Hersh’s ‘bombshells’: Real info and/or Sy-war effort?

I read with interest Sy Hersh’s recent New Yorker article on the Bush administration “Redirection” in the Middle East. It contains a wealth of “information”– some of it new, some of it not new, all of it presented in a very scaremongery way, with the whole piece extremely disorganized.
I haven’t known what to make of it, really, which is why I haven’t blogged about it until now. Sy is an extremely energetic reportorial sleuth, who has a wealth of longtime contacts hidden deep inside the intelligence agencies of the US and more than one Middle East government. (And yes, that includes the Israeli intel agencies.) He does dig out considerable amounts of information, some of which is absolutely new, and some of which is very disturbing. But he is also an extremely disorganized writer who sometimes, it seems to me, has a fairly weak ability to sift things he hears or to test them against other sources… especially in the Middle East. Hence, I believe we should be open to the possibility that to some degree or another some of what he writes may (without him necessarily being aware of this) be a dissemination of a “(p)sy-war” effort directed by some of his danker sources.
I don’t have time to go through this entire article of his to point out the internal contradictions, or the errors of fact or interpretation that I have found in it. (As in some of his earlier work on the Middle East, too.) For now, I’ll just note this sentence, in the introductory framing of the article:

    The “redirection,” as some inside the White House have called the new strategy, has brought the United States closer to an open confrontation with Iran and, in parts of the region, propelled it into a widening sectarian conflict between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.

Doesn’t this make it sound as though the Bushists’ new policy has brought it, largely unknowingly, into an independently existing “widening sectarian conflict”?
My own analysis is that at least some figures in the administration have been extremely happy to try to fan the flames of sectarianism in the region; and that meanwhile there are substantial indigenous political forces here that have been resisting that attempt, with some considerable success.
(I write this from Damascus, after having spent three weeks in Egypt and a few days in Jordan. So I base my view of this situation this on discussions with a wide range of people, some of whom are trusted longtime friends and colleagues. Hersh bases his reporting largely on un-named sources in intelligence agencies and on the uncritically reported views of named– and nearly always strongly pro-Israeli– analysts in distant Washington.)
He also seems fundamentally not to have understood the degree to which the Saudis have “gone off the [US] reservation” in their diplomacy– that is, have broken through the limits that the Bushites sought to place on their freedom of diplomatic action. This has been evident with regard to many recent Saudi actions– regarding Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria, and above all with regard to Iran.
Actually, one of the reasons Sy’s piece is so disorganized and misleading is because it was, evidently, reported over a fairly lengthy period of time– e.g., his interview with Nasrallah was back in December– and matters have been moving extremely rapidly in all these areas of diplomacy over these recent weeks… So some of what he’s reporting there may have been the “wishful thinking” of Bushite/Israeli insiders (and their friends) back in, say, early January; and at that point there were still not many counter-facts in place that challenged the veracity of those claims.
Bottom line, I think we all need to read Hersh’s text extremely carefully and critically. There are some intriguing (but often largely unsubstantiated) pieces of new “information” in it. But there is also some misinformation (or unknowingly recycled disinformation) and a lot of extremely poor analysis.

11 thoughts on “Hersh’s ‘bombshells’: Real info and/or Sy-war effort?”

  1. This is a fair criticism, but I think some of the disorganization and confusion in Hersh’s reporting may just reflect the disorganization and confusion among the US and Israeli government operatives who are his subjects. These people seem to be just flailing around looking for any kind of crazy scheme to save their sinking ship.
    Speaking of bombshells, I think Bob Woodruff’s report on “Department of Defense data indicating that at least 10% of the 1.5 million soldiers who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan could have an undiagnosed brain injury” qualifies as such. Think about that. 150,000 brain injured war vets stumbling around in George Bush’s America.
    http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-et-woodruff27feb27,1,7359883.story?coll=la-headlines-entnews&track=crosspromo

  2. least 10% of the 1.5 million soldiers who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan could have an undiagnosed brain injury” qualifies as such. Think about that. 150,000 brain injured war vets stumbling around in George Bush’s America.
    How many Iraqi from 26Millions have an undiagnosed brain injury” qualifies as such. .
    What a crime that not forgiven….
    God Save Iraq and Iraqis

  4. Say Helena, you raise a fair concern – in the absract – about potential fact problems with the article and its general confusion.
    But when you get a chance (hard I know when you’re overseas), could you spell out a bit more just where you think “sy” is off base? I just watched a very long interview he gave with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now (broadcast 11:00 a.m. hour, est via worldlink tv) On TV, he comes across quite clear and rather compelling, or so it seems to me. (more so than in the article) He’s especially pressing home his point about the US supporting certain “salafi” groups that ordinarily we’d associate with al-qaeda…. Do you have a fact issue with that “explosive” allegation? He’s apparently quoting anonymous Saudi sources criticizing Bandar’s alleged strategy…. Do you have any better sources contradicting this claim – say from Lebanon, Syria, or Saudi land?
    Curiously, SH even conceded that some have suggested he’s been used for “sy” operations. (Does SH or AG read jwn?!) But he then sluffed it off with a rather accurate comment – that even if so, it’s backfired and absolutely won’t work with the Iranians…. (the opposite of the bizarre Ricecake these being floated lately)

  5. ABC news correspondent and former anchor Bob Woodruff was nearly killed by a roadside bomb on Jan. 29, 2006 in Iraq. He suffered a severe brain injury and was in a coma for over a month. He and his wife Lee have written a new memoir about his recovery: In an Instant: A Family’s Journey of Love and Healing.
    Woodruff has just returned to work at ABC with the special report “To Iraq and Back.” It tells the story of his recovery, and the plight of brain-injured Iraq veterans. He and his wife have also set up a new foundation to help soldiers recovering from brain trauma.

  6. http://beirut2bayside.blogspot.com/2007/02/sylight-zone.html
    In fact, about two weeks ago, the government forces clashed with Fateh al-Islam members who managed to capture three policemen (ISF) on patrol near the Nahr el-Bared camp and hold them for two hours…
    and another from Bilal Sa’ab (via Josh Landis)
    Sy assumes that Sunni radical groups and Salafist jihadist groups in Lebanon are pretty much the same thing. Whether by default or design, this is a flawed perception and interpretation….
    In terms of worldview and political positioning, I can assure you that the leaders and core cadres of Harakat al Tawhid al Islami and Al Jama’a al Islamiyyah have today allied themselves with Hizb’allah under the Fathi Yakan-formed umbrella of Jabhat al Amal al Islami…

  8. I’d like to second what scott h said. I’d like to know which errors you found in Hersh’s article, and which parts were off base, when you get the chance.

  9. SH’s article told me this. The money I pay in taxes is being used by my government to arrange for other actors to pay the salary’s of extermists who would just as soon kill me and you, but since they might be willing to hurt and kill some other people who persons in my government want hurt,killed, diminished,then it’s all justifiable. At the same time soldiers who have bled for America suffer and innocents and the not so innocent in Iraq die. The ideology of these same extermists is what brought about 9 11. I have struggled with what to say next, there is no place there to say more. Seek Peace again again again

  10. I agree with you on hersch completely both the good and the bad. I only got to grill him once and unfortunately he had Vietnam on his mind at the time (fascinating even so).
    But he and chomsky both wrote extremely weak books on John F. Kennedy, in no way an improvement on Lucianne Goldberg’s mentor Victor Lasky’s “JFK: The Man and the Myth.” I thought Hersh’s book on JFK was naiive to the point of farce.
    What I will say for Hersh beyond his obvious contacts and reporting skills is that he is very patriotic and respects the military and intelligence, without being their stooge the way Bob Woodward is, probably going back to and including the Watergate and Final Days period.

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