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Seymour Hersh

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Seymour Hersh
Seymour Hersh

Seymour Myron (Sy) Hersh (born April 8, 1937) is a American Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist and author based in Washington, DC. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker magazine on military and security matters.

His work first gained worldwide recognition in 1969 for exposing the My Lai massacre and its cover-up during the Vietnam War, for which he received the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. His 2004 reports on the US Military's treatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison gained much attention.

Hersh received the 2004 George Polk Award for Magazine Reporting<ref>George Polk Awards for Journalism press release. Long Island University. Retrieved on November 22, 2006.</ref> given annually by Long Island University to honor contributions to journalistic integrity and investigative reporting.

In 2006 he reported on the US military's plans for Iran, which allegedly called for the use of nuclear weapons against that country.

Contents

[edit] Early years

Hersh was born into a Jewish family in Chicago and graduated from the University of Chicago. He began his career in journalism as a police reporter for the City News Bureau in 1959. He later became a correspondent for United Press International in South Dakota. In 1963 he went on to become a Chicago and Washington correspondent for the Associated Press. During the 1968 presidential election, he served as press secretary for the campaign of Senator Eugene McCarthy. Later that year, Hersh was hired as a reporter for the Washington Bureau of The New York Times, where he served from 1972 to 1975 and again in 1979. Hersh was also active in investigating the CIA's Project Jennifer.

His 1983 book The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House won him the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Los Angeles Times book prize in biography. In 1985, Hersh contributed to the PBS television documentary Buying the Bomb.

[edit] The My Lai Massacre

On November 12, 1969, Hersh broke the story of the My Lai Massacre, in a report originally released by Dispatch News Service, prompting widespread condemnation around the world and reducing public support for the Vietnam War in the United States. The explosive news of the massacre fueled the outrage of the American peace movement, which demanded the withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam. It also led more potential draftees to file for conscientious objector status. Hersh wrote about the massacre and its cover-up in My Lai 4: A Report on the Massacre and Its Aftermath and Cover-up: The Army's Secret Investigation of the Massacre at My Lai 4.

[edit] Mordechai Vanunu and Robert Maxwell

In his 1991 book The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy, Hersh wrote that Nicholas Davies, the foreign editor of the Daily Mirror, had tipped off the Israeli Embassy in London about whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu. Vanunu had given information about Israel's nuclear weapons program first to the Sunday Times and later to the Sunday Mirror. At the time, the Sunday Mirror and its sibling newspaper, the Daily Mirror were owned by media magnate Robert Maxwell who was alleged to have had contacts with Israel's intelligence services. According to Hersh, Davies had also worked for the Mossad. Vanunu was later lured by Mossad from London to Rome, kidnapped, returned to Israel, and sentenced to 18 years in jail. Davies and Maxwell published an anti-Vanunu story that was claimed to be part of a disinformation campaign on behalf of the Israeli government.<ref>Obuszewski, Max. "The US campaign to free Modechai Vanunu", The Baltimore Chronicle, 4 September 1996. Retrieved on 2006-11-20.</ref>

Hersh repeated the allegations during a press conference held in London to publicize his book. No British newspaper would publish the allegations because of Maxwell's famed litigiousness. However, two British MPs raised the matter in the House of Commons, which meant that British newspapers were able to report what had been said without fear of being sued for libel. Maxwell called the claims "ludicrous, a total invention," although perhaps coincidentally, he sacked Nick Davies shortly thereafter.<ref>Laurance, Ben, John Hooper, David Sharrock, Georgina Henry. "Maxwell's body found in sea", The Guardian, 6 November 1991. Retrieved on 2006-11-20.</ref>

[edit] Attack on pharmaceutical factory in Sudan

On August 20, 1998, Hersh strongly criticized the aerial destruction of the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory, the largest pharmaceutical factory in Sudan — providing about half the medicines produced in Sudan — by United States aircraft during Bill Clinton's presidency.<ref>Seymour Hersh. "The Missiles of August", The New Yorker, 12 October 1998. Retrieved on 2006-11-20.</ref>

[edit] Iraq

Hersh has written a series of articles for The New Yorker magazine detailing military and security matters surrounding the US-led invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq. In a 2004 article, he alleged that Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld circumvented the normal intelligence analysis function of the CIA in their quest to make the case for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Another article, Lunch with the Chairman, led Richard Perle, a subject of the article, to call Hersh the "closest thing American journalism has to a terrorist." <ref>http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0303/09/le.00.html</ref> Perle publicly threatened to sue Hersh for libel in the United Kingdom where the standard of proof is much lower, but failed to file suit before the statute of limitations ran out. <ref>http://slate.msn.com/id/2097188/</ref>

In May 2004, Hersh published a series of articles describing the treatment of detainees by US military police at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, Iraq. The articles include allegations that private contractors contributed to prisoner mistreatment and that intelligence agencies such as the CIA ordered torture in order to break prisoners for interrogations. They also allege that torture is a usual practice in other U.S. prisons as well, e.g. in Afghanistan and Guantanamo. Hersh went on to publish an article claiming that the abuses were part of a secret interrogation program, known as "Copper Green", expanded to Iraq with the direct approval of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, in an attempt to deal with the growing insurgency there. Much of his material is based on the Army's own internal investigations. <ref>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4894033/</ref>

[edit] Iran

In January 2005, Hersh alleged that the USA was conducting covert operations in Iran to identify targets for possible strikes. This was dismissed by both US government as well as the Government of Iran. However, US government has not categorically denied that US troops have been on the ground in Iran. Hersh also claimed that Pakistan and USA have struck a "Khan-for-Iran" deal in which Washington will look the other way at Pakistan's nuclear transgressions and not demand handing over of its nuclear proliferator A Q Khan, in return for Islamabad's cooperation in neutralising Iran's nuclear plans. This was also denied by officials of the governments of the US and Pakistan.

In the April 17, 2006 issue of The New Yorker <ref>http://www.newyorker.com/printables/fact/060417fa_fact</ref>, Hersh reported on the Bush Administration's purported plans for an air strike within Iran. Of particular note in his article is that an American nuclear first strike (possibly using the B61-11 bunker-buster nuclear weapon) is under consideration to eliminate underground Iranian uranium enrichment facilities. In response, President Bush cited Hersh's reportage as "wild speculation" <ref>http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/10/world/10cnd-prexy.html</ref> but did not deny its veracity. Hersh's reporting has not been independently confirmed.

[edit] Lebanon

In August of 2006, in an article in The New Yorker, Hersh claimed that the White House gave the green light for Israel to plan and execute an attack on the mounting threat of Hezbollah in Lebanon. Supposedly, communication between the Israeli government and the US administration about this came as early as two months in advance of the capture of two Israeli soldiers and the killing of eight others by Hezbollah prior to the Israel/Lebanon conflict in July of 2006. <ref>http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060821fa_fact</ref> The US administration have denied these claims. <ref>http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-fg-hersh14aug14,1,3102351.story?coll=la-news-a_section</ref> On November 20th it is reported that Hersh purported in the New Yorker that a CIA analysis based on technical intelligence found no conclusive evidence of a secret Iranian nuclear weapons program.

[edit] Criticisms

[edit] Kennedy research

Hersh's 1997 book about John F. Kennedy, "The Dark Side of Camelot", made a number of controversial assertions about the former president, including that he had had a "first marriage" to a woman named Durie Malcolm that was never terminated, and that he had a close working relationship with mob boss Sam Giancana. In a Los Angeles Times review, Edward Jay Epstein cast doubt on these and other assertions, writing, "this book turns out to be, alas, more about the deficiencies of investigative journalism than about the deficiencies of John F. Kennedy." <ref>"Hersh's Dark Camelot", Los Angeles Times, December 28, 1997</ref> Responding to the book, historian and former Kennedy aide Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. called Hersh "the most gullible investigative reporter I've ever encountered."<ref>"Hersh's History"], Barbara Comstock, National Review, May 20, 2004</ref>

[edit] Speeches

Those who criticize Hersh's credibility especially point to allegations Hersh has made in public speeches and interviews, rather than in print. In an interview with New York Magazine, Hersh made a distinction between the standards of strict factual accuracy for his print reporting and the leeway he allows himself in speeches, in which he may talk informally about stories still being worked on or blur information to protect his sources. "Sometimes I change events, dates, and places in a certain way to protect people... I can’t fudge what I write. But I can certainly fudge what I say." <ref>http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/people/features/11719/</ref> The New Yorker, where much of Hersh's current print reporting appears, rigorously fact-checks all of its writers[citation needed].

Some of Hersh's speeches concerning the Iraq War have described violent incidents involving U.S. troops in Iraq. In July 2004, during the height of the Abu Ghraib scandal, he alleged that American troops sexually assaulted young boys:

   
Seymour Hersh
 Basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys, children, in cases that have been recorded, the boys were sodomized, with the cameras rolling, and the worst above all of them is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking. That your government has. They’re in total terror it’s going to come out.<ref>http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/people/features/11719/index.html</ref>
   
Seymour Hersh

In a subsequent interview with New York Magazine, Hersh regretted that "I actually didn’t quite say what I wanted to say correctly...it wasn’t that inaccurate, but it was misstated. The next thing I know, it was all over the blogs. And I just realized then, the power of—and so you have to try and be more careful." <ref>http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/people/features/11719/index.html</ref> In his book, Chain of Command, he wrote that one of the witness statements he had read described the rape of a boy by a foreign contract interpreter at Abu Ghraib, during which a woman took pictures. <ref>http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/people/features/11719/index.html</ref>

At a Columbia University speech given by Hersh in June 2004, author Rick Perlstein reported

   
Seymour Hersh
 [Hersh] said he had seen all the Abu Ghraib pictures. He said, "You haven't begun to see evil..." then trailed off. He said, "horrible things done to children and women prisoners, as the cameras run." <ref>http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/2004_archives/000987.html</ref>
   
Seymour Hersh

In an interview with KQED host Michael Krasny on October 8, 2004 <ref>http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/10/11_hersh.shtml</ref>, Hersh reports speaking with a first lieutenant in charge of a unit stationed halfway between Baghdad and the Syrian border.


   
Seymour Hersh
 His group was bivouacking outside of town in an agricultural area, and had hired 30 or so Iraqis to guard a local granary. A few weeks passed. They got to know the men they hired, and to like them. Then orders came down from Baghdad that the village would be "cleared." Another platoon from the soldier's company came and executed the Iraqi granary guards. All of them.

He said they just shot them one by one. And his people, and he, and the villagers of course, went nuts," Hersh said quietly. "He was hysterical, totally hysterical. He went to the company captain, who said, 'No, you don't understand, that's a kill. We got 36 insurgents. Don't you read those stories when the Americans say we had a combat maneuver and 15 insurgents were killed?'

   
Seymour Hersh

In a speech at McGill University in October 2006, after describing a video he had seen in which U.S. troops, following an attack on their convoy, had fired upon and killed a group of nearby soccer players, Hersh offered the assessment that "there has never been an [American] army as violent and murderous as our army has been in Iraq.” <ref>http://www.mcgilldaily.com/view.php?aid=5450</ref>

Hersh's speeches describing these incidents are not part of his body of print reporting and therefore not subjected to the fact-checking and independent verification given to his print stories.


[edit] Bibliography

  • Hersh, Seymour M. (foreword) (2005) in Scott Ritter: Iraq Confidential: The Untold Story of the Intelligence Conspiracy to Undermine the UN and Overthrow Saddam Hussein (Hardcover), Nation Books, ISBN 1-56025-852-7
  • Hersh, Seymour M. (2004). Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-019591-6.
  • Hersh, Seymour M. (1998). Against All Enemies: Gulf War Syndrome: The War Between America's Ailing Veterans and Their Government. Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-42748-3.
  • Hersh, Seymour M. (1997). The Dark Side of Camelot. Little, Brown & Company. ISBN 0-316-36067-8.
  • Hersh, Seymour M. (1991). The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy. Random House. ISBN 0-394-57006-5.
  • Hersh, Seymour M. (1986). The Target Is Destroyed: What Really Happened to Flight 007 and What America Knew About It. Random House. ISBN 0-394-54261-4.
  • Hersh, Seymour M. (1983). The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-44760-2. Excerpts from The Price of Power hosted by Third World Traveler
  • "Huge CIA Operation Reported in US against Antiwar Forces, Other Dissidents During Nixon Years" by Seymour Hersh, New York Times, December 22 1974 — Hersh's article detailing CIA covert operations which eventually led to the formation of the Church Committee.
  • Hersh, Seymour M. (1972). Cover-up: the Army's secret investigation of the massacre at My Lai 4. Random House. ISBN 0-394-47460-0.
  • Hersh, Seymour M. (1970). Chemical And Biological Warfare. Panther Books. ISBN 0-586-03295-9.
  • Hersh, Seymour M. (1970). My Lai 4: A Report on the Massacre and Its Aftermath. Random House. ISBN 0-394-43737-3.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

<references/>

[edit] External links

[edit] Articles
  • "Lunch with the Chairman" — Why was Richard Perle meeting with Adnan Khashoggi?, The New Yorker, March 17 2003 issue
  • "Selective Intelligence" — Selective Intelligence, The New Yorker, May 12 2003 issue
  • "The Stovepipe" — How conflicts between the Bush Administration and the intelligence community marred the reporting on Iraq’s weapons. The New Yorker, October 27 2003 issue
  • "Torture at Abu Ghraib" — American soldiers brutalized Iraqis. How far up does the responsibility go?, The New Yorker, May 10 2004 issue
  • "Chain of Command" — How the Department of Defense mishandled the disaster at Abu Ghraib, The New Yorker, May 17 2004 issue
  • "The Gray Zone" — How a secret Pentagon program came to Abu Ghraib, The New Yorker, May 24 2004 issue
  • "The Coming Wars" — What the Pentagon can now do in secret, The New Yorker, January 24 2005 issue and the response by the Department of Defense
  • "Watergate Days", The New Yorker, June 13 2005 issue
  • "Get Out the Vote" — Did Washington try to manipulate Iraq's Elections?, The New Yorker, July 25 2005 issue
  • "Up in the Air" — Where is the Iraq war headed next?, The New Yorker, December 5 2005 issue
  • "The Iran Plans" — Would President Bush go to war to stop Tehran from getting the bomb?, The New Yorker, April 17 2006 issue
  • "Last Stand" — The military's dissent on Iran policy., The New Yorker, July 10 & 17 2006 issue
  • "Watching Lebanon" — Washington’s interests in Israel’s war., The New Yorker, August 21 2006 issue
  • "The Next Act" — Is a damaged Administration less likely to attack Iran, or more?, The New Yorker, November 27 2006 issue
[edit] Profiles, Interviews and Talks

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