Scott Horton interviews Ray on his June 23 article Iraqis are not ‘Abstractions’ (see below)

They focus on the human cost of war as still more awful bloodletting looms – the inevitable result of the U.S. decision in 2006-07 to “surge” rather than broker real power-sharing among Shia, Sunni, and Kurds. (24 min)

At this point, a deus ex machina seems required to head off wider spread carnage.

Ray noted that in 1219 during the Crusades, Francis of Assisi sneaked into Cairo to talk with Saladin’s nephew Malik al-Kamil, then Sultan of Egypt, and emerged with the revolutionary idea that Christians can live harmoniously with Muslims.

Today’s Pope Francis, who has talked the talk about reaching out to Muslims, would do well to consider following in his namesake’s footsteps, getting on the Papal plane, and seeing if he might be instrumental in catalyzing the kind of Shia-Sunni-Kurd negotiations without which catastrophe in Iraq – and wider war – appear imminent.

(Sadly, there are all too few world leaders today with any plausible claim to moral authority.)

http://scotthorton.org/interviews/2014/06/23/062314-ray-mcgovern/

Because “attention must be paid,” special thanks to the BBC (via a faithful listener) for the below-linked sequence of 11 photos, which tell the story in a way words cannot. Do have a look.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/05/middle_east_shooting_in_tal_afar/html/3.stm

 

Ray interviewed on AwakeRadio by Catherine Watters, who heard Ray speak at the Left Forum, May 31, in NYC. Topics: Hillary Clinton; 9/11; There is a “Too Late;” What to do now, before “Too Late”

 

On June 10, Watters found herself standing in line at Barnes & Noble, Union Square, facing the hard choice as to whether Hillary Clinton’s “Hard Choices” was worth spending good money on. She (Catherine, not Hillary) talked to Ray on cell and ended up inviting him to be interviewed that evening.

Ray’s segment of the interview begins at minute 1:31:50. The first 23 min. focuses on what happened to Ray when he witnessed nonviolently three years ago at a Hillary Clinton speech, turning his back on her as she spoke passionately in defense of dissidents. For those who missed the democracynow 5-min report on this, please see:

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/2/18/ex_cia_analyst_ray_mcgovern_beaten

The rest of the discursive interview (1:54:55 – 2:10:25) deals initially with 9/11, then moves to issues like what to do about the situation of tone-deaf fellow citizens (all too reminiscent of Germany of the Thirties) too busy/distracted to notice (or care about) what is being done to them. We ran out of time before I could quote Mario Savio at Berkeley 50 years ago:

“There comes a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part, you can’t even passively take part; and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop, And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, the people who own it, that unless you’re free the machine will be prevented from working at all.”

 

Ray interviewed on RT’s “Breaking the Set”

Discussed June 8 attack on Karachi airport; how defeating terrorism is like defeating malaria. The recipe in vogue? Drone ‘em; create new terrorists; market more weapons and sprinkle more money back on the Hill.

Cui bono? The arms merchants, the “1 percent,” and the generals. Cui malo? The Bergdahls of our Army, who are initially motivated by desire to help the Afghans; and then, being there, conclude that helping Afghans is not really a what the U.S. forces were there for. Also, out-of-touch pundits on Bergdahl.