Excuse the pun, but Sulick droned on about the glories of public "service" and his distinction of being the first CIA officer to set foot in the Soviet Republics after 1991 -- because he had taken Russian at Fordham.
We learned that the best thing about his doctorate in literature was that he could make small talk with Russian intelligence targets about Dostoevsky.
We learned that in the 1950s the U.S. had "removed the regime and restored the Shah [of Iran] to his throne." That would be the elected Mossadegh government, overthrown by a CIA-led coup\. A little truth, spun as a positive achievement.
Most of the questions asked read from the audience were insipid."How does one join the CIA?"Answer: "There's a website.You can apply online."Imagine that! I found Sulick's comments to be banally evil, obvious, shallow, and self-serving.
But one question seemed to stump him. "What's the definition of terrorism?"
From my seat in the second row, he looked like a deer in headlights.For some unfathomable reason, Sulick invited Ray to come up on stage and answer the question, as Ray "used to work in analysis with the Agency."
Ray told a story of that morning, having breakfast with two atheists who were questioning him about the front-page New York Times story on the pope hiding child-abusing priests, "Memo to Pope Described Transfer of Child-Abusing Priest."
The question was: "Why does the church care only about the first nine months of life? And not for the living," including those now being killed by the CIA drone program?
Ray was eloquent and sincere as always, and the mike was cut off at about the 60-second mark.
About 20 percent of the audience clapped and cheered as he sat down.The blue-blazered student government officer sitting in front of him -- the one who weeded out the challenging questions -- turned around and said to Ray, "you're an a**hole."
Which was the only thing any of them said to him the rest of the evening.We didn't stand for the ovation.
It was good to be with the people at Fordham last night who are trying to stand for justice.We sat til late talking with a couple of students about the silence of the Jesuits against the government, and the slickness of the school administration in co-opting students.
I can see from Fordham's history (Father Dan Berrigan, the anti-war priest was on the faculty) and ties to liberation theologists in Central America, why they would commemorate Romero.But when the same school brings a senior CIA official to lecture and there is no challenge posed, critical thinking is MIA.
Faculty, alumni, and students applauded an operative whose office has been responsible for civilian deaths by drone bombing and for the torture of detainees -- and probably more that we don't know about yet.I felt battered by spending two hours with them.
However, it was good to work with the anti-war students, and spend time with Ray McGovern, who left the CIA many years ago, and devotes his life to exposing and stopping much of what they do now.Ray is not just an adviser to War Criminals Watch, he's a genuine resister.See Ray in action confronting Donald Rumsfeld May 5, 2006.
We need more of this response to war criminals!
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