Kremlin Readout Begins With Its Paramount Priority: Putin & Witkoff focused on Ukraine. “Once again, it was noted that Russia-US relations could be placed on a totally different, mutually beneficial footing, in stark contrast to relations in recent years.”
Thoughts on Upcoming Summits
BREAKING: Trump’s chest-thumping re upcoming summits w/Putin & later w/Zelensky is a climb-down from Trump’s Friday deadline for cockamamie sanctions. European leaders informed but excluded. Intel truth-teller on Ukraine: what’s a Deputy NIO? A case study.
Chapter and Verse on Clinton’s Effort to Tie Trump to Putin
Discussed the Appendix https://consortiumnews.com/2025/08/01/ray-mcgovern-the-deep-states-burst-appendix/ that burst on July 30, when Sen. Grassley released classified Appendix of Durham’s long but toothless report. Appendix has chapter and verse on Clinton’s effort to tie Trump to Putin before the 2016 election.
Roger Waters and the Spirits of Women Martyrs
Roger Waters summons the spirits of women martyrs – Rachel Corrie, Sheeren Abu Akleh, Sophie Scholl, Anne Frank – to penetrate perpetrators’ penthouses and help “Open Their Eyes”. Take heart, still with us are Medea Benjamin, Coleen Rowley, Ann Wright.
Promoting Intelligence that “Wasn’t Really There”
Clapper was hawking his memoir Hard Truths in Intelligence. In book he admits he found Iraqi WMD that “wasn’t really there.” (Transcript at https://raymcgovern.com/2019/01/06/transcript-when-clapper-was-asked-real-questions/ ) I charged him with doing likewise finding Russian hacking of DNC “that wasn’t really there”
https://consortiumnews.com/2025/08/02/clappers-claptrap/
Turns Out It Was Julianne’s Idea
Sen. Grassley showed some cojones in releasing the Appendix to John Durham’s anemic report on intelligence abuses in 2016. Turns out it was “Ambassador” Julianne Smith who persuaded Clinton to lie and blame Putin for “hacking” those embarrassing DNC emails
https://consortiumnews.com/2025/08/01/ray-mcgovern-the-deep-states-burst-appendix/
The Kind of Intelligence Briefing the CIA Used to Give
My colleague Graham Fuller, who joined me in CIA’s Junior Officers Training Program in early 1963, and I gave Nima the kind of Intelligence Briefing that CIA gave to JFK. No BS, no exclusive focus on worldwide threats – but rather on opportunities as well.