Chain of Command

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.

From his Pulitzer Prize-winning expose of the My Lai massacre to his revelatory article on the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, Seymour Hersh has been at the forefront of investigative journalism for more than four decades. Now Hersh's writings since 2001 are gathered together in one incendiary book. Chain of Command takes a hard look at the Bush administration's War on Terror, its intelligence failures, and the lies and obsessions that led America into Iraq. With previously unpublished stories as well as an account of Hersh's pursuit of the Abu Ghraib piece, Chain of Command is a devastating portrait of an administration blinded by ideology,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. Seymour Hersh is one of the foremost investigative reporters of our time. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker and has also been a staff writer for the New York Times. He has been the recipient of many awards, including a Pulitzer Prize for his groundbreaking reporting on the Vietnam War. His previous books include The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House. "The best book we are likely to have, this close to events, about why the United States went from leading an international coalition, united in horror at the attacks of 9/11, to fighting alone in Iraq and, in Abu Ghraib, to violating the very human rights it said it had come to restore ... This book reminds us why tough, skeptical journalism matters so much: it helps to keep us free." -- New York Times Book Review