Sy Hersh: Cheney Ordered Assassination of Benazir Bhutto
Journalist Seymour Hersh has once again made the news by telling an Arab news network that former Vice President Dick Cheney ordered the assassination of Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto last year.
Hersh made the accusation after talking about an assassination ring headed by Cheney for months.
The squad was headed by General Stanley McChrystal, the newly-appointed commander of US army in Afghanistan. It was disclosed by reputed US journalist Seymour Hersh while talking to an Arab TV in an interview.
Hersh said former US vice-president Cheney was the chief of the Joint Special Operation Command and he clear the way for the US by exterminating opponents through the unit and the CIA. General Stanley was the in-charge of the unit.
He said Bhutto was killed after she said in an interview that Osama Bin Laden was dead. The U.S. could not let her say that, Hersh believes, because this would cause many Americans to rebel against the war in Afghanistan. Additionally, the U.S. wanted to take out Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, possibly out of fear that the Taliban would get their hands on these weapons of mass destruction. Bhutto did not comply, so she had to be taken out.
Bhutto was not the only Middle Eastern leader assassinated by the ring, Hersh said. It also assassinated Lebanese Prime Minister Rafique Al Hariri and the army chief of that country. The reason: Hariri did not guard U.S. interests in the region and refused to let the U.S. set up military bases in Lebanon.
It all sounds great, doesn’t it? Almost like a thriller. An assassination ring headed by the evil vice president, which kills several heads of state because the U.S. wants to protect its interests in the region.
Straight out of a Tom Clancy.
Sadly, there is no reason to take Hersh serious. The man has always had a lively imagination, but he has gone completely insane in recent years.
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Better to err on the side of skepticism – the more faith that is begged the stronger your sourcing and reasoning has to be. Hersh has done great things in the name of truth and his previous exposure of smaller machinations lends at least a little credence to grand claims such as this one, but it shouldn’t be taken seriously in the form that it is now. Let’s focus on what we know and can find out.
This article you are referencing is from THE NATION, part of a group of Pakistani newspapers. It is not affiliated with The Nation magazine of the USA. Hersh denies he made such claims in an interview conducted by the Gulf News TV network. The interview is available online, and Hersh never even mentions Bhutto. Pure embellishment on the part of THE NATION.
Hersh has backed off.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=20095\19\story_19-5-2009_pg7_4
I did not say Cheney killed Benazir: Hersh
LAHORE: US journalist Seymour Hersh on Monday contradicted news reports being published in South Asia that quote him as saying a “special death squad” made by former US vice president Dick Cheney had killed Benazir Bhutto. The award-winning journalist described as “complete madness” the reports that the squad headed by General Stanley McChrystal – the new commander of US army in Afghanistan – had also killed former Lebanese prime minister Rafique Al Hariri and a Lebanese army chief. “Vice president Cheney does not have a death squad. I have no idea who killed Mr Hariri or Mrs Bhutto,” Hersh said. “I have never said that I did have such information. I most certainly did not say anything remotely to that effect during an interview with an Arab media outlet.” He said Gen McChrystal had run a special forces unit that engaged in “high value target activity”, but “while I have been critical of some of that unit’s activities in the pages of the New Yorker and in interviews, I have never suggested that he was involved in political assassinations or death squads on behalf of Mr Cheney, as the published stories state.” He regretted that none of the publications had contacted him before carrying the report. “This is another example of blogs going bonkers with misleading and fabricated stories and professional journalists repeating such rumours without doing their job – and that is to verify such rumours.” staff report
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I suppose Cheney will have ordered the Kennedy assassination next…