Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Book says Bush officials warned of prison abuse
Houston Chronicle ^ | 9/11/04

Posted on 09/11/2004 1:14:05 PM PDT by areafiftyone

WASHINGTON -- Senior military and national security officials in the Bush administration were repeatedly warned by subordinates in 2002 and 2003 that prisoners in military custody were being abused, according to a new book by a prominent journalist.

Seymour M. Hersh, a writer for The New Yorker magazine who earlier this year was among the first to disclose details of the abuses of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in Iraq, makes the charges in his book "Chain of Command: The Road From 9/11 to Abu Ghraib" (HarperCollins), which is being released Monday. The book draws on the articles he has written about the campaign against terrorism and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Hersh asserts that a CIA analyst who visited the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in the late summer of 2002 filed a report of abuses there that drew the attention of Gen. John A. Gordon, the deputy to Condoleezza Rice, the White House national security adviser. But when Gordon called the matter to her attention and she discussed it with other senior officials, including Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, no significant change resulted. Hersh's account is based on anonymous sources, some of them secondhand, and could not be independently verified.

Hersh also says that a military officer involved in counterinsurgency operations in Iraq learned of the abuses at Abu Ghraib in November and reported it to two of his superiors, Gen. John P. Abizaid, the regional commander, and his deputy, Lt. Gen. Lance Smith.

"I said there are systematic abuses going on in the prisons," the unnamed officer is quoted as telling Hersh. "Abizaid didn't say a thing. He looked at me -- beyond me, as if to say, `Move on. I don't want to touch this.'"

Hersh also reports that FBI agents complained to their superiors about abuses at Guantanamo, as did a military lawyer, and that these complaints, too, were relayed to the Pentagon.

Hersh's thesis is that "the roots of the Abu Ghraib scandal lie not in the criminal inclinations of a few Army reservists" who have been charged so far, "but in the reliance of George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld on secret operations and the use of coercion -- and eye-for-eye retribution -- in fighting terrorism."

In particular, Hersh has reported that a secret program to capture and interrogate terrorists led to the abuse of prisoners.

In a statement posted on its Web site, the Pentagon said: "Based on media inquiries, it appears that Seymour Hersh's upcoming book apparently contains many of the numerous unsubstantiated allegations and inaccuracies which he has made in the past based upon unnamed sources."

The statement added that several investigations so far "have determined that no responsible official of the Department of Defense approved any program that could conceivably have authorized or condoned the abuses seen at Abu Ghraib."

That is essentially the same reaction issued by the Pentagon when Hersh first reported, in May, that Rumsfeld, with the White House's approval, established a secret program under which commandos would capture and interrogate suspected terrorists with few if any constraints, and that eventually this program's reach extended into the Abu Ghraib prison.

Although the new book does not provide major new details on this claim, which has not been independently confirmed, Hersh does write that after his article describing the secret operation was published in May, "a ranking member of Congress confirmed its existence and further told me that President Bush had signed the mandated finding officially notifying Congress."

In an introduction, David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, defends Hersh's reliance on unnamed sources as unavoidable when reporting on intelligence matters, and says that in every case the magazine's editors "ask the reporter who the unnamed sources are, what their motivations might be, and if they can be corroborated."

Hersh achieved prominence in 1969 when he revealed the massacre of Vietnamese civilians by Americans at the village of My Lai.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: abughraib; bookreview; seymourhersh
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-27 next last
Ah Seymour Hersch - a very big Bush hater! More stuff from the democrats trying to bring down BUSH! Sorry Dems it won't work!
1 posted on 09/11/2004 1:14:05 PM PDT by areafiftyone
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: areafiftyone

And, of course the author's sources are beyond question. And, of course it is purely coincidental as to the timing of this book. And, of course...[insert the RatherSpeak phrase of your choice here].


2 posted on 09/11/2004 1:19:10 PM PDT by linear
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: areafiftyone

Why don't the leftists see that these animals will kill them as well as the rest of us?


3 posted on 09/11/2004 1:19:33 PM PDT by exnavy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: areafiftyone

How about these hacks (so called journalists) do an expose on the groups that have cut off the heads of civilians. For some reason that is a little more shocking than some hazing ritual - I'm sure many have had worse in college.


4 posted on 09/11/2004 1:20:02 PM PDT by Lord Nelson
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: areafiftyone

ahh, they failed with the national guard thing, so it's back to the abu gharib 'scandal'. the enemy within must be deported NOW!!


5 posted on 09/11/2004 1:21:45 PM PDT by Stellar Dendrite ( An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last. - Winston Churchill)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: All

Looks like Seymour Hersch idolizes Kerry's traitor characteristics. Seymour Hersh, broke the story about the My Lai Massacre. After the verdict was handed down in the criminal prosecution of the My Lai massacre, a story he broke during the Vietnam War, he felt so threatened by angry soldiers that he went into hiding.


6 posted on 09/11/2004 1:22:14 PM PDT by areafiftyone (Democrats = the hamster is dead but the wheel is still spinning)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: areafiftyone
Add this tome to the anti-Bush table stacked to the ceiling with anti-Bush books at Barnes & Noble and watch Bush win anyway. BWAHAHAHAHA!

Kerry/Edwards: Forging Ahead in 2004!

7 posted on 09/11/2004 1:23:45 PM PDT by Lizavetta (Kerry/Edwards....... Forging Ahead)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: areafiftyone

Another book.


8 posted on 09/11/2004 1:24:39 PM PDT by Republican Wildcat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: areafiftyone
Hersh's account is based on anonymous sources, some of them secondhand, and could not be independently verified.

How appropriate that Hersh's new Bush-bashing fiction will share the book store display windows with Kitty Kelley's tattle-tale fiction.

9 posted on 09/11/2004 1:30:44 PM PDT by AF68
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Republican Wildcat

Yea, but they got memos to back it up. Soon as they are done photocopying them a dozen times.


10 posted on 09/11/2004 1:32:15 PM PDT by Larry Lucido
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: areafiftyone

When Hersch helped break this story for propaganda purposes, the military had already been investigating it for several months. So of course they knew about it before Hersch told them.


11 posted on 09/11/2004 1:33:46 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Larry Lucido

Give it up...After seeing people getting their heads sawed off no one gives a 'Rats @## if someone in a prison had to wear panties on their head!!


12 posted on 09/11/2004 1:37:08 PM PDT by FlashBack (Faith will not make our path easy, but it will give us strength for the Journey.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Larry Lucido

Exactly! Wanna bet Hersh was the go-betweeen carrying the 'stolen' docs to CBS?


13 posted on 09/11/2004 1:39:37 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (Thank you Rush Limbaugh-godfather of the New Media.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: FlashBack
Give it up...After seeing people getting their heads sawed off no one gives a 'Rats @## if someone in a prison had to wear panties on their head!!

Yeah, at least they had heads to put panties on.

14 posted on 09/11/2004 1:40:19 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (Thank you Rush Limbaugh-godfather of the New Media.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: areafiftyone

Hersh is an old commie and jihadist collaborator..


15 posted on 09/11/2004 1:42:25 PM PDT by sheik yerbouty
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Comment #16 Removed by Moderator

To: areafiftyone

Lovely. Another addition to the "I Hate Bush" shrine at my local Barnes & Nobles.


17 posted on 09/11/2004 1:44:04 PM PDT by PogySailor (Proud member of the RAM)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Trasha

LOL


18 posted on 09/11/2004 1:47:26 PM PDT by exnavy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: areafiftyone

Hersch and Kitty Kelly......perfect together.


19 posted on 09/11/2004 1:52:21 PM PDT by OldFriend (It's the soldier, not the reporter who has given US freedom of the press)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: areafiftyone

Where does this book stand on the NYTDNC bestseller list?


20 posted on 09/11/2004 1:54:17 PM PDT by There's millions of'em (Please give the mic to Terayza...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-27 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson