Truth Commission

Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh dropped a bomb shell this week during a panel discussion at the University of Minnesota.  He reviled the Bush Administration and Dick Cheney in particular, for domestic spying by the CIA and for running a covert military operation that included an "executive assassination ring."

The Pulitzer prize winning journalist, who promises to reveal all in an upcoming book, said, "Under President Bush's authority, they've been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving.  That's been going on, in the name of all of us."

As you may remember, it was Hersh who exposed the My Lai Massacre and reported extensively on the mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib.  He described the Bush era as a time when "eight or nine neoconservatives took over our country. …They ran a government within the government. . . . It's really amazing to me that we manage to get such bad leadership, so consistently," he said, and blamed both public and press for tolerating poor governance.

If these assertions have any merit, it is all the more reason we need the Truth Commission espoused by Senator Patrick Leahy.  Hersh should offer more than just tantalizing tidbits; he needs to be forthcoming with the facts.