am Link to this comment
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They use canned applause, like laugh tracks on TV sit-coms? Do they have little lighted directions to the audience too? “Applaud”, “Cheer”, “Standing Ovation”?
I’ve heard that they are usually put in front of friendly audiences, but since that number is getting fewer and fewer every day, canned applause may be the only alternative. They couldn’t shut the crowd up at the baseball game, though, when they boo-ed Cheney, although the transmitted video had the boo’s largely blanked out.
Is it more than someone’s job’s worth to substitute an applause track with a laugh track at the next official news conference? Mind you, it could be their life that would be on the line.
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