Scott interviews Ray McGovern about James Clapper’s new memoir, Facts and Fears: Hard Truths from a Life in Intelligence. They touch on Clapper’s role in the buildup to the Iraq War, which he now admits, including one all-too-predictable phenomenon: Once a certain amount of time and money had been invested in mapping and other intel efforts in the Middle East, it became impossible to shut them down. Now determined to justify their own existence, these agencies were happy to provide whatever intelligence their superiors insisted they should be finding, including possible evidence that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. McGovern warns that people like Clapper, as well as Donald Rumsfeld and new CIA director Gina Haspel, should take care when traveling abroad; some foreign governments have indicated that they are willing to arrest and indict them for their violations of international law, even though the U.S. seems unlikely to.

Discussed on the show:

• Facts and Fears: Hard Truths from a Life in Intelligence
• National Imagery and Mapping Agency
• Ahmed Chalabi
• Downing Street memo
• “Clapper’s Credibility Collapses” (Antiwar.com)
• “Ray McGovern Questions James Clapper” (YouTube)
• Shock and Awe

Ray McGovern is the co-creator of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity and the former chief of the CIA’s Soviet analysts division. Read all of his work at his website: raymcgovern.com.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Kesslyn Runs, by Charles Featherstone; NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; Zen Cash; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and LibertyStickers.com.

Check out Scott’s Patreon page.

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