Ray McGovern

By Charles Glass, July 25, 2019
https://worldview.stratfor.com/article/syrian-civil-war-grinds-largely-forgotten-us-russia-turkey-iran-assad-kurds

Charlie Glass is among the most knowledgable on Syria.  Would it not have been better for former Secretary of State John Kerry to have sought counsel from Glass and other highly experienced, objective observers, rather than end up pulling out his hair in acknowledgment that NOT EVEN HE, NOT EVEN JOHN KERRY could figure out how to handle an — admittedly situation about which he and his advisers enjoyed abysmal ignorance.

Here is a painfully revealing remark made by Kerry at a Washington conference convened by The Atlantic on September 29, 2016.  Ray was there, but no one he talked to seemed able, or willing, to see the remark for what it was.  In a word, what let Kerry to believe that he could “align forces?”

SECRETARY KERRY: — but Syria is as complicated as anything I’ve ever seen in public life, in the sense that there are probably about six wars or so going on at the same time – Kurd against Kurd, Kurd against Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Sunni, Shia, everybody against ISIL, people against Assad, Nusrah. This is as mixed-up sectarian and civil war and strategic and proxies, so it’s very, very difficult to be able to align forces. So it’s —

MR STEVE CLEMONS: So in the middle of that, why did you think you could get a ceasefire?

And so it goes.

By Oliver Boyd-Barrett, July 29, 2019
https://consortiumnews.com/2019/07/29/russiagate-as-organized-distraction/

Another MUST-READ.  Here’s how Professor Boyd-Barrett begins:

For over two years Russiagate has accounted for a substantial proportion of all mainstream U.S. media political journalism and, because U.S. media have significant agenda-setting propulsion, of global media coverage as well. The timing has been catastrophic. The Trump administration has shredded environmental protections, jettisoned nuclear agreements, exacerbated tensions with U.S. rivals and pandered to the rich. 

In place of sustained media attention to the end of the human species from global warming, its even more imminent demise in nuclear warfare, or the further evisceration of democratic discourse in a society riven by historically unprecedented wealth inequalities and unbridled capitalistic greed, corporate media suffocate their publics with a puerile narrative of alleged collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia.Talk about opportunity costs!  And talk about things Trump should be impeached for!

By Matt Bivens, MD, March 25, 2019 
https://blog.usejournal.com/russiagate-the-great-tragic-comedy-of-modern-journalism-fd2a451aaa25

Ray strongly encourages all his acquaintances — including old intelligence analyst colleagues — who are susceptible to infection by “red virus particles” and “whataboutism” to read Dr. Bivens’s essay carefully.  One of Ray’s former co-workers became so infected by the red virus that he felt he needed to “denounce” Ray publicly in November 2017 for “adulation of Putin.” Several weeks later he emailed to say that he was “relieved that I need no longer fear that I will be investigated for having associated with you.” 

Another former colleague asked Ray yesterday why “you and The Donald are so tight.”  This old friend dismissed the Deep State as “the political Unicorn,” and asked Ray, “When did you buy in to all this?”
Yes, it’s that bad; and these are highly intelligent people, if — like Ray — a little long in the tooth.

The Great Tragic Comedy of Modern Journalism is, of course, far more tragedy than comedy and has taken its toll.  That’s why Ray would really like folks to read what Dr. Bivens has written out of his long experience practicing journalism before practicing medicine.  His article is an excellent follow-on to the excellent one by Matt Taibbi that we posted yesterday (See: https://taibbi.substack.com/p/the-rise-and-fall-of-superhero-robert.)

Tragedy

It proved too difficult for Robert Parry, founder of Consortium News, to bear what was happening to the profession he practiced with unusually high integrity.  Bob had a stroke on Christmas Eve 2017, and had to struggle to put together his cri de coeur a week later. (Please See: https://consortiumnews.com/2017/12/31/an-apology-and-explanation/ .)  He no doubt sensed it might be his last chance.

Robert Parry died on January 27, 2018.  Here are some excerpts from what he wrote on that New Years Eve.
Yes, FAR MORE TRAGEDY than comedy.

An Apology and Explanation
By Robert Parry, December 31, 2017

From Editor Robert Parry: For readers who have come to see Consortiumnews as a daily news source, I would like to extend my personal apology for our spotty production in recent days. On Christmas Eve, I suffered a stroke that has affected my eyesight (especially my reading and thus my writing) although apparently not much else. The doctors have also been working to figure out exactly what happened since I have never had high blood pressure, I never smoked, and my recent physical found nothing out of the ordinary. Perhaps my personal slogan that “every day’s a work day” had something to do with this.

Perhaps, too, the unrelenting ugliness that has become Official Washington and national journalism was a factor. It seems that since I arrived in Washington in 1977 as a correspondent for The Associated Press, the nastiness of American democracy and journalism has gone from bad to worse. …

The demonization of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia is just the most dangerous feature of this propaganda process – and this is where the neocons and the liberal interventionists most significantly come together. The U.S. media’s approach to Russia is now virtually 100 percent propaganda. Does any sentient human being read the New York Times’ or the Washington Post’s coverage of Russia and think that he or she is getting a neutral or unbiased treatment of the facts? For instance, the full story of the infamous Magnitsky case cannot be told in the West, nor can the objective reality of the Ukrane coup in 2014. The American people and the West in general are carefully shielded from hearing the “other side of the story.” Indeed to even suggest that there is another side to the story makes you a “Putin apologist” or “Kremlin stooge.”

Western journalists now apparently see it as their patriotic duty to hide key facts that otherwise would undermine the demonizing of Putin and Russia. Ironically, many “liberals” who cut their teeth on skepticism about the Cold War and the bogus justifications for the Vietnam War now insist that we must all accept whatever the U.S. intelligence community feeds us, even if we’re told to accept the assertions on faith.

The Trump Crisis

Which brings us to the crisis that is Donald Trump. Trump’s victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton has solidified the new paradigm of “liberals” embracing every negative claim about Russia just because elements of the CIA, FBI and the National Security Agency produced a report last Jan 6 that blamed Russia for “hacking” Democratic emails and releasing them via WikiLeaks. It didn’t seem to matter that these “hand-picked” analysts (as Director of National Intelligence James Clapper called them) evinced no evidence and even admitted that they weren’t asserting any of this as fact.

The hatred of Trump and Putin was so intense that old-fashioned rules of journalism and fairness were brushed aside. On a personal note, I faced harsh criticism even from friends of many years for refusing to enlist in the anti-Trump “Resistance.” The argument was that Trump was such a unique threat to America and the world that I should join in finding any justification for his ouster. Some people saw my insistence on the same journalistic standards that I had always employed somehow a betrayal.

Other people, including senior editors across the mainstream media, began to treat the unproven Russia-gate allegations as flat fact. No skepticism was tolerated and mentioning the obvious bias among the never-Trumpers inside the FBI, Justice Department and intelligence community was decried as an attack on the integrity of the U.S. government’s institutions. Anti-Trump “progressives” were posturing as the true patriots because of their now unquestioning acceptance of the evidence-free proclamations of the U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies.

Hatred of Trump had become like some invasion of the body snatchers – or perhaps many of my journalistic colleagues had never believed in the principles of journalism that I had embraced throughout my adult life. To me, journalism wasn’t just a cover for political activism; it was a commitment to the American people and the world to tell important news stories as fully and fairly as I could; not to slant the “facts” to “get” some “bad” political leader or “guide” the public in some desired direction. …

Ironically, the ugly personal characteristics of Donald Trump – his own contempt for facts and his crass personal behavior – have stripped the mask off the broader face of Official America.

What is perhaps most alarming about the past year of Donald Trump is that the mask is now gone and, in many ways, all sides of Official Washington are revealed collectively as reflections of Donald Trump, disinterested in reality, exploiting “information” for tactical purposes, eager to manipulate or con the public. While I’m sure many anti-Trumpers will be deeply offended by my comparison of esteemed Establishment figures with the grotesque Trump, there is a deeply troubling commonality between Trump’s convenient use of “facts” and what has pervaded the Russia-gate investigation.

My Christmas Eve stroke now makes it a struggle for me to read and to write. Everything takes much longer than it once did – and I don’t think that I can continue with the hectic pace that I have pursued for many years. But – as the New Year dawns – if I could change one thing about America and Western journalism, it would be that we all repudiate “information warfare” in favor of an old-fashioned respect for facts and fairness — and do whatever we can to achieve a truly informed electorate.

Amen!

The testimony of Robert Mueller should have marked the end of a national nightmare. Instead, a new legend was born.
By Matt Taibbi, August 1, 2019
https://taibbi.substack.com/p/the-rise-and-fall-of-superhero-robert

Fun reading, but Dead Serious (as in “Dead Media”)A MUST-READ

By Ray McGovern, July 31, 2019
https://consortiumnews.com/2019/07/31/ray-mcgovern-dni-nominee-intent-on-getting-to-bottom-of-russiagate/

By Ray McGovern

On July 25, the day after Mueller appeared, Carlson’s 8-minute commentary might as well have been labeled: “Have we now had our full of Schiff?” ***
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFc2H1Ja5Rs

Two days later Carlson went a bit deeper, probing the reaction of Democrats to the so-called “Mueller report,” including Mueller’s sorry performance on July 24 and the neuralgic issue of impeachment. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvVnXVZYJMQ(7 minutes)

*** I have had my full of Schiff for over two and a half years, after having a two-minute personal encounter with him. Those interested in “Schiff and Ray” on camera can click on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdOy-l13FEg

Those wishing more background can fill in the SEARCH button on raymcgovern.com, or simply click on the following two links:

https://raymcgovern.com/2017/01/25/ray-was-face-to-face-with-adam-schiff-ranking-member-house-intelligence-committee-this-morning-january-25-2017/

https://raymcgovern.com/2017/01/31/thats-bogus-ray-mcgovern-pwns-congressman-schiff-on-russian-hacking-fairy-tale/

(as discussed on CN Live! on July 26, 2019)
https://consortiumnews.com/2019/07/26/watch-cn-live-with-nancy-hollander-margaret-kimberley-ed-botowsky-and-ray-mcgovern-at-2-pm-edt-today/

This issues surrounding the July 10, 2016 murder of DNC employee Seth Rich remain forbidden fruit for corporate media, with the pitiable exception of poor Michael Isikoff (of “Russian Roulette” fame), who keeps heaping discredit upon himself by stitching together out of whole cloth stories his paymasters at Yahoo News seem to like.

In contrast, in a reprise of The White Rose Nazi resisters Sophie and Hans Scholl, whose by-word was “We Will Not Be Silent,” Consortium News Editor in Chief Joe Lauria and co-host of CN Live!, investigative reporter Elizabeth Vos, have undertaken to confront the neuralgic issue of Seth Rich head on.
In a word, they are outright guilty of practicing real journalism — and remain unrepentant..

Homing in on what Seth and Aaron Rich seem to have been involved in, Lauria and Vos unabashedly harken back to now-arcane investigative techniques like, for example, interviewing people who may be in a position to know something relevant.  Moreover, mirable dictu, a Court proceeding now under way is likely to move the truth closer to front and center, just as other Court trials have debunked the evidence-less charge that the Internet Research Agency is controlled by the Russian government, and — hold onto your hat — the until-now unquestioned assumption that there is credible proof that the Russians “hacked” into the DNC in the first place.  (If that comes as news to you, let us suggest that you click on raymcgovern.com or consortiumnews.com more regularly.)

CN Live! was live-streamed yesterday afternoon EDT.  If you missed the segments in which Ed Butowsky is interviewed by Lauria and Ray gives his own take on the Rich case and on fallen hero Robert Mueller, you can watch/hear the replay at:

Minutes:1:01:16 to 1:03:15: Lauria alludes to Isikoff’s imaginative reporting, and then introduces Ed Butowsky

1:03:15 to 1:41:52: Lauria Interviews Butowski

1:51:30 to 2:17:15: Ray’s commentary and Lauria’s preview of next week’s CN Live!

https://www.kskq.org/kskqweb/index.php/218-rogue-regenesys/4889-rogue-regenesys-ray-mcgovern-vips-07-25-19
July 25, 2019 (actual discussion begins at minute 6:30, lasts to min. 59:30)

Ray gave a relaxed interview to host Andrew Mount of KSKQ, a Pacifica affiliate in Ashland, Oregon, the day after Robert Mueller’s testimony to the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees.  The interview covered the waterfront, including an update from Ray on three related Court cases that may eventually provide the script for a “Requiem for Russia-gate.”

Discovery

The Court cases have already begun to show that the evidence behind Mueller’s main conclusion that “the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion” amounts pretty much to “because I say so.”  Sadly, that has been good enough for the corporate media, but “ipse dixit” does not usually suffice for the Courts.  The judges have proven a great deal less credulous than the media, and are saying, in effect, “PROVE IT.”

“Discovery” is discovering some pretty important things which whoever wrote the “Mueller report” seem to have missed as they set Mueller up — first as paragon of virtue, now as scapegoat.  Not a nice way to take advantage of an old guy.

And, once those now at the top of the Justice Department — not only Attorney General William Barr but also Inspector General Michael Horowitz — look at the evidence, such as it is, it is a safe bet they will prove as skeptical and demanding as the judges. Worse still for Mueller and other anointed figures, the Establishment is no longer a monolith.

An additional worry for the “Mueller Team” is the possibility that some underling with insight into the Mueller charade — or perhaps even with a role in it — may retain some semblance of a conscience.  This could mean they might be tempted by their better angels to spill the beans to a media outlet, assuming they can find one that would not immediately report them to “law enforcement.”

https://sputniknews.com/radio_the_critical_hour/201907251076352252-mueller-saga-continues-will-his-testimony-help-or-hurt-democrats/
July 24, 2019 (56 minutes)

Dan Lazare, Adjamu Baraka, and Ray joined Dr. Wilmer Leon’s “The Critical Hour” Wednesday afternoon to comment on Robert Mueller’s testimony to the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees right after Mueller was finished (in more ways than one).  Ray, who shares with Mueller the dubious distinction of having reached the “age of statutory senility,” expressed some sympathy for hangdog, forgetful, senior-moment-afflicted Mueller amid the elder-abuse to which he was subjected.

It became quickly — and sadly — clear that Mueller genuinely could not remember — or, at times, did not even seem to be aware of — some of the most salient points in his own embarrassing report, after supposedly working on it for two years plus.  And his faltering came, after he had asked for and gotten an extra week to cram for his big test(imony).  The bulk of “The Critical Hour” was devoted to more substantive issues, with interesting insights from Dan Lazare and Adjamu Baraka, as well as Wilmer Leon and Ray, on the just-completed testimony.

To objective observers, it was entirely predictable that the not-very-bright Judiciary Committee chair Jerrold Nadler and his Intelligence Committee counterpart Adam Schiff would be shooting themselves in the foot by insisting that Mueller testify.  He was not a good witness — for either side — and that is a huge understatement.  As for the benighted Mueller personally, he should have called in sick, as Ray had been suggesting for weeks.

With the Democrats, it was still more of the gift that won’t stop giving — giving, that is, to Trump and his prospects for a second term.  The emotionally and physically crestfallen, often stumbling witness was a far cry from the lusted-after Deus ex Mueller the Democrats had been hoping would magically appear and rescue the ruse.  As the hours of testimony droned on, that became abundantly clear.

During the short breaks in Mueller’s testimony to the Judiciary committee, NBC commentators could not disguise their chagrin.  Deeply disappointed Russia-gate drone Chuck Todd called Mueller’s performance a “disaster,” complaining that Mueller had “no color, no contrast.”  Andrea Mitchell bemoaned Mueller’s lack of assertiveness and called him “frail.”  It was duly noted that he appeared tired, that he will be 75 in just two weeks, and that the investigation clearly had taken its toll on him.

Were it not in complete disarray, the law profession would own up to the embarrassment — the misfeasance — displayed by this hero with clay feet.  It is nothing short of scandalous that no one, Democrat or Republican, asked Mueller to provide tangible evidence that Russia hacked into DNC computers or that there was any evidence, other than Mueller’s say-so, that the Internet Research Agency in St. Petersburg was a Russian government operation. The Congressmen and women on Judiciary are all lawyers.  They know that a prosecutor can easily convince a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich, as the saying goes in legal circles.

And yet, no one asked for any proof, beyond Mueller’s ipse dixit, that “the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion,” as stated in his report.  Are they all so afraid of being seen to be “in Putin’s pocket” that they shrink from asking the questions any lawyer should ask?

Thus, CNN is able to get away with this kind of drivel:

Washington (CNN) The biggest takeaway from Robert Mueller’s appearances on Capitol Hill is … that Russians are still interfering in US elections.  “They’re doing it as we sit here,” Mueller told lawmakers. (See: https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/24/politics/russia-trump-election-interference/index.html .)

Impeachment was mentioned, and during the interview Ray made the point, once again, that there were plenty of high crimes and misdemeanors to warrant proceeding full speed ahead to impeach President Trump, and that the Dems need to jettison the made-up stuff on Russia-gate that even Mueller was a weak reed in trying to support try as he may.  God knows there is already enough to impeach the man on.

House speaker Nancy Pelosi, however, is again putting politics ahead of the Constitution.  Ray had a front-row seat watching Pelosi and John Conyers ignore their duty under the Constitution 12 years ago, when Pelosi made the fateful decision not to impeach George W. Bush: (See: “Don’t Be Afraid, Nancy, IMPEACH” https://www.opednews.com/articles/Don-t-Be-Afraid-Nancy-IM-by-Ray-McGovern-CIA_Democrats_Impeach-Trump_Nancy-Pelosi-190111-574.html .)

Those interested in a more fact-oriented approach to all this, could do a lot worse than skimming through a couple of the articles linked below:

https://consortiumnews.com/2019/07/22/ray-mcgovern-a-non-hack-that-raised-hillarys-hackles/

https://consortiumnews.com/2019/07/16/ray-mcgovern-sic-transit-gloria-mueller/

https://consortiumnews.com/2019/07/12/concord-management-and-the-end-of-russiagate/

https://consortiumnews.com/2019/07/08/ray-mcgovern-ex-fbi-cia-officials-draw-withering-fire-on-russiagate/

https://raymcgovern.com/2019/07/06/vivisection-of-robert-mueller-after-general-surgery/

https://consortiumnews.com/2019/06/17/fbi-never-saw-crowdstrike-unredacted-or-final-report-on-alleged-russian-hacking-because-none-was-produced/

By Ray McGovern, July 22, 2019
https://consortiumnews.com/2019/07/22/ray-mcgovern-a-non-hack-that-raised-hillarys-hackles/