When Silencing Dissent
Isn’t News
Exclusive: The criminal case against ex-CIA
analyst Ray McGovern for “resisting arrest”
when he was denied entry to a public speech
by retired Gen. David Petraeus appears to be
nearly over, but the image of police
brutally shielding the mighty from a
citizen’s question remains troubling, writes
Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
February 08, 2015 "ICH"
- "Consortium
News"- What if
Martin Luther King Jr. had been arrested in
Birmingham, Alabama, in April 1963 and the
U.S. news media had decided that it wasn’t a
story, just some troublemaker getting what
he deserved for breaking the law? Would King
have gone on to give his “I have a dream
speech” in August, win the Nobel Peace Prize
in 1964 and change American history?
Some Americans would insist that suppressing
news about King’s arrest during the
Birmingham protests simply couldn’t happen
here because we have a free press that – for
all its faults – knows a good story when it
sees one.
![Ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern crying out in pain while being arrested on Oct. 30, 2014, in New York City. (A screenshot via The Dissenter at firedoglake.com)](https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Screen-shot-2015-02-06-at-4.12.59-PM-300x245.png?f0ee9e)
Ex-CIA analyst Ray
McGovern crying out in pain while being
arrested on Oct. 30, 2014, in New York
City. (A screenshot from a YouTube video
via The Dissenter at firedoglake.com)
Sure, these people might
acknowledge that there may have been a time
before airplanes and television when
significant events in fairly remote parts of
the country were missed because they were
harder to get to or because editors might
not even have been aware of a newsworthy
story, but not in 1963 and surely not today,
in the Internet age when there’s Facebook
and Twitter, which news organizations
monitor regularly.
So, what if I told you
that an internationally known American – a
75-year-old Army veteran and a longtime
official at the Central Intelligence Agency,
someone who had famously questioned the
imperious Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
about his Iraq War lies in a public event
that led evening newscasts in 2006 – was
recently denied entry to a public speech by
another Iraq War icon, Gen. David Petraeus,
and – despite having paid for a ticket – was
brutally arrested by the police and jailed?
Wouldn’t that be a story?
Wouldn’t that be something that the news
media, especially the “liberal” news media,
should jump all over? Wouldn’t a newspaper
like the New York Times just love something
like that?
But what if I told you
that the New York Times wasn’t interested at
all? You might think that perhaps the event
occurred in some distant hamlet, maybe a
small college town where there wasn’t much
media, so it just fell through the cracks.
Yet, this story actually
played out in New York City, the media
capital of the world, on the Upper East Side
at the 92nd Street Y in full view
of hundreds of New Yorkers on the night of
Oct. 30, 2014. Former CIA analyst Ray
McGovern was roughly arrested, with the
police ignoring his howls of pain as they
pulled his arms behind his back. (McGovern
had recently suffered a painful shoulder
injury from a fall.}
The arrest of McGovern on
charges of resisting arrest, criminal
trespass and disorderly conduct did draw
attention from people on Facebook and
Twitter. It was described in some detail at
reasonably well-read Internet sites,
including Consortiumnews.com. The story
resonated around the world, even reaching
RT, the Moscow-based network.
Yet, it was studiously
ignored by nearly all the New York media.
When I ran a Google search for “Ray
McGovern, Petraeus, arrest,” there were
scores of articles from various Web sites
but next to nothing from the mainstream
media. Only one
brief item came up from the New
York Daily News with a misleading headline
saying McGovern was “trying to crash” the
Petraeus speech (although the article did
note that McGovern had bought a $45 ticket).
McGovern, who has become a
prominent critic of recent U.S. war policies
(and who writes frequently for
Consortiumnews.com), called me the day
before the event and said he planned to
attend Petraeus’s speech with hopes that he
might be able to ask a question from the
audience, like he had in challenging
Rumsfeld.
But someone in authority
apparently got wind of McGovern’s plan – he
still is curious how that happened – and he
was intercepted when he arrived at the 92nd
Street Y. A security guard addressed him by
name, “Ray, you’re not welcome here” – and
the NYPD was prepositioned to arrest him.
As the police pinned his
arms behind him – wrenching his injured
shoulder – McGovern screamed in pain as
bystanders unsuccessfully implored the
police not to behave so brutally. The arrest
was captured on an amateur video (uploaded
to YouTube by April Watters). It
is not pleasant to watch.
Probably some Americans
feel that McGovern got what he deserved for
even thinking about posing a pointed
question to a “hero” like retired Gen.
Petraeus, who was speaking along with one of
his neocon friends, Council on Foreign
Affairs honcho Max Boot, who, like Petraeus,
had been all gung-ho for the Iraq War.
Having briefed senior U.S.
government officials for years while at the
CIA, McGovern is not intimidated by some
growling response from a powerful man. Nor
is he scared of getting booed by an audience
enthrall to a famous speaker.
So, in that sense,
McGovern might well have “disrupted” the
event with an impertinent question, possibly
about how the Iraqi Army that Petraeus has
boasted about training so well collapsed in
the face of ragtag militants from the
Islamic State in 2014.
That might have caused an
uncomfortable moment or two, but isn’t that
what democracy and freedom of speech are all
about, the ability for a citizen to question
the mighty? And, really, is it the job
of police in a “free society” to roughly
arrest a citizen who objects to being denied
entry to a public event because of his
perceived political opinions — and to
prevent the citizen from having the chance
to ask a question?
Though he lives in
Arlington, Virginia, McGovern had to return
to New York for a court appearance on Feb.
4. There, the judge granted what’s called an
“adjournment in contemplation of dismissal,”
meaning that the charges will go away if
McGovern doesn’t commit any new offenses.
Advised by his pro bono attorney, Moira
Meltzer-Cohen, McGovern accepted the offer,
rather than extend the legal fight over what
appeared to be a First Amendment issue.
But perhaps what should
alarm Americans the most is that the New
York Times and other major media in New York
City see nothing newsworthy about a citizen
being silenced, roughed up and arrested for
simply hoping to ask the esteemed David
Petraeus a question.
[For more on this topic, see
Consortiumnews.com’s “Petraeus
Spared Ray McGovern’s Question”,
“Stifling
Dissent on the Upper East Side,”
and McGovern’s “A
Pointed Letter to Gen. Petraeus.”]
Investigative reporter Robert
Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories
for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the
1980s. You can buy his latest book,
America’s Stolen
Narrative, either in print
here or
as an e-book (from
Amazon
and
barnesandnoble.com).
You also can order Robert Parry’s trilogy on
the Bush Family and its connections to
various right-wing operatives for only $34.
The trilogy includes America’s
Stolen Narrative. For details on
this offer,
click here.