Journalist Seymour Hersh: Calling them

as he sees them - come what may.

Die Zeit, Germany

Seymour Hersh: 'The Good American'

The people of New York are surrounded by media. Nonetheless, it took an hour of questions and answers with star journalist Seymour Hersh to open their eyes about their own country.

By Eva Schweitzer

Translated By Ulf Behncke

October 7, 2008

Germany - Die Zeit - Original Article (German)

New York is globally connected like no other city in the world. Here, there are 350 television channels including the BBC and Al-Jazeera, the Internet via cable, DSL or WiFi, newspapers from overseas, AP, Reuters, The New York Times and the news studios of CNN, Fox and NBC. Nevertheless, even New York seems at times strangely disconnected from the world. "Plato imagined prisoners in a cave, backs to its opening, who saw reality as shadows reflected off a wall," writes journalist Mort Rosenblum . America, he says, is still very much like this to this very day.

Every now and then, though, a saber-toothed tiger breaks into the cave and delivers real news, as occurred on Saturday during a festival for The New Yorker magazine at the Directors Guild Theatre, where Sy Hersh spoke. Hersh reports for the magazine on what the Pentagon and CIA are up to, in Iraq, in Afghanistan and in Iran. Over 500 people came (and paid), to hear about it first hand. Amazing in a city where one trips over the media at ever step.

Utterly unpretentiously, Hersh sits on the stage casually dressed and jokes with his editor-in-chief David Remnick, all the while saying the most unbelievable things. Iran? Yes, an attack against Iran is imminent (Hersh reported this just recently in The New Yorker ), but against small targets like training camps and the Revolutionary Guard. "The U.S. has specialists at the borders who, with the assistance of Kurdish and Israeli experts, install "eavesdropping boxes" capable of listening into buildings in Teheran. "We know what's going on in Iran" Hersh says. The nuclear bomb will take another five years. The bomb is a threat – first and foremost to Israel because it means the end of Zionism. "Once Iran has the bomb, the middle class will give up and say, 'We'd rather go to Argentina or London, where we can live in peace.'"

The war on terror? "If it comes out, what really happens in Guantanamo Bay, we will all be very ashamed." This is equally true of Abu Ghraib. "Iraqi girls who are imprisoned there, have begged their fathers to kill them because they were dishonored. I saw photos of GI's grabbing at naked Iraqi women and girls while showering." And there are twelve countries in which the CIA or their local henchmen can torture. "Afterwards, they burn the bodies, so that no trace can be found."

Then Seymour Hersh comes to the subject of Vietnam. The first big story he broke as a journalist was the massacre of My Lai , and he talks about how the people there were tortured with electric shocks. "But the U.S. never experienced a Learning Curve, a learning process."

George Bush? "Bush is no good for the security of the USA or the world," says Hersh. But he admits not having a clear impression of Bush. "Cheney, oh yes, his music I am attuned to, but Bush?" "Messianic" seems to be the newest term for Bush, "could he be on step 13 of a 12-step alcohol recovery program?" Hersh ponders. "Bush is like Trotsky , the eternal revolutionary and utterly incorrigible." And the Democrats? "If they don't start getting their act together they can still lose the elections."

Hersh's strength is his sources, and those come from within the system, the military, the secret services. "We don't quote anyone who isn't also prepared to talk to one of the Factcheckers at The New Yorker." That deters some who fear retribution from the government. Hersh once quoted an Arab translator at the Pentagon, who then received five phone calls from the staff of then-Pentagon deputy Paul Wolfowitz - after all, what ever possessed him to squeal to the likes of Sy Hersh? Such criticism doesn't bother him. "I'm just as good an American as these people are."

Then Hersh allows himself a few sideswipes. America television - the networks? Those are hard to differentiate from the satirical program The Daily Show. The New York Times? Considering its capabilities it could have done much more at the beginning of the Iraq War. "Now there are only a few dozen Western journalists left in Iraq," says Hersh. "The Times has already lost several Iraqi fixers - local reporters who do most of the actual work." The Internet? Hersh thinks the Internet is great. "With it, our stories are being spread worldwide within hours."

The line of people who want to ask Hersh questions is never ending, but the event concludes on time nonetheless. Remnick looks at the clock. Outside the October sun burns against the multicolored video displays on the Manhattan media tower. We are cave people again; those trying to decipher the flickering. There is cause for concern, that much is clear.

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