Seymour Hersh and the Chain of Command

Posted on September 30, 2004

Last night on The Daily Show, legendary investigative journalist Seymour Hersh discussed his new book, Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib. Hersh, who has won the Pulitzer Prize for his 1969 expose of the My Lai massacre during the Viet Nam war, as well as a 2004 National Magazine Award for public interest for his pieces on intelligence and the Iraq war, broke the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal with his piece in The New Yorker.

Hersh told Stewart that the Abu Ghraib scandal is nothing compared to what has happened at Guantanamo Bay and that there are films of abuse that are absolutely shocking. Hersh blasted the Neocons, calling them zealots and idealogues for taking America to war in Iraq. Stewart recommended that everyone read Chain of Command, deadpanning that "it is an excellent book -- although it is kind of depressing."