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HERE (BELOW) IS THE LETTER TO W.
Tell the Word
Church of the Saviour
2025 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20036
July 2, 2009
President George W. Bush
10141 Daria Place
Dallas, TX 74229
Dear President Bush,
With
this note I hope to make sure you know that I have been invited by the
Dallas Peace Center to lecture next Thursday evening, July 9, at a
dinner at FunAsia in Richardson. You and Mrs. Bush are cordially
invited.
In my remarks I plan to focus on the subject of torture. I shall
draw on my thirty years in Army Intelligence and the CIA, as well as a
lifetime of trying to follow Jesus of Nazareth. I will take issue with
your decision of February 7, 2002 that the Geneva Convention Relative
to the Treatment of Prisoners of War (August 12, 1949) does not apply
to al Qaeda and Taliban detainees; and I will explore the implications
of that decision.
Somehow it seemed not quite proper to come to Dallas without
letting you know this in advance. I also wanted to tell you that I
would welcome a chance to discuss these issues with you-either
privately or, better still, at the dinner itself.
Many have said they found informative the impromptu televised
debate I had with former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld three years
ago in Atlanta. On May 12 of this year, I had a similar public
encounter with former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen.
Richard Myers, one of the addressees of your executive memorandum of
February 7, 2002. Our dialogue focused on torture, and my colleagues
in the Harvard Business School Club of Washington, DC, have told me
they found it instructive.
I have been less successful in personally engaging former Secretary
of State Colin Powell, even though we had sustained
(every-other-morning) professional contact during the early Eighties.
I did him the courtesy of pre-briefing him on information I was about
to share during my early morning one-on-ones with his boss, Defense
Secretary Casper Weinberger-except for the President's Daily Brief
(PDB) itself and other very sensitive materials earmarked exclusively
for President Reagan, Weinberger, Secretary of State George Shultz,
and, of course, your father, the vice president.
You are familiar with the PDB briefing process. I was on the small
team of PDB writers under Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Reagan. From
1981 to 1985 I not only helped produce the PDB, but also conducted
one-on-one briefings of the handful of senior officials designated by
President Reagan. For me it was particularly rewarding to be once
again in regular contact with your father, for whom I had worked during
his brief stint as Director of Central Intelligence.
Were you to come to the dinner next Thursday, I have little doubt
that an informative discussion would ensue-a give-and-take unfiltered
by those more interested in getting a story than in getting at the
truth. I would be happy to give you a copy of my talk beforehand, so
that you would know chapter and verse of what I intend to cover and
have ample time to prepare your side of the give and take.
If you decide to attend and wish to take me up on this, please let me know the best way to get a copy of my talk to you.
With respect,
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Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, the publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. He was an Army infantry/intelligence officer and then a CIA analyst for 27 years, and is now on the Steering Group of (
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