<b>Seymour Myron Hersh</b> (born <a href="/wiki/April_8" title="April 8">April 8</a>, <a href="/wiki/1937" title="
1937">1937</a>) is an <a href="/wiki/United_States" title="United States">American</a> investigative <a href="/wiki/Journalist"
title="Journalist">journalist</a> and <a href="/wiki/Author" title="Author">author</a>. His work first gained worldwide
recognition in <a href="/wiki/1969" title="1969">1969</a> for exposing the <a href="/wiki/My_Lai_massacre" title="
My Lai massacre">My Lai massacre</a> and its cover-up during the <a href="/wiki/Vietnam_War" title="Vietnam War">Vietnam
War</a>, for which he received the <a href="/wiki/Pulitzer_Prize" title="Pulitzer Prize">Pulitzer Prize</a> for international
reporting.</p>
<p>Hersh was born in <a href="/wiki/Chicago" title="Chicago">Chicago</a> and graduated from the <a href="
/wiki/University_of_Chicago" title="University of Chicago">University of Chicago</a>. He began his career in journalism as a
police reporter for the City News Bureau in 1959. He later became a correspondent for <a href="/wiki/United_Press_International"
title="United Press International">United Press International</a> in <a href="/wiki/South_Dakota" title="South Dakota">South
Dakota</a>. In 1963 went on to become a Chicago and <a href="/wiki/Washington_DC" title="Washington DC">Washington DC</a>
correspondent for the <a href="/wiki/Associated_Press" title="Associated Press">Associated Press</a>. Five years later, Hersh was
hired as a reporter for <i><a href="/wiki/The_New_York_Times" title="The New York Times">The New York Times</a></i> Washington
Bureau, where he served from 1972 to 1975 and again in 1979.</p>
<p>His book <i>The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House</i> won him the <a href="
/wiki/National_Book_Critics_Circle_Award" title="National Book Critics Circle Award">National Book Critics Circle Award</a> and
the <i><a href="/wiki/Los_Angeles_Times" title="Los Angeles Times">Los Angeles Times</a></i> book prize in biography. Hersh has
written a total of eight books and contributed to the <a href="/wiki/PBS" title="PBS">PBS</a> television documentary, <i>Buying
the Bomb</i> (1985).</p>
<p>Hersh currently contributes regularly to <i><a href="/wiki/The_New_Yorker" title="The New Yorker">The New Yorker</a></i> on
military and security matters. A 2004 article investigated exactly how Vice President <a href="/wiki/Dick_Cheney" title="
Dick Cheney">Dick Cheney</a> and Secretary of Defense <a href="/wiki/Donald_Rumsfeld" title="Donald Rumsfeld">Donald
Rumsfeld</a> circumvented the normal intelligence analysis function of the <a href="/wiki/Central_Intelligence_Agency" title="
Central Intelligence Agency">CIA</a> in their quest to make a case for the <a href="/wiki/2003_invasion_of_Iraq" title="
2003 invasion of Iraq">2003 invasion of Iraq</a>. His coverage of <a href="/wiki/Richard_Perle" title="Richard Perle">Richard
Perle</a> in another article, <i>Lunch with the Chairman</i>, led Perle to say that Hersh was the "closest thing American
journalism has to a terrorist." Perle publicly threatened to sue Hersh for <a href="/wiki/Libel" title="Libel">libel</a> in the
<a href="/wiki/United_Kingdom" title="United Kingdom">United Kingdom</a> where the standard of proof is much lower, but failed to
file suit before the statute of limitations ran out.</p>
<p>In May 2004, Hersh published a series of articles describing and showing with photos the torture by US military police of
prisoners in the Iraqi <a href="/wiki/Abu_Ghraib_%28prison%29" title="Abu Ghraib (prison)">prison of Abu Ghraib</a>. There are
allegations that private contractors contributed to them as well and that intelligence such as the <a href="/wiki/CIA" title="
CIA">CIA</a> ordered them in order to break prisoners for interrogations. It is said to be a usual practice in other US prisons
as well, e.g. in <a href="/wiki/Afghanistan" title="Afghanistan">Afghanistan</a> and <a href="/wiki/Camp_X-Ray" title="
Camp X-Ray">Guantanamo</a>. Hersh went on to publish an article claiming that the abuses were part of a secret interrogations
program, known as "<a href="/wiki/Copper_Green" title="Copper Green">Copper Green</a>", expanded to Iraq with the direct approval
of <a href="/wiki/United_States_Secretary_of_Defense" title="United States Secretary of Defense">Defense Secretary</a> <a href="
/wiki/Donald_Rumsfeld" title="Donald Rumsfeld">Donald Rumsfeld</a>, in an attempt to deal with the growing insurgency there.</p>
<p>At a Columbia University speech given by Hersh in June 2004, author <a href="
/w/index.php?title=Rick_Perlstein&action=edit" class="new" title="Rick Perlstein">Rick Perlstein</a> reported</p>
<dl>
<dd>[Hersh] said that after he broke Abu Ghraib people are coming out of the woodwork to tell him this stuff. He 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." <a href="
http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/2004_archives/000987.html" class='external' title="
http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable type/2004 archives/000987.html">[1]</a><span class='
urlexpansion'> (<i>http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/2004_archives/000987.html</i>)</span></dd>
</dl>
<p>At an ACLU convention in July 2004, he further detailed information he had been given about sexual tortures in Abu Ghraib
<a href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0107946/2004/07/14.html#a1922" class='external' title="
http://radio.weblogs.com/0107946/2004/07/14.html#a1922">[2]</a><span class='
urlexpansion'> (<i>http://radio.weblogs.com/0107946/2004/07/14.html#a1922</i>)</span>. He claims that there is video
footage, being held by the Bush administration, of Iraqi guards raping young boys in the prison. "The boys were sodomized with
the cameras rolling, and the worst part is the soundtrack, of the boys shrieking. And this is your government at war."</p>
<p>While being interviewed by KQED host Michael Krasny on October 8, 2004 <a href="
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/10/11_hersh.shtml" class='external' title="
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/10/11 hersh.shtml">[3]</a><span class='
urlexpansion'> (<i>http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/10/11_hersh.shtml</i>)</span>, Hersh claims to have
spoken with a first lieutenant in charge of a unit stationed halfway between Baghdad and the Syrian border.</p>
<dl>
<dd>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.</dd>
</dl>
<dl>
<dd>"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?'"</dd>
</dl>
<div class="editsection" style="float:right;margin-left:5px;">[<a href="
/w/index.php?title=Seymour_Hersh&action=edit&section=1" title="Seymour Hersh">edit</a>]</div>
<p><a name="Bibliography" id="Bibliography"></a></p>
<h2>Bibliography</h2>
<ul>
<li>Hersh, Seymour M. (2004). <i>Chain of Command : The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib</i>. HarperCollins. <a href="
/w/index.php?title=Special:Booksources&isbn=0060195916" class="internal">ISBN 0060195916</a>.</li>
<li>Hersh, Seymour M. (1998). <i>The Dark Side of Camelot</i> (Reprint). Back Bay Books. <a href="
/w/index.php?title=Special:Booksources&isbn=0316360678" class="internal">ISBN 0316360678</a>.</li>
<li>Hersh, Seymour M. (1998). <i>Against All Enemies: Gulf War Syndrome : The War Between America's Ailing Veterans and
Their Government</i>. Ballantine Books. <a href="/w/index.php?title=Special:Booksources&isbn=0345427483" class="
internal">ISBN 0345427483</a>.</li>
<li>Hersh, Seymour M. (1991). <i>The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy</i>. Random House.
<a href="/w/index.php?title=Special:Booksources&isbn=0394570065" class="internal">ISBN 0394570065</a>.</li>
<li>Hersh, Seymour M. (1986). <i>The Target Is Destroyed: What Really Happened to Flight 007 and What America Knew About It</i>.
Random House. <a href="/w/index.php?title=Special:Booksources&isbn=0394542614" class="internal">ISBN 0394542614</a>.</li>
<li>Hersh, Seymour M. (1983). <i>The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House</i>. Simon & Schuster. <a href="
/w/index.php?title=Special:Booksources&isbn=0671447602" class="internal">ISBN 0671447602</a>. <a href="
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Kissinger/Price_Of_Power.html" class='external' title="
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Kissinger/Price Of Power.html">Excerpts from The Price of Power</a><span class='
urlexpansion'> (<i>http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Kissinger/Price_Of_Power.html</i>)</span> hosted by <a href="
/w/index.php?title=Third_World_Traveller&action=edit" class="new" title="Third World Traveller">Third World
Traveller</a></li>
<li>Hersh, Seymour M. (1972). <i>Cover-up: the Army's secret investigation of the massacre at My Lai 4</i>. Random House.
<a href="/w/index.php?title=Special:Booksources&isbn=0394474600" class="internal">ISBN 0394474600</a>.</li>
<li>Hersh, Seymour M. (1970). <i>My Lai 4: A Report on the Massacre and Its Aftermath</i>. Random House. <a href="
/w/index.php?title=Special:Booksources&isbn=0394437373" class="internal">ISBN 0394437373</a>.</li>
</ul>
<div class="editsection" style="float:right;margin-left:5px;">[<a href="
/w/index.php?title=Seymour_Hersh&action=edit&section=2" title="Seymour Hersh">edit</a>]</div>
<p><a name="External_links" id="External_links"></a></p>
<h2>External links</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.cjr.org/issues/2003/4/hersh-sherman.asp" class='external' title="
http://www.cjr.org/issues/2003/4/hersh-sherman.asp">"The Avenger; Sy Hersh, Then and Now"</a><span class='
urlexpansion'> (<i>http://www.cjr.org/issues/2003/4/hersh-sherman.asp</i>)</span> (profile, <i>Columbia Review of
Journalism</i>)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0303/09/le.00.html" class='external' title="
http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0303/09/le.00.html">CNN interview with Richard Perle</a><span class='
urlexpansion'> (<i>http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0303/09/le.00.html</i>)</span> (transcript)</li>
<li><a href="http://slate.msn.com/id/2097188/" class='external' title="http://slate.msn.com/id/2097188/">"Richard Perle Libel
Watch -- The Finale"</a><span class='urlexpansion'> (<i>http://slate.msn.com/id/2097188/</i>)</span> (<i>Slate</i>)</li>
<li><a href="http://dir.salon.com/people/bc/2000/01/18/hersh/index.html" class='external' title="
http://dir.salon.com/people/bc/2000/01/18/hersh/index.html">Seymour Hersh</a><span class='
urlexpansion'> (<i>http://dir.salon.com/people/bc/2000/01/18/hersh/index.html</i>)</span> (profile in Salon by David
Rubien)</li>
<li><a href="http://newyorker.com/printable/?fact/040510fa_fact" class='external' title="
http://newyorker.com/printable/?fact/040510fa fact">Torture at Abu Ghraib</a><span class='
urlexpansion'> (<i>http://newyorker.com/printable/?fact/040510fa_fact</i>)</span> (<i>The New Yorker</i>)</li>
<li><a href="http://newyorker.com/printable/?fact/040524fa_fact" class='external' title="
http://newyorker.com/printable/?fact/040524fa fact">The Gray Zone</a><span class='
urlexpansion'> (<i>http://newyorker.com/printable/?fact/040524fa_fact</i>)</span> (<i>The New Yorker</i>)</li>
<li><a href="http://media5.bloomberg.com:443/cgi-bin/getavfile.cgi?A=22235212" class='external' title="
http://media5.bloomberg.com:443/cgi-bin/getavfile.cgi?A=22235212">Hersh re. Abu Ghraib</a><span class='
urlexpansion'> (<i>http://media5.bloomberg.com:443/cgi-bin/getavfile.cgi?A=22235212</i>)</span> on <a href="
/wiki/Charlie_Rose_%28show%29" title="Charlie Rose (show)"><i>Charlie Rose</i></a> May 3, 2004 (<a href="/wiki/RealAudio" title="
RealAudio">RealAudio</a>)</li>
<li><a href="http://media5.bloomberg.com:443/cgi-bin/getavfile.cgi?A=22235635" class='external' title="
http://media5.bloomberg.com:443/cgi-bin/getavfile.cgi?A=22235635">Hersh re. Abu Ghraib</a><span class='
urlexpansion'> (<i>http://media5.bloomberg.com:443/cgi-bin/getavfile.cgi?A=22235635</i>)</span> on <a href="
/wiki/Charlie_Rose_%28show%29" title="Charlie Rose (show)"><i>Charlie Rose</i></a> May 17, 2004 (<a href="/wiki/RealAudio"
title="RealAudio">RealAudio</a>)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/14/1351212" class='external' title="
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/14/1351212">Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib</a><span class='
urlexpansion'> (<i>http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/14/1351212</i>)</span> - Interview with Seymour Hersh
by <i><a href="/wiki/Democracy_Now%21" title="Democracy Now!">Democracy Now!</a></i> on September 14, 2004.</li>
<li><a href="http://webcast.berkeley.edu/events/replay.html?event_id=170" class='external' title="
http://webcast.berkeley.edu/events/replay.html?event id=170">Hersh re. Iraq and war on terror</a><span class='
urlexpansion'> (<i>http://webcast.berkeley.edu/events/replay.html?event_id=170</i>)</span> at <a href="/wiki/UC_Berkeley"
title="UC Berkeley"><i>UC Berkeley</i></a> October 8, 2004 (<a href="/wiki/RealAudio" title="RealAudio">RealAudio</a>)</li>
</ul>
<p><br /></p>
<p><br /></p>
<p><br /></p>
<p><br /></p>
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