Former CIA officer Ray McGovern has been released by a court after being dragged out of Gina Haspel’s Senate confirmation hearing. He told RT the arrest caused him injury and that he had taken the hearing’s chairman “at his word.”
McGovern, a retired CIA analyst, walked free from a court in Washington DC, after being arrested by Capitol Police and charged with resisting detention and disrupting the Congress. Showing bruises on his hands which he said were inflicted during his arrest, he told RT: “I was shocked."
The 78-year-old said that the violent actions of the police were even more surprising for him as he was promised an opportunity to speak out at the Hasped hearing. “This may be hard to believe, but I took the chairman [presumably referring to Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr] at his word. He said: ‘If you have something to say… well, say it briefly and then leave.’ Well, I had my comment prepared very briefly, I said it… but oh my God!”
Moments after, the police intervened and began forcing him out of the hearing room as he continued shouting his questions to the committee. Once the four officers dragged him into the hallway, they wrestled him to the ground, yelling “stop resisting” and “give me your arm!” An RT video shows McGovern lying on the floor, repeatedly saying: “My hand is dislocated.”
McGovern said he shouldn’t be regarded as a hero for risking his own heath in the campaign against torture. “What we’re trying to do is to be patriots. As an army officer first and then as a government employee with the CIA, I took just one solemn oath – that was to support and defend the constitution of the US against all enemies – foreign and domestic.”
The former CIA official said he checked with the lawyers, who told him that this oath has no expiration date, adding: “All I’m trying to do is live up to my oath.”
McGovern authors anti-war pieces, sharing his thoughts about the CIA and the nature of American espionage. Prior to the Senate’s confirmation hearing on Haspel, President Donald Trump’s pick for CIA director, McGovern wrote an opinion piece arguing that torture is not only “flat wrong,” but fails to give accurate intelligence.
“So how does President Donald Trump think he can get this nomination approved? It is a sad story,” his piece read. “Polling shows that most Americans, including Catholics, have been persuaded by Hollywood films and TV series, other media, and Trump himself that torture works.”
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