March 3, 2006
I Do Not Wish to Be Associated With Torture
by Ray McGovern
Note: Ray McGovern and 15 others took action Thursday in the halls of
Congress. The 16 donned orange jumpsuits similar to those worn by
detainees at Guant=E1namo Bay. They wore gags over their mouths
decorated with one word - torture. Not another word needed to be said
as they walked the halls of Congress. McGovern, a 27-year veteran of
the CIA, also returned his Intelligence Commendation Award medallion,
which was given to him for "especially commendable service." He
delivered the medal to Congressman Pete Hoekstra along with the letter
below.
Hon. Pete Hoekstra, Chair
House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
Washington, D.C.
Dear Congressman Hoekstra:
As a matter of conscience, I am returning the Intelligence Commendation
Award medallion given me for "especially commendable service" during my
27-year career in CIA. The issue is torture, which inhabits the same
category as rape and slavery - intrinsically evil. I do not wish to
be associated, however remotely, with an agency engaged in torture.
Reports in recent years that CIA personnel were torturing detainees
were highly disturbing. Confirmation of a sort came last fall, when CIA
Director Porter Goss and ***** Cheney - dubbed by the Washington Post
"Vice President for Torture" - descended on Sen. John McCain to
demand that the CIA be exempted from his amendment's ban on torture.
Subsequent reports implicated agency personnel in several cases of
prisoner abuse in Iraq, including a few in which detainees died during
interrogation.
The obeisance of CIA directors George Tenet and Porter Goss in heeding
illegal White House directives has done irreparable harm to the CIA and
the country - not to mention those tortured and killed. That you, as
Chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, show
more deference to the White House than dedication to your oversight
responsibilities under the Constitution is another profound
disappointment. How can you and your counterpart, Sen. Pat Roberts,
turn a blind eye to torture - letting some people get away,
literally, with murder - and square that with your conscience?
If German officials who were ordered to do such things in the 1930s had
spoken out early and loudly enough, the German people might have been
alerted to the atrocities being perpetrated in their name and tried
harder to stop them. When my grandchildren ask, "What did you do,
Grandpa, to stop the torture," I want to be able to tell them that I
tried to honor my oath, taken both as an Army officer and an
intelligence officer, to defend the Constitution of the United States
- and that I not only spoke out strongly against the torture, but
also sought a symbolic way to dissociate myself from it.
We Americans have become accustomed to letting our institutions do our
sinning for us. I abhor the corruption of the CIA in the past several
years, believe it to be beyond repair, and do not want my name on any
medallion associated with it. Please destroy this one.
Yours truly,
Ray McGovern
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