Examine individual changes

'{{Short description|American investigative journalist}} {{Use mdy dates|date=August 2018}} {{Infobox person | name = Seymour Hersh | image = SeymourHersh-IPS-cropped.jpg | image_size = 180px Paolo Conte (Italian pronunciation: [ˈpaolo ˈkonte]; born 6 January 1937) is an Italian singer, pianist, composer, and lawyer notable for his grainy, resonant voice. His compositions are evocative of Italian and Mediterranean sounds, as well as of jazz music and South American atmospheres. | caption = Hersh in 2004 | birth_name = Seymour Myron Hersh | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1937|4|8|mf=y}} | birth_place = [[Chicago, Illinois]], United States | alma_mater = [[University of Chicago]] | occupation = Journalist, writer | spouse = Elizabeth Sarah Klein (m. 1964<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hersh |first1=Seymour |title=Reporter: A Memoir |publisher=Alfred Knopf |isbn=9780307263957 |pages=43}}</ref>) | other_names = Sy | awards = [[Polk Award]] (1969, 1973, 1974, 1981, 2004)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.brooklyn.liu.edu/polk/press/2004.html |title=George Polk Awards for Journalism press release|access-date=November 22, 2006 |publisher=Long Island University}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=A History of Journalistic Integrity, Superb Reporting and Protecting the Public: The George Polk Awards in Journalism |author=Edward Hershey |publisher=Long Island University |url=http://www.brooklyn.liu.edu/polk/history.html}}</ref><br />[[Pulitzer Prize]] (1970)<ref>{{cite web |title=1970 Pulitzer Prizes |publisher=The Pulitzer Prizes – Columbia University |url=http://www.pulitzer.org/awards/1970}}</ref><br />[[George Orwell Award]] (2004)<ref>{{cite web |title=Past Recipients of the NCTE Orwell Award (pdf) |publisher=National Council of Teachers of English |url=http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Involved/Volunteer/Appointed%20Groups/Past_Recipients_Orwell_Award.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090326134658/http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Involved/Volunteer/Appointed%20Groups/Past_Recipients_Orwell_Award.pdf |archive-date=March 26, 2009 }}</ref> }} '''Seymour Myron''' "'''Sy'''" '''Hersh''' (born April 8, 1937) is an American [[Investigative journalism|investigative journalist]] and [[political writer]]. He was a longtime contributor to ''[[The New Yorker]]'' magazine on national security matters and has also written for the ''[[London Review of Books]]'' since 2013.<ref>LRB Archive (Retrieved June 29, 2016) [http://www.lrb.co.uk/contributors/seymour-m-hersh Seymour M. Hersh] ''[[London Review of Books]]''</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newyorker.com/contributors/seymour-m-hersh|title=Seymour M. Hersh|website=The New Yorker}}</ref> Hersh first gained 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]]. During the 1970s, Hersh covered the [[Watergate scandal]] for ''[[The New York Times]]'' and revealed the clandestine bombing of Cambodia. In 2004, he reported on the [[U.S. military]]'s mistreatment of detainees at [[Abu Ghraib prison]]. He has also won two [[National Magazine Awards]] and five [[George Polk Awards]]. In 2004, he received the [[George Orwell Award]].<ref>Phelan, Matthew (February 28, 2011) [http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/02/28/seymour_hersh_whowhatwhy/index.html Seymour Hersh and the men who want him committed] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110302123501/http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/02/28/seymour_hersh_whowhatwhy/index.html |date=March 2, 2011 }}, ''[[Salon.com]]''</ref> Hersh has accused the [[Obama administration]] of lying about the events surrounding the [[death of Osama bin Laden]] and disputed the claim that the Assad regime used chemical weapons on civilians in the Syrian Civil War. Both assertions have stirred controversy. == Early years == Hersh was born on April 8, 1937<ref>{{Cite book|title=Journalistic Advocates and Muckrakers: Three Centuries of Crusading Writers|author=Edd Applegate|publisher=McFarland|date=1997|isbn=9780786403653|page=87}}</ref> in [[Chicago]] to [[Yiddish]]-speaking [[Lithuanian Jewish]] parents who emigrated to the US from [[Lithuania]] and [[Poland]] and ran a dry-cleaning shop in Chicago's [[Austin, Chicago|Austin neighborhood]]. After graduating from the [[University of Chicago]] with a history degree, Hersh found himself struggling to find a job. He began working at [[Walgreens]] before being accepted into [[University of Chicago Law School]] but was soon expelled for poor grades.<ref name=theavenger>{{cite web |title=The Avenger |author=Sherman, Scott |work=Columbia Journalism Review |url=http://www.16beavergroup.org/mtarchive/archives/001082.php |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081204143818/http://www.16beavergroup.org/mtarchive/archives/001082.php |archive-date=December 4, 2008 }}</ref> After returning for a short time to Walgreens, Hersh began his career in journalism as a copyboy, then police reporter for the [[City News Bureau of Chicago]] 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, D.C.|Washington]] correspondent for the [[Associated Press]]. While working in Washington Hersh first met and befriended [[I. F. Stone]], whose ''I. F. Stone's Weekly'' would serve as an initial inspiration for Hersh's later work. It was during this time that Hersh began to form his investigative style, often walking out of regimented press briefings at the Pentagon and seeking out one-on-one interviews with high-ranking officers. After a falling out with the editors at the AP when they insisted on watering down a story about the US government's work on biological and chemical weapons, Hersh left the AP and sold his story to ''[[The New Republic]]''. During the [[1968 US presidential election|1968 presidential election]], he served as press secretary for the campaign of Senator [[Eugene McCarthy]]. After leaving the McCarthy campaign, Hersh returned to journalism as a [[freelancer]] covering the [[Vietnam War]]. In 1969, Hersh received a tip from [[Geoffrey Cowan]] of ''[[The Village Voice]]'' regarding an Army lieutenant being [[court-martial]]led for killing civilians in Vietnam. His subsequent investigation, sold to the [[Dispatch News Service]], was run in 33 newspapers and exposed the [[My Lai massacre]], winning him the [[Pulitzer Prize]] in 1970.<ref name=theavenger /><ref>{{cite news |title=Seymour Hersh: The reporter who's the talk of the town |author=Rupert Cornwell |work=[[The Independent]] |date=May 22, 2004 |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/seymour-hersh-the-reporter-whos--the-talk-of-the-town-564266.html |location=London}}</ref> In 1972, Hersh was hired as a reporter for the Washington bureau of ''[[The New York Times]]'', where he served from 1972 to 1975<ref>Then why did he receive this letter in 1976? [https://twitter.com/bryancurtis/status/1008091545214435328 Abe Rosenthal to Seymour Hersh, when Hersh complained about editing at the NYT (from “Reporter”).]</ref> and again in 1979. Hersh reported on the [[Watergate scandal]], though most of the credit for that story went to [[Carl Bernstein]] and Hersh's longtime rival [[Bob Woodward]]. Nonetheless, Hersh's Watergate investigations led him in 1983 to the publication of ''The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House'', a portrait of [[Henry Kissinger]] that won the National Book Critics Circle Award. Hersh's 1974 article claiming the CIA had violated its charter by spying on anti-war activists{{efn|[https://www.nytimes.com/1974/12/22/archives/huge-cia-operation-reported-in-u-s-against-antiwar-forces-other.html "Huge CIA Operation Reported in US against Antiwar Forces, Other Dissidents During Nixon Years"] by Seymour Hersh, ''The New York Times'', December 22, 1974}} is credited as contributing factor to the formation of the [[Church Committee]].<ref name="U.S. Senate Historical Office">{{cite report |url=https://www.senate.gov/about/resources/pdf/church-committee-full-citations.pdf |title=Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, Notable Senate Investigations |author=U.S. Senate Historical Office |author-link=United States Senate Historical Office |location=Washington, D.C. |access-date=December 2, 2020}}</ref> In 1975, Hersh was active in the investigation and reporting of [[Project Azorian]] (which he called Project Jennifer), the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]'s clandestine effort to raise a Soviet submarine using the [[Howard Hughes]]' ''[[Glomar Explorer]]''. This was one of the most complex, expensive, and secretive intelligence operations of the [[Cold War]] at a cost of about $800 million ($3.8 billion in 2015). == After ''The New York Times'' == 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''. From 1993 to 2013, Hersh was a regular contributor to ''The New Yorker''.<ref>{{cite web |title=New Yorker Profile |work=The New Yorker |url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/bios/seymour_m_hersh/search?contributorName=seymour%20m%20hersh |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091125184933/http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/bios/seymour_m_hersh/search?contributorName=seymour%20m%20hersh |archive-date=November 25, 2009 }}</ref> Hersh has appeared regularly on the [[Broadcast syndication|syndicated]] television news program ''[[Democracy Now!]]''<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.democracynow.org/2009/8/24/calley_apologizes_for_1968_my_lai |title=Calley Apologizes for 1968 My Lai Massacre |date=August 24, 2009}}</ref> == Selected stories == === Mỹ Lai Massacre === On November 12, 1969, Hersh reported the story of the [[Mỹ Lai massacre]], in which hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese civilians were murdered by [[US soldier]]s in March 1968.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,901651,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081214144136/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0%2C9171%2C901651%2C00.html|url-status=dead|title=The Press: Miscue on the Massacre|date=December 5, 1969|archive-date=December 14, 2008|via=content.time.com}}</ref> The report prompted widespread condemnation around the world and reduced public support for the [[Vietnam War]] in the United States. The explosive news of the massacre fueled the outrage of the [[Peace movement#United States of America|US peace movement]], which demanded the withdrawal of US troops from [[Vietnam]]. Hersh wrote about the massacre and its cover-up in ''My Lai 4: A Report on the Massacre and Its Aftermath'' (1970) and ''Cover-up: The Army's Secret Investigation of the Massacre at My Lai 4'' (1972). For ''My Lai 4'', Hersh traveled across the United States and interviewed nearly 50 members of the [[Charlie Company]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/309942.My_Lai_4|title=My Lai 4|website=www.goodreads.com}}</ref> A movie was also produced, based on this book, by Italian director [[Paolo Bertola]] in 2009.<ref>{{youtube|a8H-CBjeXns|''My Lai Four'' ©2009 movie trailer}}.</ref> Documents declassified in 2017 show that Hersh was on the [[National Security Agency]] watchlist possibly because of hostility towards his journalism including his writings about the Mỹ Lai massacre.<ref>{{cite news |title=National Security Agency Tracking of U.S. Citizens – "Questionable Practices" from 1960s & 1970s |url=https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/cybervault-intelligence-nuclear-vault/2017-09-25/national-security-agency-tracking-us |access-date=3 January 2020 |publisher=National Security Archive |date=25 September 2017}}</ref> === Project Jennifer === In early 1974, Hersh had planned to publish a story on "Project Jennifer" (later revealed to be named [[Project Azorian]] and [[Operation Matador (1975)|Operation Matador]]), a covert CIA project to recover a sunken [[Soviet navy]] submarine from the floor of the [[Pacific Ocean]]. CIA director [[William Colby]] discussed the operation with Hersh in 1974, but obtained his promise not to publish while the operation was active. [[Bill Kovach]], ''[[The New York Times]]'' [[Washington, D.C.]] bureau chief at the time, said in 2005 that the government offered a convincing argument to delay publication in early 1974—exposure at that time, while the project was ongoing, "would have caused an international incident". The ''NYT'' eventually published Hersh's account on March 19, 1975, after a story appeared in the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', and included a five-paragraph explanation of the many twists and turns in the path to publication. It is unclear what, if any, action was taken by the [[Soviet Union]] after learning of the story. It was later revealed that the leaks prevented a second recovery attempt of the submarine after a small portion of it was raised in the summer of 1974.<ref name=declassified>[http://nsarchive.wordpress.com/2012/06/15/document-friday-the-origins-of-glomar-declassified/ Document Friday: The Origins of "Glomar" Declassified], William Burr, June 15, 2012.</ref> === Korean Air Flight 007 === {{See also|Korean Air Lines Flight 007}} In ''The Target Is Destroyed'' (1986), Hersh alleged that the shooting down of [[Korean Air Flight 007]] in September 1983 by the Soviet Union was due to a combination of Soviet incompetence and United States intelligence operations intended to confuse Soviet responses.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/capsule-review/1986-12-01/target-destroyed-what-really-happened-flight-007-and-what-america |title=The Target Is Destroyed: What Really Happened to Flight 007 and What America Knew About It |date=2009-01-28 |website=Foreign Affairs |language=en-US |access-date=2018-08-25}}</ref> Later releases of government information confirmed that there was a [[Psychological Operations|PSYOPS]] campaign against the Soviet Union that had been in place from the first few months of the [[Reagan administration]]. This campaign included the largest [[US Pacific Fleet]] exercise ever held, in April to May 1983.{{citation needed|date=November 2017}} === Mordechai Vanunu and Robert Maxwell === In ''[[The Samson Option (book)|The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy]]'' (1991), Hersh wrote that [[Nicholas Davies (journalist)|Nicholas Davies]], the foreign editor of the ''[[Daily Mirror]]'', had tipped off the Israeli embassy in London about [[Mordechai Vanunu]]. Vanunu had given information about [[Nuclear weapons and Israel|Israel's nuclear weapons program]] first to ''[[The Sunday Times (UK)|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 agency|intelligence services]]. According to Hersh, Davies had 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 by critics to be part of a [[disinformation]] campaign on behalf of the Israeli government.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://baltimorechronicle.com/vanunu.html |work=[[The Baltimore Chronicle]] |date=September 4, 1996 |title=The US campaign to free Modechai Vanunu |first=Max |last=Obuszewski |access-date=November 20, 2006}}</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 [[British House of Commons|House of Commons]], which meant that [[List of newspapers in the United Kingdom|British newspapers]] were able to report what had been said without fear of being sued for [[slander and libel|libel]]. Maxwell called the claims "ludicrous, a total invention". He fired Davies shortly thereafter.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://politics.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,9174,465666,00.html |date=November 6, 1991 |title=Maxwell's body found in sea |work=The Guardian |first=Ben |last=Laurance |author2=John Hooper |author3=David Sharrock |author4=Georgina Henry |access-date=November 20, 2006 | location=London}}</ref> [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] was Hersh's primary source for the claims that Davies was a paid Israeli agent and that Maxwell collaborated with Mossad.<ref name="Newsweek; November 3, 1991">{{cite news |last=Barry |first=John |date=November 3, 1991 |title=One Man, Many Tales |url=https://www.newsweek.com/one-man-many-tales-201744 |work=Newsweek |access-date=December 10, 2020}}</ref> === Attack on pharmaceutical factory in Sudan === Hersh strongly criticized [[Bill Clinton]]'s decision to destroy, on August 20, 1998, the [[Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory]] in Sudan. Al-Shifa, the largest pharmaceutical factory in [[Sudan]], accounted for half the country's domestically produced medicines.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1998/10/12/the-missiles-of-august |title=The Missiles of August |access-date=November 20, 2006 |last=Hersh |first=Seymour |date=October 12, 2006 |work=[[The New Yorker]]}}</ref> === Iraq === Hersh has written a series of articles for ''[[The New Yorker]]'' magazine detailing military and security matters surrounding the US-led [[Operation Iraqi Freedom|invasion and subsequent occupation]] of [[Iraq]]. In March 2002, he described the planning process for a new invasion of Iraq that he alleged had been on-going since the end of the First Gulf War, under the leadership of Cheney, [[Paul Wolfowitz]], Fried and other neo-conservatives. 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 [[Central Intelligence Agency|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>{{cite news| url=http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0303/09/le.00.html | work=CNN | title=CNN.com – Transcripts}}</ref> <!-- Please find another reference for the last sentence of this paragraph. The neutrality of the source seems questionable. If a more neutral reference can be provided, feel free to restore this sentence: "Perle publicly threatened to sue Hersh for [[libel]] in the United Kingdom where the standard of proof is much lower."<ref>http://slate.msn.com/id/2097188/</ref> --> A March 7, 2007, article entitled, "The Redirection" described a recent shift in the [[George W. Bush administration]]'s Iraq policy, the goal of which Hersh said was to "contain" Iran. Hersh asserted that "a by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda."<ref>{{cite journal |first=Seymour M. |last=Hersh |url=http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/03/05/070305fa_fact_hersh |title=Annals of National Security: The Redirection |journal=[[The New Yorker]] |date=March 5, 2007 }}</ref> In May 2004, Hersh published a series of articles which described the treatment of detainees by [[US military police]] at [[Abu Ghraib prison]] near [[Baghdad]], [[Iraq]].<ref name="Torture at Abu Ghraib">{{cite web |url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/05/10/torture-at-abu-ghraib |title=Torture at Abu Ghraib |access-date=May 11, 2015 |last=Hersh |first=Seymour |date=May 10, 2004 |work=[[The New Yorker]]}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/05/13/seymour-hersh-journalism-giant-why-some-who-worshipped-him-no-longer-do/|title=Sy Hersh, journalism giant: Why some who worshiped him no longer do|work=The Washington Post|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The articles included allegations that [[private military contractor]]s contributed to prisoner mistreatment and that intelligence agencies such as the CIA ordered [[torture]] in order to break prisoners for interrogations. They also alleged that torture was a usual practice in other US-run prisons as well, e.g., in [[Parwan Detention Facility|Bagram Theater Internment Facility]] and [[Camp X-Ray|Guantanamo]]. In subsequent articles, Hersh wrote that the abuses were part of a secret interrogation program, known as "[[Copper Green]]". According to Hersh's sources, the program was expanded to Iraq with the direct approval of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, both in an attempt to deal with the growing insurgency there and as part of "Rumsfeld's long-standing desire to wrest control of America's clandestine and paramilitary operations from the C.I.A."<ref name="The Gray Zone">{{cite web |url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/05/24/the-gray-zone |title=The Gray Zone |access-date=January 30, 2007 |last=Hersh |first=Seymour |date=May 24, 2004 |work=[[The New Yorker]] }}</ref> Much of his material for these articles was based on the Army's own internal investigations.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nbcnews.com/id/4894033 |title=Key excerpts from the Taguba report |publisher=NBC News |date=May 3, 2004 |access-date=August 7, 2014}}</ref> [[Scott Ritter]], a disaffected former arms inspector, asserted in his October 19, 2005 interview with [[Seymour Hersh#Profiles, Interviews and Talks|Seymour Hersh]] that the US policy to remove Iraqi president [[Saddam Hussein]] from power started with US president [[George H. W. Bush]] in August 1990. Ritter concluded from public remarks by President Bush and Secretary of State [[James Baker]] that the [[Iraq sanctions]] would only be lifted when Hussein was removed from power. The justification for sanctions was disarmament. The CIA offered the opinion that containing Hussein for six months would result in the collapse of his regime. According to Hersh, this policy resulted in the [[2003 invasion of Iraq|invasion]] and [[History of Iraq (2003–2011)|occupation of Iraq]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Scott Ritter and Seymour Hersh: Iraq Confidential |work=[[The Nation]] |date=October 26, 2005 |url=http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051114/ritter }}</ref> === Iran === In January 2005, Hersh alleged that the US was conducting covert operations in [[Iran]] to identify targets for possible strikes. Hersh also wrote that [[Pakistan]] and the United States had struck a "Khan-for-Iran" deal in which [[federal government of the United States|Washington]] would look the other way at Pakistan's nuclear transgressions and not demand handing over of its infamous [[nuclear proliferation|nuclear scientist]] [[Abdul Qadeer Khan|A. Q. Khan]], in return for [[Islamabad]]'s cooperation in neutralizing Iran's nuclear plans. This was also denied by officials of the governments of the US and [[Government of Pakistan|Pakistan]]. In the April 17, 2006 issue of ''The New Yorker'',<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/04/17/060417fa_fact?currentPage=all |title=The Iran Plans|access-date=January 30, 2007 |last=Hersh |first=Seymour |date=April 17, 2006 |work=[[The New Yorker]] }}</ref> Hersh wrote that the [[George W. Bush administration|Bush administration]] had plans for an [[air strike]] on Iran. Of particular note in his article was that a US nuclear [[Pre-emptive nuclear strike|first strike]] (possibly using the [[B61 nuclear bomb|B61]]-11 [[Nuclear bunker buster|bunker-buster]] [[nuclear weapon]]) was being considered to eliminate underground Iranian [[uranium enrichment]] facilities. In response, President Bush cited Hersh's reportage as "wild speculation."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/10/world/10cnd-prexy.html|title=Bush Calls Reports of Plan to Strike Iran 'Speculation'|first=David|last=Stout|date=April 10, 2006|via=NYTimes.com}}</ref> When, in October 2007, he was asked in a [[Democracy Now!]] interview about presidential candidate [[Hillary Clinton]]'s hawkish views on Iran, Hersh stated that Jewish donations were the main reason for these: {{quote|Money. A lot of the Jewish money from New York. Come on, let's not kid about it. A significant percentage of Jewish money, and many leading American Jews support the Israeli position that Iran is an existential threat. And I think it's as simple as that. When you're from New York and from New York City, you take the view of – right now, when you're running a campaign, you follow that line. And there's no other explanation for it, because she's smart enough to know the downside.<ref>{{cite web |title=Seymour Hersh: White House Intensifying Plans to Attack Iran |url=https://www.democracynow.org/2007/10/2/seymour_hersh_white_house_intensifying_plans |website=Democracy Now | date=2 October 2007|access-date=24 November 2019}}</ref>}} During one journalism conference, Hersh claimed that after the [[Strait of Hormuz]] incident, members of the Bush administration met in Vice President [[Dick Cheney]]'s office to consider methods of initiating a war with Iran. One idea considered was staging a [[false flag]] operation involving the use of [[United States Navy SEALs|Navy SEALs]] dressed as Iranian PT boaters who would engage in a firefight with US ships. According to Hersh this proposed provocation was rejected.<ref>{{cite web|last=Shakir |first=Faiz |url=http://thinkprogress.org/2008/07/31/cheney-proposal-for-iran-war/ |title=To Provoke War, Cheney Considered Proposal To Dress Up Navy Seals As Iranians And Shoot At Them |publisher=Think Progress |date=July 31, 2008 |access-date=August 7, 2014}}</ref> === Lebanon === In August 2006, in an article in ''[[The New Yorker]]'', Hersh wrote that the [[White House]] gave the green light for the [[Israeli government]] to execute an attack on [[Hezbollah]] in [[Lebanon]]. Supposedly, communication between the [[Israel]]i government and the US government 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 [[2006 Lebanon War]] in July 2006.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.newyorker.com/printables/fact/060821fa_fact |title=Watching Lebanon |access-date=January 30, 2007 |last=Hersh |first=Seymour |date=August 21, 2006 |work=[[The New Yorker]]}}</ref> The US government denied these allegations.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Hersh_Bush_arranged_support_for_militants_0522.html |title=Hersh: Bush administration arranged support for militants attacking Lebanon |access-date=January 28, 2008 |last=Edwards |first=David |author2=Kane, Muriel |date=May 22, 2007 |publisher=[[The Raw Story]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071230212010/http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Hersh_Bush_arranged_support_for_militants_0522.html <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date=December 30, 2007}}</ref> === Killing of Osama bin Laden {{anchor|Death of Osama bin Laden}}=== {{See also|Death of Osama bin Laden#Alternative accounts}} In September 2013, during an interview with ''[[The Guardian (newspaper)|The Guardian]]'', Hersh commented that the 2011 raid that resulted in the [[death of Osama bin Laden]] was "one big lie, not one word of it is true". He said that the [[Obama administration]] lied systematically, and that American media outlets were reluctant to challenge the administration, saying "It's pathetic, they are more than obsequious, they are afraid to pick on this guy [Obama]".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/media-blog/2013/sep/27/seymour-hersh-obama-nsa-american-media |title= Seymour Hersh on Obama, NSA and the 'pathetic' American media |work=[[The Guardian]] |location=London |last=O'Carroll|first=Lisa|date=September 27, 2013|access-date=September 27, 2013}}</ref> Hersh later clarified that he didn't dispute Bin Laden's death in Pakistan, and rather meant that the lying began in the aftermath of bin Laden's death.<ref>{{Cite news | last = Mirkinson | first = Jack | date = October 7, 2013 | title = Guardian Amends Seymour Hersh Story With Correction About His Bin Laden Comments | url = http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/07/guardian-seymour-hersh-bin-laden_n_4058625.html | newspaper = [[The Huffington Post]] | access-date = May 21, 2015 }}</ref> On May 10, 2015, Hersh published the 10,000-word article "The Killing of Osama bin Laden" in the ''[[London Review of Books]]'' (''LRB'') on the fourth anniversary of the Abbottabad raid that killed bin Laden ([[Operation Neptune Spear]]). It immediately went viral, crashing the LRB website.<ref>{{Cite web | last = Kugelman | first = Michael | date = May 11, 2015 | title = 3 Reasons to Be Skeptical of Seymour Hersh's Account of the Bin Laden Raid | url = https://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2015/05/11/3-reasons-to-be-skeptical-of-seymour-hershs-account-of-the-bin-laden-raid | work=[[The Wall Street Journal]] | access-date = May 21, 2015 }}</ref> Hersh outlined with extensive quoting of both named and unnamed sources the background to how bin Laden's presence in Abbotabad came to be known to the U.S. government and how the [[United States Navy SEALs|SEAL]] raid was in fact known to the Pakistanis and had [[Inter-Services Intelligence|ISI]] cooperation. Hersh alleged the U.S. government's narrative was in fact an elaborate cover story meant to conceal Pakistan's relationship with the Al Qaeda leader and to yield maximum political payoff for President [[Barack Obama]] in the runup to the [[2012 United States presidential election|2012 election]] season: {{blockquote|The killing was the high point of Obama's first term, and a major factor in his re-election. The White House still maintains that the mission was an all-American affair, and that the senior generals of Pakistan's army and Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) were not told of the raid in advance. This is false, as are many other elements of the Obama administration's account.<ref name = "LRB OBL" />}} The official U.S. version is that bin Laden's location at [[Abbottabad]] was identified by the CIA by tracking an al-Qaeda courier, [[Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti]]. Hersh reported that in August 2010 a former senior Pakistani intelligence officer walked into the office of [[Jonathan Bank]], the CIA [[station chief]] at the [[Embassy of the United States, Islamabad|US embassy in Islamabad]] and betrayed the secret of bin Laden's whereabouts in return for part of the $25 million reward, and has since been relocated with his family to Washington and is a consultant to the CIA. According to Hersh, the [[Inter-Services Intelligence|ISI]] had captured bin Laden in 2006; he had lived undetected from 2001 to 2006 with some of his wives and children in the Hindu Kush mountains. The ISI got to him by paying some of the local tribal people to betray him. Bin Laden was very ill and was living as prisoner under ISI control in the garrison town of Abbottabad less than two miles from Pakistan's National [[Pakistan Military Academy|Military Academy]] at [[Kakul]] (equivalent of [[United States Military Academy]] at [[West Point, New York|West Point]]). According to Hersh, the [[Saudi government]] also knew about Osama's presence in Abbottabad and had advised the Pakistanis to keep him as a prisoner and gave financial assistance. Major [[Amer Aziz|Amir Aziz]], a Pakistani Army doctor, was ordered to move near his compound to provide treatment. Aziz was also given a share of the $25 million reward because he got the DNA sample which conclusively proved that it was bin Laden. Hersh claimed a doctor named [[Shakil Afridi]]'s [[Hepatitis B vaccine|vaccination program]] for [[Hepatitis B]] was the way the US obtained bin Laden's DNA. Afridi became the sacrificial lamb because the US wanted to protect its real CIA informant, Amir Aziz, who had been held by the Pakistanis. Afridi was sentenced to 33 years by the Pakistanis. According to Hersh, other vaccination programmes were canceled once this lie was put forth.<ref name = "LRB OBL">{{Cite journal | last = Hersh | first = Seymour | date = May 21, 2015 | title = The Killing of Osama bin Laden | url = http://www.lrb.co.uk/v37/n10/seymour-m-hersh/the-killing-of-osama-bin-laden | journal = [[London Review of Books]] | volume = 37 | number = 10 | pages = 3–12 | access-date = May 21, 2015 }}</ref> Hersh writes that the [[Pakistan Army]] and [[intelligence service]] were warned about the U.S. Navy SEALs' raid and made sure that the two helicopters carrying the SEALs to Abbottabad crossed Pakistani airspace without triggering an alarm: "The most blatant lie was that Pakistan's two most senior military leaders—General [[Ashfaq Parvez Kayani]], chief of the army staff, and General [[Ahmed Shuja Pasha]], director general of the ISI—were never informed of the US mission."<ref name = "LRB OBL"/> The report also states that Pakistani officials knew about the raid before it happened in May 2011 and instructed those monitoring bin Laden's compound to allow the SEALs to conduct the operation unobstructed. Since his killing in 2011, the U.S. media has reported that bin Laden was given a perfunctory naval funeral off the deck of an aircraft carrier, to prevent any gravesite from becoming a symbol of martyrdom. According to Hersh's account of the assassination, bin Laden's corpse never made it to the [[USS Carl Vinson|USS ''Carl Vinson'']], because it had been torn apart by automatic fire at point-blank range before the CIA took whatever shreds were left: "Some members of the SEAL team had bragged to colleagues and others that they had torn bin Laden's body to pieces with rifle fire. The remains, including his head, which had only a few bullet holes in it, were thrown into a body bag and, during the helicopter flight back to Jalalabad, some body parts were tossed out over the Hindu Kush mountains." Hersh's story drew harsh criticism from reporters, academics, media commentators and officials.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/03/business/media/seymour-hersh-reporter-memoir.html|title=I, Sy: Seymour Hersh's Memoir of a Life Making the Mighty Sweat|last=Grynbaum|first=Michael M.|date=2018-06-03|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-04-07|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32698016|title=Questions swirl around Bin Laden report|last=Zurcher|first=Anthony|date=2015-05-11|access-date=2019-04-07|language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/159377|title=What's Wrong with Seymour Hersh's Conspiracy Theory {{!}} History News Network|website=historynewsnetwork.org|access-date=2019-04-07}}</ref> ''Politico''<nowiki/>'s [[Jack Shafer]] described the story as "a messy omelet of a piece that offers little of substance for readers or journalists who may want to verify its many claims."<ref name=":3">{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-ever-iconoclastic-never-to-be-ignored-muckraking-seymour-hersh/2015/05/15/4eb1195a-f9a2-11e4-9ef4-1bb7ce3b3fb7_story.html|author=Paul Farhi|title=The ever-iconoclastic, never-to-be-ignored, muckraking Seymour Hersh|date=May 15, 2015|work=The Washington Post|access-date=April 22, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/05/seymour-hersh-bin-laden-story-117830.html|title=Sy Hersh, Lost in a Wilderness of Mirrors|last=Shafer|first=Jack|website=POLITICO Magazine|language=en|access-date=April 22, 2019|date=May 11, 2015}}</ref> [[Peter Bergen]] disputed Hersh's contentions, saying they "defy common sense";<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2015/05/11/nr-peter-bergen-seymour-hersh-obama-bin-laden-raid.cnn |publisher=[[CNN]] |title=Bergen rebuts claims that Obama lied about bin Laden |date=May 11, 2015 |access-date=May 11, 2015}}</ref> Hersh responded that Bergen simply "views himself as the trustee of all things Bin Laden".<ref name = "Hersh interview">{{Cite web | last = Chotiner | first = Isaac | date = May 13, 2015 | title = 'I am not backing off anything I said': an interview with Seymour Hersh | url = http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2015/05/seymour_hersh_interview_on_his_bin_laden_story_the_new_yorker_journalism.single.html | website = [[Slate (magazine)|Slate]]| access-date = May 16, 2015 }}</ref> A similar dismissal of Hersh's account came from former CIA Deputy Director [[Michael Morell]].<ref>{{Cite web|title = Former top CIA official on bin Laden raid account: 'It's all wrong'|url = http://www.politico.com/story/2015/05/seymour-hersh-bin-laden-story-rebuttle-former-cia-chief-117811.html |work=[[Politico]] |date=May 11, 2015 |access-date = May 11, 2015|first = Adam|last = Lerner}}</ref> A former intelligence official who had direct knowledge of the operation speculated that the Pakistanis, who were furious that the operation took place without being detected by them, were behind the false story as a way to save face.<ref>{{cite news |first1=Bryan |last1=Bender |last2=Philip Ewing |title=U.S. officials fuming over Hersh account of Osama bin Laden raid |url=http://www.politico.com/story/2015/05/seymour-hersh-bin-laden-raid-officials-criticism-117826.html |work=[[Politico]] |date=May 11, 2015 |access-date=May 11, 2015}}</ref> Others criticized the press response. In an article for the ''[[Columbia Journalism Review]]'', [[Freedom of the Press Foundation|Trevor Timm]] wrote that "barely any follow-up reporting has been done to corroborate or refute his [Hersh's] claims", and observed that ''[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]]'', for example, "ran five hit jobs on Hersh within 36 hours".<ref>{{Cite web | last = Timm | first = Trevor | date = May 15, 2015 | title = The media's reaction to Seymour Hersh's bin Laden scoop has been disgraceful | url = https://www.cjr.org/analysis/seymour_hersh_osama_bin_laden.php | website = [[Columbia Journalism Review]]| access-date = May 16, 2015 }}</ref> On May 12, the Pakistan-based journalist Amir Mir disclosed that the "walk-in" who had provided the CIA with the information about bin Laden's whereabouts was Brigadier Usman Khalid of ISI.<ref>{{Cite web | last = Mir | first = Amir | date = May 12, 2015 | title = Brig Usman Khalid informed CIA of Osama's presence in Abbottabad | url = http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-2-317717-Brig-Usman-Khalid-informed-CIA-of-Osamas-presence-in-Abbottabad | work=[[The News International]] |location=Karachi | access-date = May 16, 2015 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | last = Withnall | first = Adam | date = May 14, 2015 | title = Osama bin Laden killing: Pakistan officials 'out' spy who gave away al-Qaeda leader's location | url = https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/osama-bin-laden-killing-pakistan-officials-out-spy-who-gave-away-alqaeda-leaders-location-10246802.html | work = [[The Independent]] |location=London | access-date = May 16, 2015 }}</ref> On May 20, 2015, a former CIA officer and conspiracy theorist, [[Philip Giraldi]], wrote in ''[[The American Conservative]]'' that he found Hersh's story credible.<ref>{{Cite web | last = Giraldi | first = Philip | date = May 20, 2015 | title = How Was Bin Laden Killed? | url = http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/how-was-bin-laden-killed/ | work = [[The American Conservative]] | access-date = May 22, 2015}}</ref> In 2018, Hersh told an interviewer, "I don't necessarily buy the story that Bin Laden was responsible for 9/11. We really don't have an ending to the story. I’ve known people in the [intelligence] community. We don't know anything empirical about who did what."<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|last=El-Gingihy|first=Youssef|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/seymour-hersh-interview-novichok-russian-hacking-9-11-nerve-agent-attack-a8459596.html|title=Legendary journalist Seymour Hersh on novichok, Russian links to Donald Trump and 9/11|work=The Independent|date=July 31, 2018|access-date=August 1, 2018|language=en-GB}}</ref> === Syrian Civil War === During the [[Syrian Civil War]] US President Obama argued in a 2012 speech that a chemical attack in Syria would constitute crossing a "[[Red line (phrase)|red line]]" and that this would trigger a [[Timeline of United States military operations|US military intervention]] against the government of Syrian President [[Bashar al-Assad]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Obama warns Syria not to cross 'red line'|url=http://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/20/world/meast/syria-unrest/index.html|publisher=CNN.com|access-date=December 11, 2013}}</ref> After this speech, and prior to the [[Ghouta chemical attack|chemical attacks in Ghouta]], [[Use of chemical weapons in the Syrian civil war|chemical weapons were suspected to have been used in at least four attacks]] in the country.<ref name="chem list">{{cite news |work=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/08/21/a-partial-list-of-syrias-suspected-chemical-weapons-attacks-this-year/ |title=A partial list of Syria's suspected chemical weapons attacks this year |author=Masuma Ahuja |date=August 21, 2013 |access-date=August 27, 2013}}</ref> On March 23, 2013, the Syrian government requested the [[UN investigation of chemical weapons use in Ghouta|UN to send inspectors in order to investigate]] an incident in the town of Khan al-Assal, where it said opposition forces had used chlorine-filled rockets.<ref>''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'', March 23, 2013, [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/9950036/Syria-chemical-weapons-finger-pointed-at-jihadists.html?fb Syria chemical weapons: finger pointed at jihadists]</ref> However, on April 25 US Secretary of Defense [[Chuck Hagel]] stated that US intelligence showed the Assad government was likely to have used chemical weapons, in this case [[Sarin|sarin gas]].<ref>{{cite news|author=Matthew Weaver and Tom McCarthy |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/middle-east-live/2013/apr/25/syria-rebels-claim-proof-of-chemical-weapons-live |title=Liveblog: Chuck Hagel says Syria used chemical weapons on 'small scale'|work=The Guardian |date=April 25, 2013 |access-date=May 29, 2013 |location=London}}</ref> On December 8, 2013, the ''[[London Review of Books]]'' published "Whose Sarin?", an article rejected by the ''[[The New Yorker|New Yorker]]'' and ''[[Washington Post]]''<ref name="HuffPost Hersh 2013">{{cite web | author=Michael Calderone| title= New Yorker, Washington Post Passed On Seymour Hersh Syria Report | website=HuffPost US | date=8 December 2013 | url=https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/12/08/seymour-hersh-syria-report_n_4409674.html | access-date=24 April 2019}}</ref><ref name="Ohlheiser 2013">{{cite web | last=Ohlheiser | first=Abby | title=The Other Questions Raised by Seymour Hersh's Syria Scoop | website=The Atlantic | date=9 December 2013 | url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/12/other-questions-raised-seymour-hershs-latest-syria-scoop/355934/ | access-date=24 April 2019}}</ref><ref name="Gray 2013">{{cite web | last=Gray | first=Rosie | title=Report: Obama Administration Knew Syrian Rebels Could Make Chemical Weapons | website=BuzzFeed News | date=8 December 2013 | url=https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosiegray/report-obama-administration-knew-syrian-rebels-could-make-ch | access-date=24 April 2019}}</ref> in which Hersh argued that President Obama had "omitted important intelligence, and in others he presented assumptions as facts" in his assertion during his televised speech of September 10 that the Syrian government had been responsible for the use of sarin gas in the [[Ghouta chemical attack]] of August 21, 2013 against a rebel-held district of Damascus.<ref name="Hersh">Seymour M. Hersh [http://www.lrb.co.uk/2013/12/08/seymour-m-hersh/whose-sarin "Whose Sarin?"], ''London Review of Books'', December 8, 2013</ref> In particular, Hersh wrote of anonymous intelligence sources telling him that the Syrian army was not the only agency with access to sarin, referring to the [[Al-Nusra Front]] [[Jihad]]ist group, and that, during the period before the Ghouta attack, secretly implanted sensors at the country's known bases had not detected suspicious movements suggesting a forthcoming chemical attack in the period.<ref name="Hersh" /> The White House denied Hersh's allegations,<ref name="Ohlheiser 2013"/><ref name="Sink 2013">{{cite web | last=Sink | first=Justin | title=WH: Hersh report on Syria 'simply false' | website=TheHill | date=9 December 2013 | url=https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/192442-wh-hersh-report-simply-false | access-date=24 April 2019}}</ref> and a number of Syria and chemical weapons experts were critical of the article.<ref name="Ohlheiser 2013"/><ref name="Higgins Kaszeta 2014">{{cite web | last1=Higgins | first1=Eliot | last2=Kaszeta | first2=Dan | website=the Guardian | date=22 April 2014 | url=http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/22/allegation-false-turkey-chemical-attack-syria | title=It's clear that Turkey was not involved in the chemical attack on Syria | access-date=24 April 2019}}</ref> On December 22, 2015, the ''London Review of Books'' published Hersh's article "Military to Military"<ref name="MitoMi">{{cite news| url=http://www.lrb.co.uk/v38/n01/seymour-m-hersh/military-to-military | title=Military to Military |author=Seymour M Hersh | publisher= London Review of Books |access-date=December 22, 2015}}</ref> in which he said that there was a divide between the US top brass and the politicians in the White House when it came to dealing with Islamic extremists in Syria and Iraq. Hersh reported that the [[Joint Chiefs of Staff]] (JCS) of the [[United States Department of Defense]] has indirectly supported Syria's President [[Bashar al-Assad]] with quality intelligence in an effort to help him defeat jihadist groups, providing said intelligence, via [[Germany]], [[Israel]] and [[Russia]], to help Assad push back [[Jabhat al-Nusra]] and the [[Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant|Islamic State]]. Hersh also writes the military even undermined a US effort to arm Syrian rebels in a bid to prove it was serious about helping Assad fight their common enemies. Hersh said the Joint Chiefs' maneuvering was rooted in several concerns, including the US arming of unvetted Syrian rebels with jihadist ties, a belief the administration was overly focused on confronting Assad's ally [[Russia]], and anger the White House was unwilling to challenge [[Saudi Arabia]], [[Qatar]] and [[Turkey]] over their support of extremist groups in Syria. On June 25, 2017, ''[[Welt am Sonntag]]'' published Hersh's article "Trump's Red Line"<ref name="T-s-red-line">{{cite news| url=https://www.welt.de/politik/ausland/article165905578/Trump-s-Red-Line.html | title=Trump's Red Line | author=Seymour M Hersh | publisher=Welt am Sonntag | access-date=June 25, 2017}}</ref> which had been rejected by the ''London Review of Books''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Hersh's New Syria Revelations Buried From View|url=https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/06/27/hershs-new-syria-revelations-buried-from-view/|access-date=October 7, 2017}}</ref> He said there was a split between the U.S. intelligence community and president [[Donald Trump]] over the alleged '[[Khan Shaykhun chemical attack|sarin attack]]' at the rebel-held town of [[Khan Shaykhun]] in Idlib on April 4, 2017: ″Trump issued the order despite having been warned by the U.S. intelligence community that it had found no evidence that the Syrians had used a chemical weapon.″<ref name="T-s-red-line" /><ref name="We got a fuckin' problem">{{cite news| url=https://www.welt.de/politik/ausland/article165905618/We-got-a-fuckin-problem.html | title=We got a fuckin' problem | author=Seymour M Hersh | publisher=Welt am Sonntag | access-date=June 25, 2017}}</ref> [[Bellingcat]] accused Hersh of sloppy journalism: "Hersh based his case on a tiny number of anonymous sources, presented no other evidence to support his case, and ignored or dismissed evidence that countered the alternative narrative he was trying to build."<ref>{{cite web|last1=Higgins|first1=Eliot|title=Will Get Fooled Again – Seymour Hersh, Welt, and the Khan Sheikhoun Chemical Attack|url=https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2017/06/25/will-get-fooled-seymour-hersh-welt-khan-sheikhoun-chemical-attack/|website=Bell¿ngcat|access-date=June 29, 2017}}</ref> In his article,<ref name="T-s-red-line"/> Hersh states that the CIA was told directly by the Russians and Syrians of the place and time of the Syrian bombing ahead of time. He asserts that the Russians knew that the CIA was working with the opposition jihadists, and did not want any Americans killed. According to Hersh, the Syrian Air Force officers gave exact flight details in advance to the American deconfliction monitors aboard their AWACS plane, so that the Syrian jets could be tracked precisely, and the U.S. military did a bomb damage assessment (BDA) report on the attack, showing the Syrian Air Force dropped a 500-lb conventional-explosives bomb that wiped out the entire building the jihadis were meeting in.<ref name="T-s-red-line"/> Journalist [[George Monbiot]] criticized Hersh's conclusions.<ref name="Monbiot">[[George Monbiot]] [https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/15/lesson-from-syria-chemical-weapons-conspiracy-theories-alt-right A lesson from Syria: it's crucial not to fuel far-right conspiracy theories], [[The Guardian]], November 15, 2017</ref> == Criticism and controversy == Critics have described Hersh as a conspiracy theorist, in particular for his rejection of official claims regarding the killing of Osama Bin Laden and his rejection that the Assad regime used chemical weapons on Syrian civilians.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":1" /> In 2015, Vox's Max Fisher (now at the ''New York Times'') wrote that in recent years "Hersh has appeared increasingly to have gone off the rails. His stories, often alleging vast and shadowy conspiracies, have made startling — and often internally inconsistent — accusations, based on little or no proof beyond a handful of anonymous "officials."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.vox.com/2015/5/11/8584473/seymour-hersh-osama-bin-laden|title=The many problems with Seymour Hersh's Osama bin Laden conspiracy theory|last=Fisher|first=Max|date=2015-05-11|website=Vox|access-date=2019-04-07}}</ref> === Kennedy research === {{See also|John F. Kennedy document hoax}} 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: *Though Jacqueline Bouvier officially was his first wife, his actual first marriage was to a woman named Durie Malcolm that was never legally terminated, and was hushed up by his father [[Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.]] *He had been a semi-regular narcotics user, receiving injections from Dr. [[Max Jacobson]]. *He had had a close working relationship with [[American Mafia]] boss [[Sam Giancana]] that supposedly included vote fraud in one or two crucial states in the 1960 presidential election. *In 1958, when he was a member of the [[United States Senate]], he had an extramarital affair with "an attractive aide in [his] Senate office," [[Pamela Turnure]]. This was three years before she became First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy's press secretary. In 1958, Turnure's landlady Florence Kater took a photograph of the senator leaving Turnure's apartment in the middle of the night, a photograph that Kater tried repeatedly to bring to public attention to ruin the senator's presidential campaign.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.icollector.com/John-F-Kennedy-Secret-File-Senate-Extortion-Letter-and-Candids_i24803759|title=John F. Kennedy 'Secret File' Senate Extortion Letter and Candids|website=iCollector.com Online Auctions}}</ref> *"On May 14, 1960," says ''The Dark Side of Camelot'', "just four days after Kennedy won the West Virginia primary, [Florence Kater] approached him at a political rally at the University of Maryland carrying a placard with an enlarged snapshot of the early-morning scene outside Pamela Turnure's apartment. Kennedy ignored her, but a photograph of the encounter was published in the next afternoon's ''Washington Star'', along with a brief story describing her as a heckler."<ref>{{cite book| last=Hersh| first=Seymour| title=The Dark Side of Camelot| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5eZUAgAACAAJ| publisher=Little, Brown and Company| date=1997| page=108| isbn=978-0-31-619136-4}}</ref> *The reels of microfilm for ''[[The Washington Star]]'' that cover the month of May 1960 indicate that the newspaper, then known as ''The Evening Star of Washington, D.C.'' and ''The Sunday Star'', never published an article about Florence Kater, nor did the article about Kennedy's campaign appearance at the University of Maryland mention a heckler. For many of these allegations, Hersh relied only on hearsay collected decades after the event. 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 name="Kennedy investigation criticism">"[http://www.edwardjayepstein.com/archived/hersh.htm 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 name="Hersh's History">[http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comstock200405200943.asp "Hersh's History"], Barbara Comstock, ''[[National Review]]'', May 20, 2004</ref> A month before the publication of ''The Dark Side of Camelot'', newspapers, including ''[[USA Today]]'', reported Hersh had announced the removal from the galleys at the last minute a segment about legal documents allegedly containing JFK's signature.<ref>Moore, Martha T. "Disputed Kennedy Papers Investigated – Documents Called Forgeries Subject of Criminal Probe." ''[[USA Today]]'' October 16, 1997, p. 2A.</ref> The documents supposedly signed by John F. Kennedy included a provision, in 1960, for a trust fund to be set up for the institutionalized mother of [[Marilyn Monroe]].<ref name="autogenerated1" /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/427/original-recipe |title=Original Recipe |work=This American Life |access-date=November 12, 2013}}</ref> A paralegal named Lawrence X. "Lex" Cusack had shared them with Hersh and encouraged the author to discuss them in the book.<ref name="autogenerated1">Grove, Lloyd. "Was The Handwriting On The Wall? The Long Tangled Tale of Seymour Hersh and the Forged JFK Papers." ''[[The Washington Post]]'' October 27, 1997, p. C1</ref> Shortly before Hersh's announcement that he had removed all references to Cusack's documents, federal investigators began probing Cusack's selling the documents at auction.<ref name="autogenerated1" /> After ''The Dark Side of Camelot'' became a bestseller, Cusack was convicted by a federal jury in Manhattan on 13 counts of fraud and forging the documents, and was subsequently sentenced to 10 years and three months in prison.<ref>"Man Convicted of Sale of Kennedy Forgeries – Documents Were Source For Book." ''The Washington Post'' May 1, 1999, p. C2. No byline.</ref> In 1997, the Kennedy family also denied Cusack's claim that his late father had been an attorney who had represented JFK in 1960.<ref name="autogenerated1" /> === Use of anonymous sources === There has been sustained criticism of Hersh's use of anonymous sources.<ref name="Kennedy investigation criticism" /><ref name="anonymous sources criticism" /><ref name="Metro interview" /><ref name=":1" /> Critics, including [[Edward Jay Epstein]] and [[Amir Taheri]], say he is over-reliant on them.<ref name="Kennedy investigation criticism" /><ref name="anonymous sources criticism" /><ref name = "Metro interview" /> Taheri, for example, when reviewing Hersh's ''Chain of Command'' (2004), complained: {{Quote| As soon as he has made an assertion he cites a 'source' to back it. In ''every case'' this is either an un-named former official or an unidentified secret document passed to Hersh in unknown circumstances. […] By my count Hersh has anonymous 'sources' inside 30 foreign governments and virtually every department of the U.S. government.<ref name="anonymous sources criticism">[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3624163/Many-sources-but-no-meat.html "Many Sources But No Meat"], [[Amir Taheri]], ''[[The Sunday Telegraph]]'', September 19, 2004</ref>}} In response to an article in ''The New Yorker'' in which Hersh alleged that the U.S. government was planning a strike on [[Iran]], [[U.S. Defense Department]] spokesman Bryan G. Whitman said, "This reporter has a solid and well-earned reputation for making dramatic assertions based on thinly sourced, unverifiable anonymous sources."<ref name="US gov criticism">[http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/04/10/hersh.access/index.html "Hersh: U.S. mulls nuclear option for Iran"], CNN, April 10, 2006</ref> In his Bin Laden story, "Hersh relied at least 55 times on an anonymous retired senior intelligence official."<ref name=":1" /> ''Slate'' magazine's [[James Kirchick]] wrote, "Readers are expected to believe that the story of the Bin Laden assassination is a giant ‘fairy tale’ on the word of a single, unnamed source... Hersh's problem is that he evinces no skepticism whatsoever toward what his crank sources tell him, which is ironic considering how cynical he is regarding the pronouncements of the U.S. national security bureaucracy."<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2015/05/seymour-hershs-unreliable-london-review-of-books-investigation-the-national-security-reporters-account-of-the-bin-laden-raid-has-familiar-flaws.html|title=A Crank Theory of Seymour Hersh|last=Kirchick|first=James|date=2015-05-12|website=Slate Magazine|language=en|access-date=2019-04-07}}</ref> ''Politico'' wrote in 2015 that Hersh's reporting had increasingly been called into question due to "his almost exclusive reliance on anonymous sources."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.politico.com/story/2015/05/seymour-hersh-bin-laden-raid-officials-criticism-117826.html|title=U.S. officials fuming over Hersh account of bin Laden raid|last1=Bender|first1=Bryan|last2=Ewing|first2=Philip|website=POLITICO|language=en|access-date=2019-04-07}}</ref> [[David Remnick]], the editor of ''The New Yorker'', maintains that he is aware of the identity of all of Hersh's unnamed sources, telling the ''[[Columbia Journalism Review]]'' that "I know every single source that is in his pieces. ... Every 'retired intelligence officer,' every general with reason to know, and all those phrases that one has to use, alas, by necessity, I say, 'Who is it? What's his interest?' We talk it through."<ref>[https://www.cjr.org/issues/2003/4/hersh-sherman.asp?printerfriendly=yes "The Avenger: Sy Hersh, Then and Now"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060114211230/https://www.cjr.org/issues/2003/4/hersh-sherman.asp?printerfriendly=yes |date=January 14, 2006 }}, Scott Sherman, ''Columbia Journalism Review'', July/August 2003 Pages 34–43</ref> === Speeches === In an interview with ''[[New York (magazine)|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 name = "Metro interview">{{Cite web | last = Suellentrop | first = Chris | date= April 18, 2005 | title = Sy Hersh Says It's Okay to Lie (Just Not in Print) | url = http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/features/11719/ | website = nymag.com | access-date = May 21, 2015 }}</ref> 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: {{quote|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 name = "Metro interview" />}} 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 name = "Metro interview" /> In ''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 name = "Metro interview" /> === Link between the US government and Fatah al-Islam === In March 2007, Hersh asserted in a ''[[The New Yorker|New Yorker]]'' piece that the United States and Saudi governments were funding the terrorist organization [[Fatah al-Islam]] through aid to Lebanese Sunni Prime Minister [[Fouad Siniora]].<ref>{{cite web |title=The Redirection |author=Seymour M. Hersh |work=[[The New Yorker]] |url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/03/05/the-redirection}}</ref> Following the publication of the story, journalist Emmanuel Sivan in Beirut wrote that Hersh put forth the allegation without any reliable sources.<ref>{{cite web|title=Thus are reports about the Mideast generated|first=Emmanuel|last=Sivan|date=June 20, 2007|publisher=Haaretz Daily Newspaper Ltd.|url=http://www.haaretz.com/thus-are-reports-about-the-mideast-generated-1.223615|access-date=June 29, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160202112232/http://www.haaretz.com/thus-are-reports-about-the-mideast-generated-1.223615|archive-date=February 2, 2016|url-status=dead|work=Haaretz}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title="Blowback" in Lebanon? |author=Gabriel Schoenfeld |work=Commentary Magazine |url=https://www.commentarymagazine.com/2007/11/28/schoenfeld-vs-sharansky/|author-link=Gabriel Schoenfeld }}</ref> === Morarji Desai libel suit === Hersh wrote in his 1983 book ''The Price of Power'' that former Indian Prime Minister [[Morarji Desai]] had been paid $20,000 a year by the CIA during the Johnson and Nixon administrations. Desai called the allegation "a scandalous and malicious lie" and filed a $50 million libel suit against Hersh. By the time the case went to trial Desai, by then 93, was too ill to attend. CIA director [[Richard Helms]] and [[Henry Kissinger]] testified under oath that at no time did Desai act in any capacity for the CIA, paid or otherwise. A Chicago jury ruled in favor of Hersh, saying Desai did not provide sufficient evidence that Hersh had published the information with intent to do harm or with reckless disregard for the truth, either of which must be proven in a libel suit.<ref>David Margolick. "U.S. Journalist Cleared of Libel Charge by Indian". ''The New York Times''. October 7, 1989.</ref><ref>"Court upholds ruling in Hersh libel suit". ''Chicago Tribune''. January 31, 1992.</ref> ===Seth Rich=== In a January 2017 recorded telephone conversation about the 2016 death of former [[Democratic National Committee]] staffer [[Seth Rich]], Hersh told former financial adviser [[Ed Butowsky]] that he had spoken to a Federal Bureau of Investigation source who confirmed the existence of information on Rich's laptop computer showing he had been in contact with [[WikiLeaks]] prior to his death.<ref name="NPR; August 16, 2017">{{cite news |last=Folkenflik |first=David |date=August 16, 2017 |title=The Man Behind The Scenes In Fox News' Discredited Seth Rich Story |url=https://www.npr.org/2017/08/16/543830392/the-role-of-ed-butowsky-in-advancing-retracted-seth-rich-story |work=NPR |access-date=December 10, 2020}}</ref> Although cautioned by Hersh that the information may not be true, Butowsky forwarded the secretly taped discussion to the Rich family setting off a [[media circus|flurry of activity in the media]].<ref name="NPR; August 16, 2017"/> Hersh later said that he had heard "gossip"<ref name="NPR; August 1, 2017">{{cite news |last=Folkenflik |first=David |date=August 1, 2017 |title=Behind Fox News' Baseless Seth Rich Story: The Untold Tale |url=https://www.npr.org/2017/08/01/540783715/lawsuit-alleges-fox-news-and-trump-supporter-created-fake-news-story |work=NPR |access-date=December 10, 2020}}</ref> and that he was fishing for information.<ref name="NPR; August 16, 2017"/> === Skripal poisoning === In August 2018, Hersh said “the story of [[Novichok agent|novichok]] poisoning has not held up very well. He [Skripal] was most likely talking to British intelligence services about Russian organised crime”. He said the contamination of other victims was “suggestive ... of organised crime elements rather than state-sponsored actions – though this files (sic) in the face of the UK government's position”.<ref name=":0" /> == Awards, honors and associations == His journalism and publishing awards include the 1970 Pulitzer Prize, the 2004 [[National Council of Teachers of English]] [[George Orwell Award]] for Distinguished Contribution to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language,<ref>[https://ncte.org/awards/george-orwell-award/ George Orwell Award], ncte.org. Retrieved 13 February 2021.</ref> two National Magazine Awards, five George Polk Awards - making him that award's most honored laureate - and more than a dozen other prizes for investigative reporting: *1969: George Polk Special Award (for his My Lai reporting)<ref>[https://liu.edu/polk-awards/past-winners#1969 Past George Polk Award Winners], liu.edu. Retrieved 13 February 2021.</ref> *1970: [[Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting]]<ref>[https://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winners-by-category/210 International Reporting - The Pulitzer Prizes], pulitzer.org. Retrieved 13 February 2021.</ref> *1973: [[George Polk Award]] for Investigative Reporting;<ref>[https://liu.edu/polk-awards/past-winners#1973 Past George Polk Award Winners], liu.edu. Retrieved 13 February 2021.</ref> Scripps-Howard Public Service Award<ref>[https://thekeep.eiu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1100&context=press_releases_1983 04/11/1983 - Seymour Hersh to Discuss Journalism and Foreign Policy Policy], eiu.edu. Retrieved 13 February 2021.</ref> *1974: George Polk Award for National Reporting<ref>[https://liu.edu/polk-awards/past-winners#1974 Past George Polk Award Winners], liu.edu. Retrieved 13 February 2021.</ref> *1975 Sidney Hilman Award<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1975/05/03/archives/expose-of-cia-wins-the-hillman-award.html EXPOSE OF C.I.A. WINS THE HILLMAN AWARD], nytimes.com, 3 May 1975. Retrieved 13 February 2021.</ref> *1981: George Polk Award for National Reporting<ref>[https://liu.edu/polk-awards/past-winners#1981 Past George Polk Award Winners], liu.edu. Retrieved 13 February 2021.</ref> *1983: [[National Book Critics Circle Award]] and [[Los Angeles Times Book Prize]] for ''The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House''<ref>[https://www.bookcritics.org/past-awards/1983/ 1983 - The National Book Critics Circle Award], bookcritics.org. Retrieved 13 February 2021.</ref> *2003: [[National Magazine Award]] for Public Interest for his articles "Lunch with the Chairman", "Selective Intelligence", and "The Stovepipe"<ref>[https://nationalpress.org/award-winner/seymour-hersh/ Seymour Hersh], nationalpress.org. Retrieved 13 February 2021.</ref> *2004: Following Hersh's 2004 articles in the ''New Yorker'' magazine exposing the Abu Ghraib scandal: National Magazine Award for Public Interest, Overseas Press Club Award, National Press Foundation's Kiplinger Distinguished Contributions to Journalism Award, and his fifth George Polk Award<ref>[https://liu.edu/polk-awards/past-winners#2004 Past George Polk Award Winners], liu.edu. Retrieved 13 February 2021.</ref><ref>[https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/seymour-m-hersh/page/5 Seymour Hersh], newyorker.com. Retrieved 13 February 2021.</ref> *2017: [[Sam Adams Award]] for Integrity<ref>[[Ray McGovern]]: [https://consortiumnews.com/2017/09/01/seymour-hersh-honored-for-integrity Seymour Hersh Honored for Integrity], [[Consortiumnews]], September 1, 2017</ref> == Publications == === Books === * {{Cite book | title = Chemical and Biological Warfare: America's Hidden Arsenal | location = New York | publisher = [[Bobbs-Merrill]]; London: [[MacGibbon & Kee]] | year = 1968 | isbn = 0-586-03295-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/chemicalbiologic00hers}} * {{Cite book | title = My Lai 4: A Report on the Massacre and Its Aftermath | publisher = [[Random House]] | year = 1970 | isbn = 0-394-43737-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/mylai4reportonth00hers}} * {{Cite book | title = Cover-Up: The Army's Secret Investigation of the Massacre at My Lai 4 | publisher = [[Random House]] | year = 1972 | isbn = 0-394-47460-0 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/coverupthearmyss00hers }} * {{Cite book | title = The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House | publisher = [[Simon & Schuster]] | year = 1983 | isbn = 0-671-44760-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/priceofpower00hers}} * {{Cite book | title = The Target Is Destroyed: What Really Happened to Flight 007 and What America Knew About It | publisher = [[Random House]] | year = 1986 | isbn = 0-394-54261-4 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/thetargetisdestr00hers }} * {{Cite book | title = The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy | publisher = [[Random House]] | year = 1991 | isbn = 0-394-57006-5 | title-link = The Samson Option (book)}} [https://archive.org/download/Sampson_Option/Sampson_Option.pdf Full text available]. ** [https://archive.org/download/OptionSamsonAuthorSeymourHersh/Option%20Samson%20author%20Seymour%20Hersh%20%20_%20%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AE%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%B1%20%D8%B4%D9%85%D8%B4%D9%88%D9%86%20%D8%AA%D8%A3%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%81%20%D8%B3%D9%8A%D9%85%D9%88%D8%B1%20%D9%87%D9%8A%D8%B1%D8%B4.pdf Arabic translation available]. * {{Cite book | title = The Dark Side of Camelot | publisher = [[Little, Brown & Company]] | year = 1997 | isbn = 0-316-36067-8 | url = https://archive.org/details/darksideofcamelo00hers_0 }} * {{Cite book | title = Against All Enemies: Gulf War Syndrome: The War Between America's Ailing Veterans and Their Government | location = New York | publisher = [[Ballantine Books]] | year = 1998 | isbn = 0-345-42748-3 | url = https://archive.org/details/againstallenemie00hers }} * {{Cite book | title = Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib | publisher = [[HarperCollins]] | year = 2004 | isbn = 0-060-19591-6 | url = https://archive.org/details/chainofcommandroher00hers }} * {{Cite book | title = The Killing of Osama Bin Laden | publisher = [[Verso]] | year = 2016 | isbn = 978-1-784-78436-2 }} * [https://books.google.com/books?id=GDQ-DwAAQBAJ ''Reporter: A Memoir''] (Autobiography). New York, NY: [[Alfred A. Knopf|Alfred Knopf]], 2018 {{ISBN|978-0307263957}} {{OCLC|1010776541}} === Book contributions === * "Foreword". ''Iraq Confidential: The Untold Story of the Intelligence Conspiracy to Undermine the UN and Overthrow Saddam Hussein'' by [[Scott Ritter]]. Nation Books, 2005. {{ISBN|1-56025-852-7}}. Hardcover. === Articles and reportage === * [http://www.newyorker.com/contributors/seymour-m-hersh Full list of published articles in ''The New Yorker''] * [http://www.lrb.co.uk/contributors/seymour-m-hersh Collected articles for the ''London Review of Books''] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20180501143432/http://pierretristam.com/Bobst/library/wf-200.htm ''St. Louis Post Dispatch'': The My Lai Massacre stories] == See also == * [[Opposition to war against Iran]] ==Notes== {{notelist}} == References == {{Reflist|colwidth=30em}} == External links == {{Commons category}} * {{IMDb name|id=1260735|name=Seymour Hersh}} * {{C-SPAN|Seymour Hersh}} * [http://www.depauw.edu/news-media/latest-news/details/13989/ Ubben Lecture at DePauw University; December 9, 1997] * [http://www.newstatesman.com/media/2009/11/interview-obama-afghanistan Seymour Hersh] Interviewed by Mehdi Hasan * [http://www.bu.edu/phpbin/buniverse/videos/view/?id=369 "Current State of Investigating Reporting", talk given at BU, May 19 2009]{{dead link|date=May 2017}} * [https://archive.org/search.php?query=%22seymour+hersh%22 Works by Seymour Hersh] at [[Internet Archive]]. {{Laureates of the Sam Adams Award}} {{Orwell Award recipients}} {{PulitzerPrize International Reporting}} {{Vietnam War correspondents}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Hersh, Seymour}} [[Category:1937 births]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:American investigative journalists]] [[Category:American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent]] [[Category:American war correspondents of the Vietnam War]] [[Category:American people of the Vietnam War]] [[Category:American war correspondents]] [[Category:The Atlantic (magazine) people]] [[Category:Espionage writers]] [[Category:George Polk Award recipients]] [[Category:Jewish American journalists]] [[Category:Jewish American writers]] [[Category:Journalists from Illinois]] [[Category:Mỹ Lai massacre]] [[Category:The New York Times writers]] [[Category:The New Yorker staff writers]] [[Category:Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting winners]] [[Category:University of Chicago alumni]] [[Category:Writers from Chicago]] [[Category:20th-century American journalists]]'