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I trust Seymour Hersh on this. If my only choices are either believing what the government says, or believing what a decorated investigative journalist says, I

I trust Seymour Hersh on this. If my only choices are either believing what the government says, or believing what a decorated investigative journalist says, I'm going with the investigative journalist. The government simply has too much of an incentive to lie about something like this.

tacos 11y ago
Hersh is a hero of mine but -- and I hate to play the age card -- he is getting a little wackier as he ages. I'm not sure why he rushed to print this story. There's nothing time-critical here. Also it's not a question of accepting Hersh vs the government. It's a matter of balancing Hersh's investigative reporting with the details provided by other investigative reporters. Seems like he's onto something but, like he was told when his story was rejected, I don't think he has it all figured out yet. EDIT: These two sentences in particular are very un-Hirsch: "(The informant and his family were smuggled out of Pakistan and relocated in the Washington area. He is now a consultant for the CIA.)" Doesn't name the informant (who would obviously be in a protection program) but gives the city and employer? Why? It's unrelated to the story. If it's only important enough to be in parenthesis, probably shouldn't risk putting a man and his family's life at risk over the disclosure.
- chillwaves 11y ago
  There are over 6 million people in the Washington metro. I think he'll be OK.
  - tacos 11y ago
    And fewer than 5,000 Pakistani families with children -- under 100 in one likely city (Lincolnia). Probably already relocated at taxpayer expense due to those two useless sentences.
- dennisgorelik 11y ago
  > There's nothing time-critical here. The sooner truth comes out - the faster we learn from our mistakes.
  - tacos 11y ago
    The mistake here was not having a tight enough lie as cover for a covert operation. I assure you the CIA and White House learned from that mistake four years ago. Rushing to publish unsubstantiated anonymous information that other investigators politely but publicly disagree with is hardly the path to Truth. A better piece published in a more reputable publication, however, might be.
    - dennisgorelik 11y ago
      > other investigators politely but publicly disagree Could you name investigators that disagree with Hersh's version of events about killing Osama Bin Laden?
      - tacos 11y ago
        Did you read the article? ‘‘It’s always possible,’’ Bowden told me. ‘‘But given the sheer number of people I talked to from different parts of government, for a lie to have been that carefully orchestrated and sustained to me gets into faked-moon-landing territory.’’ Other reporters have been less generous still. ‘‘What’s true in the story isn’t new, and what’s new in the story isn’t true,’’ said Peter Bergen of CNN, who wrote his own best-selling account of the hunting and killing of bin Laden, ‘‘Manhunt.’’ ... Filkins, who covered Afghanistan and Pakistan for The Times before moving to The New Yorker, spent about a week running the tip by sources inside the Pakistani government and military with little success. ‘‘It wasn’t even that I was getting angry denials,’’ Filkins told me. ‘‘I was getting blank stares.’’

tacos 11y ago

Hersh is a hero of mine but -- and I hate to play the age card -- he is getting a little wackier as he ages. I'm not sure why he rushed to print this story. There's nothing time-critical here. Also it's not a question of accepting Hersh vs the government. It's a matter of balancing Hersh's investigative reporting with the details provided by other investigative reporters. Seems like he's onto something but, like he was told when his story was rejected, I don't think he has it all figured out yet. EDIT: These two sentences in particular are very un-Hirsch: "(The informant and his family were smuggled out of Pakistan and relocated in the Washington area. He is now a consultant for the CIA.)" Doesn't name the informant (who would obviously be in a protection program) but gives the city and employer? Why? It's unrelated to the story. If it's only important enough to be in parenthesis, probably shouldn't risk putting a man and his family's life at risk over the disclosure.

chillwaves 11y ago
There are over 6 million people in the Washington metro. I think he'll be OK.
- tacos 11y ago
  And fewer than 5,000 Pakistani families with children -- under 100 in one likely city (Lincolnia). Probably already relocated at taxpayer expense due to those two useless sentences.
dennisgorelik 11y ago
> There's nothing time-critical here. The sooner truth comes out - the faster we learn from our mistakes.
- tacos 11y ago
  The mistake here was not having a tight enough lie as cover for a covert operation. I assure you the CIA and White House learned from that mistake four years ago. Rushing to publish unsubstantiated anonymous information that other investigators politely but publicly disagree with is hardly the path to Truth. A better piece published in a more reputable publication, however, might be.
  - dennisgorelik 11y ago
    > other investigators politely but publicly disagree Could you name investigators that disagree with Hersh's version of events about killing Osama Bin Laden?
    - tacos 11y ago
      Did you read the article? ‘‘It’s always possible,’’ Bowden told me. ‘‘But given the sheer number of people I talked to from different parts of government, for a lie to have been that carefully orchestrated and sustained to me gets into faked-moon-landing territory.’’ Other reporters have been less generous still. ‘‘What’s true in the story isn’t new, and what’s new in the story isn’t true,’’ said Peter Bergen of CNN, who wrote his own best-selling account of the hunting and killing of bin Laden, ‘‘Manhunt.’’ ... Filkins, who covered Afghanistan and Pakistan for The Times before moving to The New Yorker, spent about a week running the tip by sources inside the Pakistani government and military with little success. ‘‘It wasn’t even that I was getting angry denials,’’ Filkins told me. ‘‘I was getting blank stares.’’