Chain of Command - by Seymour M Hersh (Paperback)

About the Book

From the brilliant investigative reporter who exposed the Abu Ghraib prison scandal comes a revealing and unflinching look behind the public story of the Bush administration's war on terror, its intelligence failures, and the alleged lies that led America into Iraq.

From the Back Cover

Since September 11, 2001, Seymour M. Hersh has riveted readers -- and outraged the Bush Administration -- with his explosive stories in The New Yorker, including his headline-making pieces on the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Now, Hersh brings together what he has learned, along with new reporting, to answer the critical question of the last four years: How did America get from the clear morning when two planes crashed into the World Trade Center to a divisive and dirty war in Iraq?

In Chain of Command, Hersh takes an unflinching look behind the public story of the war on terror and into the lies and obsessions that led America into Iraq. Hersh draws on sources at the highest levels of the American government and intelligence community, in foreign capitals, and on the battlefield for an unparalleled view of a critical chapter in America's recent history. In a new afterword, he critiques the government's failure to adequately investigate prisoner abuse -- at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere -- and punish those responsible. With an introduction by The New Yorker's editor, David Remnick, Chain of Command is a devastating portrait of an administration blinded by ideology and of a president whose decisions have made the world a more dangerous place for America.

Review Quotes

"This sobering book is the closest anyone without a security clearance will get to operatives in the inner sanctums of America's intelligence, military, political and diplomatic worlds." - Publishers Weekly
"A searing indictment of George Bush and his closest political aides . . . authoritative and well-written." - The Economist
"We must have Hersh's kind of reporting to protect us from the institutional temptation of minimizing the gravity of exceptionally shameful acts." - Los Angeles Times
"Stands as one of [Hersh's] most important works. . . . Hersh attempts and oftentimes succeeds in answering many of the questions that have plagued Americans." - Tampa Tribune