Ray McGovern: This is not American

Worthwhile PBS News Hour debate on ``good'' CIA leaks

I'm a bit late posting this. But check out Monday's edition of the PBS News Hour featuring a debate between Richard Kerr, who was with the CIA for 32 years and was deputy director of central intelligence under the first President Bush, and Ray McGovern who was a CIA analyst for 27 years, now a member of the group Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity.

Kerr take a hardline position against the now-denied presumption that fired CIA employee Mary McCarthy leaked information about CIA secret prison camps to the Washington Post. I concur with McGovern, however, that it is essential for the public to know about government activities that constitute war crimes:

KERR: ... After all, CIA functions as an organization that does illegal things overseas. ...

MCGOVERN: That's the reason these prisons are overseas, because there is U.S. law, 18 U.S. Code 2441, the War Crimes Act, which forbids these activities, torture, rendition, putting people, disappearing people, and so forth. And so that's why these things are created overseas.

But my point is: This is not American. This is not the country that we serve. And when we see this happening, somebody has to speak out.

The video for the segment is available at the News Hour site. It's very good material at a time when the Bush Administration is starting to play harder and harder ball in its game to conceal its despicable activities.