DALLAS PEACE TIMES a publication of the Dallas Peace Center
August 2009
www.dallaspeacecenter.org
Volume XXIV, Number 7
Dallas Peace Center • The Dallas Peace Center is the oldest and largest peace & justice organization in North Texas. • The Center is located on the Cathedral of Hope campus at 5910 Cedar Springs Rd. @ Inwood. • Contact us by calling 214-823-7793 or by email at admin@ dallaspeacecenter.org. • The Dallas Peace Times is a monthly publication. For more news, go to www.dallaspeacecenter. org.
Mission The mission of the Dallas Peace Center is based on a vision of reconciliation: to promote education, dialogue and action for peace and justice.
Ray McGovern spoke at the Preston Royal library while he was in Dallas.
CIA man reveals lies, challenges activists By Trish Major “What kind of people have we become?” asked Ray McGovern, halfway into his talk at the Dallas Peace Center Summer Dinner Lecture on July 9. His question refers to the breakdown of several vital institutions in America, and the wacked-out moral compass of the American people. A 27-year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency, founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, and a student of theology at Georgetown University, McGovern’s speech brought together hard facts and passionate analysis to help local activists decide their personal strategies. The breakdown of journalistic integrity and the corruption of the Bush administration came together to form a perfect storm of public ignorance and gullibility. According to McGovern, the CIA was assigned to provide bad intelligence in order to justify
a war with Iraq, and had the media been so inclined, they could have discovered most of the administration’s lies simply by using Google. In his speeches at the dinner and later at the Preston Royal Library, McGovern described how George W. Bush refused to accept intelligence that did not fit in with his plans to attack Iraq. In the official minutes of a 2002 briefing that Richard Dearlove, head of Britain’s CIA equivalent, gave to Prime Minister Tony Blair, he reported that the Bush administration had decided to launch a war with Iraq. He added, “The intelligence and facts are being fixed around the policy.” In order to “fix” the intelligence, a captured member of al Qaeda, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, was sent from Guantanamo Bay to Egypt to be tortured. Under torture, Libi gave the administration what it needed: he Continued on page 6