Abu Ghraib

U.S. Officials Panic About Seymour Hersh Story; Then Deny His Claims Using Jedi Mind Tricks

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What really struck me last evening as I was reading Seymour Hersh’s article exposing the bin Laden raid story as a farce, was the fact that it answered in detail so many of the questions I’ve had about the raid over the years. For example:

In 2012, I wrote the post: New Emails Say No Sailors Watched Bin Laden’s Burial at Sea

This was followed up in 2013 with: U.S. Government’s Secret Move to Hide Files on the Osama Bin Laden Raid

Then, finally in 2014: The U.S. Military Ordered Bin Laden Photos Destroyed 10 Days After Freedom of Information Act Request

Commenting on the burial aspect of this White House fairytale, I noted:

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How the American Psychological Association Supported and Provided Cover for the C.I.A. Torture Program

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Those who preach a “New Order” which is no more than a projection of the tendencies of the last forty years, and who can think of nothing better than to imitate Hitler.  It is, indeed, those who cry loudest for the New Order who are most completely under the sway of the ideas which have created this war and most of the evils from which we suffer.

– F.A. Hayek in The Road to Serfdom

In a story that sounds like it could’ve come straight from the archives of Nazi Germany, a new report has just been released claiming that the American Psychological Association (APA) collaborated with the George W. Bush administration to justify the C.I.A. torture program.

It’s even worse than it sounds though. In 2004, following the publication of the grotesque photos depicting abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison, the U.S. government’s torture program was coming under increased scrutiny and criticism from all sides. In fact, it became so questionable, even C.I.A. director George Tenet began to have concerns. So much so that he “signed a secret order suspending the agency’s use of the enhanced techniques, while asking for a policy review to make sure the program still had the Bush administration’s backing.”

This is where the American Psychological Association came to the aid of torture supporters everywhere. A private meeting was quickly held, which ended up justifying the role of psychologists in torture sessions. The following year, the APA issued guidelines that reaffirmed that it was acceptable for its members to be involved in the interrogation program.

But don’t take my word for it. The New York Times reports:

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How The Washington Post and The New Yorker Refused to Publish an Article on Obama Admin Syria Lies

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Seymour Hersh is not some guy off the street with a laptop and a head full of crazy ideas. The pulitzer prize winning journalist broke the My Lai Massacre story during the Vietnam War and also led reporting on the Abu Ghraib scandal in 2004. Well his most recent investigative reporting involves covering some of the blatant lies told by the Obama Administration earlier this year in an attempt to push the nation into a war in Syria on behalf of al-Qaeda, based on some very shaky evidence that Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons. Bizarrely enough, the publication with which Mr. Hersh is most associated, The New Yorker, refused to publish it. So did The Washington Post.

I don’t know about you, but this sure stinks of self-censopship to me. In particular, I think the Washington Post is playing defense following its reporting of the Edward Snowden leaks, and is afraid to further piss off the crony Obama Administration. It also seems likely The Post didn’t want to publish an article that would have showcased the paper’s own sloppy and irresponsible reporting on the matter. Which if true, is beyond pathetic.

From the Huffington Post:

NEW YORK — Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh accused the Obama administration Sunday of having “cherry-picked intelligence” regarding the Aug. 21 chemical attack in Syria that served as evidence for an argument in favor of striking President Bashar Assad’s government.

In his piece — titled “Whose Sarin?” — Hersh reported that al-Nusra, a jihadi group fighting in Syria’s long-running civil war, had also “mastered the mechanics of creating sarin and was capable of manufacturing it in quantity.” Therefore, he wrote, “Obama did not tell the whole story” when stating with certainty that Assad had to be responsible, crossing a so-called “red line” that would trigger U.S. retaliation.

You don’t say…

Hersh is a freelancer, but he’s best known these days for his work in The New Yorker, where he helped break the Abu Ghraib scandal in 2004. While Hersh is not a New Yorker staff writer, it was notable that his 5,500-word investigative piece landed in the London Review of Books, a London literary and intellectual magazine, rather than the publication with which he’s most closely associated.

In an email, Hersh wrote that “there was little interest” for the story at The New Yorker.

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