Seymour Hersh's new book to detail "how eight or nine neoconservative, radicals if you will, overthrew the American government."
Friday, January 21st, 2011
Veteran investigative reporter Seymour Hersh has broken some massive stories in his day, but uncovering secret societies within the highest echelons of America's military would probably be the biggest of his career.
Well, get ready for the media storm: That's essentially what Hersh told an audience in Doha, Qatar recently, according to a report published earlier this week by Foreign Policy.
Speaking at a campus operated by Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, Hersh said he was working on a new book that details how eight or nine neoconservative, radicals if you will, overthrew the American government.
It's not only that the neocons took it over but how easily they did it -- how Congress disappeared, how the press became part of it, how the public acquiesced," he continued, according to the published quotes.
Hersh also lamented President Obama's continuance of the Bush administration's worst abuses.
"Just when we needed an angry black man, we didn't get one," he reportedly said.
The Foreign Policy report added that in 2003, those "in the Cheney shop" were not concerned about the havoc the invasion of Iraq was destined to cause.
"[The] attitude was, 'What's this? What are they all worried about, the politicians and the press, they're all worried about some looting?" Hersh was quoted as saying. "Don't they get it? We're gonna change moseques into cathedrals. And when we get all the oil, nobody's gonna give a damn.' That's the attitude. We're gonna chance mosques into cathedrals. That's an attitude that pervades, I'm here to say, a large percentage of the Joint Special Operations Command [JSOC]."
He further claimed that Gen. Stanley McChrystal, Vice Admiral William McRaven and others in the JSOC were members of the "Knights of Malta" and "Opus Dei," two little known Catholic orders.
"They do see what they're doing -- and this is not an atypical attitude among some military -- it's a crusade, literally," Hersh reportedly continued. "They see themselves as the protectors of the Christians. They're protecting them from the Muslims [as in] the 13th century. And this is their function."
He added that members of these societies have developed a secret set of insignias that represent "the whole notion that this is a culture war" between religions.
It was President George W. Bush who first invoked images of a holy war in the Middle East, when he suggested soon after Sept. 11, 2001 that the US was on a "crusade" in the region.
The "Knights of Malta" were a Catholic order founded in 1085 as a group of monks who cared for the wounded. It evolved into a military order that safeguarded Christian pilgrims from Muslims during the nine "Crusades," where Europe's Christian states laid siege to Muslims for control of Jerusalem.
"Opus Dei," popularly depicted in the Hollywood film "The DaVinci Code," was founded in 1928 and officially accepted as part of the Catholic church in 1947. The group's website claimed their principle calling was to bring about a "Christian renewal" around the world.
Doubts, denials and a distinctive trend
Raw Story reached out to Hersh and The New Yorker to confirm the accuracy of his quotes, placing this report on hold until they responded. Both declined to make any further statement, neither confirming nor denying the quotes.
However, one source close to Hersh who spoke to Raw Story off the record, suggested that Foreign Policy's report was indeed correct.
Raw Story followed-up on the quotes due to a widely-reported false claim attributed to Hersh in May 2009, where he'd allegedly said former Vice President Dick Cheney ordered the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
The report, which appeared to have originated in Pakistan, was picked up by The Wall Street Journal and the conservative-leaning American Spectator, but both removed the links after Raw Story published a denial from Hersh. A link to Raw Story's original report was unavailable due to a database malfunction.
Hersh, a Pulitzer-winning author and reporter, has previously reported that the JSOC was set up by former Vice President Cheney as something of an "executive assassination squad" that operated outside of congressional authority.
Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who resigned after Rolling Stone reporter Michael Hastings quoted him mocking the US civilian command, led JSOC before taking command of America's war effort in Afghanistan.
In an email to the military's Stars and Stripes publication, McChrystal's spokesman, David Bolger, panned Hersh's claim.
“The allegations recently made by Seymour Hersh relating to General McChrystal’s involvement with an organization called The Knights of Malta are completely false and without basis in fact,” he reportedly wrote. “General McChrystal is not and has never been a member of that organization.”
The religious indoctrination of US soldiers has been in headlines in recent weeks as soldiers who "failed" the "spiritual fitness" portion of the "comprehensive soldier fitness" test claimed they were forced to attend Christian ceremonies and become "born again" by professing love for the Christian deity.
Similarly, GQ magazine uncovered last year a series of top-secret military briefings prepared by former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld that included passages from the Bible.
Trijicon Inc., a defense contractor, was also discovered last Janurary to have been for years placing scriptural references on gun sights used by the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Their actions revealed, Trijicon was forced to provide the Pentagon with kits to remove the codes.
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Here's another recent article on the subject by Coleen Rowley...
How Top Secret America Misfires
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/how-top-secret-america
"Why has Congress not yet awoken to the fact that since 9-11 we have been sailing into a perfect storm? ... We are almost certain to witness and suffer the worst of Cold War McCarthyism and Vietnam COINTELPRO abuses." – Coleen Rowley, FBI Whistleblower and 2002 Time Co-Person of the Year
"Let's not forget how the "war on terror" was originally sold to the American public: as "Let's fight them over there so we don't have to fight them here." But Homeland Security now admits the "war on terror" is increasingly being fought at home."
"Why Those Who Value Constitutional Rights and Civil Liberties Must Ask Congress to Initiate "Church Committee"-type Hearings"
http://911blogger.com/news/2011-01-21/why-those-who-value-constitutional...
That would be "The Crazies"
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4736.htm
AMY GOODMAN:Now one of the things we are talking about a lot and seeing a lot is that the same people that were there during the Reagan-Bush years and even before, the Wolfowitzes the Rumsfelds, Cheneys were there then. What was George Bush’s view of these people then?
RAY MCGOVERN: Well, you know it’s really interesting. When we saw these people coming back in town, all of us said who were around in those days said, oh my god, ‘the crazies’ are back – ‘the crazies’ – that’s how we referred to these people.
AMY GOODMAN: Did George Bush refer to them that way?
RAY MCGOVERN: That’s the way everyone referred to them.
AMY GOODMAN: Including George Bush?
RAY MCGOVERN: Well, when Wolfowitz prepared that defense posture statement in 1991, where he elucidated the strategic vision that has now been implemented, Jim Baker, Secretary of State, Brent Scowcroft, security advisor to George Bush, and George Bush said hey, that thing goes right into the circular file. Suppress that thing, get rid of it. Somebody had the presence of mind to leak it and so that was suppressed. But now to see that arise out of the ashes and be implemented. while we start a war against Iraq, I wonder what Bush the first is really thinking. Because these were the same guys that all of us referred to as ‘the crazies’.
AMY GOODMAN: Including George Bush
What exactly is the 30 year
What exactly is the 30 year conspiracy Bob Kerrey is referring to?
In my opinion
Operation Cyclone
Interesting... thank you.
Interesting... thank you.
Seymour Hersh Also EXPOSED
...this false flag scheme by Dick Cheney to provoke war with Iran in the Straits of Hormuz. "Dress Up Navy Seals as Iranians and Shoot at Them."
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/07/31/cheney-proposal-for-iran-war
A broader perspective
I like Hersch and agree that the neocons represents a particularly fascistic, dangerous, even potentially apocalyptic phase in American policy, but I think we're witnessing an escalation more than a departure from previous administrations.
There was no "war on communism" when the United States slaughtered hundreds of thousands in the Philippines, and there was no "war on terror" when the United States slaughtered hundreds of thousands in Guatemala. What we're witnessing is the logical extension of empire, not a bizarre, unforeseeable devolution of the American way. The very fact that virtually the entire corporate media and large majorities in all branches of the US guv embraced these policies belies the theory that the problem can be traced to one particular faction. The problem is systemic.
So Nafeez Ahmed --
"We hear a lot about the “new” imperialism these days. Indeed, it’s become somewhat of an intellectual fad. Pundits, political commentators, and even professors have been busy debating the “new” Anglo-American empire. The one that spontaneously burst into existence sometime after 9/11...
It is this systematic incapability to practice serious, sustained self-critique and self-reflection that prevents our societies from envisioning what we have been doing in Iraq as it truly is. For what we have perpetrated, and continue to perpetrate, is no less than a protracted 90-year Holocaust. The term “Holocaust” is not used loosely here, but in its full import. Its aptness emerges self-evidently from a brief inspection of the Brute Facts of History. It reveals that our political culture is utterly morally bankrupt, if not pathologically narcissistic; our political party system is hopelessly corrupt and irrelevant, thoroughly complicit in the sponsorship of a century or more of imperial genocide, yet still enamoured of its own “civilized” stature; our mass media, equally bankrupt, narcissistic, corrupt and indeed in many ways irrelevant as far as democracy, the rule of law, and human rights are genuinely concerned.
For the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq was by no means the beginning of the Anglo-American imperial turn. On the contrary, the 2003 Iraq War constituted merely a new phase in a series of prolonged regional interventions from which the 2003 trajectory of Anglo-American power cannot be abstracted if it is to be fully understood.
A broader historical perspective permits us to conceive the 2003 Iraq War as only the end-point of a continuum of genocidal catastrophe wrought by British interventionism, beginning early in the twentieth century. The British state has conducted military interventions in Iraq on and off for 90 years or so, continuing to do so under the leadership of the United States since 1991. Throughout this 90 year period, American, British and other Western states have facilitated, sponsored, commissioned and participated in acts of genocidal violence against the Iraqi people. Yet this brutal, shocking history, so overwhelming, so integral to the fundamental interests of Western power in one of the world’s most strategic regions (the Middle East) is simply not part of the historical consciousness of our societies. It is not part of our self-identity. Because our governments don’t do such things. We are, of course, “civilized.”"
http://www.newleftproject.org/index.php/site/article_comments/the_iraqi_...
Broad perspective appreciated +
Danse.. yes.. i very much appreciate a broad perspective, which is key especially for those of us working to stop the US military's domination of the world since before September 11, 2001. The significance of the 9/11 coup was a catalyst for promoting the Neocon agenda, which could only have been enabled by their continuous coup d'etat, including anthrax attacks, and financial global criminalization-corruption, as highlighted in Christopher Story's work with World Reports and his book called The New Underworld Order. This book is summarized in following paragraph:
"In 1992, the Illuminati orchestrated the raising of a targeted $27.5 trillion from 200+ international institutions, in the biggest ‘secretive’ ‘private placement’ financing operation in world history. The ‘mainstream’ media unfortunately failed to report this operation – so the general public is ignorant of it. The aim was to provide finance for the imposition of the New World Order, a.k.a., the New Underworld Order, for its use throughout the 21st century. The euphemism for this programme is the ‘global security environment’. The consequent monumental ‘Global Security Fund’, which is managed in Brussels, and is directed on behalf of the global Illuminati’s controllers by financial intelligence operatives, now disposes of secret financial resources of approximately $65 trillion for this purpose, probably far more. Equipped with such limitless resources, the directors of the New Underworld Order have now amassed sufficient finance to bribe every leader, ruler, policymaker, intelligence operative and political figure worldwide, for the rest of this century, in pursuit of their aims."
The key players are not just in Washington DC, but they are a united global elite wanting to maintain their status and control over everyone else. And it is important to note that this goes back Centuries, but with key events accelerating their plans as technology progressed.
Such key events was when a clerk in the US Supreme Court gave Corporations the same rights as individuals, yet with laws protecting Corporations from accountability that an individual's actions would warrant.
Then in 1913 the elite's use of a manufactured financial crisis to justify their creation of the Federal Reserve system which ignited global finance and the ability to finance wars, and win big no matter which side wins or loses.
Just before WW2 most people don't know about the attempted coup d'etat in the US with a fascist dictator regime. Check out this article: "Suppressed History: When Wall Street Tried To Bring The Holocaust To America"
Of course everything went into high gear with the development and use of the atomic bomb. In 1947 Truman signed the National Security Act which gave birth to the CIA and other elements that became the US Shadow Government, along with assassinations and control over all branches of the government, media, academic institutions, etc.
In 1999 I made a thirteen year commitment to try to stop the arms race from expanding into outer space. The focus of this work shifted when Bush used the false flag attacks of September 11 to initiate all sorts of freedom-life-denying programs, including his termination of the ABM Treaty and began placing weapons in space in 2002.
But the relevance of the Hersh book is that it covers the present circumstances in creating battles for people and religions, to create circumstances to further help justify their plans, which appear to include getting rid of a big chunk of our population.
Of all the issues critical to expose the Military Industrial complex's long list of hoaxes and betrayals . . 9/11/01 is key because of the documentation gathered by recorded film footage, and independent researchers and people who have respect for basic laws of science and not mind-controlled to observe reality beyond what they say on television.
The vast dem-repub conspiracy is part of global elitists' pursuit to take over the world.. but they could not be successful without extremists in their group willing to push the buttons.. and with this role, they are pushing us all over the edge into an abyss of unsustainable human life in this Century. The real demented souls forgot that love is/was actually key for our all being here in the first place, and separating from this nature is simply self-destroying. So, we shouldn't give up hope in turning this around, of which, 9/11 exposure is crucial.
Jonathan
* Flyby News
William Blum
Reminds me of a quote from William Blum. "No matter what conspiracy theories are out there, what your government is actually doing is much worse."
Keith Olbmermann Contact.
Encourage Keith to speak the truth now about 9/11.
Keith
lost multiple friends on 9/11.. The most appropriate thing to ask of him would be to contact an activist 9/11 family member, such as Bob McIlvaine.
I'm going to miss Keith. They took him off, he was too anti-establishment. The corporate pencil neck toady who did this to him.... I hate these people.
Who supplies these religiously brainwashed assets?
This is a very interesting entry, and I recommend reading the original « Foreign Policy » link also, as it is a more complete un-edited version of what Seymour Hersh seems to have said.
I find it quite revealing how religious fanaticism is alive and kicking within the deep bowels of the Pentagon. It is long known that different sects like the Mormons have been well represented within the Pentagon. There is also the Sun Myung Moon connection to a lot of influential DC politicians and the Bush family. The question arises what role this religious fanaticism is playing. I suspect that the religious indoctrination going on within the military is mostly used as a brainwashing technique, to train some extremely trusted extremist assets for special operations where no questions are asked, and nobody would dare contemplate blowing the whistle on “moral” wrongdoings or abuse.
It wouldn't surprise me if “Moonie type” brainwashing experts were sent as assets to help train brainwashing techniques and religious fervor to the Taliban US-proxy Legion in Arab lands (aka Al Qaeda or Al CIAeda)
I have bumped into quite a few religiously indoctrinated persons working fervently for a Sacred Religious cause, and they probably make out very useful assets for getting certain jobs done, since they are highly manipulable, and see themselves as a Sacred cog in a wheel to accomplish some great destiny. They have also invested their life to their sect so entirely, that they will not easily make a U-turn against their handlers.
It has never ceased to amaze me the kind of special forces that where used to plant the nano-thermate in the WTC buildings, run the controlled demolition, while operating one of the worlds boldest gold heists. These must have been incredibly well trained special-ops, that were also held together and motivated by a sense of purpose slightly higher then the monetary compensation they were promised for this job. Moon perhaps had the human know-how, and “meat” to supply the kind of highly brainwashed individuals that these types of operations would require.
This thread also picks up on the “30 year conspiracy” behind 9/11. I agree totally that 9/11 and the mass-psychology psy-war operation behind 9/11 was carefully planned many years in advance. I also agree that it was a “coup d'etat”, with a carefully planned consolidation of executive special powers through putting the US under the COG “State of Emergency”.
I suggest we also look into the financial criminal heist that 9/11 was, which probably is one of the main reason that elites of the likes of Henry Kissinger within “The Enterprise” needed to have 9/11 happen before September 12th 2001! Read a former comment I made about this :
http://911blogger.com/news/2010-12-22/new-pentagon-videos-foia-release#comment-243505
Thanks again for an interesting thread. An interesting and more nuanced picture is emerging of the highly professional criminality tainted by brainwashing techniques and religious fervor that has put our country on a dangerous path where the “crazies” have been operating unchecked.
It is high time we haul these people out of Washington in a straight-jacket, and start a long-haul truth and reconciliation commission with the masses who have been held behind the curtain of the CIA's Mighty Wurlitzer.
It has been said that Keith Olberman was taken off the network because he was too anti-establishment. In-fact, it is the networks that are anti-established facts, since they are not reporting a word about the findings of www.AE911Truth.org or other independent research organizations, but are only repeating the deceitful propaganda of the NIST and the fictional accounts of the government “Official 9/11 Investigation”. Too much truth has been slipping through Keith Olberman's sly humor for the network's “Truth Ministry Censors” to handle.
We need not worry about Keith Olberman, he will find better places to speak with less censors.
The reactionary editors within the networks should be the ones to be worried, as their fate will soon be the same as those ousted from Tunisia's former official media http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jan/21/world/la-fg-tunisia-media-20110121 .
Eric http://patriotsquestion911.com/medical.html#Beeth
Hope Keith gets invloved
w/ 911 truth..
Has he indicated in any way
Has he indicated in any way to anybody that he has examined the evidence?
http://911blogger.com/news/20
http://911blogger.com/news/2010-01-17/connections-connections
I've been talking about Opus Dei possibly connected to 9/11 for some time. Glad someone of Hersh's caliber gets it too. . There's a lot there worthy of serious investigation and someone already has. It's Robert Hutchison's Their Kindom Come Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei. When I read this book, I didn't expect to find Hutchison's focus to be so weighted on Opus Dei banking and financial misdeeds and even perhaps murder -( Clavi banking scandal ). The marks of secret society are written all over the events of 9/11.To do something as extreme as 9/11 indicates a high degree of religious belief, because religions have specialized in this type of brutality for millennia. Especially religions interwoven with military power. These people are extremely dangerous and they hold the reigns of power. If this battle is to be won then it may have to see the energization of a healthy spirituality- a people friendly-earth friendly spirituality like the First Nations people held sacred. And a healthy dose of exposure of the darkness. Way to go Hersh!
New Yorker's Hersh sparks anger, puzzlement with remarks
New Yorker's Hersh sparks anger, puzzlement with remarks on military 'crusaders'
Journalist Seymour Hersh has broken dozens of major stories about the U.S. military, foreign policy and covert operations.
By Paul Farhi
Washington Post Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/20/AR201101...
Opus Dei- Investigate It
Paul Farhi seems to echo the rest of the mainstream reaction to Hersh's latest. I again point these "journalists" to Robert Hutchison's detailed and well documented study of Opus Dei. Of course, publicly, these groups do carry on so called humanitarian missions. They have to appear to be doing praiseworthy things. It's the dark secret underside of these groups and the way they move around vast sums of money and influence that is of interest. Josemaría Escrivá, the screwy founder of Opus Dei admitted to taking funds from the CIA to combat communism in Spain during the period around WWII. Opus Dei now controls Vatican banking. Mercenary trouble maker par excel-lance, Eric Prince of Blackwater-Xe is believed to be a member of Opus Dei.
The infamous Krongard brothers, also tied to Blackwater and thought to be connected to the mysterious insider trades on American and United days before 9/11 may also have ties to Opus Dei. Opus' membership list is a carefully guarded secret.
Robert Hutchison points out their connections to weapons manufacturers and suppliers....strange for a "religious" organization wouldn't you say?
Why no mention of Hersh's denigration of JFK?
A concerning omission from any story concerning Seymour Hersh is mention of his book The Dark Side of Camelot. In the wake of Oliver Stone's magnificent JFK any writer, who produces a book, which seeks to denigrate the record of the heroic President John F Kennedy, who prevented the US military industrial complex from launching nuclear war not once, but three times by my count, by, instead, focusing on JFK's alleged sexual misdemeanours is a writer that should be viewed with a good deal of suspicion. Of course the book Hersh is working on may well have some merit, but it is hard to imagine how any good that may arise from this book can possibly make up for the harm done by The Dark Side of Camelot.
strange
i've always been a little perplexed over how a journalist of Seymour Hersch's caliber - and sentiment - could lack the intellectual curiosity to question the anthrax attacks that virtually shut down political dissent in the media - literally shut down congress - and put the Patriot Act on the fast track to passing.
here we have him pressing the 'crazies' narrative - replete with implied accusations of mass murder in Iraq - yet, he is unwilling to question (not answer - but QUESTION) the official story of the nation's one and only BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS ATTACK AGAINST CONGRESS AND THE MEDIA.
let's be objective here. this was an attack using highly sophisticated biological weapons that is confirmed to have originated in US bio-weapons labs.
biological weapons originating in US labs were used against congress. this is not a theory. this is fact.
That Hersh is exposing the
That Hersh is exposing the "Crusader Clan" within the military is a good thing.
I can't pounce on him for that reason even as he's shied away from other important investigations.
The My-Lai massacre was a big thing. This is Hersh's battlefield...military failures and crimes.