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

3.8/5 ( ratings)

Since 9/11, Hersh has outraged the Bush Administration with stories in The New Yorker, including breakthru pieces on the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. Chain of Command brings together this reporting, along with new revelations, to answer the critical question: how did America get from the clear morning when hijackers crashed airplanes into the Trade Center & Pentagon to a dark & dirty war in Iraq?
Hersh entered the forefront of investigative journalism 40 years ago when he broke the news of the My Lai massacre, for which he won a Pulitzer. Ever since, he's challenged America's power elite by publishing the stories that others can't or won't tell. In exposés on subjects ranging from Saudi corruption to nuclear black marketeers & the White House's false claims about weapons of mass destruction, he's cemented a reputation as an indispensable reporter. Chain of Command looks behind the public story of Bush's "war on terror" & into the lies & obsessions that led to Iraq. He reveals the connections between early missteps in the hunt for Al Qaeda & disasters on the ground in Iraq. The book includes an account of his pursuit of the Abu Ghraib story & of where responsibility for the scandal ultimately lies. He draws on sources at the highest levels of government & intelligence communities, in foreign capitals & on the battlefield for an unparalleled view of recent history. With an introduction by The New Yorker's editor, Chain of Command portrays an administration blinded by ideology & a President who's made the world a more dangerous place.
Introduction
1. Torture at Abu-Ghraib
2. Intelligence failure
3. The other war
4. The Iraq hawks
5. Who lied to whom?
6. The secretary & the generals
7. A most dangerous friend
8. The Middle East after 9/11
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Index