Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib

From AudioFile
Starting by unraveling the scandal at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, the author uses unnamed sources and many documents to make his case against the policies of George W. Bush. Seymour M. Hersh, an investigative journalist for THE NEW YORKER, describes his work as an alternative history of the Iraq war. One novelty comes from the abridgment's format--selected chapters, rather than selected text. Peter Friedman, the unhurried reader, takes time to enunciate every word without letting the pace drag. He uses a deeper voice for quoted material and a dropped volume for parenthetical remarks, making it easy to discern the author's punctuation and follow the points of the audiobook. J.A.H. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Book Description

Since September 11, 2001, Seymour M. Hersh has riveted readers -- and outraged the Bush Administration -- with his stories in The New Yorker magazine, including his breakthrough pieces on the Abu Gharaib prison scandal. Now, in Chain of Command, he brings together this reporting, along with new revelations, to answer the critical question of the last three years: how did America get from the clear morning when hijacked airplanes crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon to a divisive and dirty war in Iraq?

Hersh established himself at the forefront of investigative journalism thirty-five years ago when he broke the news of the massacre in My Lai, Vietnam, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize. Ever since, he's challenged America's power elite by publishing the stories that others can't or won't tell.

In Chain of Command, Hersh takes an unflinching look behind the public story of President Bush's "war on terror" and into the lies and obsessions that led America into Iraq. 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.

FROM OUR EDITORS

In 2004, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Seymour M. Hersh exposed the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in articles published in The New Yorker. Chain of Command offers an unflinching look behind the Bush administration's story of its "war on terror," focusing on intelligence failures and the lies and obsessions that led America into Iraq. In addition to all Hersh's New Yorker writings since 2001, the book includes several previously unpublished stories, including new revelations about Abu Ghraib.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Seymour M. Hersh brings together reporting, along with new revelations, to answer the critical question of the last three years: how did America get from the clear morning when hijackers crashed airplanes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon to a divisive and dirty war in Iraq?" In Chain of Command, Hersh takes an unflinching look behind the public story of President Bush's "war on terror" and into the lies and obsessions that led America into Iraq.

FROM THE CRITICS

Michael Ignatieff - The New York Times Sunday Book Review

Hersh has vacuumed up all their doubts and anger at the policy they were charged to execute. Put Woodward together with Hersh and an abyss opens up, dividing the decision elite's view of the road to war -- ideological, pristine, hard-edged and clear -- and the foot soldiers' view -- messy, incompetent, confused and sometimes downright immoral &8230; This book reminds us why tough, skeptical journalism matters so much: it helps to keep us free.

Michiko Kakutani - The New York Times

Whether consumed in this volume or in the pages of The New Yorker, Mr. Hersh's work is necessary reading for anyone remotely interested in what went wrong and continues to go wrong in Iraq, and how the Bush administration came to take America to war there in the first place.

AudioFile