Why Should US Investigators Be Afraid of UK Ambassadors?

By Ray McGovern

Curious: Why are all the Justice Department-appointed Russia-gate sleuths — including the current sleuths looking into the bizarre behavior of earlier sleuths — allergic to interviewing former UK Ambassador Craig Murray, a close associate of Julian Assange? Have they somehow missed what Murray said years ago: “To my certain knowledge neither the DNC nor Podesta leaks to WikiLeaks involved Russia. I met with someone in Washington who, to the best of my knowledge, was an actual leaker.”

Ambassador Murray wrote to Robert Mueller offering to give evidence for his investigation, but received no reply. And now the “investigators of the (original) investigators” are also avoiding Murray like the plague — or like Covid-19.

What does this tell us about the various investigations under way? Is the much heralded one led by U.S. Attorney John Durham, for example, mostly sham?

People reassure me, No, not a sham. There will be indictments in another month or so.  Well, “we’ll see what happens.”

Unexploded Bombshell

We did not learn until May 7, 2020 that Shawn Henry, the head of CrowdStrike, which former FBI Director James Comey described as the “high-class entity … the pros that they [the DNC] hired” (and Comey deferred to for forensics on the DNC computers) had testified that CrowdStrike found no concrete evidence of a hack — by Russia or anyone else. Henry gave sworn testimony to the House Intelligence Committee on Dec. 5, 2017, but his admission was kept secret for almost two and a half years until released on May 7.

You didn’t know that? Actually, the Establishment media and most alternative media are STILL keeping Henry’s admission a secret! Another bombshell made into a dud by BOTH the Fourth and the Fifth Estate.

So what’s going on? If there was no “Russian hack” (as VIPS has been asserting with growing confidence for more than three and half years), someone with access to DNC computers must have copied the emails onto an external storage device — probably a thumb drive — and gotten them physically to WikiLeaks.

Murray was in Washington during the fall of 2016 after the murder of suspected leaker Seth Rich (July 10) and after WikiLeaks’ publication of the DNC emails (July 22).  He (and Julian Assange) have said consistently that no state entity was involved in WikiLeaks’ acquisition of the DNC emails. And, as mentioned above, Murray has said he “met with someone in Washington who, to the best of his knowledge, was an actual leaker.”

And none of the investigators are interested in talking to Murray?

Uh-oh.

This does not inspire confidence in the eagerly awaited, but oft delayed conclusions of John Durham — or the other US Attorneys appointed by Attorney General Barr to “investigate the investigators”.

Barr is scheduled to testify to the House Judiciary Committee later this morning.  Again, “we’ll see what happens.”

Ray discussed all this, and the CIA-commissioned spying on Julian Assange in the Ecuadoran embassy in London, with Kristina Borjesson of The Whistleblower Newsroom on July 24. ( See also: https://consortiumnews.com/2020/07/22/cia-obsessed-with-former-uk-envoy-who-will-testify-in-spying-on-assange-case/ .)

https://thewhistleblowernewsroom.podbean.com/e/the-whistleblower-newsroom-killed-and-contained/

What You Always Wanted to Know About the Decision to Attack Iraq, but Were Afraid to Ask

By Ray McGovern, July 19, 2020

Consortium News published this trilogy yesterday.

1 — 
https://consortiumnews.com/2020/07/18/joe-lauria-powell-iraq-how-one-resignation-may-have-stopped-the-disastrous-invasion/

JOE LAURIA: Powell & Iraq—How One Resignation May Have Stopped the Disastrous Invasion
July 18, 2020 

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2 —
https://consortiumnews.com/2020/07/18/scott-ritter-powell-iraq-regime-change-not-disarmament-the-fundamental-lie/

SCOTT RITTER: Powell & Iraq—Regime Change, Not Disarmament: The Fundamental Lie
July 18, 2020 

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3 —
https://consortiumnews.com/2020/07/18/ray-mcgovern-powell-iraq-the-uses-and-abuses-of-national-intelligence-estimates/

RAY MCGOVERN: Powell & Iraq—The Uses and Abuses of National Intelligence Estimates
July 18, 2020 

NY Times: 15 Years Late on Iraq

On Thursday July 16, The NY Times posted “Colin Powell Still Wants Answers”, a long article by Robert Draper to appear in this Sunday’s NYT Magazine. The article is based on Draper’s upcoming book, “To Start a War: How the Bush Administration Took America Into Iraq”.  ( See: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/16/magazine/colin-powell-iraq-war.html  )

Google Books calls it “the definitive, revelatory reckoning with arguably the most consequential decision in the history of American foreign policy”.

Draper’s article focuses on Powell and his UN speech of February 5, 2003.  A lot of the detail will be new to most readers, not very much new to Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, which had been established a month before. VIPS watched the speech, dissected it, and sent their verdict to President George W. Bush before close of business that same afternoon ( See: https://consortiumnews.com/2003/02/05/powells-un-speech-and-the-case-for-war/. ). We gave Powell a charitable grade of “C” for providing not much in the way of context and perspective.  We should have flunked him outright.

Here’s our final paragraph:

No one has a corner on the truth; nor do we harbor illusions that our analysis is irrefutable or undeniable [as Powell had claimed his was]. But after watching Secretary Powell today, we are convinced that you would be well served if you widened the discussion beyond violations of Resolution 1441, and beyond the circle of those advisers clearly bent on a war for which we see no compelling reason and from which we believe the unintended consequences are likely to be catastrophic.

As war clouds gathered, VIPS chose to assume that President Bush was not fully informed about how Cheney and Rumsfeld had shaped the intelligence and about the “catastrophe” we saw coming.  So VIPS issued two more Memoranda before the ‘Shock and Awe’ attack on Iraq.

Cooking Intelligence for War in Iraq March 12, 2003
https://consortiumnews.com/2003/03/12/cooking-intelligence-for-war-in-iraq/

Iraq Intel: Forgery, Hyperbole, Half-Truth March 18, 2003
https://consortiumnews.com/2003/03/18/iraq-intel-forgery-hyperbole-half-truth/

As for a “definitive revelatory reckoning”, Ray published one 15 years ago in a chapter for “Neo-CONNED Again!”, a collection of essays on Iraq. His chapter was titled: Sham Dunk: Cooking Intelligence for the President.  A link to the full text of the chapter is posted below — for those who may wish to compare what Draper says in his book, and the “adaptation” regarding Powell that The NY Times has just posted.

SHAM DUNK: COOKING INTELLIGENCE FOR THE PRESIDENT
By Ray McGovern, (in “Neo-CONNED Again!”, 2005
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vBsKG1CRHTpqKrtOm4_bftQSOWtjF_PE/view?usp=sharing

MICIMATT Keeping Us Stuck in Afghanistan

Ray uses the MICIMATT (Military-Industrial-Congressional-Intelligence-MEDIA-Academia-Think-Tank) acronym because it’s easy to understand and remember. It sounds like Mickey Mouse (who should be trusted in foreign policy to just about the same degree as the MCIMATT complex) and reminds us of Eisenhower’s MIC warning (which, sadly, is proving uncannily prescient.) In its most recent betrayal of what is right and just, the MICIMATT complex is thwarting all attempts to pull out of Afghanistan. Ray discusses on Crosstalk:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHTD7Vbkeg8

Don’t Be Like Mike

CIA’s Mike Morell tells us what “a normal administration” would have done w Russian bounty “intel.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/03/heres-how-normal-administration-would-have-handled-russian-bounty-intel/

Let’s examine Mike Morell’s track record. His boss George Tenet wrote that Mike was “the perfect guy” to brief Bush on how sure they were that Iraq had WMD’s and that he “coordinated” Colin Powell’s UN speech explaining how sure they were that Iraq had WMD’s. 
https://consortiumnews.com/2011/08/29/rise-of-another-cia-yes-man/

Rise of Another CIA Yes Man