Seymour Hersh: "After 9/11 We Became a Different Country"

[kpete]

Seymour Hersh: "After 9/11 We Became a Different Country"

By Faisal Abbas, Asharq Al-Awsat. Posted December 25, 2008.

The New Yorker's star reporter discusses Abu Ghraib, the "war on terror," and why U.S. reporters don't pay enough attention to the Arab press.

Asharq Al-Awsat: Many people are expecting that you will start talking as soon as the Bush administration leaves office in January; are these claims true and what will you be saying?

SH: What I have said is that there are a lot of people that I have talked to who will be much easier to talk to after the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama.

I will be writing a book with a very fine publishing house and a very bright group of people; the idea is to write a book from the inside.

I really believe something happened to America; after 9/11 we became a different country. That is fine, presidents sometimes might want to do that, but my issue is how did Bush do it? How did he beat the press? How did he beat the military and Congress and turn everyone into a coward? Why didn't people stand up to him in this situation? In other words, how fragile is the American constitution; it turns out that it is much more fragile than people think.


more at:
http://www.alternet.org/rights/114994/seymour_hersh%3A_%22after_9_11_we_became_a_different_country%22_/?page=2

[SpiralHawk]

1. How did Bush beat the press?

Easy, his corporate republicon cronies bought and sold the press.

America still suffers from this bastardization & perversion of journalism into corporate blow-dry propaganda puppetry.

Ptoooey on blow-dry kiss-ass corporate media entities.

[arcadian]

2. Exactly what I was going to say.

You don't so much as beat the press as buy them out.

[lib2DaBone]

3. Bought and Paid for Media... "Bush Knew".. no doubt....

[Greyhound]

4. K&R #5, welcome ot the greatest page.

We were made a different country well before 9/11 through consolidation with the efforts of both parties. 9/11 was just a catalyst that exposed the change.

[Lorien]

5. The "home of the brave" became "the home of the bed wetting thumb

suckers" because the mainstream media and White house TOLD US to be afraid, and the people obeyed like sheep.

[ladjf]

10. I never have understood why so many people were so afraid

that they would be killed by terrorists. nt

[Lorien]

12. Media induced hysteria

I remember being on the phone with a friend most of that day, and we were both just amazed that people were terrified instead of PISSED, as we were. If something is done with the hopes of terrorizing you, the WORST thing you can do is comply and be terrorized!

After watching the second tower fall I'd seen more than enough and I turned off my TV. I was supposed to have been on a flight to Norway that day, but obviously I wasn't going anywhere (because 19 guys with box cutters shut down the world's air traffic :eyes: ). So I went to the bank to take care of some business. When I got there the place was almost empty, except for a handful of people gathered around a TV. One employee finally came up to me while I was waiting to talk to someone and said "What are you doing here? Don't you know what's happening"? And I said "Is it happening here in Orlando, Florida? Because if it's not, then I don't know why any of us should play into the terrorists hands by changing the way we go about or business". He said nothing and walked away, and eventually I did get an appointment. What's wrong with people? Can you imagine Americans acting like that during WWII?

[ladjf]

14. I think that the lowest point of the hysteria was when the director

of homeland security was recommending that we duct tape our houses to protect against a gas attack.
Just imagine how that struck a small child to see his father taping up the house to avoid being killed by a terrorist attack. Are we humans are are we field mice?

[aikoaiko]

6. It seems to me that Rove, Cheney, and Rumsfield were the puppeteers.

Bush, not so much.

[orleans]

7. let's not forget: the CONGRESS HELPED! n/t

[HowHasItComeToThis]

8. ASK TO MONEY GRUBBING MEDIA

[moondust]

9. Drama -> Ratings

Ratings -> Advertisers

Advertisers -> $$$$$

[elehhhhna]

11. The Constitution is only as fragile as the resolve of the People to honor it.

[ReadTomPaine]

13. Bingo. n/t