Synopses & Reviews
Since September 11, 2001, Seymour M. Hersh has riveted readers and outraged the Bush Administration with his stories in
The New Yorker, including his breakthrough pieces on the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. Now, in
Chain of Command, he brings together this reporting, along with new revelations, to answer the critical question of the last three years: how did America get from the clear morning when hijackers crashed airplanes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon to a divisive and dirty war in Iraq?
Hersh established himself at the forefront of investigative journalism thirty-five years ago when he broke the news of the massacre at My Lai, Vietnam, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize. Ever since, he's challenged America's power elite by publishing the stories that others can't, or won't, tell. In exposés on subjects ranging from Saudi corruption to nuclear black marketeers and months ahead of other journalists the White House's false claims about weapons of mass destruction, Hersh has cemented his reputation as the indispensable reporter of our time.
In Chain of Command, Hersh takes an unflinching look behind the public story of President Bush's "war on terror" and into the lies and obsessions that led America into Iraq. He reveals the connections between early missteps in the hunt for Al Qaeda and disasters on the ground in Iraq. The book includes a new account of Hersh's pursuit of the Abu Ghraib story and of where, he believes, responsibility for the scandal ultimately lies. Hersh draws on sources at the highest levels of the American government and intelligence community, in foreign capitals, and on the battlefield for an unparalleled view of a crucialchapter in America's recent history. With an introduction by The New Yorker's editor, David Remnick, Chain of Command is a devastating portrait of an Administration blinded by ideology and of a President whose decisions have made the world a more dangerous place for America.
Synopsis
From his Pulitzer Prize-winning expose of the My Lai massacre to his revelatory article on the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, Seymour Hersh has been at the forefront of investigative journalism for more than four decades. Now Hersh's writings since 2001 are gathered together in one incendiary book.
Chain of Command takes a hard look at the Bush administration's War on Terror, its intelligence failures, and the lies and obsessions that led America into Iraq. With previously unpublished stories as well as an account of Hersh's pursuit of the Abu Ghraib piece, Chain of Command is a devastating portrait of an administration blinded by ideology, and of a president whose decisions have made the world a more dangerous place for America.
Seymour Hersh is one of the foremost investigative reporters of our time. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker and has also been a staff writer for the New York Times. He has been the recipient of many awards, including a Pulitzer Prize for his groundbreaking reporting on the Vietnam War. His previous books include The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House.
"The best book we are likely to have, this close to events, about why the United States went from leading an international coalition, united in horror at the attacks of 9/11, to fighting alone in Iraq and, in Abu Ghraib, to violating the very human rights it said it had come to restore ... This book reminds us why tough, skeptical journalism matters so much: it helps to keep us free." -- New York Times Book Review
About the Author
Seymour M. Hersh has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize, four George Polk Awards, and more than a dozen other prizes, many of them for his work at the New York Times. In 2004, he won a National Magazine Award for public interest for his pieces on intelligence and the Iraq war. He lives in Washington, D.C. Chain of Command is his eighth book.