Seymour Hersch

[doodadem]

Anyone hear Sy Hersch on Democracy Now this morning? You probably know, he's the investigative reporter that first blew the lid off the Abu Grahib prison scandal. But he won a Pulitzer prize for his reporting of the Me Lei massacre in Viet Nam.
He draws some very interesting parallels between the two wars. I'd like to get his new book, "Chain of Command"....has anyone read it? I believe he said he reveals in it how Rumsfeld and Chenney tried to break into his office/files?!

[Mojambo]

1. Yeah, I saw that.

Hersch is amazing. Every time I see him I wonder how it is that he hasn't been "disappeared" yet.

Just to be safe, he should begin every communication he has with anyone by loudly saying, "I am not suicidal."

Great, great reporter.

[punpirate]

2. The attempts to get at Hersh...

... by Rumsfeld and Cheney occurred, I think, in the middle `70s, when they were in the Ford administration. They had proposed having him investigated for a story he broke which involved some description of some spying going on (I believe it was related to submarines skirting Russian coastlines when much safer means were available for getting the same information), and I believe there was some talk of doing a bag job on his office, ala' Daniel Ellsberg; I think that was nixed--too close in time to Watergate for that.

But, yes, Hersh, almost always, is interesting reading.

Cheers.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

3. I saw that too

I think I remember him saying that the Chalabi pardon given by the King of Jordan was Bush's idea. Bush approached the King of Jordan on his last visit to the U.S. and asked him for a special favor: the pardon of Chalabi. The King was shocked, because the Chalabi matter is very controversial among the Jordanian public. It looks like Bush has also put pressure on Talabani in Iraq to make it look like it's his idea, not Bush's.

[judy from nj]

4. Chain of Command is a great book

I just finished reading "Chain of Command". Its an excellent book. Almost everything we were told that was going on in Afganistan and Iraq was not true.

[Adelante]

5. Did he write about Operation Anaconda?

I mean, the circumstances of his deciding not to write the story at the time?

[judy from nj]

6. Yes

He quotes General Clark.

[Adelante]

7. Basically this story?

Let me tell you the one I like the most; aside from the obvious stuff about Abu Ghraib, there was a story I didn't write two years ago about Operation Anaconda. I didn't write it because, oh, a lot of complicated reasons. One, it was very hostile to our soldiers, and the military, and General Franks, and Hagenbeck, a very nasty story. And then secondly, there was bad blood between the Marine Corps, and General Franks, and CentComm and the Air Force, and it just didn't, uh ... it's one of those stories. The real reason in a funny way is that even though my sources were angry in talking about it, it's one of the stories they really would have regretted, because you're talking about internecine warfare among the services. It's about boys ... anyway.

Q-They would have regretted it?

They would have regretted talking to me about that. In there is an account of the Marines insisting that General Franks sign an MOU, a memorandum of understanding, of how the Marines would be used. We're talking about in combat, this kind of war going on between the services. And, you know, I probably guess it was the right decision, because I had to do obviously an alternate history of the war. And obviously there were certain people talking to me. People on the inside know what's going on. And so, I probably agree it was OK to do it. But I felt bad when I saw Clark later. I had talked to Clark about the story at the time. Then two years later I ran into him when he was running for president, or right before, and he said, "Whatever happened to that story?" I said, "Well, I just decided not to write it." And he said, "Well, you should have. It's your job."

He's an amazingly straight guy. A difficult guy. "You should have." He basically told me, "Punk kid. You didn't know what you were doing." I also respect him because ...

Q-Let's talk about some of these revelations.

Oh, so that was the one I liked the most.



http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091904D.shtml

I want to read the book, in any case, but it's hard to get books here, so it may be a while, and I wondered if he told this story in the book.

Thanks, Judy.