And Sy Hersh has made similar remarks. He's said it again in a speech last week in front of the ACLU. Where was the major media coverage?
Daily Kos had a post yesterday.
From today's Daily Mislead:
President Bush has claimed that the prison abuse scandal in Iraq was just "conduct by a few American troops." But with Congress investigating the scandal, a series of explosive new reports provides evidence that the tactics may have been approved at the highest levels of government. Even worse, one leading investigative journalist says the Administration is holding videotapes of soldiers sodomizing Iraqi children.
...Making matters worse, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh of the New Yorker told the American Civil Liberties Union this week that videotapes were made of young boys being sodomized at Abu Ghraib. "The worst is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking," the reporter told the group's convention. Hersh reports there was "a massive amount of criminal wrongdoing that was covered up at the highest command out there, and higher." See the video of Hersh's ACLU speech[7] - the information about the prison comes at about 1 hour and 30 minutes in.
"America at a Crossroads," 2004 ACLU Members Conference
...Making matters worse, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh of the New Yorker told the American Civil Liberties Union this week that videotapes were made of young boys being sodomized at Abu Ghraib. "The worst is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking," the reporter told the group's convention. Hersh reports there was "a massive amount of criminal wrongdoing that was covered up at the highest command out there, and higher." See the video of Hersh's ACLU speech[7] - the information about the prison comes at about 1 hour and 30 minutes in.
"America at a Crossroads," 2004 ACLU Members Conference
This is what they will be desperately attempting to keep a lid on.
Thanks to Eli at Left I for links and comments on the Not in Our Name ad Wednesday, July 7 on the back page of the Baghdad daily newspaper Al-Sabah Al-Jadeed declaring "No to torture and occupation.” Be sure and read the comments from ordinary Iraqis who were interviewed for their reactions to the ad.
And more on why apologies are in order...
AntiWar Blog post
And more on why apologies are in order...
Ed Cone has transcribed some of Hersh's speech:
Hersh describes a Pentagon in crisis. The defense department budget is “in incredible chaos,” he says, with large sums of cash missing, including something like $1 billion that was supposed to be in Iraq.
"The disaffection inside the Pentagon is extremely accute," Hersh says. He tells the story of an officer telling Rumsfeld how bad things are, and Rummy turning to a ranking general yes-man who reassured him that things are just fine. Says Hersh, "The Secretary of Defense is simply incapable of hearing what he doesn’t want to hear."
"The disaffection inside the Pentagon is extremely accute," Hersh says. He tells the story of an officer telling Rumsfeld how bad things are, and Rummy turning to a ranking general yes-man who reassured him that things are just fine. Says Hersh, "The Secretary of Defense is simply incapable of hearing what he doesn’t want to hear."
Not just the Secretary of Defense.
The Iraqi insurgency, he says,was operating in 1-to-3 man cells a year ago, now in 10-15 man cells, and despite the harsh questioning, "we still know nothing about them...we have no tactical information.”
He says the foreign element among insurgents is overstated, and that bogeyman Zarqawi is "a composite figure" hyped by our government.
He says the foreign element among insurgents is overstated, and that bogeyman Zarqawi is "a composite figure" hyped by our government.
Seymour Hersh has repeatedly proven to be one of (if not the) the best investigative reporters alive. If he's saying these things publicly, I am inclined to believe them even more strongly than I did before him saying them.
Hersh described the folks in charge of US policy as "neoconservative cultists" who have taken the government over, and show "how fragile our democracy is."
He ripped the supine US press, pledged to bring home all the facts he could, said he was not sure he could deliver all the damning info he suspects about Bush administration responsibility for Abu Ghraib.
He ripped the supine US press, pledged to bring home all the facts he could, said he was not sure he could deliver all the damning info he suspects about Bush administration responsibility for Abu Ghraib.
We owe Hersh a huge debt for even trying.
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