The National Summit to Reassess the U.S.-Israel Special Relationship – Three retired members of the CIA present their answers.
Three former high level CIA employees were the speakers on the last panel of the one day summit at the National Press Club in Washington DC. held on March 7, 2014. Paul Pillar, Ray McGovern and Philip Giraldi addressed the question: Is Israel really a U.S. ally?
Professor Paul Pillar retired in 2005 from a 28-year career in the CIA. His last position was National Intelligence Officer for the Near East and South Asia. He was Executive Assistant to Director of Central Intelligence William Webster. He studied at Oxford and Princeton and is now a non-resident senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Security Studies.
Ray McGovern is the retired CIA officer turned political activist. In his 27 years with the CIA McGovern chaired National Intelligence Estimates and prepared the President’s Daily Brief. When he retired he received the Intelligence Commendation Medal. He returned the medal in 2006 in protest at the CIA’s involvement in torture.
Philip Giraldi is a former counter-terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer who worked for 18 years for the CIA in Turkey, Italy, Germany, and Spain. He may be the most high profile ex CIA person on the panel, having appeared on Good Morning America, MSNBC, National Public Radio, the BBC, FOX News, al-Jazeera, 60 Minutes and many more.
This was the last of a four part series of reports from The National Summit to Reassess the U.S.-Israel “Special Relationship.” For all speeches of that day in video, audio or transcript go to the web site of the national summit at www.natsummit.org.
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