The man who knows too much

The guardian has a nice write-up on investigative journalist Seymour Hersh.

He exposed the My Lai massacre, revealed Nixon’s secret bombing of Cambodia and has hounded Bush and Cheney over the abuse of prisoners in Abu Ghraib… No wonder the Republicans describe Seymour Hersh as ‘the closest thing American journalism has to a terrorist’. Rachel Cooke meets the most-feared investigative reporter in Washington

How does Hersh operate? The same way as he’s always done: it’s all down to contacts. Unlike Bob Woodward, however, whose recent books about Iraq have involved long and somewhat pally chats with the President, Hersh gets his stuff from lower down the food chain. Woodward was one of those who was convinced that WMD would be found in Iraq. ‘He does report top dollar,’ says Hersh. ‘I don’t go to the top because I think it’s sorta useless.

via theguardian.co.uk

New Yorker Festival Interview

Seymor Hersh talks with the magazine’s editor-in-chief, David Remnick.

Link.

Annals of National Security

For more reading, check out the New Yorker series: The Annals of National Security. Recent topics include War, Iran, and Iraq.

The Sea and Cake - Sound and Vision (from Low by David Bowie)

Wow, this documentary looks very interesting. In a nutshell, this film seems to focus on corporate globalization and access to clean water. It opens on October 17th both in Austin at the Arbor at Great Hills, and in Dallas at the Angelika Film Center.

See Flowthefilm.com for more information.

Also, Democracy Now did a segment on this film on September 12, 2008. Check out the streaming video or audio feed here.

Senior Bush administration officials held a series of meetings in the White House in 2002 and 2003 to discuss allowing the CIA to use harsh interrogation methods on Al Qaeda detainees, according to a written statement Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently provided to Senate investigators. Rice’s written response to investigators on the Senate Armed Services Committee marks the first time a high-ranking White House official has formally acknowledged the White House discussions, which led to the CIA’s use of waterboarding and other coercive methods… read on

via Crooks and Liars

Beginning on Oct 1st, the army plans to station an active unit inside the US to handle civil unrest and “crowd control”. This comes on the heels of the illegal detainment of journalists at the RNC and DNC conventions.

via Democracy Now!