Blair role in starting war on Iraq debated: (minutes 00:00 to 15:10); Blair’s wealth creation (15:10 to 26:15); Rentoul on handling Kazakhstan’s Nazarbayev, including “invade” (at min. 26:15); and Ray, mercifully, given the last word (27:25 to end)
http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/segment/tony-blair-business-empire/5161dd202b8c2a61a600043d
MUST READING; Southern Metropolis Daily. If you don’t get it, you don’t get it!
http://epaper.oeeee.com/C/html/2013-03/31/content_1832066.htm
Note from Ray, April 2, 2013: Okay, as most of you have figured out, this was for April Fool’s Day. However, I just got an encouraging reaction from a former senior U.S. diplomat/Chinese linguist. He found the language fluid and natural Chinese; said that the Southern Metropolis Daily is read all over China, not just in the south; and offered the view that interviews like this help restore our lost credibility. So, for those speaking out on such matters (in this case the origins of the war on Iraq), you never know when you might be reaching millions of people. Just not Americans. 🙁
http://carnegieendowment.org/2013/03/28/china-america-and-shifting-balance-of-prestige/frd3
Ray was able to ask a nostalgic question (from his experience analyzing Sino-Soviet relations in the 60s) toward the end (starting at minute 80:18), and Chas’s response was characteristically insightful. One can learn an awful lot, and be thoroughly entertained in the process, by watching the whole event. For those unfamiliar with Chas, Here’s the blurb Carnegie used to introduce the event:
Richard Nixon’s 1972 decision to normalize relations with the China changed the global political balance in deep and lasting ways. Today’s U.S.-China relationship is in a place few could have imagined in 1972 … As the stakes grow larger, it will become even more important to manage the relationship in a sensible manner. From his role as Nixon’s interpreter on the president’s first trip to China and throughout his 30-year foreign service career, Chas W. Freeman, Jr. has been deeply involved in the U.S.-China relationship. At Carnegie, he discusses his recently released book, “Interesting Times: China, America, and the Shifting Balance of Prestige,” [[ and answered an hours-worth of questions.
Brave New Foundation video on Abrahamic Tradition (5 min)
It’s simple: Thou Shalt Not Kill except in genuine self-defense; Worst in jesuitical sophistry used to “justify” killing by drone
McGovern gets Rumsfeld to lie (yet again) on live TV, May 4, 2006; then watching the “mainstream” pundits scramble re how to react that evening; whoring pre-war “intelligence;” the real reasons for attacking Iraq summed up by acronym “O.I.L.”: Oil, Israel, and Logistics (military bases); but how did the neocons think they could get away with it, once no WMD were found? And, now, how to hold war criminals accountable. (23 min)
Supervisor of Intelligence Estimate Hailed for Helping Prevent War with Iran
(VIDEOS, Article, Award Citation, and Original Press Release)
The Real News Network, based on interviews regarding Sam Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence presented at Oxford Union, Jan. 23, 2013 (17 minutes)
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=33&Itemid=74&jumival=803
Thomas Fingar Acceptance Speech
Sam Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence
Debating Chamber, Oxford Union, Jan. 23, 2013
Julian Assange, the 2010 awardee of the Sam Adams Award for Integrity, speech live-streamed into the 2012 award presentation in Debating Chamber, Oxford Union, Jan. 23, 2013. Original, as delivered, with “Collateral Murder” video running on screen behind Assange; (21 minutes)
Remarks by Sam Adams Associates Annie Machon, Tom Drake, Ann Wright, Brady Kiesling, and Craig Murray; at Award Ceremony Honoring Thomas Fingar
Oxford Union Debating Chamber, January 23, 2013 (23 min.)
Lies, Damned Lies, & Newspaper Reporting: Annie Machon comments
on The Guardian’s Hatchet Job on Julian Assange, Oxford, Jan. 30, 2013
Following are the texts of the Citation for Dr. Fingar’s Sam Adams Award and the earlier press release regarding the evening of January 23 at the Oxford Union
Sam Adams Award to Thomas Fingar: CITATION
The Sam Adams Associates
Corner-Brightener Candlestick
Awarded to Thomas Fingar
Know all ye by these presents that Thomas Fingar is hereby awarded the Corner-Brightener Candlestick, presented by Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence.
In 2005, when Tom Fingar assumed responsibility for supervising the preparation of National Intelligence Estimates (NIEs), the discipline of intelligence analysis had been corrupted on both sides of the Atlantic. We know from the Downing Street Minutes of July 23, 2002 that “the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy” prior to the US/UK attack on Iraq.
Integrity and professionalism were the only cure. Dr. Fingar oversaw the landmark 2007 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran, which concluded with “high confidence” that Iran had halted its nuclear weapon design and weaponization work in 2003. That NIE was issued with the unanimous approval of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies. Its key judgments have been revalidated every year since by the Director of National Intelligence.
The Estimate’s findings were a marked departure from earlier assessments of Iran’s nuclear program. That it was instrumental in thwarting an attack on Iran is seen in President George W. Bush’s own memoir in which he complains that the “eye-popping” findings of the 2007 NIE stayed his hand: “How could I possibly explain using the military to destroy the nuclear facilities of a country the intelligence community said had no active nuclear weapons program?”
Presented this 23rd day of January 2013 at Oxford University by admirers of the example set by our former colleague, Sam Adams.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
PRESS RELEASE FOR SAM ADAMS ASSOCIATES FOR INTEGRITY IN INTELLIGENCE AWARD EVENING, DEBATING CHAMBER, OXFORD UNION, JANUARY 23, 2013
Former U.S. Intelligence Analysis Chief to Receive Award at Oxford
Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence is pleased to announce the selection of Thomas Fingar for its annual award for integrity in intelligence. Dr. Fingar served from 2005 to 2008 as Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Analysis and as chairman of the National Intelligence Council – the office that produces National Intelligence Estimates.
Dr. Fingar oversaw the landmark 2007 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran, which concluded with “high confidence” that Iran had halted its nuclear weapon design and weaponization work in 2003. The NIE was issued with the unanimous approval of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies. Its key judgments have been revalidated every year since by the Director of National Intelligence.
In keeping with the ethos of intelligence analysis, the Estimate was aimed solely at arriving at the truth about Iran’s nuclear program. It began with a bottom-up assessment of existing evidence but benefited also from intelligence acquired and analyzed in 2007. The Estimate’s findings were a marked departure from earlier assessments of Iran’s nuclear program. Thus, the White House instructed the drafters to create an unclassified version of the key judgments for publication. Public reaction, plus strong opposition by senior military officers to war on Iran, played a key role in thwarting plans by the Bush/Cheney administration to launch war in 2008.
In his memoir “Decision Points,” former President Bush acknowledged that the “eye-popping” findings of the 2007 NIE stayed his hand: “How could I possibly explain using the military to destroy the nuclear facilities of a country the intelligence community said had no active nuclear weapons program?”
Sam Adams Associates will present the award to Dr. Fingar on January 23rd at the Oxford Union, Oxford University, where he will teach a course on global trends and transnational issues as part of Stanford University’s Bing Overseas Studies Program – a course open to Oxford students, as well. He will also give guest lectures and public talks while at Oxford (January-March). At Stanford, Dr. Fingar is the inaugural Oksenberg-Rohlen Distinguished Fellow in the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.
Before taking the helm at the National Intelligence Council in 2005, Dr. Fingar served as Assistant Secretary of State in charge of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (2004–2005), its principal deputy (2001–2003), and head of analysis (1994–2000). Thomas Fingar holds a PhD in political science from Stanford. His most recent book is Reducing Uncertainty: Intelligence Analysis and National Security (Stanford University Press, 2011).
At Monthly Witness of Dorothy Day Catholic Worker Witness (11 min)
Long feature by Mark Mazzetti, Charlie Savage, & Scott Shane. What does it show?
Interview of Ray McGovern by Keith Johnson of American Free Press; (48 min.)
Relaxed, sometimes black humorous, conversation covers a lot of territory
Newly released research study documents complicity of 54 countries in CIA transfer of 136 prisoners for “verschaerfte Vernehmung,” (literal Gestapo-speak for “enhanced interrogation techniques” – which have now been sanitized by Washington Establishment into simple, acronym-euphemism “EIT”)
Ray interviewed on Feb. 27, 2013 by Nick Harper, Feature Story News (5 min.)