Ray radio interview with Tom Klammer, “Tell Somebody,” KKFI, Kansas City

(45 min., but can skip the first 3 min.)

http://tellsomebodyradio.blogspot.com/2013/05/ray-mcgovern-with-emphasis-on-media.html

Tom’s intro starts with these words from Ray:

“Two weeks ago I celebrated my fiftieth year in Washington D.C. … reflecting on all the changes I’ve seen, it seems there’s one change that dwarfs all the others in importance; and that is, simply, that we no longer have in any real sense, a free media. That’s big. That could not be bigger!”

Ray talks about his recent interactions with university students and others, as he speaks about the post-9/11 world, alternative media, the Fawning Corporate Media, lies about UN weapons inspectors, the congenital birth defect of the CIA, and former General/CIA director/now professor David Petraeus.

WMPG – Southern Maine Community Radio: “Big Talk”


http://www.wmpg.org/archivefiles/bigtalk.htm (26 min.)

Topics include: Should Truman’s Baby (the CIA) be Thrown Out With the (covert action) Bathwater He Never Intended; Was it Ray or the agency that got thrown off its horse/course on the Road to Damascus (oops, meant Baghdad)?; The Saving Grace – CIA Analysts’ Role in Stopping War on Iran Planned for 2008 (read, for example, George W. Bush’s lament about this in a part of his memoir that he must have written himself); WikiLeaks and Julian Assange; the Phoenix-like rise of a “Fifth Estate” from the ashes of the Fourth.

Ray notes that it was quite refreshing to be beyond the Capital Beltway where folks can’t seem to pull themselves out of the quicksand of faux-issues like Benghazi.

Tony Blair’s Empire: Ray in HUFFPOSTLIVE discussion, moderated by Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, with John Rentoul of “The Independent on Sunday” and Stephanie Baker of “Bloomberg Markets”

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

 

 

Finally, in recent interview, Ray let’s it all hang out!

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. 🙁

 

Chas Freeman gave a tour de force discussing his new book on China on March 28 at the Carnegie Endowment.

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.