VIDEO: Reporter Seymour Hersh Discusses His Controversial Exposé on Killing of Osama bin Laden

[nationalize the fed]

Truthdig Posted on May 15, 2015

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh’s recent essay caused a political firestorm by repudiating almost everything we know about Osama bin Laden’s 2011 death.

In this interview with The Real News Network, Hersh dissects what he terms President Obama’s “fairy tale” narrative of the killing of the al-Qaida founder.

http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/video_seymour_hersh_discusses_controversial_bin_laden_expose_20150515

Transcript: http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=13859

Seymour (Sy) Myron Hersh (born April 8, 1937) is an American Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist and author based in Washington, DC. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker magazine on military and security matters. His work first gained worldwide 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. He is a recipient of the 2004 George Orwell Award.

His 2004 reports on the US military's mistreatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison gained much attention. Hersh received the 2004 George Polk Award for Magazine Reporting given annually by Long Island University to honor contributions to journalistic integrity and investigative reporting. This was his fifth George Polk Award, the first one being a Special Award given to him in 1969
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seymour_Hersh

[pa28]

1. Good interview.

Watching this I recalled how CNN and others reported that Bin Laden was living in Pakistan essentially under house arrest with the knowledge of Pakistani officials.

CNN quoted an anonymous NATO official saying that the top two leaders of Al Qaeda were living close to each other, but not together, in houses in northwest Pakistan, protected by locals and members of Pakistani intelligence. "Nobody in Al Qaeda is living in a cave," the official told CNN.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/terrorism-security/2010/1018/CNN-says-Pakistan-protecting-Osama-bin-Laden-France-on-alert-for-terrorist-attacks

Quite a bit of reporting before the actual raid corroborates Hersh's version of the situation.

[2banon]

12. Narrative wrt to UBL's location for several years & openly discussed repeatedly.

and to your point, all of it and more absolutely correct.

I've been fairly busy with family medical emergencies, but did manage to pick up on DU's brigade of right wing trolls dispatched to diss Hersch's story, him personally and report. No shortage of manufactured propagandists, revisionists, or straight up liars it seems.


Seriously, one would have to have been born yesterday to have believed in the "official report" the moment it was announced and broadcast at the time of the events.

I mean who here did NOT intuit we were being spoon fed a staged production at the very instant it was being "revealed to the world"?

[newthinking]

2. He is not criticizing Obama or his administration. Just doing what investigative Journalists do

I watched him on Democracy Now and he was very careful and not at all oppositional. He is simply being good at what he does.

[RufusTFirefly]

3. Yes. Hersh is definitely not Obama-bashing

"Just as a human being, I voted for him twice, and I think he's the smartest president we've had probably since Lincoln. You know, he's a pretty amazing guy."

[chiendauviem]

4. Bin Laden must Die

Bin Laden must Die
IS mus Die

[hrmjustin]

5. Bin Laden is dead already.

[MrMickeysMom]

7. I don't think you quite got that comment...

… It has nothing to do with where Bin Laden is…. more to do with the "story put out"...

[hrmjustin]

8. Why do you say that?

[MrMickeysMom]

10. It requires reading and following how an official story is put out...

Here's one: http://documentaryheaven.com/rfk-must-die-assassination-of-bobby-kennedy/

This is but one introduction to one of many books on the subject of Robert Kennedy and the probe of evidence based on what investigative journalists do. There are many reasons to put out official stories of assassinations. Interestingly, they often are to cover up CIA involvement into why we do what we do.

[hrmjustin]

11. oh ok.

[SkyDaddy7]

6. I'm not buying his story...

I saw many interviews of people living around OBL's compound not long after the raid by many different media organizations from different countries & not a single person ever mentioned any Pakistani Army or police guarding the compound. Only that the people living in the compound kept to themselves & certain person came & went. There were even kids who lost toys or balls over the wall & there were no "guards" just a certain individual who either paid them or gave them their ball back. Hersh may have done good reporting long time ago but this report just does not mesh with the KNOWN FACTS.

[MrMickeysMom]

9. Are you saying that your source of interviews concludes better?

I didn't know you were an investigative journalist, SkyDaddy7!

[SkyDaddy7]

13. If you would take the time to...

actually pay attention to multiple media sources & interviews from just after the raid of the people who live around the OBL compound none of them talk about it being under heavy guard at anytime whatsoever as he claims in his report...Quite the opposite. There are other questionable claims as well all from mysterious sources.

He needs to produce something real, tangible other than so-called anonymous sources...Something that meshes with known facts. He does not.

Too many people want everything to be a conspiracy or a cover-up & will believe anyone & everyone who puts forth a story saying so. I would like to see some proof & he provides little if any & some of what he does say flies in the face of what we know to be true.

[MrMickeysMom]

14. Well… I think that's the problem with being an investigative journalist...

You end up relying on sources, which this one has used pretty successfully before (controversial as the Iraq war reporting was). And if some of his sources do not wish to divulge complete information, then I supposed he can't be completely forensic with his end product… That's for criminal investigation and for readers to continue to probe in our never ending truth seeking.

Hersh pisses people off - this time, the Obama administration, who didn't outright deny anything… They went after him. So, he does the job of an investigative journalist… no "conspiracy" is intended… following the supportive evidence of those within the military, which is an area that he historically has covered in depth.

It's not what one "wants" to believe… It's the layers upon layers of bureaucratic control story, or non-denial denials doing what is anticipated that they kept out of the sunshine. If you think there is no such thing just because it's the military under (or surrounding) Obama, then you've probably believed a lot of fluff about the military, I'd say. Lots of us do.

The rest of us keep trying to get at the truth, which Seymour Hersh has thankfully dragged more successfully into the sun.