Author: Ray McGovern

On The Critical Hour, I draw wider implications from Dutch PM plea for lethal aid to defeat Russia, and elaborate further below:

Does it make sense for NATO members to believe that they can make “Russia lose the war” in Ukraine by providing enough “lethal” aid, as Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has argued?

Snap out of it, Prime Minister Rutte! Statements like that – however commonplace – are naive, ill-informed, and downright dangerous. And your outspoken intent “to maximize pain inflicted on Moscow” appears equally quixotic – and provocative. If you are trying to prove you are no less a loyal lemming than your Nordic neighbors lusting to join NATO, you super-achieved with your remarks Wednesday next to Lemming-in-Chief-NATO-Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. Be not deceived. For good or ill, Russia is slowly achieving the objectives of its “special military operation” in Ukraine. Despite what Western Establishment media have been saying, Ukraine has zero chance of winning on the ground – no matter how much lethality NATO pours in.

Continue reading “Ray McGovern on Ukraine: Some Lemmings Wear Wooden Shoes; and Factoring in China”

It still makes me sick to my stomach – this time the sworn testimony of CIA contract psychologist/torturer James Mitchell that Gina Haspel was watching as he and psychologist/torturer colleague John Bruce Jessen waterboarded Saudi captive Ab al-Rahim al-Nashiri in Thailand.

For services performed (and obfuscated), Haspel passed muster in the Senate and was confirmed as CIA Director on May 17, 2018. It was hard for me to believe she had been nominated, harder still to believe the Senate Intelligence Committee, knowing what they knew about Haspel, would give her a pass. So I went to the Committee hearing on May 9, 2018.

Letting Haspel Off the Hook

It was very difficult to watch some of my former colleagues file into the front rows in full support of the nomination of a torturer to head the CIA. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California), who had published a damning report on CIA torture in Dec. 2014, lost her nerve and let Haspel off the hook when she asked her if she had overseen the interrogation of al-Nashiri. Haspel: it’s classified. And, in fact, the answer was successfully kept out of the media until now, with Mitchell’s testimony.

Continue reading “Gina Haspel Watched the Waterboarding at CIA ‘Black Site’”

I flunked miserably yesterday when asked to explain what this current generation’s “Best and Brightest” think they are doing in messing with the One-China policy that has kept the peace for 50 years.

We led off with Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth’s meeting with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in Taipei; Duckworth said the purpose was to “emphasize our support for Taiwan security.” Tsai went further in spelling this out:

“The U.S. Department of Defense is now proactively planning cooperation between the US National Guard and Taiwan’s defense forces; we are looking forward to closer and deeper Taiwan-U.S. cooperation on matters of regional security.”

I sidestepped a question as to whether US China policy is devised and run by lunatics.

Continue reading “Ray McGovern: Outright Flummoxed ‘Splaining US-China Policy”

Scott and I focused initially on President Biden’s just-completed Excellent Adventure in the Far East and the U.S. effort to woo countries away from China or, at least, pre-empt closer bilateral ties.

I again posed the question (see my brief talk Thursday, embedded here), Why must China’s “win-win” approach be dismissed out of hand – especially when it was so mutually beneficial 50 years ago in reducing tension and keeping the peace?

Continue reading “Ray McGovern and Scott Ritter on Ukraine, Russia, China”

Being Human vs Being Insane
A short talk by Ray McGovern, May 26, 2022

Since earlier speakers at Thursday’s on-line international conference “The Insanity of Politicians Threatens Nuclear War” took a more traditional approach, I decided it might be time for what Germans call eine Denkpause, a pause to think about “what fools we mortals be.”

I suggested giving some thought to broader questions: Might there be another way? Why can’t we all just get along?

To put some gravitas behind this approach, I called on a bunch of old friends – an unlikely congeries of “Denkers,” some of whom have influenced my own thinking. Here is a link to my 18 minutes of prepared (well, sort of prepared) remarks.

Continue reading “Ray McGovern: Why Is ‘Win-Win’ a No-No?”

On May 16, just before I was interviewed for The Critical Hour (click above), Putin addressed Finland’s and Sweden’s plans to join NATO, using words far milder than had most expected:

“Russia has no problems with these states. There is no direct threat to Russia in connection with NATO’s expansion to these countries.”

Then, the kicker:

“But the expansion of NATO’s military infrastructure to these territories will certainly evoke a response on our part. We will see what it will be like based on the threats that are created for us.”

Continue reading “Putin: If Finns, Swedes Get NATO ‘Military Infrastructure,’ We’ll Respond”