Pulitzer prize-winning reporter Seymour Hersh joins us in our firehouse studio to talk about his new book, Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib. The book takes a look behind the public story of President Bush's "war on terror" and into the lies and obsessions that led America into Iraq. Hersh provides a new account of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal that he exposed last spring and of where, he believes, responsibility for the scandal ultimately lies.
In his book, Hersh writes that at the height of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in May 2004, a Republican operative received the reassuring word that Vice President Dick Cheney had taken control of the situation. The operative "learned that Cheney had telephoned Rumsfeld with a simple message: No resignations. We're going to hunker down and tough it out." Hersh writes "Cheney's concern was not national security. This was a political call - a reminder that the White House would seize control of every crisis that could affect the re-election of George Bush."
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/14/1351212Transcript is not available but 40 minutes of the interview in streaming video and audio available.