Conspiracy or Truth?

It seems like conspiracy theory is the new specialty of Seymour Hersh, the 78-year-old American journalist.

In a major 10,000-word article published this week, Hersh claims that the Pakistani secret service captured Osama bin Laden in 2006 and held him in a villa in Abbottabad located 80 kilometers (approximately 49 miles) from Islamabad, the capital. Pakistan supposedly had financial support from Saudi Arabia.

Hersh adds that Pakistan knew about the military operation to assassinate bin Laden launched by the U.S. on the night of May 1, 2011.

This version contradicts that of the United States, which maintained that Pakistan didn’t know anything, and that the raid to kill bin Laden was carried out without their knowledge. The Obama administration did not trust the Pakistanis. Obama was afraid that there could be a leak, and that bin Laden would flee before elite commandos had time to place a bullet in his head.

In other words, Hersh, a celebrity in American journalism and Pulitzer Prize-winner, asserts that President Obama is a liar and that he used the death of bin Laden to guarantee his re-election. The president’s fantasy version of events is worthy of Lewis Carroll, the author of “Alice in Wonderland,” Hersh asserts.

The accusation is serious.

Hersh’s article made waves. The White House refused to comment on it, stating that there were too many mistakes.

Who’s telling the truth? Hersh, who is calling Obama a liar? Or the American government, which frowns on Hersh’s investigation?

The problem is that Hersh’s version has holes in it. Initially, NBC backed part of his story. Hersh claims that the United States learned that bin Laden was in Pakistan thanks to an old agent of the Pakistani secret service who went to the U.S. embassy in Islamabad. The agent received a $25 million reward for revealing bin Laden’s hideout.

The U.S. claimed they discovered bin Laden’s hideout as a result of a lengthy investigation by their own secret service. Indeed, the movie “Zero Dark Thirty” defends this version.

NBC said that two sources had confirmed the existence of this secret agent who approached the Americans in Islamabad, but later, the TV station hinted that although the agent indeed existed, he was not the one who revealed bin Laden’s whereabouts to the CIA.

Carlotta Gall, a journalist who covered Afghanistan and Pakistan from 2001 to 2013, confirms that the Pakistani secret service held bin Laden, but she never reported this information. Why is she doing so today? To surf on Hersh’s wave? If her story was not believable enough to print in 2013, why would it be so today?

Hersh relies on two sources: a former official in charge of the Pakistani secret service in the early ’90s who openly testified, but someone Hersh barely uses, and an old senior officer of the American intelligence agency that he quotes at length, but who remains anonymous. It is as if Hersh’s entire investigation — or theory? — relies only on one anonymous source. It’s not good enough for such a big scandal.

If Hersh is telling the truth, three countries — Saudi Arabia, the U.S., and Pakistan — would have engaged in a conspiracy. In reading Hersh’s account, one understands that many people knew about bin Laden’s hideout in Abbottabad. And the secret never came out? Hard to believe.

If the U.S. knew that the Pakistani secret service had bin Laden, why didn’t it ask to have him extradited or assassinated? Why launch a dangerous raid in the middle of the night?

Hersh asserts that the Pakistanis could not reveal their involvement in the American raid because bin Laden was seen as a hero. That’s false. In 2001, the day after the 9/11 attacks, bin Laden was indeed a hero because he had humiliated the United States. I was in Pakistan at the time and everyone admired bin Laden. Ten years later, the wind had changed direction. I was in Abbottabad a few days after bin Laden’s execution and no one defended him. On the contrary, the Pakistanis were glad to have gotten rid of him. This man, they said, had ruined their country.

Slate, the American magazine that interviewed Hersh the day after his investigation was published, affirms that bin Laden’s approval rating in Pakistan was only 18 percent in 2010. How could Hersh have been mistaken on such an important fact that was easy to check?

In the surreal interview conducted by Slate, Hersh answers by riddling his answers with profanity. He pretty much insults the journalist by treating him like a loser who doesn’t know how to ask questions. Disturbing, it was as if Hersh was losing it.

It’s not the first time that Hersh has thrown himself head first into a convoluted story. In 2013, he claimed that the sarin gas attack in Syria was the work of Turkey and the Nusra Front, a group related to al-Qaida. According to Hersh, the Obama administration manipulated information so it could blame Bashar al-Assad, and thus justify military strikes against his government, a theory so ridiculous that few people believed it.

Assad finally agreed to destroy his sarin gas stocks under U.N. supervision as an indirect way to admit guilt.

Did Obama lie? Maybe. Did the Pakistanis know that bin Laden was in Abbottabad? Possibly. Had he been their prisoner since 2006? Hard to believe, but we never know with Pakistan.

There are plenty of gray areas in this perfectly crafted story.

Hersh was a great journalist, but it’s probably time for him to retire before exhausting what remains of his credibility.