CREATED 5:17 AM <\/p>\n
Edward Snowden will be the topic of a speech by former CIA analyst and senior national security advisor Ray McGovern. <\/p>\n
Edited from a press release from Drury University: <\/p>\n
SPRINGFIELD, Mo., March 26, 2014 Former CIA analyst and senior national security advisor Ray McGovern will speak at Drury University at 11 a.m. on Monday, March 31 in Lay Hall Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public. McGoverns speech is titled, Edward Snowden: Patriot or Villain? McGovern met with Snowden last fall in Russia, where Snowden has been granted temporary asylum. <\/p>\n
Ray McGovern served as a CIA analyst from the early 1960s through the administration of George H.W. Bush. During the 1980s, his duties included working on the classified National Intelligence Estimate document, and preparing the Presidents Daily Brief for senior advisors to Ronald Reagan. <\/p>\n
Following his service in the government, McGovern became a political activist protesting abuses of government power, especially the manipulation of intelligence data. In January 2003, he helped form Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) to expose what its members called the falsification of intelligence to justify war on Iraq. More recently, McGovern has criticized the sweeping surveillance programs of the NSA, and U.S. policy regarding Syria and Ukraine. <\/p>\n
The lecture is sponsored and paid for by a group of Springfield citizens who are organizing a speaking tour for McGovern throughout the Midwest, and is co-hosted by Drurys Department of Political Science & Geography. Lay Hall is located on Benton Avenue, between Central and Calhoun Streets. Public parking is available along Benton and in Lot 6, across Benton just north of Central High School. <\/p>\n
For more information about the lecture, contact: Jeffery A. VanDenBerg, chair, Political Science & Geography Department, at (417) 873-6947. <\/p>\n
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